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In trying to determine who killed a Wellington woman last month, police have found a connection to a Kennecott security guard whose murder 13 1/2 years ago remains unsolved.
Dale Bradley Jr., the widower of Crystal Bradley and a "person of interest" in her slaying, worked with 22-year-old Bryan Patrick Ruff, who disappeared from his security shack in December 1991 and later was found shot to death.
The Carbon County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday it is talking to their counterparts in Salt Lake County about the Ruff case, though Salt Lake County sheriff's detectives are not actively pursuing it.
"We don't have any new information that would help us solve that case at present," said Salt Lake County sheriff's Sgt. Kris Ownby.
Meanwhile, Carbon County detectives have served a second search warrant on Dale Bradley's trailer house that "proved to be valuable with items found at the scene, making Dale Bradley Jr. a definite person of interest," the statement said. "During the second search warrant suspected marijuana and methamphetamine paraphernalia were located and charges are pending."
Carbon County Sheriff James Cordova declined to describe what was taken from the home, citing the ongoing investigation. He said the search warrant was served last week and was intended only to find evidence related to Crystal Bradley's death.
Cordova said the slayings of Dale Bradley's wife and former co-worker "have similarities" beyond the victims' common acquaintance.
The two cases also share a shroud of mystery.
Ruff had an 18-month-old daughter and a pregnant wife on the night of Dec. 10, 1991, when he disappeared from his guard station at the Kennecott Copper Co.'s Magna smelter, leaving his hat, radio and a half-eaten lunch.
A camper found his body in July 1993. It was protruding from a shallow grave in Five Mile Pass, about 25 miles south of Kennecott, where he was last seen. He was still wearing his Kennecott uniform. An autopsy determined Ruff was shot to death.
Crystal Bradley, a 27-year-old mother of four and a student at the College of Eastern Utah, was reportedly stabbed and found dead April 30 next to an outbuilding at her family's residence in a trailer court in Wellington. Police arrested Dale Bradley, 36, that day for possession of methamphetamine. He was released after posting a bond. In an interview with The Tribune on May 3, Dale Bradley's brother said Dale Bradley denies killing his wife and said the drugs were not his.
The brother also said Dale Bradley was asleep when his wife exited the home and that she likely had gone to feed chicks the family was raising in an outbuilding.
In 1994, an administrative law judge, ruling in a worker compensation case, said Ruff likely was killed because he was trying to stop a theft ring at the smelter.
The Associated Press reported that Burns Security International, the firm that contracted with Kennecott and who employed Ruff, speculated a co-worker killed Ruff after Ruff and the other man's wife went on a trip together.
Jennifer Campbell, Ruff's widow, said Tuesday that, according to detectives, Ruff and Dale Bradley's previous wife had an affair. They had taken a weeklong trip to Nevada and San Francisco about a month before Ruff disappeared.
The woman, Campbell said, confessed the affair to Dale Bradley the night Ruff disappeared. Phone records show several calls that night from Dale Bradley's home to the guard station.
Campbell said detectives told her Dale Bradley was not working that night, but was later questioned by police.
"As far as I know, the police just concluded it was some kind of coincidence because he did have some proof of where he was that night," Campbell said.
Dale Bradley's brother and an attorney for Dale Bradley did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Crystal Bradley's family is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her killer.
People with information can call Carbon County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Tom Stefanoff at 435-636-3727.