snatched away, huh? >> yep. you just take what life brings ya, and it's not always what you'd expected. when you're a young girl, you have all your dreams of what your life's going to be. and somehow, it just doesn't quite work out that way. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> i caught something out of the corner of my eye. it was my mom. she was laying on the ground. i went over expecting her to get up or to say something. i put my hand on her shoulder. i kind of turned her. and i could see blood everywhere. >> reporter: their family always made the best of bad times. >> my mom always looked for the good in everything. >> reporter: but no one could fix this.

>> the autopsy showed a total of five shots. >> she didn't deserve to die that way. >> reporter: detectives had a suspect. but not much of a case. >> i was told unless they can find the proverbial smoking gun, they will not take this case to trial. >> this case did not have a lot. >> everything just kind of like went cold case. >> reporter: blow off the dust. fan the ashes. and even an ice-cold case can heat up again. >> when i read the file, my response was, oh, my gosh. how's this guy walking around? how is he not in custody? >> reporter: some worried answering that question could cost this d.a. his life. >> they tell me that he is making plans to murder you and your family. >> this is a guy who is on a mission. >> reporter: he killed once. would he kill again? >> when will he stop being dangerous to you? >> when he's dead. hello and welcome to "dateline." joan lockwood was an outgoing

divorced mother of four excited about her next chapter in life. she was packing her bags and moving to a new home when five gunshots cruelly ended her plans. for police proving who murdered joan was a daunting task. an ominous killer was still out there, lurking and leaving joan's family living in fear. but they weren't the only ones whose lives might be in danger. here's keith morrison with "the threat." >> reporter: on the southern bank of the columbia river, tucked away in a corner of this little cemetery, is the final resting place of a woman called joan. barbara joan lockwood. she wasn't a famous woman, joan, wasn't rich or celebrated. she lived a quiet life in a quiet place. and was buried here more than three decades ago. but oh, if ghosts could rise from their graves, if joan could

speak to us now, what questions could she answer? what advice for this man, this tough, aggressive prosecutor who now fears for his life. >> this man is a threat to me. he's a threat, more importantly, to my family. >> reporter: in the annals of criminal justice some cases refuse to lie down and die. they fester. >> and here we are now. and all that's happened, i hate to say this, but i think that we have to take this seriously. >> reporter: yes. but it begins with her. joan. she lived, when she lived, 1,000 miles south of that little cemetery, a few miles from the beach in l.a. in a suburb called torrance on a quiet street named sharynn elaine. there was joan, her husband bill bradford, and their four children. this is joan's only daughter, shawn. >> people would describe her as the most caring, sweetest person they'd ever met. >> reporter: there were three

boys. brett, the eld crest. >> my mom loved her kids. we were first and foremost of what was important to her. >> the whole neighborhood knew that. >> neighbors loved my mom and will flat out say, we didn't even know your dad. >> maybe that was at least partly because of bill bradford's job. bill worked as an aerospace engineer, very high security, top secret clearance at a company called trw. >> and lift-off. >> trw in the '80s was an aero defense firm. >> top of the top. >> top of the top. >> his reputation at work, did you know much about that? >> i knew he was good at what he did. but he was always very secretive about it. squlu just don't talk about it. >> yeah, you just don't talk about it. >> in fact, bill bradford didn't talk much about anything. to anybody. even his own family. >> he was just very much, you

know, here's my role. i work. i come home. i eat dinner. then he went to his bedroom. >> just to be alone or what? >> to work on his stamp collection. >> exacting, organized, introverted. joan's polar opposite. and eventually that disconnect took its toll. bill moved out, joan moved on, filed for divorce. the kids grew up and moved away. and in the fall of 1988 joan sold the house on sharynn elaine. >> my mom was trying to finish up the sale and the move from torrance to start her life over again. >> it was a friday evening. joan was packing, getting ready. sean and a younger brother called her on the phone, told her we're coming over. it was just getting dark as they arrived. >> so we opened up the door, went in. calling for her. nothing. as i went through the front living room, i caught something

out of the corner of my eye. it was my mom. and she was laying on the ground. and i could see blood, everywhere. >> reporter: in a panic, sean called 911 and then called her brother brett. >> she says mom's been hurt, she's got a hole in her neck. she was frantic. >> reporter: then the police and paramedics arrived. and cordoned off the place where she lay. >> i could see numerous bullet holes in the back of her neck. >> reporter: keith mason was a detective. torrance pd. >> in all my years i've seen people shot. in homicides. but never this many times. never. five times. >> reporter: this is really an execution. >> definitely. >> reporter: what sean had seen, her mother on the floor, had been so confusing. but now she saw nothing because they kept her away. >> one of the paramedics met me, and i looked at him and said, will she be okay?

