JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Thursday, October 28, 2021, will mark six years since JSO officers found 61-year-old Bradla Cook brutally murdered inside her home on Jacksonville’s Westside.
Right now, they are asking for your help to solve this case and bring some closure to this community.
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On the night of October 28, 2015, officers found a car on fire along Hyde Park Road.
“Part of that scene was to then find the owner of that, and get to them,” said Detective Ray Reeves, who has been with JSO’s Homicide Unit for about five years, and was previously a patrol officer.
Reeves says officers ran the plates, and found the car registered to 61-year-old Bradla Cook, who lived less than a mile and a half away along Harlow Boulevard.
When officers entered her home, they found her dead inside.
“There were sharp force injuries and she had blunt force trauma,” Reeves described. “This was a violent homicide.”
It was shocking to neighbors at the time, who were close to Bradla, or Bee as they called her. They knew she lived alone.
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“Very sweet, very kind. You couldn’t ask for a better neighbor,” said her neighbor, Riley.
“A good caring person,” said another neighbor.
Her daughter, Kara Trimmer, told Action News Jax that life would never be the same without her best friend.
“These little victories that I’ve had, I haven’t had her to share it with,” she said. “It’s been hard.”
There were no signs of a break-in, so JSO says Bradla likely knew the person, or people, who did this.
“This wasn’t somebody random,” Reeves said with certainty.
JSO has followed leads in the years since, and continues to send evidence from that night to be analyzed.
“We have DNA,” Reeves said.
But detectives need your tips.
“It’s still a safety issue,” Reeves pointed out. “Because this person can be in front of you at the grocery store, at the library — at church.”
And if the killer could take the life of a beloved 61-year-old woman, investigators wonder what else they’re capable of.
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“[Bradla was] a grandmother, [so] who knows what else they have done or what they could do,’ Reeves emphasized.
JSO is asking anyone with information about Cook’s death to contact the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 904-630-0500 or email: jsocrimetips@jaxsheriff.org.
To remain anonymous and receive a possible reward of up to $3,000, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.