Richard Bradley Jr. — The Alleged Buried-Gold Serial Murders
Richard Walter Bradley Jr. became the focus of an extraordinary serial-murder investigation in Washington state after prosecutors connected him to the deaths of four people in and around Auburn between 2019 and 2021. Bradley has been accused of using a remarkably similar method to isolate his victims: prosecutors say he approached people who had access to substantial amounts of money, drugs, valuable vehicles, or recently acquired wealth, told them a story about gold that had been buried or hidden in the Auburn area, and persuaded them to accompany him into secluded woodland. Once there, according to the prosecution's allegations, the victims were killed and Bradley subsequently took possession of their vehicles and other property.
The four people prosecutors have accused Bradley of killing are Emilio Raul Maturin, Michael Goeman, Vance Lakey and Brandi Blake. Because publicly available reporting and charging documents do not establish an exact calendar date of death for every victim, the dates below use the most specific reliably established date or period rather than assigning an unsupported precise date. Bradley has been described publicly as an accused or suspected serial killer; the murder allegations should be distinguished from convictions unless and until the charges are resolved in court.
The Buried-Gold Story
According to King County prosecutors, the central feature connecting the four killings was Bradley's alleged story about buried gold. Prosecutors said Bradley would tell a prospective victim that he had gold hidden in the ground and needed assistance recovering it. The story provided a reason for someone to accompany him to an isolated area carrying tools and without attracting immediate suspicion.
Investigators came to believe the promise of gold was not simply an unusual coincidence. Evidence surrounding the victims included shovels or digging tools, secluded wooded locations and Bradley's alleged possession of vehicles belonging to people who had suddenly disappeared or been killed. Prosecutors argued that the underlying motive was financial: the victims had money, valuable property or vehicles that Bradley allegedly took after killing them.
Emilio Raul Maturin
Emilio Raul Maturin, 36, disappeared in July 2019. The last known events surrounding his disappearance became extremely important years later when investigators compared his case with the deaths that followed.
According to the probable-cause allegations, Bradley came to the Kent-area home where Maturin was staying on July 19, 2019. Maturin's girlfriend later told investigators that she heard Bradley tell Maturin that he needed help recovering buried gold in Auburn. Maturin was reportedly skeptical and questioned why Bradley wanted his assistance. Bradley allegedly responded that Maturin was someone he could trust.
Maturin ultimately left with Bradley. Reports based on the charging documents state that Maturin had approximately $15,000 in cash with him as well as drugs, and that the men departed in Maturin's recently acquired white BMW. His girlfriend never saw or spoke with him again.
Using electronic location information, Maturin's girlfriend tracked his telephone toward Auburn's Game Farm Park or Game Farm Wilderness area. She went toward the location in an effort to find him but became frightened and left. Maturin was formally reported missing on August 2, 2019.
The circumstances became even more suspicious because Auburn police encountered Maturin's BMW on July 19, the same day he disappeared. Officers observed the vehicle near the wilderness area and later saw Bradley enter it. When police attempted to stop the BMW, Bradley fled, first in the vehicle and later on foot. He was ultimately arrested. At that time, however, authorities did not have Maturin's body and the evidence necessary to establish that he had been murdered.
Maturin's disappearance remained unresolved until the investigation of another victim produced a crucial discovery. In May 2021, detectives searching Game Farm Park for Brandi Blake recovered three human rib bones approximately 30 feet from the area where Blake was buried. The bones did not belong to Blake. DNA testing later established that they belonged to Maturin. The identification, completed in 2022, transformed his missing-person investigation into a homicide case and provided prosecutors with a physical connection between two alleged victims.
Michael Goeman and Vance Lakey
Michael Goeman, 59, and his adult son, Vance Lakey, 31, were killed in March 2021. They had been living together and had recently experienced a change in their financial situation after Goeman received an inheritance. Some of the money was reportedly used to purchase a Dodge Durango.
