October 7 - First Interview with Ray Bradley

Maddie and I went to Ray Bradley's home to have our first initial interview with the father of Johnny Bradley. In this interview we heavily focused on getting to know who Ray is as a person. We thought knowing more about him and his background would help us gain a deeper understanding into his emotions. We also went over what happened the day of Johnny's disappearance and what has happened since then. This interview helped the three off us greatly because it is the foundation of what we hope to encapsulate in our film.

"Get the point that, okay, everybody messes up, you made a mistake. Okay, own up to it. Let's move on. They don't want to own up to their mistakes, and you're supposed to be here to protect serve the communities that you swore to? And what do you do? F*** it up and keep on f***ing up, because you don't want to own up to the very first time you messed up."

Q: What was Johnny like growing up?

"He was a very inquisitive guy. And he loved cars, which that he gets that for me because I grew up detailing cars and doing body and finger paint work...And he was a very rambunctious little guy. Never sit still."

Ray explains Johnny's illness:

"He got up and fed the kids breakfast and at the same time, he was getting ready to clean their oven. So he poured industrial oven cleaner and to a cup and put it on the counter and went upstairs...So my son drank the industrial oven cleaner and from his esophagus down, it burned all his insides. So he's had anywhere from 10 to 14 reconstructive surgeries up until the day he went missing."

How this experience effected Ray:

"I didn't think he was gonna have him anymore... I stayed at the hospital for three months straight. Only came home to shower and go right back. I left my job and everything."

Ray explaining how this accident affected Johnny's life:

"They put them on disability. He had feeding tubes....He had to have a certain type of medicine to survive to eat and break down his food for him...He got far so far behind in school, he quit."

Ray explaining the day Johnny went missing:

"It's after 11 o'clock, and nobody's seen him all day, or her from and and we call him his phone is going straight to voicemail...so we both decided this call police because this is not like him. He knew his grandmother had to be somewhere."

"So we call RPD and he took down one brief report, but he said, you know, he's 20 years old. You know, if he wants to leave, he can leave....I said no, Officer he has a medical condition. He just got released from the hospital and he knew he was supposed to come home with his grandmother's car. This is odd. This is not like my son."

Ray talking about his interactions with RPD:

"I never interacted with them. It was always over the phone over the phone never asked you to come in, that was it...I was angry. I already knew that he was at the bottom of their to do list, already knew that. But to hear it? It was a slap in the face, punch in the gut."

"When you're giving them information and he's not doing anything or not saying,'Okay, I'm gonna give you a call back. Let me look into this.' Didn't have that type of conversation and nothing."

Ray's response when asked how he copes and hope of getting answers:

"I pray a lot. You pray a lot. That's it. And you cry a lot."

"I don't know if they're gonna come from RPD I don't know they're gonna come from God. I don't know if it's gonna come from the man on the moon. Somebody's gonna let me know something."