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Crystal Bradshaw ////// 764
01:09:29
Crystal Bradshaw ////// 764 Part 1 of 1 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com In 2007 twenty eight year old Crystal Bradshaw was murdered in her home in Boiling Springs, South Carolina. Unfortunately, this case has remained unsolved. The night of the homicide, an unknown person was seen in the carport of the home. This person left the scene before police arrived. There is a composite sketch of this person. Anyone with information should email TBrown@SpartanburgCounty.org OR call the Sheriff’s Office at 864-503-4556. Beer of the Week - Porchlyfe from Panther Creek Brews Garage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps Go to www.TrueCrimeGarage.com and sign up on the mailing list. For TCG Shirts and other merchandise visit the Store page. Follow True Crime Garage on X @TrueCrimeGarage / Follow Nic on X @TCGNIC / Follow The Captain on X @TCGCaptain Listen to True Crime Garage Off The Record - Available on Apple Podcast Subscriptions and to everyone everywhere on Patreon. Please HELP Ban the...
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Picture this. It's the end of a long week. You're unwinding in the tub, listening to your favorite true crime podcast and then chronic hives come back again in the middle of the episode. What a wet blanket looks like another spell of itchy, swollen, red or skin colored hives. If you have chronic spontaneous urticaria or csu, there may be a different treatment option. Worried about your chronic hives interrupting our next episode? Learn more@treatmyhives.com Garage if you, your parent or spouse served in the military, you could join our family.
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Our members saved an average of $70
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join today to check your eligibility restrictions.
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Sa.
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Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me, as always, is a man who had to hitchhike his way back here from Nashville. Here is the Captain.
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B
Got a little hitch in your giddy up? It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.
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Today we are drinking Porch Life from Panther Creek Brews located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This India pale ale is aggressively hopped with citra and centennial hops, giving it a palette awakening burst of grapefruit and pine bitterness while finishing with a refreshing citrus character. Garage grade 4 out of 5 bottle caps. And let's give some thanks and praise to our friends for helping us out with this week's show. First up, a big cheers to Ivana in Trieste, Italy and a big shout
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B
out to Ross and Samuel and Piccadilly, England.
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And back here in the States, here's a shout out to Susan in Wayne, Illinois. And last but certainly not least, we have Lindsay Jackson and Ma Mel, Arkansas. Everyone we just mentioned, they went to truecrimegarage.com clicked on the pint glass and helped us fill up the old garage fridge with a couple beers for this week's show. And for that, we thank you.
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Yeah, yum yum. Get you some bwin beer. Run for everything. True crime. Check out truecrimegarage.com and make sure you sign up on the mailing list. And colonel, that's enough of the beas near us.
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A
All right, everybody, gather round. Grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. No matter how many times life knocked Crystal Bradshaw down, she always got back up. She survived a rough and impoverished childhood. After escaping a painful childhood, Crystal ended up in a marriage rife with allegations of abuse. Crystal's last straw in her marriage was when she and her husband filed for bankruptcy and the family lost their home. Crystal was back living in poverty and uncertainty. A future she hoped that her son would never experience. But then Crystal got back up. She filed for divorce, earned her GED and was attending classes at a community college. She had successfully navigated a 180 degree life turn from bad to good and somehow she stuck the landing. Because of her actions and strong will through years of adversity, Crystal could finally see the light now shining brighter than ever at the end of that dark tunnel. She did it. Crystal Bradshaw had put herself on the path to better days. She was on her way to a better life for both herself and her son. Unfortunately, someone or someone's would get in the way of that path. Crystal would not live to see her son's eighth birthday. A day of celebration led to murder, a house fire and the many mysteries that remain. This is the still unsolved homicide case of Crystal Bradshaw and this is true crime Garage. This week we are off to a location called Boiling Springs. Boiling Springs is In Spartanburg County, S.C. boiling Springs was named after a small spring in the center of town that appeared as if it were boiling and would sometimes shoot water about six feet into the air. Once the land in this area became more developed and a shopping center was built, people started to arrive. They built up the area and the spring ceased to boil. The spring was eventually cleaned up and a small park was built around it. But that's how this area, this town got its name. In current day, the population is over 12,000 people. Our case this week takes us back to 2007 and the population then in Boiling Springs was closer to 7,500 people. Crystal Dawn Kennedy Bradshaw was born September 22, 1979 to Danny Kennedy and Myra Ledford. In time, Crystal's parents marriage would dissolve and end in divorce. Crystal was raised poor and suffered abuse at the hand of a family member. Crystal grew up in a blended family with half siblings from both her parents. Additional marriages. Despite all of her childhood hardships, she still had the strength to pick herself up and to try to make a good life. She dropped out of high school, thinking entering the working world full time would allow her to find the happiness that was so elusive to her in her childhood. She worked a number of jobs and then after a while, Crystal found herself working at a place called Big Daddy's. She was holding down a waitressing gig there and making decent money. Big Daddy's was a local restaurant, a mom and pop casual Joint. While working there, Crystal Kennedy met David Bradshaw Jr. David liked Crystal immediately. He worked hard to get Crystal's attention and try to convince her to go out on dates with him. Eventually wearing her down. She finally agreed. They started dating and things seemed fine until at some point in this relationship, Captain David's anger and jealousy issues reared its ugly head. And this wasn't just something that was kept on wraps within the four walls of their living situation. This is something that people outside of those four walls were aware of. Crystal and David moved into a small house. They started life together with David's son from his previous marriage. And living with David was becoming more and more difficult for Crystal. This mainly due to David's temper and from how others perceive their relationship to be at this time. Those people did not think that David was treating Crystal very well at all. Crystal hoped things would change when she became pregnant. And In July of 2000, David Crystal gave birth to a healthy baby boy that the couple would name Jacob.
