In a breakthrough development, authorities have identified the body of a girl who was brutally mutilated, decapitated, and abandoned in a Massachusetts parking lot over 25 years ago. The victim has been confirmed as a missing teenager from more than 300 miles away.
On November 13, 2000, police discovered her dismembered remains behind the Soldiers’ Home, a healthcare facility in Chelsea. Until now, she had been known only as “Chelsea Jane Doe.”
State and federal investigators announced on Wednesday that DNA and genetic analysis have linked the remains to Tiffany Bradley, a missing teen from Allentown, Pennsylvania.
“Tiffany was trafficked across state lines, decapitated, dismembered, and discarded at the rear of a parking lot,” the Boston FBI field office stated in a Facebook post.
“Although her killer is already incarcerated, investigators have relentlessly pursued the task of uncovering her identity, understanding her past, and identifying anyone who might still be looking for her.”
Eugene McCollom, the individual responsible for her murder, is currently serving a life sentence, as reported by CBS.
He killed her in his room at a Boston-area YMCA in November 2000, according to investigators.
The last time Bradley’s family heard from her was right before she was killed during a chilling phone call. She sounded terrified and had to cut off the call, her heartbroken cousin Shakirah Wiggins said.
“Her last conversation with her favorite cousin was cut short with her voice trembling, saying, ‘I’ll call you later. I have to go,’” Wiggins recalled.
“That call never came and was replaced with 26 years of waiting, wondering why.”
McCollom was convicted in 2005, but told investigators that Bradley’s head and body parts were at Nahant Beach, roughly 35 minutes north of Boston.
But the case remained cold when her body parts were nowhere to be found.
“We have waited so long for this day,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble said at a press conference.
“It is rare to have a case like this one, where we knew the suspect’s name before the victim’s.”
