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+---- Thread: [World] Crime News - Newfoundland Edition (/showthread.php?tid=6325834)
Crime News - Newfoundland Edition - DramaticIllusion - May 22, 2026
A 14-Year-Old Girl Vanished on Her Way Home — Her Killer Has Never Been Identified
One of the most haunting unsolved homicide cases in Newfoundland and Labrador is the murder of 14-year-old Dana Bradley.
On December 14, 1981, Dana was last seen hitchhiking along Topsail Road in St. John’s after stopping at a friend’s home following school. She was reportedly eager to get home in time to celebrate her mother’s birthday. Witnesses later told investigators they saw Dana enter a vehicle driven by an unidentified man. (A composite of the man is in comments below).
She never made it home.
Four days later, Dana’s body was discovered on Maddox Cove Road, south of St. John’s, by a family searching for a Christmas tree. Investigators determined she had suffered a fatal skull fracture. Her body had also been deliberately arranged, with her school books placed beneath her arm.
Over the years, the investigation has followed numerous leads and generated significant public attention.
In 1986, a local man named David Somerton confessed to killing Dana, but later withdrew his statement, alleging he had been pressured by police. He was later convicted of mischief in relation to the false confession and sentenced to two years in custody. DNA testing would eventually exclude him as the killer.
Decades later, in 2014, another development emerged when a man claimed he had witnessed Dana’s murder as a young child. His allegations led investigators to excavate two buried vehicles, but no evidence connected to the case was found. The individual accused by the witness was also excluded through DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene.
In 2016, investigators announced that advances in forensic science had allowed them to develop a DNA profile belonging to an unknown male believed to be responsible for Dana’s murder.
To this day, that individual has not been identified.
There remains hope that modern genetic genealogy and continued advances in forensic technology may finally provide answers in the murder of Dana Bradley more than four decades later.
Please consider sharing Dana’s story. Even after all these years, renewed attention can help keep unsolved cases alive and may one day lead to the answers her family has waited so long to receive.
(Tried To Post Sketch of Murder and Victim ) but for account reasons could not. DM Me if you want the sketch for forensics.