A suspected serial killer in Washington has been charged with 4 counts of murder on December 5th and prosecutors claim he led his victims by asking for their help in finding gold.
Richard Bradley Jr., 40, was previously charged in 2021 with the murder of Brandi Blake. Blake’s buried body was found in May 2021 in a park in Auburn, Washington.
According to court documents, police say Bradley was last seen with Blake at a convenience store on May 5, 2021.
A witness told police Blake had purchased flip phones at Walmart for Bradley and heard her say to Bradley, “Don’t forget before we head out we need to meet the guy at the dead-end road.”
The witness told Blake that was odd and she was worried, but Blake allegedly assured her he was “good people.”
The investigation led police to Game Farm Park in Auburn, where detectives found Blake’s body, face down in a shallow grave. Near her body was a hole, a shovel, a pick axe, and her electronic room key for the hotel room she was staying at.
Not even 30 feet from Blake’s body, the remains of three ribs belonging to a different person, were discovered also.
Bradley was charged with Blake’s murder that month. The rib bones were later determined to be those of Emilio Maturin, who had been reported missing in 2019.
Bradley is also facing two more murder charges in the shooting deaths of Michael Goeman and his son Vance Lakey, who were found dead in a different park in Auburn.
According to an investigation by the King County Sheriff’s Office, Goeman had recently received a large amount of money in an inheritance, which he used to purchase a Dodge Durango.
After their bodies had been found, detectives researched the Durango’s plates to see when they had been run by law enforcement. In the week before Goeman and Lakey’s bodies were found, the plates had been run three times, including once where Puyallup police spoke with Bradley who had the Durango at a Home Depot after a suspicious activity call.
A month later, a witness told police that Bradley offered to pay him $10,000 (later lowered to $1,000) to break into an Auburn tow yard and torch the Durango. The witness said Bradley wanted the front seats destroyed in the fire. The witness said he later decided to not go through with the arson.
Prosecutors said, “Bradley would tell his victims that he needed help digging up gold before leading them into a wooded area that was secluded. Then he would kill them and either bury or abandon their bodies. He would then drive around the victims’ vehicles after they were reported missing.”
Maturin’s girlfriend reported him missing in July 2019 and tracked his cell phone to the park where his ribs were later found, but told police she got scared and left.
The girlfriend told officers that when she had last seen her boyfriend, she overheard his friend Bradley tell him that he needed help digging up gold.
Upon reviewing an Auburn police report, King County investigators found that Bradley had been arrested in 2019 and charged with eluding law enforcement, after he led police on a chase after they found an unregistered BMW that authorities believed contained a “large piece” of heroin. Bradley later told police the car belonged to his friend.
At an arraignment on Dec. 14, Bradley pleaded not guilty. He is being held without bail in King County Jail, with his trial in Blake’s death scheduled for January 8, 2024.
