Background: The Home Depot where authorities say the suspect stopped on the day of the alleged killing (WTTG/YouTube). Inset top: Lisa Bradford (Dulles Area Association of Realtors). Inset bottom: Roger Bradford (DMK Project Solutions/WTTG/YouTube).
New details have emerged in the case of a man in Virginia who allegedly plotted to kill his wife as their marriage was coming to an end.
Roger Bradford, 60, faces charges of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the death of 54-year-old Lisa Bradford, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office (LCSO).
Recently unsealed court documents allegedly suggest Bradford hatched a plan of violence against his wife before the alleged killing — and that he had other targets, too.
On the morning of Sept. 22, Roger Bradford stopped at a storage facility in Ashburn, Virginia to pick up .45-caliber ammunition in a locker, per court filings obtained by regional Fox affiliate WTTG. He then allegedly drove to a Home Depot about 12 miles south in South Riding, Virginia, and bought 36-inch zip ties.
At about 9 a.m., the defendant allegedly returned to his and his wife's house on the 24000 block of Quimby Oaks Place in Aldie, Virginia, which is about 40 miles west of Washington, D.C. He reportedly then shot and killed Lisa Bradford.
After the slaying, Roger Bradford allegedly called a relative and apologized, area NBC affiliate WRC reported. Authorities said the suspect told the relative "he was going to kill himself" and asked them to pick up his and his wife's daughter so she wouldn't come home to find her mother dead.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Roger Bradford apparently then left the house in a rental car and drove about 2 1/2 hours north to Pennsylvania. In the meantime, the relative called police, and LCSO deputies reported arriving at the home at about 12:10 p.m. to find Lisa Bradford dead.
A multistate search involving several agencies for Roger Bradford ensued, and at about 3:15 p.m., Pennsylvania State Police arrested him.
That is when investigators made a new discovery.
Police found a journal inside the rental car, which contained a list of other possible targets, per WTTG. At the top of the list was Lisa Bradford's name, along with a declaration that she was to be killed on the very day she was slain, Sept. 22.
Details about who else was on the list or where the defendant may have been heading were not immediately available. Investigators have reportedly not found the murder weapon or Lisa Bradford's cellphone.
Court records reviewed by Law&Crime show that Roger Bradford previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud related to a kickback scheme in Iowa stretching back to 2019. He was sentenced to serve time in prison, and in an attempt to appeal in January, he shared that his "pre-existing mental health conditions worsened" while he was in custody.
He said he was "suicidal many nights," adding, "I have had my professional reputation and relationships destroyed as a result of my felony conviction."
"My marriage with my wife Lisa is now headed to divorce as the pressures and injustice of this nightmare took its toll on our marriage and our life together," Roger Bradford wrote in a January filing, adding that his marriage "likely coming to an end is too much to bear."
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