Yes, of course.
But, I wasn't being safe or sensible.
What? John kill himself? It just didn't seem real. He could be moody and withdrawn sometimes, but so desperately unhappy he wanted to die? We had a good life--or we seemed to up until he arrived home from work a few minutes before--in the middle of the day--and announced that something bad had happened.
I had never dealt with someone who was suicidal, or anyone who was in this kind of crisis. Again, I couldn't believe it. John?
Not only was he the smartest person I knew, he was the guy everyone went to if they were having troubles with work, family, romantic relationships. He was a great listener, and he had been a lifelong volunteer for different nonprofits, where he was often in the position of helping people with problem solving. This included, when we first started going out, working on a crisis hotline in San Francisco, talking people out of taking their lives. Before, our baby was born, he had volunteered at San Francisco's Zen Hospice, tending to people who were dying. Surely, someone with with this sort of background had to know himself pretty well and to have a pretty healthy sense of self.
How could he be so incredibly depressed he was suicidal? I just couldn't believe it.
In any event, the longer we sat there on our sofa, the more my mind turned to his news he was under police investigation.
The investigation must have been on John's mind to, because he announced he wanted to call the Humboldt State University police. He got up, went to the phone, and was put right through to the chief, whom he knew from working around campus. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," I heard him say.
Then he made an appointment to go in and meet with the police in a few days.
I absorbed this news, and then thought, shit, he can't go into the police and just tell them everything he did--whatever it was he did.
People under police investigation are not supposed to talk to the police. I didn't just learn that from TV shows or movies. In a former life, I had been a newspaper reporter--a crime reporter to be exact. That's just how it was. A suspect risked a lot. As the Miranda warning goes, anything a suspect says--even something seemingly benign--could be interpreted in certain ways and used against a suspect in a court of law.
I was also aware of the phenomenon of false confessions. Yes, people do confess to crimes they don't commit. Residents of the San Francisco Bay Area might remember the highly publicized case of Bradley Page, an Acalanes High graduate and UC Berkeley student prosecuted for the 1984 murder of his girlfriend, Roberta "Bibi" Lee, also a UC Berkeley student.
Well, in the year or so before becoming a mom, I had written about Page's confession--having gained access to the transcript of it. Fascinating document; it showed clearly how a mentally distraught, eager-to-please suspect could be led by persuasive detectives, after hours of interrogation, into saying things that could come off as incriminating. With an absence of physical evidence, and in the era before DNA testing, Page was convicted in his girlfriend's killing solely on the basis of this so-called confession, in which, I recall, he never actually said anything to the effect of "I did it" but "If I were to do it, this is how I would."
I saw my husband as being sort of Brad Page-like--mentally distraught and eager to please.
John was also anguished by guilt. Yes, it was clear he had been caught doing something wrong, something illegal. He had been escorted out of his office by campus police after being confronted.
Hearing that he was going to go meet with police, I envisioned him spending hours with detectives and perhaps taking responsibility for things he didn't do.
After the interview, I thought, he'd be taken into custody. Jail. What about our child?
I was suddenly angry. What did John mean he was just going to walk into the university police department and talk to detectives? No, I told him, you're not going to do that.
You're going to get a lawyer.
If only I had thought about getting him to the hospital.
70 comments:
Compelling tale. I marvel at your courage.
Wow...
Shit. I hope everything turns out OK. This must be incredibly scary. :(
Oy....
But, Brad PAge did kill Bibi Lee. I knew them both. Page was later arrested in New Zealand for indecent exposure on a jogging trail (Bibi was killed on a jogging trail) and his high school girlfriend also dissapeared without a trace and has never been found. Since he wasnt a suspect in that case he it was not allowed to be introduced in his trail for the murder of Bibi. Hope that your guy isnt like Brad Page or I guess you would already be dead. (p.s. Though the confession was flawed he was convicted of a lesser count and served 2.5 years for killing Bibi)
I covered the case for the Daily Cal-and am still following him. What high school did he attend?I knew about New Zealand and tracked him to the Baltimore area after that incident. I intervieved him in jail. Its in the eyes.
knew them both too, went with Brad to look for Bibi after Brad, apropos of nothing told me that "we lost Bibi"
Brad killed Bibi. Nothing else makes sense
I lived at Lothlorien and knew them both, too, and after she went missing, I volunteered at Friends of Bibi Lee, where Brad comforted Bibi's sister Gloria when she cried. That of course became a sick, horrifying memory, along with the recollection of how her parents treated Brad like a son -- they were, and probably still are, a loving family. But as much as I would prefer the closure of at least being able to reach a conclusion as to whether Brad killed my friend, I have doubts.
I met Brad Page when he was at Diablo Valley College (a community college in CA we both attended before transferring to a four year college). Although I didn't know him well, he seemed like a very nice guy, and perhaps a bit naive. I bumped into him by accident when he was between trials when I pulled into a parking lot on a secluded road to take over behind the wheel from my sister in law, who I was teaching to drive. My conversation with him was a bit awkward (I couldn't very well say "how's it going?"), and my sister in law was completely tongue-tied out of fear.
I had completely forgotten about Brad Page until the other day when my sister in law reminded me about our chance encounter. I thought I knew the case pretty well-he went jogging with his girlfriend, he came back alone, and then later she turned up dead and he confessed. This seemed like an open and shut case to me-I felt he must surely have been guilty. However, after my sister in law reminded about this, I looked into the matter, and it turns out, the story wasn't as simple as I had thought. Indeed, after reviewing all of the information (and the facts are available for anyone who want to look into this here: http://www.lawlink.com/research/CaseLevel3/69026) I have come to the conclusion that there is a very good chance that Brad Page wasn't guilty after all.
While Brad Page cannot be excluded as the killer, there are just too many things that don't add up. Also, I'm a lot more suspicious of "confessions" that I was when I was young (look at how many people have confessed to crimes that they were subsequently exonerated for based on DNA evidence. I won't try to lay out all the reasons for questioning Brad Page's guilt (although there are many), but I'll simply say this: knowing what I know now, I would absolutely NOT have gone along with a guilty verdict in the case. Indeed, I feel there is a high probability that he is innocent of the crime.
