Dana Bradley

0:28We always recommend Shopify. Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

1:04Today, I'm discussing the case of Dana Bradley. In 1981, the coastal town of St. John's was shattered by a single, haunting action at a roadside bus stop. What followed became the most expensive and exhaustive investigation in Canadian history, a manhunt spanning decades that involved hundreds of suspects, false confessions, and a question that has lingered for over 40 years. Who was behind the wheel that day? This is the case of Dana Bradley. It's Monday, December 14, 1981, in St. John's, Newfoundland, in Labrador, Canada, and 14-year-old Dana Bradley has plans to meet up with friends after school.

1:48She's in the 9th grade at I.J. Sampson Junior High School. And while her friend Terry skipped last period to head to the Cornwall Beauty Salon to get a haircut, Dana and her friend Penny decide to finish the school day and meet up with Terry after. According to reporting by Adam Rose for Twin City News, Dana and Penny leave school at 2.30pm. They walk the few blocks down to the salon to meet up with Terry and see her freshly styled hair. After that, they do what a lot of teenagers in this area and time did. They stick out their thumbs hoping to hitchhike a ride to Terry's house instead of waiting for the bus.

2:23This was commonplace in the small but bustling coastal city of St. John's. It's the capital and largest city in the province, with a population of about 90 ,000 people at this time. But it maintained its small-town vibe, and it's been described as tight-knit, one of those cities where everyone knows everyone. So it doesn't take long for them to get a ride from a Mount Pearl man. He doesn't take them all the way to Terry's house, but he gets them pretty close. He drops them at the corner of Topsail Road and Cohen Avenue. From here, it's only about a 10-minute walk. They all hang out at Terry's house until about 4 p.m.

2:57Then Dana and Penny make the around 15-minute walk to Penny's house at 8 Curie Place. Again, they do what most teenagers do and just hang out for about an hour. Until 5, 10 p.m. That's when Dana decides it's time to go home. Dana lives with her mom and stepfather close to the school. It's about an hour walk from where she is. So before leaving Penny, she starts making phone calls trying to get a ride home instead of walking or taking the bus. First, she tries to call her grandparents, but no one answers. So she calls her mom Dawn. According to reporting by Barb Sweet for the Telegram, it's actually her birthday, but she's at work.

3:36She's the owner of the new Dawn Unisex Styling Salon, so she'd presumably have some flexibility to give Dana a ride, especially on her birthday. But no one answers at the salon either. Finally, Dana calls home. And again, there's no answer. But Dana is persistent, so she calls home again. And finally, someone answers. It's her stepfather, Jeff Levitz. But when Dana asks for a ride, Jeff tells her she'll have to take the bus. He's busy cooking and preparing for Dawn's birthday celebration that night. As Dana walks out the door, she tells Penny that she's all set with bus fare, and she says that she'll give her a call when she makes it home.

4:16Then she walks across the cul-de-sac towards the bus stop on Topsail Road. Now it's about 5.30 at Dana's home at 160 Patrick Street. Her mom, Dawn, and stepfather Jeff are expecting her back any minute to celebrate Dawn's birthday. but as each minute, then each hour passes, panic begins to set in. I'm sure they're racking their brains thinking of every route Dana may have taken home. The possibility that maybe the bus broke down and she had to walk but even then she would have been home close to 7pm. They know something is very wrong. Dana isn't the type of kid to just not communicate if she stops somewhere on her way home.

4:56There was also no trouble at home. By all accounts she was very close to both of her parents. So they start calling Dana's friends and other family members, but no one has seen her since leaving Penny's house. So Don and Jeff go in person to report Dana missing to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, or the RNC. But according to statements Jeff made to CTV News, the RNC has a policy of waiting 24 hours before investigating a missing persons report. It's exactly what no parent wants to hear when their child has gone missing. So while they do formally make a report, they're told that basically nothing will be done until the next day.

5:35On the night of December 15th, the details of Dana's disappearance are featured by local radio and news stations, including CBC's live evening broadcast. The following day, Dana's photo and information are also featured by local newspapers, explaining that she was last seen wearing blue pants and cowboy boots. And listen, I know it's cliche, But in all the early reporting on this case, it's clear that Dana's disappearance did deeply disturb the residents of St. John's. A child going missing in this way wasn't commonplace, so not only were residents concerned, Dana's case got a lot of media attention.