Lakey was last seen around March 15, 2021, associated with his father's Durango. The father and son subsequently vanished. Their disappearance eventually led investigators to a wooded area along an unmaintained road outside Auburn, near the 36800 block of 56th Place South.
Goeman's body was discovered on April 21, 2021. Lakey's body was located in the same general area approximately one week later. Both men had been shot. Reports describing the medical findings state that Goeman suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head, while Lakey suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Two small shovels were reportedly found near their remains, a detail prosecutors later cited when arguing that the father and son fit Bradley's alleged method of luring victims to remote areas under the pretense of digging.
Investigators also became interested in what happened to the victims' property after their disappearance. Bradley was allegedly seen using property connected to the two men, while his wife was reportedly stopped while driving Goeman's Dodge Durango. The vehicle was impounded.
Prosecutors subsequently accused Bradley of attempting to have evidence destroyed. They alleged that he offered another person $1,000 to break into the location where the Durango was being stored and burn it. That allegation originally resulted in an arson-related case and helped place Bradley under investigative scrutiny in connection with the deaths of Goeman and Lakey. Years later, prosecutors added two second-degree murder counts accusing Bradley of killing the father and son.
Brandi Blake
Brandi Blake, 44, disappeared on May 5, 2021. Shortly before her death, Blake had won approximately $20,000 at a casino, and investigators learned that she was known to possess significant amounts of cash. Prosecutors would later argue that her financial circumstances resembled those of Bradley's other alleged victims.
Witnesses told detectives that Blake had become acquainted with Bradley and that Bradley had discussed supposedly hidden gold. One account described Bradley telling Blake that he possessed gold from a prior robbery and needed help dealing with or recovering it. Blake was seen with Bradley on May 5 and was never seen alive again.
In the days after Blake vanished, witnesses reported seeing Bradley driving her Ford Mustang. Investigators also learned that Blake and Bradley had been together shortly before her disappearance and that Bradley returned without her. Bradley allegedly claimed that Blake had allowed him to use the vehicle.
As detectives investigated Blake's disappearance, information led them to Game Farm Park in Auburn. On May 26, 2021, searchers located her body face down in a shallow grave in the wooded park. Nearby investigators found digging equipment and evidence connected with the circumstances of her disappearance. The King County Medical Examiner's Office determined that Blake had suffered multiple blunt-force injuries and ruled her death a homicide.
Blake's recovery proved to be the turning point in the wider investigation. Not only did detectives have evidence supporting a murder case involving her, but the three unidentified human ribs found a short distance from her grave eventually linked the location to the long-missing Emilio Maturin.
How the Cases Became Connected
Viewed separately, the cases initially appeared to involve different circumstances. Maturin disappeared in 2019 and his body had not been recovered. Goeman and Lakey were found shot in another wooded location in 2021. Blake disappeared two months later and was eventually found buried in Game Farm Park. As investigators accumulated witness accounts, vehicle evidence and forensic findings, however, prosecutors argued that a common pattern emerged.
Maturin's girlfriend said she personally heard Bradley discuss buried gold before Maturin left with him. Witnesses connected a similar gold story to Blake before she disappeared. Two shovels were found near Goeman and Lakey, and prosecutors alleged that Bradley had used the same underlying ruse to lure them to a separate wooded area. In each case, prosecutors also emphasized the victim's access to money or valuable property.
The vehicles were another important similarity. Bradley was arrested driving Maturin's BMW within hours of Maturin's disappearance. Witnesses reported Bradley driving Blake's Mustang following her disappearance. Bradley was also connected to property belonging to Goeman and Lakey, including the Durango prosecutors later alleged he wanted destroyed.
The Victims
- Emilio Raul Maturin, 36 — Last seen alive on July 19, 2019, after leaving his Kent-area residence with Bradley. Prosecutors allege he was taken to the Game Farm Park/Wilderness area in Auburn, Washington, and murdered. Three of his rib bones were discovered near Brandi Blake's grave on May 26, 2021, and were identified through DNA testing in April 2022. The precise medical date of death has not been publicly established; July 19, 2019 is the documented date of his disappearance and last known contact.