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B
What's the old saying? You can shit in one hand wishing the other one and see which one fills up first. Even though Crystal wanted things to get better, things were not going to get better just because they had a child.
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A
There are many allegations that David was an abusive person, an abusive father and husband. And years passed and the family would eventually move to a larger house. This comes with larger bills. And as it would turn out, the couple could not afford the extra bills, the extra expenses or the larger house. This would be the beginning of the end of Crystal and David's marriage. Perhaps it was the final nudge that Crystal needed to finally end things with David. As the bills were piling up, Crystal asked family for help. But everyone knew that helping to pay one month's mortgage would only prolong this problem. Eventually the Bradshaws filed for bankruptcy and they lost their home in foreclosure. This was too much for Crystal to take. She grew up in poverty and wanted a better life for her son Jacob. As a result, Crystal ended the marriage with David and she moved into her own apartment.
- [10:05]
B
Crystal was trying to make some changes, not just for herself, but now for her family. And she was going to take a new job at the Peach Blossom Diner.
- [10:13]
A
Crystal was determined to rebuild her life after this marriage. She wanted a better life for herself and for her now 7 year old son Jacob. The new job at the Peach Blossom Diner proved advantageous for Crystal for a couple of reasons. It gave her the needed financial freedom from her ex husband David. It also brought a new man into her life. His name is Johnny Petrus, the owner of the diner. He was one of the more well to do men in Boiling Springs at this time, making his money from real estate transactions as well as running the successful diner. There was an age gap between Crystal, who's a young woman, and this older, successful man. So Crystal, at this time when they started dating, would have been 28 years old. Johnny was 65. But regardless of this age gap, they became an item. Johnny had a foster son. His name is Sean. And it's been said around town loud and clear that Sean was not happy with his father's new dating situation, especially after Johnny purchased a house for Crystal. So she's dating this older guy who's pretty well off, well to do. And as a nice gift, as a nice gesture of their new, newly budding romance, he buys Crystal a small house where she and Jacob can live.
- [11:53]
B
Which obviously there's going to be some people that think that she's using him for the money and he's using her because she's young and attractive. But my, my grandma used to tell me, you can love a rich one as much as you can a poor one.
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A
Yeah. When money's involved, everybody has an opinion. Everybody outsider opinion of situations, whether it's doing right or doing wrong. I say leave that up to the person spending the money and the person accepting the gifts.
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B
Yeah, but you know, he has wrinkly balls.
- [12:23]
A
But these two were an item. Whether Sean liked it or not, these two were moving forward with their relationship. Crystal and Shawn knew each other well because Shawn ran the diner most of the time in the evening shifts. He was married with a daughter, and he had a successful career as a firefighter. So he's a firefighter and he runs this diner on his off days. Sean did not hide his dislike of Crystal, or maybe it was just the relationship that he did not like. But as said, it was clear to everyone that knew Crystal, knew Johnny, knew Sean, that he was not approving of this relationship.
- [13:04]
B
Well, it brings up a lot of questions. Was he jealous of his father because the father was with a. This young, attractive woman? Did he want to be with Crystal, or did he view it as Crystal's just using my father and trying to steal his money, and the more money he spends on her, the less money I'm going to receive one day? That brings up a lot of questions.
- [13:27]
A
Yeah. Sean had his own wife and family and house, and he. He had his own successes. But I'm guessing he's thinking that his father's not spending his money appropriately later in life. Crystal's sister worked at the diner as well. And she would be one that would later point out that, look, it was clear that Sean did not like my sister. For like you said, Captain, there could be a lot of different reasons or problems with the reason that he had a problem with Crystal. But again, it was clear to everybody now, Crystal, with this new job, old balls, new boyfriend, new housing situation, she's landing on her feet pretty well here. She's starting to gain some stability in her life, with her life moving forward. As we said in the trailer, she earned a ged. She was enrolled at a community college. She, she's studying to be a dental assistant. So she veered off the path for a while. Maybe it was her ex husband's fault, maybe it was hers, maybe it was both of them combined. But she's now on the right path. As good as her life was going, her friends lives, and these are two people that are very, were very close to Crystal at the time, years prior and then leading up to Crystal's death. This is her friends Annette and Ashley. These two, their lives are heading in the complete opposite direction. So they're not getting their lives together. They're not on a path to better days. In fact, they're on the path to darker and harder times. It's reported that in 2007 both of them were struggling with drug addiction and they were starting to become involved in criminal activity. A lot of this is pretty petty crime type stuff. Now, as their paths went in different directions, it's been said that jealousy and anger and accusations grew between Crystal and her friends. Crystal had had enough of her friend Ashley and she was going to start taking control to end their relationship. She's going to break off this friendship, as several people have said. Crystal was even telling people that Ashley was stalking her. Crystal had told people that Ashley would sit down at the end of the block and watch to see who was going to visit Crystal, who's coming and going from her house. Once Crystal's guests would go inside, Ashley would then call Crystal on her phone and then an argument would break out. So she's. Crystal was of the belief that her friend Ashley was trying to disrupt her life. Now whether it was out of jealousy or anger or multiple reasons, it's difficult to say.
- [16:31]
B
Yeah, ring, ring, ring, I'm your baby reindeer.
- [16:34]
A
Well, you have friends that are all similar in age. And what we do know, Captain, is that Ashley did work at this diner with Crystal. Some have wondered was she jealous that this successful man, Johnny, who owns the diner didn't take notice of her the way that he did of Crystal, which ended up a relationship that is financially benefiting Crystal.
- [16:59]
B
Yeah. And I don't want to speculate too much, but like you said, is it a situation where she just wasn't noticed by this older gentleman with money, or is it a situation that he did notice her for a time period, but then switched his attention to Crystal?
- [17:16]
A
So the thought there is from all the outsiders looking in, their speculation has always remained that.
- [17:26]
B
Spit it out.