>> reporter: thinking she was still alive. >> yeah. i wasn't processing. but he finally just looked at me and just shook his head, no. and that's when i realized that she was dead. >> reporter: had she seen what was coming? did she know her life was over? >> they had taken the body out. someone had taken a carpet cleaner to clean up the blood. and basically my last memory is a carpet cleaner of my mom's blood, which she didn't deserve to die that way. >> reporter: sweet kind-hearted joan bradford was 52. who did it? why? next to her body was a clue. >> i saw a bullet lying on the floor by her foot from a .38-caliber or a .357-caliber handgun. and they both fire the same bullet.

>> when the detectives asked me if i knew anybody who owned a gun, my initial response was no. my brother turned around and nodded and he looked at me and he said, "dad has one." and i stopped and went, "you're right." >> but where was bill bradford and his gun? coming up -- >> he did in fact own a model 66 smith & wesson handgun. we did find a box in his bedroom that was supposed to contain a smith & wesson but it was empty. >> and a peek inside that failed marriage. >> he pushed her down. her head hit a rocking chair and shattered it. >> at one point when i was 16 my brother actually looked me in the eye and said "life's a bitch and then you marry one." >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ introducing the all new chevy trailblazer. here? nope.

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it looked like a mob hit. whoever murdered joan bradford clearly wanted to be absolutely sure. >> it was brutal. it was close up. it was very revengeful type of shooting. >> reporter: there was no sign of a breakin. her purse was untouched. and no one in the neighborhood saw anything. so detectives turned their investigation to joan's inner circle. they asked her children about their mother, their father, and

the marriage. sean didn't hold back. >> it wasn't a good marriage. >> reporter: how long had you known that? >> it was obvious when i was a teenager. they never hugged. they never kissed. they rarely spoke. >> reporter: and when they did speak, bill was controlling, condescending. >> at one point when i was 16, my father looked me in the eye and said, "life's a bitch and then you marry one." >> my parents got into a fight, then he pushed her down. her head hit a rocking chair and shattered it. i mean, that's what i grew up in. >> reporter: when they finally separated, the divorce was nasty. >> my father refused to pay child support. he refused to pay spousal support. everything he did was to extend the divorce. >> reporter: it took over five years for joan to get divorced. as part of the settlement bill was ordered to pay alimony and child support. but he did not make the payments

as required. and joan and her attorney were able to garnish all that unpaid support from bill's share of the house proceeds. >> the total amount that was garnished was $40,000. >> that's not that bad. >> it really wasn't that much. >> but it bothered him. >> it bothered him because she won. >> to lose $40,000? he lost control. my father does not like losing control of anything. >> reporter: bill never saw it coming. suddenly he was almost $40,000 poorer. and the day after bradford had all that money garnished his ex-wife was dead. so the cops went looking for bradford. trouble was he seemed to have disappeared. didn't pick up his phone. didn't answer the door at his apartment. detective mason went back to headquarters, inserted the name bill bradford in his data base,

and -- >> he did in fact own a model 66 smith & wesson handgun, .357 magnum. >> reporter: which just happened to fire the same kind of bullets found at the crime scene. so detective mason got a warrant to search bradford's apartment. there was no sign of him or the gun. but -- >> we did find a box in his bedroom that was supposed to contain a smith & wesson, but it was empty. >> reporter: saturday passed. still no sign of bill bradford. police even put up posters hoping for leads. and then on sunday two days after the murder -- >> he came into the police department. >> reporter: well, well, well. >> myself and another detective asked him if he was aware of the fact his ex-wife was dead. >> i'm sorry to see her dead, but we never had a very good relationship. >> this guy just sat there and looked at me like i'm sitting

