Loading summary
Transcript73 lines
- [00:00]
Grow Therapy Advertiser
If you're feeling bogged down by the impossible expectations or the noise of New Year, New Me, take a second to pause. Growtherapy gives you space to slow down, check in, and start the new year from a more grounded place. Whether it's your first time in therapy or your 50th, grow makes it easier to find a therapist who fits you, not the other way around. They connect you with thousands of independent licensed therapists across the US Offering both virtual and in person sessions, nights and weekends. You can search by what matters like insurance, specialty, identity or availability and get started in as little as two days. And if something comes up, you can Cancel up to 24 hours in advance at no cost. There are no subscriptions, no long term commitments. You just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time. Whatever challenges you're facing, Grow Therapy is here to help. Grow accepts over 100 insurance plans, including Medicaid in some states. Some sessions average about $21 with insurance and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan. Visit growththerapy.com booknow today to get started. That's growththerapy.com booknow growththerapy.com booknow availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.
- [01:15]
Mike Ferguson
Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised it.
- [01:53]
Mike Morford
Hello everyone and welcome to episode 393 of the Criminology Podcast.
- [01:57]
Mike Ferguson
I'm Mike Ferguson and this is Mike Morford.
- [02:01]
Mike Morford
Mr. Morford, how you doing, buddy?
- [02:03]
Mike Ferguson
I'm doing pretty good. I was doing a little bit of some flag football plays for my coaching gig. I do some flag football for my son and our team's off to one and o start, so I got to keep rolling and I'm concentrating on that when I'm not doing podcast.
- [02:18]
Mike Morford
Hey, you got to win, man. You might get fired.
- [02:22]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, I don't want, I don't want to be replaced on my, on my son's team, so that would be bad.
- [02:28]
Mike Morford
Well, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. We had Amy Urban jump out at our highest level. Dwayne and Amber Hoff jump out at our highest level as well. So that's some great new support. We really appreciate it.
- [02:41]
Mike Ferguson
Thank you so much for that support. It really goes a long way to helping us put the show out. And if anyone else wants to sign up, head over to patreon.com criminology all.
- [02:50]
Mike Morford
Right, we're diving in. And this week we're discussing a puzzling disappearance of not one but two Little girls, sisters. Despite a large scale investigation and a massive manhunt, these two little girls were never found over a 25 year period. But some people believe that the answers have been staring investigators in the face all this time. We're talking about the case of diamond and tianda Bradley, sisters.
- [03:19]
Mike Ferguson
3 year old diamond and 10 year old Tionda were reported missing on the evening of July 6, 2001 when one of their aunts called 91 1. At the time, the family was living in an apartment on the south side of Chicago. Their mother, Tracy Bradley had four children. 12 year old Rita, 10 year old Tionda, 9 year old Victoria and 3 year old Diamond. On July 6, Rita and Victoria were at their grandmother's house and diamond and Tionda were at home alone that day. Tracy had left them home alone while she went to work. According to her, she left that morning at about 6:30 and she returned home to find the house empty just before noon. It was at that time that Tracy made a decision that would come to haunt this case. She was worried she'd get in trouble so she didn't call police to tell them her young daughters were gone.
- [04:09]
Mike Morford
According to Tracy, she panicked. And even before she knew her girls were gone, leaving them home alone at those ages would come to raise a lot of questions about her parenting. We mentioned Tracy was worried she'd get in trouble. Not only could she find herself having to pay fines, forced to take parenting classes or serve some jail time, she had two other children and she didn't want to see them end up in the custody of Child Protective Services. She weighed all of these things and decided it was best to try and find the girls on her own. But when her efforts came up empty, she had no choice but to call police and get them involved. And Tracy's choices would have major and far reaching effects. And as you said, morph, I mean this is according to Tracy. Right. She's the one who is telling the authorities what happened. So you have to keep that in mind. But I can see where someone would be worried leaving a 10 year old and a 3 year old home. I think a lot of people would raise an issue with that. Now some people might say, okay, a 10 year old can take care of a three year old. I don't see it that way. But I wouldn't have done it with my kids. But that doesn't mean, you know, I'm the one who's right and somebody else is wrong.
- [05:36]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah. When we were researching this case, I went back to just try and replay in my memory what age I was when I first stayed home by myself after school. And I want to say it was maybe 12, 13, but I didn't have any young siblings that I was looking out for either. So I think that plays into it. So I guess it comes down to each individual situation, each parent, what they believe to be the best. But you know, it's no doubt that Tracy did get some, some questions and some ridicule about this.
- [06:10]
Mike Morford
And then like I said, we have to factor in, is she telling the complete truth? Because that's something that, you know, people have brought up in this case.
