Dale Bradley Jr.

Dale Bradley Jr. was a Kennecott security guard in Utah and worked alongside Bryan Ruff at the time of the murder. Public information about Bradley's childhood and early life is limited.

Bradley was married to Kristi Bradley, who was having an affair with Ruff. The affair became the central suspected motive in Ruff's disappearance and murder. Bradley himself told investigators that Ruff was having an affair with his wife, providing authorities with a possible motive but initially denying that he was responsible for the killing.

Bradley later married again. His second wife, Crystal Bradley, was found stabbed to death outside their Wellington, Utah, home in April 2005. Bradley was never charged in that case, although investigators continued to consider him a person of interest. Evidence uncovered while investigating Crystal's death ultimately helped reopen the 14-year-old investigation into Ruff's murder.

Bradley's confirmed murder was the killing of Bryan Ruff on December 10, 1991.

Ruff, 22, was working overnight as a security guard at a Kennecott facility when he disappeared from his guard shack. His locked car remained in the parking lot, while his half-eaten lunch was still on his desk. There were no obvious signs of a struggle, and for a time investigators could not determine what had happened to him.

Ruff's body was discovered in July 1993 by campers at Five Mile Pass near Fairfield in Utah County. He was still wearing his Kennecott security uniform and had been placed in a shallow grave. He had been shot five times in the back.

The investigation eventually established that Bradley had abducted Ruff from his workplace, forced him into the trunk of his Chevrolet Camaro and driven him to a remote area, where he shot him.

Bradley targeted Ruff because of the personal relationship between Ruff and his first wife, Kristi.

According to prosecutors, Bradley forced Ruff into the trunk of his vehicle before transporting him to a remote area of Utah County. Ruff was then shot five times in the back and his body was left in a shallow grave.

A significant piece of physical evidence was a three-inch area of red paint found on Ruff's boot. Investigators determined that the paint matched the distinctive red-orange paint on Bradley's 1974 Chevrolet Camaro.

The case remained unsolved for more than a decade.

Investigators had questioned Bradley early in the investigation, and his knowledge of Ruff's affair with Kristi gave police a possible motive. However, there was initially insufficient physical evidence to establish that he was responsible.

The investigation was reopened in 2005 after Bradley's second wife, Crystal, was found stabbed to death. Detective Todd Park of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office reexamined the Ruff case and identified the paint evidence linking Ruff's boot to Bradley's Camaro. Investigators also obtained testimony from Bradley's first wife concerning his behaviour around the time Ruff disappeared.

Bradley was arrested in September 2005 and charged with first-degree felony murder.

Bradley initially faced a first-degree murder charge and was scheduled to stand trial. During the proceedings, however, he entered an Alford plea to second-degree felony manslaughter and kidnapping in January 2007. An Alford plea allowed Bradley to maintain that he did not admit guilt while acknowledging that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction.

He was sentenced in April 2007 to two consecutive terms of two to 20 years in prison, for a potential maximum of 40 years.

For many years Bradley maintained that he had been in a diabetic coma around the time of Ruff's death and claimed to have no memory of the shooting.

That changed in April 2025, when Bradley appeared before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. For the first time, he openly admitted that he had shot Ruff. Bradley said he had gone to confront Ruff over the affair, that an argument became physical, and that he retrieved a gun from his car before shooting him. He described anger and jealousy as factors in his actions.

The motive in Ruff's murder was strongly connected to the affair between Ruff and Kristi Bradley. Bradley had told investigators about the affair before he was charged, and prosecutors later presented evidence suggesting that he was aware of the relationship.

The discovery of Ruff's body in 1993 ended a long period of uncertainty for his family but did not immediately identify his killer. His wife, Jennifer, had spent years wondering what had happened to him and whether he had simply disappeared voluntarily.

The 2005 investigation into the death of Bradley's second wife, Crystal, became the unexpected breakthrough in the Ruff case. Although Bradley was never charged in Crystal's death, investigators examining that case uncovered information that caused detectives to take another look at Ruff's murder.

In 2025, Bradley's parole hearing provided the first direct admission of responsibility. He told the parole board that he had taken his gun from his car after an argument with Ruff and shot him. He said he subsequently disposed of Ruff's body and later deliberately "blacked out" the memory because he did not want to think about what he had done.

Bradley has continued to deny involvement in the 2005 killing of his second wife, Crystal. No one has been charged with that murder.

Sources:

• Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office
• Utah County Sheriff's Office
• Utah Board of Pardons and Parole
• Utah Department of Corrections
• Kennecott
• Utah Third District Court
• Associated Press
• KSL
• Deseret News
• FOX 13 News Utah