6:13And it's a good thing that it did, because all that media attention led to one of the largest breaks in Dana's case.

6:24According to reporting by Barb Sweet for the Telegram, on December 16th, just two days after Dana was last seen, a man named Harry Smeaton was at his cousin's house. There, he picked up a newspaper and began reading it. As he's flipping through the pages, he stumbles upon one of the first articles written about Dana Bradley's case. It's titled, This Girl is Missing and the Police Are Concerned. By the headline is a picture of Dana, and Harry immediately recognizes her from two days prior. As it turns out, he and his brother John were selling Christmas trees in the empty lot behind the bus stop on Top Sale Road and they saw Dana.

7:02At this point, Harry puts down the paper, runs to the phone and calls his brother John. When the call connects, Harry tells him about the newspaper article he just read but John says that he'd seen it too and he already called the police to tell them what they saw. At this point in the investigation, they're the last two people to have seen Dana Bradley before she went missing. When they sit down with police, they explain what they saw. They say that they came from Gander. It's about four hours north of St. John's. They were there to sell Christmas trees in that empty lot behind the bus stop. Like I mentioned earlier, this is a bustling part of town, and this lot in particular was directly across from a Tim Hortons, so it seems like a good place to set up shop.

7:44They say that they were sitting in their truck waiting for potential customers when they saw Dana walk to the bus stop at about 5.20pm, which matches perfectly with the timeline Penny provided of Dana leaving her house. The Smeetons say that Dana appeared to be waiting for the bus for a few minutes, but eventually stuck her thumb out to hitchhike. While this was common in St. John's, being from the much smaller town of Gander, this really stuck out to them, and since they didn't really have anything else to do, they basically just sat in their truck watching. And they say it wasn't long before a man in a rusty, light-colored sedan pulled over to give Dana a ride.

8:22Dana pulled at the passenger side handle to get in, but it wouldn't open, so the man had to reach over and open the door from the inside. From here, Dana gets into the front passenger seat and the Smeetons watch them drive away. This is officially the biggest lead in Dana's case, and while they didn't think to jot down the license plate number, they are able to give investigators enough information to narrow things down quite a bit. Based on their statements, investigators are now looking for a beige, tan, or faded yellow four-door sedan, likely a 1973-1976 Dodge Dart or Plymouth Valiant. They also commissioned a composite drawing of the man they saw, who they believed to be a white male in his mid-twenties with darker colored hair.

9:11Again, all of this is huge and the biggest break in the case thus far, but it didn't take long for the tips to start coming right to Dana's parents, or at least what they thought could be tips from the man who took Dana. In the days after she went missing, they start receiving phone calls from an anonymous man. These calls were coming in at all hours of the day and night and were deeply disturbing. At first, the man called repeatedly asking to speak with Dana. Then he began telling her parents that he and Dana were running away to get married and that they were having a baby. At one point, he even asked for Dawn to give them her blessing to get married.

9:53And eventually, he called and said that he killed Dana. Literally, quote, I killed Dana, end quote Finally, the police step in, they tap the home phone And they're able to trace the calls back to 22-year-old Bruce Gerard Connors of St. John's Who was promptly arrested After thoroughly interviewing him, investigators concluded that he had no actual connection to Dana's case And the calls were just a very cruel hoax The following year he was given nine months in prison for his actions and is not considered to be an official suspect in Dana's case Now I'm not going to even begin to claim that I know what Dana's family was thinking at this point but I have to imagine it was bittersweet While the calls are obviously awful it seemed clear that this man didn't kill Dana but this hope that Dana was still alive would soon come crashing down

10:57On the night of December 18th, a man named Dale Smith took his family to a wooded area off Maddox Cove Road, about 30 kilometers or 19 miles south of St. John's. The area was pretty desolate and became a popular place for people to dump their trash. In an interview with Barb Sweet for the Telegram, Dale says his four-year-old twins were quick to point out some discarded toys in the area, but they weren't there to discard any old toys or trash. Instead, they came to look for a good tree to cut down and decorate for Christmas. And it seems he wasn't the only one in the area that day, because Dale recalls seeing footprints in the fresh snow.

