Victim found mutilated in ‘horrifying’ 2000 cold case identified as missing 16-year-old girl

BOSTON (Gray News) - Authorities have finally identified the remains of a girl who was brutally killed more than two decades ago as a missing Pennsylvania teen.

On Wednesday, June 3, the FBI’s Boston office formally identified the victim as 16-year-old Tiffany Bradley.

Bradley was reported missing on Nov. 8, 2000.

Bradley’s family said the teen’s last phone call with her cousin was cut short, describing her voice as “trembling” as she promised to call back later. That call never came, WCVB reported.

Police first discovered Bradley’s body on Nov. 13, 2000, in the parking lot of a health care facility in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

The teen had been cut in half, and her head and hands were removed. Those body parts were later found buried in a bag at Nahant Beach.

According to WCVB, a suspect, Eugene McCollom, was identified in the aftermath of the murder. He pleaded guilty, telling authorities that he had buried her head and other body parts in the sand at Nahant Beach. McCollom is serving a life sentence.

At the time of his sentencing, McCollom was already serving a 10- to 12-year sentence after pleading guilty earlier in 2005 to manslaughter in the 2001 decapitation of John “Jackie” Leyden of Boston.

According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, McCollom told investigators the victim was being sex trafficked at the time of her death.

He claimed she identified herself as “Lisa” and said she was from Philadelphia.

Ted Docks, FBI Boston’s special agent in charge, said the case highlights the “devastating reality” of child sex trafficking.