ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Forty-six years after he was killed, a victim whose identity was unknown and who was classified as a John Doe has been identified as 29-year-old Johnny Bradshaw of Tennessee, St. Petersburg police said in a news release.
In April 1980, Bradshaw and Jack Roy Davis were visiting St. Petersburg and staying at the Siesta Motel on 34th Street when they were shot in the head.
Detectives quickly identified the suspects as Kyle Watson and his girlfriend, David Ann Thomas, police said.
Before they could be arrested, Thomas shot and killed Watson when they returned to Knoxville.
Police eventually caught up with Thomas for being an accessory after the fact for driving the getaway car in the St. Petersburg double murder, and she served time in prison. She has since died.
At the time of the shooting, Davis was immediately identified as a victim, but Bradshaw’s identity remained a mystery, police said.
Detectives circulated an artist’s rendering of him as well as a photo of the Italian horn pendant he wore.
Investigators exhumed Bradshaw’s body in 2010 to try to identify him, but they were unsuccessful.
In 2023, cold case Detective Wallace Pavelski sent new bone samples to Othram Labs, and they were able to extract a full DNA profile.
Genealogy research over the next few years led Pavelski to contact family members in Texas and California. Bradshaw still has two living sisters who have been searching for him since 1980, police said.
Bradshaw was the last unidentified John/Jane Doe on the St. Petersburg Police Department’s cold case list.
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