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On the morning of September 21, 1986, two hikers discovered Brenda Broyles’ skeleton, or what was left of it, in a desert wash near 16th Street in North Phoenix.
Located just north of the present-day Loop 101 freeway, the area is now adjacent to an upscale housing community. But it was wilderness in 1986, a desiccated expanse covered in cactus and creosote. The freeway was still years away. It was the ideal place to dump a body.
According to a Phoenix Police Department missing person’s report, the remains were found atop a mound of dirt, wrapped in four layers of black tarp and bound by loops of rope tied off with sheet bend knots.
A skull was located about 6 feet away, minus its lower jaw. The skeleton’s hands and feet were missing, and the plastic tarp contained “an unknown substance such as lime.”
In the tarp, the remains were further wrapped in a faded yellow bedspread. Police also found a pink hair curler and a pair of blue pantyhose tied in a knot. There was nothing to identify the remains. DNA testing was still in its infancy and not as common as today.
The police didn’t know they had the body of a 26-year-old blonde, blue-eyed Phoenix resident first reported missing in 1980 – a woman whose name would be forever linked to that of Hogan’s Heroes star Bob Crane and his 1978 murder in Scottsdale.
(The missing person’s report contradicts itself in places, sometimes mentioning “curlers,” plural. Also, the day and month Broyles disappeared and the day and month her remains were later discovered are often transposed in the document, further confusing things.)
Her family says Broyles, a sex worker, would walk around in curlers all day long, a scarf around her head. But the family’s hunch was too flimsy to constitute a positive ID. Her body would not be conclusively identified with DNA until 2007.
Forty-three years after her disappearance, Broyles’ murder remains unsolved. Responding to PHOENIX’s inquiries by email, PPD spokesperson Sergeant Robert Scherer writes that the investigation is “open,” adding, “We are still waiting for the public to come forward with any information about this case.”
But Kelley Waldrip, a private investigator licensed in Arizona and California who has been digging into the case for going on three years, says the PPD has been less than helpful and has even tried to obstruct his investigation into Broyles’ homicide. A former cop and FBI analyst, Waldrip has a suspect and a possible motive, but the PPD will not work with him.
Broyles’ family expresses similar complaints, wondering if, over time, the PPD didn’t follow through because Broyles was a sex worker, one who catered to prominent and powerful men, including Crane and, allegedly, David Bowie, as well as other famous rockers.
www.phoenixmag.com
Located just north of the present-day Loop 101 freeway, the area is now adjacent to an upscale housing community. But it was wilderness in 1986, a desiccated expanse covered in cactus and creosote. The freeway was still years away. It was the ideal place to dump a body.
According to a Phoenix Police Department missing person’s report, the remains were found atop a mound of dirt, wrapped in four layers of black tarp and bound by loops of rope tied off with sheet bend knots.
A skull was located about 6 feet away, minus its lower jaw. The skeleton’s hands and feet were missing, and the plastic tarp contained “an unknown substance such as lime.”
In the tarp, the remains were further wrapped in a faded yellow bedspread. Police also found a pink hair curler and a pair of blue pantyhose tied in a knot. There was nothing to identify the remains. DNA testing was still in its infancy and not as common as today.
The police didn’t know they had the body of a 26-year-old blonde, blue-eyed Phoenix resident first reported missing in 1980 – a woman whose name would be forever linked to that of Hogan’s Heroes star Bob Crane and his 1978 murder in Scottsdale.
(The missing person’s report contradicts itself in places, sometimes mentioning “curlers,” plural. Also, the day and month Broyles disappeared and the day and month her remains were later discovered are often transposed in the document, further confusing things.)
Her family says Broyles, a sex worker, would walk around in curlers all day long, a scarf around her head. But the family’s hunch was too flimsy to constitute a positive ID. Her body would not be conclusively identified with DNA until 2007.
Forty-three years after her disappearance, Broyles’ murder remains unsolved. Responding to PHOENIX’s inquiries by email, PPD spokesperson Sergeant Robert Scherer writes that the investigation is “open,” adding, “We are still waiting for the public to come forward with any information about this case.”
But Kelley Waldrip, a private investigator licensed in Arizona and California who has been digging into the case for going on three years, says the PPD has been less than helpful and has even tried to obstruct his investigation into Broyles’ homicide. A former cop and FBI analyst, Waldrip has a suspect and a possible motive, but the PPD will not work with him.
Broyles’ family expresses similar complaints, wondering if, over time, the PPD didn’t follow through because Broyles was a sex worker, one who catered to prominent and powerful men, including Crane and, allegedly, David Bowie, as well as other famous rockers.
Death in the Desert: Who Killed Sex Worker Brenda Broyles?
For more than 50 years, PHOENIX magazine's experienced writers, editors, and designers have captured all sides of the Valley with award-winning and insightful writing, and groundbreaking reporting and design.
www.phoenixmag.com
