PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The body of a teenage girl found dismembered 26 years ago in Massachusetts has finally been identified as a missing girl from Allentown, Pennsylvania, who authorities said was trafficked to Boston.
Tiffany Bradley, then 16, was reported missing by her family on Nov. 8, 2000. Her last conversation was over the phone with a favorite cousin, and it was cut short.
“With her voice trembling, saying, ‘I’ll call you later, I have to go.’ That call never came and was replaced with 26 years of waiting, wondering why.”
Five days later, on Nov. 13, officers in Chelsea, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, found the body of an unknown female in the parking lot of a home for veterans. It had been cut in half, and the hands and head were missing.
Kevin Hayden, district attorney of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, said it took investigators less than a year to identify the killer: A man named Eugene McCollom.
McCollum admitted to murdering a girl at his apartment and dumping her body at the veterans’ home. But it took 26 years to identify the victim as Bradley.
In April of this year, using advances in DNA technology, a match for the remains was found through Bradley’s brother, who lives in Texas.
It is, in some ways, cathartic for Bradley’s family, who still hold fond memories of her.
Janet Bradley-Knight said Bradley spent her early childhood drawing, cheerleading and dancing. As a junior in high school in Allentown, she played basketball and was in ROTC.
“She was tiny, but mighty. Always taking one for the team. Trying to keep up with children many times her size,” Bradley-Knight said.
16-year-old Tiffany Bradley was reported missing on Nov. 8, 2000
16-year-old Tiffany Bradley was reported missing on Nov. 8, 2000
