Bradley Blake Hanson 13 year of age, left his Phoenix home early on November 10, 1995, ostensibly for school. Centennial Middle School cancelled classes for Veteran’s Day, unbeknownst to Bradley’s mother, and Bradley made alternative arrangements. Instead, Bradley rode his mountain bike to the Ahwatukee Custom Estates in the 3200 block of East Piro Street, where he would spend the day with Jeremy Bach, a classmate and friend.

Bradley Was Not At Home

Bradley’s mother realized later in the day that school had been cancelled and attempted to contact him to find out where he had gone. She paged Bradley all afternoon, but he never responded, and he was not at home when she returned that evening. As a result, his mother called the police and reported her son missing. Authorities interrogated Jeremy Bach after determining that he was the last person to see Bradley, and he provided an intriguing account. He claimed that he and Bradley were playing with firearms when Bradley accidentally fired the gun into the wall, resulting in a bullet hole. According to Jeremy, when Bradley realized what he had done, he panicked and fled to his  mountain bike.

This explanation was sufficient for the police, who labelled Bradley as a runaway. Garbage collectors discovered bloodstains on the top and sides of the Bach family’s trashcan after two months. The sanitation workers informed the authorities of their discovery, and police then searched the garbage can. Two inches of blood and bodily fluid were discovered at the bottom of the trash can, as well as blood stains in the Bach’s kitchen.

Jeremy

The authorities re-interviewed Jeremy, and he changed his story. He claimed that he accidentally shot Bradley in the chest and dumped his body in the Butterfield Station Landfill trash can. Authorities did not believe Jeremy’s conflicting accounts of what happened. They believed Jeremy shot Bradley over a disagreement over a girl they had both dated, and they pointed out that Jeremy did not help Bradley after he was shot, and that Bradley died after more than an hour, according to Jeremy. Bradley was never found, despite spending two months and $100,000 scouring the Butterfield Station Landfill.

Jeremy was charged with Bradley’s murder in February 1996, at the age of fourteen, making him the youngest person ever tried as an adult in Arizona. In January 1998, Jeremy was charged with second-degree murder and sentenced to a maximum of 22 years in prison. In 2018, he was released from prison.

When it was discovered that the murder weapon was a gun owned by Jeremy’s stepfather, his family sued him, claiming that the gun had been improperly stored. They also claimed that the Bach family assisted in the disposal of Bradley’s body and in the cover-up. This is a widely held belief. The case was eventually settled out of court, but the terms of the settlement are unavailable to me.

Bradley has never been found and is still listed as missing. Authorities believe he’s dead, and there’s no way to recover his body from the Butterfield Station Landfill. Despite the fact that Jeremy was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison, he was released at the age of 36 and was free to live the rest of his life, an opportunity that Bradley was denied at such a young age.

Bradley will turn 40 this November if he is still alive. He was wearing a black collared shirt, a white t-shirt, black jeans, green paisley-patterned boxer shorts, black sneakers with red laces, and an Armitron watch when he was last seen. He weighed between 60 and 75 pounds and stood between 4’8 and 4’11 inches tall. His hair was black, and his eyes were blue. It’s unclear whether his mountain bike was ever found.