The Boardman Murders /// Part 1 /// 567 | Forensic Files

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do so at truecrime garage.com and Colonel that's enough of the Bizness all right everybody gather round grab a
chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] with you with you [Music] the great state of Ohio has 88 counties
for this week's True Crime Story we head to Mahoning County until one of 14 townships in Mahoning
Boardman Ohio Boardman is a suburb directly south of Youngstown in the early 70s life in
Boardman was changing changing how its thirty thousand or so citizens felt about their Town Boardman was a safe
town and a great place to raise a family but was that still true who could be sure
and with the story we are presenting this week you'll see why parents started implementing stronger curfews demanding
to know their children's whereabouts and telling them to not walk alone and even in a group always to be looking
over your shoulder 50 years ago this week a 12 year old Boardman boy Bradley bellino
was abducted in murder his case remains open and not for a lack of effort the Boardman Police Department did
everything in their power over the course of five decades to find Justice for Brad in the bellino family
they have tried everything every resource even calling on other law enforcement agencies for help and yet
the person or persons responsible remain a mystery the following is from the Akron Beacon
Journal the headline nothing was normal the weekend of slaying and the article reads normally
when he left his best friend's house after an afternoon of playing basketball Bradley bellino went directly home
normally Don templeman's parents drove Bradley the several miles to his home normally Bradley 12 would be talking to
Don on the phone the next day setting up another Rendezvous for basketball talking or walking
but Easter weekend wasn't normal sometime after he left the templeman house at 7 30 PM Friday
Bradley was sexually molested strangled to death and stuffed into a trash bin where his body was discovered that
Tuesday morning his body still bore the red white and blue jeans and the T-shirt what the
devil made me do it emblazoned across it that he was wearing when he left the templements
quote if Brad left here after dark we would drive him home said Mrs templeman but Friday I was shopping and my husband
was sick so Brad left on his own Don didn't hear from him again Bradley's parents Mr and Mrs Joseph
bellino didn't report their son missing until Saturday afternoon apparently due to a misunderstanding about whether he
would stay overnight Friday with the templements the coroner investigator stated quote we hope to be able to
pinpoint the time of death more accurately when our lab tests are complete the headline was right
nothing was normal that weekend not for anyone in Boardman and it would be a long time before things would start to
feel normal again because unfortunately this was not the first of its kind for Boardman
and sadly it would not be the last Bradley's murder was sandwiched right between the murders of two other boys
from Boardman that's right three murders three kids all in the span of less than five years
as one writer from Boardman put it there was a dread a pail that hung over the community for some time that period of
time for the community was one of distress and horror evoking the words of Buffalo Springfield he wrote There's
Something Happening Here what it is ain't exactly clear this is true crime garage
and this is the true crime story of the still unsolved Boardman Ohio murders [Music]
with you [Music] it was 50 years ago this week that a boy walking alone was abducted and his body
was found just days later it was Easter break with no school on Friday March 31st
1972. adults were stuck in their normal routines but for kids time off from school meant extra time with friends
twelve-year-old Brad bellino was well liked and had plenty of friends but he had only one best friend one that
stood out and well above others on the old friendship ranking scale this was Don templeman to say that the two were
close would be an understatement they were classmates together sixth grade at Boardman Center Middle School
they both played baseball and were teammates three years running if they weren't at school or playing baseball
they were together with sleepovers nearly every weekend this Easter weekend was supposed to be a
lot of the same but remember nothing seemed normal that weekend now leading up to Brad's disappearance
he and Dawn spent most of Wednesday evening together then again Thursday evening
there was no school on Friday on Friday March 31st around 12 30 PM in the afternoon Brad left home to go to
Don's house Brad was told to be back to his house at 8 pm here's where things start to get bad
so we have Brad's mother she's at work that evening Brad's dad he's out with friends
Don's mother was at the grocery and Don's father was sick in bed so Brad has to get home so he was going
to have to go it alone and on foot so he left the templeman's house they lived in
Applewood Acres which was known at the time as a nice upper middle class development
he leaves there at approximately 7 30 pm Brad lived on McClurg Road this is a little more than three miles away that
time of year in Northeast Ohio the sun sets before 8 PM Brad will lose a little more of the light with each step he took
toward his home Brad sadly never made it home that night what happened after he left what
