Letter Leaves Family of Shooting Victim with More Questions than Answers
This is a portion of the anonymous letter sent to the Gallia County Sheriff’s Office confessing to the incident that led to the death of Larry Bradley Dec. 2, 2013.
Plea for Information Made by Victim’s Widow, Shooter May Have Been Hunting in Gallia County
GALLIPOLIS – A letter has brought more questions than answers to the family of Larry Bradley.
Gallia County Sheriff Joe Browning held a press conference Monday afternoon concerning a letter that was sent anonymously to the Sheriff’s Office. The writer of the letter confesses to the shooting, but details and exactly what happened are unclear. During the press conference, Larry’s widow made a plea for justice for her husband. Denise Bradley is asking for anyone with information to share that information with the Gallia County Sheriff’s Office or for the person involved to come forward and turn themselves in.
Denise bravely told the story of Dec. 2, 2013 when her husband called her at 8:23 a.m. that morning asking for help. Larry tried to give his wife details of his location, indicating to call his father and that they would need a ladder. Larry was deer hunting when the shooting happened. Denise recalled the painful memories of those terrifying moments in which her husband bravely tried to relate information.
“Just help me, hurry,” she said were the last words he said to her. The phone call only lasted from 8:23 a.m. to 8:28 a.m. The last minute Denise was trying to get Larry to respond to her. She said she had heard him choking and then silence. Denise walked members of the media through the horrific ordeal with one goal, that someone with information would come forward or the person involved with the letter would come in the Sheriff’s Office.
Visibly shaken, especially as she told of telling her children that their father would not be coming home and the difficulty in attempting to explain such things to them, she continued to make the plea for information. She said the letter was not helping the family cope with this ordeal and loss. She went on to tell of the children then being concerned they could loose her too.
“God forgives, but not if your hiding it,” she said. She is asking the author of the letter to come forward for the family, for the person who did this and for Larry. Denise said the person needs to own up to whatever happened. “I want justice for for him. A letter just isn’t enough,” she said.
Sheriff Browning said that he would like to see whoever is involved with the letter to just come in and talk with the investigators. He also hopes that anyone with information related to this tragedy would come forward as well.
“They were having a hard time with this themselves,” Sheriff Browning said of the contents of the letter. The letter was not released in its entirety, but a portion was released. The letter was handwritten. “This is the right thing to do,” he said of the giving the person the opportunity to do the right thing themselves and come in on their own.
Gallia County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the case.
Denise displayed the medals her husband was awarded for service to the United States of America. Larry was a veteran. He was a United States Marine and also served in the Navy Reserve with the U.S. SeaBee’s. He served two tours in Desert Shield/Desert Storm and again in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was a member of the Vinton Baptist Church and very active with the Addaville Baseball Association.
Additionally, Larry had connections with Meigs County as well.
Anyone with information should contact the Gallia County Sheriff’s Office at (740)446-1221.