- [06:19]
Mike Ferguson
With an investigation that spanned decades, many details have changed over time. The official original story has always been that diamond and Tiona were last seen around 6:30 in the morning on July 6th as Tracy headed out to work. According to Tracy, it was just a normal morning and as always, she told Tionda not to open the door or let anyone in under any circumstances until she got back. This was something she did every morning to try and keep her girl safe while she went to work. Tracy worked nearby at Robert Taylor Park. She helped get breakfast and lunch ready for the summer school program there, so she only worked for a few hours each morning. Between 8 and 9 that morning, Tracy had a break at work and called home multiple times, but there was no answer. Tracy also called her mom and asked her to keep calling, but her mom didn't get an answer either. For whatever reason, no one checked on the girls in person. When Tracy got back from work at around 11am, the girls were gone. Inside the apartment, there was a note written by Tionda that said the two were going to play at a nearby school and stop at a store.
- [07:25]
Mike Morford
Despite Tracy having called home multiple times and asking her mom to call as well to check on the girls, she wasn't immediately frantic about them not being home, likely due to the note they had left. There was no time on it, but it did indicate that they were fine when they left and that they would be back when they were done playing. Tracy likely thought to herself that kids can easily lose track of time when they're having fun. And it was still the middle of the day. The sun was up, other kids were outside. James Doolittle Academy, the school Tionda attended that year, was right across the street from the Lake Grove Village Apartments where the Bradleys lived. Plus, the door had been locked when she arrived and everything looked normal. Inside the apartment. Tracy and her boyfriend, a man named George Washington, decided to go to the store. It was Tracy's nine year old daughter Victoria's birthday the next day. So they picked up a cake from the Jewel grocery store a few blocks away from the complex. They completed their purchase at 12:21pm When.
- [08:32]
Mike Ferguson
Tracy and George returned from the store, the girls were still gone. And it seems that's when Tracy began to worry. So the search began. She started talking to neighbors and looking around the complex and calling family members. No one had seen the girls and no one could find them. During this time, George didn't stick around to help Tracy look for the girls. He left, but he didn't go home. George, who was actually married at the time and was having an affair with Tracy, went to see yet another one of his girlfriends. So Tracy was on her own looking for her daughters. Finally, at 7pm with no luck finding them, diamond and Tiana were reported missing to police and more if we just.
- [09:12]
Mike Morford
Talked about, you know, what would we have done in that situation? That's a hard thing to do, right? You have a single mother who maybe most likely does not have access to childcare on a daily basis. So it's difficult to point the finger, although many people have. I think you and I can say what we would have done, but we may not be in her position. But I can tell you this, if I get home and I got a 10 year old and a 3 year old out on their own, I'm going to be worried at that point. Very worried.
- [09:51]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, I'm right there with you. I remember when I was that age, you know, 9, 10 years old, I would go out to play, but we had a small street with a dead end and everybody sort of played in the middle of the street. And you know, if, if your grandma called out to you, hey, it's time for dinner, you could hear because it was literally within a stone's throw of the house. Here we're talking about a big city, we're talking about Chicago. And it's a little bit different to me. You know, in my thinking, you go out there, I mean, you're going out into a giant world. So I would not be happy if my young children went out into that situation.
- [10:31]
Mike Morford
When I think this is what a lot of people point to online, going to the store, going to buy this cake instead of immediately trying to find the girls. Again, I don't want to throw stones. I'm just saying this is what a lot of people point to and say, or at least ask the question, does that make sense? The relationship between the Bradleys, their neighbors and law enforcement was complicated by a very long history. Diamond and Tionda and All of their family members are black. We know that historically, missing cases involving black people, including children, have been taken less seriously by authorities. And it's been proven in some cases that enforcement of laws has been selective and unfair to minorities. There may have been a distrust of authorities behind some of these behaviors that some people see as shady or, you know, something illogical. And I think that's, you know, something very important to point out. Waiting to call the police when you're children, especially your toddler, is missing certainly seems suspicious, and it's not what a lot of people might do if faced with the same situation. But the potential trauma of calling in law enforcement, bringing them into your community and into her home, and Tracy's situation could make someone think twice. Now add to that Tracy's worries that she, a single black mother, might get in trouble for leaving the girls alone, it's possible to have a little bit more of an understanding why she may have made some of the decisions that she did.
- [12:23]
Mike Ferguson
Thankfully, it seems the police took the girl's disappearance seriously very early on, and they immediately jumped into action to try and find them. There was a large ground search since Lake Michigan was just blocks away, and there were multiple wooded areas nearby. About 100 convicted sex offenders living in the area were interviewed. But authorities never treated the apartment unit or the complex like a crime scene. People were free to come and go from it, and later some people would be critical of that. The building they lived in had multiple doors, all of which were unlocked or propped open for convenience. The side and back doors were closer to some units, and it was a hassle having to go all the way around to the front. While the apartment building did have some surveillance cameras, they were pushed out of position at some point in the past, so they didn't actually capture anything of value. This isn't believed to be related to the disappearance, and it was thought to be done by other residents who may have been involved in illegal things like drug dealing. Yet another frustrating case where cameras could have helped but were completely useless. This opened up the possibility that if the girls were actually taken from the apartment, it could have been by anyone at all. A fellow complex resident or someone that walked in off the street.