unspeakable horror was waiting for him and where well maybe a few blocks to go between houses of you and your friend
but three miles that's a long distance for a sixth grader that it is Captain and it seems like this wouldn't have
been terribly uncommon or at least not the first time that he had made the walk either from his house to Dons or the
reverse that he's done this before this might be one of the later times at night
because I think the way that the story has always kind of been told was that the bolinos
they were busy right his father's out with friends his mom is at work and she works kind of out of town
so the way that I've always heard this story Captain was that his mom because she works out of town sometimes would
have to stay overnight and then return on the weekends so the situation is this that I believe the bellinos just thought
that the temple men's would drive him home which they had done dozens of times I mean these boys were were very close
and I I think all of us can reminisce and think back to our childhoods when you have that one super tight friend
that you're always just kind of with whether it's for a summer or for a whole school year but these guys were like
this for a couple of years and they would routinely stay the night at each other's houses on the weekends
why Brad didn't stay the night on this Friday at the temple men's is a little unclear
and we'll get into some of the discrepancies regarding his disappearance and in that time frame as
we go through it here but it's my belief that the bolinos thought that the templemans would drive him home
and as circumstance would have it with Don's mother being busy out shopping and the father sick in bed that this was
just kind of a miscommunication and the boy ends up walking home to get home to be home at the time that his father had
instructed him to be there well it could be as simple as two sixth graders making
that decision Hey My My Dad's sick mom's not here well I'll just walk home no big
deal the missing boy story Brad's story was well covered by the Youngstown area news media one newspaper listed Brad
bellino to be 12 years of age four feet eight inches tall weighing about 80 pounds so he's small for his age he has
blonde hair it's cut below the ears blue eyes he was wearing blue jeans a blue ski
jacket and white tennis shoes with black stripes now Brad's body was found several days later but before we get to
that there is that little bit of confusion that I talked about there's actually quite a bit of confusion as to
what exactly takes place and when this is all during the time frame of when he is missing so after he leaves his best
friend Don's home and when his body is discovered several days later so Brad was not an only child he had
siblings and from what I could find and what I've been told Brad was 12 at the time and he was the youngest of the
Bolino kids so there are older children in the Bolino home Brad's father was out until about 2 A.M
that night and when he comes home he just makes the assumption that Brad was home and so he
goes straight to bed and he sleeps in the next morning Brad's mother as we said was out of town
with work so his father does not notice that Brad is not home until the middle of the day
on Saturday the next day now I want to get into some shout outs here real quick Captain I believe they are in
order there's a gentleman named Rich Comstock of 51weeks.com he wrote the story there's
something happening here which we referenced at the start of the show in this week's trailer his is a slightly
fictionalized on purpose but still a very good version of the Boardman murder story I recommend that everyone check
that out because it's very well done there is a ton of Truth in his story and he grew up in the area around that time
so you'll get a first-hand sense of the dread that hung over the community and be able to really feel the fear that
crept in and sort of overshadows the young lives of these younger Boardman kids the second shout out is to Carolyn
bardino she is a friend of the porch light project Carolyn wrote a piece that is featured
on porchlight's website porchlightonline.org which is titled an exclusive porch light project
investigation the unsolved murder of Brad bellino so I encourage everyone to check that out as well and while you're
there take a minute or two to learn more about the porch light project a non-profit that helps victims and helps
to heat up and even solve some Ohio cold cases porchlightonline.org so this next batch
captain of information in the Brad case a lot of it is taken directly from that article Carolyn got a lot of other parts
and angles to the case that you'll want to check out but this part was necessary
to take from there let's not glaze over the fact that seems like his dad went out with friends
which is no big deal probably went out drinking there's no problem with that but to come home and not check that your
kids are in their bed and everybody's safe and sound and lock the doors and all that stuff
don't really care too much for that seems a little irresponsible and then not even knowing that he's gone until
midday the next day that makes things a little more difficult as far as the investigation is concerned yeah it
certainly doesn't help matters at all so let's get into those conflicting reports
so as Carolyn writes there are conflicting reports from different sources about what exactly happened next
