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Killer had their photos; so, what happened to them?

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 26, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Investigators are trying to find about 50 women who were photographed decades ago by a man now on death row for murdering two aspiring models in the early 1980s, authorities said Tuesday.

Detectives are investigating whether the women were raped or killed between 1975 and 1984 by William Richard Bradford, said Los Angeles County sheriff's officials, who posted photos of the women on a department Web site in the hope the public could help account for them.

One, No. 28 on the display, was identified as Donnalee Campbell Duhamel, whose decapitated body was found in a Malibu canyon in the 1980s a few days after she met Bradford at a bar, said sheriff's Capt. Ray Peavy.

"Some of these women we ... identified," Peavy said. "Several of them were his wives, ex-wives. But for the most part the majority of these folks we do not know who they are, who they were. Many of them could have likely been homicide victims themselves. Many of them may have just been women that he met in bars and took home and took photographs of."

In the penalty phase of his trial, Bradford asked the jury to sentence him to death, saying, "Think of how many you don't even know about."

In the 1970s and '80s, Bradford, now 60, posed as a freelance photographer in the West Los Angeles area, taking photos of women he met at bars and "car race events," according to information on the department Web site, which showed photos of women striking poses.

The photos and film were seized from Bradford's home when he was arrested in 1984, Peavy said. They went into a case file and remained largely untouched until now.

The case has generated leads in Michigan and Florida, where Bradford once lived or traveled.

Bradford was convicted in 1987 of first-degree murder in the stranglings of Shari Miller, 21, whom he met in a bar, and Tracey Campbell, 15, a neighbor. Prosecutors said he lured them into accompanying him with promises to help their modeling careers. Miller's body was found in a Los Angeles parking lot in July 1984, while Campbell's body was found in August 1984 at a campsite.

[Last modified July 26, 2006, 01:51:09]