- [13:36]
Mike Morford
Most family members that were questioned agreed that Tionda would have never opened the door for someone she didn't know and trust. In an interview with Dateline, the girl's great aunt, Sheila Bradley, was clear that she suspected someone close to the girl, saying, this is not a case of stranger danger. Tionda has been described as a responsible person who was pretty safety aware for a child her age. For example, she had multiple important phone numbers memorized and knew that if she was home alone, she should never answer the phone and inform the caller that her mother was out. Instead, if necessary, she knew to lie and say that Tracy was in the shower and would get back to them soon. Tianda even knew how to cook for herself and her siblings.
- [14:25]
Mike Ferguson
It seems to me like Tianda was responsible for her age and she even knew about, you know, safety things that you tell your kids. So you know, the aunt here saying that she wouldn't open up the door to a stranger and this isn't a case of stranger danger. I think that's pretty important because, you know, if she, if Tiana is aware that she needs to protect herself and stay away from strangers, maybe, maybe that is a clue that whoever is responsible for their disappearance is someone that she knew.
- [14:59]
Mike Morford
And I assume, Morth, that Tianda was mature beyond her 10 years of age because she was asked to do some things that most 10 year olds don't have to do, right? Take care of your three year old sister, be home essentially by yourself for periods of time. Now, granted, she had other sisters, right, who just weren't there that day, but still, I think in that situation, you would grow up quicker than other kids your age.
- [15:36]
Mike Ferguson
Sneaking out has been described as uncharacteristic of Tianda, though. If she had snuck out before or not been caught, how would anyone know? Tracy's other daughters find it odd that Tianda would have left a note at all. They all knew their mom's phone number and would just call her when they had to tell her something. So Tianda leaving a note didn't sit right with some people. We do know that a note exists. It was taken into evidence, but what it says exactly word for word has never been revealed to the public. A handwriting analysis found that the note was likely written by Tionda. But most of the family seem to believe that while Tionda may have written the note, she did so at the request of whoever took her and her younger sister. They believe that the same person told her exactly what to write and how to spell it. Tionda's great aunt Sheila told OprahDaily.com that she believes that there are certain words in the note that she didn't know how to properly spell and that the way Tiana spoke, her grammar didn't line up with the grammar in the note.
- [16:35]
Mike Morford
If someone forced Tionda to write the note, it seems like there are a couple of reasons to do that. If the Person thought that that's what the girls would normally do, not knowing that they would usually just call their mother. They could have been trying to buy more time before it was discovered that something had happened to Tianda and Diamond, or trying to push back the time that they would have to be reported missing. But in this scenario, if Tianda didn't usually write notes and someone forced her to, it could point away from someone that knew her well. Someone forcing her to write that note could have also been an attempt to point police away from the apartment, instead sending them out to the big city of Chicago, perhaps making it seem like anything nefarious that happened to the girls happened outside of the apartment or of the complex.
- [17:32]
Mike Ferguson
A lot of people assume that the two girls who weren't at the apartment that day were. Were the two oldest girls and that they must have a different father than diamond and Tianda did and that they were with their father's mother. Some families are like this and won't take the half siblings for visitations where others do. And it's true that there were different fathers. Some reports say that all four of the girls had different fathers, But Rita and Victoria weren't even the oldest two, and they were with Tracy's mother. Rita and Tianda were the oldest two. Tracy's longtime boyfriend, George, was Diamond's father, though he denied it then and would continue to deny it after she disappeared. Tracy claims that George lied to her and told her that he couldn't have children because he had a vasectomy, which is part of why he was so adamant that diamond couldn't be his. A paternity test, though requested by Tracy through the courts, proved that diamond was his biological daughter. The results weren't in until three weeks after the girls disappeared. Whether his vasectomy wasn't successful or he just lied about it and thought there would be no consequences, Tracy had his child, and he was never very happy about that for multiple reasons.