here looking at you. i thought boy, you are a cold calculating guy. very nonchalant, coldly and like who cares. >> reporter: bradford confirmed what his children said. he was very upset about all that money from his share of the house sale that was suddenly sent to joan. so upset he left his apartment for almost two whole days. >> i went to the redondo pier. >> and spent the night at the pier? >> i spent all the time at the pier from then until this morning at 6:00. >> what the hell was he doing at the pier in his car? >> he stated that he didn't feel good, he wanted to be alone and think. i said, well, you literature alon live alone. he said well, i didn't want to talk to people, i didn't want to talk on the phone, i just wanted to be alone. the. >> reporter: but alone at the redondo beach pier for nearly two days? the police asked him about his .357 magnum. joan had been shot with hollow point bullets. and bradford admitted he'd once bought ammo like that. but as for the gun itself? >> i put my stuff in storage and

i've been unable to locate it. >> and where do you think you left it? >> i haven't the slightest idea where it went. >> did it strike you odd that this fellow who was so well organized would misplace a gun? >> oh, yes. it struck me odd. i knew right away he didn't misplace it. no doubt in my mind because of the type of fellow he was. >> reporter: but bradford did have an alibi. a parking stub. sure enough, he entered the pier parking lot friday of the murder 7:29 p.m. so he said he could not have killed joan. unless. the detectives put together a timeline. joan answered a phone call at 7:00 p.m. but by 7:15, when shawn arrived, she was dead. >> we figure that's the timeline. 7:00, 7:15, right in that time. >> it's a pretty narrow window. >> right. >> reporter: could bill have shot joan, then arrived at 7:29 at the pier? they made the drive themselves.

it took just seven to eight minutes. it all fit. >> when the detective said your father is a prime suspect, it's the only thing that made sense. there was no one who could hate my mom so much to want her dead except my father. >> reporter: so just days after interviewing bill bradford the detectives made their move. >> i arrested him. there was no way in the world i'm going to let this guy go. >> reporter: you'd have to be a dope to think he didn't do it, right? >> there was a ton of circumstantial evidence leading to him. >> reporter: murder solved. case closed, right? oh, no. it was just getting started. >> coming up -- >> i spent a number of months looking over my shoulder wondering who was following me. i can remember cars following me at various times. >> reporter: a family living in fear with good reason. >> i was afraid that someone was

after me. >> someone? >> my father. my father murdered my mother and i don't know why he did it. would he murder me? >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. ues. today's ways of working, may work differently tomorrow.

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beach weather. but bill bradford wasn't at the beach anymore. no view from a jail cell. and while he waited in custody, detective keith mason went over to see the d.a., where he described his case and waited for the go-ahead to charge bradford with murder for killing his ex-wife. didn't quite work out that way. >> the head d.a. right away said do you have the gun? i said no, we don't have the gun. >> he said do you have anybody who could put him at the house at the time of the homicide? i said no. he says i don't think we're going to do anything with this case. >> uh-oh. >> i was mad. i was upset. i knew we just let a murderer off at the door. >> reporter: so bill bradford went home, went back to work at trw. but his children weren't celebrating. in fact, they feared their father and worried they just might be his next victims.

>> i spent a number of months look over my shoulder wondering who was following me. i can remember cars following me at various times and just kind of randomly driving places trying to figure out what was going on to lose who was tailing me. >> reporter: brett said he too was followed. so he installed a home security system. started sleeping with the lights on. >> i was jumpy. i would walk into my apartment and i would actually search it. underneath the kitchen sink, all my closets. i would look under my bed. >> reporter: why? >> because i was afraid that someone was after me. >> reporter: someone? >> my father. my father murdered my mother, and i don't know why he did it. so the next question is would he murder me? >> reporter: the late '80s was a busy time for l.a. homicide detectives. murder rates were headed for their all-time peak around then.

so detective mason, no choice really, moved on. a year passed. then two. the bradford case got buried. >> i would sit around and wonder, i'm going to grab that bradford case out. i'm going to read that again. maybe there's something i missed. maybe there's something i didn't do. maybe there's something i could do. >> reporter: but all those somethings led to a bunch of nothings. not one new lead. mason stayed in close contact with shawn, who by this time was engaged to be married. her father wasn't on the guest list, but shawn was worry he'd show up at her wedding. >> we actually had plain clothes cops that were armed at our wedding. >> reporter: you were that nervous? >> yes. he killed once. my belief was my father killed my mom. he's not welcome. i believe he did this.