- [17:27]
A
Ashley was jealous of Crystal because she has this new boyfriend who not only buys her this house that she can live in with her son, but it's pretty well known that he's handing her cash, walking around money regularly.
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B
Yeah. Maybe she's into old balls.
- [17:44]
A
She likely could have been very jealous of that as well. Now we have her other friend, Crystal's other friend, Annette. She's wrapped up in addiction as well. And it's believed that jealousy was destroying her friendship with Crystal as well. And this is a little bit thicker than the situation with Ashley. So this may have been motivated. Her jealousy may have been motivated by money. But it also sounds like it was pretty well understood around town that Annette's husband had a thing, had a crush on Crystal, and that in public gatherings around other people where people took notice he had made passes at her.
- [18:29]
B
Yeah, that's not good. That's. That's what we call nasty.
- [18:33]
A
It seems like Crystal had no interest in him. So there's no conflict of there being a relationship between this woman's husband and Crystal. It just seems like she's probably aggravated at the situation that her husband has a thing for her friend and is not so subtle about it.
- [18:51]
B
Yeah, it's a real doucheburger move.
- [18:54]
A
So it's been said by several people around town that Crystal would have a decent amount of cash on her at any given time. And this is because, again, her boyfriend Johnny's regularly handing her cash. And it sounds if people who knew Crystal and knew Johnny and knew of their relationship and knew of the situation, they all seem to be under this idea that Crystal likely had several hundreds of dollars of cash on her at any given time.
- [19:27]
B
Cha ching.
- [19:28]
A
And that Johnny was regularly giving her. Let's call it an. An allowance, if you will. But he's giving her cash almost daily.
- [19:37]
B
Yeah, I think they call this situation sugar daddy and sugar baby situation.
- [19:43]
A
Because of this situation. We have several people that are saying Annette was always asking Crystal for money. Crystal sometimes would give her friend the money most times. Not because Crystal feared that Annette was Using that money to pay for her drug addiction.
- [20:01]
B
Well, and her friends are probably going, hey, you didn't earn this money. You're just being handed this money. Why can't you just give me this money so I can get my fix and you can go back to your boyfriend and ask him for more money later?
- [20:14]
A
And I feel like we should be clear here, because my understanding after assessing the situation is that, yes, while these. These friends are on clearly different paths, I believe Annette and Ashley at the time, if they were addicted, they were functioning addicts. They were. They were holding down jobs and relationships, if you want to call it that. But the main strain on any relationship that we have here is the strain between their friendships. Right. Ashley and Annette versus Crystal and others have said that when she would deny giving money to Annette or helping out her friends, this was creating a. Driving a wedge. You know, there's already a divide in their relationship, but this just kept driving a wedge further and deeper into that divide of the relationship.
- [21:14]
B
And do you think these two friends were kind of ganging up on her? Hey, you're cutting us out. You're not giving either one of us money. So. So now we're going to have this hatred towards you. But it's a collective hatred.
- [21:28]
A
That's the way it sounds to me. I can't say 100% that that is the case, but that's the way that it sounds to me because the three of them were all friends together. This was. This was a group, a little pack of friends here. And at some point, two are going the opposite way of the one, right? And they just keep getting further apart. The other thing, too, what it appears to me, Captain, is like that crystals walking this tight wire of. And trying to do this balancing act of, how do I. How do I tell them I'm not. You can't expect certain things of me just because of our friendship. I'm not just going to hand you money. Even if somebody is just handing me money, I'm not handing it to you.
- [22:13]
B
Right?
- [22:13]
A
But also, like, trying to keep the door open because they go back, like, is there some hope that we can keep this friendship, maintain this friendship? Are my friends just stuck in a rut and going through a phase and one day they'll clean up or get out of this, and we can still be friends. So that's. Anybody that's had to kind of do that, they know exactly what we're talking about here. It's a balancing act that is incredibly difficult because you're looking at friends going, I don't know if I want to keep being friends with you because of A, B and C, but I don't. I'm having a difficult time fully closing that door, slamming that door shut because we go back, way back.
- [22:55]
B
I say cut those greedy bitches off.
- [22:58]
A
But it looks to me, and several people have told us this here, Captain, and it only seems to make sense that I think that Crystal knew while she probably still held a place in her heart for her two friends, right. I think that she knew that if she was going to have the life that she wanted, the path that she was currently on for her and her, her son, that she might have to completely sever ties with her old life. And that would mean at some point, likely ending the friendship with Annette and Ashley.
- [23:35]
B
Well, they've done studies on this. You kind of become the sum of the five people you hang out with the most. And so maybe Crystal got to the point where, hey, I'm trying to get my stuff together. You're not trying to do anything. You hang out with coconuts, you get nowhere.
- [23:52]
A
Let's get to the day in question here, Captain. The day in question that we're going to be talking about and where the mystery remains is this was in 2007. It's a typical Saturday. Typical Saturday in the life of Crystal Bradshaw. She rose early, she so she could arrive at work for her morning shift that started at 5am Remember, this is a diner. That's one of the best things about a diner. You go there, you get you a beautiful, delicious, greasy breakfast to start your day and everybody loves it.
- [24:26]
B
And a pie.