what is known for sure is that Brad was reported missing the next day at 3 20 p.m so just a reminder this is Saturday
April 1st 1972. police family and friends spent the rest of the holiday weekend searching for him
later in the article Carolyn writes as often happens with cases that have gone unsolved for decades there are some
conflicting reports in the details because the investigation is still open case files are closed making it
difficult to reconcile some of the facts the first questions that remain are who
reported Brad missing and under what circumstances did he decide to leave and walk home from the templeman's house
local newspapers have published that it was Brad's Mom who reported Brad missing
when she came home from work on Saturday article State Brad was to stay at Dawn's
until 9 pm and it is unknown why he left early at 7 30 PM other news articles state that it
was Brad's sister Debbie who called police that Saturday afternoon now to complicate matters even further
we have Brad's best friend Don who remembers it over that Easter weekend he and Brad had been alternating spending
the night at each other's houses on the Friday Night Before Easter Brad called home this is according to Don
templeman Brad called home and told his brother he'd be sleeping over at Don's house that night
dances about 20 minutes later Brad's father called and told Brad no he needed to come home instead so following his
dad's instructions Brad leaves Dawn's home at 7 30 p.m without a ride makes some sense on why you wouldn't stay
because it is holiday you know maybe you were staying back and forth when it wasn't a holiday but to
stay to Easter to Easter Sunday it might be an inconvenience to your friend's family well and Brad has always been
described as one of these kids it was adventurous you know so he he could take things on by himself and and go out
exploring or maybe maybe stray off the path a little bit but everybody has consistently said that even though he
was adventurous if he was told to do something by his parents he did and he and he he followed through with it so he
minded his parents so he's going off of if we're to go off of Dawn's story the father instructed him to be home at
some point that night not to stay the night and so Brad chooses to leave at 7 30 without a ride right Don then says
that he went to bed sometime after Brad left this would be around 10 p.m this is
where the story gets a little difficult and we'll try to sort this out Dawn says
that Brad's brother called that same night and asked Mrs templeman if Brad had left
because he had not made it home so Mrs templeman tells Brad's brother yes he has left and
he left hours ago so immediately concerned Don's mother wakes him up and Don says that him and his family drove
the route that Brad would have walked back to his house but could not find him it is unclear at this time what impact
these discrepancies have had on the case but the confusion surrounding the answers may help to explain why it took
so long for the police to be called again Brad was the youngest of four children in the Bolino family and the
natural chaos of a household of six people all on different schedules likely contributed to the delay in reporting
him missing now secondly we have another remaining question with conflicting answers
is when was Brad last seen so early newspaper Reports say that he was seen Saturday afternoon in multiple locations
playing basketball on Matthews Road near Don templeman's house they also say that
he was seen at the Southern Park Mall and at the Dairy Queen near North Lima later Reports say that the sightings
were unconfirmed and that Witnesses may have actually seen Brad at those locations on Friday
and that these Witnesses may have gotten confused because there was no school for
the holiday on that Friday confusing Saturday for Friday well we see that in a lot of cases where it's a holiday
weekend and so everybody's memory everybody's memories seem to be a little confused because of that extra time
period I want to throw this out there too in regard to these these sightings of Brad on Saturday if you'll allow a
captain sure we've reviewed unfortunately this is not our first child abduction and murder case that
we've reviewed here in the garage we've reviewed dozens of these and it's not uncommon for us to come across these
sightings of a missing child at a location hanging out playing video games often getting ice cream you know doing
childlike things or hanging around other kids a day or two after it's believed that they had gone missing right and I
think a lot of that is just the way that we are kind of structured as humans as adults and even as parents where
I think these sightings are just coming about by way of people that really want to try to
help that really want to try to do some good and phone into the police hey a lot
of the way that a lot of these go down is these people are saying you know I saw a boy matching his description over
at the skating rink or I saw a boy that looked like the bellino kid uh he was playing basketball
and so it's not anybody saying I spoke to him and it was Brad it's people that are saying you know I saw a kid that
matches his description you might want to look into it well I'm back in the day when it was nice weather out or even
decent weather out you'd see a lot of kids playing every couple blocks you'd see kids on their bike or kids walking
or kids playing out in their front yard or the backyard maybe shooting some hoops
