August 10, 1990 was a hot summer night, in Dickinson, Texas. Eight-year-old Jennifer Schuett was afraid of the dark, so she crawled in bed with her mother. Her mother, Elaine, had a big day of work the next day. Jennifer told her, “Because I love you, I’m going to sleep in my own bed tonight.” Jennifer Schuett had just finished 2nd grade. When Elaine goes to wake up her daughter the next morning, she’s gone... Someone came through the bedroom window in the middle of the night and abducted her. Jennifer was taken to a field, raped and her throat was slit, cutting her voice box. She was unable to speak or even move after the assault. Jennifer would be unable to have a normal birth as a result of the damage she experienced during the assault. Children playing, find Jennifer’s body in the field the next day. She had been lying on an ant mound in the wilderness for 14 hours and had ant bites all over her body. Even though she is unable to speak, at the hospital Jennifer does everything she can to help identify the man who assaulted her. Jennifer helped create the sketch of her attacker. To the left is a picture of what her attacker, Dennis Bradford, actually looked like at the time. To the right is the description Jennifer helped create at age 8, without speaking, with the sketch artist. Jennifer described his car exactly, including the dent in the door. She wrote down his first name, and identified his brand of cigarettes. Still, the crime will go unsolved for 19 years. One year later, in 1991, Dennis Bradford met an 18-year-old Lisa when he was 21 years old. They met in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and went on to marry just 6 months after their first meeting. They had a son and a daughter together. Ultimately, his binge drinking cost him his marriage. Lisa and Dennis Bradford One April night in 1996, Dennis Bradford was in a Hot Springs, Arkansas, bar called Gator’s. He asked a woman if he could buy her a drink. She said, “no.” Bradford went back a little later and asked the woman to play pool with him. She said “no.” After some time had passed, he asked the woman again to play pool and this time, she said “yes.” During the game, Bradford bought her a few drinks. After the last call, Bradford offered the woman a ride. She went with him. He took her “the long way, as there was a song he wanted her to hear. Bradford turned onto a back road, stopped the car, and attacked her, choking and punching her. She started to lose consciousness as he dragged her from the car. When she woke up, she was naked, her clothes scattered in a field. Bradford told her not to move. He ran to his car and returned with a knife. With the knife to the woman’s throat, the woman testified, Bradford raped her. Hot Springs, Arkansas In 1996, Bradford was charged with attempted first-degree murder. Prosecutors reduced the charge before the trial to one count of kidnapping and one count of rape. “As to the kidnapping charge,” Court of Appeals Judge Sam Bird wrote in an unpublished opinion dated Dec. 3, 1997, “the defendant alleged that the state had not proven its case because the restraint on the victim’s liberty was no more than was necessary to commit the offense of rape.” A jury deadlocked on the rape charge but convicted Bradford of kidnapping. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to provide a DNA sample. The sample was placed into the CODIS system. Bradford served less than three years in prison. He entered the Arkansas corrections department’s custody on March 6, 1997, and was released on parole Feb. 4, 2000. Bradford moved to North Little Rock. On November 8, 2001, North Little Rock police arrested Bradford and charged him with Driving While Intoxicated less than a half-mile from his house on Okmulgee Court. North Little Rock In 2004, in Pulaski County, Dennis Bradford married Elizabeth Webber and settled in North Little Rock. Webber has three grown children. A search of records from local agencies showed no other arrests before his parole expired April 3, 2008. On September 10, 2009, Bradford and a 19-year-old woman were found alone in a car on a dead-end street called Calm Lane by a Pulaski County sheriff ’s deputy. “This is an area that is known for prostitution,” sheriff’s office Lt. Cody Burk said. Bradford told Deputy Jeremy Fairchild that he’d picked up the woman at a Hess gas station and agreed to pay $20 for oral sex. The sheriff’s office charged him with patronizing a prostitute. Calm Lane Bradford’s Indian Hills neighbors say the accusations against him seem out of character. “To read the allegations, if you put those together, it doesn’t add up to the guy who lived across the street,” said Bill Muehsam, a neighbor for nearly 6 years. He didn’t have any reservations about Bradford at the time. “He was a friendly neighborhood guy,” he said. “He helped me move in, carried in boxes like another neighbor.” Jennifer Schuett is a hero! Jennifer believes that she got her voice back so she could tell her story. Jennifer remained in contact with the investigators over the years