Jul 6, 2005 6:44 pm US/Central
Bradley Sisters Missing Four Years This Week
Pain Remains Fresh For Girls' Mother
by Diann Burns
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
This week, two little girls have been missing for four years from their home on the South Side of Chicago. The case of Tionda and Diamond Bradley prompted one of the biggest manhunts in the history of Chicago.
CBS 2's Diann Burns spoke with their mother, Tracey, whose pain is still to the core.
Diamond was only 3 years old and Tionda was 10 when they disappeared from their apartment building in the Oakland neighborhood. That was 2001.
They left a note for their mother, saying they went out to play. Tonight, the memory is still fresh for Tracey Bradley, a single mother of four, who was at work that day.
"I can't sleep because I am thinking about them every day. It's just not one day, it's every day because they are out there somewhere," she said.
The years have been heavy and Bradley has been drained by the uncertainty. There were reports of sightings of the girls: once, at a Wal-Mart in Indiana, that didn't pan out and most recently, DNA testing was conducted on some bones discovered in a forest preserve, where the initial search failed to turn up clues.
Bradley passed a lie detector test and hours of questioning and is not considered a suspect. She believes that somebody will find the courage to come forward, if only for the sake of her other two children, who cannot understand why their sisters never came home.
"My two girls with me, you know, I'm sure they're probably feeling the same thing I'm feeling: wondering, where are they?" she said. "I'm their backbone, you know… and [I] let them know everything's gonna be all right."
Bradley prepares for a vigil Wednesday to mark the day four years ago when she was separated from Tionda and Diamond, but there's that connection in that recurring dream that warms, yet breaks her heart.
"I will ask Tionda, 'where's Diamond at?' She says, 'Momma, I'm gonna take you there. But once we get together to go there, and we're about to go, the dream just constantly goes away."
At this point, Bradley says prayer gets her through and the hope for that one lead to get Tionda and Diamond back. For now, the cold case squad is handling the case and a private detective is hunting for clues.
The prayer vigil for the girls is Wednesday night at 6:00 at 35th and South Lake Park.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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