00:00:11
thank you [Music] [Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
00:00:44
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man with a quick reminder
00:00:48
we do work for tips here is the captain it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for
00:00:55
telling my friends today we are very happy to be featuring a beer that has so many names honestly
00:01:05
I'm not sure what to call it but I'll give it the old garage try today we are drinking smoothie Patisserie pineapple
00:01:12
upside down cake 2021 by the creative minds over at imprint beer company this is a heavily fruited dessert style
00:01:20
smoothie sour that contains lactose garage grade four out of five bottle caps let's follow that up with so many
00:01:28
more names let's give a shout out to Julie in Dublin Ireland and a big shout out to Renee in Felton California here's
00:01:35
a cheers to Andrea and Eau Claire Wisconsin and a big we like your trip to Tammy in Hamilton Ohio here's a cheers
00:01:43
and shout out to Brittany in Millington Tennessee and last but certainly not least we have Julie Z in Spokane Valley
00:01:50
Washington everyone we just mentioned they went to our website truecrime garage.com clicked on the Donate button
00:01:56
and now we have a garage fridge that is full of beer thanks to all of you yeah bwr-u-n for everything true crime check
00:02:04
out our website sign up on the mailing list and also if you need more True Crime
00:02:09
garage for your ear balls check out our bonus show called off the record you can
00:02:14
do so at truecrime garage.com and Colonel that's enough of the Bizness all right everybody gather round grab a
00:02:22
chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] with you with you [Music] the great state of Ohio has 88 counties
00:03:01
for this week's True Crime Story we head to Mahoning County until one of 14 townships in Mahoning
00:03:07
Boardman Ohio Boardman is a suburb directly south of Youngstown in the early 70s life in
00:03:15
Boardman was changing changing how its thirty thousand or so citizens felt about their Town Boardman was a safe
00:03:23
town and a great place to raise a family but was that still true who could be sure
00:03:28
and with the story we are presenting this week you'll see why parents started implementing stronger curfews demanding
00:03:36
to know their children's whereabouts and telling them to not walk alone and even in a group always to be looking
00:03:44
over your shoulder 50 years ago this week a 12 year old Boardman boy Bradley bellino
00:03:51
was abducted in murder his case remains open and not for a lack of effort the Boardman Police Department did
00:03:59
everything in their power over the course of five decades to find Justice for Brad in the bellino family
00:04:07
they have tried everything every resource even calling on other law enforcement agencies for help and yet
00:04:15
the person or persons responsible remain a mystery the following is from the Akron Beacon
00:04:22
Journal the headline nothing was normal the weekend of slaying and the article reads normally
00:04:29
when he left his best friend's house after an afternoon of playing basketball Bradley bellino went directly home
00:04:36
normally Don templeman's parents drove Bradley the several miles to his home normally Bradley 12 would be talking to
00:04:45
Don on the phone the next day setting up another Rendezvous for basketball talking or walking
00:04:51
but Easter weekend wasn't normal sometime after he left the templeman house at 7 30 PM Friday
00:04:59
Bradley was sexually molested strangled to death and stuffed into a trash bin where his body was discovered that
00:05:08
Tuesday morning his body still bore the red white and blue jeans and the T-shirt what the
00:05:14
devil made me do it emblazoned across it that he was wearing when he left the templements
00:05:21
quote if Brad left here after dark we would drive him home said Mrs templeman but Friday I was shopping and my husband
00:05:28
was sick so Brad left on his own Don didn't hear from him again Bradley's parents Mr and Mrs Joseph
00:05:37
bellino didn't report their son missing until Saturday afternoon apparently due to a misunderstanding about whether he
00:05:45
would stay overnight Friday with the templements the coroner investigator stated quote we hope to be able to
00:05:52
pinpoint the time of death more accurately when our lab tests are complete the headline was right
00:05:59
nothing was normal that weekend not for anyone in Boardman and it would be a long time before things would start to
00:06:06
feel normal again because unfortunately this was not the first of its kind for Boardman
00:06:13
and sadly it would not be the last Bradley's murder was sandwiched right between the murders of two other boys
00:06:21
from Boardman that's right three murders three kids all in the span of less than five years
00:06:29
as one writer from Boardman put it there was a dread a pail that hung over the community for some time that period of
00:06:37
time for the community was one of distress and horror evoking the words of Buffalo Springfield he wrote There's
00:06:44
Something Happening Here what it is ain't exactly clear this is true crime garage
00:06:53
and this is the true crime story of the still unsolved Boardman Ohio murders [Music]
00:07:04
with you [Music] it was 50 years ago this week that a boy walking alone was abducted and his body
00:07:37
was found just days later it was Easter break with no school on Friday March 31st
00:07:45
1972. adults were stuck in their normal routines but for kids time off from school meant extra time with friends
