Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast - Where is Steven Bradley?

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Vanished without a trace in 2006. Nearly 19 years later, Steven Bradley's family is still waiting for answers.In 2006, Steven, a Las Vegas husband and father, left for work and never came home. His car turned up 250 miles away, with no signs of a struggle and no sign of Steve. Almost 19 years later, his family still has no answers about what happened to him. This case didn’t make headlines, but every missing person matters. This week, we are sharing his story. https://sinspod.co/74sourceshttps://sinspod.co/74blogDomestic Violence Resourceshttp://sinspod.co/resourcesClick here to become a member of our Patreon!https://sinspod.co/patreonVisit and join our Patreon now and access our ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content & schwag! Get ad-free access for only $1 a month or ad-free and bonus episodes for $3 a monthApple Podcast Subscriptionshttps://sinspod.co/appleWe're now offering premium membership benefits on Apple Podcast Subscriptions! On your mobile deviceLet us know what you think about the episodehttps://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2248640/open_sms Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sins-survivors-a-las-vegas-true-crime-podcast--6173686/support.

To listen ad-free, visit Zinspod.co slash subscribe. Starting at $2.99 a month, you'll also get access to our exclusive bonus content episodes when you join through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show. In 2006, Stephen Bradley, a Las Vegas husband and father, left for work and never came home. His car turned up 250 miles away, with no signs of a struggle, and no signs of him. Almost 19 years later, his family still has no answers about what happened to him. This case didn't make headlines, but every missing person matters.

This week, we're sharing his story. Hi, and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I'm your host, Sean. And I'm your co-host, John. The last weekend of March 2025, John and I spent at AdvocacyCon. This year was the first year of this event, which was started by three of our colleagues who are powerhouses in ethical true crime, Eric Carter Landin, president of Angels Voices Silence No More and host of True Consequences, Whitney St. Andre, and Melissa Leinweber, the hosts of Navigating Advocacy. The purpose of AdvocacyCon is to build a community

where families of the missing and murdered can find unwavering support and strength in a united and compassionate environment. The weekend was focused on these families, providing them with hope, resources, and critical information designed to help connect them with advocates who can help them. And they had the opportunity to learn skills and techniques

to advocate for their missing or murdered loved ones. We learned that just being around people who have experienced the same type of loss you have experienced can give these families a tremendous amount of comfort. On February 1st, 2025, we also participated in Missing in Nevada Day here in Las Vegas, where local agencies come together to connect with people searching for loved ones with the hope of helping them in their search for answers and offering them resources and support. Both events give us the opportunity to connect with families who are searching for their loved ones and seeking justice, and they strengthened our commitment to one of the goals of our podcast, to help as many families as possible. There have been times in the past when we've struggled to

share a story with you all because we knew the episode would be really short. The stories and cases were important, so we'd usually just combine two shorter stories into one episode, and at the holidays, we combine six or seven missing person stories into one episode. We've reached the point now with the podcast where we've realized we don't necessarily need to do that, and each of these families deserves their own episode, even if it is on the shorter side. We talked it over with some of our friends in Ethical True Crime, and we've decided that moving forward, we aren't going to hesitate to bring you those stories, even if they are short episodes. We'll likely have one or two episodes a month that are shorter than average, but they are every bit as important as any other story we share with

you all. This will also allow us to get a case out to you faster. So if someone just recently went missing and the police and family are seeking the public's help, we can turn that episode around for you all quickly so we can help support families when cases are fresh. The story we have for you today will be one of those shorter episodes. It's an older case that I have wanted to cover since we talked about the disappearance of Stephen Coker back in episode 35. Stephen Howard Bradley disappeared in 2006, and nearly 20 years later, his wife and daughters still have no answers. Stephen Bradley wasn't famous. His disappearance didn't spark a media frenzy or national outrage. But he was loved. He mattered then, and he still matters.

The people who loved him—his wife, his daughters, his friends, his brother— they've lived nearly two decades without knowing what happened to him and having that empty chair at holidays and celebrations. We reached out to Stephen's wife, Sonia, and she told us that Stephen's disappearance never got much media coverage, and we agree. But that isn't going to stop us from telling you about Stephen in the hopes that someone has new information that can finally lead to answers for his family. After we initially released the episode, Sonia emailed us with some additional information, so we've also added that in here as well. Stephen was born on January 24th, 1969, which would make him 56 years old today, but he disappeared when he was 37. He went to high school in California at Arroyo Grande High School.

Arroyo Grande is located along the central coast of California between San Francisco and L.A. His high school friends said that he was a quiet guy, and one friend wrote on the school's Facebook page that to know Stephen was to love him. He was one of the good guys and always had a smile on his face. When Steve was young, he loved surfing. After he moved to Las Vegas, he bought a boat and enjoyed taking it out on Lake Mead. He loved the outdoors, and he was an avid Cowboys fan. He was known as a compassionate, creative, humorous, and athletic person who was very generous with his time. He was always ready to help out friends and family with things like painting and home repairs. Sonia told us a story that she thought really showed what type of person her husband was. One time, one of her neighbors was cited by their HOA for faded paint on her house,

and she was on a very tight deadline to avoid HOA fines. She was struggling trying to do it for herself, and when Stephen realized that, he stepped up and helped her. He worked all day, then came home and painted the front of her two-story house for her. Stephen and his wife Sonia have two daughters together who were very young when he disappeared, but now they are adults in their 20s. Stephen worked for a company in Las Vegas called Macintosh Communications, which is still in business here in Vegas, and they also have a location in Salt Lake City. They make security equipment and items like two-way radios. On the morning of July 31st, 2006, Stephen left his house around 7.30 to head to work. Stephen called his work that morning as

he was driving to say that he was running late. On a typical day, he would pick up his daughters at school after work, but for whatever reason on that day in July, he didn't show up at their school. Sonia knew right away that something had to be wrong for him not to pick up the girls. He also hadn't called her to say he wasn't going to be able to get them. It was soon after that that Sonia discovered that Stephen had never even made it to work that day. She contacted Metro Police and filed a missing person's report. Metro began their investigation and discovered that Stephen was last seen at a Wells Fargo drive-thru ATM at Tropicana and Jones between noon and 1 p.m. on July 31st. A camera near the ATM picked up footage of him making a cash withdrawal.