this was very common you know less common today now because of computers and the amount of interesting things for
kids to do inside and the default setting for as long as I could remember hey stop
bothering me why don't you get on your iPad or jump on your computer or go play video games the default setting used to
be hey you're bothering me go outside and play right and they're being asked this after the fact as we will see
because we know that he wasn't reported missing until 3 20 p.m on Saturday so by
the time that the police are out like canvassing the area knocking on doors asking adults and other children if they
had seen Brad this isn't taking place until Saturday night Sunday and Monday right and so I believe again these are
people that are just trying to help and let's face it a lot of kids look the same especially when you're given a
vague description like did you see a kid that's four and a half feet tall blonde
hair wearing blue jeans yeah yeah I did I've seen several of those uh in the past few days so I think that helps to
explain some of that and in Don's statement here will kind of act go what we were saying earlier Captain about
Brad so don templeman his best friend says this is him saying this as an adult years years later after he was
interviewed as an adult he says the reports that Brad being seen on Saturday cannot be accurate in his mind he says
quote that's impossible he was going home if he had other intentions in mind like I said we spent almost every day
together for three years if he had an ulterior motive he would have told me he wouldn't have said I'm going home that's
just crazy he just wasn't that way if his dad told him to come home he'd go home end quote toy believe what he's
saying I mean obviously obviously this was his best friend they were BFFs right and right but
if there was some kids playing outside on his path home it's not impossible to think a kid might
not stop for a minute and shoot some hoops right here's my other buddy let me say
hello shoot some hoops and then I'll be on my way but I I think the other thing too here
is yeah I agree totally with you kids get sidetracked hell I get sidetracked all
the time but squirrel now we have to take it a step further and go that was Friday
night did did Brad get sidetracked enough that he was still not at home by Saturday afternoon you know that's a
that's a long time away and I think what Don is is saying if you read between the
lines but he's not he's not clearly saying it outright is that if Brad was playing basketball on Saturday
I would have been playing basketball with him if he was at the Dairy Queen he would have went there with me you
know what I mean he's he's letting you know like yeah he said he was going home if he was doing a bunch of stuff on
Saturday by himself I would have been involved because we hung out all the time so I think let's I want to address the
conflicting stories of you know it was notice that Brad was missing late Friday night the temple
men's go out looking for him according to Don that's what he remembers versus what has been reported in the papers
that Brad's father woke up a little before noon Brad's father says he went out looking for his son and then when he
couldn't find him he called the police so again what we do know the fact is this Brad was reported missing two
police at 3 20 p.m on Saturday that is from the report taken by the Boardman Police Department so that is fact now
the information Dawn is relaying again keeping in mind he is being asked this question over four decades later so
he remembers it one way it's always been reported a different way Don could be simply misremembering or he could be
right and that that information never made it to the papers for some reason regardless we do know by all accounts
that Brad left Don's house at 7 30 p.m Friday night and at some point it is noticed by the bellino family his own
family that he is missing a search ensues and he is reported missing less than 24 hours later at 3 20 p.m on
Saturday Easter Sunday he does not come home and then his body is located on April 4th so
he's missing for a few days here captain and unfortunately his body is located on
April 4th the short of it is he's found in a dumpster then comes the Youngstown Vindicator article I'm guessing this was
an evening newspaper back then the headline reads refuse man makes Grim discovery and the article itself reads
as follows the body of Bradley bellino 12 of 61 McClurg Road missing since last Friday
night was found stuffed in a large refuse container behind a store at Boardman Plaza about 8 A.M today
Boardman police chief David Hartsock confirmed the identity after he was called to the rear of the Isley Dairy
Store at 263 Boardman Canfield Road quote we do not know whether there are any wounds in the body
because we will not remove it until the coroner's investigator arrives end quote
it is the Bolino boy he said when asked for confirmation we have the coroner's investigator said it appeared
that the body and the boy had been strangled with a belt that was still around his neck when
he was found he ordered the body to the South Side Hospital for an autopsy according to Chief Hartsock he said Paul
Smith an employee of the sanitation service went to pick up the refuse container and spotted the body in the
debris at about 8 A.M he called the Boardman police Smith said that the boy's feet were
showing and he touched them to see if it might be a mannequin but found it was the boy's body
