DIAMOND and TIONDA BRADLEY- 9 and 2 yo (2001) -Bronzeville IL

In the most baffling disappearance case in Chicago’s history, the
search continues for sisters Diamond and Tionda Bradley eight years
after they went missing from their Bronzeville home. A vigil was held
in their honor early last month.

Many of those who attended have been present at each event since the
girls first went missing in the summer of 2001. The girls reportedly
left a note for their mother saying they were going to the store and
have never been heard from again.
Led by family spokesperson the Rev. Paul Jakes, the vigil included
songs of worship and praise, raising hopes for the family the girls
will be found alive. Despite what many consider low odds the girls are
still alive, their mother Tracy Bradley believes someone knows where
her children are. She said her faith in God is what sustains her hope.
“It’s been a long eight years,” Bradley began. “But we’re still
hoping and praying that they will come back home. If my kids can see
that there is a number out there for them to call, I’m sure they will
contact the police or FBI.”
Bradley herself has raised eyebrows within the community as many
feel her answers to questions about the girls’ disappearance have been
evasive. At one point during the investigation police arrested Bradley
for disorderly conduct but the charges were dropped. When asked by the
Crusader recently what personality traits about her daughters could she
share with the public in hopes of finding her children, she responded
by saying:
“I can’t really add anything.”
Jim Miller is a private investigator who has been working the case
since 2001. He said despite the time that has gone by, he and other
investigators still are getting leads and following up on them. Their
most recent information was about three months ago he said. They have
worked with psychics and others in hope of finding the girls and he
believes due to the high publicity surrounding this case, there is a
chance the girls are still alive.
Even though the girls would now be 17 and 10, Miller said people
can’t assume the girls can call the police on their own. He said their
abductors could be preventing them from communicating with others by
physical restraint or they could be suffering the effects of Stockholm
syndrome, in which they would have been indoctrinated by their captors’
belief or have lost all hope and have accepted their situation. “As
they grow older, they may be able to get on the social networking sites
and ask themselves where they come from,” said Miller of the girls.
“The most recent lead we’ve had came a couple of months ago when
someone thought they spotted the girls at a carnival in Mississippi. It
was a dead lead.”
He said even though there are age-progressed photographs out, many
people call with tips but it’s a mistaken identity. Miller said that’s
okay because it means there is still a lot of public interest in the
case and that all tips are followed up on by investigators and law
enforcement.
Bradley still believes that someone in the community knows what
happened to her children that day. She said she’s sure they didn’t run
away on their own and finds it hard to believe that on a hot summer day
in Chicago nobody saw the girls leaving their apartment. Bradley had
left the girls asleep in their apartment at 6 a.m. when she went to
work. She got home shortly after 11 a.m. and discovered a handwritten
note from Tionda saying the girls had gone to the store and then to
play at a local school. Tionda was in summer school at the time and
schools officials say she was absent on the day the girls went missing.
“I’ve been passing out flyers and been out here searching and
looking for Diamond and Tionda,” Bradley said. “If anybody sees them,
please call the police. Don’t be afraid because any little tip can help
and we are going to keep these vigils going until we find them.”
Law enforcement officials have named no suspects in the case. All
family, friends and acquaintances remain “persons of interest,” and no
one has been ruled out, investigators with the Chicago Police
Department’s Cold Case Squad say.
If you have information you are urged to call the FBI at (312) 431-
1333 or investigator Jim Miller at (312) 755-9700. There is also a
website that includes updated information about the case at
www.bradleysisters.com. There is a $30,000 reward for information that
leads to finding the missing sisters.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Chicago's Black and missing

New cable show aims to bring balance in national coverage
by Kathy Chaney




The families of Yasmin Acree and sisters Diamond and Tionda Bradley hopes the new series “Find Our Missing” on TV One cable network will bring in new leads to seemingly cold missing persons cases of color.

Yasmin Acree, 15, went missing from her West Side home four year ago this month. Her case garnered little national news coverage until now. Acree's case will be featured on 'Find Our Missing' Jan. 25. The docu-drama series is hosted by award-winning actress S. Epatha Merkerson

Acree, an honor student at Austin Polytech High School, never made her bed the day she was went missing, a huge red flag to her mother. What became a bigger issue in the girl's disappearance was a padlock that was cut off the home's basement door, the police leaving it behind and her immediate classification as a runaway, according to relatives.

