Richard Bradley, left (via the King Correctional Facility), allegedly lured four people into the woods with the promise of a gold treasure, only to murder them and leave their bodies to rot. He’s accused of killing Emilio Maturin, center (via Washington State Patrol), in 2019 and Brandi Blake, right (via her obituary), in 2021 at the Game Farm Wilderness in Auburn, Washington, about 30 miles south of Seattle. Bradley also allegedly killed Michael Goeman and Goeman’s son Vance Lakey (not pictured) in 2021.
Promising them the allure of gold buried deep in the woods, a Washington state man instead murdered four unsuspecting people and left their bodies to rot.
Richard Walter Bradley, 40, already was facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of Brandi Blake. Now prosecutors last week filed three additional murder charges in the deaths of Emilio Maturin, Michael Goeman, and Goeman’s son Vance Lakey, court records show.
NBC affiliate KING reported Lakey, 31, was last seen March 15, 2021, in his father’s Durango. Cops later conducted a traffic stop on the Durango. Bradley’s wife was allegedly behind the wheel and the Durango was impounded. Bradley allegedly wanted to hire an associate to break into the impound lot and burn down the Durango, but he never went through with the arson, KING reported.
The 59-year-old Goeman’s body was found off an unmaintained county road on April 21, 2021, while his son’s body was found in the same area a week later. Both had been shot.
The Seattle Times, citing an arrest affidavit, reported that all four victims came into money.
Law&Crime reviewed the probable cause affidavit regarding Blake’s and Maturin’s deaths. Documents show investigators recovered Blake’s body on May 26, 2021, at the Game Farm Wilderness in Auburn, Washington, about 30 miles south of Seattle. She died of blunt force trauma. Cops also located three other rib bones bear Blake’s body belonging to another person, later determined to be Maturin.
Blake, 44, had been reported missing on May 5, 2021 and was last seen with Bradley. Several witness told detectives with the King County Sheriff’s Office they saw Bradley driving Blake’s Ford Mustang in the days following her disappearance. They also told investigators that Blake had confided in them about how Bradley reportedly wanted her to help him dig up a bunch of gold from a previous robbery.
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KING, citing the probable cause affidavit regarding Goeman’s and Lackey’s deaths, reported a homeless man had seen Bradley with a shovel in a car that matched Blake’s vehicle. Detectives arrested Bradley in June 2021 on a first-degree murder charge in connection to Blake’s death and arson charges related to Bradley allegedly hatching a scheme to torch Goeman’s Durango. With Bradley already in jail without bond, investigators spent the last two years building the case against him in the other three murders.
After Blake’s disappearance, a witness told detectives that he heard that Bradley had enticed an accused drug supplier, later identified as Maturin, to the woods “years ago” with the promise of gold where he allegedly murdered him. The witness said Bradley bragged to him that he “beat the murder case,” the affidavit said.
Detectives learned that Maturin’s girlfriend reported him missing on Aug. 2, 2019. His girlfriend later told detectives that Bradley came to their townhome on July 19, 2019, and relayed the story about the gold to Maturin. She said she and her boyfriend were initially skeptical of Bradley’s story, and Maturin wanted to know why he was asking him. Bradley claimed that Maturin, 36, was the only one he could trust so the two left together with a pound of heroin and $15,000 cash, according to the affidavit.
Maturin’s girlfriend said that was the last time she saw or talked to the victim. She used Google to track his phone, which led her to the Game Farm Wilderness area. She was going to look but she got scared, the affidavit said. Auburn Police on July 19, 2019 — the same day Maturin and Bradley went digging for the “gold” — arrested Bradley driving Maturin’s BMW. Cops that day saw an unlicensed BMW parked near the wilderness area. An officer saw what he thought was heroin in the car so he backed off and waited for someone to come and drive the car away, the affidavit said.
Bradley came to the car and drove away. The officers tried to pull him over, but Bradley allegedly fled. He was later caught and arrested for fleeing and eluding. He told the officers the car belonged to a friend.
Detectives submitted the ribs found near Blake’s body for DNA testing and in April 2022, results came back as a match to Maturin.
Bradley is at King County Correctional Facility without bond.
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