There are two things that haunt about this. First, we were both very young men really just getting started in life when I knew him, and now I'm an old man (OK, technically in my mid-50's). I cannot help but reflect on how much I have lived since the time I knew Brad (marriage, two kids, college, grad school, etc.), and consequently how much living Brad lost as a result of this case. If he is indeed guilty, then he probably deserves this loss, but as I say, I personally would not have convicted him, and I really do think he could be innocent. The other thing that haunts me is how I behaved towards him when I bumped into him. I was very cool towards him, and he surely sensed that. It's just incredibly sad to think about how utterly ruined his life was as result of this conviction. I realize I could get some hate mail about this, but before responding to my comment, please understand that I realize Bibi Lee is dead, and that Brad may well have killed her, in which case he deserves all that he has received, and perhaps more. I'm just saying that none of us can say with certainty that he was the murderer. Moreover, I think most objective people would agree that based on the facts of the case, there are good reasons for thinking he wasn't the murderer, in which case he should have been acquited.
If anyone knows where he is, or how to contact him, or what he is doing now, it would be great to hear about this. I would really like to write to him to apologize for my behavior towards him when I ran into him those many years ago.
I met Brad Page when he was at Diablo Valley College (a community college in CA we both attended before transferring to a four year college). Although I didn't know him well, he seemed like a very nice guy, and perhaps a bit naive. I bumped into him by accident when he was between trials when I pulled into a parking lot on a secluded road to take over behind the wheel from my sister in law, who I was teaching to drive. My conversation with him was a bit awkward (I couldn't very well say "how's it going?"), and my sister in law was completely tongue-tied out of fear.
I had completely forgotten about Brad Page until the other day when my sister in law reminded me about our chance encounter. I thought I knew the case pretty well-he went jogging with his girlfriend, he came back alone, and then later she turned up dead and he confessed. This seemed like an open and shut case to me-I felt he must surely have been guilty. However, after my sister in law reminded about this, I looked into the matter, and it turns out, the story wasn't as simple as I had thought. Indeed, after reviewing all of the information (and the facts are available for anyone who want to look into this here: http://www.lawlink.com/research/CaseLevel3/69026) I have come to the conclusion that there is a very good chance that Brad Page wasn't guilty after all.
While Brad Page cannot be excluded as the killer, there are just too many things that don't add up. Also, I'm a lot more suspicious of "confessions" that I was when I was young (look at how many people have confessed to crimes that they were subsequently exonerated for based on DNA evidence. I won't try to lay out all the reasons for questioning Brad Page's guilt (although there are many), but I'll simply say this: knowing what I know now, I would absolutely NOT have gone along with a guilty verdict in the case. Indeed, I feel there is a high probability that he is innocent of the crime.
There are two things that haunt about this. First, we were both very young men really just getting started in life when I knew him, and now I'm an old man (OK, technically in my mid-50's). I cannot help but reflect on how much I have lived since the time I knew Brad (marriage, two kids, college, grad school, etc.), and consequently how much living Brad lost as a result of this case. If he is indeed guilty, then he probably deserves this loss, but as I say, I personally would not have convicted him, and I really do think he could be innocent. The other thing that haunts me is how I behaved towards him when I bumped into him. I was very cool towards him, and he surely sensed that. It's just incredibly sad to think about how utterly ruined his life was as result of this conviction. I realize I could get some hate mail about this, but before responding to my comment, please understand that I realize Bibi Lee is dead, and that Brad may well have killed her, in which case he deserves all that he has received, and perhaps more. I'm just saying that none of us can say with certainty that he was the murderer. Moreover, I think most objective people would agree that based on the facts of the case, there are good reasons for thinking he wasn't the murderer, in which case he should have been acquited.
If anyone knows where he is, or how to contact him, or what he is doing now, it would be great to hear about this. I would really like to write to him to apologize for my behavior towards him when I ran into him those many years ago.
I had heard bout the NZ arrest...First heard about this after reading The Dead Girl when it first came out...met the author of that book(and others), Melanie Thernstrom, a few yrs ago in NYC @ a book signing. Im cinvinced he killed Roberta(Bibi). I did NOT know about his high school gf tho. Sounds like a whole other mess/drama...Wonder what trash pile he has ended up on...
They are a broken family since Bibi died. Her sister's name is Veronica. Not Gloria.
Considering he served an unseemly short sentence and then later went to NZ and got himself arrested for exposing himself to a woman on a hiking trail i dont feel too sorry for him because i always thought he was guilty...He knew certain details that only the killer knew and the cops didnt feed him that info...
They are a broken family since Bibi died. Her sister's name is Veronica. Not Gloria.
Bradley Page did not kill Bibi Lee. (Part 1 of 2)
People! Maybe you missed the news? Bradley Page did NOT kill Bibi Lee. It came to light in 1994 that serial murderer Michael Ihde killed Bibi Lee. The evidence is clear. But the DA may never reopen the case to officially clear Bradley's name.
I was a student at Cal who was visiting the Lothlorien Co-Op house often during the time period before and after Bibi Lee's death (Fall 1984) because I had friends living there. In fact, on the day Bibi went missing I rode in the back of Bradley's station wagon with several other Lothlorien residents as he drove us to the Exploratorium's Tactile Dome exhibit. My friends spearheaded the search for Bibi Lee. Everyone was devastated by her death and what came after.
For years I pondered the lurid police account that Bradley had killed Bibi that morning and buried her that evening with a hubcap from the car I rode in. I tried to square that with my impressions of all my Lothlorien friends and of Bradley's apparently innocent behavior that day. I wondered if anyone so friendly could really kill a lover and then hide it so well. Could a psychopath really feign such warm emotional connection with dozens of people in a groovy vegetarian Co-Op house? The allegations of repeated disinterment and serial necrophilia sounded frankly outlandish to me, so I personally concluded he must be innocent.
But then he was convicted by a jury of our peers! Wow, I thought. Maybe he did kill her after all? In those days I reluctantly concluded that a seemingly nice person that did not alarm me in any way apparently could do an unbelievably awful thing in the morning and then go play with their friends in the afternoon, then do more awful things in the evening without tipping their hand at all. And then one of our friends married him! And she was about as people savvy as anyone I'd ever met. Huh. So what to believe?
When new evidence came to light a decade later, I changed my mind about Bradley. In 1994- several years after Bradley was paroled- a jailed serial murderer named Michael Ihde bragged to another inmate of killing Bibi and several other Bay area women. Upon inspection, there was lots of corroborating evidence to support this uncoerced confession from a heinous criminal. It looks like Karen Marquardt's detailed eyewitness account of seeing a large bearded man dragging an Asian woman that looked like Bibi toward a parked van near the park midday on 11/4/1984 (an hour or two after Bibi ditched Bradley and Robin) was almost certainly Bibi being abducted for rape and murder by Ihde. A bloodhound corroborated Karen's testimony (it smelled Bibi at that spot on that street). But the DA disregarded Karen's and the police dog's testimony in the original trial, and in the subsequent trials.