- [18:40]
Mike Morford
So as the man in Tracy's life at the time the girls vanished, and being Diamond's father, obviously, police had to look closely at George Washington. As we mentioned, he was still married when diamond was born. One of the weirdest parts about their relationship is that diamond was named after George's wife. Tracy did choose that name for her daughter intentionally. Tracy claimed that George had asked her to go camping about a week before the disappearance. Camping in Chicago sounds pretty suspicious to some, but they were supposedly headed to Lake Shaffer in Indiana. Tracy's mother should have been able to take all four girls for a one Night sleepover. But the story that Rita and Victoria remember being told was that they were all going to go camping. They were just going to go in two groups. Apparently, Tracy and George were going to take diamond and Tionda camping first, and they were leaving right after Tracy got home from work. So dropping the other two girls off the day before was easiest. Diamond and Tianda would go one weekend and then the next, Rita and Victoria would get to go camping while diamond and Tianda stayed with their grandmother. There's no real explanation ever given for only taking half the children at once. Hi, I'm Chris Gethard, and I'm very excited to tell you about Beautiful Anonymous, a podcast where I talk to random.
- [20:11]
Grow Therapy Advertiser
People on the phone, I tweet out a phone number, thousands of people try to call.
- [20:14]
Mike Morford
You talk to one of them, they stay anonymous. I can't hang up. That's all the rules. I never know what's gonna happen. We get serious ones. I've talked with meth dealers on their way to prison. I've talked to people who survived mass shootings, crazy funny ones. I talked to a guy with a goose laugh, somebody who dresses up as a pirate on the weekends. I never know what's gonna happen. It's a great show. Subscribe today. Beautiful Anonymous. So, Morph, there's a couple of things here that jump out at me. You know, George is gonna be looked at. He's the. The person in Tracy's life at the time when diamond and Tiana go missing. But I think, you know, he probably goes higher on the radar once authorities learn, you know, that, number one, he's married, and then, you know, two, diamond is his daughter. But he had been denying it. I mean, there's some motives that kind of jump out at you here.
- [21:14]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, to me, that timing really is interesting too. The fact that they go missing the day they're supposed to have this camping trip, and the camping trip was planned leading up to this. So, you know, it makes me wonder at least, and I'm sure it makes other people wonder too. Is there something to that, to where the camping trip might have been if something was going to be done to these girls and it was pre planned, Maybe it was supposed to happen on the camping trip, but for whatever reason happened before just jumps out to me, that, that timing.
- [21:51]
Mike Morford
Yeah, there's a lot of strange things going on in this case.
- [21:56]
Mike Ferguson
This two separate group camping story didn't sit right with some people because even if you could only take two girls at one time, why would you take Tionda, who had Summer school and not Victoria, who could celebrate her birthday camping. In fact, the way the timing was supposedly working out, Victoria wouldn't be with her mother or two of her sisters during her birthday, which has stood out to some people. Now, maybe depending on the tent size, that could affect how many people you would take, say, if they only had a three person tent and it would have been too crowded if they all went. Even then though, why not take the birthday girl on the first run of camping as a gift to her? Especially because taking Tianda instead of Victoria meant to miss summer school.
- [22:39]
Mike Morford
So no doubt, right? A lot of people have questions and suspicions surrounding this whole camping trip. No reservations or anything of that sort have ever been confirmed in this case. This would have been on the fourth of July weekend. And everybody knows that's a very busy weekend. And you would have an extremely hard time finding a campsite without some type of planning ahead. Unless they were just going to find a random spot in the woods someplace and not use the official campground in Lake Shaffer. But it does seem as though, at least as far as what Tracy has said, there was a plan to go camping. She has stated that she purchased camping supplies, including a tent. Some people doubt Tracy's claims though, because the day her daughters vanished, she needed to borrow $20 to pay for a cake at the Jewel grocery store. The question that has been asked is if she didn't have money to buy that cake and had to borrow it, how did she have the money to to buy the camping supplies? And I understand why that question is asked. It's because people are suspicious. But okay, you can make an argument that she had spent all her money on the camping supplies and didn't have enough left over to buy the cake and that's why she had to borrow the money. I think more of in these types of cases though, you have to analyze everything, all the claims, all the questions that come up.
- [24:21]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, camping supplies can be very expensive, depending on how much you get and what kind and that kind of stuff. But, you know, it sort of makes me kind of ask questions too because, you know, I can see her using up all her money to buy the camping supplies and needing the money for this cake to borrow it. But then how is she going to go on this trip? Don't you need gas money and money for food and whatever else you're going to bring with you? It seems like the money could still be an issue. Unless maybe George had money of his own. We don't know all the details about that. Maybe he was going to pay for this stuff. But I can see how some people would say, how are you going on a camping trip when you don't really have any money to get anywhere, Right?
- [25:04]
Mike Morford
I mean, all valid questions. Now there could be, I think, as in a lot of situations, very innocent explanations for some of the questions. Or it could be that things don't make sense because it's not what really happened.