and then it goes on to say it appears that the body was fully clothed the trash company last emptied this
container at noon on Friday [Music] with you [Music] all right we are back thanks for
listening thanks for telling a friend cheers to you colonel in whichever order you choose to do it thanks for telling a
friend and thanks for listening yeah whichever whichever way you choose and make sure you subscribe tall cans in the
air this is a case Captain that's not well known it was it was covered well in the local newspapers at the time Brad's
homicide and abduction and it's not one that is really well known on a national level and you can find this you can look
up the Boardman murders it's called a bunch of different things the Boardman boys a lot of times they people were
only covering Brad's case but it's one that that's covered covered a little bit but not well known in the
True Crime Arena so I'm happy that we are covering this one here today this was one that I had always wanted to
cover but as everybody will see it's quite the complicated story and I'd always shied away from doing it but with
with the anniversary with the 50-year anniversary of Brad's unsolved homicide coming up this week I felt you know
there was no better time to to cover it and if we were going to cover it we we better do it now and so I had to track
down a lot of different information get a lot of different people involved to provide information because there's just
not a bunch of it out there easy case to relate to because how many times did you spin hanging out with your best
friend and and then having to leave their house and to go home whether it's on bike or foot or or their parents take
you home or your parents pick you up it's just it's um it's an easy case to resonate and inside oneself yeah and I
rode my bike as I remember you doing as well we rode our bikes damn near everywhere when we were Brad's age and
but I will say this even though I walked a lot of places I don't remember ever walking anything like like this distance
I think one time I missed the bus and rather than telling my parents I decided I would just walk so I wouldn't get in
trouble which was kind of dumb because I show up like an hour and a half late right home and so it's obvious what
happened so I think that's the only time I actually walked that distance the rest
of the time would be on a bike and I couldn't imagine you know being 12 you know just how dark
it may have been at some point during the course of his walk the other thing too is we don't know how far he made it
into that walk all we know is he didn't come home but we have to remember that Brad is only 12.
and so he could have maybe made that trick multiple times on a bike and this was the first time that he decided he
was going to walk it and sometimes you start thinking well it was it's fast to get there on my bike and then when
you start walking the judge yeah and you go oh well this is a lot further than I
thought so you can tell by The Vindicator article that we read just before the break that this is obviously
a homicide Brad's body was discovered he's discovered about two miles down the road
from Don templeman's house in a dumpster behind a Dairy Store in Boardman Plaza the dumpster was partially filled and
Brad's body was covered over with cardboard boxes and other waste Brad sneakers were sticking up at an
angle and his striped pants were undone According to some reports and pulled down below the hips
his head was in a downward position and a belt was tightly fastened around his neck
we are going to have an autopsy conducted Brad's body was brought to the South Side Hospital in Youngstown and a
postmortem exam was conducted by Dr David Blinky the cause of death was strangulation and he had been sexually
assaulted now I'll read some from that report that gives a description of the events as they were reported or
understood by the coroner so unfortunately the youth was admitted Dead on Arrival to the hospital
at 9 25 a.m on April 4th it was stated by Paul Smith remember he's the sanitation worker that while preparing
to empty the trash container at 7 55 a.m into the trash truck he discovered the body of the deceased in the trash
container this container was behind the Eisley Dairy Store which was located at 263 Boardman Canfield Road Boardman Ohio
it was stated by the manager of the Dairy Store that that container had been emptied on Friday March 31st the body of
that was of Bradley bellino lying in a partially filled trash container then covered over with cardboard boxes and
waste from the Eisley store and possibly from the attacker the body laid in the container with his head in a
downward position and a belt this is one inch one and one eighth inch wide and the belt size is listed in the
corners report as size 22 to 24. listed as fastened tightly around his neck the trousers were pulled down below
the buttocks present at the scene where the Boardman police department and the coroner's photographer and the Boardman
Police Department photographer all necessary photos were taken and the body was then removed to the hospital
this is going to add a little bit to the confusion but I think this to me clarifies a lot of stuff that we were
questioning earlier and I I like that this was included in the coroner's report it says Joseph
bellino so he's the father he's Brad's father stated he last saw his son on Thursday
afternoon at 1pm so this would be March 30th when the deceased left for the Southern Park Mall the deceased had also