Apparently poor Bibi was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and became one of the numerous women that Ihde abducted, raped and killed in the course of his violent criminal career. So it goes.
And poor Bradley who had never been in trouble with the law before was naïve enough to walk into the Oakland police station without a lawyer when they called him on day one of the murder investigation. Police detained Bradley and subjected him to an exhausting, repetitive series of psychologically deceptive and coercive tactics, interrogating him nonstop from morning until the wee hours of the night. He was lied to, worn down, psychologically manipulated, browbeaten, grilled, and framed by the Oakland police. He was duly prosecuted by the Alameda County DA and was convicted solely on the basis of his coerced confession despite much esculpatory physical evidence. The DA disregarded Karen's and the police dog's testimony in the original trial, and in the subsequent trials. No connections were made to the nearly identical rape and murder of another East Bay woman 3 weeks after Bibi died. Bradley was jailed several years for a murder he did not commit.
And the wrong goes on. Bradley Page was paroled in 1991. But in 1994 when new evidence identified already convicted serial murderer Michael Ihde as Bibi's true killer, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office refused to reopen Bradley's case, acknowledge his innocence, and officially clear his name. To this day he is wrongly identified in public records and remembered by most people as the terrible boyfriend who was convicted of brutal murder and icky necrophilia. The criminal record that follows him to this day has probably ruined any chance Bradley ever had for a serious professional career.
Bibi's family and friends spent decades hating this innocent man's guts. They must have been made aware of the new evidence. I hope they have been able to see the truth, forgive him, and release that emotional burden. But Bibi's mom did not live long enough to learn the truth. She went to her grave believing incorrectly that Bradley killed her daughter.
So today I conclude from the story of Bradley Page and Bibi Lee that truly nice people who have never done anything wrong can and do sometimes get raped and murdered by cruel strangers. And nice people who have never done anything wrong can be and sometimes are subjected to grueling interrogation by law enforcement, and framed for murder while the true murderers remain free to rape and murder some more nice people who have never done anything wrong. And careers in law enforcement can and sometimes do turn (presumably) nice people into hardened cynics who will not bat a jaundiced eye as they work in our civil institutions to create and prosecute travesties of justice like this.
We all support our local law enforcement agencies and commend them for the difficult work they often do very well, but every police department needs oversight because the very nature of the job tends to breed malfeasance among some public servants. And when that happens, innocent people go to jail and worse. Some police departments and departments of justice are in serious need of reform and ongoing civilian oversight. Until they are, injustice will continue to be served in too many cases.
In the years since Bibi's death, society has learned a lot about how interrogation works. Bradley's case has become a textbook example of coercive interrogation producing a false confession that leads to a miscarriage of justice. And DNA evidence now routinely proves that apparently guilty people are actually innocent of criminal wrongdoing. These processes are leading to some much needed police reforms. If it all happened today instead of back in the '80s, lawyers would know how to recognize the signs of a bogus coerced confession. They would know how to defend a case like this. Today Bradley would almost certainly be cleared of any wrongdoing.
But poor Bibi would still be dead. Rest in peace, dear one. We are so sorry we lost you.
Citations:
Leo, Richard A. The Justice Gap and the Promise of Criminological Research. Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society. Vol 15, issue 3, Dec 2014. Pp 1-37. (Discussion of Bradley Page's trial begins on page 2) http://www.westerncriminology.org/documents/CCJLS/15(3)-December_2014-Complete_Issue.pdfhttp://www.westerncriminology.org/documents/CCJLS/15(3)-December_2014-Complete_Issue.pdf
Richard A. Leo, and Richard J. Ofshe. 1998. Consequences of False Confessions: Deprivations of Liberty and Miscarriages of Justice in the Age of Psychological Interrogation. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol 88, issue 2, Artricle 1. Winter 1998. 496 pages. (The whole article is very pertinent, but specific discussion of Bradley Page's case is on Pp 455-457). http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6951&context=jclc
People v. Page (1991) 2 Cal.App.4th 161 [2 Cal.Rptr.2d 898] http://www.lawlink.com/research/CaseLevel3/69026 Appeal of Bradley Page's original conviction. Original verdict was upheld.
Robert Taylor--Thank you for a thorough summary of the case, and especially for the citations. I went to Acalanes high school for one year with Brad Page, although I didn't know him well. My younger sister knew him very well and was a staunch supporter through out his trials. Over the years I lost my sister, and also lost track of Brad's case. In some way, your post and reading the citations brings some closure to me, and some satisfaction that my sister's blind faith has been partially vindicated.
Bibi had more than one sister. Gloria was at Friends of Bibi Lee with Bibi's mother and father, and my recollection is that she was a grad student at the time. Brad held her on his lap when she cried, and joined the family for Thanksgiving that awful November (Bibi went missing on Nov. 4, 1984). Here is what doesn't make sense to me: Brad and Bibi set off jogging with Robin (I forget her last name). As everybody knows, Bibi veered off on her own, because she was angry at Brad. Brad and Robin returned to Brad's car, and Robin waited there for about 15 minutes (according to her testimony) while Brad went looking for Bibi. He returned with his normal demeanor (again, according to Robin's testimony), and they drove back to Lothlorien without Bibi. Psychologists have told me that Brad would have to be a sociopath to maintain a normal demeanor just minutes after a violent attack on a loved one. I've questioned how well I really knew Brad after these events, but I can assure you that he wasn't a sociopath. The Brad that I knew was a gentle and caring young man who easily formed friendships and emotional bonds. I'm not saying that he is innocent of this crime, but there is certainly room for doubt.
I am very curious as to what the alleged "new evidence" pointing to Michael Ihde as Bibi's killer is. I would like a specific reply on this.
If Brad Page's thorough & detailed confession to police was false, why do the Roberta's injuries cohere perfectly with it? Why was her body located where he said he left it? Why does the burial match his account?
If Bradley's confession were false, why does it jibe so perfectly with all of the known facts?
Michael Ihde *stabbed* his known victim. Bibi Lee had been whacked in the back of her head -- consistent with Brad's confession.
There is no evidence that Ihde was in Oakland when Brad & Bibi hit the hiking trail.
Oh -- about Brad's arrest in New Zealand for exposing homself to a girl on a hiking trail. How do the pro-Brad conspiracists account for that?
"I wonder if he *did* kill her," Brad's wife said aloud outside of the courtroom. She divorced Brad shortly after the guilty verdict was announced -- and saw to it that their son was raised far away from the US.