this isn't safe. >> reporter: and she felt nothing but relief when her father missed the wedding. his only daughter's wedding. but he was around. bold as brass. >> i would go out to a big place, there he'd be, he'd be walking around. >> reporter: wow. >> and i would think right away you're free, you're free, but i hope not for long, not for long. >> reporter: but it was long. very long. the joan bradford case was ice cold. the '80s turned to the '90s. and then the millennium. bill bradford remained free. celebrating the new year, the new millennium like everybody else. and then a few months later -- >> i finally retired and there was no new evidence. everything just kind of like went cold case. i left and went on to greener

fields. >> reporter: by then bill bradford retired too. eventually moved to the desert. and by the look of it had plenty of money. and one day together his children faced the facts. >> brett and i were sitting down. and he looxd at me and said, "so it's real. our father's getting away with murder." >> at that point it was like okay, he got -- there was nothing we could do. what do you do in that situation? >> reporter: they didn't know, of course. how could they? what was going on in here. in secret. didn't know who else was thinking about their estranged father. and what he may have done. >> coming up -- >> there's one person who would want her dead. >> closing in p. >> you've got to have some evidence. >> all that stuff hiding in plain sight. trying to read between lines. i always think of it as death by a thousand paper cuts. >> and authorities wondered

whether others had been at risk. >> you really think he was going to go kill a lawyer? >> no question. >> you were speculating. >> we don't leave our common sense at the door. in this situation we'd have to leave our common sense in another zip code. >> when "dateline" continues. ♪ here? nah. ♪ introducing the all new chevy trailblazer. here? nope. ♪ here. ♪ when the middle of nowhere, is somewhere. the all new chevy trailblazer. making life's journey, just better.

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hello. i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. the u.s. reported over 100,000 new cases of the coronavirus on friday for the tenth consecutive day. at least 13 states reached a new record in daily covid-19 cases. following a rise in numbers, north dakota issued a statewide mask mandate for the first time. oregon ordered a two-week freeze, halting in-person operations in businesses. and new mexico has a stay-at-home order beginning monday. texas is expected to reach 20,000 covid deaths by sunday. now back to "dateline."

welcome back to "dateline." i'm natalie morales. back in 1988 joan lockwood had been murdered and detectives believed all signs pointed to her ex-husband, bill bradford, as the killer. but the d.a. did not think they had enough proof to make a case, so the file went on a shelf. it had been more than a decade, and joan's family held fast to their belief that the evidence was out there. they just needed someone willing to look for it. once again, here's keith morrison with "the threat." >> reporter: bill bradford's children were convinced their father had gotten away with murdering their mother, joan. shot her in cold blood. and walked away a free man. >> knowing that, all the evidence points to unfortunately your father and knowing that he's going to get away with it. it didn't sit right. >> reporter: but something was being done. in 2000, about 12 years after joan's murder, an ambitious

prosecutor named john lewin was poking through the unsolved files at the torrance p.d. >> when i read the file, my response was oh, my gosh, how's this guy walking around? how is he not in custody? >> it seemed so obvious. >> it seemed so obvious. >> reporter: but so difficult to prove. especially without any new solid evidence. so lewin k5u iin called in cold detective jim wallace, who seemed to have a knack for making sense of complicated cases. >> this case did not have a lot. we didn't have anything new. >> reporter: but you've got to have some evidence. what do you do? >> you are looking for the things hiding in plain sight, trying to read between lines. sometimes when we do cold cases like this i always think of it as death by a thousand paper cuts. you know, where we are assembling big cumulative cases from a lot of little pieces that don't seem like much. but when you put it all together this is the best inference from evidence. >> this is the letter. >> reporter: wallace and lewin took a deep dive into all that original evidence, a file of

mostly interviews. with a theme. >> the first response always, if it's from kids or friends or neighbors, is william bradford. so there's one person who would want her dead. it still doesn't mean he's the killer. but it does mean that of all the reasonable options he is the most reasonable option. >> reporter: they learned all about the bradfords' troubled marriage, about bill's apparent need to be in control, about the contentious divorce. the money he was forced to pay joan. >> there was some court orders to pay about $40,000 to my wife's attorney. and i was very depressed from that point on. >> reporter: they microanalyzed bradford's police interview, dissected every word. >> i don't talk about it very much to the kids. >> i'm looking at word choices in all the interviews. i'm looking for deception indicators. >> reporter: do you remember anything particularly about that process in that interview? >> yeah. the investigators asked him how

