An Orange County engineer who once dated a Torrance nurse found strangled and stabbed to death in her apartment nearly 30 years ago was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of killing her, but bailed out later.
Douglas Gordon Bradford, 57, of Costa Mesa allegedly stabbed Lynne Knight, 28, more
Bradford was scheduled to be arraigned this morning in Torrance Superior Court, but the hearing was postponed until June 18.
"It's incredible," said Knight's father, Clair Knight, from his home in Ontario, Canada. "It's kind of a funny feeling. You are happy to hear it, but it brings back all the sadness."
Knight's body was discovered Aug. 30, 1979, in her apartment in the 21200 block of Anza Avenue. The garrote was found near her.
Bradford and Knight, who was originally from Canada, had dated and broken up, Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said.
Bradford was an engineering student at California State University, Long Beach,
Police detectives investigated the homicide, but the case went nowhere. In 1982, they declared the case inactive and it went cold on a shelf for years.
In the late 1990s, police began trying again.
After years of what was described as "good old-fashioned police work," prosecutors on Tuesday filed one count of murder, including the allegation that Bradford used a deadly weapon.
Bradford, whose bail was $1.02 million, could spend 26 years to life in
Knight died just before she was to fly home to her native Canada to spend a week recruiting nurses for her employer, Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance.
She also was to be the maid of honor in the wedding of her sister, Donna.
Knight's father said he recalled that his daughter talked about Bradford, and had planned to bring him to Canada.
"She was going to bring him to our daughter's wedding and at the last minute she changed her mind," her father said. "Something happened."
Lynne Knight sometimes told her family about her boyfriend's bad temper. He slammed doors, and screeched his car's tires as he sped away from her in anger, the father said.
After she died, Bradford never contacted her family or sent a card.
Knight had moved to Southern California in the 1970s to work at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles. She later moved to Little Company of Mary, working with newborns in the neonatal unit.
Her father described her as a "talented, good nurse."
A former beauty contestant, Knight enjoyed running, skiing and scuba diving.
For years, her family hoped for closure, for someone to face justice.
"Nothing is ever going to bring her back no matter what they do," her father told the Daily Breeze in 2002. "But it would be nice to see the culprit get what's coming to him."
The father said he would likely travel from Canada for the trial proceedings, just as he and his wife, Lilian, did after their daughter was killed.
Knight's mother died three years ago.
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