DNA Leads to Arrest in 1990 Kidnapping Case

Oct. 14, 2009— -- Nearly 20 years after Jennifer Schuett was snatched from her bedroom and left for dead in a Texas field, police on Tuesday arrested the man who they say left a small amount of DNA on the little girl's clothing.

"I stand here and I want you to know that I am OK," Schuett, now 27, said after the arrest. "I am not a victim but instead victorious."

Police charged Arkansas welder Dennis Bradford, 40, with attempted capital murder.

According to an FBI affidavit, Schuett was eight years old when she disappeared from her bedroom Aug. 10, 1990. Nearly 12 hours after she was reported missing by her mother, Schuett was found nude in a nearby field, her throat cut. She had also been sexually assaulted.

Two-tenths of a mile from where she was found, police found the clothing Schuett had been wearing that morning -- a pink shirt and white underwear with blue roses -- as well as a man's T-shirt and underwear.

In a hospital interview with police and the FBI, Schuett told investigators that she was asleep in her bedroom when the man opened the window and grabbed her, putting his hand over her face and telling her to shut up, according to the affidavit.

The FBI said Schuett was put on the man's lap as he drove and was choked four times. Schuett told investigators that the man then drove into the woods, took her out of the car, "undressed her and licked her all over," according to the affidavit.

She was then dragged into the field and cut with a pocket knife.

Renewed Interest in 1990 Attack Yields Arrest

Though DNA evidence was found on the clothing, technology available at the time was unable to generate information from such a small sample. All the FBI knew was that his name was Dennis, which they learned from a note Jennifer, unable to talk, had written to her mother two days after the attack.

In 2008, a cold case investigator was assigned the case. With new technology, investigators were able to obtain enough information from the DNA left on the clothing to identify the attacker.

Running the results through the government's Combined DNA Index System, investigators got a match in Bradford. His DNA had been entered into the system following a 1997 conviction for the kidnapping and sexual assault of another woman a year earlier. Her throat was also cut.

At the time of the attack on Schuett, Bradford was living two miles away from the little girl's house. And a composite sketch done shortly after Schuett was found turned out to closely match a picture of Bradford from that time.

Schuett, who had never stopped searching for her attacker, said her story was one of hope for anyone else who had been a victim.

"Never give up hope seeking justice," she said, "no matter how long it takes or how hard it may be."