- [25:25]
Mike Ferguson
If the entire camping trip I did didn't seem suspicious enough. The day after the girls disappeared, George Washington bought a few concerning items at a local Home Depot. Two pairs of gloves and a box of contractors trash bags, the large, sturdy kind. The receipt for these items was still in his home when it was searched by police. Only one pair of gloves was found during that search, and the box of trash bags had five missing from the total on the box. George claimed to have done some home renovation, which officers saw no sign of inside the home and said that he dumped the bags in the dumpster in Washington Park. By the time investigators got to the dumpster to check it out, it had been dumped. The contents were already at a landfill. Questioning of George's neighbors also revealed some worrisome details. Multiple neighbors reported that he used a barrel to burn something in his garage. George denied owning or using any kind of burn barrel, but there was evidence of a fire in his garage. The rafters were covered with soot. When the trunk of his car was searched, George there was evidence that something large and heavy shaped like a barrel had once been stored inside.
- [26:36]
Mike Morford
So you have this whole odd camping story, then you have evidence George bought these supplies at Home Depot and then burned something in his garage and lied about it all. None of that looks great, but why would George or the combination of George and Tracy harm diamond and Tionda or cover it up? One theory is that George was angry that diamond was his daughter and wanted to get rid of her. But the results from the paternity test they submitted to settle the matter once and for all weren't received until three weeks after the girls disappeared. Now, maybe he knew what the results would be and felt that anything he did after they came back would be too obvious. But if it was about getting rid of diamond, why would he go after Teonda, too? Surely as Tracy's boyfriend, he would have been able to spend plenty of time with them all and could have found some way to get diamond alone without her older siblings.
- [27:40]
Mike Ferguson
Another theory is that the plan was to only get rid of diamond, but Tianda witnessed whatever happened to her and had to be eliminated. The issue with this Is that Diamond was three. The rest of the girls were school aged. Why couldn't whatever happened have waited until the girls were gone and diamond was alone? If George didn't want children, why would he decide to date a woman that had three children at the time? And diamond and Tianda's disappearance didn't exactly eliminate children from the equation. Tracy had two other children. That would still be in the picture. That's fewer children to deal with, but it's still children. And now with the added stress, suspicion and secrets.
- [28:18]
Mike Morford
But to me, more if it was George. Right. If George had something to do with this, it wouldn't be about children or the number of children. My thought is it would be specifically about the fact that one of the girls was his, because there are responsibilities that come along with that. And let's not forget this guy's married, so we have to factor that in as well. What does his wife know? What is he trying to keep from her? These are all possibilities or at least questions that have to be answered.
- [28:57]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, I mean, financial responsibility, child support, that kind of thing is definitely a factor. And then we don't know. As you mentioned, the relationship with his wife, was there something. If she found out that he had a daughter with Tracy, would she leave him? And did that mean he would be out on the street or hurt him in some other way? You know, those are definitely possible motives.
- [29:23]
Mike Morford
But there's something that happened later on between George and Tracy that kind of flies in the face of these theories about George not wanting the financial responsibilities. George and Tracy stayed together, and they eventually had a son together, George Junior. In 2011, George took Tracy to court requesting full custody of George Jr. So, you know, if he didn't want to have kids, if he didn't want that responsibility, it seems like at that point he was going out of his way to be responsible for the custody of George Jr. Now, it doesn't mean that he couldn't have had something to do with the girl's disappearance and then, you know, later had a change of heart. Was okay with the responsibilities that came along with having a child with Tracy. But it could also be because George had nothing to do with their disappearance. This fighting for custody seems to make George someone who wanted kids, may have even been a good father. But then it's also hard to ignore the fact that he bought those supplies from Home Depot the day after the girls vanished and lied about burning something in his garage. If George was involved and did something to the girls, buying that stuff after they went missing may point to A non premeditated event, whereas if he bought them the day before, it might look more like something had been planned ahead of time. And I'll be honest with you, Morv, it's amazing how often it comes up in cases that we do purchases made at Home Depot, Best Buy, Walmart, any of these big box stores that police ultimately are able to find at least a record of, whether it's, you know, a receipt, the transaction log from the store surveillance video. It seems to loom large in a.
- [31:42]
Mike Ferguson
Lot of cases and I think a lot of those people that do that, they don't listen to true crime podcasts like ours to know that that's one of the things that gets them caught sometimes. I mean, they need these supplies if they're cleaning up something or covering something up, but they just don't think about the part that hey, we're going to be caught, you know, by police surveillance, receipts, whatever, getting those supplies. This case is complicated by a very murky timeline. We've always been told that Tracy last saw the girls at 6:30 that morning. But following those initial claims by Tracy, we now know that she wasn't home the night before the girls disappeared. Instead, she was sleeping over at George's house. She admitted this in 2023 when asked why phone records didn't line up with her story. The only thing though is that it sounds as if these phone records that proved that Tracy wasn't home that night were actually unanswered calls, not phone pings or GPS data. If this is correct, then it might be possible that Tracy just didn't answer the phone between 7pm and 2am and it hasn't been revealed who is calling her House at 2am in an earlier version of the night given by Tracy, George showed up around three in the morning and stayed until he took her to work. The changing stories by Tracy over the years certainly have not sat right with some people. In their minds, Tracy should have told one story, the truth, right from the beginning.
