Texas Girl Jennifer Schuett Kidnapped, Raped And Left For Dead

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Jennifer Schuett's second grade class photo was taken just months before her abduction in 1990.

Jennifer Schuett is no ordinary 27-year-old.

Like so many other young women, Jennifer has been to hell and back in the hands of a sick suspect. Unlike so many others, she lived to tell about it.

It all began on August 9, 1990 in the town of Dickinson, Texas, between Houston and Galveston.

Jennifer was raised by her single mom and her maternal grandparents, and life was good. It was summer, and Jennifer was having fun with friends and getting ready for the third grade to begin.

That night, little Jennifer went to bed with her mother, like she did every night. In the middle of the night, Jennifer couldn't stop itching her bug bites. Her mother asked the 8-year-old to go to her bed, something Jennifer never did.

"I always always slept in my mother's bed, but my mom had to work, and my tossing and turning was keeping her up," Jennifer told AMW.

So Jennifer left her mother's bedroom and went down the hall to her room, where she read books and played with her piggy bank. Finally, the little girl fell asleep in her bed with the light on. Her first-floor bedroom could be seen from the street.

The next thing Jennifer remembers, she was being carried by a man in the dark outside her apartment home.

"He told me he was an undercover cop and my mother was going to meet us where we were going," Jennifer said. 

What the stranger told Jennifer couldn't have been further from the truth. Jennifer said the man drove his blue car to a run-down building, which was locked, and then around town.  Finally, he stopped at a field overgrown with weeds.  She was only three miles from her home, but she says she felt like she was a million miles away.

The little 8-year-old sat in the strange man's car wearing a t-shirt and flowered panties. Jennifer knew something was definitely wrong. Because the area was so isolated, Jennifer knew screaming or attempting to escape wouldn't do her any good.

Then, the unthinkable happened.

Jennifer says she was raped by the man in the car, and her nightmare didn't end there. She said her kidnapper took her to the field, dragging her by her feet.

She remembered going in and out of consciousness, she says, until the man finally left her. "After I heard the car door and the car drive away, I tried to move but couldn't," she said. "I had no idea why."

She couldn't move because, police say, the kidnapper slit her throat after raping her. She was bleeding to death, and laying in a pile of fire ants in the field. She felt paralyzed and helpless by not having the ability to scream, run or even move.

Twelve hours went by, and Jennifer heard people: children, rain, cars. Finally a little boy playing hide and go seek found her.

"The boy was a classmate of mine. He saved my life," Jennifer said.

Help arrived, and Jennifer was airlifted to a hospital where she endured months of medical attention and rehabilitation. Nearly 20 years later, she still has the physical and emotional scars of that horrific summer night.

Jennifer has not come forward to tell her story because she's looking for sympathy: she's looking for justice.

As the years went by, Dickinson Police and other law enforcement agencies tracked down every lead and pursued every theory. The small town had been shocked by the brutality of Jennifer's attack. For the first time, people locked their doors, looked over their shoulders and talked often about the unsolved crime.

The case had gone cold, but the search for Jennifer's attacker was destined to get some fresh attention.

With An Elite FBI Team's Help, A Survivor Fights Back

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These days, Jennifer lives with her boyfriend and her dogs. She still hopes to solve her own abduction and rape, she said.

In March 2006, the FBI created CARDT, the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team. It was founded as an elite squad of nearly 60 federal agents, each with experience investigating crimes against children.

When police departments nationwide need help investigating an abduction or a missing child, these teams react quickly and deploy to the location to offer assistance, resources and expertise.

In June 2008, CARDT leaders selected five cold cases to re-investigate and reevaluate. FBI agents met with local detectives assigned to unsolved child abductions, and developed investigative plans for officers to follow. Some of those plans included submitting DNA for analysis at federal labs, re-interviewing witnesses, and following up on old tips.

One of those cold cases is Jennifer Schuett's.

"Our case is very unique," Dickinson Police Detective Tim Cromie said. "It's amazing that Jennifer is alive.  I think it's very important to solve this case."

"Jennifer Schuett's case is phenomenal," Dickinson's FBI CARDT counterpart, Special Agent Richard Rennison, said. "When I first heard about Jennifer's abduction, I knew our team had to take this one on."

Jennifer has taken an active role in searching for her own attacker. "I call them often, and offer any help they need," she said. "I don't want to be in the way, but I want them to know I really need this case solved and will do anything I can to help."

Now, after years of staying silent about her kidnapping, rape and near-death experience, she wants to talk about it.

"I'm not a kid anymore," she said. "I'm 27 and want my case out there, not only to solve it, but to maybe help other children, adults and cases."

Jennifer has been in and out of college trying to figure out what she wants to do. She recently decided to take a break from classes and focus on herself and solving her case.

"I just want closure so I can put this behind me and move on," she said.

Jennifer has graduated from the League City Citizens Police Academy, where she took a 15-week course and learned about her local police department.

With that experience, she wants to volunteer and help in her community any way she can.

Jennifer lives with her boyfriend and her two dogs, who she refers to as her kids, and she's always vigilant about locking her doors and windows.

"I do ask myself sometimes, 'Why me, why my apartment?'" she said. "But I don't dwell on it. To me, I am a survivor and I don't want people feeling sorry for me. Because of it, I am a stronger woman and I am not going to let him defeat me," said Jennifer.

