Saanich police have identified William (Billy) Bradshaw as the victim of the second homicide they responded to on Oct. 19. Bradshaw’s body was found in a brush-filled median between the northbound and southbound lanes of Blanshard Avenue, near Saanich Road, around 2:15 p.m.
Stephanie (Jade) Elk was found dead earlier that day at nearby Bethune Avenue. Her boyfriend, Christopher Cathcart, 36, has been charged with second-degree murder. He is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.
Bradshaw, 36, was the youngest of seven children. He was born in Eckville, Alta., a Treaty Indian of Saddle Lake Cree Nation ancestry. He was very young when his parents got divorced and he was raised by his father.
“He was only four going on five when it happened and it was really rough on all of us,” his sister Jillian Bradshaw said Tuesday from Rocky Mountain House, Alta.
Bradshaw turned to crystal meth and crime. He was only 17 when he was sent to a federal penitentiary in Drumheller, Alta.
“Billy was really trapped in addiction. He spent most of his life in prison and really struggled with living a healthy normal life on the outside,” said Jillian.
“He was my baby,” said his mother Kathy Zirri. “Billy and I had a really close relationship. I supported him as best as I could throughout the years, when he was incarcerated. He’d get out and it wouldn’t be long before he’d be in again. It was always theft — cars, trucks, tools. But I don’t recall any vicious crimes when he assaulted anybody.”
From Drumheller, Bradshaw was transferred to a prison in Penticton. He was able to take programming and get an education while he was in custody. He had lots of good goals at the time of his release to a halfway house in Victoria, said Jillian. He managed to get a carpentry job and was doing well for a while.
But injuries led to an opiate addiction, said his mother. Instead of receiving treatment for his addiction, he was incarcerated or shuffled out on to the street, she said.
He often went to the Cool Aid Society for help. At the time of this death, he was homeless.
What Bradshaw wanted more than anything was to find his way home to Alberta.
One of his last text messages to Jillian on Oct. 7, was: “Jill, I love you. Victoria is evil. I need your help.” On Oct. 6, he wrote: “Help me” on his Facebook page.
Jillian wrote back, asking him to contact her and let her know if he was safe.
“I know how scary it is to feel the way you are feeling,” she texted. “The only way to get better is to get healthy.”
Bradshaw said he wanted to get healthy. He told his mother he was ready to get on a bus and come home. She was trying to help him get a bus ticket. But he stopped responding to her texts.
The next thing she knew, police were knocking at her door.
“A lot of people cared about Billy and we loved him so much. Our heart goes out to Stephanie’s family, too,” said Jillian.
The family is planning a candlelight vigil for Bradshaw at the Red Deer Dream Centre, in Red Deer, Alta.
The Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit is leading the investigation in co-operation with Saanich police and the B.C. Coroners Service.
Police are trying to establish a timeline of Bradshaw’s last movements on Oct. 19.
The Major Crime Unit is asking to hear from anyone with dashcam video who was travelling along Blanshard between Cloverdale and Saanich roads between 9 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. that day, or from anyone with information on Bradshaw.
Call the unit’s information line at 250-380-6211.
