and she was laying on the ground, and i could see blood everywhere. in a panic shaun called 911, and then called her brother brett. she says mom s been hurt. she s got a hole in her neck. she was frantic. then police and paramedics arrived and cordoned off the place where she lay. i could see numerous bullet holes in the back of her neck. keith mason was a detective, torrance pd. in all my years i ve seen people shot in homicides but never this many times. this was really an execution? definitely. what shaun had seen, her mother on the floor, had been so confusing, but now she saw nothing because they kept her away. one of the paramedics met me, and i looked at him and said will she be okay? thinking she was still alive? yeah. i wasn t processing. but he finally just looked at me and just shook his head no.
the wedding. his only daughter s wedding. but he was around, bold as brass. i would go out to a big place, there he d be. he d be walking around. wow. and i would think right away, you know, you re free. you re free, but i hope not for long. i hope not for long. but it was long. very long. the joan bradford case was ice cold. the 80s turned to the 90s, and then the millenium. bill bradford remained free, celebrating the new year, the new millennium like everybody else. and then a few months later i finally retired, and there was no new evidence, everything just kind of, like, went cold case. so i left and went on to greener fields. by then bill bradford retired too, eventually moved to the desert, and by the look of it
dinner, then he went to his bedroom. to be alone or what? to work on a stamp collection. exacting, organized, introverted. joan was the polar opposite. eventually that disconnect took its toll. bill moved out, joan moved on, filed for divorce. the kids grew up, moved away. in the fall of 1988, joan sold the house on sharynne lane. my mom was trying to finish up the sale and the move from torrance to start her life over again. it was a friday evening. joan was packing, getting ready. shaun and a younger brother called her on phone, told her we re coming over. it was just getting dark as they arrived. so we opened up the door, went in, calling for her, nothing. as i went through the front living room, i caught something out of the corner of my eye. it was my mom.
i went from suspecting that my father murdered my mom to having it confirmed. because there s always that little point that still wanted to be daddy s little girl and wanted to believe that this was something else. it was shaun s birthday a few weeks later when her father was sentenced to 26 years to life. he d be 85 by the time he was eligible for parole. i remember telling his daughter that this man s not going to last five years in prison. so i thought it would be a life sentence. i was a lot more relaxed. people kept saying oh, he ll be dead in five years, so, you know, i m safe. he s never getting out. safe? maybe not everybody. months later, d.a. lewin got a call from the prison about bill bradford. they tell me that his
who has no idea. bradford was charged with first-degree murder. and one of the detectives phoned shaun. my first reaction was do you know what day today is? he said no. it s mother s day. and he stopped and he said, oh my gosh, i m sorry. i said, no, that s fitting for the mother that he took away 13 years ago. bradford quickly lawyered up, while his family braced themselves for a trial. would their father walk free? or be locked up for life? i want to use the word apprehensive because after years can a case be won? coming up we thought this burden, we ll never get another case like this ever filed again if we lose this one. a trial. getting a little nervous 37. i was. because i didn t know how this would all fit together. i really worried. and a threat. his cellmate has come forward and he has said that bradford s