asked permission to stay overnight at a friend's house one Donald Templeton there must be a typo here because they
spelled his last name wrong so this would be a Donald templeman the deceased was told by his father that he was to
return home by 4 pm on that day the deceased then called his father and asked if he could stay longer Mr bellino
agreed that his son should return home at 9 00 pm on Friday March 31st Mr bellino went out the evening of the
31st not realizing his son was not home he had returned home and went to bed about 2 A.M he awakened at noon and then
discovered that his son was not home he then became concerned and called the templeman's home when he discovered that
the deceased had left the night before he began a search he then called the Boardman Police Department to report his
son missing it was stated by Donald templeman that the deceased had left his home Friday night at about 7 30 p.m
Donald hadn't seen him since at this time the attacker is still at large one very key piece of information here
Captain besides the Bell information that we went through is the coroner was able to determine an approximate time of
death and on the autopsy he writes that the approximate time of death was 9 pm April 1st
1972. so basically the evidence that we have so far is that we believe that Bradley was two miles
from where he left Don's house and that he was murdered on that Friday no they're putting the
time of death the next day the next night in fact so the time of death as we know is always very important to know
and again it's it's incredibly good for the investigation regardless of the confusing Parts before that they were
able to narrow this down to approximately 9 pm on Saturday so he leaves Don's house at 7 30 p.m on Friday
now later years later retired Boardman police chief Jack Nichols said it's unlikely Brad was seen Saturday remember
those supposed unconfirmed sightings of Brad on Saturday right I would I would assume that if he was captured by
whoever murdered him would have done so like you said on his way home Friday night and then you just wouldn't see him
uh body be in place there sometime Saturday and the police chief is adding additional information to what we
already covered in the autopsy that supports this theory that Brad wouldn't have been seen because the chief goes on
to say that the meal that was found in his stomach at the autopsy was chicken and pineapple this is confirmed by all
to be the dinner that Brad ate at the templeman's residence on Friday evening so it seems likely that Dawn his best
friend was in fact the last person besides the killer or Killers to see Brad alive right but if the coroner's
report is accurate where the hell was he from 7 30 p.m Friday until his death on Saturday at
approximately 9 pm that leaves like 25 and a half 26 hours unaccounted for which leaves the possibility of an
unknown location where Brad would have been held for a period of time and essentially the time period could be
longer than that because unless they're giving us information that they believe he was murdered where
he was dumped right and it doesn't sound to be that way I mean the kids found upside
down in the dumpster with the murder weapon wrapped around his neck he would have had to have been killed
right before being tossed in or killed in the dumpster if he was killed on site so we've discussed this many many times
here in the garage and in these types of homicides it is very very common to have
up to three maybe all the way up to five or so crime scenes the problem is not understanding that the problem is
locating the crime scenes for the collection of evidence so because the coroner is saying that there is this
lengthy amount of time from the abduction to the murder time we have a lot of time to account for
so it is very probable that he was held elsewhere overnight well we have the location of the
abduction right we we know that somewhere between Don's house and Brad's house he was basically a three three mile
radius yeah so somewhere in that three mile radius we have crime scene number one the location of the abduction then
we also have the location of where Brad was held that's another crime scene and then the body recovery site the dumpster
behind the Dairy Store that's another crime scene but to get Brad from crime scene 1 to another location to
where the bodies recovered from that's going to recover some that's going to require some form of transportation so
was Brad transported to and from and how was he transported to and from was it via vehicle well then we are now at four
crime scenes or possibly five crime scenes if a different vehicle was used to move him
after he was held just to be clear you're saying one vehicle to abduct Bradley in another vehicle that would
have taken him to the dumpster possibly up to that number so that puts us at a minimum of five crime scenes if that
were the case uh if the same vehicle were used we're talking four crime scenes here now something that I found
fascinating Captain comes from the Ohio Mysteries podcast so we have host Steve and Paula they interviewed a man from
Boardman Mark Baker Mark grew up in Boardman around the time of Brad's murder and during the course of that
interview Mark gave his insights regarding Brad's walk home that night so he says and I'm going to summarize it
here he says that Don's area is a really nice area back then it's a neighborhood type setting Brad's
