State Police Say News Report Could Reopen Murder Investigation

Photos of some of Bradford's alleged, possible, and confirmed murder victims sat in an LA County Sheriff evidence locker for decades.

Police are trying to identify a number of women who could have potentially been victims of Bradford

(PORTLAND) - As a result of media reports this week regarding San Quentin death row inmate William Richard Bradford, the Oregon State Police Homicide Investigation Tracking System (HITS) researched the database to determine if there are any crimes in Oregon that may be similar in characteristics.

Portland's KATU Channel-2 News reported this week that Bradford lived in Oregon during the same time period that the murders were committed. Photos of 54 women taken by Bradford who posed as a freelance photographer have been unearthed from an evidence locker in Southern California.

Sergeant Steve Duvall with Oregon State Police, says that since Bradford's victim was a female and the cause of death was strangulation, the HITS database inquiry identified 5 possible cases in Oregon between 1977 and 1984 with similar characteristics to those crimes attributed to Bradford.

The originating Oregon agencies were contacted and advised of the similarity of their case with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office case, Duvall said.

After a more detailed review, four of the five cases have been eliminated from consideration. The remaining case involved a 1980 death investigation conducted by Oregon State Police.

"This case will be reviewed further to determine if there is additional information that would warrant Oregon State Police to contact investigators in Los Angeles." Duvall says no detailed information regarding this case will be released pending further review.

The Oregon HITS database was established in 1991. It is a cooperative project between law enforcement in Oregon and Washington; a violent crimes investigation system that serves as a support to the field investigators involved in major crimes.

The HITS unit enters data from homicides throughout Oregon, stranger to victim sex assaults and violent crimes into the databases. This information is used to compare information to other crimes with similar methods of operations, to link crimes, or to identify unknown assailants.

The Oregon State Police HITS unit does not release any information regarding cases other than to the originating agency, coordinating communication between police agencies if the originating agency believes there is sufficient similarities to further investigate a suspect related to their case.

The Associated Press reports that this case could actually lead outside California and Oregon. Bradford has spent time in Illinois, Texas, Florida, Michigan, and elsewhere.

"We could have victims theoretically all over the country," said sheriff's Capt. Ray Peavy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff.

One woman, shown on the left, was identified as 31-year old Donnalee Campbell Duhamel, whose decapitated body was found in a Malibu canyon in 1978 a few days after meeting Bradford at a bar, Peavy said.

"What we have here is a very large group of pictures of women that we do not know for the most part who they are," Peavy said. Some were Bradford's wives and ex-wives, but the majority are unknown to authorities.

Photos of the women photographed by Bradford can be viewed on this link at lacountymurders.com: http://lacountymurders.com/wanted/LADIES1.html

As of July 27th, there are 2,410 homicides entered in the Oregon HITS database. Of those:

* 2,013 cases are resolved * 397 cases remain open and unsolved (128 are unsolved cases involved female victims)

There are also 5,295 other violent crimes, including predatory or violent sexual offenses, entered into the database.

Oregon Revised Statute 181.580 requires any criminal justice agency within the State of Oregon to provide information relating to any suspected criminal homicide (solved or unsolved) to the HITS unit.