Woman’s skull found on stick in Iowa park leads to man’s arrest 1 year later, cops say

More than a year after a woman’s skull was found in a public park, a man she had just met is accused of her murder, Iowa police said.

Nathan Gilmore, 23, was arrested on Friday, Aug. 19, and charged with the murder of Angela Bradbury, whose skull was located three months after her death on or around April 6, 2021.

The skull was first noticed by a teenage girl, who found it placed on a stick at Greenbelt River Trail Park in Mitchell County on July 12, 2021, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities took the skull to the state medical examiner’s office, but officials were initially unable to identify to whom it belonged.

Bradbury’s family reported her as a missing person in February, and within two weeks, detectives used dental records to identify the remains found in the park as Bradbury, police said. In April, nearly a year after Bradbury was killed, more of her remains were found in the park, the complaint states.

As police were investigating Bradbury’s death, officers learned she was released from jail on April 6, 2021, on trespassing charges. Later that day, she “was at an associate’s house” and left with a man, according to court records.

She was not seen by those associates ever again, police said.

Gilmore was identified as the man who picked up Bradbury, the complaint states. He had a scheduled arraignment at the jail on April 6, and he told authorities he picked up a woman there that matched Bradbury’s description, police said.

His story changed throughout police questioning, but police said GPS records show Gilmore was in the vicinity of the park from 7:21 p.m. to 8:37 p.m. the day Bradbury was last seen.

When officers searched Gilmore’s home on Aug. 19, they found a drawing of a satanic goat’s head with the numbers “04-06, 0590 and 42.3, -92.8” written beside it, according to the criminal complaint.

“04-06 appears to coincide with April 6, which was when Angela was last seen,” police said. “590 appears to coincide with an urban dictionary acronym meaning that ‘someone is tired of living.’ 42.3, -92.8 appear to coincide with an abbreviated GPS coordinate for the Greenbelt River Trail Park.”

Gilmore is being held in the Mitchell County jail on a $1 million bond, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

Mitchell County is in northern Iowa about 125 miles south of Minneapolis.