Where is Laura Bradbury?
Written by: Kenzie Desrosiers
On October 18, 1984, Mike and Patty Bradbury, along with their three children - Travis, Laura, and Emily - were setting up a campsite at Indian Cove campground in California’s Joshua Tree National Park. Having to use the restroom, eight-year-old Travis set off in the direction of the portable bathrooms. At just 3 1/2 years old, Laura followed Travis everywhere and this was no different. When he came out of the restroom, Laura who had waited outside, was no longer there. He assumed she must have got bored and made her way back to camp. However, when Travis got back to camp, Laura was nowhere in sight. Mike ran back to the restroom looking for Laura, with Patty, who was clutching their infant daughter, in tow. They shouted her name, in hopes that if she had wandered off she'd come back, but no such luck.
Park rangers were the first to arrive. Followed by deputies from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Bloodhounds where brought in to aid in the search for Laura. They were able to pick up her scent and searchers noticed small sandal prints on the ground heading back toward the campsite when suddenly the prints turned towards the road and disappeared, along with her scent. Hundreds of volunteers searched the campground as helicopters flown overhead. After three days, the search was called off.
Mike and Patty distributed millions of flyers and T-shirts with Laura’s face, while appearing on a number of radio and television talk shows. The Bradbury’s opened the Laura Center, a nonprofit office where tips were gathered, in donated space at a strip mall in Huntington Beach. Witnesses claimed to have seen a man in his fifties with a metallic blue van at Indian Cove Campground just before Laura vanished. A similar-looking man was seen near Burns Canyon a few hours after Laura's disappearance. Authorities believe the man was taking the back road to Big Bear.
In the spring of 86’, a skull, along with other bone fragments, believed to be that of Laura Bradbury was discovered by hikers a mere 5 miles from the family’s campsite at the park’s west entrance. While authorities believed the skull to be Laura’s, tests were only able to determine that it belonged to a child. Four years later, the Bradbury’s received a call, more tests were done on the skull and it concluded that there was a 99.9% chance that the skull was Laura. In 2010, another round of DNA testing was done of the skullcap which confirmed that the remains belonged to 3-year-old Laura. Even with the confirmation, no arrests have ever been made and the case remains unsolved.
The Bradbury family was left devasted by Laura’s disappearance. Mike became obsessed with searching for Laura. As his mental health began to decline, he turned a psychologist. Patty on the hand kept her emotions hidden. While she forbid anyone from saying Laura’s name, she was secretly writing letters to her. Emily recalls her mother being paranoid. Often clutching her tight whenever they were out. Emily, who was too young to remember her sister, lived in her shadow, doing whatever her mother wanted her to, including Girl Scout’s which she hated. She felt she was molding her to be Laura. As a teenager, Travis slept in the bunk bed he once shared with his sister. He was tormented by kids at school who would say that they kidnapped and raped his sister. He retreated into himself, becoming isolated and depressed, blaming himself for what happened to Laura. At just 12 years old, he considered suicide. Sadly, in 2001, Patty passed away after being diagnosed with bone cancer and amyloidosis. In the wake of Patty’s death, the family suffered more. By 2009, the family had moved to Portland, Emily was a high school dropout and Travis was unemployed and drinking heavily. The family was largely getting by on Mike’s social security checks. When Mike discovered Patty’s letters to Laura, he started writing.
He put all of his memories into a book titled; “Laura Ann Bradbury: A Father’s Search.” After this, the three of them moved back to California. There they each found a sense of peace. Emily was now a college graduate and Travis was married and working for a computer firm. When Laura’s remains were confirmed in 2010, Mike along with Travis and Emily planned to set sail from Newport Harbor to scatter Patty’s and Laura’s ashes. For a moment he had closure. That is until a thought popped into his head. How did the skull get to the desert, as it wasn’t there when hundreds of volunteers searched the area in 1984? He believed someone took Laura and brought her bones back. Unfortunately, without all of Laura’s remains, her cause of death will never be known, therefore, the question of whether she was kidnapped or wandered off will live on. Hopefully, Travis and Emily are able to remember Laura and find some peace.
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