00:07:54
twelve-year-old Brad bellino was well liked and had plenty of friends but he had only one best friend one that
00:08:02
stood out and well above others on the old friendship ranking scale this was Don templeman to say that the two were
00:08:11
close would be an understatement they were classmates together sixth grade at Boardman Center Middle School
00:08:18
they both played baseball and were teammates three years running if they weren't at school or playing baseball
00:08:25
they were together with sleepovers nearly every weekend this Easter weekend was supposed to be a
00:08:32
lot of the same but remember nothing seemed normal that weekend now leading up to Brad's disappearance
00:08:41
he and Dawn spent most of Wednesday evening together then again Thursday evening
00:08:47
there was no school on Friday on Friday March 31st around 12 30 PM in the afternoon Brad left home to go to
00:08:57
Don's house Brad was told to be back to his house at 8 pm here's where things start to get bad
00:09:07
so we have Brad's mother she's at work that evening Brad's dad he's out with friends
00:09:15
Don's mother was at the grocery and Don's father was sick in bed so Brad has to get home so he was going
00:09:24
to have to go it alone and on foot so he left the templeman's house they lived in
00:09:30
Applewood Acres which was known at the time as a nice upper middle class development
00:09:36
he leaves there at approximately 7 30 pm Brad lived on McClurg Road this is a little more than three miles away that
00:09:47
time of year in Northeast Ohio the sun sets before 8 PM Brad will lose a little more of the light with each step he took
00:09:58
toward his home Brad sadly never made it home that night what happened after he left what
00:10:06
unspeakable horror was waiting for him and where well maybe a few blocks to go between houses of you and your friend
00:10:15
but three miles that's a long distance for a sixth grader that it is Captain and it seems like this wouldn't have
00:10:22
been terribly uncommon or at least not the first time that he had made the walk either from his house to Dons or the
00:10:30
reverse that he's done this before this might be one of the later times at night
00:10:36
because I think the way that the story has always kind of been told was that the bolinos
00:10:42
they were busy right his father's out with friends his mom is at work and she works kind of out of town
00:10:50
so the way that I've always heard this story Captain was that his mom because she works out of town sometimes would
00:10:57
have to stay overnight and then return on the weekends so the situation is this that I believe the bellinos just thought
00:11:06
that the temple men's would drive him home which they had done dozens of times I mean these boys were were very close
00:11:13
and I I think all of us can reminisce and think back to our childhoods when you have that one super tight friend
00:11:19
that you're always just kind of with whether it's for a summer or for a whole school year but these guys were like
00:11:26
this for a couple of years and they would routinely stay the night at each other's houses on the weekends
00:11:33
why Brad didn't stay the night on this Friday at the temple men's is a little unclear
00:11:40
and we'll get into some of the discrepancies regarding his disappearance and in that time frame as
00:11:47
we go through it here but it's my belief that the bolinos thought that the templemans would drive him home
00:11:52
and as circumstance would have it with Don's mother being busy out shopping and the father sick in bed that this was
00:12:02
just kind of a miscommunication and the boy ends up walking home to get home to be home at the time that his father had
00:12:09
instructed him to be there well it could be as simple as two sixth graders making
00:12:13
that decision Hey My My Dad's sick mom's not here well I'll just walk home no big
00:12:20
deal the missing boy story Brad's story was well covered by the Youngstown area news media one newspaper listed Brad
00:12:28
bellino to be 12 years of age four feet eight inches tall weighing about 80 pounds so he's small for his age he has
00:12:38
blonde hair it's cut below the ears blue eyes he was wearing blue jeans a blue ski
00:12:45
jacket and white tennis shoes with black stripes now Brad's body was found several days later but before we get to
00:12:54
that there is that little bit of confusion that I talked about there's actually quite a bit of confusion as to
00:13:01
what exactly takes place and when this is all during the time frame of when he is missing so after he leaves his best
00:13:09
friend Don's home and when his body is discovered several days later so Brad was not an only child he had
00:13:18
siblings and from what I could find and what I've been told Brad was 12 at the time and he was the youngest of the
00:13:26
Bolino kids so there are older children in the Bolino home Brad's father was out until about 2 A.M
00:13:35
that night and when he comes home he just makes the assumption that Brad was home and so he
00:13:41
goes straight to bed and he sleeps in the next morning Brad's mother as we said was out of town
00:13:47
with work so his father does not notice that Brad is not home until the middle of the day
00:13:54
on Saturday the next day now I want to get into some shout outs here real quick Captain I believe they are in
00:14:02
order there's a gentleman named Rich Comstock of 51weeks.com he wrote the story there's
00:14:11
something happening here which we referenced at the start of the show in this week's trailer his is a slightly
