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in 1996 two young boys fishing in an ohio lake found what looked like a human skull
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[Music] all of its teeth were missing and markings on the skull told a tale of unspeakable violence
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police had no idea who this person was or how long the skull had been in the water
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[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] me [Music] hamilton ohio is an industrial city of
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about 62 000 people in the southwestern part of the state it's an area blessed with natural beauty
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residents enjoyed the many rivers streams and lakes that dot the landscape on august 7 1996
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12 year old tim lyons and his friend tj dijon headed to linden lake for an afternoon of fishing
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but instead of a bluegill or catfish the boys reeled in what looked like a skull
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it's hard to believe that you find somebody's head down there that you're
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just fishing and mind your own business and you reel in somebody's head they're just
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unbelievable the boys left the skull on the bank uncertain of what to do i know my mom and dad they didn't
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believe me they thought i was just goofing off like a whole day passed before we even
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we went back down there and it was still there this time the boys contacted the police
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first cop down there was pretty much a prick he came down there and we were showing him and everything
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he threw a rocket and said yeah it's real now you guys have opened up a big investigation just kept going on and on
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and like we did something wrong 20 minutes later the whole police force was down there
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and they had boats and everything people scooped it down there searching for other clues and
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it was crazy went nuts from there the police scuba divers could not find any other body parts in the lake and the
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search of the immediate area was also fruitless the local coroner examined the skull and
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determined that the individual hadn't been in the lake long perhaps only a few
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weeks because there was still some soft tissue clinging to it but investigators were faced with a
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mystery you know when we have a skull turn up what does that tell you it doesn't really tell you a whole lot
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it could be that somebody robbed a grave out in the country and then got rid of parts of the body
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it could be a homeless person who passed away and part of the remains got dragged
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you know an animal a varmint dragged part of the remains someplace so it doesn't really tell you that there's a
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homicide or foul play who was this person how did he or she die and where was the rest of the body
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to assist in the identification the coroner sent the skull to the college of mount saint joseph outside cincinnati to
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dr beth murray one of only 63 board-certified forensic anthropologists in the united states
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this case was one of the most challenging fascinating personally rewarding but also
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at the same time personally terrifying cases that i think i've worked dr murray noticed a deep indentation on
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the top of the skull which suggested the killer used a machete or a cleaver on the top of the
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victim's head and dr murray found other cuts and scratches all over the skull
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and they were signs of trying to get the flesh off of the skull and it gave me chills to realize that
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someone had sat with this skull in their hands and defleshed it this skull had a
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nose cavity indicative of a caucasian a battery of nearly two dozen measurements fed into a computer program
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confirmed this was the skull of a woman dr murray estimated that the victim was under 35 years of age
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the sutures of the skull the lines where the individual skull bones knit together
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those were still very open and they typically will tend to close with age evidence suggested
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someone had used many different types of tools in an extraordinary effort to conceal the woman's identity
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a series of jagged parallel marks indicated a serrated knife the size of a kitchen steak knife had been dragged
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along the sides of the skull cut marks on the cheekbones indicated the jaw had been forcefully removed with
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a small single edged blade like a pocket knife and there were several puncture wounds in the eye sockets an indication
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that the killer removed the victim's eyes the teeth were also missing in the upper jaw
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was a broken tooth root which told dr murray that the teeth had been deliberately pulled
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and when you held the skull at just the right angle you could see that the weapon that was used was a needle nose
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pliers you could actually see marks in the bone where the pliers had been inserted and the teeth snapped out
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dr murray hesitated to tell homicide investigators about her suspicions and i thought
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they're not going to believe me they're not going to believe that this is true
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and so i took the skull to two other experts before i made that phone call because i had never seen anything like
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this before in my life it would be the most difficult murder investigation local officials had ever
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encountered although investigators knew the skull found in linden lake was that of a
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caucasian woman under the age of 35 they knew nothing else marks found on the skull indicated that
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the flesh had been removed as had her teeth in an attempt to hide the woman's
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identity i've seen a lot of criminals try to hide their crime and conceal their activity
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it's almost expected but i've never seen anybody go to this length of activity
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to conceal a crime hamilton police discovered that only four individuals had recently been
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reported missing one was 21 year old tina mott reported missing just two months before
