Father of Missing Girl Criticizes Law Officials

The father of missing Laura Bradbury accused San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials Friday of deciding without “solid conclusive evidence of any kind” that bones found in the Joshua Tree National Monument were the remains of his daughter.

The Bradbury family “has suffered extreme mental anguish” because of the remarks, he said in a statement released to the press.

Mike Bradbury said the family is “aware of everything that has transpired. There is no solid conclusive evidence of any kind to indicate that the skullcap (bone fragment) has anything to do with Laura’s kidnaping.”

“Our big concern is that an individual with an apparent disregard for solid evidential material has taken it upon himself to be the judge and jury in a forensic matter with which he has no apparent knowledge or expertise and in the process has jeopardized the integrity of his own investigation,” the statement said.

Apparent Reference

While never identifying the source of the remarks that irritated him, Bradbury apparently was referring to Capt. Gene Bowlin, who has headed the investigation into 3-year-old Laura’s October, 1984, disappearance from a campground in Joshua Tree. Bowlin was quoted in published reports earlier this week as saying that he believed the skullcap and other bone fragments found a week ago in the vicinity of Laura’s disappearance probably came from the missing girl.

Bowlin was not available for comment Friday, but Sheriff’s Sgt. Allen White said that “at no time did anyone say that the skullcap belonged to Laura. . . . “

But because of the age of the bones and the area in which they were found, White said, authorities cannot overlook the “possibility” that the bones are those of the Huntington Beach youngster.

White said that the case is not closed. A search team of 400 will comb an area of the Indian Cove campground, where the bone fragments were found, today to look for additional clues, he said.

The search “indicates we have not put anything to rest,” White said. Half of the crew probing the area will be sheriff’s officials and volunteer members of the county search and rescue team, and the rest will be provided by the Marine Corps base at Twentynine Palms, he said.

Few Conclusions

An anthropologist from California State University, Fullerton, was able to draw few conclusions this week from the bone fragments that were found. Judy Suchey was able to determine that the fragments were from a child between the ages of 2 and 5 years old who has been dead for less than two years, but she was unable to determine the sex and race.

At a press conference Friday on the Cal State Fullerton campus, Suchey reiterated that even if she had been given a complete skeleton, she could not have deduced the sex and probably not even the race, since such distinguishing characteristics are never well developed in young children.

She said that unless there had been some distinguishing injury such as a skull fracture, there would be no way to determine a child’s identity by skeletal remains.

Hope for More Evidence

Sheriff’s officials are “hoping to find additional evidence” in the form of bones, clothing “or anything else they can come up with,” said Sgt. Bill Holloway.