Crime & Safety
Man Charged In 39-Year-Old Unsolved Murder In Howard County
A nearly 40-year-old cold case has been solved, officials say, and a Laurel man faces several kidnapping, rape and murder charges.
HOWARD COUNTY, MD — A Laurel man has been charged with rape and murder in a long-unsolved kidnapping case of a Columbia woman that dates back almost 40 years. In 1982, Laney Lee McGadney left her apartment in Columbia on March 29 to walk to a grocery store in the Owen Brown Village Center. Witnesses described seeing McGadney being abducted as she walked along Oakland Mills Road, according to the Howard County Police Department.
McGadney's body was discovered the same day in a vacant lot, now known as Water Lily Way. McGadney, a mother of four children, had been raped and stabbed to death. She was 28.
At the time of the incident, police collected evidence from the scene and conducted a lengthy investigation, but never identified the killer, according to the police department. Since then, cold case investigators have revisited the evidence to determine whether they could identify any new leads. In early 2021, they received results of a DNA test performed on items discarded at the crime scene that linked Howard Jackson Bradberry, Jr., 62, of Montgomery Street in Laurel to the crime.
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Bradberry, Jr., was arrested at his home May 25 after DNA test results linked him to the 1982 crime scene where McGadney's body was found. Bradberry has been charged with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree rape, and kidnapping, the department announced.
“We hope that after nearly 40 years, Laney McGadney’s family can have some kind of peace with this arrest,” Howard County Police Chief Lisa Myers said. “Nothing will ever erase the pain of losing a loved one in such a violent and tragic way. Our cold case investigators are committed to bringing justice for victims and families, no matter how much time has passed.”
“I applaud the diligent persistence of our police investigators who, after 40 years, have never given up trying to solve this case,” Howard County Executive Calvin Ball added. “Hopefully, this arrest will bring some measure of closure to the victim’s family and all those who knew her. “
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