The Photographer Who Left Behind 54 Faces No One Could Explain

William Richard Bradford presented himself as a photographer who could help young women break into modeling. Behind the camera, however, prosecutors said he was using that promise to gain the trust of women he intended to sexually assault and kill. In 1984, two of those women, 21-year-old Shari Miller and 15-year-old Tracey Campbell, were murdered, and Bradford was eventually convicted of both killings.

The investigation began to unravel after Tracey Campbell, Bradford’s teenage neighbor, disappeared in July 1984. Investigators learned that Bradford had been the last person known to have been with her, and a search warrant was obtained for his apartment. What police found inside would turn the investigation into something far more disturbing.

Among the evidence were photographs of Shari Miller and Tracey, along with dozens of photographs showing other women posing for Bradford. There were 54 photographs of women, many of whom investigators could not identify. The images had been taken years earlier and were kept as evidence, leaving detectives with an unsettling problem: they had dozens of faces, but no idea who many of the women were or what had happened to them.

The photographs became even more disturbing because Bradford had already been convicted of murdering two women he had photographed. Investigators therefore began examining whether some of the unidentified women might also have been victims. But authorities were careful not to assume that every woman in the photographs had been harmed. Some were eventually located alive, including women who had simply encountered Bradford through his photography.

For more than two decades, those photographs remained largely forgotten in an evidence archive. Then, in 2006, a cold-case detective took another look at Bradford’s files. Investigators decided to release the photographs publicly, hoping someone would recognize the women and help determine what had happened to them. The response was enormous. Within a short time, authorities received more than a thousand calls and began identifying women who were still alive.

But some discoveries made the photographs even more chilling. Investigators identified women whose disappearances or deaths appeared to warrant further scrutiny, and they began examining whether Bradford's activities could have extended far beyond the two murders for which he was convicted. The true number of women connected to his dark past remained uncertain.

During the penalty phase of Bradford’s trial, he made a statement that would follow the case for decades. As the jury considered whether he should receive the death penalty, Bradford told them, “Think of how many you don’t even know about.”

Bradford was sentenced to death, but he never faced execution. He died in a California prison medical facility in March 2008 while still on death row. He took the full truth about the women in those photographs with him, leaving behind 54 faces that had once seemed like nothing more than modeling snapshots—and a question investigators could never completely answer.