Prosecutors say Auburn man charged in 4 murders lured victims with promise of buried gold

An Auburn man in jail awaiting trial in one murder case has been charged with three more killings, and prosecutors say he lured all four victims by asking them to help dig up buried gold.

Richard Bradley Jr., 40, was charged in May 2021 with first-degree murder in the death of 44-year-old Brandi Blake, whose body was found buried in a sprawling park in Auburn.

According to court documents, police say Bradley was last seen with Blake at a convenience store on May 5, 2021.

A witness told police Blake had purchased flip phones at Walmart for Bradley and heard her say to Bradley, “Don’t forget before we head out we need to meet the guy at the dead-end road.”

The witness told Blake that was odd and she was worried, but Blake allegedly assured her he was “good people.”

Another witness told police that Blake told him that Bradley confided in him that Bradley had told her he had gold from a robbery stashed somewhere and he needed help selling it.

According to police, a witness told police that Bradley and Blake left a hotel room together and Bradley later returned alone. Police say the witness said Bradley said he “dropped Brandi off” and she was letting Bradley borrow her car.

The witness said he never saw Blake again.

The investigation led police to Game Farm Park in Auburn, where detectives found Blake’s body, face down in a shallow grave. Near her body was a hole, a shovel, a pick axe, and her electronic room key for the hotel room she was staying at.

On May 27, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death a homicide.

According to court documents, police believe Bradley lured Blake to the Game Farm Park Wilderness area with a story of gold he had buried there with the intent to kill her and take her drugs, cash, gun, and car.

On Dec. 5, 2023, prosecutors filed a second murder charge, accusing Bradley of killing Emilio Ral Maturin in 2019.

According to court documents, while investigators were recovering Blake’s body, they found three unrelated rib bones near her body.

A witness told police during the investigation into Blake’s death that Bradley had befriended a Mexican drug supplier named Emilio several years ago.

The witness said that Bradley used a similar story about buried gold to lure Maturin into the woods and murder him.

In April 2022, DNA results were completed on the ribs, later identified as Maturin.

Detectives interviewed Maturin’s girlfriend, who told police Bradley had told Maturin the story about the buried gold. Shortly afterward, she never saw him again.

On Dec. 14, 2023, prosecutors filed amended charges against Bradley, accusing him of the March 17, 2021, murders of Michael Louis Goeman and his son, Vance Paul Lakey.

According to an investigation by the King County Sheriff’s Office, Goeman had recently received a large amount of money in an inheritance, which he used to purchase a Dodge Durango.

After their bodies had been found, detectives researched the Durango’s plates to see when they had been run by law enforcement. In the week before Goeman and Lakey’s bodies were found, the plates had been run three times, including once where Puyallup police spoke with Bradley who had the Durango at a Home Depot after a suspicious activity call.

A month later, a witness told police that Bradley offered to pay him $10,000 (later lowered to $1,000) to break into an Auburn tow yard and torch the Durango. The witness said Bradley wanted the front seats destroyed in the fire. The witness said he later decided to not go through with the arson.

The original charges, filed May 25, 2021, accuse Bradley of attempting the arson of the Durango, which were later amended to include the murders of Goeman and Lakey.

According to the Seattle Times, Goeman and Lakey were both shot to death.

Bradley’s defense attorney, Peter Geisness, did not immediately return voice and email messages on Saturday. He has not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea on the other murder charges, according to online court records.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Thomas O’Ban II wrote in court documents that Bradley is accused of using the same scheme in each of the deaths — telling the victims he needed their help digging up a stash of stolen gold, taking them to a wooded area and killing them before stealing their vehicles and whatever possessions were inside.

Bradley remains in King County Jail. His next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 8, 2024.

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