- [24:27]
A
She's there for the 5am shift. She always took that morning shift. A lot of that was based upon her life, right? Her, her day to day. In her day to day, her main concern is her son Jacob. She wants to be able to be the mom that can pick her son up from school at the end of each school day. Now the time period we're talking about is in the summer. So on this day, Crystal drops Jacob off at his father's house the night before. This is not a perfect situation. This is not ideal. Remember we talked about the allegations against her ex husband. My guess is Crystal's only doing this out of necessity. I have an early shift in the morning, drop him off at his dad's house and then I will see Jacob. The next day was the plan. She didn't at this time have anyone else in her life to watch him when she was busy working. So at around 2 o', clock, 2pm that afternoon, after her Shift. She goes and he. She goes and she picks up her son from her ex's house. She stopped at a grocery store. This was to purchase snacks and drinks for a small gathering. So she's hosting a little gathering with some of her friends and this will be at her newly acquired house that was gifted to her from her boyfriend Johnny. She had only lived in this house. The address is 107 North Brook street for a couple of months. And she's still trying to balance her new life and her old friends. She knew these were not people that if you ignored them that they would just go away. So again, trying to walk that tight wire of do I end this friendship or try to maintain it? She's going to invite her friends over that we've already discussed Annette and Ashley to hang out that day. Some of these items we can put a timestamp on and we know happened by later findings and details that would be made public. So one of these details that we can surmise is that after returning from the grocery store at some point she's going to get cleaned up so she can have her friends over and host this little gathering. She throws her work clothes that she wore at the diner that day into the washer. Around 5pm her guests start to arrive. And this from my understanding, Captain, it's going to be a rather small gathering. I don't have any. Every name of every person that was in attendance.
- [27:16]
B
Loser.
- [27:17]
A
We may or may not have that information. I should clarify.
- [27:20]
B
Right.
- [27:20]
A
But it was a small group of people. The people that we do know that attended that evening was Crystal's friend Annette and her husband Gene. And we also have her friend Ashley and her husband Allan.
- [27:38]
B
But remember, it's a very small town so most likely everybody at the party knew everybody.
- [27:44]
A
The other thing that, the reason why I'm trying to, to lay this out properly here, Captain, is there's a lot of information to suggest that it was only the five of them present at the home for this small get together. What's been reported is that there was stress in the air immediately. Remember there these, this group of friends, they're already having their problems now they're all at the Johnny Gifted home of Crystal hanging out and I guess trying to be friends or maintain this friendship. By this point we should be clear too. Crystal and David have been separated for almost a year at this point and they were, things were better between the two of them but they were still trying to sort out some of the details of their divorce. And like anybody that's gone through a separation or even people that have remained married will tell you when you go from school to no school for your children, that first couple of weeks is a balancing act itself. You're trying to to keep the kids on their schedule while maintaining your work schedule at the same time and not having the added benefit of school for your kids to attend at this time.
- [29:03]
B
But if I'm law enforcement in this case, a question that comes to my mind is did Crystal's friends view this as a friendly gathering to rekindle their friendship, or did they look at this as an opportunity?
- [29:32]
A
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- [34:49]
B
Foreign. We are back. Cheers mates. Cheers to you Colonel.
- [35:05]
A
Cheers Captain Tall Cans in the air to everybody out there in Listener land. We do have David and Jacob who are at the house. So David is Crystal's ex and Jacob is her son. And David comes to pick up Jacob but he doesn't have to just like, you know, pull up and honk the horn and the. The little boy comes running out. He goes inside. He's inside for a period of time and then takes Jacob with him. And then those two are on their way. Jacob was going to be spending the night at his father's house that evening. So now this is when you go from PG mode to adult time in your gathering at your home.
- [35:50]
B
Well, I just want to point something out. People that would know that Crystal would be home alone, probably her boyfriend, obviously her ex because he's taking their child, and now her two friends that she's been in disagreements with for the past little while. All those individuals know that she's going to be home alone.
- [36:15]
A
There's. It's been reported that there was a little pot smoking, some beer and some wine at this gathering after Jacob left, but nothing hardcore. It's also been said that Crystal would not allow anything above and beyond that in her new home.
- [36:31]
B
The report that I read said there was nothing hardcore or parkour.
- [36:36]
A
The thing here is though, as the night drags on or even the, the early part of the night, Crystal's face with another issue. She works again the following morning at 5am at the diner.
- [36:49]
B
Fun times.
- [36:50]
A
So when you are on that, that schedule, on that cycle, you are a, you're going to turn in early because you have to be up earlier than most. So at some point Crystal will ask the guests to leave. And this was approximately at 7pm she had to work the early shift at the diner the next day. Likely wanted to relax for a while before having to go to sleep. That night. Crystal's company was about to leave when there was an argument. Ashley started an argument with Crystal over her boyfriend Johnny and said that she did not like the way that Crystal had been treating her lately. Then Annette asked Crystal for some cash. Okay, so you have a disagreement that breaks out between the two friends and then the other friend is openly asking Crystal for cash. Hey, can I borrow some money in front of the other guests? And this hints to what you were talking about before the break. Was this supposed to be just a friendly get together? Hey, show me your new place. We can have good conversation and catch up. Or did Annette or Ashley or both view this as an opportunity? Right. Let's get friendly with our friend again and maybe she will give us some cash or we could borrow air quotes. Borrow some cash from her. Crystal denied this and was frankly insulted and says, you know what, everybody needs to leave.
- [38:24]
B
She, she doesn't deny this event happening. She's denying giving the money to the friend.
- [38:30]
A
The story that has been told since that night is that cash was asked for. Crystal did not give it to them. In fact, she was upset by this enough to just ask everybody to leave. So she asked everyone to leave. The, the group does leave. Probably a little angry.
- [38:49]
B
Don't let the door hit you.
- [38:51]
A
Now we have Crystal on the other side of the door, empty house. She's probably relieved that her guests have left for the evening, probably exhausted. She's been up since the early morning hours and she's probably trying to unwind and get ready to go to sleep at some point. So she, she moved her work clothes that we, she had previously put in the washer and she put them into the dryer. And we do know that she put on her pajamas. This part of the story is incredibly significant, especially if it holds true for every single night that she had lived in this house. Remember, she's only been in this house, Captain, for a couple months leading up to the night in question.
- [39:42]
B
Right.
- [39:43]
A
Several people, this is not just one person. Several people had said because she lived there, her and her son alone most nights, or even without her son, some nights her by herself, she was uncomfortable with the living situation. And she would always turn on, not just leave on lights. We're talking about actively turn on some lights before going to bed.
