Officials seek help in snowboarder homicide

By GIL BRADY and ANDREW WYATT
Star-Tribune correspondents

Filed 11.11.06

JACKSON -- Want to help crack a mystery?

Detectives say the whereabouts of a "one-of-kind" snowboard could offer clues about the apparent killing of an outdoorsman and hitchhiker.

Officials have said Benjamin William Bradley, 28 or 29, of Tabernash, Colo., died suspiciously sometime between June 2 and when his remains were found Oct. 1, absent his favorite snowboard, in western Wyoming’s Red Desert.

Bradley’s missing custom-made snowboard splits into two short skis, permitting the user to climb slopes, and can be reassembled into a regular downhill snowboard, Sweetwater County sheriff’s investigators reported.

“He never went anywhere without it,” former roommate, fellow 'boarder and friend Randy Shacket said of Bradley’s cherished 'board. Shacket added that Bradley paid more than $1,300 for the snowboard and had personally selected everything from its shape and length to its unique design.

Also, investigators reported that Never Summer, the snowboard's maker, believed that Bradley's 'board -- which detectives say was not found on or near his badly decomposed body -- was black and depicted a bald eagle grasping white ribbons with the words "Denver" and "USA."

Last month, Capt. Mike Dayton of the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office said that sightseers had discovered Bradley’s body beside a geological formation known as Boar's Tusk.

The formation stands about 25 miles north of Rock Springs and many miles from the nearest paved road. At night, Dayton said in a phone interview last week, Boar's Tusk is not readily visible from nearby access points. But a dirt road does circle the 150-foot landmark.

(Click & Read on courtsey of the Casper Star-Tribune)

Photo Captions and Credits: 1) "Bradley's Never Summer snowboard"; 2) "Benjamin William "Ben" Bradley about 1 month before he vanished last June 2"; 3) "The Red Desert's mystical 'Boar's Tusk,' about 25 mi north of Rock Springs, Wyo.," courtsey of Never Summer, official sources and on-line stock.

SWEETWATER COUNTY TIPSTER HOTLINE...(307) 872.6359...or call your local law enforcement agency