home would have been out in the country so he's walking Country Roads in the Twilight or in the dark
out this is after walking out of that Applewood Acres area where Don lives that's if we believe he got that far
correct now Mark says if he were to make it you know as far as possible on that trip
that for about two miles of that walk Brad would have been walking along lonely a lonely Highway before arriving
to his own neighborhood and then we have to we have this report from Brad's family
that is just I mean it I think it kind of paints a better picture or gives us an idea as to the
possibilities of what may have happened that night after he left his best friend's house the report from Brad's
family that hit the papers after he was found killed says that Brad would sometimes hitchhike
now we know that in the early 70s this was something that was much more common people don't do that these days and Dawn
his best friend says a lot of kids even little kids they're age 12 would hitchhike back then
Don says he himself hitched rides on occasion but he said he knew that Brad hitch rides more often than he and
likely more often than most kids his age so and Don Don points out something that's
kind of unique and I think this is something that a lot of us have experienced when we are when we are
smaller kids that he says look Don's my family and my best friend Brad his family both they were
quite different from one another you know Don is one of the older kids in his family and Brad was the youngest of four
and he's 12. and I don't know if anybody else out there has experienced this but
when you're kind of when you're the oldest and you have a friend that is the youngest you see
a big difference in the way that that you're kind of treated by your parents what they expect from you your
responsibilities what they think you're capable of and their fears about their own kids and often my experience has
been this I'm not saying all the time it's this way but often my experience has been this when I've been good
friends with with kids that are the youngest in their family especially when some of them have
older siblings that are almost adults or are adults by that time that the youngest kid is usually like a little
more grown up themselves right because they've done and experienced things with their older siblings and for longer
periods of time than what the oldest out of younger kids may have experience so I kind of feel like this is a situation
where yeah Brad was hitching rides more often than his friends would but maybe it didn't seem so strange to Brad and I
think the thing that makes this even more scary is that we talk about well he was going to set out and make this
long walk by himself well we don't know his mindset maybe his intention was yeah
sure I'll just I'll at some point I'll be in a car and hitch a ride I'll start off walking uh but somebody will pick me
up and and dropped me off closer to my house and so I just fear here with Brad's case
it seems likely to me one of two possibilities happened either he was looking to hitch a ride and he got in
the wrong car or he was out walking by himself and a predator crossed his path and saw him by himself
and saw an opportunity no offered him a ride Don says that of course he attended
his best friend's funeral Brad's funeral he said that uh he saw that's where he would see Brad's father for the last
time he he did say that you know our families even though the two of us were close our families weren't close and he
with him all the siblings being older and his siblings being younger they never really crossed paths after that uh
about the funeral he says it was crowded standing room only as all of the kids from their school all of the parents and
all of the teachers were in attendance and a lot of people in town that didn't even know Brad
bellino or know the bellino family attended because it just I mean it just hit this community very very hard now
some evidence that you say is he was his strangulation homicide by strangulation
we believe that uh you know based on on the autopsy the eyewitness report there was a belt found around his neck
yes that is fact there was there was a belt found wrapped around his neck so we know that we have the victim uh and we
have him found with the murder weapon now is that murder weapon his own belt I I hate to chuckle there because
there's no reason to do so other than I already know that that's a very difficult question to answer so
from my notes I'm going to try to give you as much information on this belt as possible because
we're often reviewing these cases where there's no murder weapon recovered so you have a whole mystery there here we
have a situation where we know what the murder weapon was we recovered it when we recovered the victim but there's
still some mystery around the murder weapon itself so the coroner's report indicates that the
belt around his neck was size 22 to 24 and was 1 and 1 8 inch wide and I hope I'm saying that right so it's it's an
inch and an eighth wide now this is a small belt it's a child's size belt I'm not going to pretend to be some kind
of fashion guy and understand exactly what size 22 to 24 means but I've looked it up and I've confirmed it is a child's
Bell and I also know that it would not fit me of course the origin of the belt could be significant
and police had hoped that it would lead to a suspect and this is where you're going to see
some differing opinions here police believe that the belt was purchased at JC Penney's department store