- [40:11]
B
Well, Crystal lived with a man for a very long time. And even if he wasn't the best in the relationship, there was probably some sense of security or some sense of safe that she felt with her ex husband being in the house.
- [40:26]
A
One thing that we do know that Crystal was in the habit of doing every day that she was in this new house was that she would turn on the light to the living room and the light to the kitchen before going to bed. This was something that was also noticed by neighbors. Right. You could see when you look out and it's dark outside, you look across the street or you walking down the street or going outside for any reason. It's pretty obvious when a neighbor has a light on. These neighbors would later say that these two lights, the house was always lit up on the inside at night. And again, this is coming from the kitchen in the living room. One thing that would be different, and this is key because we're trying to key in on the time of death here. In Crystal Bradshaw's case, she did not turn on those lights. Never came on that night like they would every other night.
- [41:31]
B
Someone can make the argument that something happened to Crystal before that time period.
- [41:36]
A
Right. And I think this shrinks the window quite a bit. Right. Because we know she put on her pajamas. So she's in the act of her routine leading up to going to bed. But part of that routine was always turning on the light in the front room and the kitchen or they're already on and leaving them on. However, that portion of her routine she did not get to before. Whatever happened, happened that night before the
- [42:05]
B
horse shit went down.
- [42:06]
A
We do know too. Another thing that is key here that's been said by all that knew her is that she always locked her doors. She wasn't one of these types that would, you know, it's not that kind of town. It's a small place. I never lock my doors. No, she was always lock your door kind of person.
- [42:23]
B
The reason why this case is so fascinating to me is one, we have so many people close to her that would know that she's going to be at home alone. So if they have some vendetta against her, but necessarily don't want to hurt her and her child, here's an opportunity. And then on top of that, number two is you have a lot of people with. Maybe they're not the strongest motives, but you could make an argument. Ex husband mad that things didn't work out. Maybe wants full custody, maybe doesn't want to pay his support. Maybe he's jealous that she's now getting ahead with the help of this older gentleman. The older gentleman, there's motives there. Maybe again doesn't like the situation, regrets buying the house. He's somebody you got to look into. You got to look into the friends with their drug addiction. And then you got to look into the boyfriend's son that works with her. Did he have some kind of jealousy issues? Is he worried about how his father is paying for things and maybe losing some kind of inheritance down the line? There's a lot of moving pieces, a lot of moving parts, a lot of questions that one could ask.
- [43:42]
A
Let's do a quick bullet point timeline before we get into the next portion of this story. So roughly at 3pm she stops at the grocery store to buy items for the gathering. 3:30, she's at home with her son. We know that the washing of the clothes starts at this time. By 5pm her guests have arrived to her house. At 5:30, we have David, her ex husband, who arrives to pick up their son Jacob within an hour. So by 6:30, David leaves the house with Jacob. After that it's just her with her friends. And as stated earlier, it's believed that around 7pm Crystal asked the guests to leave because she has that early shift at the diner and there's that exchange of can we borrow some money? No, you can't. And they are, for a lack of better term, almost escorted, right, shown the door. So at some point after 7pm Crystal switches her clothes from the washer to the dryer, changes into her pajamas. We talked about the lights that she would always purposely leave on or turn on before turning in for the night herself. Another part of her routine was she had a dog named Rocky. Now Rocky would always stay outside.
- [45:09]
B
That's no way to treat a dog.
- [45:10]
A
Tethered during the daytime. She's busy with her son and with work and she's coming and going. He stayed outside during the daytime. But just like turning on those lights or making sure those lights were on before going to bed, Rocky never stays outside overnight. She always brings him in to the house once she's settling down for the night so that he can go to sleep and fall asleep inside the home as well. I do want to note some things here too. That sunset on the night of June 2, 2007, in this area, the night question was at 8:37pm this is where we go to an eyewitnesses account of that evening. This is eyewitness Michelle, who is one of Crystal's neighbors. Michelle's account of the night in question is as follows. She says that she came home around 11pm she stated that she noticed right away that there were no lights on at Crystal's house. Michelle thought that this was unusual. But she goes into her house and she has, you know, her own family and she goes to bed. It sounds like everything remains silent until around 1am so now we are at the next morning, June 3rd, Michelle said that she was awakened by the sound of a car horn blaring. She rushed to her door to see what this car horn was and she doesn't see a vehicle but instead saw smoke filling the street. Then she spots a vehicle and there's a couple inside the car that yelled at the house on the street. They're yelling at Crystal's house, which is engulfed in flames. That's where the smoke's coming from. So Michelle tells her son to call 91 1. She goes outside to try to flag down the couple in the car. The couple in the car had seen the smoke from down the block. And when they came to investigate, they found Crystal's house smoldering because Crystal's car was in the carport. The couple and Michelle, they're seeing the car, right, Captain? They're like, oh, she's probably in there. They rushed to the house, and they started looking in the windows to see if Crystal and or her son is inside of the home. Right as Michelle went to turn the corner. Right. So she's running around the corner. She's now entering Crystal's backyard. She hears Crystal's dog barking near the carport. This is how we know that the dog wasn't let in for the night. As said, it was common for Crystal to tie up the dog, but bring the dog in that evening. And she would always take the dog and leave the dog outside when she was having guests over. So however, the. The neighbor, Michelle, finds the dog still outside. She turns, and now she's worried about the dog. She's trying to tend to the dog. When she says that she sees a man standing in the carport there. She says that there was nowhere that this man could have come from except for in the house. Again, this is just her opinion. And she's rushing to a scene that's already a little chaotic. It's dark out. But it is her opinion that this man, the only place he could have come from, was from inside of Crystal's home.