- [33:10]
Mike Morford
The last time we know the girls were seen was on the 4th of July. That that day the family had a big gathering at Washington Park. Tracy is the oldest of nine siblings, so you can imagine the family is pretty big and their get togethers are pretty lively. No one noticed anything amiss and the girls were photographed there with their family. Tracy's mother was clear that diamond and Teonda were not with Tracy on July 5th when she dropped Victoria and Rita off to spend the night. If Tracy left them home on their own while she went to work, then maybe she had left them alone when she dropped their sisters off, but the issue is that it shifts the timeline by quite a bit. It could potentially be possible that something happened to the girls very late on the 4th or sometime during the 5th. There were early reports that Tracy had at least two friends over watching the Cubs game the night before the girls disappeared, and that the girls were there safe and sound when those friends left around 10pm but we know that this can't be true if Tracy herself wasn't even at home all night. So that leads to the question, did Tracy have two friends willing to lie for her regarding her missing children? Or is this just some type of misunderstanding or inaccurate reporting? High interest debt is one of the toughest opponents you'll face unless you power up with a Sofi personal loan. A Sofi personal loan could repackage your bad debt into one low fixed rate monthly payment. It's even got super speed since you could get the funds as soon as.
- [34:53]
Mike Ferguson
The same day you sign.
- [34:56]
Mike Morford
Visit sofi.compower to learn more. That's sofi.comp r loans originated by SoFi bank and a member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. MLS 696891 we know that Tianda didn't go to summer school on the 6th. If she was supposed to be home watching her younger sister diamond, well, of course she couldn't go to school. You can't leave a three year old alone. But what if she didn't go because she and diamond were already missing and whatever happened to them had already happened? There were no witnesses, no real timeline, no evidence, and searches early on went nowhere? Due to all of this, the case went cold.
- [35:40]
Mike Ferguson
Hairs were collected from George's car trunk, but they weren't tested for 20 years. When testing was finally done, it brought us no closer to finding out what happened. It turns out that the hairs were a mitochondrial match to Tracy, meaning they could have belonged to her, Tionda, diamond, or any other female in her family. For some reason. The Hares are usually referred to in some reports as Tiandas specifically, but it doesn't seem like that's verified. George claimed that the Hares got there because he used to sneak the girls into drive in movies for free by driving in with them in the trunk so the attendants wouldn't charge him for their admission. But Rita, Victoria and Tracy all all say they can't remember ever going to any movie with George, let alone a drive in theater where some of them would hide in the trunk. There's a report that notes the hairs were found specifically on a blanket inside the trunk. But if the hairs were deposited by Tracy or her daughters onto that blanket while it was in their apartment and then the blanket went into the trunk, it could explain the situation. It doesn't mean automatically that there was a body in the trunk.
- [36:46]
Mike Morford
But here's one of the big issues I have in this case. It's probably the biggest issue. Tracy and George have made a lot of claims, but they haven't all been backed up by either family or people who knew them. In fact, a lot of the statements that they made have been directly refuted by friends and family. That's very strange to me.
- [37:17]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah. George's story on the surface about the sneaking into the drive in, I remember when I was a kid and people used to do the same thing. They'd put them in the trunk and, and I remember even some of the drive ins we went to would make you open the trunk because so many people did that. But the issue I see is, first of all, there's not that many drive ins around anymore, so it would be harder to do and harder to find one. But the fact that none of her family remembers going on these supposed movie trips and having to sneak in the trunk, that's a big red flag. And if George is lying about that, why is he lying about that?
- [37:56]
Mike Morford
Yeah, drive ins were big when you and I were kids, but you know, even by 2001 the number of drive ins had dropped dramatically. And today it's, you know, it's even harder to find one. There were rumors about the existence of a voicemail on Tracy's cell phone left by Tionda on the morning that she and diamond disappeared around 8:20. Supposedly, Tionda was calling to inform her mother that George was at the door and he was going to take her and diamond to the store to buy a cake for their sister Victoria and then pick Tracy up from work. If true, this would be pretty damning evidence that George was somehow involved in their disappearance. He obviously would have been privy to the fact that it was the day before Victoria's birthday and that the girls were inside alone. They would have also been very familiar with him and likely trusted him. Then again, the argument could be made that if there really was a voicemail, someone could have forced Tionda to leave it. Either way, Tracy's sister claims that she emailed a copy of the voicemail to herself, but that she can't access it because if she puts in the wrong passcode when she tries, it will be destroyed. Some articles note that the family claimed the voicemail was deleted by the Chicago Police Department. While no member of law enforcement has ever claimed to hear this voicemail, and one of the investigators all but begged.