11:35As Dale's looking through the area hunting for the perfect Christmas tree, he says he sees what he thinks is a mannequin, in part due to the toys his children pointed out. Maybe a local store had dumped some old items here. But let's be real, I think we all know where this is going. As Dale gets closer and takes a bit longer to look, he realizes it's a person. But he still doesn't get too close, and he's not thinking worst-case scenario just yet. He thinks maybe this person's just asleep. So without drawing his children's attention, he tells his wife, and he asks her to take a look. and when she looks again from a distance, she immediately recognizes the blue pants and cowboy boots.

12:24She's seen the reports about Dana Bradley and tells Dale that she thinks it could be her body, but they have two four-year-old children with them who don't need to see this, so without alarming the kids, they quickly head back to their truck. As they drive out of the area, Dale flags down a man who was cutting wood. He tells him what they just saw and asks him to keep watch while he heads back home to call the police. When police get to the scene, they immediately recognize the person as Dana Bradley. She was found lying on her back fully clothed, and it appears someone had posed her body to tuck her school books under her arm.

13:04This was a detail Dale said that he never saw from a distance. But after performing an autopsy, They determined Dana had been beaten to death. Her skull was fractured, likely due to multiple blows from a blunt object, and her jaw was broken. According to reporting by the Canadian press, Dana was sexually assaulted. Investigators search this area extensively and with extreme care, at times getting on their hands and knees looking for any evidence they could find. They also bring in propane heaters to help thaw the ground so they can dig for clues. However, unfortunately, according to reporting by CTV, very little evidence was found at the scene.

13:50They specifically state that no blood, semen, or traces of skin were collected. Investigators have said that that's in part due to how long Dana's body had been at the scene. They estimate that she was killed shortly after she was last seen getting into the man's car. They add that over those four days, the area had seen quite a bit of rain and snow, which of course could have washed away or compromised quite a bit of evidence. But they are able to collect something. It seems that they gathered 10 strands of dark-colored hair from the scene, and they don't believe that they belong to Dana, but they also can't confirm that they belong to her killer.

14:30So they don't have a lot, but they also don't have nothing, And after speaking with Dana's parents, it seemed that nothing was missing from her body. Specifically, her gold chain necklace was still on her neck. This led investigators to believe that her murder and assault was not a robbery gone wrong. Of course, all of this is happening so fast. Dana went missing on December 14th. They get the prank phone calls, legitimate witnesses come forward, and by the 18th, her body is recovered. By the 20th, her autopsy is complete. and the following day, her family has a service for Dana at Wesley United Church.

15:09It's led by Reverend Robert Mills. He expresses his sympathy, but also his outrage. The church is packed as he reiterated what most people in this community were already thinking. He said Dana's murder has shocked, terrified, and angered everyone. That this type of crime doesn't happen in their community. And he added, quote, it only goes to show that despite all the goodness, all the kindness, there is still too much evil, too many evil people in the world. End quote. I've said it before and I'll say it again. It sounds cliche to hear a town be outraged about the death of a child, to say that it changed their community forever, but it's a cliche because it's real.

15:52This town wasn't just upset, they were filled with rage. After Dana's death was declared a homicide, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, largely took over the investigation, and it would quickly become one of the most expensive and extensive in the history of Canada. The media also was following it very closely. And this is just my opinion, but I do believe that this mix of rage from the community, demanding accountability, and the backing of the media covering every aspect of this case is at least part of the reason it got so many resources. Again, a cliche, but the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the grease.

16:33And I think this case proves that. Between the RNC and the RCMP, they assigned 35 investigators to work Dana's case full-time. Of course, they interviewed Dana's family and they are all cleared. It's worth noting here that there have been many statements about Dana's good relationship with her stepfather, Jeff. It seems that her biological father was never really in her life, so Jeff was her dad. And while her parents have done very few interviews, it's usually Jeff who does the speaking. Dana's mom Dawn has been very clear that it's just too painful to talk about her. They were also able to track down the man from Mount Pearl who gave Dana and her friends a ride that day.

