Dead Wilmington woman’s DNA found in Bradley’s truck – News … – StarNewsOnline.com

James Opelton Bradley is charged with first-degree murder in the presumed death of his missing coworker, Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk, who vanished April 5, 2014.

WILMINGTON -- DNA, computer searches and letters written from jail by the defendant were presented to the jury in the ninth day of testimony Friday in the murder trial of James Opelton Bradley.

Bradley, 54, of Wilmington is charged with first-degree murder in the presumed death of his missing coworker Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk, 53, of Wilmington, who vanished April 5, 2014.

Investigators testified Bradley told police three different stories in the days after Van Newkirk went missing -- initially denying he saw her on the day she was last seen and then ultimately saying he'd picked her up from her house that day. When a discussion they were having became "heated," she ran from his truck near Greenfield Lake, investigators said Bradley told them.

Three weeks later, when police searched land in Hampstead owned by Bradleys employer, they unearthed the body of Elisha Tucker, 33, another missing Wilmington woman whod last been seen in August 2013. Despite the fact that Van Newkirks body was never been found, Bradley is being tried in her presumed death.

A trial in Tuckers killing has yet to be set, but prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty in that case. Bradley has a previous murder conviction for killing his 8-year-old stepdaughter in 1988. The jury learned of that prior conviction after the prosecution successfully argued it be admissible.

On Friday, Sharon Hinton, a DNA analyst with the N.C. State Crime Laboratory, told the jury that she was unable to locate Van Newkirks DNA on any of the items she tested from Bradleys apartment or vehicle.

But, Hinton said, she was able to extract a full DNA profile for Elisha Tucker from at least one stain from the carpet padding in Bradleys Chevy Tahoe. The probability of it being anyone else's DNA other than Tucker's was 1 in 359 trillion, she said. That stain, however, did not test positive for blood.

FBI computer examiner Rich Novelli testified that on April 20, 2014 -- four days after his last interview with police -- Bradley searched online for information on cellphone pinging and visited a webpage that explained how cellphones are tracked. Novelli said Bradley also searched for the StarNews.

Additionally, Jurors each read a copy of two letters. One was addressed to a relative's daughter and the other was to a friend. The contents of the letters were not discussed before court took an early recess.

Testimony in the case resumes Monday.

Reporter F.T. Norton can be reached at 910-343-2070 or Fran.Norton@StarNewsOnline.com.

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Dead Wilmington woman's DNA found in Bradley's truck - News ... - StarNewsOnline.com