but could never pinpoint an actual location which JCPenney's there are conflicting reports about whether the
belt did in fact belong to Brad the bellino family says that they could not confirm whether it was his there
showed the belt and they said you know it looks like a belt that he may have had we cannot say 100 certain that it
was his some news reports say that it did belong to him and I think the reason why some
of the news reports say that it did belong to him is because Dawn says that after his buddy was found
he's brought in and asked a whole bunch of questions and he's trying to help police as much as he can he says he too
was shown the bell and Don says yes this belt belonged to my best friend Brad now
here's where it gets confusing we have the friend saying that the Bell belongs to Brad
we have the bellino family saying we don't know for certain but we have the cops right we have the
cops out searching for where it was purchased from now that indicates to me that they seem
to have reason to believe that it that it did not belong to Brad right like it was a newer purchase
right or or maybe the purchase whenever it took place could lead back to the Killer
you know maybe they wrote a check for it or or paid with credit card or something
of of that nature but again they're able to they're able to figure out that it came from a JC Penney's department store
which I don't think those exist anymore but um they're able to determine what what brand or franchise of store did it
come from but not the exact location of which store now to confuse matters even more there are
some reports that say that Brad was found with a belt with this belt around his neck but also he was still wearing
his own belt so it's really difficult to believe here there are some reports that indicate
that the color of the belt was tan so the best info I can give you I think it's I think personally if if I had to
decide which which is difficult to do not given enough information here if I had to decide I would think that this
belt may fit Brad and so it seems likely to me that the Killer is an adult and may not own
about this size and simply took it off of his victim I mean much like if you were to attack somebody in their home
and you grab a kitchen knife out of their kitchen Block in their kitchen and use it at the scene so it seems to me
that it might be like more likely than it did belong to Brad and we do have Don saying that he believed that it was
Brad's belt but again it looks like there was a an effort there to find out otherwise so
maybe police have some information that they've just not released and maybe they
know better on this belt now unfortunately captain as we've had to say Brad was not the
first Boardman boy to be murdered nor the last in this week's Story the first was 15 year old Thomas bard
the Boardman youth was found having been spotted by a police cruiser late at night
it was found slumped over on the ground with severe head injuries inflicted police believe this was inflicted by a
blunt object due to the severity of his injuries police were unable to question him
Thomas Bard was found December 4th 1970. and when he was found he was in serious
condition and placed in intensive care at the hospital where he died some days later
never regaining consciousness you know I want to thank you all for joining us here in the garage and letting us bring
some true crime into your ear balls join us back here in the garage tomorrow for
more True Crime and until then be good be kind and don't let it foreign [Music]

The Boardman Murders /// Part 1 /// 567

Part 1 of 4

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Boardman, Ohio is a great place to live and raise a family. Located in Northeast Ohio close to the Pennsylvania border directly south of Youngstown. Back in the 70’s Boardman was growing but some of the citizens were growing concerned that something strange and terrifying had come to town. Three boys were killed in the span of just five years. This week we take a look at these three still unsolved cases. One of the cases is far from cold the other two well that’s up for debate. The other debate that has always been a hot one, are three cases connected in anyway? Find out this week on True Crime Garage.

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Garage Grade - 4 out of 5

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved murder of 12-year-old Bradley Bellino in 1972, detailing his abduction and the investigation that followed.

Key points

The Disappearance of Bradley Bellino. A 12-year-old boy vanishes after leaving a friend's house, leading to a community's fear.
A Community in Distress. Boardman faces a wave of fear as multiple child murders occur within five years.
Conflicting Stories. Conflicting accounts emerge about when Brad was reported missing and the timeline of events.
The Discovery of Brad's Body. Brad's body was found in a dumpster, raising serious questions about his death.
The Autopsy Report. The autopsy reveals Brad was strangled and sexually assaulted, confirming foul play.
The Timeline of Events. A detailed timeline reveals the gaps in Brad's whereabouts before his death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Nothing was normal that weekend.

Reflecting on the unsettling events surrounding Bradley's disappearance.

5:59WatchOct 25, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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