BTW, the woman who went jogging with Brad and Roberta that morning was Robin Shaw. Roberta separated from them, and after a while, Page went looking for her on his own. About 20 minutes later he returned to Robin -- and he *was* acting weird, according to Robin's testimony to police
Bradley Page flunked a lie detector test, and admitted to killing Bibi, burying her, and doing sexual things with the body several times. It was only later that he devised the "My confession was coerced" fairytale.
And yes, Page's indecent exposure to the girl on the New Zealand hiking trail is both bizarre and telling. It, too, is a kind of confession, a reliving of his doings with Roberta.
BTW, what was Brad doing in New Zealand in the first place? Well, he was visiting the son he had with Amy Hacker, who, after Brad's second trial, divorced him and created as much distance from Brad as possible.
In Brad's confession, he said that upon returning to the park in the evening, he "dragged" Roberta's body to the spot where he eventually buried.
He didn't explain this -- but dragging is precisely what the killer had to have done; she was stiff with rigor mortis.
And her body was found just where he said he had left her.
This was not a false confession.
The disappearance of Brad's high school girlfriend ought to be looked into.
After figuring out during Brad's second trial that he was guilty, after all, his wife divorced him, moved far away, and remarried. Notoriously, Brad was arrested for exposing himself to a girl in the woods while visiting this country -- nomunally to see his son. Authorities had not been aware of Brad's criminal background, as they were supposed to be.
That's the last I've heard about Bradley Page. He seems to have disappeared after that sordid and revealing episode.
I'd heard Brad was living in Mexico and was a serious practitioner of Vipassana meditation.
Would the Mexican authorities know and care that a convicted killer and alleged weenie wagger is living in their country and teaching meditation and yoga?
Brad didn't notify NZ authorities about his conviction, so that's a legitimate question.
Brad was into meditation at Lothlorien House (which some Berkeley alumni consider haunted, even though Brad didn't kill Roberta there), so the possibility that he's now practicing it in Mexico seems very real.
By the way, guys, the fact that a person seems "kind and gentle" is no way rules out the possibility that he is a sociopath or psychopath! Such persons often commit horrible acts and go completely unsuspected until they admit to their crimes (as Brad did --in compelling detail that only the killer would have) or are caught by forensic science. These people can appear perfecty normal. Indeed, there's evidence that one of the reasons these people can go undetected is that they don't react to doing bad things in the way most people would.
For example, after the murder of Paul Stine in the Presidio Heights region of San Francisco in 1969, two police officers making their way to the crime scene spotted a man walking unhurriedly in their general direction. They stopped the man and talked to him, finding him calm and polite. He pointed them in the direction he claimed he had just seen someone running. Well, the officers later realized that the man they had spoken with matched perfectly with eyewitness descriptions of the perpetrator -- and indeed, the man they spoke discussed their little talk in a letter to the SF Chronicle. The man was the Zodiac Killer -- and he was never identified or caught. This psychopathic serial killer impressed the two trained police officers as perfectly normal and unsuspicious!
Good catch, Unknown. Brad is indeed living in Oaxaca, Mexico and acting as a meditation instructor. He's seeking volunteers for his "intentional community," students, and funds for the completion of his farm and book. His son (with the woman who briefly married him and who initially alibied him on the evening following Roberta's disappearance) appears to be financially supporting the whole project. Here's the creepy thing: People who join this retreat eat communally as vegetarians and devote much of their time to hiking in the woods and listening to lectures (albeit from Brad). It is obvious to me that Brad has attempted to recreate his the Lothlorien House environment -- albeit in Mexico. I wish recruits could be alerted as to what they were getting into.
Brad's arrest for indecent exposure in New Zealand occurred in 2002 -- nearly twenty years after his murder of and acts of necrophilia with the body of Roberta Lee. This guy really ought not to be claiming to be an expert on "how the mind works" or seeking volunteers for a meditation community in Mexico.
I'm rereading Melanie Thernstrom's book about this case, The Dead Girl. The book is annoyingly nonlinear, and Thernstrom often gets mired in the postmodern literary "theory" that was popular in some university settings at that time. But the brief portions where she focuses on Roberta Lee and on the story are interesting. Thernstrom was in Massachusetts when Lee was murdered, and she visited Lee's family shortly after Roberta's disappearance. Why, Lee's mother and sister kept demanding, did Brad leave Roberta at the park in Oakland that day? It was 10 miles from campus. This was precisely the right question.
Brad and Robin Shaw only waited for Roberta twenty minutes or so. Why leave her in the Oakland park? The answer of course -- though Robin Shaw didn't know it at the time -- is that Brad had killed Roberta. She was not going to return.
Robert Taylor, what is this "lurid police account" you refer to? The only lurid account in this case emanates from Brad himself, who admitted to striking Bibi, burying her, and subsequently doing sexual things with her body.
You try to suggest that the story of Bibi being forced into a van by a large, bearded man is accurate. But then why would Bibi's body have been found at the park -- precisely where Brad admitted he had left her?
Prior to the discovery of Bibi's body, Brad tried to support the "man with the van" hypothesis, too, in a weird poem dedicated to Bibi that was printed in the Daily Cal. This poem says the man in the van was "well described." How would Brad know, since he never saw this supposed man? No; Brad was merely seeking to deflect attention from himself.
This is Brad's poem for Bibi, which was printed (to his delight) in the Daily Cal prior to the discovery of her body:
Suitable Ending
by Brad Page
Thin worn shells once colored with life
Now rags and loose ends in a last formless dance
Empty from the closet in paper-bag brown.
Plastic jewels draped in elegance
Layers to the seasons
Buttoned up tight to chill glances
Always revealed to warm glares a beauty disrobed.
Sextant poised, shivering for warmth, he continually inspected society's gusts.
Sway back,
Challenging the winds head on she sailed, never luffing.
Never in irons.
She cut forward gently parting the waves of complacency
Who in awe, embarrassment lapped against her gunwales
On a warm Winter's day terror howled in the soul
As the appetite of the mind's eye took a second look but didn't see
Witnessed by one, viewed by millions,
The rest fed on the 6 o'clock news with coffee and dessert
And a well-described man with
A positively identified friend
Drove slowly away in an instant
The last scarf lay in order in a half empty box -- taped shut
No postage, no cost,
Returned to sender
To Bibi: who dressed me in love, 11-18-84
[end]
Again, this was before Bibi's body was found; many of her family & acquaintances hoped she was still alive. It's clear Brad knew she was dead.
On pondering the poem, one of Bibi's friends, asked "Why? What does he think happened to her?"