- Michael Goeman, 59 — Killed in March 2021 in the Auburn, Washington, area. His body was discovered on April 21, 2021, beside an unmaintained road near the 36800 block of 56th Place South. He had been shot in the head. Goeman had recently received an inheritance and had purchased a Dodge Durango. Publicly reported records establish the killing in March 2021 but do not reliably provide a more precise calendar date of death.
- Vance Lakey, 31 — Goeman's son. Lakey was last seen around March 15, 2021, and was killed by multiple gunshot wounds during March 2021. His remains were discovered approximately one week after his father's, in the same wooded Auburn-area location. As with Goeman, publicly available accounts establish March 2021 as the period of death without reliably establishing a precise calendar date.
- Brandi Blake, 44 — Last seen alive on May 5, 2021, after leaving with Bradley. Her body was recovered from a shallow grave at Game Farm Park in Auburn on May 26, 2021. She had suffered multiple blunt-force injuries. Although investigators believe she was killed shortly after her disappearance, publicly reported medical information does not establish an exact calendar date of death beyond May 2021.
The Investigation After Blake's Murder
Bradley was taken into custody in May 2021 during the investigation surrounding Blake's disappearance and was charged with premeditated first-degree murder in her death. The case against him expanded dramatically after forensic testing established that the bones recovered close to Blake's grave belonged to Maturin.
Detectives continued reviewing older witness statements, police encounters, vehicle records and the evidence surrounding Goeman and Lakey. The July 2019 incident in which Bradley had been arrested while driving Maturin's BMW now carried far greater significance. Likewise, the Durango associated with Goeman and Lakey and the alleged effort to arrange its destruction became part of a larger pattern prosecutors believed demonstrated robbery and concealment following homicide.
In December 2023, King County prosecutors formally expanded the murder cases against Bradley. He was charged with first-degree murder in Maturin's death, and prosecutors added two second-degree murder counts for the deaths of Goeman and Lakey to the case in which Bradley had previously faced arson and firearms allegations. Combined with the existing first-degree murder charge involving Blake, Bradley faced four homicide counts.
An Alleged Pattern of Murder for Financial Gain
The prosecution's theory portrays the killings as calculated crimes in which the promise of buried treasure served as a means of controlling where the victims went. Rather than attacking strangers at random, Bradley allegedly approached people whose circumstances he knew well enough to understand that they possessed something worth stealing.
Maturin was believed to be carrying approximately $15,000 and drove a recently purchased BMW. Goeman had recently received an inheritance and owned a recently acquired Durango. Blake had recently won approximately $20,000 at a casino and drove a Mustang. After each disappearance, investigators said Bradley was linked to the missing person's property or vehicle.
The wooded locations also gave the alleged crimes a degree of concealment. Game Farm Park contains extensive natural areas where a person could be isolated from immediate observation. Goeman and Lakey were found along another secluded, unmaintained road. Digging tools found at the scenes reinforced prosecutors' argument that the locations and the buried-gold story were related rather than coincidental.
Legal Status
Bradley pleaded not guilty to the additional murder charges filed against him in 2023. Prosecutors characterized the four deaths as the product of a common scheme, while the criminal proceedings required the state to prove each individual charge in court. For that reason, Bradley is most accurately described in connection with these cases as an accused or suspected serial killer rather than treating every allegation as an established conviction.
The case nevertheless stands out because of the way investigators say several apparently separate crimes became connected years after the first victim disappeared. A traffic stop involving a missing man's BMW, two bodies beside a rural road, an allegedly targeted vehicle, a woman buried in a city park and three unidentified rib bones ultimately became pieces of the same investigation. DNA identification of Emilio Maturin's remains gave detectives a direct forensic link to an earlier disappearance, while witnesses and vehicle evidence helped prosecutors construct their theory that Richard Bradley Jr. repeatedly used the promise of buried gold to lure people into isolated areas, kill them and steal what they possessed.