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the skull was found in the lake tina mott was the single mother of an 18 month old son johnny she had been living
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here on a quiet residential street in an upstairs apartment with her 24 year old
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boyfriend tim bradford tinamott was originally from new york she met her boyfriend tim while she was
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selling magazines door to door they settled in tim's home town of hamilton where tina worked as a clerk at a local
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store tim was a framer at this art shop he was he was in his mid-20s so he pretty much enjoyed doing the things
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that people in their mid-20s like to do go out hang out with friends go to concerts things like that
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when questioned by police tim said the tina had gone back to new york to visit her family and left the
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baby behind police soon discovered that tina mott never reached new york tina was reported missing not by her
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family but by tim's mother elizabeth bradford so at first she didn't really think
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anything about it but then when she started calling new york to see if she was up there and she wasn't
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she knew she wasn't away on her own will because she knew she wouldn't leave the baby alone
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elizabeth bradford also told police she was afraid of her son and his temper armed with a warrant
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police searched the storage locker bradford rented shortly after tina disappeared
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inside they found this set of 19 kitchen knives with small medium and large serrated
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blades police also found a book on how to kill with your bare hands and a notebook on satanic rituals
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tim bradford's mother told police her son practiced devil worship also suspicious was tim bradford's
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behavior during tina's disappearance an atm security camera captured pictures
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showing tim bradford withdrawing money from tinamot's bank account after she
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disappeared investigators also learned that tim bradford occasionally used drugs
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we know from some statements that tina supposedly had told people she worked with that she was afraid of tim because
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of his drug usage now i'm speculating here but i think what that means is is
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that when he's using drugs his violent temper is a little bit more flammable you know that he erupts a
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little bit quicker has a shorter fuse and maybe that's why she's afraid of him
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next police searched the couple's apartment inside they conducted a luminol test
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a chemical is sprayed on a surface it can reveal blood that has been cleaned up with water and detergents
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on the living room carpet investigators found an area believed to be human blood
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they also found blood on the bathroom floor in the crevice between the floor and the tub
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and also near the toilet police suspected the linden lake skull was that of tinamot
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but they needed scientific proof to be certain when a human skull was recovered from
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linden lake in ohio investigators needed to find some forensic technique to make
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a conclusive identification the most effective means of identification is by analyzing the teeth of the victim
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and comparing those to known dental x-rays since no two sets of teeth are exactly alike
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but in this case the lower jaw of the skull was missing and the upper teeth had all been pulled
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another method of identification is called skull photograph superimposition an anthropologist takes a photograph of
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the skull then superimposes it over a photograph of the missing person in hopes of matching the
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facial characteristics other techniques attempt to put a face on the skull by using facial
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reconstruction and forensic sculpture [Music] forensic have had only a 70 success rate with these techniques
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because features like the eyelids the mouth lips and ears are not necessarily indicated by the shape of the skull
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it's a technique usually used when all other means of identification have failed
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but in the case of the linden lake skull scientists got a genetic break they discovered that the killer removed
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all but two of the wisdom teeth which had been embedded in the gum which the killer may not have seen
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when the perpetrator pulled the teeth he didn't realize that those molars were
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up underneath the gum line so those were protected and preserved dr murray extracted tooth pulp from the
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wisdom teeth and sent it for dna testing along with a blood sample from tina's 18
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month old son but scientists could not obtain a usable dna profile from the tooth pulp it's
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possible that the reason is that the teeth were still unformed and when teeth are still forming their roots are open
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open cavities it was also possible the tiny single cell microorganisms in the lake called diatoms damaged or altered
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the cells in the tooth pulp as a last resort dr murray tried to extract dna from the
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skull itself with a surgical drill she carefully removed six bone samples from the thickest part of the skull with
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sterile techniques the middle section of that core that i took out had never touched anything but that sterile drill
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the skull bone fragments were sent for mitochondrial dna testing which is used in cases where the biological sample is
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either degraded or small in quantity and the mitochondrial dna is unique because it is passed through the
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maternal bloodline you receive it only from your mother so any maternal relative you have can be tested against
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the sample mitochondria are found in the cell cytoplasm outside the nucleus each cell contains hundreds of
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mitochondria [Music] scientists have isolated two regions of the mitochondrial dna where differences
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within the human population appear and they will look for exact matches between the mitochondrial dna and the sample
