☛TS Case of missing McKinleyville woman continues

The husband of a McKinleyville woman who has been missing since September 2008 allegedly had his girlfriend impersonate his wife in an effort to retrieve her car from a local tow yard months after his wife's disappearance, according to an affidavit for a search warrant filed with the Humboldt County Superior Court on Monday.

Monica Bradshaw, 53, was reportedly last seen in September, but was never reported missing. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office began investigating the case after being notified by a local insurance claims adjuster that Bradshaw's husband -- Robin Bradshaw, 56 -- had allegedly acted suspiciously while trying to submit a claim on his wife's car.

Robin Bradshaw has not been arrested, charged with a crime nor labeled a suspect in the case. Humboldt County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Brenda Godsey said Monday that Robin Bradshaw remains a “person of interest.”

Messages left for an attorney believed to have been retained by Robin Bradshaw were not returned by the Times-Standard's deadline Monday. An attempt to reach Robin Bradshaw at his place of employment was also unsuccessful. A woman who answered the phone there said he was not in the office, had no voice mail nor any other numbers where he could be reached.

According to the affidavit filed Monday, Monica Bradshaw's case came to the attention of the Sheriff's Office earlier this month after an insurance adjuster for Capital Insurance Group in Ferndale notified the office of a call she'd received from Robin Bradshaw seeking to submit a claim on his wife's car, which had been stolen and recovered. The adjuster informed Robin Bradshaw that his wife would have to sign and authorize the claim for her vehicle.

”Robin Bradshaw then advised that he would have Monica Bradshaw contact (the adjuster),” the affidavit states. “(The adjuster) then received a telephone call from a person claiming to be Monica Bradshaw. The voice sounded like Robin Bradshaw attempting to disguise his voice.”

According to the affidavit, Robin Bradshaw reportedly went down to the tow yard with a woman, later identified as his 31-year-old girlfriend, who reportedly claimed to be Monica Bradshaw and allegedly signed the vehicle release form with her name.
When the insurance adjuster reportedly called the Bradshaws' residence to follow up, a female voice answered, telling the adjuster that Monica Bradshaw “had died,” according to the affidavit.

A Sheriff's Office investigator was later dispatched to the Bradshaws' home on Dow's Prairie Road in McKinleyville and spoke with Robin Bradshaw, who allegedly told the investigator that he and his wife had been married for 30 years before she “up and vanished,” according to the affidavit.

Robin Bradshaw, according to the affidavit, then allegedly changed his story to say that his wife was down south with some friends, before changing it again to say that she went to visit her brother in Utah.

”As (the investigator) was speaking with Robin, he noticed that he was sweating and shaking throughout the interview,” the affidavit states, adding that Robin Bradshaw also could not stand still as if he were “tense and very nervous.”

The investigator later called Monica Bradshaw's brother in Utah and was told by the brother he had not talked with his sister in about eight years, according to the affidavit. The affidavit also states that Robin Bradshaw reportedly told the investigator that he had been seeing a girlfriend for about three months.

Last week, neighbors of the Bradshaw's property said they last saw Monica Bradshaw in August or September, when she and her husband set off to bury a neighbor's horse on a nearby property with a backhoe. They said the backhoe remained on the couple's property for some time, and they witnessed the husband doing some excavating work in the yard.

Some neighbors said they grew suspicious after Robin Bradshaw offered differing accounts as to his wife's location. Several neighbors said Bradshaw's husband first told them that his wife died of cancer, then later said she died years ago. He told them the woman they had come to know for the six or so years that he had lived in the neighborhood was actually Monica Bradshaw's sister. Then, neighbors said, Robin Bradshaw told them that his wife suffers from depression and had left the area.

Sheriff's Office Detective Karen Quinnel also interviewed Robin Bradshaw on his property, according to the affidavit, and reportedly learned that he had poured a concrete patio in the summer of 2008, soon after his wife's disappearance.

”Again, throughout the contact, Robin Bradshaw appeared nervous and tense,” the affidavit states.

A search warrant was served on Bradshaws' property the weekend of Jan. 17, and more than two dozen items were seized, including financial records, a computer, an address book, medications, receipts and a number of handwritten notes, according to a search warrant inventory list. A can of Campbell's soup was also seized, according to the inventory.

Godsey said she couldn't comment specifically on the seized items, but said the California Department of Justice is involved in the case.

”The Department of Justice was on scene while the search warrant was being served, so they were assisting with that and that includes taking possible evidence and things of interest to their laboratory (for forensic testing),” Godsey said.
Thadeus Greenson can be reached at 441-0509 or tgreenson@times-standard.com

Thadeus Greenson/The Times-Standard
Posted: 01/27/2009 01:30:55 AM PST
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PREVIOUSLY:
◼ DA's office (Paul Gallegos) still undecided in Bradshaw case; Gallegos to talk to pathologist next week May 28, 2010
◼ Bradshaw sentencing postponed, Gallegos "weighing" decision May 5, 2010
...Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos received Super's report last week, but has yet to decide how to proceed with the case. At Tuesday's hearing, Bradshaw's attorney, Peter Martin, said Gallegos had contacted him asking that the sentencing hearing be postponed.

”He wants more time, I believe, to review the medical report and to request supporting materials from the medical examiner,” Martin said....
◼ ”It's going to be something Paul's going to have to think about.” April 27, 2010
-- Bradshaw autopsy report with Humboldt County DA; indicates blunt force trauma as cause of death
◼ Autopsy report coming in Bradshaw case; plea agreement hinges on results for McKinleyville man accused of wife's murder APRIL 24, 2010
◼ Bradshaw positively identified; full autopsy report pending more test results FEBRUARY 01, 2010
◼ Autopsy set for Sunday in Bradshaw case JANUARY 23, 2010
◼ ANOTHER PLEA DEAL - Bradshaw agreed to give location of body in plea deal JANUARY 09, 2010
Robin Stuart Bradshaw entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors last month, agreeing to disclose the location of his wife's body and plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, court records show.
◼ Authorities believe they have found the body of missing McKinleyville woman JANUARY 08, 2010
The person further told investigators, according to the affidavit, that Robin Bradshaw confessed to first burying his wife in a shallow grave in the backyard of his home, only to later dig her body up and bury it on an undeveloped Danco subdivision off of Fieldbrook Road in McKinleyville.
◼ Hearing for McKinleyville murder case continued NOVEMBER 05, 2009
◼ Bradshaw Prelim continued to Nov. 5 SEPTEMBER 30, 2009
◼ Prelim for Robin Stuart Bradshaw JULY 07, 2009
◼ Bradshaw pleads not guilty to murdering wife June 16, 2009
◼ Robin Stuart Bradshaw, arrested JUNE 16, 2009
◼ Second search warrant issued in missing woman case - and a request to seal documents January 29, 2009
◼ Monica Bradshaw: MISSING January 27, 2009