- [48:47]
B
And because of Michelle's eyewitness account, we're going to get a sketch of this individual. The first thing I noticed, and I'd like to know some of your thoughts on this. But to me, if somebody said that's a sketch of a man or that's a sketch of a woman, I. I would agree both ways.
- [49:04]
A
Yeah, the sketch is not helpful in that regard. However, we have the eyewitness saying that that's a man.
- [49:10]
B
Yes, the.
- [49:10]
A
The person I saw was a man, and he's standing in the carport area on Crystal's property. Michelle says he was standing right outside the door to Crystal's house. This was the door everyone used to enter and leave the house. Many people will be familiar with this type of setup. Your front door is not always the door that everybody uses to go in and out of your home. Some people like people to come in the their garage or come in the side door. I've lived in a home with a carport, and it was the side door under the carport that everybody used because that's. It was the closest to where the vehicles would arrive.
- [49:51]
B
Some people use the chimney.
- [49:52]
A
So she's saying this was the door that everyone used to enter and exit Crystal's house. She also says that this is the door that she would have brought the dog in for the night, that Crystal used this door for practically everything as well. Michelle is of course, she's startled by this whole situation. The fire, the dog. She's tending to the dog, the man that's standing in the carport. She hands the. The leash for the dog to that man and ask him if he would take the dog away from the house, get the dog to safety.
- [50:31]
B
Makes sense.
- [50:32]
A
So this person, this unidentified man, takes the dog, walks the dog safely across the street, hands the leash to a member of Michelle's family. And then this member of Michelle's family says that last that they saw the man, he had left the area on foot by way of a large church parking lot that was behind Michelle's family's house. So the person spotted in the carport at the time of the fire was now gone. The fire department was on the scene quickly and started to extinguish the flames. The fire was spreading to different parts of the house. As firefighters entered the kitchen of the house, they found Crystal's lifeless body lying next to the refrigerator near this side door that we've talked about. It appeared that Crystal put up a fight and that she had been struck in the head with a heavy object. At first inspection, it appeared that the fire started behind the refrigerator. While firefighters and police were on the scene, the neighbor Michelle, again saw the suspect who was in the carport earlier. Now he's standing in the crowd watching the firefighters. Michelle approached the Boiling Springs police that were there, and to one officer, she says, look, that man in the crowd there, I saw him earlier. He was up here in the carport area, as if he had just come out of the house.
- [52:15]
B
Right.
- [52:15]
A
Unfortunately, Michelle would say that the officer ignored her, that she, at no point that evening, saw an officer approach this man, interview this man, put him in the back of a squad car. None of that happened, according to Michelle.
- [52:31]
B
Obviously, this is somebody that law enforcement would want to talk to, but it's not clear to us if this person was somebody passing by and was just trying to help or were they there for nefarious reasons.
- [52:45]
A
It would be easier to figure that out if an officer would have went and spoke to this man.
- [52:49]
B
Yeah. Or. But I think it. I think it's unclear to me. And maybe you clear this up. We don't know if law enforcement ever contacted this individual or if they have a name.
- [53:01]
A
So it does not appear. Like we said, we have a sketch. It doesn't appear that this man has been identified. You know, they've not given a name to this person.
- [53:11]
B
Yeah. Because the sketch would not matter.
- [53:15]
A
Exactly. Exactly. So what role he played in this is all Very difficult to decipher. But part of that, too, as said, is if. If and when you were interviewing people that night, if he would have been somebody that you spoke to, you would at least know this man's name. I don't want to get too aggressive with everybody because this is a very chaotic scene. And at the. At the center of it, police, too, are first responders. They're responding to a scene where they're hoping that if by chance, anyone is trapped inside of this home, that first responders can get them out to safety. That's your number one goal when responding to this scene. The other part of this is that Sean Petraeus is in the crowd as well. We're talking about this crowd that's gathering in the street watching the firefighters attempt to put out this fire. We know that in the end, they're going to find Crystal's lifeless body inside the home near that side door that we've discussed. But in this crowd, this growing crowd, one of those persons is Sean, the son of Crystal's boyfriend, Johnny. Now, we said earlier that Sean was a fire chief. He's actually the fire chief of a neighboring fire department. So this is not his jurisdiction. However, it's believed that he likely heard the call on his department scanner. And knowing the property. Right. They're responding to an address.
- [54:53]
B
Right.
- [54:53]
A
Knowing the property and knowing that his father's girlfriend lives there, likely responded to the scene. The reasons for that, you would have to ask Sean.
- [55:04]
B
Well, again, this is now the second person in the story where you go, is Sean there to help or is Sean there because he did something bad?
- [55:14]
A
Exactly. That is exactly it. Was he there to observe, there to potentially help, or his just his appearance there has led to speculation that he is somehow involved in either the fire or the murder or both. After the fire was put out and the investigation started, a sketch was made of the suspect that appeared in the carport. The detectives asked the couple in the car to help with details of the suspect. The couple in the car only saw this person at a glance. However, Michelle was with this person directly in front of her for a very short period of time. She gets to see a face to face with this guy. She hands him the leash. He walks the dog to safety across the street, then disappears into that church parking lot, reappearing in the crowd that's growing in front of the house as the firefighters are attempting to put out the fire. We will say this, though. Michelle has been vocal about this. There is that sketch that's out there. Michelle, when she sees the Sketch that was put together, produced by the police department. She says that she immediately told the officer there that there were a number of things incorrect with this sketch. The officer informed her that they were using the sketch anyway. Michelle also had seen the carport suspect one other time. She says the morning after the fire, while she was at work, her co worker was dropped off by the person that she says is the man that she saw in the carport the night before.
- [57:00]
B
That's pretty freaking weird.
- [57:01]
A
So she calls police immediately.
- [57:03]
B
What did she call them?