- [39:35]
Mike Ferguson
To hear came to light that a woman from Indiana who had been dating George recalled a night he came home bloody and took a shower. Investigators believe that her timeline was completely off regarding the girl's disappearance because she claimed this had happened on the 4th of July. Phone records from that night seemed to show that George was still in Chicago, not in Indiana. Well, it sounds interesting. If she's off on that date, it may not be relevant at all in this case. And it's possibly one more interesting potential clue that doesn't answer any questions, but.
- [40:08]
Mike Morford
It might raise some more questions. Right. It may not be that night, but even if it was a different night, okay, what was he doing then where he came home with blood on him? I mean, again, that's if that story is even true. And I think that's the tough part. In this case, there are a lot of rumors. There's a lot of speculation, but there's also a lot of stories that the participants have told that have turned out to be false. So when you say the waters are muddied here, I mean, that's kind of an understatement.
- [40:49]
Mike Ferguson
Well, to me, it's just simple. Tell the truth right from the beginning, and the truth is always going to be the same because you're not changing anything. You're not trying to cover up anything. The truth should always be the same story. And here we have multiple changes over time. And that, to me, doesn't sit well with me. And I think a lot of people have the same kind of feeling. It just doesn't sit right with them either.
- [41:17]
Mike Morford
Now, there are a lot of reasons why people lie, and we've gone over some of those reasons as it relates to Tracy George. But there's one big reason that people lie, and it's because the truth is damaging to them. And if that's the case here, it could mean that one or two both of those individuals could be involved. Tionda and Diamond's disappearance changed the lives for their family members forever. Not knowing what happened to them left their sisters worried that they would be next. If a stranger could take their siblings, what would stop them from coming back to take them as well? If it was someone they trusted, someone close to them, how are they supposed to keep themselves safe? Victoria's birthday hasn't really belonged to her since 2001. Instead, it's now the day after her sisters disappeared. Now an adult, their Sister Rita has kids of her own, and one of her daughters was given the middle name Tianda in honor of her missing sister. In 2015, their great aunt Sheila began to advocate for other missing children too. She told NBC, it gives me peace to know I'm helping somebody because I know exactly what they're going through.
- [42:45]
Mike Ferguson
As in many cases with missing young children, some people believe that the girls could have been trafficked for money. But then what happened to them? Tianda was 10. She would have memories of her life, her mom, her sisters. It would be an easier theory to believe if it was just diamond, since a three year old wouldn't have as many memories and could much more easily be made to believe an entirely new reality. There have been moments when this theory seemed like it was going to turn out to be true. In 2008, a young girl thought she could be Tianda. The resemblance between a photo of her on MySpace and an age progressed photo of Tianda was uncanny. Even Tracy's sister Sheila thought it was a promising lead. It turned out that the girl was not Tianda. She and no answers came.
- [43:31]
Mike Morford
Something similar happened again in 2023 when a woman from Texas thought she could be Diamond. The woman had a scar on her hairline in the same spot where diamond had a scar. She didn't seem to be making the claim for attention. In fact, when Tracy, one of the girl's aunts and two investigators flew to Houston to try to meet her, she got upset. It was too soon and she was already tired of the attention. She willingly went to an FBI field office to give them her fingerprints and a DNA sample. She wanted answers, just like the Bradley family did. In fact, she refused to speak to anyone, including Tracy Bradley herself, until she had seen the results. An Instagram post on the Account diamond and TiandaBradley from 2024 sadly noted that the DNA proved the woman, Raelynn Hargrave, was not Diamond Bradley. That led to more years of waiting and no answers.
- [44:37]
Mike Ferguson
When looking at the totality of the available details and typical motives, means and opportunity, most people theorize that either Tracy George or both had something to do with the girls disappearing. But there's apparently a reason authorities don't think they have enough evidence to move forward with any charges. Despite how obvious the answer seems to some people, no one has ever been named as a suspect or even an official person of interest in this case, and no one's been charged with or found guilty of anything relating to the disappearance.
- [45:08]
Mike Morford
George Washington did willingly take a polygraph examination and depending on which source you're reading. He either passed it or it was inconclusive. Tracy supposedly passed a polygraph, too. Family members have stated just how head over heels Tracy was for George. But as of the time of this recording, the pair have been broken up for a long time. And if either of them knows the other one is involved in the disappearance, they haven't turned on each other. Although some of what Tracy has said publicly about George paints the picture of an abusive or at the very least, controlling man.
- [45:50]
Mike Ferguson
It seems that diamond and Tianda's family are less close than they were before. But Instagram posts on the diamond and Tionda Bradley account run by one of Tracy's sisters still honor her birthday, and the captions are complimentary toward her. If her family thinks Tracy had anything to do with the girl's disappearance, they aren't showing it publicly. Early on, the family contacted a private investigator to try and find some answers. One investigator, P. Foster, has been working on the case for more than two decades for free. He continues to this day.
