ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WWSB) – A man killed in a 1980 double murder in St. Petersburg has been identified more than four decades later through DNA testing, St. Petersburg Police (SPPD) said.
The victim has been identified as 29-year-old Johnny Bradshaw of Tennessee, according to police.
In April 1980, Bradshaw and Jack Roy Davis were staying at the Siesta Motel on 34th Street in St. Petersburg when they were shot in the head. Davis was identified shortly after the killings, but investigators were unable to determine Bradshaw’s identity at the time.
Detectives identified suspects Kyle Watson and his girlfriend, David Ann Thomas. Before they could be arrested, Thomas shot and killed Watson when they returned to Knoxville, Tennessee. Thomas was later arrested and charged as an accessory after the fact for driving the getaway car in the double murder. She served time in prison and has since died, police said.
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In 2010, investigators exhumed Bradshaw’s body in an effort to identify him, but testing at the time did not yield results.
The breakthrough came in 2023, when cold case detective Wallace Pavelski sent new bone samples to Othram Labs, a genealogy company. Scientists were able to develop a full DNA profile.
Over the next several years, Pavelski worked to trace potential relatives, eventually contacting family members in Texas and California.
Police said Bradshaw has two living sisters who had been searching for him since his disappearance in 1980.
The St. Petersburg Police Department said that through identifying Bradshaw, all John/Jane Does have been identified in the departments cold case list.
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