00:14:18
fictionalized on purpose but still a very good version of the Boardman murder story I recommend that everyone check
00:14:25
that out because it's very well done there is a ton of Truth in his story and he grew up in the area around that time
00:14:34
so you'll get a first-hand sense of the dread that hung over the community and be able to really feel the fear that
00:14:43
crept in and sort of overshadows the young lives of these younger Boardman kids the second shout out is to Carolyn
00:14:51
bardino she is a friend of the porch light project Carolyn wrote a piece that is featured
00:14:58
on porchlight's website porchlightonline.org which is titled an exclusive porch light project
00:15:05
investigation the unsolved murder of Brad bellino so I encourage everyone to check that out as well and while you're
00:15:13
there take a minute or two to learn more about the porch light project a non-profit that helps victims and helps
00:15:19
to heat up and even solve some Ohio cold cases porchlightonline.org so this next batch
00:15:26
captain of information in the Brad case a lot of it is taken directly from that article Carolyn got a lot of other parts
00:15:36
and angles to the case that you'll want to check out but this part was necessary
00:15:40
to take from there let's not glaze over the fact that seems like his dad went out with friends
00:15:47
which is no big deal probably went out drinking there's no problem with that but to come home and not check that your
00:15:56
kids are in their bed and everybody's safe and sound and lock the doors and all that stuff
00:16:01
don't really care too much for that seems a little irresponsible and then not even knowing that he's gone until
00:16:07
midday the next day that makes things a little more difficult as far as the investigation is concerned yeah it
00:16:14
certainly doesn't help matters at all so let's get into those conflicting reports
00:16:19
so as Carolyn writes there are conflicting reports from different sources about what exactly happened next
00:16:25
what is known for sure is that Brad was reported missing the next day at 3 20 p.m so just a reminder this is Saturday
00:16:35
April 1st 1972. police family and friends spent the rest of the holiday weekend searching for him
00:16:44
later in the article Carolyn writes as often happens with cases that have gone unsolved for decades there are some
00:16:52
conflicting reports in the details because the investigation is still open case files are closed making it
00:17:00
difficult to reconcile some of the facts the first questions that remain are who
00:17:06
reported Brad missing and under what circumstances did he decide to leave and walk home from the templeman's house
00:17:13
local newspapers have published that it was Brad's Mom who reported Brad missing
00:17:19
when she came home from work on Saturday article State Brad was to stay at Dawn's
00:17:25
until 9 pm and it is unknown why he left early at 7 30 PM other news articles state that it
00:17:33
was Brad's sister Debbie who called police that Saturday afternoon now to complicate matters even further
00:17:40
we have Brad's best friend Don who remembers it over that Easter weekend he and Brad had been alternating spending
00:17:49
the night at each other's houses on the Friday Night Before Easter Brad called home this is according to Don
00:17:55
templeman Brad called home and told his brother he'd be sleeping over at Don's house that night
00:18:02
dances about 20 minutes later Brad's father called and told Brad no he needed to come home instead so following his
00:18:09
dad's instructions Brad leaves Dawn's home at 7 30 p.m without a ride makes some sense on why you wouldn't stay
00:18:18
because it is holiday you know maybe you were staying back and forth when it wasn't a holiday but to
00:18:25
stay to Easter to Easter Sunday it might be an inconvenience to your friend's family well and Brad has always been
00:18:35
described as one of these kids it was adventurous you know so he he could take things on by himself and and go out
00:18:42
exploring or maybe maybe stray off the path a little bit but everybody has consistently said that even though he
00:18:49
was adventurous if he was told to do something by his parents he did and he and he he followed through with it so he
00:18:57
minded his parents so he's going off of if we're to go off of Dawn's story the father instructed him to be home at
00:19:05
some point that night not to stay the night and so Brad chooses to leave at 7 30 without a ride right Don then says
00:19:12
that he went to bed sometime after Brad left this would be around 10 p.m this is
00:19:17
where the story gets a little difficult and we'll try to sort this out Dawn says
00:19:21
that Brad's brother called that same night and asked Mrs templeman if Brad had left
00:19:29
because he had not made it home so Mrs templeman tells Brad's brother yes he has left and
00:19:36
he left hours ago so immediately concerned Don's mother wakes him up and Don says that him and his family drove
00:19:45
the route that Brad would have walked back to his house but could not find him it is unclear at this time what impact
00:19:52
these discrepancies have had on the case but the confusion surrounding the answers may help to explain why it took
00:20:00
so long for the police to be called again Brad was the youngest of four children in the Bolino family and the
00:20:07
natural chaos of a household of six people all on different schedules likely contributed to the delay in reporting
00:20:14
him missing now secondly we have another remaining question with conflicting answers