- [46:23]
Mike Morford
Today, diamond would be 28 years old, and Tianda would be celebrating her 35th birthday on January 20th. If you know anything about the disappearance of diamond and Tionda Bradley, it's not too late to tell someone. You can contact the FBI's Chicago Field Office by calling 312-421-6700. You can also submit an anonymous tip online at tips FBI.gov There have been multiple cash rewards offered for information in the past to morph as. As we wrap this one up. You know, we spent a lot of time talking about Tracy, talking about George, and for good reason. Right? When you change stories, when you say things that are proven not to be true. All right, that is going to be suspicious, right? To anyone, to law enforcement, to lay people who are just taking a look at the case. The one thing that I will say is that now, obviously, we can't forget that two young girls went missing and that if Tracy or George didn't have anything to do with it, number one, you feel horrible for their loss. But then it's also horrible that they're kind of have been living under this cloud of suspicion for many, many years now. To be fair, some of that is because of them changing their stories and saying things that turned out not to be true, but it would still be horrible if they didn't have anything to do with it.
- [48:17]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah, this. This is the kind of case that really fuels a lot of speculation and online theories, in part because of Tracy and George changing stories or being caught in lies or not able to substantiate things. And that's only going to lead to. To more questions and more doubt. So, you know, part of that is on them. You know, if you stick to the truth right from the beginning, number one, it's. It might make it easier to find the kids, but also it's going to make you look better in the eyes of the public and with police, if you're telling the truth and you're helping police right from the beginning.
- [48:59]
Mike Morford
But as we found out, in so many cases, there is a huge difference in, you know, someone or multiple people not looking good in a case, to law enforcement being able to put enough of the pieces of the puzzle together to charge someone. That's a. It's a big chasm between the two in a lot of cases.
- [49:28]
Mike Ferguson
And sadly, unless her remains are found and then that leads to evidence, you know, there might not ever be charges in this case, because right now at this point, we have no witnesses, we have no hard evidence that links anybody. They can't even name a person of interest. But if remains are found, then maybe there's some evidence with those remains that will point to somebody. But I'm hoping against hope that maybe they're out there someplace and alive. Maybe, you know, one of them or a family member does a, you know, some kind of family tree DNA test where they send their DNA to check out their genealogy, and they wind up identifying themselves or find out they're connected to them and they're still out there someplace. That's my hope.
- [50:12]
Mike Morford
Yeah, I'm with you on that. I mean, that would be amazing if that was discovered to be what happened. I mean, you have something like, you know, hairs in George's vehicle. Okay. Hey, what do you make of that, though? He's over there all the time. I think a defense attorney would have a field day with that type of evidence. And sadly, I don't know what else they would have to really offer up. You've got the Home Depot purchases again. Is it possible that he just happened to buy some gloves and some, you know, contractor trash bags? In the world of true crime, that looks suspicious as all get out. Right, we know that, but does it really prove anything? That's the question.
- [51:10]
Mike Ferguson
And I wonder if maybe looking back at that car trunk now, with modern technology, the most recent advancements, might they find more evidence there? Maybe there's blood in there. I don't know if they ever tested it for blood. We didn't see anything about blood in the research. But, you know, maybe there's something else. To be found. Or maybe the car's not even around anymore. Maybe it's been destroyed in a junkyard someplace and it might not yield any kind of evidence, but maybe that's worth rechecking.
- [51:37]
Mike Morford
Yeah, I mean, technology's come a long ways in 25 years. The problem is, a lot of things vanish in 25 years, too. So, like you said, the car may not even be around at all. But I mean, I don't give up hope that this case can be solved. Or like you said, maybe there's something that breaks open at some point in time that proves that the two girls are still alive.
- [52:10]
Mike Ferguson
Yeah. To get evidence one way or the other as to what happened and maybe hold someone accountable whether the girls are alive or not. You know, that would be some kind of justice, at least for the family.
- [52:22]
Mike Morford
Yeah, absolutely. But that's it for our episode on diamond and Tianda Bradley. As always, if you love the show but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a review, leave a rating. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really goes a long way if you want.
- [52:41]
Mike Ferguson
To find us on social media. We're on every major platform, so just search for us on your favorites. You can also join our Facebook discussion group, which is Criminology Podcast Discussion and fans. And if you want to check out old episodes and find news about the show and head over to our website, Criminology podcast dot com.
- [52:59]
Mike Morford
So that's it for another episode of Criminology. But Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike and Morph, we'll talk to you next week.
- [53:10]
Mike Ferguson
Take care everyone.
- [53:42]
Mike Morford
Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn ads, go to libsynads. Com, that's L, I B S Y N Ads. Com Today.