SEATTLE — A Washington state man in jail awaiting trial in a murder case has been charged with three more murders, and prosecutors say he lured all four victims by asking them to help dig them up of buried gold.
Richard Bradley Jr., 40, was charged in May 2021 with first-degree murder in the death of 44-year-old Brandi Blake, whose body was found buried in a sprawling park in the city of Auburn, Washington. In the past two weeks, prosecutors have filed three more murder charges against Bradley, The Seattle Times reports, in connection with the May 2021 shooting deaths of a father and adult son and the 2019 death of a man whose remains were found at Blake's grave.
Bradley's attorney, Peter Geisness, did not immediately return voice and email messages Saturday. Bradley will go on trial next month for Blake's death. According to online court records, he has not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea on the other murder charges.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Thomas O'Ban II wrote in court documents that Bradley is accused of using the same scheme in each of the deaths — allegedly telling the victims he needed their help in unearthing a stash of stolen gold, would take them to a wooded area and kill them before stealing their vehicles and all the belongings inside.
Documents show Emilio Maturin was 36 when he was last seen alive in July 2019. His girlfriend reported him missing two weeks later.
According to court documents, she told detectives that she heard Bradley tell Maturin that “he needed help digging up some buried gold in Auburn.” Maturin was skeptical at first, she told investigators, but reportedly went along anyway. According to court documents, he carried large amounts of cash when he left the house, and he had about $15,000 in cash when he left that day in his recently purchased BMW.
The girlfriend tracked Maturin's cellphone to Game Farm Park in Auburn and went to look for him, but became scared and left, according to charging documents.
Several hours later, Auburn police found an unregistered BMW parked near a large field in the park waiting for the driver to return. When they tried to stop the driver, the car took off. Bradley was arrested after a car and foot chase and charged with eluding police, according to charging documents.
Michael Goeman, 59, and his son Vance Lakey, 31, were shot to death in March 2021 and their bodies were found on an unmaintained road not far from the park. Goeman received a large inheritance shortly before he and his son were murdered, court documents show.
Bradley was considered a person of interest in the deaths at the time. He was charged with second-degree arson in May after prosecutors said he offered a man $1,000 to set fire to the father and son's seized SUV. On Thursday, prosecutors added two counts of second-degree murder.
Blake went missing in early May 2021. She had won $20,000 at a casino and, like Maturin, was known to have large amounts of cash on her, court documents show. Investigators found her body later that month in a shallow grave in the park — as well as three human ribs about 30 feet away.
Bradley was charged that same month with the murder of Blake, who died from blunt force injuries. The ribs were later linked to Maturin via DNA, and Bradley was charged with murder following Maturin's death on December 5 this year.