CHICAGO (CBS) — Family hopes a new development could be a breakthrough in the missing persons case of Tionda and Diamond Bradley – who were last seen in their Bronzeville home in 2001.
A woman in the Houston area claims to be Diamond – who was just 3 years old when she disappeared. CBS 2’s Jermont Terry spoke Friday to the Bradley sisters’ great aunt.
The Bradley family says the woman who claims to be Diamond – the youngest of the sisters – did take a DNA test. That test will ultimately determine if she is who she claims to be.
Meanwhile, the girls’ great aunt told us the family has been down this road many times – but there is one thing different about this claim.
The Bradley girls vanished out of their mother’s third-floor apartment near 35th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue after being left alone. The was the largest search effort in Chicago’s history followed.
Family Photo
But 10-year-old Tionda and 3-year-old Diamond were never found.
“I got to see this video. I’m looking at this video, like, what is this?” said the girls’ great aunt, Sheliah Bradley Smith.
Smith was speaking of a 20-second TikTok video – where someone in Texas was claiming she was Diamond Bradley. When the woman contacted the great aunt, there was hesitation.
TikTok
Smith said she told the woman, “Look, I’m not the police – call the police.”
Over the years, there has been no shortage of people who have claimed to be the girls.
“We’ve had about 12 – but easily dismissible,” Smith said.
But the young lady making the claim on the TikTok video did something no one else has ever done in nearly 22 years.
“I’m never known or experienced somebody so eager to tear down the doors of the FBI to prove who they are. So that gives me a different dynamic of hope,” Smith said. “All I can do is hope it is her.”
Smith said Chicago FBI agents contacted her – and informed her they took a DNA test and fingerprints from the woman.
“The only thing I can say is the DNA shall tell the truth,” Smith said.
The young lady told the aunt she can’t recall much – including the whereabouts of the oldest sister, Tionda.
“She said: ‘Well, I kind of remember her, but I remember we were in car. Then one day I woke up once they got us to the place where we were or wherever we were living. I never seen her again,'” Smith said.
As the family waits for DNA results, the aunt is comforted knowing Chicago waits just as anxiously to bring the Bradley sisters home.
“The world – especially Chicago – has embraced these girls, and they have not forgotten them,” Smith said, “and I thank them. I thank everybody.”
The woman told the aunt she recently escaped from whoever was holding her against her will. Diamond had a scar on her forehead from injury – and the woman has a scar in a similar area.
We reached out to the FBI. They would not comment on the ongoing investigation.