he felt about when he first learned his wife was murdered. >> i'm sorry to see her dead, but we never had a very good relationship. >> that's a very unusual way to answer that, right? >> reporter: about your wife. >> yeah. you don't want to see her dead. that is in some ways a bit of a tacit admission in that you were the one person who could actually say that you last saw her dead. >> reporter: then there was bradford's strange story about spending two nights at the pier, in his car. he even had a park stub to prove it. >> when you talk to his family and you brought up, hey, is your dad, is he that kind of beach meditation, put on my sandals and relate to the ocean kind of guy? no. >> reporter: except he was very upset. maybe you doubt him, but it's a reasonable thing for a person to say. >> to sleep in their car for two days? >> reporter: lewin and wallace were both convinced there was another reason bradford stayed at the pier. it just happened to be where

joan's attorney had an office. the very same attorney who helped her garnish that $40,000 from her ex-husband. >> by his own statement he was pacing, walking up and down the pier right in front of the lawyer's office. now, the lawyer, had he been there, and bradford waited for him for two days, i have no doubt in my mind this would have been a double murder suicide. >> reporter: you really think he was going to go and kill a lawyer? >> no question. >> reporter: you're speculating. you say no question. but really you have no idea. >> things are logical and reasonable. he's just murdered his wife and right after he murders her he drives to a place that he's never known to go and sleeps in his car for two days and it just so happens that the lawyer's office is right there? we don't leave our common sense at the door. in this situation, you know, we'd have to leave our common sense in another zip code. >> bradford had been beaten. this attorney made that happen. he had to die too. >> reporter: and, wallace thought, he must have intended

to use the very same gun with which he killed joan. the .357 magnum bradford said he lost. >> i haven't the slightest idea where it went. >> reporter: wallace did a little research on the hollow tip bullets bradford admitted he'd once had. remember, those were the same kind of bullets that killed joan. and wallace discovered that particular type of hollow point is rare. less than 1% of all the ammo sold. >> wow. what are the odds? he's either the unluckiest person in the world who just happens to have awful these causal factors that happen to align perfectly to make this perfectly innocent person look really guilty, or he's really guilty. >> so what you were wondering, where it was -- >> reporter: with all the circumstantial clues and the clear motive and means, lewin and wallace drove out to the desert and arrested bill bradford. it was may 2001. 13 years after joan was murdered. >> he had just popped open a beer. i don't think bill realizes that

you will never see this ever again. this is a guy we're just going to vacuum suck out of his life who has no idea. >> reporter: bradford was charged with first degree murder. and one of the detectives phoned shawn. >> my first reaction was do you know what day today is? i said no. it's mother's day. and he stopped and he said oh, my gosh, i'm sorry. i said no, that's fitting for the mother that he took away 13 years ago. >> reporter: bradford quickly lawyered up while his family braced themselves for a trial. would their father walk free? or be locked up for life? >> i want to use the word apprehensive because after years can a case be won? >> coming up -- >> we felt this burden, we'll never get another case like thfr filed again if we lose this one. >> a trial. >> getting a little nervous. >> i was. because i didn't know how this would all fit together.

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aerospace engineer, was coming back to torrance to be tried for murdering his ex-wife, joan. it was 2002. and though 14 years after the murder d.a. lewin had a pile of the same old circumstantial evidence he charged ahead. >> were you confident going into this trial? >> very confident. i thought that circumstantially it was an absolutely overwhelming case. >> reporter: really? the original d.a. rejected it. weak, he called it. no smoking gun, no dna, no eyewitnesses. >> we felt this burden, we'll never get another case like this ever filed again if we lose this one. >> reporter: getting a little nervous. >> well, i was. because i didn't know how this would all fit together, not having done a circumstantial case like this before. i really worried. >> reporter: nevertheless, in the winter of 2002, lewin and wallace took their first cold circumstantial case to court. >> the way we presented the case was this is a man who was in an abusive relationship.