Were the "empty shells" and "rags and loose ends" Roberta's remains?
Was the "second look" Brad's necrophiliac visit to Roberta's body?
Before he was convicted of Roberta's murder, Brad *delighted* in the attention lavished upon him as a result of her disappearance. For example, he had begun to dress extremely flamboyantly, with garishly-colored bowties and earrings. Additionally, Roberta had left behind a large stuffed bear that she had called "Marcellus." Brad got into the habit of carrying it around with him. In fact, he brought it with him on a "search" through the park where Roberta had disappeared. Most likely, he went to these searches to misdirect the search parties away from where he had left Roberta's body.
Additionally, on one occasion shortly after Roberta's appearance, when the "Friends of Bibi Lee" had gathered in Roberta's room, her phone rang -- and it turned out to be an employee of a restaurant, confirming a reservation Roberta had made at the restaurant. Brad seized upon this, claiming this was going to be the dinner at which he was going to *propose* to Roberta. Her close friends found this very dubious; Roberta and Brad had both been seeing other people; and if Brad and Roberta had been that serious, they would have known.
Brad's behavior began to change (and grow darker) when a second *professional* search was set up. This search was going to employ bloodhounds. He became seriously despondent, began to cry a lot, and drink heavily. He knew the jig was up and that her body would be found. And it was.
The problem is that a lot of people take in Brad's "gentle" demeanor, his interests in meditation & vegetarianism, and assume there's nothing beyond the surface.
He's a messed-up guy. When he lived abroad in France, he felt that the mother of the house was attracted to him (even though nothing ever happened), and later described this as "psychological rape."
When Roberta thought she was pregnant by Brad (it turned out to be a false alarm), he described THAT as "psychological rape."
The term "psychological rape" is dubious to begin with, and weirder still in Brad's usage, because neither of these women forced anything on him.
Brad's the one who exposed himself to a girl in NZ. He's the one behaving inappropriately.
And I shudder to imagine what's going on in his wooded Oaxacan retreat.
I thought it was strange you brought up the confession of Brad Page, first of all lying to him about finding the body is not illegal and in fact it is a good tactic, most innocent person would demand to be let out of that room to grieve. In then it just so happens they do find the body right where he was last with her shallowing buried and he admitted he had sex with her body before he covered it up, that matches the crime scene of her being slightly buried, then he gets busted in New Zealand for another sexual crime, he clearly has a sex drive that and sexual issues. Cleary you don't do a good job researching the facts and/or you are the type that think police are too tough on killers and career criminals.
Leo Pallanck - I read your comment and concluded YOUR A MORON. either low IQ in which I apologize for calling you a moron, or you have not read anything about the case, or your just one of those people that like to disagree with everyone just to be different a noticed. More than likely your both a moron and you want to the attention of being different.
https://ericpools.blogspot.com/
Charlie Gauger: Here you go: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5c6c/78a810e5b4006e6115eed1db0c553a630285.pdf with 12, that's 12, TWELVE, pages of verifiable citations.
"Richard A. Leo is the Hamill Family Professor of
Law and Social Psychology at the University of San Francisco and formerly a Professor of Psychology and Criminology at the University of California, Irvine. He
is the 2014 recipient of the Western Society of Criminology’s Paul Tappan Award for outstanding contributions to the field of criminology in four distinct areas."
Bradley Page may be and may have always been a "weirdo," and he was undoubtedly warped even further by imprisonment, but there is far more evidence for Ihde as the murderer than for he. It isn't even close.
I never suggested that Bradley was a "weirdo." What I said is that the young woman who went jogging with Brad and Roberta that day told police that Brad had behaved weirdly immediately following Roberta's disappearance from the trail.
Why do the forensic details of Roberta's death match Brad's confession in every detail? E.g., Brad admitted that he had later "dragged" Roberta's body to the spot where he buried it. Why would he make such a detail up? In fact, he DIDN'T make it up. Bradley's confession was TRUE. And he dragged the body because he had to; it was stiff with rigor mortis.
Why, upon visiting his son in New Zealand, did Brad expose himself to a girl on a hiking trail? Because he was reliving his necrophiliac experiences with Roberta's body.
I don't care how many citations anyone comes up with; they are not going to change reality -- in this case, the reality that Bradley Page killed Roberta Lee. He confessed to it in detail; and the confession matches the condition of Roberta's body and the conditions in which she was buried.
Those of you trying to muddle the issue by spreading conspiracy theories about Ihde should be ashamed of yourselves. Bradley Page killed Roberta Lee. He confessed to it on tape. Prior to the confession he exhibited evidence of guilt. The location f Roberta's body and the injuries inflicted on it match Page's confession and are totally inconsistent with Ihde's murder. Again, those of you trying to misdirect attention away from her actual murderer, Bradly Nelson Page, should be extremely ashamed of yourselves.
I didn't know Bibi well, but one of her close friends was my boyfriend's roommate in student housing (not Lothlorien) so I saw her often, and 4 or 5 days before her murder, Bibi and I were talking in the living room while waiting for our partners to take showers and get ready. She told me she had decided to break up with Brad, and that she was afraid of him. She'd seen him very angry and was afraid to talk to him alone. She also said that he seemed to have expected her to be a compliant, cliched Asian girl, who didn't have opinions and didn't argue or contradict her man.
I suggested she talk to him with a friend present, and in a public place. I had had a very abusive relationship, and I knew what it was to be afraid. She was crying at one point, and I just listened and comforted her. The next thing I heard was that she was gone. I also had a friend in the police dept, and knew when Brad was there confessing. The word had gone round quickly, within the dept., about the returning to her body for sex, because the officers were so horrified. Berkeley didn't see this sort of thing, and it was deeply shocking. I was told, but I never repeated it until it became common knowledge.
I have never had any doubt that Brad killed her. His father did everything he could to buy an acquittal, and all but succeeded. The wife was window dressing, and it didn't take her long to figure that out. I was relieved when, eventually, I learnt that she had left him. I have never forgotten her--obviously, as I was looking to see if her case was remembered. Bibi was so smart, and very focused on her life.
Shockingly, Bibi was just the first friend I lost to partner violence in the Bay Area. Two other friends were killed by their husbands; one also killed their baby. Renee June and Marta, her baby, never got justice, though Arthur did finally kill himself a few years later. Theresa's husband killed himself immediately, in front of their children. Women are always at risk, and we need to remember it.
Thanks for sharing those memories, TH. I hadn't heard before that Bibi was specifically fearful of Brad. But the letters from Bibi quoted in Melanie Theronstrom's book definitely suggest Bibi was a frightened person.
