Tionda and Diamond Bradley Kidnapped 17 years ago. Please help find us!

At the time Tionda, was 10, and Diamond, was 3. They disappeared from their apartment in the Oakland neighborhood the morning of July 6, 2001. 

Tracey Bradley is the girls' mother. She told authorities she last saw her daughters sleeping, about 6:30 a.m., before leaving for work at Robert Taylor Park. She returned to the apartment with Diamond’s father, George Washington, in the early afternoon to an empty apartment. A note from Tionda was placed on the back of a couch. It said the girls had gone to school and a nearby store. Their aunt said the grammar was nothing like Tionda’s. A letter from Tionda written five months before she disappeared, and it’s completely different in style, tone and grammar.

"I think that whatever happened to them, a person that they trusted implicitly was involved," said their aunt. "I don't think it was a stranger danger thing. I think it was somebody that they knew and trusted that took them for whatever reason."

   

Tionda as street smart and wary of strangers, a fast runner who loved to dance and was protective of her younger sister. Diamond, the baby of the family who was affectionately known as "Honey Bun." The girls were close.

One clue is a message from Tionda left on Tracey’s cell phone.  One of the family members went into Tracey's cell phone and retrieved an apparently unheard voice mail message. It was left between 8:30 a.m. or 9:30 a.m. the day the girls disappeared. In the message, Tionda says, “Mama, this is Tionda. Mom, pick up the phone. George is at the door. Can I open the door? He said that we are going to Jewel’s to pick up the cake there. We’re coming to pick you up from work.”

Diamond’s father is named George Washington. One of Tracey’s close friends, a man who was a neighbor at the time, is also named George. He occasionally babysat for the children, and they were very familiar with him. 

The message mysteriously disappeared.

“I love Tracey with all my heart, but I have to say what I believe, and she knows that” said the aunt. "She only knows that certain things trouble her. For instance, the camping trip Tracey and George said they were taking with the two girls. Never in my life have I heard anything about camping from them, Very unusual.”

George Washington was found with a receipt for gloves, bleach and garbage bags that he purchased at a Home Depot. The last reported sighting of the girls by an adult other than Tracey and George was their grandmother. She says she saw them the day before, during the afternoon. The aunt said she suspects something may have happened to the girls that night.

The aunt stated:
“Our family, with our cell phones, we have a family plan. One of the family members, the records said their cell phone had no activity from 2 a.m. until 2 p.m. the day Tionda and Diamond went missing. Now I know the only way there would be no activity is you’re out of range during that time. Roaming.”

Last January the aunt received a cryptic e-mail that said “This is Tionda”. The e-mail led her to a MySpace photo of a teenage girl who looks remarkably like an age-progressed Tionda. Chicago police tracked the photo to a 12-year-old Illinois girl who said she found the picture on the Internet and was using it because she didn’t want to use her own.

Tionda would be 27 now, and Diamond would be 20.