00:20:22
is when was Brad last seen so early newspaper Reports say that he was seen Saturday afternoon in multiple locations
00:20:30
playing basketball on Matthews Road near Don templeman's house they also say that
00:20:36
he was seen at the Southern Park Mall and at the Dairy Queen near North Lima later Reports say that the sightings
00:20:43
were unconfirmed and that Witnesses may have actually seen Brad at those locations on Friday
00:20:48
and that these Witnesses may have gotten confused because there was no school for
00:20:53
the holiday on that Friday confusing Saturday for Friday well we see that in a lot of cases where it's a holiday
00:21:00
weekend and so everybody's memory everybody's memories seem to be a little confused because of that extra time
00:21:09
period I want to throw this out there too in regard to these these sightings of Brad on Saturday if you'll allow a
00:21:16
captain sure we've reviewed unfortunately this is not our first child abduction and murder case that
00:21:23
we've reviewed here in the garage we've reviewed dozens of these and it's not uncommon for us to come across these
00:21:31
sightings of a missing child at a location hanging out playing video games often getting ice cream you know doing
00:21:39
childlike things or hanging around other kids a day or two after it's believed that they had gone missing right and I
00:21:48
think a lot of that is just the way that we are kind of structured as humans as adults and even as parents where
00:21:57
I think these sightings are just coming about by way of people that really want to try to
00:22:04
help that really want to try to do some good and phone into the police hey a lot
00:22:10
of the way that a lot of these go down is these people are saying you know I saw a boy matching his description over
00:22:16
at the skating rink or I saw a boy that looked like the bellino kid uh he was playing basketball
00:22:23
and so it's not anybody saying I spoke to him and it was Brad it's people that are saying you know I saw a kid that
00:22:30
matches his description you might want to look into it well I'm back in the day when it was nice weather out or even
00:22:36
decent weather out you'd see a lot of kids playing every couple blocks you'd see kids on their bike or kids walking
00:22:42
or kids playing out in their front yard or the backyard maybe shooting some hoops
00:22:47
this was very common you know less common today now because of computers and the amount of interesting things for
00:22:55
kids to do inside and the default setting for as long as I could remember hey stop
00:23:02
bothering me why don't you get on your iPad or jump on your computer or go play video games the default setting used to
00:23:08
be hey you're bothering me go outside and play right and they're being asked this after the fact as we will see
00:23:15
because we know that he wasn't reported missing until 3 20 p.m on Saturday so by
00:23:20
the time that the police are out like canvassing the area knocking on doors asking adults and other children if they
00:23:27
had seen Brad this isn't taking place until Saturday night Sunday and Monday right and so I believe again these are
00:23:36
people that are just trying to help and let's face it a lot of kids look the same especially when you're given a
00:23:42
vague description like did you see a kid that's four and a half feet tall blonde
00:23:46
hair wearing blue jeans yeah yeah I did I've seen several of those uh in the past few days so I think that helps to
00:23:55
explain some of that and in Don's statement here will kind of act go what we were saying earlier Captain about
00:24:03
Brad so don templeman his best friend says this is him saying this as an adult years years later after he was
00:24:11
interviewed as an adult he says the reports that Brad being seen on Saturday cannot be accurate in his mind he says
00:24:19
quote that's impossible he was going home if he had other intentions in mind like I said we spent almost every day
00:24:27
together for three years if he had an ulterior motive he would have told me he wouldn't have said I'm going home that's
00:24:34
just crazy he just wasn't that way if his dad told him to come home he'd go home end quote toy believe what he's
00:24:43
saying I mean obviously obviously this was his best friend they were BFFs right and right but
00:24:50
if there was some kids playing outside on his path home it's not impossible to think a kid might
00:24:58
not stop for a minute and shoot some hoops right here's my other buddy let me say
00:25:05
hello shoot some hoops and then I'll be on my way but I I think the other thing too here
00:25:12
is yeah I agree totally with you kids get sidetracked hell I get sidetracked all
00:25:18
the time but squirrel now we have to take it a step further and go that was Friday
00:25:24
night did did Brad get sidetracked enough that he was still not at home by Saturday afternoon you know that's a
00:25:32
that's a long time away and I think what Don is is saying if you read between the
00:25:38
lines but he's not he's not clearly saying it outright is that if Brad was playing basketball on Saturday
00:25:46
I would have been playing basketball with him if he was at the Dairy Queen he would have went there with me you
00:25:52
know what I mean he's he's letting you know like yeah he said he was going home if he was doing a bunch of stuff on
00:25:58
Saturday by himself I would have been involved because we hung out all the time so I think let's I want to address the
00:26:07
conflicting stories of you know it was notice that Brad was missing late Friday night the temple