I can't believe the naivete of the strategies used by Brad's apologists. The woman who was briefly married to Brad said -- before the second trial -- that Brad couldn't have killed Bibi because he talked in his sleep and would have mentioned it when sleeptalking! Brad's mother claimed that Brad couldn't be guilty of Bibi's murder because she used to take Brad to see plays and such when he was a kid!
A stronger defense would have made use of facts and logic. However, all the facts and logic in this case point to Brad's responsibility for Bibi's murder.
Robin Shaw, who went jogging with Brad and Bibi that morning testified to police that whenn Brad returned from attempting to locate Bibi, he seemed "upset, angry, worried, and somewhat scared and confused."
Brad said that they should leave the park without Bibi, even though the three of them had driven together and Bibi now had no transportation of her own. Why would Brad propose such an outrageous move? Because -- as is obvious in retrospect -- he KNEW Bibi would not return because she was dead; he had killed her.
Robin eventually acquiesced to this despite being uncomfortable with it. Brad persuaded her that he knew Bibi better than she (Robin) did.
Damn. I babysat for Brad Page had no idea who he was till I saw him on the news one night he was using his wife's last name at the time...he freaked me out.
Many people seem to be leaving comments that indicate they are sure he is innocent or guilty, and most of the reasons for leaving these comments are emotional (e.g., 'it's in the eyes,' 'if he committed a sexual offense in NZ he must surely have killed his girlfriend', etc.). But there are only two people who know for sure whether he is guilty or innocent: one of them is dead and the other...may not even be sure himself. But all of this is missing the point. The point is whether he should have been convicted of committing this crime at all. I'm extremely doubtful that anyone who considers all of the FACTS would actually convict him in court. For example if you bother to read the transcript of the police interview recording (much of his 'confession' involved the police saying things like 'if you had killed her would you have maybe used the hubcab to bury her?' They basically told him how he MIGHT have committed the murder all along the way-it was all in the context of the hypothetical), and you understand how often police coerce suspects into falsely admitting guilt, I think at least most people would have a lot of doubt. Also, remember, there was absolutely NO physical evidence connecting him to the crime (e.g., no traces of soil from the gravesite on his hubcap), and no witnesses putting him at the scene. There was also an eyewitness who saw someone that didn't match Brad Page's description apparently abducting a female matching Lee's description in the general area at the appropriate time. Also, try to consider what your life might be like if you were falsely convicted of murder. Can you honestly say how you would behave the rest of your life? Maybe the NZ incident occurred as a consequence of his derailed life. If Brad Page had resisted talking to the police until he secured legal council, we wouldn't even be talking about this right now at all. The only thing the police had was a confession secured under false pretenses and under duress without the benefit of legal council. Period.
Oh, and I will add that I ran into Brad between trials (I knew him from a laboratory class I had with him in college) and I was shocked at how much he had changed. He looked 20 years older. Now, some might say that was because he was living with the guilt of the murder, and honestly, that was my opinion when I saw him because I was naive about what a 'confession', meant at the time (remember the central park jogger case in NYC? I totally believed those kids were guilty too). However, I think being accused of murder, having many of your friends thinking you are guilty, then going through a trial that ends in a hung jury and facing yet another more challenging trial on a lesser charge for a crime I didn't commit might age me considerably too. It's honestly quite frustrating to me how many people are certain of things that they really don't know the answer to-that seems to be a popular game these days (e.g., vaccines cause autism, climate change is fake, there is a deep state, etc.). I myself don't know whether he is innocent or guilty, but the rules of the game are guilty beyond reasonable doubt. I think there is a lot of reasonable doubt.
Leo, it looks to me like you're trying to misdirect people. You suggest that Brad's confession of murdering Bibi Lee was coerced. Explain to me then why Roberta's injuries and burial match his descriptions perfectly.
You suggest a witness saw Bibi being abducted. Explain to me, then, why Roberta's body was at the park, precisely where Brad left it?
Several years after he killed Roberta, Brad visited his son in New Zealand. While there, he exposed himself to a girl on a wooded hiking trail -- an environment eerily similar to the one in which he killed Roberta. You suggest this was due to his "derailed life." However, Brad's life was derailed through his own actions; and this NZ incident was a reliving of his necrophilia with Bibi's body.
Just as Brad's masturbation in front of a girl on a wooded hiking trail is a perverse re-enactment of his necrophilia with Bibi Lee's body, his current Yoga retreat is weirdly reminiscent of his Lothlorien House environment at the time he killed Bibi. Meals are vegetarian and communal, emphasis is on mediation, etc. The area is also full of wooded trails.
Lorthlorien House is believed to be haunted to this day by Brad, even though it was at the jogging trail in the Oakland Hills (where her body was eventuaqlly found) that he killed her.
Brad, in short, is caught up in a repetition compulsion.
Norbert, did you read the transcript of the police interview? You should read that before commenting on what I said. Much of the testimony he gave was handed to him by police. He was falsely told that there was hard evidence linking him to the crime, at which point he said that if he actually did this he must have blacked it out. Also his 'confession' went sort of like this: Police: so Brad did you use a shovel to bury her? Do you have a shovel in your car? Brad: No, I don't have a shovel. Police: Well could you have maybe used a hubcap from your car? Brad: Yes, maybe I might have used a hubcap. etc. AGAIN, if you haven't read the transcript, you really have no right to challenge me on the credibility of the confession.
Also, there are many things that people have said in their comments here that are poorly documented. For example, I'm not aware of any evidence that Brad's high school girlfriend actually disappeared, or that she even existed, or, if she existed, that she was his girlfriend, or that he had any connection to her at the time of her disappearance. Some people indicate that Brad's wife moved to NZ to avoid him; what is the evidence that she moved there for that reason? Some people say he is living in a commune in Mexico-what is the evidence for that? There are some hard facts, and there is a lot of wild speculation.
Also, did you read what I said? I never said Brad was innocent, and I honestly don't know the answer to that question. The only people who are certain of that are Brad (he may not even be certain himself), Bibi, and a few people like you. I'm not trying to save Brad, and he wasn't my friend-I just happened to know him. I even admitted that I thought he must surely be guilty based on the confession, and when I ran into him between trials, it was sort of awkward because I did think he was guilty. All I'm saying is that after I reviewed all of the facts, I don't believe there is enough evidence to convict him. That doesn't mean he is innocent-it means the confession was flawed in many ways, and there wasn't enough there for me to ruin someone's life for a crime he may not have committed. You don't have to agree with me-but at least review all of the evidence before you disagree.