Stephen was behind the wheel of his Toyota 4Runner, but no one is certain that he was alone in the car, and it's not clear where he went after that. We also don't know why he wasn't at work that morning or where exactly he was between 7.30 and noon, but it was Stephen driving on the camera footage. And I want to stress that to rule out any theories that he had been robbed or carjacked or that his car had been stolen before noon the day he disappeared. It's important to note that because the day after Stephen disappeared on August 1st, 2006, his car was found abandoned hundreds of miles away in Lake Elsinore, California in the parking lot of a small strip mall on Grand Avenue.

Lake Elsinore is about a four-hour drive from Las Vegas. It's located in Southern California, near Temecula. It's a city of about 73,000 people, so this wasn't the middle of nowhere, or as many things are described when it comes to Vegas crimes, just out in the middle of the desert, though I'm not sure how many listeners may have heard of Lake Elsinore before. When the police discovered the car belonged to a missing person, they launched an intensive search using boats, aircraft, and dogs to try and find Steve,

but sadly there was no trace and no leads or clues as to what had happened to him. I wasn't able to find an official record of this, but there are some breadcrumbs online that indicate Stephen's story was shared on America's Most Wanted webpage at some point, and Sonya was able to confirm that, but the Wayback Machine did not archive that page.

According to the Charlie Project, the police suspect foul play in Stephen's case. I also read some rumors online that Stephen may have gone to visit a friend who lived or lives in the area of Tropicana and Jones. I want to at least share that fact in case anyone possibly has any leads or maybe even saw Steve in that neighborhood. So much time has passed, but we hold out hope that someone has a new lead for the police.

In 2021, his wife Sonia shared a brief update online about Stephen and what her family has been dealing with. She said that her heart is broken for Steve's parents, his brother and sister, and his extended family. She said, My heart is also heavy raising our two beautiful daughters knowing Steve has missed every birthday, holiday, commencement, and milestone. It's still incredibly difficult to accept that we may never have answers or properly lay him to rest. She shared how her daughters had grown into resilient and independent young women who are working and going to college, but it's been hard that Steve has missed out on so much of their lives.

While Steve didn't attend college himself, he always hoped that his girls would make the choice to go, and there's no doubt he would be incredibly proud of both of them. On the 15th anniversary of Stephen's disappearance, Sonia started a GoFundMe for the first time with a very modest goal to help raise money for college expenses for her daughters. It's still active, and you can find that link in our show notes. While Sonia remains hopeful that someday her family will have answers, she's mentioned that Las Vegas Metro does not currently have a detective that's assigned to handle cold missing persons cases. She wrote that at the time Stephen went missing, they had 14 detectives in the missing persons department, and now they only have five. It's also worth noting how easy it is for a missing persons case to slip through the cracks.

Disappearances like Stephen's are not all that rare. According to the National Crime Information Center, over 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S. every year. Most of those are found, but thousands remain missing long-term, and many cases just like Stevens quietly fade from the headlines or never get covered at all. An average of 10 people are reported missing every day in Las Vegas, and Metro simply doesn't have the resources to do any additional work on the case. When there's no crime scene, no witnesses, no media attention, and especially when the missing person is an adult, disappearances don't get the same attention from the public or law enforcement. That's why we do what we do.

That's why AdvocacyCon was created, because every person deserves to be searched for, every family deserves answers, and every voice deserves to be heard, regardless of how long it's been or how few details are available. This is also why it's so important that you share Stephen's info, especially if you live in Southern Nevada or Southern California. There is someone out there who holds the key to solving Steve's disappearance, and your share could be the one that finally connects the dots. We can't undo the pain that his loved ones are feeling, but we can keep Stephen's name out there. July 2025 will be 19 years since Stephen disappeared. When he was last seen, he was wearing a blue t-shirt,

jean shorts, hiking boots, a beige baseball cap with the Corona beer logo on it, and a white gold wedding band. He was also carrying a gray or silver backpack, and his HP laptop computer is also missing. He was driving a black 1999 Toyota 4Runner, which, as we said, has been recovered. Stephen is a white male, around 5'10", and weighing about 196 pounds. He has light brown hair and green eyes. He has a scar on his ankle from a previous fracture, another scar on his hand, and a surgical scar from a hernia operation. He also has a flesh-colored mole above his eye.

If you have any leads or any information at all about where Steven might be or what happened to him, please call Las Vegas Metro at 702-828-3111. If you want to learn more about AdvocacyCon, visit advocacycon.com. You can sign up for their newsletter and get more information about the event. AdvocacyCon 2026 with the theme Hope Rises will take place in Albuquerque, New Mexico on September 11th through the 13th, 2026. If you are seeking justice for your missing or murdered loved one, we urge you to check it out. This year, families were offered scholarships to help them to be able to attend the event, so please look into it. Thanks again for listening to Stephen's story, and please share his information, because what happens here happens everywhere.

Thanks for listening. Visit sinspod.co slash subscribe for exclusive bonus content and to listen ad-free. Remember to like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads at Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at questions at sinsandsurvivors.com. If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast,

is research written and produced by your hosts, Sean and John. The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us. Links to source material for this episode can be found on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast creators, hosts, and their guests. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty. Thank you.