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Lynne Knight's murder case made headlines once again only recently in 2014 when her ex-boyfriend and killer, Douglas Bradford, was found guilty of first-degree murder in her strangling and stabbing death over three decades later and was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison. Knight, 28, a nurse of Canadian-origin residing in Torrance, California, was murdered in her apartment in 1979.
The cold case was solved after authorities linked Bradford to the crime, who had been a person of interest from the beginning, using a wire which was found in his elderly mother's garage in 2007. An identical wire was used to make a homemade garrote, that was used to unsuccessfully strangle Knight. Authorities believed Bradford stabbed her to death to complete the deed.
This Tuesday, a Dateline: Secrets Uncovered episode, titled The Wire, will take a look at Lynne Knight's brutal murder case. The episode will air on Oxygen at 9:00 pm ET on May 9, 2023. The synopsis for the upcoming episode says:
"Lynne Knight was a vibrant young nurse whose love of adventure made her stand out; her murder haunted detectives for decades."
Lynne Knight's murder: A bloody crime scene, lack of evidence, and a key discovery decades later, among other details from the cold case
1) Authorities made a grisly discovery inside Lynne Knight's Torrance apartment
A 28-year-old nurse of Canadian-origin, Lynne Knight, was found dead in her Torrance, California, residence in the early morning hours of August 30, 1979.
Neighbors made a 911 call that night after hearing screams coming from her apartment, following which, authorities arrived at the place to find a bloody crime scene. Officers followed a trail of bloody footsteps to the bedroom, where they found her naked in bed, with her body covered in blood.
2) Knight was strangled and then stabbed to death
According to reports, Lynne Knight was stabbed at least 15 times. However, before stabbing her to death, the killer first tried to strangle her using a homemade garrote made of an 18-inch-long wire tied between two small pieces of wood that were broken off from an old broomstick.
A garrote is used to murder someone without making a lot of noise. But, once the technique failed, the killer stabbed her repeatedly until she died and fled the scene, leaving behind the garrote.
3) Witnesses reported seeing her jealous ex, Douglas Bradford, in the area
Lynne Knight's ex-boyfriend Douglas Bradford, a student of engineering at Cal State Long Beach, was a person of interest from the beginning, given that the victim broke up their two-month long relationship shortly before the murder.
Bradford had started acting strange after their break-up, and on one occasion, even barged into her apartment under the pretense of returning a lamp and got upset after finding her with another man. According to the man in question, he called Knight a who*re and threw the lamp at her in anger.
Moreover, witnesses reported seeing him drive past her apartment frequently. In fact, on the night when the killing occurred, one of the victim's neighbors spotted Bradford's car speeding away from her house. That neighbor reported seeing him in the area before the killing and believed that he was stalking the 28-year-old nurse.
4) Bradford was arrested in Lynne Knight's murder nearly three decades later
Although Douglas Bradford was a suspect in Knight's killing, there was not enough evidence to charge him or any other potential suspect. Moreover, Bradford's alibi stated that he was sailing in Long Beach on the night of the murder.
The case eventually went cold and was reopened in 1997. Detectives only got a break in 2007 after finding a wire in the garage of Bradford's mother, which was identical to the one used to strangle Knight. He was subsequently arrested in 2009.
5) In 2014, Douglas Bradford was found guilty in Knight 's murder
Bradford was found guilty of first-degree murder in his August 2014 six-weeks-long trial. He maintained his innocence even after the verdict was announced.
The 62-year-old retired engineer was then sentenced to 26 years to life in prison in December of that year. He will reportedly become eligible for parole in Jule 2030.
Watch Dateline: Secrets Uncovered this Tuesday to learn more about the case.
