When sheriff's deputies released photographs of 50 women taken two decades ago by murderer Bill Bradford, they weren't sure what they would find.
Then the tips started flooding in -- more than 1,000 in the 24 hours after they sought the public's help Tuesday in identifying the women.
One woman called to say she was the person in photos 16 and 17-- and is very much alive.
Then Bradford's own daughter called in, saying that photo 48 was of his ex-wife and that she too is alive.
By Wednesday evening, detectives said they had tentatively confirmed that 24 of the women are alive and they believed they had talked to about a dozen of them personally.
Most murder inquiries begin with a victim and end with the arrest of a suspect. But sheriff's officials said Wednesday that the Bradford probe is like no other.
"This is a totally different case than what we are used to," said Capt. Ray Peavy, head of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department homicide bureau. "Here, we think we know who the killer is, and we are trying to find the potential victim."
The case has another twist: Peavy said the goal isn't to bring more charges against Bradford, who is already on death row after being convicted of killing two aspiring models in 1984.
The 54 photographs were contained in Bradford's original case file and sat untouched for years, until a cold-case detective decided to take a second look.
"Most of these women maybe are alive, but maybe we'll find [other victims] and bring closure to one more family who lost a loved one," Peavy said.
Detectives so far have confirmed that only one of the women, Donnalee Campbell Duhamel, was killed. The aspiring model, shown in photo No. 28, was found decapitated in 1978 after having been seen at a Westside bar with Bradford. Her case is now under investigation.
To deal with the flood of tips, investigators set up an elaborate information-gathering system.
One group of detectives sat at a phone bank, taking calls and having the information entered into a database. In a nearby room, another set of detectives -- some of whom are retired and volunteering their time -- began running down clues. Photos of all 50 women are numbered and displayed on a giant board, with information posted by the images.
The first step in the process is to identify each one. Then detectives plan to interview the women they locate about their dealings with Bradford.
