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| Case file: Stephen Bradley In June 1960, Bazil and Frieda Thorne, who lived in Sydney, Australia, won a large sum of money in the state lottery. Five weeks later, their eight-year-old son, Graeme, was kidnapped while on his way home from school. Shortly after, a man with a heavy foreign accent phoned them to demand $52,500 ransom. After a second call, nothing was heard. The police mounted an immediate search for the boy, but at first all they could find were his schoolbag, cap, coat, and books. Then Graeme's body was discovered on August 16, 10 miles from his home and wrapped in a rug. He had been suffocated and bludgeoned to death. When forensic scientists examined the rug and boy's clothing, they discovered minute traces of pink cement mortar, dog hair, and a variety of plant matter. Moreover, mold found on Graeme's shoes and socks suggested that he had been dead for about six weeks; in other words, he had been murdered shortly after being abducted. Subsequent analysis showed that the dog hair was from a Pekinese, while among the plant debris were the seeds of a rare cypress tree that did not grow anywhere in the body's location. The police began an immediate search for houses with pink mortar joints and the rare cypress growing nearby, even going to the extent of issuing a public appeal for any information about such combination. Eventually, they discovered one in the suburb of Clontarf. When they interviewed the tenants of the house, they learned that the previous occupant had been a Hungarian who used the name Stephen Bradley. He had spoken with a pronounced accent and had kept a pet Pekinese dog. Moreover, he had owned a blue 1955 Ford Customline that matched the description of a car seen near the kidnap site on the day that the boy had disappeared. When the police carried out a painstaking search of the house, they unearthed a photograph of Bradley's family picnicking on the same rug that had been found on the boy's body, together with a tassel that had fallen from it. Their inquiries revealed that Bradley had sold his car on the day he had disappeared, but they managed to trace it to a nearby dealer. When the car was subjected to forensic examination, grains of pink mortar were found in the trunk. Further investigation led the police to his dog, which had been left in the care of local veterinarian - it's hair matched those found on the boy's clothing. By then, Bradley was on a ship heading for England, but the police had it intercepted at Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was arrested and returned to Australia for trial, being found guilty of the boy's murder. For this, he received a life sentence. |