DNA tests from early 2021 linked Howard Jackson Bradberry, Jr. to the 1982 kidnapping of Columbia resident Laney Lee McGadney, according to the Office of the State’s Attorney for Howard County.
A 64-year-old Laurel man pleaded guilty Tuesday to the 1982 murder of Laney Lee McGadney, whose death became a 40-year-old cold case before the introduction of DNA testing cracked the case.
A Laurel man has pled guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of a 28-year-old woman four decades ago, according to the Office of the State's Attorney for Howard County.
Murder, rape charges filed in decades-old Maryland cold case
May 30, 2021
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COLUMBIA, Md. (AP) A Maryland man has been charged with murder and rape in connection with the 1982 abduction and slaying of a woman who had been walking to the grocery store. Howard County Police announced Thursday that 62-year-old Howard Jackson Bradberry Jr. of Laurel was arrested at his home May 25.
Police say DNA tests performed earlier this year on items discarded from the crime scene linked Bradberry to the crime.
The victim, 28-year-old Laney Lee McGadney, left her Columbia apartment in March 1982 to walk to a grocery store at Owen Brown Village Center. Witnesses described seeing McGadney being abducted. Her body was found later in the day the mother of four had been raped and stabbed to death.