00:26:13
men's go out looking for him according to Don that's what he remembers versus what has been reported in the papers
00:26:19
that Brad's father woke up a little before noon Brad's father says he went out looking for his son and then when he
00:26:26
couldn't find him he called the police so again what we do know the fact is this Brad was reported missing two
00:26:36
police at 3 20 p.m on Saturday that is from the report taken by the Boardman Police Department so that is fact now
00:26:45
the information Dawn is relaying again keeping in mind he is being asked this question over four decades later so
00:26:54
he remembers it one way it's always been reported a different way Don could be simply misremembering or he could be
00:27:02
right and that that information never made it to the papers for some reason regardless we do know by all accounts
00:27:10
that Brad left Don's house at 7 30 p.m Friday night and at some point it is noticed by the bellino family his own
00:27:20
family that he is missing a search ensues and he is reported missing less than 24 hours later at 3 20 p.m on
00:27:29
Saturday Easter Sunday he does not come home and then his body is located on April 4th so
00:27:37
he's missing for a few days here captain and unfortunately his body is located on
00:27:42
April 4th the short of it is he's found in a dumpster then comes the Youngstown Vindicator article I'm guessing this was
00:27:51
an evening newspaper back then the headline reads refuse man makes Grim discovery and the article itself reads
00:28:03
as follows the body of Bradley bellino 12 of 61 McClurg Road missing since last Friday
00:28:11
night was found stuffed in a large refuse container behind a store at Boardman Plaza about 8 A.M today
00:28:20
Boardman police chief David Hartsock confirmed the identity after he was called to the rear of the Isley Dairy
00:28:31
Store at 263 Boardman Canfield Road quote we do not know whether there are any wounds in the body
00:28:40
because we will not remove it until the coroner's investigator arrives end quote
00:28:46
it is the Bolino boy he said when asked for confirmation we have the coroner's investigator said it appeared
00:28:55
that the body and the boy had been strangled with a belt that was still around his neck when
00:29:02
he was found he ordered the body to the South Side Hospital for an autopsy according to Chief Hartsock he said Paul
00:29:11
Smith an employee of the sanitation service went to pick up the refuse container and spotted the body in the
00:29:21
debris at about 8 A.M he called the Boardman police Smith said that the boy's feet were
00:29:28
showing and he touched them to see if it might be a mannequin but found it was the boy's body
00:29:36
and then it goes on to say it appears that the body was fully clothed the trash company last emptied this
00:29:43
container at noon on Friday [Music] with you [Music] all right we are back thanks for
00:30:17
listening thanks for telling a friend cheers to you colonel in whichever order you choose to do it thanks for telling a
00:30:24
friend and thanks for listening yeah whichever whichever way you choose and make sure you subscribe tall cans in the
00:30:31
air this is a case Captain that's not well known it was it was covered well in the local newspapers at the time Brad's
00:30:40
homicide and abduction and it's not one that is really well known on a national level and you can find this you can look
00:30:48
up the Boardman murders it's called a bunch of different things the Boardman boys a lot of times they people were
00:30:55
only covering Brad's case but it's one that that's covered covered a little bit but not well known in the
00:31:02
True Crime Arena so I'm happy that we are covering this one here today this was one that I had always wanted to
00:31:09
cover but as everybody will see it's quite the complicated story and I'd always shied away from doing it but with
00:31:17
with the anniversary with the 50-year anniversary of Brad's unsolved homicide coming up this week I felt you know
00:31:25
there was no better time to to cover it and if we were going to cover it we we better do it now and so I had to track
00:31:33
down a lot of different information get a lot of different people involved to provide information because there's just
00:31:38
not a bunch of it out there easy case to relate to because how many times did you spin hanging out with your best
00:31:46
friend and and then having to leave their house and to go home whether it's on bike or foot or or their parents take
00:31:54
you home or your parents pick you up it's just it's um it's an easy case to resonate and inside oneself yeah and I
00:32:02
rode my bike as I remember you doing as well we rode our bikes damn near everywhere when we were Brad's age and
00:32:11
but I will say this even though I walked a lot of places I don't remember ever walking anything like like this distance
00:32:18
I think one time I missed the bus and rather than telling my parents I decided I would just walk so I wouldn't get in
00:32:25
trouble which was kind of dumb because I show up like an hour and a half late right home and so it's obvious what
00:32:31
happened so I think that's the only time I actually walked that distance the rest
00:32:36
of the time would be on a bike and I couldn't imagine you know being 12 you know just how dark
00:32:43
it may have been at some point during the course of his walk the other thing too is we don't know how far he made it
00:32:49
into that walk all we know is he didn't come home but we have to remember that Brad is only 12.