he would not accept that his wife wanted her fair share. and when he lost to him it was the losing. he couldn't take losing. >> reporter: and so in a violent rage, said lewin, bradford executed his ex-wife. bradford's children testified for the prosecution. >> that was probably almost as hard as finding my mom murdered. i didn't know until the trial that she'd been shot execution style. >> reporter: her father's defense mostly centered on bradford's sterling reputation as a high security aerospace engineer, loving father, and family man and pointed out the lack of physical evidence connecting him to the crime. and the jury kept suspense alive, was out for two days. and then on a cool april morning came the verdict.

guilty. finally, justice for joan bradford. >> i went from suspecting that my father murdered my mom to having it confirmed. because there's always that little point that still wanted to be daddy's little girl and wanted to believe that this was something else. >> reporter: it was shawn's birthday a few weeks later when her father was sentenced to 26 years to life. he'd be 85 by the time he was eligible for parole. >> i remember telling his daughter that this man's not going to last five years in prison. so i thought it would be a life sentence. >> i was a lot more relaxed. people kept saying he'll be dead in five years. so you know, i'm safe. he's never getting out. >> reporter: safe? maybe not everybody.

months later d.a. lewin got a call from the prison. about bill bradford. >> they tell me that his cellmate has come forward and he has said that bradford is very angry at you and he is talking about making plans to murder you and your family. >> reporter: of course in lewin's line of work idle threats from resentful jailbirds were not exactly new. but this bill bradford guy caught his attention. he seemed as cold-blooded as they come. so lewin went to talk to the informant. normally if somebody comes to you with a story like that they want a little time off their sentence or something. >> they want something. absolutely. >> reporter: not this guy? >> nothing. one of the first things i asked him was why are you coming forward? and he said, "i hate the guy. i couldn't believe how he would talk about his wife and how he killed her." and he said, "now he's talking about killing somebody else's family and i just couldn't stay

quiet." >> reporter: lewin polygraphed the informant. he passed. and then added a warning. >> that bradford had said that he thought he was going to get out very quickly. >> reporter: on appeal. >> on appeal. and when he got out he was going to either himself or somebody else, he was going to blow my family's heads off in front of me so that i could suffer, and then he was going to kill me. so i immediately took it seriously that it was a credible threat. >> reporter: but then bradford lost all his appeals, and gradually lewin stopped looking over his shoulder. he went on to successfully prosecute many more cold circumstantial cases including several with jim wallace. the bradford case faded away until 15 years later, the fall of 2017. >> i come home from my work and my husband says you have a letter from department of corrections. and i went, okay.

it's one of two things. he died or parole. i open it up. and he's still alive. >> reporter: so option number 2. his parole hearing at the prison was coming up, which meant that bill bradford, a convicted killer who once allegedly threatened to murder the d.a. and his family, could very soon be back on the street. >> coming up -- >> i made a promise to myself that i would speak for my mom. i went to the parole. >> a decision -- >> i was stunned. >> but is it final? >> this is a very bright man. he has resources and he has motivation. >> when will he stop being dangerous to you? >> when he's dead. >> when "dateline" continues.

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welcome back. prosecutor john lewin had every reason to take bill bradford seriously. a fellow inmate volunteered that bill was boasting about plans to kill the lawyer and his family if he got out of prison. the bradford children also felt threatened by their father. with a parole hearing around the corner, could their nightmare become a reality? here's keith morrison with the conclusion of "the threat." >> reporter: the california

health care facility. but don't be fooled by the name. this is indeed a prison. and home to bill bradford, who by 2018 had been in prison 16 years. which meant he was up for parole. that january two of bradford's children traveled to the prison for his hearing. >> i made a promise to myself that i would speak for my mom. i went to the parole. >> reporter: what was it like to see him there? >> you i saw a man who has not aged well in the last 15 years. >> reporter: deputy d.a. john lewin went to the hearing too. memories of death threats all too fresh in his mind. >> i understand the law's the law and they have to look at parole for him. this man is a threat to me. he's a threat, more importantly, to my family. this is not personal in terms of any vendetta or about being right. this is about public safety and

protecting those of us who sacrifice a lot to do the jobs we do, whether you're police officers or prosecutors or judges. >> reporter: cameras weren't allowed inside the hearing as the commissioners began asking bradford about the brutal murder he committed. >> for the first time in 30 years i heard my father admit to killing my mom. >> reporter: however, there's a reason for doing such a thing, which is that he has a chance to get paroled. >> yes, he did. however, the way he went about admitting it was very unique. the commissioner was asking about where is joan, your ex-wife, now? he stops and goes, "wait, is that the woman i shot?" and the commissioner stops and says, "you tell us. did you kill your ex-wife?" "yes, i did." "why?" "i don't remember." >> he appears to have departmme of some sort. >> yeah. >> reporter: bradford's afoern maya emig told the commissioner

