Dead by Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? (96 page)

where Brad was expected to appear.
 
He advised the Washington

authorities of Dr. Herman Dreesen's address.
 
When contacted, Dreesen

said it would be up to Brad to bring the children in.
 
He would not

override his nephew's decision.s As he always had, Brad contested every

legal document that came his way.
 
Day after day, he had more delaying

tactics.
 
Finally Gloria Parker, a legal assistant for the Snohomish

County Prosecutor's office, informed McKernan that Brad and his

attorney were scheduled to appear in the Everett courtroom at 4

P.M. on March 25 and promised to do soþythe court did not require them

to bring the children.

Brad knew the authorities were breathing down his neck.
 
they had

little doubt that he would, as he had told Dana, flee the country

before he would submit himself or his sons to questioning.
 
No way was

he going to appear willingly in that courtroom in Everett, and if they

didn't move fast, he and the boys would be on a plane to Chile or

Mexico.

On Thursday, March 25, 1993, Scott Upham and investigatorsSim Carr and

Mike McKernan had reason, finally, to smileþand to take a deep

breath.

Even without hearing Jess and Michael Cunningham's testimony the grand

jury had handed down a secret indictment charging Bradlv Morris

Cunningham with the murder of his wife Cher.l Keeton on September

21,1986.
 
The jurors believed the testimony they had heard, and stated

their conclusion that Brad had killed his estranged wife by beating her

on the head twenty-one times with an unknown blunt instrument.

Now Upham and his team could get their arrest warrant.
 
But their

biggest fear was that Brad had somehow learned of the indictment and

had already bolted and run, taking Jess, Michael, and Phillip with

him.

They had done their best to keep a lid on the grand jury proceedings,

and there was no news release on the indictment.
 
Brad was aware the

police were watching him.
 
But maybe he didn't know they were now ready

to move in on him.
 
Brad had always been the stalker.
 
He was now

playing a completely different role.
 
He was the one being stalked.

McKernan flew to Washington before dawn to be sure he was in Everett

when the arrest warrant arrived.
 
Word was that Brad still had plenty

of weapons.
 
When the Mill Creek police checked back at the house where

he had collected a virtual arsenal, they found almost every interior

wall smashed, they speculated that Brad had been removing additional

guns from their hiding places.

Above all, McKernan wanted to facilitate a nonviolent arrest by working

with authorities in Snohomish County.
 
He contacted Captain Don Nelson

of the Snohomish County Sheriffs office, and Nelson assigned Sergeant

Kevin Prentiss to coordinate Brad's apprehension.

It was 2:25

P.M. on March 25,1993.
 
The no-bail murder warrantþ C930434CRþfor the

arrest of Brad Cunningham was entered into the NCIC (National Crime

Information Center) computers.
 
At 3:43

P.M. Jim Carr faxed a copy of the arrest warrant from Scott Upham's

office in Hillsboro, Oregon.
 
In the best of all worlds, Brad would

show up at the courthouse in Everett at 4:00

P.M. as he had promised.

At 4:20

P.M. Doug Purcell, the boys' attorney, arrived at the Snohomish

Courthouseþwithout Brad.
 
He said Brad had informed him he could not be

there.
 
He was in Burien, Washington, picking up items needed for a

civil trial in Yakima the next day and said "he couldn't make" this

court appearance.

At 4:45

P.M. McKernan spoke to a records clerk at Yakima County Superior

Court.

Brad's civil trial there (which involved his selling of
 
properties

that were legally in Cheryl Keeton's estate) had been rescheduled to

April 16þand all parties were informed, Brad included.

At 7:45

P.M. McKernan observed the black Isuzu Trooper that Dana said was

Brad's vehicle parked at Herman Dreesen's house.

At 8:05

P.M. the Snohomish County Sheriffs office SWAT team and McKernan

gathered near Dreesen's house while Deputy David Vasconi stationed his

patrol unit across the street so he could surveil the residence.
 
The

waiting lawmen observed a Jeep Wagoneer and a new maroon sedan drive

away.
 
Mike McKernan couldn't help feeling nervous.
 
What if they were

watching Dreesen's house while Brad was boarding a plane for Chile?
 
He

knew how adept he was at slipping through police lines.

