Police arrest JBLM member suspected in murder of missing Tacoma man
Police in Pierce County arrested two 21-year-olds on suspicion of murder after one of the suspects - a service member assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord - led officers Tuesday night to human remains in a training area of the sprawling U.S. military base.
The suspects, a man and a woman, are suspected in the death of Caelick Bradley, 28, of Tacoma, who last month was reported missing to Washington State Patrol. Bradley was last seen June 8 at the military base, according to his missing person report.
Tacoma police investigating Bradley's disappearance arrested a man on Tuesday after he allegedly used one of Bradley's credit cards, according to Lakewood Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Charles Porche.
During interviews with detectives, the man allegedly told police Bradley had been killed in Lakewood and that a woman Bradley was in a relationship with was involved. He then led officers to a publicly accessible area of the military base near Highway 507 and Spanaway, where they found human remains, according to Porche and Joint Base Lewis-McChord spokesperson Scot Keith.
While the Pierce County medical examiner's office has not yet identified the remains, investigators believe they "more likely than not" are Bradley's, Porche said.
Tacoma police notified Lakewood police of the homicide, then booked the man into jail shortly after midnight Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and second-degree identity theft, jail records show.
Lakewood police officers went to the home of Bradley's girlfriend and arrested her after she came outside, Porche said. She was booked into jail about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday on a charge of first-degree murder, jail records show.
The Seattle Times typically does not name suspects until they are charged.
Lakewood detectives are leading the homicide investigation, and have not found a "bright light" pointing to when it happened, Porche said.
U.S. Army investigators are "working closely" with Lakewood and Tacoma police, Keith said. He confirmed the man arrested Tuesday is assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, but declined to provide more information, citing the active investigation.
Keith also would not confirm whether Bradley was ever assigned to the military base, as his family described in an online fundraiser created after his disappearance.
The fundraiser describes Bradley as an Army veteran who served as a member of the "Night Stalkers" aviation unit between 2017 and 2023 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Bradley went missing while he was in the midst of moving out of his apartment. He planned to leave Tacoma on June 10 and start driving to Virginia to move in with his mother, according to the fundraiser.
The remains of another person who went missing from Tacoma - 21-year-old Aidan Spear - were found earlier this year in a wooded area of the 415,000-acre military base.
Spear, a Native American woman, was reported missing in January 2022 to Washington State Patrol after failing to show up for plans with her mother. Four years later, someone reported finding human remains in a publicly accessible area of Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The remains were sent to a Seattle facility where investigators identified them as Spear, according to the Pierce County sheriff's office.
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