More Thoughts on the Brad Bellino Murder Case
Listen to Brad's podcast! It is amazing! The gentlemen they interviewed actually knew Brad and Don! (Not really well.) But he followed the case, and has some very astute observations:
1.) He points out the time of sunset on that day, and says that by the time Brad walked home from Don's, and got about 20 minutes into his way home it was really dark.
2.) He Google Mapped/Searched out Brad's walking distance, and it was more like 4 miles away from Don's (according to Google results, not 3 miles away.)
3.) Brad's neighborhood took him to some "not pleasant" areas. Don's neighborhood was more upper-class. Brad would have had to have walked along some very deserted, highways in potentially wooded areas. VERY EASY for a determined person to grab a little kid.
4.) The investigator believes that Brad likely hitchhiked in the hope that by doing so he would be "Home in about 20 minutes."
5.) I Googled, "How long does it take to walk 4 miles?" And the answer is about 15 minutes per mile and this is at a brisk pace. So it would take
AT LEAST AN HOUR IN ALMOST TOTAL DARKNESS FOR BRAD TO WALK HOME.
6.) I now agree that it is most likely that Brad hitchhiked home, and met up with a "Bad Ride." The investigator said that only very rarely would a car come by in the areas where Brad would have to walk home.
7.) Brad (and Don) but especially Brad had a noted history of hitchhiking. This makes Don's van theory less likely.
UNLESS BRAD DID NOT SEE THE VAN. HE WOULD NOT HAVE GONE IN IT WILLINGLY AS HE WAS AFRAID OF THE VAN FOLLOWING THEM. Whether it was the guy in the van or another car, I believe that the killer got him into the car very quickly, If it was the van that he and Don saw, I think Brad only would have gotten in, if forced with a weapon.
8.) The investigator believes that the inconsistencies in some of the media statements and Don's statements are due more to the passage of time and fuzzy memory concerning who called the police? Was the belt with which Brad was strangled his or not? Was a stick shown to Don as he remembers as a part of evidence that he remembers, but LE do not, and have no record of this? Most seem to accept the coroner's report of Brad's death as Saturday @ 9PM. He left Don's about 7:15-7:30 on Friday.
9.) I believe that Brad started to walk home, decided to hitchhike, got into a car, probably not the van, and was likely taken to another location, horrifyingly held captive and tortured by his killer and than the killer very late at night with Brad dead, goes reverse in that same direction that he took to abduct Brad, knows of and finds the dumpster, and disposes of Brad's body in the dumpster.
10.) The belt, whether Brad's or not was traced to a JC Penny's. There WAS a JC Penny's at the mall where Brad and Don frequented. Apparently, new DNA has been collected on Brad's body, which I did NOT get from the original true-crime link. The investigator wants to know about that belt:
1.) If the belt was Brad's, this could be more of a crime of anger or revenge type of killing. ( Killer saw Brad, and on the spur of the moment sees an opportunity to grab him.)
2.) If the belt was not Brad's, it would likely involve the killer in a per-meditated crime. (Killer's mind thinks. "I am gonna hide out and look for a little kid to strangle and sexually molest") In #2 scenario, it doesn't have to be Brad Bellino. #2 just puts Brad in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I can't make a call on #1 or #2 until we know forensically from DNA was that belt Brad's or not?
11.) I agree with the investigators and Don that nobody saw Brad on Saturday. All false reports there.
Satch