Leo, you repeat in a mantralike fashion that only two people (Brad & Bibi) know what happened on the hiking trail. (Technically, that's mistaken, because Bibi suffered 1 to 3 blows to the back of her head -- which she did not see coming.)
Do you take this sort of stance with the OJ Simpson and Scott Peterson cases as well? Do you claim that nobody knows what transpired in those cases?
I've read the parts of Brad's confession that appeared in Thernstrom's book and in articles. If you have a link to the complete transcript, I'll read it.
Whatever tactics the police used to get Brad talking, it is stunningly implausible that Brad admitted to a murder that he did not commit. And don't forget the polygraph, which Brad put a halt to through "wailing," but on which he evinced deception.
You have no explanation for why Bibi's injuries match Brad's confession. You have no explanation for why she was buried beside the jogging trail if she was supposedly abducted and driven away.
Why do you suppose Brad left Bibi -- a petite young Asian girl -- alone in an Oakland park whithout transportation when she lived in Berkeley? It makes absolutely no sense.
Until you confront the reality that Brad knew she was dead -- because he had killed her.
Oh, and the Oaxacan meditation retreat is a fact. Brad runs a yoga retreat there, and seeks volunteers and students. Do a bit of digging and you should be able to verify this for yourself.
that may be true, but it doesn't change the facts of the case, or lead me to alter my conclusion. A lot of what has been said in this forum simply amounts to confirmation bias. The real issue here is that there is zero physical evidence that he committed the murder, there was another suspect in the case, and his confession was acquired under duress. I think a lot of Brad's behavior before, during and after the 'confession' can be explained away. We probably aren't going to see eye-to-eye on this, but all I am saying is that if I were on the jury, and I knew then what I know now about false confessions (and how frequently they occur) I absolutely would not have convicted him. Again, that doesn't mean I think he is innocent-I just think there is too much doubt to move forward on ruining the life of someone who may well be innocent. I'll try to do some digging on his whereabouts-I suppose I have a fantasy that I can somehow answer the question about his guilt or innocence. For the record, we may not agree on the guilty vs innocent verdict, but I didn't mean any disrespect to you.
Respectfully, Leo, while you purport to see confirmation bias on the part of those who discern Brad's responsibility for Bibi's murder, it seems to me that you're attempting to project your own lack of clarity onto the facts of the case.
Why did Brad leave Bibi -- a young, petite Asian woman with no transportation of her own -- in a park in Oakand? She lived in Berkeley. It makes absolutely no sense that he would do this if he believed she was alive.
Why, upon returning to Robin Shaw after his 15-minute quest for Bibi, was Brad acting frightened and confused? Why was he so eager to leave the park? (Because Bibi's body was in it -- and her death was HIS responsbility.)
Why would Brad have confessed to murder if he hadn't done it? Would you admit to a murder you had not committed? I wouldn't! The "coercion" here is nothing more than a red herring. Brad admitted to Bibi's murder because he did it.
Even we are willing to *pretend* that Brad's confession was some sort of bizarre invention what are the odds that this "invention" would match the facts of Bibi's burial and the state of her body? It is implausible beyond belief!
Then factor in Brad's subsequent behavior: His masturbation in front of an innocent girl on the New Zealand hiking trail & his recreation of Lothlorien in Oaxaca. All of this reeks of re-enactment.
The facts are clear. It's only Brad's apologists who are muddled.
OK, first off, the facts of the case aren't as straightforward as you make them sound, but I'm not going to waste my time arguing the details with you because it seems your primary interest is trying to discredit my opinion. I wasn't Brad's friend or anything like that, and I really did dig deeply into the facts of the case, so I don't appreciate your accusation that I'm trying to project my lack of clarity into the case, or that I'm Brad's apologist. Also, if the fact of Brad's guilt is as clear as you make it seem, why was there a hung jury in his first trial? Were the jurors who didn't vote to convict also trying to project their lack of clarity into the case, or serving as Brad's apologists? And back in those days we knew a lot less about false convictions than we do today. It's great that you are so certain of Brad's guilt-I have my doubts.
"False confessions" have been hyped by some people. However, in every criminal case in which they emerge, they look to me like red herrings.
The idea of "false confession" was introduced in the Christa Worthington case in the attempt to defend Chris McCown from raping & murdering Ms. Worthington. The problem is that McCowen's seven was found on Worthington's body and he was caught in many obvious lies.
There are similar problems with Bradley Page and his allegedly "false" confession. If his confession were false, why were so many of his details accurate?
The idea of "false confessions" is often, if not usually ITSELF a falsehood.
You ask: if his confession were false, why were so many of his details accurate? The answer is because the police basically told him what to say during the 'confession.' And they did so after telling him three lies: that a witness saw him at a location where the murder occurred that he claimed to have not gone; that his fingerprints were found on a rock at the murder scene; that he failed the polygraph test. Here's an excerpt of the 'confession' from the LawLink website (bear in mind, Page claimed before this that if he committed the murder he must have blacked it out, and this 'confession' was an attempt by the police to get him to imagine how he might have done it):
At the officers` urging, Page began to imagine how he might have been involved in Bibi`s death. He had an image of making love to Bibi, and the officers urged him to continue imagining what had happened. When his memory drew a blank, one of the officers said, `Well, you might remember after lashing out or going off or exploding.` Page said he had an image of going off. They asked Page if he had hit Bibi, and he said he pictured that. They asked if he kicked her, and he said he could imagine that. They asked if he had a branch, and he pictured that. They asked if he had a rock, and he put a rock into the scenario. Page claimed the process was like making a movie.
Page testified at length about how the details of his confession were developed with the officers` help. When the officers asked if he hit her on the head, he said he might have slapped her. When they asked if she had a bloody nose, he said he saw a trickle. When asked if she fell down, Page said he could see her falling around a tree.
The officers then turned to how he disposed of the body. The officers asked if he had moved her, and Page said he had moved her up on a rock. He said she was still groggy and he lay down next to her and comforted her, and that after awhile they fell asleep. When the officers asked how long that would have taken, Page said an hour and one-half. They suggested that this didn`t fit in with the other evidence, because he had left Robin waiting only 15 to 20 minutes. The officers then helped Page figure out when he could have come back. They decided it must have been sometime after dinner, since that was the only time open.