as she wanted the case solved. Houston FBI Special Agent Richard Rennison and Dickinson Police Detective Tim Cromie were discussing the case when Rennison received a memo from the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team, seeking child abduction cases that had gone cold and could be retested for DNA evidence. Jennifer’s case was selected. "This is the only one that I can think of that the victim has suffered some traumatic injuries and survived," Rennison said. "The main reason the CARD team picked this case was because she was alive. In cases of child abduction, it is rare that the child is recovered alive. Frequently, you recover a body. And most times, you never find them." The FBI created the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team in 2005. Christina Bedford, FBI Special Agent and CARD Supervisor. The investigators had DNA evidence on the underwear and pajamas collected 19 years ago, which was now retested. In 1990, the sample wasn't large enough for conclusive results. But new techniques allow DNA to be isolated from a single human cell. The DNA test had a match in the CODIS system—Dennis Bradford—a 40-year-old welder from North Little Rock, Arkansas. When presented with the evidence, Dennis Bradford confessed to kidnapping, raping and trying to kill Jennifer, in 1990. Dennis was surprised Jennifer was still alive and with a voice cracking with emotion, stated, “There is not a day that goes by, not a single day, that I don’t see that baby.” He summed up the offense: “I pulled that little girl from her window. She was freaking out. She was crying for her mother. I told her everything would be all right. I took that little girl out and raped her, and I cut her throat.” Jennifer at 8, recovering in the hospital. Field in Dickinson, Texas Jennifer continues the story. “I remember him dragging me through this field by my ankles. Apparently, he had choked me unconscious. Raped me. And then he slit my throat ear to ear and left me in this field to die.” Naked, lying on top of a fire-ant nest. Her voice box was severed, so when she tried to scream no sound came out. As a result of the trauma to her body, she couldn’t speak, and she couldn’t move. She had enough strength to place her hand on her neck, and felt the gaping wound. With her severed throat, not speaking and not moving may have saved her life. After his arrest for Jennifer’s rape and attempted murder in 2009, Dennis killed himself while in Galveston County Jail. He hung himself in his jail cell in May 2010. Jennifer had written a victim impact statement that she intended to read in court. Instead, she read it over Bradford’s grave. “You chose the wrong little, 45-pound, 8-year-old girl to try to murder. Because for 19 years, I’ve thought about you every single day, and helped search for you. And every year that passes has given me more strength and drive for when I finally would be face to face with you, as I am today.” Jennifer wanted, “To show him that he didn’t win, and that I’m a strong survivor…, And to show him how strong I am and to show victims that no matter what obstacles you come across or how long you have to wait, that as long as you’re strong and determined you can get the justice you want.” Jennifer Schuett read her victim impact statement on Dennis’s grave 20 years after the day she was abducted. Jennifer has been using her story to help other survivors. She travels the country to share her experience and is outspoken about what happened to her. The assault on Jennifer affected her in more than one way. She was infertile because of the attack but a Texas doctor donated his services for her in-vitro treatment twice. Jennifer has been married to Jonathan Martinez since May 2014 and they live in League City, Texas. They have two children together. Jonathan & Jennifer ~~~~~~~ Wishing you the very best! Thanks for listening! Frank I would like to thank everyone for the great turnout at Shoppes of Little Falls, Roundhouse Brewery in Nisswa, Beaver Island in St. Cloud and CatTales Books & Gifts in Brainerd. All exceeded expectations and I’m very grateful. I’m still looking for events, so let me know your suggestions… I've got hops! Cascade hops from Washington. My retirement plan: 2 years from now I'll be able to wet hop malt beverages. Frank speaking to a packed crowd at Beaver Island Brewery. The brewery featured Muggsy’s coffee lager for the event. If you remember, Last Call starts out with Jon Frederick drinking a glass of Muggsy’s at Beaver Island Brewery.
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AuthorFrank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist specializing in homicide and sexual and physical assault cases. He uses his unique understanding of how predator’s think, knowledge of victim trauma, actual court cases, and passion for writing true crime thrillers. His Award Winning books include "Murder Book" (2017) "The I-94 Murders" (2018) "Last Call" (2019) and "Lying Close" (September 2020). Archives
April 2024
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