Dennis Bradford Arrested for Rape and Attempted Murder of 8-Year-Old Girl

October 14, 2009

Jennifer Schuett was only 8-years-old on August 10, 1990, the day that she was kidnapped, raped, and left for dead in a field with her throat slit, unable to cry out for help because of her life-threatening injuries.  Dennis Earl Bradford, 40, was finally arrested on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 in North Little Rock, Arkansas, where he has resided for the past seven years, by North Little Rock police, Texas police, and FBI agents.  DNA evidence tested last year led to Bradford's arrest.

At the time of the 1990 attack, Bradford lived in Dickinson, Texas, only a short distance from where Jennifer was kidnapped from her parents' apartment.  According to details contained in an arrest affidavit and other police documents, Jennifer, while lying in a hospital bed recovering from her injuries in 1990, told detectives what had happened to her by writing notes to them.  She explained that she was asleep in her bedroom when a man opened her window, identified himself as "Dennis," literally snatched her out of her bed and drove her to a wooded area.  Along the way, he choked her four times.  When they arrived at the wooded area, he took her clothes off of her, sexually assaulted her, and slashed her throat with a pocket knife.

It was a miracle she survived.  A group of children found her approximately 14 hours later.

"After the attack, Jennifer remembers laying naked in the field and being unable to yell for help and unable to get up or move," stated a portion of the police affidavit.  "Jennifer said that as she was lying in the field, she knew she was going to die."

"That little 8-year-old girl defied all the odds," Dickinson Police Chief Ron Morales said.  "She miraculously survived this brutal attack."

Jennifer helped police put together a sketch of the suspect which turned out to be strikingly similar to Bradford's photo on his driver's license at the time of the attack—recovered from motor vehicle records only recently, and told them that he had been driving an old blue car.  Not a lot to go on at the time, but it would all fit later.

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Male underwear was found at the scene of Jennifer's attack, but at the time DNA evidentiary technology was not yet available.  However, in part because Jennifer has never given up hope that her assailant would someday be found—as evidenced by the fact that she readily comes forward to speak out about the crime—investigators resubmitted the DNA evidence to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia in July 2008.  This time there was a match—Bradford.  His profile was in the FBI's national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database for a 1997 kidnapping conviction in Arkansas that was chillingly similar to the attack on Jennifer, with the major exception being the age of the victim.  In the 1997 case, police alleged that he had kidnapped a 35-year-old woman, sexually assaulted her and threatened to cut her with a knife.

Bradford, according to police information, had dropped off that victim at a horseracing track, but she was able to get her assailant's license plate number, which she gave to the police.  Officers wrote in their report that the woman had feared for her life because her assailant had "strangled her to the point she lost consciousness" and repeatedly told her that "he was going to kill her."  Convicted in that case, Bradford's DNA was collected and placed in the CODIS system.  He served four years of a 12-year sentence, and was released on parole in February 2000.  He completed his parole supervision in April 2008.

Jennifer Schuett said after Bradford's arrest that the detectives had promised her that they were not going to stop "until they solved the case…they kept their promise."

"This event 19 years ago was a tragic one," Jennifer said in a brief statement.  "I stand here wanting you to know I am OK.  I am not a victim.  I am victorious."

If convicted in the Jennifer Schuett case on charges of attempted capital murder, Bradford faces life in prison.

Photo Credits: FBI.gov

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Comments

[Ang]

i think this girl is amazing! she had an angel sitting with her that night! i hope her life can now be 100% whole knowing she prevailed!

[Camilla Brookshire]

I am one of his kids best friends and i helped her though all of it and i also met her dad and he is a very nice guy . He isn't the same that he was!

[unimportant]

They dont change Camilla, you were deceived. They never change. He is a sadosexual predator. Of the Non-discriminate power assertive variety.
The only triumph of this story is that The Victim had the courage to prevail. And as she said herself She is No Longer a Victim, she is Victorious.Many are not so fortunate...cheers to the detectives too, persistence is the mother of resolution. You should be ashamed of yourself for even SUGGESTING that a repeat offender who could do that to a little girl is a NICE GUY...guess what? they're all "NICE GUYS" until they're caught and discovered for what they ARE at heart.

[palen]

He may not be the "same" whatever that means, but he will pay for what he did. He is a monster.

[Ryan Lamb]

This is his doughters boyfriend and he may have done it but the kids should not have to pay for what he did

[nonya business cobb]

u aint gotta be a %$#@ about it...his daughter is really nice and u should feel ashamed for doin this...that was in the past move on ur eyes r in the front of ur head not in the back...so quit talkin krap about it...

[Camilla Brookshire]

Ok unimpotant, i do no him and he has changed and hes in there for life and does not deserve it!!!! He has changed and god made it that way that you can change but you still have to pay for the prices you have made!!! He has writen his daughter letters and i have read them and he is so nice and he has changed no matter wat anyone says!!!!!!!!!

[Camilla Brookshire]

So dont tell me that i should be ashamed of my self becuz i havent done ANYTHING WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sara]

Dennis hanged himself at about 1am this morning in his county jail cell. Poor Jen will never be able to face him in court and be able to get that closure. I know that she is extremely devastated about this! Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers so that she can continue her journey with "Use Your Voice"!!

[Good for Jennifer]

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/37229766#37229766

This is a news video about Jennifer and what happened to her. For those of you who are defending Dennis, or who know his family and are saying he'd changed... take a look at the video and hear Jennifer's story in her own words. He RAPED an 8 year old child, leaving her INFERTILE for the rest of her life. Think about that. And, then left her naked to die after slashing her throat. He never turned himself in-- he kept this a secret and then did it again to a woman... and who knows how many others whom we don't know of yet. Someone like this (who did it again 20 years later and got caught) doesn't change. Sorry. He may have seemed "nice", but he was a horrific human being 20 years ago, and again recently. Nice guy? You might want to think about the definition of "nice guy".

[veekay]

camilla, you're saying he didn't deserve life? Did an 8 year old girl deserve a lifetime of pain, nightmares and to have her childhood ripped away by a sick, cowardly SOB? Of course if someone raped you camilla, they wouldn't deserve life either would they? You would say "move on, forget it?" try some compassion!

He was such a coward, can't even face the consequences of his own actions! Society is better off without scum like him!

[steffany]

I pray for his kids and his wife. They are the ones who are suffering the torment of the media and everything else. He probably was a wonderful father. Remember him as the wonderful person that you had. He could not have helped the way he was. As cruel as it is...our society creats our monsters (maybe he was brutalized when he was a child). I can see that he was a great father to you guys, but he did have a hidden illness that he couldn't change. A few horrific acts don't make the man. Look at our soldiers who are brualizing women and children overseas....and that is legal according to the rules of war.

[jules]

They don't change. I don't care how well you think you know him or how much he said he changed. He was evil, pure and simple, and without him the world is a much better place. Probably the most decent thing he ever did in his life was to hang himself.