17:14He's never been publicly named or named a person of interest or suspect in this case. They also find two other crucial witnesses, Like the man from Mount Pearl, their identities have also been kept private, but were crucial to the investigation. According to reporting by PNI Atlantic News, these people are described as a couple, and the couple told investigators that on the night that Dana went missing, they were driving north on Maddox Cove Road, near where Dana's body was later found, and they saw a car matching the description of the one Dana was last seen getting into. It was parked on the side of the road, with the front passenger side door open, and the internal light of the vehicle was on.

17:56Not far from the car near the woods, they saw a man standing with no jacket on despite the freezing temperatures. They described this man as white, possibly in his mid-twenties, with darker hair. After investigators get this information, they are more determined to find Dana's killer than ever, because it matches exactly what the Smeaton brothers told them about the car and about what the man looked like. It also matched where Dana's body was found and their estimate that she was killed and placed there not long after she got into the vehicle at the bus stop. So they commission another composite sketch to combine the description from this couple with the Smeaton brothers and that's released to the media before Christmas.

18:41As the year comes to an end, investigators undertake a massive search for this man and this vehicle. They check hundreds of cars matching the descriptions, mostly Dodge Darts and Plymouth Valiants. They also interview hundreds of men and administer countless polygraph tests. They do extensive searches of the area near where Dana was found, and in other areas as they follow hundreds of tips from the public. They also try to think outside the box a bit and put some of their witnesses under hypnosis, hoping they'll uncover repressed memories. They're gathering and sifting through a massive amount of information just trying to make sense of it all to find Dana's killer.

19:22According to reporting by the Niagara Falls Review, by the six-week mark of Dana's murder, they'd spent over$500 ,000 on the investigation, looked at thousands of vehicles, and interviewed upwards of 1 ,000 men. They also maintained a suspect list of nearly 250 people. but as we see in way too many cases, the investigation, the rage, the media coverage, the intensity of it all begins to wane and taper off. By May 1982, the task force was significantly reduced, as were the tips coming in to investigators. But the public was still deeply concerned, especially as they began to worry that they may have a serial killer on their hands.

20:08See, Dana wasn't the only person to go missing in St. John's in recent years But unfortunately, when 17-year-old Sharon Drover vanished on December 29, 1978 After her shift at McDonald's, the media didn't really pick up her case Sharon was living in foster care at that time And wasn't even reported missing until over a month after she was last seen But like Dana, it's believed she was trying to hitchhike when she went missing and she's never been found. Then, of course, Dana was killed about three years later in 1981. After that was a 25-year-old indigenous woman named Henrietta Millick. She was last seen on December 10, 1982, being harassed by two men at the Key Club on Water Street.

20:54Her purse, keys, and bank book were all found left behind at the bar. A witness would later come forward to say that he and a friend picked up a hitchhiker matching her description, but he says that they dropped her off on the Trans-Canada Highway. She's never been found. And finally, on November 12, 1984, 20-year-old Pamela Asprey was with a friend at Martin's Lounge on Water Street when she told that friend that she'd be back in 20 minutes. She left her wallet behind, and it's believed that she may have been engaging in sex work as that was her known profession. She was last seen entering a dark blue car with an unidentified male driver.

21:34and was never seen again. While none of these cases received the media attention or resources that Dana Bradley's case did, they shared quite a bit of concerning similarities. All four were under the age of 26, all were female, living or working in the St. John's area, all went missing in November or December, and all entered vehicles with unknown men. While investigators have in the past and to this day declined to state that the cases are connected, the community was rightfully concerned that they may be. But then, in January 1986, the RCMP received an anonymous letter about Dana Bradley's case that no amount of investigating or speculating could have anticipated.

22:23By 1986, the investigation into the murder of 14-year-old Dana Bradley had severely tapered off, with investigators saying that they were getting just about 50 tips a year, a very small number compared to the thousands they'd gotten when her case first hit the media. They had a composite sketch of the man they believed to have killed her, as well as a semi-vague description of a rather popular style of vehicle. They'd interviewed thousands of people and looked at thousands of vehicles, even digging through local dumps to see if maybe the car had been disposed of. It was the largest and most expensive investigation in the history of the country, and while investigators alluded to having suspects and promising leads, they weren't telling the public much, and it didn't seem like the investigation was really progressing.