DNA Provides The Answer

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At 27, Jennifer Schuett is fighting back and searching for the man who attacked her.

Cops had very little to work with, primarily an outdated sketch and old evidence.  With Jennifer's help and an FBI forensic artist they added about 19 years to the sketch of the male suspect. 

Jennifer was happy with the new sketch, saying it fit her memory of the kidnapper from the horrible night.

They searched high and low for new clues and re-examined old suspects.

"We've compared this case to other abductions, but no other case seems to have the same MO," Agent Rennison said. "However, I really doubt this is the first time this suspect did this type of crime. It was too horrific."

As detectives prepared for the AMW broadcast of Jennifer's case, they had high hopes for new leads. 

In one night, more than 100 leads poured in, providing cops with new names, locations and possibilities.

They had they're work cut out for them.

However, what happened within weeks of the AMW broadcast sealed the deal for detectives.  They got the DNA analysis back, and found a complete match in a federal database.

The man suspected in the case, had never been on their radar.

Read more about this exciting capture.

Cops: Attacker Named After All These Years

This is Bradford's drivers license at the time of the attack next to the composite provided by 8-year-old Jennifer.
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»More capture photos

After 19 long years, cops in Texas say that kidnapping survivor Jennifer Schuett has finally gotten the justice she has fought for.

She never gave up and kept the faith, and Jennifer knew in her heart that the man who abducted her, raped her, and slit her throat would be made to pay for his crimes.

The crime, on August 10, 1990, shocked the small town of Dickinson, a suburb of Houston. Police had only a sketch of a white man and a old blue car as clues. 

That didn't get them far.

But in 2008, the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team took on the case, teaming up with the Dickinson Police Department.

Det. Tim Cromie of Dickinson P.D. and FBI Special Agent Richard Rennison have worked tirelessly to close the book on a painful chapter in Jennifer's life.

Their first order of business was to go through the files and put a fresh set of eyes on a very old case.

Secondly, the FBI learned there was DNA evidence in this case.

New developments in DNA technology since Jennifer's abduction allows investigators to match a DNA profile based on a much smaller amount of evidence -- even a sample so small it's not visible to the naked eye.

A sample found on men's clothing that cops found in a ditch with Jennifer's clothes about one-fifth of a mile from the scene was sent to an FBI DNA lab, but they were told the nuclear DNA analysis could take about nine months because of the backlog of cases.

While waiting, Det. Cromie and Agent Rennison continued working leads and sought the help and exposure of this cold case from AMW. 

The case was featured during AMW's 23rd season premiere in September 2009, and AMW Host John Walsh met with Jennifer on the set.

It was a touching moment for John Walsh, the father of a murdered child, as well as host and executive producer of AMW. He, too, shared Jennifer's pain and the need to find answers.

After the story aired, the AMW hotline received more than a hundred leads on the case.  A few seemed very promising -- until the investigators got word that the DNA analysis had come back from the FBI lab in Quantico, Va.

After nearly a year of waiting for the analysis, investigators got what they had hoped for: a hit.

DNA analysis produced the name of a suspect who could be connected to Jennifer's case: Dennis Earl Bradford.

Bradford's DNA had been entered into the CODIS system after a kidnapping conviction in 1997. Police say Bradford kidnapped a 35-year-old woman from a bar and sexually assaulted her on April 16, 1996 in Hot Springs, Ark. He was subsequently convicted of the kidnapping charge.

It was astounding news for the investigators. For weeks, Agent Rennison, Det. Cromie, the District Attorney, and others involved in the case played an active role in researching the name provided by the DNA lab.

Cops found that Bradford had lived in the Dickinson, Texas area less than a quarter mile from Jennifer's home at the time of her kidnapping.

Finally, when they were confident that they had the suspect in their sights, they made their move.

The detectives flew to 40-year-old Dennis Earl Bradford's home in North Little Rock, Ark. the evening of Oct. 12, 2009 and monitored his house.

Cops say Bradford never even knew they were there, or that he had been named a suspect.

On October 13, 2009 Bradford was arrested at 6:50 a.m. without incident on his way to work with his wife in the car.

Bradford is charged with Attempted Capital Murder. If convicted, he faces five to 99 years in prison, or life.

Police say Bradford is from the Dickinson, Texas area and attended Dickinson High School.

They believe he relocated to North Little Rock, Ark. about seven years ago. There, he worked as a welder and was a father to two children and three step-children.

Dickinson Police, the FBI and the District Attorney's Office announced his arrest at a news conference from Dickinson, Texas.

Speakers from the local police and FBI commended Jennifer on her efforts to get her case solved.

Jennifer was there to express her thanks.  She said that her two goals of finding the man who hurt her so he could not hurt anyone else and making her voice heard had now been met.

"I am okay," she said. "I am not a victim, but I am victorious."

She now asks for privacy and says that any future statements she makes will be made in the courtroom. Police say this is still an ongoing investigation. There is still much they don't know about Bradford, and until now, they have held back from investigating for fear of scaring him off.

Now, they ask anyone with information that could assist in his conviction to come forward.

Bradford appeared in court in Arkansas on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 and waived extradition.

Bradford was transported to Dickinson, Texas later that day, arriving at about 8 p.m. amid a sea of cameras, all the while hiding his face from view.

If you know anything about the case, call our hotline at 1-800-CRIME-TV.