At 9:31

P.M. Sergeant Tim Shea called the house using his cell phone.

All he got was Dreesen's answering machine.

At 9:41

P.M. Shea called the residence and spoke with Dreesen.
 
Brad's uncle

confirmed that he was inside the residence.
 
Brad came on the line and

was informed that the officers had a warrant for his arrest.

"We request that you exit the house now.
 
If you don't, we will obtain

a search warrant and the SWAT team is coming in."
 
Brad asked for more

time.
 
He said he would call the police mobile phone to let them know

when he was coming out.

Oueside in the dark, officers had completely surrounded the perimeter

of the residence.
 
Minutes later, they saw a large white male come out

of the back door and look around.
 
Apparently spotting the waiting

police, he turned and went back inside.

At 10:03

P.M. Brad came out of the house, accompanied by his uncle.

Deputy Vasconi drove his patrol car to the front of the house and

watched as Brad obeyed orders to put his hands up and walk slowly

toward the patrol car.
 
"When the suspect reached me," Vasconi wrote in

his report, "I had him get down on his knees, at which time I placed

him into handcuffs."

Brad's arrest was almost anticlimactic.
 
He had put up no fight at all,

he hadn't even tried to runþnot when he realized his uncle's property

was alive with cops.
 
He was searched for weapons and put into the back

of the patrol car.
 
Mike McKernan advised Brad of his rights under

Miranda and asked if he would like to explain his side of the story.

Brad looked at McKernan and said flatly, "I want to talk with my

attorney."

"Does that mean that you don't want to talk to me either?" McKernan

asked.

Brad simply repeated, "I want to talk to my attorney."

That was no surprise to McKernan, he knew his prisoner had had almost

as many attorneys as a law-school graduating class.
 
Their names and

faces changed continually.
 
Brad scarcely went to the bathroom without

consulting an attorney.

McKernan asked Dreesen if he might speak with Jess and Michael about

what they remembered of the night their mother died, but Dreesen shook

his head.
 
"I would be bitterly opposed to you talking with the kids.

If I could grab you by the neck and tell you, Don't hurt these kids!"

I would."
 
nFi."
 
:."

< Kornan wþnted to do was hurt Cheryl Keeton's children.
 
On that

matter, he was in complete agreement with Dreesen.
 
But sometime,

somehow, there had to be a way for the boys to release whatever was

buried in their memories.

Brad was driven to the Snohomish County jail.
 
On the way, he attempted

to talk to Vasconi.
 
"This has been hard on my children," he said.

"I was going to come to the police department .
 
.."

"I don't want to talk to you," Vasconi said.

For once, Brad shut up.

He had plummeted a long, long way down from the successful bank

executive and millionaire builder.
 
On his knees, in handcuffs,

silhouetted in the lighas of police unies, he had not made a very

prepossessing picture.
 
It had taken six years, six months, four days,

and two hours, but he was finally facing criminal charges for Cheryl's

vicious murder.

The charge he was booked under was "Fugitive from Justice."

A bail hearing was held at one the next afternoon.
 
Brad had retained

yet another lawyer, James Tweety, to oppose his extradition to

Oregon.

The hearing was conducted by video linkup between the jail where Brad

was being held and Superior Court Judge Richard Thorpe's courtroom.

During the course of the hearing, Brad interrupted the proceedings and

asked to speak to his attorney.

He then began a lengthy statement in which he essentially blamed the

women in his life for his current predicament.
 
He said that Dana

Malloy had given him an Uzi as a gift, otherwise he would not have had

such a weapon.
 
He said that he had lived with Dana for three years,

that she was a stripper, and that he had finally broken up with her.

All the charges coming out of Oregon were the fault of one of his

former wives, Dr. Sara Gordon.
 
Brad suggested that both Dana and Sara

had set him up to seek revengeþDana because he had left her, and Sara

because he was suing her for child support.

As Brad watched the television image from his jail cell, Judge Thorpe

set his bail.
 
Brad always talked in millions, and his bail fit his

lifestyle: S2.5 million.
 
David Wold, a legal assistant in the

Snohomish County Prosecutor's office, said that he would have to post

cash bail of $250,000 and post a security deposit for the remaining