Dennis Earl Bradford: The Cold Case, Confession, and Suicide

Dennis Earl Bradford was an Arkansas welder and convicted kidnapper who was identified in 2009, through advanced DNA testing, as the man who abducted, sexually assaulted, and cut the throat of eight-year-old Jennifer Schuett in Dickinson, Texas, in 1990. He confessed after his arrest, was charged with attempted capital murder, and hanged himself in the Galveston County Jail in May 2010 before the case could go to trial.¹²

The 1990 Attack in Dickinson, Texas

On the night of August 9, 1990, Bradford climbed through a window at the Yorktown Apartments in Dickinson and lifted eight-year-old Jennifer Schuett out of her bed. He told her he was an undercover police officer who knew her family.³¹

Schuett lay in the field through the night and into the next day. Around 6 p.m. on August 10, 1990, children playing tag found her alive. She was airlifted to a hospital for emergency surgery and a tracheostomy. Doctors initially believed she would never speak again.¹

Investigators recovered clothing from both Schuett and her attacker in a ditch about a quarter-mile from the field. DNA was present, but the sample was too small for conclusive testing with 1990 technology.⁴¹⁵

Four days after the attack, forensic artist Lois Gibson produced a composite by having Schuett point to features in reference books. FBI Special Agent Richard Rennison later said the sketch resembled Bradford’s driver’s license photo from months before the attack so closely that “it was almost as if Lois Gibson was drawing a sketch based on that driver’s license photo.”¹ Even so, no suspect was identified, and the case went cold for eighteen years.

The Arkansas Conviction That Put His DNA on File

On April 16, 1996, Bradford committed a very similar crime in Garland County, Arkansas. He offered a woman a ride, drove her to a remote location, beat and choked her, held a knife to her throat, and raped her. A jury convicted him of kidnapping but deadlocked on the rape charges.⁴ He entered the Arkansas prison system in March 1997 on a twelve-year sentence. His DNA was collected and uploaded to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).⁶

Bradford was paroled in February 2000 after serving about three years. He settled on Okmulgee Street in North Little Rock, married, had two children, and worked roughly a decade as a welder at United Fence, where a company representative later said he had “mended his old ways.”⁴⁷ Because his conviction was for kidnapping rather than a sex offense, he did not appear on the state’s sex offender registry. His parole ended on April 3, 2008.⁸

How the Cold Case Was Solved

In March 2008, Dickinson Police Detective Tim Cromie asked the FBI’s Houston field office to take a fresh look at the Schuett file. The Bureau’s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team had circulated a memo seeking cold cases involving surviving child abduction victims whose evidence could be retested. Schuett’s case qualified because she had lived.⁶⁹

In July 2008, the original clothing was sent to the FBI Laboratory at Quantico. Modern techniques could isolate DNA from single cells, something that was not possible in 1990. On September 22, 2009, the lab confirmed that the profile from the 1990 evidence matched Bradford’s CODIS profile.⁹⁴

On the morning of October 13, 2009, agents arrested Bradford, then 40, near his home in North Little Rock as he headed to work. FBI personnel from Houston and Little Rock, North Little Rock police, and Detective Cromie carried out the arrest. Bradford was charged with attempted capital murder. The next day he appeared in court in Little Rock and waived extradition to Texas.¹⁰⁴

The Confession

During questioning, Bradford at first denied any contact with Schuett. When investigators pressed him, he said, “You did your homework.” Cromie later called it one of the coldest responses he had ever heard.¹

Bradford then confessed. “I took that little girl out there and I raped her, and I cut her throat. I don’t know why. I’ve never known why.” He described pulling into the apartment parking lot, entering through an open window, and taking the child. He said he had been “like a savaged animal” and was “sick and tired of lookin’ over my shoulder and bein’ afraid.”¹

Death Before Trial

Back in Texas, Bradford’s bail was set at one million dollars. His initial hearing was held inside the Galveston County Jail rather than in a courtroom for security reasons. He waived a court-appointed attorney, said he would hire his own counsel, and the judge ordered physical and mental evaluations. Prosecutors intended to present the case to a Galveston County grand jury.³¹⁰

The case never reached a jury. At around 1 a.m. on May 10, 2010, jailers doing a routine check found Bradford dead in his single-man cell. He had fashioned a noose from a bed cover and hanged himself. Staff attempted to revive him and he was taken to the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he was pronounced dead. Galveston County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Major Ray Tuttoilmondo said there were “no signs of foul play.”²¹¹

What Happened to Jennifer Schuett

A plea deal had reportedly been scheduled for August 10, 2010, the twentieth anniversary of the attack, and Schuett had planned to read a victim impact statement in court. Instead, she traveled to Bradford’s grave on that date and read it there. “Dennis Bradford,” she said. “I waited 19 years, two months, and three days to find out your last name and for you to be caught.”¹

Schuett has since spoken publicly about the case and worked as an advocate for crime survivors across the United States and Canada.¹²

1
CBS News. Jennifer Schuett Case: Afraid of the Dark
2
Galveston County Daily News. Schuett Rape Suspect Commits Suicide in Jail
3
CNN. Texas Rape Arrest
4
CNN. Bradford DNA Match
5
People. Jennifer Schuett Raped, 20 Years Later
6
FBI. Schuett Case FBI Report
7
CNN. Texas Cold Case Victim
8
Arkansas Times. NLR Arrest in Texas Child Rape
9
CNN. Texas Rape Arrest
10
FBI. FBI Houston Press Release
11
Beaumont Enterprise. Man Found Hanging in Galveston Cell After Arrest
12
Hill Country Crisis Council. CAC Conference 2026