N. Carolina man convicted of murder in missing woman’s death

WILMINGTON, N.C. – A North Carolina man convicted of killing his stepdaughter and a missing woman whose body has never been found has now been convicted in another slaying.

The StarNews reports U.S. Army veteran James Opelton Bradley was found guilty Tuesday of first-degree murder in the 2013 death of Elisha Tucker. He’s set to be sentenced Thursday.

Bradley served 23 years in prison in the slaying of his 8-year-old stepdaughter and was released from custody in March 2013. Tucker was reported missing that August.

Another woman, Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk, was reported missing nearly a year later in April 2014. Authorities searching for Van Newkirk’s body instead found Tucker’s, which had been stuffed in trash bags and buried in a field. Bradley was convicted in Van Newkirk’s presumed death in 2017.

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Information from: The StarNews, http://starnewsonline.com