Page decided that Bibi must have been dead when he returned, otherwise he would have helped her. Lacer asked, `You made love to a dead body?` Page responded, `That`s what fits.` The officers asked if he had moved [2 Cal.App.4th 179] the body, and he responded that he guessed he must have. He pictured putting her under a branch, because they had asked him about a branch earlier. They asked if he covered her, if he had dug a depression, and he responded that he might have had a shovel. Lacer said, `You don`t have a shovel, do you?` and asked Page what he had in his car. Page answered that he had a hubcap and a blanket, and he incorporated those items into the story.
I could include more of the 'confession' interview, but I'll just close by reminding you that there was no physical evidence linking Page to the crime (e.g., there was no soil residue on the hubcap matching the crime scene, no witnesses, nothing), and there was a credible alternate suspect. Am I saying that Page did not commit this murder? Absolutely not! I'm simply saying that I don't believe the facts support conviction. I also think there is a reasonable chance that Page was innocent and that the criminal justice system ruined his life.
Leo, Brad had had five weeks to dispose of physical evidence.
While you strive to say that Page's confession was fed to him by the police (in, apparently, some sinister conspiracy to "get" him) he provided many accurate details that they did not know. He stated that he had found her on Skyline drive prior to killing her. He stated that he had attempted to kiss the top of her head -- only to have her struggle away from his. He stated that he had backhanded her -- something confirmed in the autopsy. And he admitted that he had left her half-dressed.
Conspiracy theories against the police don't explain how Brad knew all these things. His direct participation in Bibi's murder does.
Conspiracy theories against the police don't explain why Brad opted to leave Bibi in the Oakland park after a mere 15- or 20-minute search. This was the girl he loved! Why would he have left her on an Oakland hiking trail when she resided in Berkeley and had no transportation? (Because, obviously, he knew she was dead. He had killed her.)
Conspiracy theories about the police don't explain Brad's strange demeanor on returning from his search for Bibi. Robin Shaw stated that Brad was acting "scared," "confused," and "frightened."
Now before you say, "Oh, he was scared because he couldn't find her; he was worried about her," remember that he had searched a mere 15 or 20 minutes. If he was scared for Robin, he'd have searched longer.
He was not scared for Robin, however. He had just become a murderer -- and he was scared for himself.
In the last two sentences of my previous post I mistakenly used the name "Robin" when I meant to type "Bibi."
Went to UC Berkeley at the time. I remember those Daily Cal articles on the front page. Thanks to everyone who commented above for their great arguments. I'm still not really sure but I do lean to the fact that he did it. The one argument that convinces me the most is that he didn't stay at the park longer to look for her. What was she supposed to do hitchhike home? Remember these were the days before cell phones. It doesn't sound like there were a lot of people around. Her only other option would have been to walk all the way home. She was jogging, did she even have any money for a taxi? There were no Ubers back then. To leave her there like that was completely ungentlemanly to say the least. Apparently nobody in law enforcement needs to continue to look into the issue of the high school girlfriend which is the best line of questioning into his character.
I studied at Berkeley, too. One summer, I picked up Melanie Thernstrom's The Dead Girl at a 1/2 Price Books store in town. Melanie Thernstrom was a close friend of Roberta's, and she participated in some of efforts to locate her friend. Thernstrom also attended Brad's Secpnd trial.
I had a lot of complaints about Thernstrom's book (the author doesn't stay focused on the story and is annoyingly self-involved), but the story fascinated me, so dug up lots of old articles through the Moffitt Library's microfilm collection. Anyway, by the time I'd finished my research, I was completely convinced of Brad's guilt. I agree with the posters who think Brad's leaving Roberta in the Oakland park is incriminating. The defense attorneys were also terribly weak and devoid of any remotely convincing arguments
Oh, and then I read about Brad's behavior on the New Zealand hiking trail (I wonder what his family thought of *that*?) and that he had gotten into the country through deceiving authorities as to his criminal record!
He is guilty of Roberta Lee's murder, and the issue of his earlier (high school) girlfriend's disappearance absolutely ought to be investigated.
https://vimeo.com/104829791
Brad is looking for volunteers and donations. As far as I can tell, he's keeping his criminal background a secret.
For the record that guy did NOT confess to killing Bibi. He confessed to killing 2 white girls and a non white girl. Everyone seems to think that meant Bibi because she was Asian. In any case why would he have snatched her and then bring her back to the same spot to dump her body? Where did he dump his other victims?
Wow she really DID get as far away from the US as she could.
That seems to be a rumor. No one can find any evidence of this gf or that she disappeared
And the truth is someone does not even need to be a sociopath to kill anyone. In fact, there are many who NEVER kill a person. Many people kill others and are not sociopaths. Bibi's murder wasnt planned the way serial killers hunt and snatch their victims. Also, sociopaths rarely show much empathy or emotion and Bradley showed an excess of both. More like someone who lost his temper and whacked her in the heat of anger.
Don't forget that those letters were recreations and imaginings. Bibi's family did not allow Melanie to use the real letters or quote from them in her book. We will never know what Bibi truly wrote in her letters to Melanie
Unknown if you are even coming back to read the replies on years old posts. I also replied to some of these back when they were first written. Somehow I find myself back here. It was obvious Brad had some mental and psycho-sexual issues. How can finding out your gf might be pregnant be "psychological rape"? Seems to me Brad always had some sort of issues and his living at Lothlorien and indulging in quasi hippie behavior along with his behavior after her murder and his "poem" which was written before Bibi was found yet seemed to conclude he knew her fate all point to me, outside transcripts and confessions, that he is responsible. In the heat of the moment he lost it, whacked her and lost control of the situation.
If Brad was truly innocent its obvious his family had enough money to try and clear his name in these past 30+ years. A good lawyer, possible DNA to match or other evidence to connect with someone other than Brad. To go the rest of your life with a conviction of manslaughter and knowing it will forever affect the rest of your life in many ways why would you not do everything within your power to clear your name? The Central Park Five, black teenagers, were exonerated. Why not privileged white bread Brad Page?
I knew Brad when he was at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, CA before he transferred to Berkeley. He seemed like a very nice guy, but I'll be the first to admit that you can never really know for sure what someone is capable of. A lot of people have commented that they are sure he committed the murder, but I personally think it's impossible to be certain of something that is completely circumstantial. Although I do not feel certain that he committed the murder, there is one thing I do feel certain about: he should absolutely not have been found guilty in his trial. We know a lot more about false confessions than we knew back then, and there was simply no solid evidence linking him to the murder. Whether he committed the murder or not, we will never know for certain (and regardless of what others might say about that, they don't know for certain either), but I do feel certain that he should not have been found guilty. That isn't the same as saying he didn't commit the murder.
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