Richard Walter Bradley: Alleged serial killer lured 4 victims into woods promising gold and killed them

WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES: A Washington state man lured four gullible people into believing he would show them the beauty of gold hidden deep in the woods, only to murder them and leave their corpses to decay. Richard Walter Bradley, 40, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with Brandi Blake's death

According to court documents, prosecutors last week brought three more murder charges in connection with the killings of Emilio Maturin, Michael Goeman, and Goeman's son Vance Lakey.

Where was Vance Lakey last seen?

According to KING, an NBC affiliate Lakey, 31, was last seen driving his father's Durango on March 15, 2021. Later, the Durango was the subject of a traffic stop by police. The Durango was reportedly later being driven by Bradley's wife and was seized.

Bradley had planned to hire a friend to break into the impound lot and set fire to the Durango, but he never carried out the plan.

On April 21, 2021, the 59-year-old Goeman's body was discovered off an unmaintained county road; a week later, his son's body was discovered in the same location. They'd both been shot.

According to an arrest affidavit cited by The Seattle Times, all four victims were well-to-do. The probable cause affidavit for Blake and Maturin's deaths was examined by Law&Crime.

As per the records, Blake's body was found by investigators on May 26, 2021, in Auburn, Washington's Game Farm Wilderness, which is about 30 miles south of Seattle. The cause of the death was blunt force trauma.

Three more rib bones that were found by police to be part of Blake's body were later identified as belonging to Maturin.

Where was Brandi Blake last seen?

Blake, 44, was last seen with Bradley on May 5, 2021. In the days after Blake's disappearance, several witnesses told detectives with the King County Sheriff's Office that they had seen Bradley driving Blake's Ford Mustang.

They also disclosed to investigators that Blake had told them of Bradley's purported desire for her assistance in recovering a large amount of gold from an earlier heist.

According to the cops, who referenced the probable cause affidavit pertaining to the deaths of Goeman and Lackey, a homeless man had seen Bradley in a car similar to Blake's with a shovel.

In June 2021, investigators detained Bradley on charges of first-degree murder in relation to Blake's murder and arson because it was purported that Bradley had planned to set Goeman's Durango on fire.

In the last two years, detectives worked to compile evidence linking Bradley to the other three killings since he was already being held without bond.

Detectives were informed by a witness that "years ago", Bradley had lured an accused drug supplier—later identified as Maturin—to the woods with the promise of gold, after which he murdered Blake.

The affidavit stated that the witness claimed Bradley boasted to him about having "beaten the murder case."

Investigators discovered that on August 2, 2019, Maturin's girlfriend filed a missing person's report. Detectives were later informed by his girlfriend that on July 19, 2019, Bradley visited their townhouse and told Maturin the tale of the gold.

She claimed that at first, she and her partner didn't believe Bradley's account, and Maturin questioned why he was asking.

As per the affidavit, Bradley claimed that Maturin, 36, was the only person he could trust, so the two departed together with a pound of heroin and $15,000 in cash.

That was the last time Maturin's girlfriend saw or spoke with the victim, according to her. After tracking his phone with Google, she found herself in the Game Farm Wilderness area.

The affidavit stated that she was going to look but was scared. The same day that Bradley and Maturin went looking for "gold," on July 19, 2019, Auburn Police detained Bradley while he was driving Maturin's BMW.

That day, police discovered an unregistered BMW parked close to the wilderness area. According to the affidavit, an officer pulled over and waited for someone to drive the car away after spotting what he believed to be heroin in it.

Bradley approached the vehicle and took off. When the police attempted to pull him over, Bradley allegedly ran away. Later on, he was apprehended for evading and running away. He said to the police that his friend owned the car.

When DNA testing was conducted on the ribs discovered close to Blake's body, the results showed that they matched Maturin in April 2022.

Bradley is being held without bond at the King County Correctional Facility.