- [57:04]
A
And says, look, that man who I was wondering who he was standing in the carport just dropped off my coworker this morning at work. So it's never been released here, Captain. But if this person is one in the same. Right. We don't know for certain 100% certainty that this man is the man that she saw in the car carport, but Michelle says that it is. So if this man is one in the same, it sounds to me like Michelle and the police know this person's identity.
- [57:38]
B
Let me get Captain Obvious for a second. During their investigation, do they find this to be an accidental fire? Do they believe this was arson?
- [57:48]
A
100% arson.
- [57:50]
B
Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
- [57:51]
A
And the other thing that's tricky about this fire is that it's been stated, and I want to be clear about something here. There is information in this case, like every other case that we review, but this case specifically, there's information in this case that either A, the police do not know or B, they know this information and they're choosing to not make it public. You are putting a sketch out there to the world, asking for people to come forward and assist you, the public, to assist your department in this case. We know that to be fact because you've released a sketch. This case, it. I don't care what local police are calling it. This is a cold case. This is an old case. There's no purpose in withholding any information. You need to. If you have information that you've built a case against somebody, take it to a grand jury or if you're not going to do that, release that information, hoping that you get better and more information on your case.
- [59:00]
B
The difficult thing I think here with Crystal is she would have came in contact with a lot of individuals. We already stated that there's kind of a stalking situation between her and one of her friends. And also when she was attending school, did she meet anybody else? And is there a possibility that she was having her cake and eat it too? I mean, I know there's no hardcore evidence that we were able to uncover. But is it possible with having a relationship where there's a big age gap, that she was using that relationship as a financial gain and possibly seeing somebody else? These are all questions that I think are not out of bounds for law enforcement to be thinking about or asking about.
- [59:48]
A
Exactly. And because they've not released certain information in this case, we do not know where their investigation took them, if anybody's been cleared. The thing that is obvious to me though, Captain, is as said, there's no reason for them not to know the name of the person in the carport. If in fact Michelle was correct the following day when she says, the person I saw last night twice, I saw again a third time when he was dropping off my coworker the next morning at work. So that person, the police know that individual's name, what does that mean? It's hard for us to say. Have they interviewed this person? Is this person considered a person of interest or is it somebody that they've dismissed completely with either a not looking at him or having looked at him and, and have having cause for dismissing him as a good suspect? What we do know is they're still asking about the person in the sketch. So that's a little bit difficult. That's a hurdle that is difficult for us to clear here.
- [60:54]
B
Well, it makes you wonder if she thinks the person that was dropping off her friend at work, if that was a dead end lead and it was not the same guy, it seems like why would they keep bringing up the sketch if they knew who he was and they already talked to this individual. But I think we both agree on some level you have to start going hold back information that's responsible. But at some point when the investigation is not going anywhere, when is the hold back information irresponsible to keep away from the public?
- [61:29]
A
Well, and this in its most simplest of forms is as follows. This person, Michelle has stated, I saw this guy. The only place he could have come from was the home that was burning with the dead body inside of it. Makes sense that is her opinion.
- [61:46]
B
Yeah.
- [61:47]
A
Her other opinion is the guy that I saw in the carport was the man that dropped off my co worker the next day.
- [61:53]
B
This is really bizarre.
- [61:55]
A
And police are still asking the public for help with that sketch.
- [61:59]
B
Yeah.
- [62:00]
A
Weird it this seems, this seems like an easier, an easier road to a solution than what I think some people might be making it.
- [62:11]
B
But we've heard this a million times from law enforcement. We know who did it, we know why they did it. We just don't think we have enough evidence to prove it in a court of law. And that's what matters, because you need to get this scumbag piece of shit off the streets.
- [62:30]
A
Get him off the streets with her friends. In regard to Crystal's friends, Ashley and Annette have. They've been in trouble with the law prior to Crystal Bradshaw being murdered and have been in trouble with the law after. And some information that has come out in this case that I find to be very intriguing is a rumor. And we've seen. We've seen this work in some cases where eventually they get solved. And some of the rumors that were first out on the streets in the town shortly after a murder turn out to be true. One of those rumors is that the object that Crystal had been killed with, remember, she was beaten to death. Somebody had struck her with a heavy object.
- [63:27]
B
Yeah. Piece of.
- [63:29]
A
Leading to injuries and then leading to her death. The local rumor was, and has been since early on in this case, that it was a clock, one of those, like, small clocks that you put on the shelf or you hang on the wall. I don't know the exact details about this clock, but the other rumor that goes along with that clock being what was used to hit. To strike Crystal with is that some believe that that's where she stashed cash. And remember, it was always said that her boyfriend was giving her hundreds of dollars in cash weekly, daily. Well, this adds up after a while. And if she's stashing cash around the house and. And then we have friends that are over prior to her being killed in the house being set on fire. And part of that story and that visit is that one of them, either for themselves or collectively for the group, asked to borrow some money, and they were denied, and they were denied. Did they decide to come back at some point and just take the money anyway? Was there a struggle over that clock that concealed the cash? Was. I, I. If both things are true, it's really difficult for me to believe that that money has nothing to do with her murder either. There was money there and it was taken. Because what's been reported is that there was no money found inside the house. No cash money, except for a roll of quarters that was found inside that house after the fire.
- [64:59]
B
The tough thing becomes here, though, the more people involved, the more likely somebody is willing to talk at some point. And as far as I know, they're not talking.
- [65:10]
A
And if they have, their statements have not been made public. What we're left with is a woman who was killed Inside of her home. And then the house is set on fire. The fire and the onlooker of Johnny's son Sean, the neighboring fire chief, being present there, who worked at the diner himself, being in the crowd that night, is always going to tie him to this case as a potential person of interest. Her friends, all four of them that were there that evening, have to always be linked as a potential person of interest or persons of interest who could have acted together.
- [65:52]
B
Right.
