SALT LAKE CITY — After decades of denials, an inmate admitted Tuesday to killing his co-worker and dumping his body, though that same inmate denied killing his wife years later.
Dale Bradley used his parole hearing to admit that he killed Bryan Ruff in 1991.
“I got my gun out of my car and I shot him, and it was over,” Bradley calmly explained Tuesday. Ruff and Bradley worked as guards at the Kennecott Copper mine. Ruff had been having an affair with Bradley’s then-wife.
WATCH: Family members speak as Bradley's parole hearing approaches
Bradley said Tuesday he went to “talk to Bryan because I was having marital problems.” Ruff made a remark about running away with Bradley’s wife. That’s when Bradley retrieved the gun.
He said he then drove Ruff’s body and dumped it in a “bar ditch.” Someone in Five Mile Pass discovered the body about 18 months later.
Addressing Ruff’s family, Bradley said: “I do want to say I’m sorry. I know I can’t fix what I did, but I hope they can just move on and fix their lives without drama from this.”
Bradley wasn’t charged with any related crimes until 2005. Bradley entered an Alford plea — which allows a defendant to plead guilty without admitting guilt — to manslaughter and kidnapping charges.
A judge sentenced Bradley to prison until 2045.
His hearing Tuesday was to determine if he should be paroled before then. The board is expected to announce its decision in the next few weeks.
Ruff’s widow, Jennifer Campbell, asked that the board keep Bradley in prison. She was angry he is even being considered for an early release and said the parole hearing was traumatizing her again.
Through sobs, Campbell recounted having one child and being pregnant with another, discovering the affair and then that her husband was missing. She said she still panics when family members don’t immediately answer their phones.
“He was there when Bryan was murdered,” Campbell said. “He was there when Crystal was murdered. He knows what happened.”
Crystal is Crystal Bradley — Dale Bradley’s second wife. She was found stabbed to death outside the couple’s home in Wellington in 2005.
No one has ever been charged in connection with her death. Tom Stefanoff, who investigated the case for the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office until his retirement in 2017, told FOX 13 last week that “the evidence in this case points to [Dale Bradley’s] involvement in her murder.”
On Tuesday, Dale Bradley again denied killing his wife.
“It’s not a charge I’ve been charged with,” he said, “and I didn’t do it. I’m not going to admit to something I didn’t do.”
Investigators in Salt Lake County took a new look at the Ruff homicide after receiving word Dale Bradley was being investigated in the death of Crystal Bradley, which is what ultimately led to the manslaughter conviction.