00:32:55
and so he could have maybe made that trick multiple times on a bike and this was the first time that he decided he
00:33:04
was going to walk it and sometimes you start thinking well it was it's fast to get there on my bike and then when
00:33:13
you start walking the judge yeah and you go oh well this is a lot further than I
00:33:17
thought so you can tell by The Vindicator article that we read just before the break that this is obviously
00:33:23
a homicide Brad's body was discovered he's discovered about two miles down the road
00:33:29
from Don templeman's house in a dumpster behind a Dairy Store in Boardman Plaza the dumpster was partially filled and
00:33:37
Brad's body was covered over with cardboard boxes and other waste Brad sneakers were sticking up at an
00:33:45
angle and his striped pants were undone According to some reports and pulled down below the hips
00:33:53
his head was in a downward position and a belt was tightly fastened around his neck
00:34:01
we are going to have an autopsy conducted Brad's body was brought to the South Side Hospital in Youngstown and a
00:34:09
postmortem exam was conducted by Dr David Blinky the cause of death was strangulation and he had been sexually
00:34:18
assaulted now I'll read some from that report that gives a description of the events as they were reported or
00:34:27
understood by the coroner so unfortunately the youth was admitted Dead on Arrival to the hospital
00:34:34
at 9 25 a.m on April 4th it was stated by Paul Smith remember he's the sanitation worker that while preparing
00:34:44
to empty the trash container at 7 55 a.m into the trash truck he discovered the body of the deceased in the trash
00:34:53
container this container was behind the Eisley Dairy Store which was located at 263 Boardman Canfield Road Boardman Ohio
00:35:03
it was stated by the manager of the Dairy Store that that container had been emptied on Friday March 31st the body of
00:35:13
that was of Bradley bellino lying in a partially filled trash container then covered over with cardboard boxes and
00:35:20
waste from the Eisley store and possibly from the attacker the body laid in the container with his head in a
00:35:29
downward position and a belt this is one inch one and one eighth inch wide and the belt size is listed in the
00:35:39
corners report as size 22 to 24. listed as fastened tightly around his neck the trousers were pulled down below
00:35:49
the buttocks present at the scene where the Boardman police department and the coroner's photographer and the Boardman
00:35:56
Police Department photographer all necessary photos were taken and the body was then removed to the hospital
00:36:04
this is going to add a little bit to the confusion but I think this to me clarifies a lot of stuff that we were
00:36:10
questioning earlier and I I like that this was included in the coroner's report it says Joseph
00:36:17
bellino so he's the father he's Brad's father stated he last saw his son on Thursday
00:36:23
afternoon at 1pm so this would be March 30th when the deceased left for the Southern Park Mall the deceased had also
00:36:32
asked permission to stay overnight at a friend's house one Donald Templeton there must be a typo here because they
00:36:38
spelled his last name wrong so this would be a Donald templeman the deceased was told by his father that he was to
00:36:45
return home by 4 pm on that day the deceased then called his father and asked if he could stay longer Mr bellino
00:36:53
agreed that his son should return home at 9 00 pm on Friday March 31st Mr bellino went out the evening of the
00:37:02
31st not realizing his son was not home he had returned home and went to bed about 2 A.M he awakened at noon and then
00:37:10
discovered that his son was not home he then became concerned and called the templeman's home when he discovered that
00:37:17
the deceased had left the night before he began a search he then called the Boardman Police Department to report his
00:37:24
son missing it was stated by Donald templeman that the deceased had left his home Friday night at about 7 30 p.m
00:37:32
Donald hadn't seen him since at this time the attacker is still at large one very key piece of information here
00:37:41
Captain besides the Bell information that we went through is the coroner was able to determine an approximate time of
00:37:50
death and on the autopsy he writes that the approximate time of death was 9 pm April 1st
00:37:58
1972. so basically the evidence that we have so far is that we believe that Bradley was two miles
00:38:06
from where he left Don's house and that he was murdered on that Friday no they're putting the
00:38:15
time of death the next day the next night in fact so the time of death as we know is always very important to know
00:38:23
and again it's it's incredibly good for the investigation regardless of the confusing Parts before that they were
00:38:31
able to narrow this down to approximately 9 pm on Saturday so he leaves Don's house at 7 30 p.m on Friday
00:38:38
now later years later retired Boardman police chief Jack Nichols said it's unlikely Brad was seen Saturday remember
00:38:48
those supposed unconfirmed sightings of Brad on Saturday right I would I would assume that if he was captured by
00:38:55
whoever murdered him would have done so like you said on his way home Friday night and then you just wouldn't see him
00:39:03
uh body be in place there sometime Saturday and the police chief is adding additional information to what we
00:39:11
already covered in the autopsy that supports this theory that Brad wouldn't have been seen because the chief goes on
00:39:18
to say that the meal that was found in his stomach at the autopsy was chicken and pineapple this is confirmed by all
00:39:26
to be the dinner that Brad ate at the templeman's residence on Friday evening so it seems likely that Dawn his best
00:39:35
friend was in fact the last person besides the killer or Killers to see Brad alive right but if the coroner's
00:39:43
report is accurate where the hell was he from 7 30 p.m Friday until his death on Saturday at
00:39:52
approximately 9 pm that leaves like 25 and a half 26 hours unaccounted for which leaves the possibility of an
00:40:01
unknown location where Brad would have been held for a period of time and essentially the time period could be
