THE MURDER OF TINA MOTT

Admin
Dec 16, 2023
6 min read

Tina Elaine Mott was born February 2, 1975 in Niagara County, NY. Described by a friend as a shy, yet free-spirited young woman who loved to sing, she was defined ber her resilience and detemrination to the make the most of life. While selling magazines door-to-door one day, she met Timothy Allen Bradford, a native of Hamilton, Ohio. Born on September 12, 1971 to a Mrs. Elizabeth Bradford, Tim and Tina quickly strike up a relationship and decide to move to his hometown, where Tina eventually becomes pregnant with and gives birth to their son, Johnny. Tina takes a job at the Thriftway in Fairfield while Tim works as a framer at the now-defunct Moss Gallery. The couple and their 18-month-old son reside in a second-floor apartment at 622 Minor Avenue (ironically situated directly across the street from one 635 Minor Avenue, the site of the infamous 11 murders committed by James Ruppert).

MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1996

Tim and Tina have a fight, per a missing person report filed by Tim's mother, Elizabeth Bradford, on June 11th.

TUESDAY, JUNE 4

The next day Elizabeth drives Tina to her job as as clerk at the Thriftway in Fairfield. Tina reportedly does not return home to the apartment. That evening, Tim murders Tina in their second floor apartment, dismembers her body, and disposes of her remains.

TUESDAY, JUNE 11

After a week of notable absence by Tina, Elizabeth begins to grow suspicious of her son's

explanation of Tina's whereabouts: namely, that Tina has gone back to New York to visit family. When his mother calls her relatives in New York, she learns that Tina never arrived and had no plans to visit. Unconvinced by Tim's story and concerned for Tina's well-being,

Elizabeth formally files a missing person report with the Hamilton Police Department. In the report, Elizabeth informs police that she is afraid of her son, who can be reportedly violent and aggressive, especially when intoxicated; it is at this time that she reports Tim and Tina's June 3 altercation.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8

Nearly one month later teenage buddies Tim Lyons (12) and TJ DeJohn (13) are fishing at Linden Lake (also known by locals as "the pit") near the Linden Lake Apartments, approximately one mile from Tim and Tina's apartment. Much to their shock, they inadvertendly reel in a human skull -- one that is notably lacking its lower half. Unsure of what to do, the boys leave the skull on the bank of the lake and return home to tell their parents. Tim's parents are skeptical of the boys and do not alert the authorities.

Haunted by what they've found, the boys return to the lake the following day and find that their gruesome discovery is on the banks where they left it. Recognizing the gravity of the situation, they contact the police themselves. Soon the Hamilton County Police are swarming the lake and out in full force with boats skimming the surface of the lake and scuba divers searching the depths for additional remains. Regrettably, their search proves futile and no further remains are located.

SUMMER & FALL 1996

Having recognized that there is residual soft tissue still clinging to the skull (a sign that it has not been submitted for an extended period of time), investigators send it for testing and examination at the hands of forensic anthropologist Dr. Elizabeth Murray.

Dr. Murray's findings are extensive as they are disturbing. Immediately evident is a large indentation on the top of the skull, indicating that the victim was struck on the head with a large blade akin to a machete or meat cleaver. Additional cuts and scrapes further suggest that someone actively attempted to scrape away and remove flesh from the skull with a number of serrated knives. She also confirms that the notable absence of the lower half of the skull is due to the jaw being forcibly removed. Puncture wounds in the eye sockets indicate the perpetrator removed the victim's eyes, in addition to plucking all visible teeth from the skull with a set of needle-nose pliers in an effort to extinguish any success of dental identification of the victim. The mutilation is so exhaustive and macabre, that Dr. Murray is initially hesitant to share her findings with investigators and first confirms them with two colleagues.

Despite the numerous efforts the perpetrator went through to the conceal the victim's identity, Dr. Murray is nevertheless able to determine from the natural features of the skull that victim is likely a Caucasion female under the age of thirty-five. Investigators take this information and begin cross-checking missing person reports in Hamilton and determine that of the four filed recently, the June 11th report by Mrs. Elizabeth Bradford on behalf of Tina Mott was readily fits the victim profile.

LATE 1996 TO EARLY 1997

Homicide detectives begin investigating Tim Bradford as a possible suspect in Tina's murder. It is unclear in what sequence the following stages of the investigation occurred, other than to report that in February 1997 two vials of blood are drawn from Tina's son, Johnny, for DNA comparison testing, thereby confirming that the skull does belong to Tina.

Concurrently, investigators obtain a search warrant for a storage unti that Tim notably secured shortly after Tina's disapperance. Inside, they uncover an inarguably concerning array of items, including: a set of nineteen serrated kitchen knivesl a copy of "Dim-Mak: Death Point Striking" by Erle Montaigue, outlining how to kill someone with one's bare hands; and a handwritten notebook of satanic rituals. A second search warrant of the couple's Minor Street apartment is obtained, wherein luminol testing reveals the prescence of blood on both the living room carpet and within the bathroom. Specifically, blood residue is found in around the bathtub and the crevices between it, the floor, and the toilet.

With the above evidence in hand, detectives arrest Tim and bring him in interrogation. After hours of questioning, Tim finally confesses to murdering Tina.

THE CRIME

In his confession, Tim recounts that earlier on the day of June 4th, he and Tina had gone fishing. They returned home and began playing Monopoly. Tim admits to having dropped acid at some point during the evneing, which may or may not have contributed to the argument that unfolded between the two. Nonetheless, while arguing Tim struck Tina, bloodying her nose, and she exited to the bathroom to clean herself up. Tim stated that while she was doing so, he began cleaning up the fishing gear they had used earlier in the day and, in so doing, picked up a fishing knife. Tina then allegedly exited the bathroom in aggressive manner in an effort to continue their argument, a physical altercation ensued, and according to Tim, he inadvertently sliced Tina's throat with the fishing knife he happened to have in hand. Aftward, he claims to have left the apartment for an unknown period of time and upon returning, discovered Tina's lifeless body in the bathtub, but could not account for how she got there.

He then confesses to investigators that he meticulously dismembered her body and decapitated her head, which he cradled in his lap while he removed each of her teeth with a pair of needle-nose pliers. He then flushed her organs and skin down the toilet, put her bones and other remaining body parts into trash bags, and disposed of them at various locations. In trade for a plea deal, he agrees to take investigators to the location where he disposed of her remains and leads them to a field near a sewage treatment facility. Investigators are ultimately only able to locate less than half of Tina's bones scattered throughout the area due disturbance by animals prior to their discovery.

Tim is ultimately convicted on a lesser charges of Voluntary Manslaughter and Abuse of a Corpse given his coopeartion with investigators, but is also given charges of Theft and Misuse of Credit Cards when surveillance footage from an ATM surfaces showing Tim withdrawing money from Tina's bank account in the aftermath of her murder. He is charged with 25 years in prison and on September 24, 1997 he enters the Ohio state penitentiary system, becoming inmate A350286.

In April 2020, the second-floor apartment where Tina Mott's life was brutally taken is gutted by a fire of unknown origins. And three years later, on December 6, 2023, Timothy Allen Bradford is released from prison, having fully served his 25-year sentence.

His current whereabouts are unknown.