A woman in Texas has claimed in a new TikTok video that she believes she is Diamond Bradley, who disappeared from Chicago’s South Side more than 20 years ago.
Diamond was just three years old when she disappeared with her 10-year-old sister Tionda from her mother’s apartment in 2001 as part of what may be the largest missing persons investigation in Chicago history.
In video, which emerged earlier this week from a dark Houston parking lot, someone can be heard saying, “Here’s with Diamond Bradley,” while holding up a phone that has a missing persons poster with Diamond’s photo on it, and then up Panning, a woman standing next to her compared the two and wanted to see her scar – which Diamond had on the left side of her scalp when she disappeared.
The girls’ aunt, Sheliah Bradley-Smith, who hasn’t given up the search for her nieces, said she hopes it could be a breakthrough in the case, but added that the family has been through it before.
More than a dozen people have claimed to be the sisters over the years. But one thing was different this time, she said. Unlike others, this woman submitted a DNA test to the FBI and had the agency take her fingerprints.
Bradley-Smith told the results are expected to be available sooner but could take a few more weeks.
A woman in Texas has claimed in a new TikTok video that she believes she is Diamond Bradley, who disappeared from Chicago’s South Side with her older sister more than 20 years ago
In video, which emerged earlier this week from a dark Houston parking lot, someone can be heard saying, “This is Diamond Bradley.”
The new development came this week when Bradley-Smith was contacted by the woman claiming to be Diamond, who would now be 25.
She asked them to go to the police and prove their identity.
“She said she had information on Diamond Bradley, and I say what about…?” Bradley-Smith told NBC 5. “Well, she says I’m Diamond Bradley.”
Bradley-Smith told her she had to go to the police, which she said the woman would be more than willing to do to prove her identity.
“I’ve never met or seen anyone so eager to break down the doors of the FBI to prove who they are.” It gives me a different dynamic of hope,” Smith said. “I can only hope it is her.”
Diamond was just three years old when she went missing from her mother’s home in 2001. This was possibly the largest missing persons investigation in Chicago history
The TikTok video shows someone holding a phone with Diamond’s missing poster, then panning to the woman standing nearby
On July 6, 2001, Diamond and Tionda were reported missing from their mother’s apartment at 35th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue after she found a note from Tionda saying they went to the store and the schoolyard.
But they never returned. A family member said the note’s grammar and spelling seemed too perfect and advanced for someone Tionda’s age.
After the video surfaced, many social media users and Chicagoans who were still affected by the cases decades later asked for Tionda’s whereabouts.
But her aunt told CBS that the young woman apparently remembered being in a car with her older sister, but that was it.
“She said, ‘Well, I kind of remember her, but I remember we were in the car.’ Then one day I woke up as they took us to wherever we were or wherever we lived. “I never saw her again,” Bradley-Smith said.
At the time of her disappearance, Diamond was of medium complexion and wore her hair in a braided ponytail. She was last seen with purple ponytail holders in her hair.
Diamond has a scar on the left side of her scalp, has deep-set eyes, and is described as shy but likes to talk. The woman posing as Diamond also has a scar in the same place.
Not only is the family eagerly awaiting the DNA results, so is Chicago.
“The world — especially Chicago — has embraced these girls, and they haven’t forgotten them,” Bradley-Smith said, “and I thank them. Thank you all.”
In 2021, to mark the 20th anniversary of the sisters’ disappearance, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released new age photos showing what they might look like. The FBI’s website has a reward of up to $10,000 for information on the girls’ whereabouts.
If anyone has information regarding the Bradley sisters’ disappearance, contact the Chicago Police Department at (312) 747-5789, the Illinois FBI at (312) 421-6700, or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1( 800) THE -LOST.