00:40:07
longer than that because unless they're giving us information that they believe he was murdered where
00:40:14
he was dumped right and it doesn't sound to be that way I mean the kids found upside
00:40:21
down in the dumpster with the murder weapon wrapped around his neck he would have had to have been killed
00:40:26
right before being tossed in or killed in the dumpster if he was killed on site so we've discussed this many many times
00:40:34
here in the garage and in these types of homicides it is very very common to have
00:40:40
up to three maybe all the way up to five or so crime scenes the problem is not understanding that the problem is
00:40:48
locating the crime scenes for the collection of evidence so because the coroner is saying that there is this
00:40:55
lengthy amount of time from the abduction to the murder time we have a lot of time to account for
00:41:02
so it is very probable that he was held elsewhere overnight well we have the location of the
00:41:09
abduction right we we know that somewhere between Don's house and Brad's house he was basically a three three mile
00:41:18
radius yeah so somewhere in that three mile radius we have crime scene number one the location of the abduction then
00:41:25
we also have the location of where Brad was held that's another crime scene and then the body recovery site the dumpster
00:41:33
behind the Dairy Store that's another crime scene but to get Brad from crime scene 1 to another location to
00:41:42
where the bodies recovered from that's going to recover some that's going to require some form of transportation so
00:41:50
was Brad transported to and from and how was he transported to and from was it via vehicle well then we are now at four
00:41:59
crime scenes or possibly five crime scenes if a different vehicle was used to move him
00:42:05
after he was held just to be clear you're saying one vehicle to abduct Bradley in another vehicle that would
00:42:13
have taken him to the dumpster possibly up to that number so that puts us at a minimum of five crime scenes if that
00:42:19
were the case uh if the same vehicle were used we're talking four crime scenes here now something that I found
00:42:27
fascinating Captain comes from the Ohio Mysteries podcast so we have host Steve and Paula they interviewed a man from
00:42:36
Boardman Mark Baker Mark grew up in Boardman around the time of Brad's murder and during the course of that
00:42:45
interview Mark gave his insights regarding Brad's walk home that night so he says and I'm going to summarize it
00:42:54
here he says that Don's area is a really nice area back then it's a neighborhood type setting Brad's
00:43:02
home would have been out in the country so he's walking Country Roads in the Twilight or in the dark
00:43:14
out this is after walking out of that Applewood Acres area where Don lives that's if we believe he got that far
00:43:24
correct now Mark says if he were to make it you know as far as possible on that trip
00:43:31
that for about two miles of that walk Brad would have been walking along lonely a lonely Highway before arriving
00:43:38
to his own neighborhood and then we have to we have this report from Brad's family
00:43:45
that is just I mean it I think it kind of paints a better picture or gives us an idea as to the
00:43:56
possibilities of what may have happened that night after he left his best friend's house the report from Brad's
00:44:03
family that hit the papers after he was found killed says that Brad would sometimes hitchhike
00:44:11
now we know that in the early 70s this was something that was much more common people don't do that these days and Dawn
00:44:21
his best friend says a lot of kids even little kids they're age 12 would hitchhike back then
00:44:28
Don says he himself hitched rides on occasion but he said he knew that Brad hitch rides more often than he and
00:44:37
likely more often than most kids his age so and Don Don points out something that's
00:44:45
kind of unique and I think this is something that a lot of us have experienced when we are when we are
00:44:51
smaller kids that he says look Don's my family and my best friend Brad his family both they were
00:45:00
quite different from one another you know Don is one of the older kids in his family and Brad was the youngest of four
00:45:10
and he's 12. and I don't know if anybody else out there has experienced this but
00:45:15
when you're kind of when you're the oldest and you have a friend that is the youngest you see
00:45:22
a big difference in the way that that you're kind of treated by your parents what they expect from you your
00:45:30
responsibilities what they think you're capable of and their fears about their own kids and often my experience has
00:45:37
been this I'm not saying all the time it's this way but often my experience has been this when I've been good
00:45:44
friends with with kids that are the youngest in their family especially when some of them have
00:45:49
older siblings that are almost adults or are adults by that time that the youngest kid is usually like a little
00:45:58
more grown up themselves right because they've done and experienced things with their older siblings and for longer
00:46:05
periods of time than what the oldest out of younger kids may have experience so I kind of feel like this is a situation
00:46:14
where yeah Brad was hitching rides more often than his friends would but maybe it didn't seem so strange to Brad and I
00:46:22
think the thing that makes this even more scary is that we talk about well he was going to set out and make this
00:46:30
long walk by himself well we don't know his mindset maybe his intention was yeah
00:46:35
sure I'll just I'll at some point I'll be in a car and hitch a ride I'll start off walking uh but somebody will pick me
00:46:42
up and and dropped me off closer to my house and so I just fear here with Brad's case
00:46:50
it seems likely to me one of two possibilities happened either he was looking to hitch a ride and he got in
00:46:56
the wrong car or he was out walking by himself and a predator crossed his path and saw him by himself
00:47:04
and saw an opportunity no offered him a ride Don says that of course he attended
00:47:10