that's bradford's dementia and a basket of other health problems are getting worse and that john lewin has nothing to fear from a confused and frail old man. >> nothing has happened in 16 years. mr. bradford isn't connected to the mob or the mexican mafia or any prison gang. right? and quite frankly he didn't even know who john lewin was. >> reporter: in the room that day he didn't recognize him? >> didn't even know him. didn't remember his name. >> reporter: how do you know that? >> it was just apparent. he's not a threat at all, the way that he is. >> the prison's own psychologist examined him, and they came back with a rating, there's low risk, moderate risk and high risk. he came back with a moderate risk. >> reporter: the issue that the commissioners are trying to focus on and wanted you to focus on but you didn't want to, was he's not capable of harming you anymore. >> keith -- >> reporter: he's beyond -- >> his mind is very clear. the man knew, was able to recite

numerous different issues. >> reporter: lewin said he thinks what the defense attorney calls dementia is really a severe case of selective memory. >> he denied remembering what he had done, denied remembering anything about me. he just had selective amnesia regarding this whole event. so the idea that he's helpless and doesn't have the capability to harm me or my family, it's absurd. >> reporter: when will he stop being dangerous to you? >> when he's dead. >> reporter: bradford's children, shawn and brett, also spoke up at the hearing and urged the commissioners to keep their dad locked up. >> i had to go through and explain thwhat i was concerned about for safety not only to myself but to the general population. >> reporter: for several hours the commissioners questioned bradford and listened to lewin and the family and tried to determine if the old man was a risk or releasable. and then they went to their chambers to make up their minds. and later that afternoon bradford's attorney and lewin

were called in and were told. >> the question about whether or not mr. bradford poses a current threat, the answer was no. >> reporter: no threat meant yes to parole. bill bradford would be released. >> i was furious. and i said, if something happens to my family, the blood is on your hands and you will own this. >> reporter: when bradford's children got the news, those old fears about their father suddenly returned. >> i was stunned. i couldn't believe they would turn around and say he's not a risk. >> would i be a fool to say we are perfectly safe? no. my father killed once. >> reporter: the commissioner timed bradford's release for february 2019. by then he would be in his mid 80s. more than 30 years removed from

when he pulled that trigger. could he really do it again? >> this is a very bright man. he has resources and he has motivation. it takes very little to find out where my family is. all he needs is a gun and an uber. >> this is an 85-year-old guy who is on a mission. if he's able to still command his wits, then we have a problem still. because he's able to command his wits when he made the first threat and here we are now. we have not done something that has lessened his anger. >> reporter: there was one more step before his release. california's then governor jerry brown would review the decision. and could reverse it. to keep him in prison. the l.a. county d.a.'s office wrote a letter to the governor urging him to do just that. so did bradford's family. >> i contacted the governor's office. i wrote a letter. my brother wrote a letter. and i had two senators actually co-sign a letter.

>> reporter: lewin acted too. through the medi trying to persuade california governor jerry brown to keep bradford locked up. >> he's looking to even up scores before he dies. >> reporter: then, a week after memorial day 2018, came this letter from governor brown. "the evidence shows that he," meaning bradford, "currently poses an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison. therefore, i reverse the decision to parole mr. bradford." >> when it came in, it was a lot of shock but also a lot of relief. >> reporter: that relief would be temporary. in june 2019 bill bradford was again granted parole. and like last time that decision needed approval. this time there was a new governor in office, gavin newsom. but it was the same result. like his predecessor he too

reversed bill's parole. so bill bradford remains behind bars. and the mighty columbia rolls by a little cemetery where a woman who loved life and her children and put up with a difficult husband is put up a difficult h is at peace. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." what'd you hear? >> uh, laughing some -- almost screaming. >> you heard screaming? >> i've known these kids their whole life. i don't believe for a minute that they made any of that up. >> like screaming noises or something else? >> like -- like laughing, screaming. >> they believe their father killed their mother.