Authorities in Auburn, Washington have charged 40-year-old Richard W. Bradley Jr. with the murders of four victims, alleging that he lured them into the woods under the guise of unearthing buried gold before killing them. Investigators believe that Bradley committed the alleged serial killings between 2019 and 2021 in the Auburn area, about 30 miles south of downtown Seattle. The first arrest of Bradley came in May 2021, when he was charged in connection to the death of Brandi Blake, whose body was found in Game Farm Park in Auburn.
Prosecutors have since filed three additional murder charges against Bradley, claiming that he used the same ruse to lure each of his victims into isolated wooded areas before killing them and burying their bodies deep in the parks. Witnesses reported seeing Bradley driving the victims’ vehicles after their disappearances, according to a probable cause affidavit signed by a King County Sheriff’s detective.
The first suspected murder occurred in July 2019 after the disappearance of Emilio Raul Maturin, who was last heard discussing a plan with Bradley to uncover buried gold. Two others, father and son Michael Goeman, 59, and Vance Lakey, 31, were lured in March 2021 to a different wooded area in Auburn, where their bodies were later found. All of the victims had large sums of money either on them or in their names when they were killed, according to prosecutors.
Bradley faces life in prison if convicted on the charges. He has entered a plea of not guilty and is being held in jail without bail as he awaits the resolution of his case. This case has brought shock and concern to the community as they grapple with the gruesome nature of the alleged crimes and the startling manipulation used by the accused to carry out the killings.