FIVE MILE PASS, Utah — Jennifer Campbell is still fighting for her late husband.
And she’s fighting against the man convicted of kidnapping and killing him.
“This has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through,” Campbell said, sobbing, “again after, you know, going through it 30 years ago.”
Campbell was married to Bryan Ruff. He was a guard at Kennecott Copper who disappeared from work in 1991.
Ruff’s co-worker, Dale Bradley, was eventually convicted in the case and sentenced to up to 40 years in prison. On April 15, he’ll ask the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole to release him early.
“I do not want him paroled,” Campbell said.
Campbell and her children will not be the only family watching the hearing.
Scuff mark
Back in 1991, Campbell and Ruff had one child. Campbell was pregnant with a second. And there was some trouble in the marriage.
“It had come out that there had been an affair,” Campbell said.
Ruff had been in an extramarital relationship with Bradley’s wife, according to Campbell and statements in documents and courtrooms since. Ruff disappeared from the guard shack. His body was found a year and a half later in Five Mile Pass near the line of Tooele and Utah counties.
It wasn’t until September 2005 that criminal charges were filed. A Salt Lake County Sheriff’s detective found a scuff of red paint on Ruff’s boot that matched Bradley’s car.
Bradley entered an Alford plea, which allows a defendant to plead guilty without admitting guilt, to the manslaughter and kidnapping charges.
“When he took the Alford plea, it was clear he wasn't going to take responsibility for what he did,” Campbell said.
“And, so, my feelings are that he is just not ready for society,” Campbell added. “He's not somebody that I would want to be out in society.”
A report from the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole says it granted Bradley’s request for a hearing.
“The Board notes Mr. Bradley's excellent institutional conduct, program completion, and current risk assessment,” the report adds.
The board has the option of denying parole to Bradley, who is 56 years old, and keeping him in prison until his sentence expires in 2045. Or it could grant Bradley parole in the coming weeks or months, schedule him for parole years from now or deny him parole now but schedule a future hearing to reconsider.
Campbell isn’t the only person who doesn’t want Bradley paroled. A detective who investigated the death of Bradley’s wife says he has already written a letter to the parole board.
‘…affairs and murder’
After divorcing the wife who had the affair with Ruff, Dale Bradley married Crystal Bradley. The couple had two children together. Crystal Bradley also had a child from a previous relationship.
On April 30, 2005, Crystal Bradley was found dead near a building in the trailer court where she and her husband lived in Wellington, in Carbon County. Police at the time said she was stabbed to death. An entry on the Utah Department of Public Safety’s cold case website reads, “Crystal succumbed to many injuries.”
“Crystal was a loving mother, a daughter sister,” said Shana Noel, Crystal Bradley’s sister.
“She loved her children,” Noel added. “She lived for them and breathed for them.”
Crystal Bradley’s father, Daniel Carpenter, said his son-in-law is the only person of interest in the homicide.
Carpenter said the morning his daughter was killed, “She was really getting ready to come home… to leave Mr. Bradley.”
It was Crystal Bradley’s death that spurred law enforcement to investigate the Ruff killing again, leading to that paint scuff on the boot.
Still, Carpenter and Noel said they are not taking a position on whether Dale Bradley should be paroled. They explained that both they and the children of Crystal and Dale Bradley are in complicated positions with complex emotions.
It’s simpler for Tom Stefanoff, who investigated Crystal Bradley’s homicide for the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office until his retirement in 2017 and who has sent that letter to the parole board asking it to keep Dale Bradley behind bars.
“I can say that the evidence in this case points to his involvement in her murder,” Stefanoff said in an interview with FOX 13 News.
“I can tell you,” Stefanoff added, “that there's a lot of similarities between the Ruff case and Crystal’s case.”
Stefanoff rattled off a few key words: “Jealousy, resentment, affairs and murder.”
The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating Crystal Bradley’s homicide. Dale Bradley has always denied killing his wife and has never been charged with crimes related to her death.
Carpenter said Dale Bradley’s parole hearing is generating new interest in Crystal Bradley’s homicide. He hopes that leads to new evidence.
“If anybody knows anything,” Noel said, “we know it's been 20 years, but anyone can come forward with if they have any information regarding Crystal’s murder.”
As for Campbell, who waited 14 years for her late husband’s case to be solved, what does she want the parole board to ask Dale Bradley?
“Is he going to admit to what he had done?” Campbell wondered, referring to Ruff’s death.
“But I also want to know,” Campbell added, “if [Dale Bradley is] going to help or give assistance to solve Crystal's murder.”