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they have and the maternal blood relative that they have the mitochondrial dna from the skull was
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the same as the mitochondrial dna from 18 month old johnny mott which meant the skull was that of his mother tina
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and one of the long knives found in the storage shed rented by tina's live-in
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boyfriend tested positive for human protein with this news police brought tim bradford in for
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questioning once more i asked him if he knew how to hunt yes did you know how to
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to dissect an animal and skin it prepared for food yes how to dispose of the internals
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of an animal yes he learned that all through his childhood and upbringing finally
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tim bradford told police a story of almost unspeakable violence and horror it was the story
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of tina mott's last moments alive when dna testing concluded that the linden lake skull was out of tinamot
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police confronted her live-in boyfriend tim bradford with the forensic evidence against him
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after several hours bradford confessed [Music] bradford led investigators to a nature
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preserve less than a mile from where the couple lived and in the deep brush were tina's bones
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scattered throughout the area after 14 months animals had gotten to the remains and
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only about half of tina's body was recovered every bone found had been cut either by
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a hacksaw or a knife tim said that on the night of the murder he and tina were playing a game of
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monopoly bradford admitted using drugs that night at some point the couple got into an
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argument tempers flared and tim admitted hitting tina bloodying her nose tina went to the bathroom to clean up
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and bradford said he started to put away the fishing gear he had used earlier in
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the day bradford said tina came running out of the bathroom to continue the argument
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bradford said he had a fish fillet knife in his hand and in the ensuing scuffle tim admitted
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that he slipped tina's throat bradford said he left the apartment and when he returned
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tina's lifeless body was in the bathtub how she got there was a mystery to him
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bradford said he worked through the night to dismember the body he flushed her internal organs
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down the toilet it's unbelievable that a human can do this to another human that he
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loved and fathered a child with i cannot grasp that bradford admitted using each of the 19
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kitchen knives in the process and bradford confirmed using needle nose pliers to remove the teeth in an effort
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to prevent a dental identification of the remains cut into the flesh to begin with is hard
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enough then to cut the head off hold it in my arms or my hands and pull the teeth out
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it's unbelievable bradford carried the bones from the apartment in his backpack and in a trash
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bag to a deserted field where he dumped them later he said he went to linden lake
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and threw the skull into the water if that skull never appeared this case would have never been solved
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it would have never proceeded as a homicide i'd just gone down as a missing person
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and been in missing persons forever townspeople were stunned by the news bradford's former boss couldn't believe
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she had worked side by side with a cold-blooded killer he did he did want out of that relationship
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with tina and unfortunately he picked a very permanent way out of that relationship
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and he's also out of his son's life as well which is a real shame tim bradford had no explanation for why
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he killed tina other than to say he loved her and was sorry tim bradford was convicted of voluntary
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manslaughter and of abuse of a corpse he was sentenced to 12 to 25 years in prison
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tim bradford acknowledged his guilt in this exclusive letter he wrote to the producers of this program
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bradford says quote i have committed an atrocity in the eyes of god and of man and for that i accept
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full responsibility my actions belie my true feelings for tina i truly loved her with every fiber of my
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being end quote bradford claims the pain of his own actions go well beyond those imposed by
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his prison sentence quote the nightmares i have had since that night the dreams i have where i wake up with
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tina's name on my lips those will stay with me forever and they should it is a burden i must carry in my heart
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until the end of my days in this case mr brantford the way he treated the corpse
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of the person that he supposedly loved tells you that they're almost that there's almost two parts to this person
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one where he really loves this woman and can't deal with the fact of losing her
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and wants to talk about what he did to her because he feels guilty about it but another side of him that could detach
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himself from all emotion to lean over a bathtub and de-flesh the body of somebody that you love it's
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just humanly impossible if he could do this to somebody that he loves what could he do to somebody that
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he doesn't even know or doesn't care about i just hope that through law enforcement officers and young
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detectives maybe seeing this case be aired that they realize don't give up you know when you get these little clues
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and when you have gut instincts telling you something's not right keep on pushing the envelope a
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little bit keep on going after the evidence because that's what happened in this case and it resulted in us walking
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through a field and maybe we got our shoes all muddy and got a little dirtied and everything but
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we found the last of her remains and were able to put a final conclusion to this case and i'm very proud
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to be a part of that quite frankly [Music] [Music] you