- [65:53]
A
And maybe when this went down the way that I envision this, Captain, is if this was about the money, and I have no reason to think that it wasn't, if this was about the money, there was some kind of fight, some kind of struggle over the money, one that the perpetrator or perpetrators may not have intended or believed would happen. Maybe they thought they would just be handed cash and they would go on their way. But something happened and they may, the person responsible or persons responsible may not have intended to kill Crystal that evening. Maybe didn't leave their house, Going to Crystal's house, thinking that they would kill her that night, but whatever happened led to her death. And then later they got a problem they gotta cover up. And their, their way of covering this up is by setting the house on fire. It's believed. Everything that I've seen shows me that the, the fire started near this refrigerator or behind the refrigerator. I've wondered, does this show some kind of knowledge of fires? You have electrical fires, you have appliances that start fires. Would this be something that somebody has experience with fires attempt to do, hoping that maybe, well, the house and the body would be burned beyond recognition. And so they might, maybe the authorities would just think she died in the house fire that was caused by faulty wiring or bad appliance.
- [67:22]
B
And I hate when the cases get to this point because in my mind, if somebody said, captain, what's your thoughts? Which probably nobody would ask me my thoughts because they're smart enough to know that I'm just going to ramble. But I go, your guess is as good as mine. I see multiple people that have motives, multiple people that have means. I think the one that possibly you could rule out is the ex husband. They were separated for a time period. He had his son. We haven't had anybody come forward saying, I was watching his son that night and he disappeared for an hour.
- [68:00]
A
Yeah, I think because he comes off well. And if everything, if all the allegations are true, he's not a good guy. And because of the close relationship with the deceased and him not being a good guy, he's obviously somebody that is openly discussed as a potential suspect here amongst the public. But this case, as we said, is a cold case. And there is a new cold case investigator in the area. His name is Sergeant Tony Brown. He was on the scene the night that Crystal was murdered. The night that she was discovered in that burning home in 2021. We get this announcement. It's the announcement of a $25,000 reward in this unsolved homicide case. And I want to read for you their statement. It says Crystal Bradshaw was found murdered in her home on June 3, 2007 at 107 N. Brook St. In Boiling Springs. This is located off of Highway 9 between Northbrook Baptist Church and Raceway. The fire department was called by someone that noticed the fire coming from the home in the early morning of June 3rd. We believe the murder took place in the late evening hours on June 2. She had only lived in her home for four months with her young son after separating from her husband. He was keeping their child that night at his home Since Crystal had to get up early for work. She was 28 years old and working as a waitress at the Peach Blossom Restaurant. She worked the morning shift and also attended Spartansburg Community College. The night of the homicide, an unknown person was seen in the carport of the home when it was engulfed and the neighbors were gathering trying to help. This person left the scene before the fire trucks and police arrived. We have a composite of this person and believe they may have useful information for this case. We would like to announce for the 14 year anniversary a $25,000 reward that has been donated anonymously. We hope this will encourage those that have information to come forward. The reward money is being offered for one year for the person that gives information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of the suspect. We feel confident that others know details that will solve this case.
- [70:33]
B
That.
- [70:34]
A
That to me is a. Is the statement that I want to hear right there. Now mind you, this reward was offered up $25,000 for one year. That year came and went. They did not reward this money to anyone currently. Captain, if anybody has information in this case, please reach out to Tony Brown of the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department at T. Brown at Spartanburg county county.org and we will include this information in our show notes. Or you can call the Unsolved homicide unit at 864-503-4556. I also want to point this out too. You know the victims here. It always goes beyond the person that was killed, right? I review a case like this and it's very difficult for me to walk away and say, ashley knows nothing, Annette knows nothing. It's very hard for me to say that. I'm not willing to say that in this case. I think one or both of them know something. I think the police are of that belief as well. The statement in that, in that reward offering, we feel confident that others know details that will solve this case. How did that person seen in the carport get to her home? Were they already there for a gathering or for other reasons? How were they traveling alone or with somebody else? Did they leave by themselves or with somebody else? These are all questions that have answers. And those answers could lead to the truth about who killed Crystal Bradshaw. After his mother's murder, little Jacob went to live with his father in a nearby town. Jacob has never had any contact with his aunt or other family members on Crystal's side beyond the interaction that he had a few months after his mother was murdered. So this family, Crystal's family, not only did they lose Crystal, but they lost Jacob as well. The family would welcome the opportunity to speak to Jacob. If Jacob is listening, please contact this podcast for their contact information as they miss you very much. Anybody with information about the case about the murder of Crystal Bradshaw should contact Tony Brown of the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department.
- [73:25]
B
You could be anywhere in the world, but you're here with us. That makes you awesome sauce, Colonel. Do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful, beautiful listeners?
- [73:33]
A
Yeah, everybody loves our other show off the Record on Apple, subscription podcast and on Patreon. And just days ago, we released a bonus off the Record episode on the Missing Date, the date that Lauren Spurrier, college student, went missing. So this week, Captain, we're featuring and recommending to our great and beautiful listeners, College Girl Missing the True story of how a Young woman Disappeared in Plain Sight. And this is by Sean Cohen, who we interviewed for off the Record. College student Lauren Sperrier was pursuing her dreams, joining her boyfriend at a party school 800 miles from home. Social and gregarious, studying fashion and rooming with friends, Lauren embraced her new adventure with the zeal of a young woman who suddenly had everything she desired. But there was a dark side that she and her inner circle kept secret. To learn about these secrets, check out Sean Cohen's book, College Girl Missing the True Story of How a Young Woman Disappeared in Plain Sight. You can find that recommendation and many more on our recommended page@truecrimegarage.com and if
- [74:49]
B
you need more True Crime Garage for your earballs, make sure you subscribe to True Crime Garage on Patreon or Apple Podcast subscription until next week.
- [74:59]
A
Be good, be kind and don't live.
- [75:04]
B
Sam.