his best friend's funeral Brad's funeral he said that uh he saw that's where he would see Brad's father for the last
00:47:17
time he he did say that you know our families even though the two of us were close our families weren't close and he
00:47:24
with him all the siblings being older and his siblings being younger they never really crossed paths after that uh
00:47:32
about the funeral he says it was crowded standing room only as all of the kids from their school all of the parents and
00:47:39
all of the teachers were in attendance and a lot of people in town that didn't even know Brad
00:47:46
bellino or know the bellino family attended because it just I mean it just hit this community very very hard now
00:47:53
some evidence that you say is he was his strangulation homicide by strangulation
00:47:58
we believe that uh you know based on on the autopsy the eyewitness report there was a belt found around his neck
00:48:09
yes that is fact there was there was a belt found wrapped around his neck so we know that we have the victim uh and we
00:48:17
have him found with the murder weapon now is that murder weapon his own belt I I hate to chuckle there because
00:48:25
there's no reason to do so other than I already know that that's a very difficult question to answer so
00:48:33
from my notes I'm going to try to give you as much information on this belt as possible because
00:48:39
we're often reviewing these cases where there's no murder weapon recovered so you have a whole mystery there here we
00:48:46
have a situation where we know what the murder weapon was we recovered it when we recovered the victim but there's
00:48:52
still some mystery around the murder weapon itself so the coroner's report indicates that the
00:48:58
belt around his neck was size 22 to 24 and was 1 and 1 8 inch wide and I hope I'm saying that right so it's it's an
00:49:09
inch and an eighth wide now this is a small belt it's a child's size belt I'm not going to pretend to be some kind
00:49:19
of fashion guy and understand exactly what size 22 to 24 means but I've looked it up and I've confirmed it is a child's
00:49:26
Bell and I also know that it would not fit me of course the origin of the belt could be significant
00:49:34
and police had hoped that it would lead to a suspect and this is where you're going to see
00:49:41
some differing opinions here police believe that the belt was purchased at JC Penney's department store
00:49:47
but could never pinpoint an actual location which JCPenney's there are conflicting reports about whether the
00:49:54
belt did in fact belong to Brad the bellino family says that they could not confirm whether it was his there
00:50:01
showed the belt and they said you know it looks like a belt that he may have had we cannot say 100 certain that it
00:50:08
was his some news reports say that it did belong to him and I think the reason why some
00:50:15
of the news reports say that it did belong to him is because Dawn says that after his buddy was found
00:50:22
he's brought in and asked a whole bunch of questions and he's trying to help police as much as he can he says he too
00:50:29
was shown the bell and Don says yes this belt belonged to my best friend Brad now
00:50:38
here's where it gets confusing we have the friend saying that the Bell belongs to Brad
00:50:44
we have the bellino family saying we don't know for certain but we have the cops right we have the
00:50:51
cops out searching for where it was purchased from now that indicates to me that they seem
00:50:57
to have reason to believe that it that it did not belong to Brad right like it was a newer purchase
00:51:03
right or or maybe the purchase whenever it took place could lead back to the Killer
00:51:09
you know maybe they wrote a check for it or or paid with credit card or something
00:51:13
of of that nature but again they're able to they're able to figure out that it came from a JC Penney's department store
00:51:20
which I don't think those exist anymore but um they're able to determine what what brand or franchise of store did it
00:51:30
come from but not the exact location of which store now to confuse matters even more there are
00:51:38
some reports that say that Brad was found with a belt with this belt around his neck but also he was still wearing
00:51:47
his own belt so it's really difficult to believe here there are some reports that indicate
00:51:54
that the color of the belt was tan so the best info I can give you I think it's I think personally if if I had to
00:52:03
decide which which is difficult to do not given enough information here if I had to decide I would think that this
00:52:11
belt may fit Brad and so it seems likely to me that the Killer is an adult and may not own
00:52:20
about this size and simply took it off of his victim I mean much like if you were to attack somebody in their home
00:52:28
and you grab a kitchen knife out of their kitchen Block in their kitchen and use it at the scene so it seems to me
00:52:36
that it might be like more likely than it did belong to Brad and we do have Don saying that he believed that it was
00:52:41
Brad's belt but again it looks like there was a an effort there to find out otherwise so
00:52:48
maybe police have some information that they've just not released and maybe they
00:52:53
know better on this belt now unfortunately captain as we've had to say Brad was not the
00:53:03
first Boardman boy to be murdered nor the last in this week's Story the first was 15 year old Thomas bard
00:53:11
the Boardman youth was found having been spotted by a police cruiser late at night
00:53:18
it was found slumped over on the ground with severe head injuries inflicted police believe this was inflicted by a
00:53:27
blunt object due to the severity of his injuries police were unable to question him
00:53:34
Thomas Bard was found December 4th 1970. and when he was found he was in serious
00:53:41
condition and placed in intensive care at the hospital where he died some days later
00:53:47
never regaining consciousness you know I want to thank you all for joining us here in the garage and letting us bring
00:54:08
some true crime into your ear balls join us back here in the garage tomorrow for
00:54:15
more True Crime and until then be good be kind and don't let it foreign [Music]