23:10That is, until January of that year, when the RCMP got an anonymous letter implicating someone in Dana's murder, or possibly found this letter. Unfortunately, we have conflicting reporting from some pretty reputable sources, Some say the letter was mailed to the RCMP. Other reporting says that the letter was found at a post office. So take that for what you will. This letter has also never been published in full, but here's what we know. This letter directly implicated 35-year-old Mount Pearl resident David Grant Summerton, who does have a history of sexual assault and armed robbery. According to interviews with investigators, they say his appearance was a match for the composite sketch created back in 1981.

23:56So they bring him in for questioning and speak with him for 18 hours straight, nearly a full day of speaking to this man. And he confesses to killing Dana Bradley. He said he created a homemade blackjack, which is basically a small blunt force weapon illegal in many areas of the world. He says that was the murder weapon and that he later buried it near the clearing off Maddox Cove Road where Dana was found. He also said he buried a black jacket near the same area. And as far as the car, he says he buried that at the Robin Hood Bay landfill. Like the letter, transcripts, video, audio of this interrogation have never been made public.

24:42So there's obviously a lot in those 18 hours that we just don't know. But RCMP Superintendent Jack Lavers has told the media that Somerton's confession was incredibly detailed and included information that they believed only the killer would know. And on January 13, 1986, Somerton was arrested for the first-degree murder of Dana Bradley. As he's sitting in jail, investigators get to work digging up the evidence he told them about. Again, they pulled out the propane heaters to thaw the ground to dig near where Dana was found. They also excavated nearly 200 vehicles from the Robin Hood Bay City dump.

25:20They spent over a million dollars on these efforts just to confirm this confession. And shortly after Somerton's first court appearance, he recanted that confession. As if Dana Bradley's family hadn't been through enough. Somerton later said that his statements were coerced out of him by police and that he would have said anything to get out of the interrogation room after 18 hours. In 1986, the first-degree murder charges were stayed after investigators couldn't find anything linking him to Dana's murder. But Somerton did serve two years in prison for public mischief and misleading police. In 2015, the murder charges were officially dropped completely after DNA evidence cleared him of the crime.

26:10He passed away in 2021 at the age of 70 and maintained his innocence in this case. But let's take a small step back to that DNA. Unfortunately, not much developed in Dana's case since Somerton's confession back in 1986. They were definitely still getting tips and investigating, but there weren't many major verified revelations. Luckily, this DNA helped rule a lot of things out. It's a bit unclear exactly when they were able to develop the full male DNA profile using evidence collected from the 1981 crime scene, and they haven't told us exactly what was used to develop this profile. But it seems likely that they were able to test the hairs, and given the timing of this, I'd assume that they did that using the root of one of the hairs.

26:59But that is just a guess. Like I just told you, in 2015, DNA was used to clear Somerton completely, but they didn't announce this DNA to the public until 2016. Luckily, using this DNA, they were able to clear up a major claim that drew insane interest from the public and much grief to Dana's parents. In 2011, a man named Danny Tuff came forward to police to say that he'd witnessed Dana's murder when he was six years old. He said the man who killed Dana also sexually assaulted him. He named his former neighbor, Thomas Carey. And Carey wasn't just some unknown man. He was the former mayor of Whitless Bay, and according to reporting by the PNI Atlantic News, a convicted pedophile.

27:46When asked why he was bringing this to police so many decades later, Tuff said that he'd stopped drinking a few years prior, and repressed memories had come to the surface that he was ready to talk about. So here's what Danny Tuff says happened to Dana Bradley. He says Carey borrowed his father's 1972 Dodge Dart to take him and his four-year-old brother to McDonald's while their parents were out of the house. After leaving McDonald's, Danny says Thomas Carey saw Dana at the bus stop, picked her up, sexually assaulted her, and hit her with a tire iron, resulting in her death, all while he watched.