"I'm a strict parent and that was one of the main priorities when you got up in the morning. You had to make your bed before you left the home. There wasn't a day that went by when Yasmin didn't make her bed. When I saw it not made up that day, I knew something was wrong," said her mother Rose Starnes.

Her mother called the police three times, she said, before an officer arrived. When they left from taking the report, they left the lock at the home.

"When I came back to the house a few days later, I asked why the police didn't take the lock. That was a missed opportunity to dust for fingerprints and everything else they needed to do," said Rev. Ira Acree, Yasmin's cousin.

Acree immediately called for the police to come back to the home to collect "the evidence" that should not have been left behind, he said.

The Chicago Police Department publicly admitted it initially mishandled the case.

According to the National Center For Missing & Exploited Children and the Department of Justice: 2,000 children are reported as missing to local law-enforcement daily; ff those children who are abducted, females, aged 11-17, are most likely to be victimized.; minorities equaled 65 percent of the total Non-Family Abductions; 42 percent were African American (24,444); and 23 percent were Hispanic (13, 386).

Let's move to the South Side in 2001 when the Bradley sisters disappeared.

Diamond and Tionda Bradley went missing from their South Side home in 2001. They were ages 3 and 10 respectively. They would now be 13 and 20 years old.

The sisters' mother, Tracey Bradley, went to work as usual the morning of July 6, 2001. She returned home a few hours later to an empty apartment on East 35th Street and Lake Park Avenue. Chicago police were called a few hours after family and friends conducted a private search, to no avail.

The immediate neighborhood, the Dan Ryan Woods, Washington Park and more than 5,000 abandoned buildings across the city yielded no results.

Their case initially garnered national attention and sparked the largest hunt in Chicago Police Department history.
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The HLN's “Nancy Grace Show” often features the sisters' case on her show and also did a one-hour special about their disappearance. Their case was also featured on “America's Most Wanted's” website.

The Bradley sisters' case is scheduled to be featured on 'Find Our Missing' on Feb. 8. (Disclosure: The Chicago Defender contributed to the episode.)

Their family continues to keep their case in the spotlight by holding prayer vigils and marches every July 6, the day they disappeared 10 years ago.

"We're very grateful. It's just the tip of the iceberg for these cases to get the needed national coverage," said the girls' aunt Shelia Bradley-Smith, who has become a national advocate for the missing.

Bradley-Smith said keeping their case in the national spotlight helps tremendously in keeping the girls' disappearance case from going stale.

While there's promise the show could bring fresh leads, she's a little disappointed another cable channel for the Black community, which has been on air before TV One, didn't think of the idea years ago to do a feature on cases on missing persons of color.

“I've been screaming for this since the babies (Diamond and Tionda) went missing. Nancy Grace, America's Most Wanted, they all stepped up,” said Bradley-Smith, who started a weekly podcast last August, The Shelia Show, geared toward helping families of missing persons.

Thirty-year-old Latasha Nevitt, a wife and mother of three, has been missing since Oct. 15. She was last seen walking to a convenience store less than a mile away from her home in the vicinity of 107th and Loomis. Relatives said it's out of her character to simply walk away from her family. Friends, family and community leaders scoured the South Side neighborhood, passed out flyers and made impassioned please for her safe return.

Brian Kelvin Andrewin, 16, was last seen July 1995 in Chicago. He was playing basketball with friends at a local park. He was never seen again.

The Black and Missing Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., partnered with TV One to help bring more awareness to the missing cases.

“The Black and Missing Foundation has provided an important service for information about missing people of color, and we are proud to work with them and help them further their work in the hope that we can draw more attention to this critical issue and bring new information to light for the loved ones of the missing featured in this series, and for others,” said TV One President and CEO Wonya Lucas.

Natalie Wilson, co-founder of BAM FI, added “Our partnership with TV One on this new series will provide extra visibility to help law enforcement and Black and Missing Foundation, Inc bring more missing persons home. Getting the message out as broadly as possible is the best way to help find our missing persons.”

For more information on the missing, visit www.blackandmissinginc.com, www.tvone.tv, www.thesheliashow.com, www.ncmec.org and www.peasintheirpods.com.