◼ Court document sheds light on McKinleyville murder case
Two people close to a McKinleyville man accused of murdering his wife have told authorities that he made confessions to them about the crime and that he said it was an act of self-defense, according to court documents in the case.
Robin Stuart Bradshaw, 57, was arrested June 12 on a murder warrant, months after Monica Bradshaw, his 53-year-old wife of 30 years, went missing. Robin Bradshaw has pleaded not guilty to the single murder charge he faces, and remains in Humboldt County jail on $1 million bail awaiting a July 7 preliminary hearing.
Monica Bradshaw was reportedly last seen by neighbors of the couple's Dow's Prairie home in late summer of 2008, when she and Robin Bradshaw set off to bury a neighbor's dead horse. She was never reported missing, and her body has not been recovered.
An affidavit for an arrest warrant in Robin Bradshaw's case file sheds some new light on the case against him, and why county prosecutors are prepared to proceed in the case without Monica Bradshaw's body.
According to the document, a person close to Robin Bradshaw told investigators in the case that he confessed to having killed his wife, saying it was an act of self-defense. The person told investigators that Bradshaw claimed he was in the master bathroom of the couple's house when Monica Bradshaw attacked him with a crowbar, hitting him across the back.
Robin Bradshaw reportedly told the person that he was able to wrestle the crowbar away from his wife, and then hit her over the head with it, causing her to fall into the bathtub. According to the affidavit, Robin Bradshaw reportedly said he then hit Monica Bradshaw twice more, once in the head and once in the shoulder.
The person further told investigators that Robin Bradshaw confessed to first burying his wife in a shallow grave in the backyard of the couple's Dow's Prairie Road home, only to later dig up her body and bury it on an undeveloped Danco subdivision off of Fieldbrook Road in McKinleyville.
I live in Dow's Prairie not far from where the Bradshaw's live.
ReplyDeleteBeen hearing rumors up here for months. I wasn't surprised that they finally arrested Robin.
Stuff like that generally makes it rounds locally before the cops come on the scene.
I think he did kill his wife.
Heard it on the grapevine....
Whatever admissions he may have made, before they can be used against him PVG has to prove that a crime has been committed. Subtract the purported confessions and what do you have? If this is all the DA has, it does not seem likely that he can prove that Ms. Bradshaw is dead, let alone murdered. Unless there is something juicy in the lab stuff (purported blood from jeep & bedroom, etc.) then I am not sanguine.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, there has to be confidence/evidence that the informants aren't the real killers [if anyone has been killed, per red], framing the obvious suspect. This will be an interesting case to follow.
ReplyDeleteWho is the g/f and why is her name kept out of the press? Which home on Dow's Prairie was it?
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