Dr. Joyce Vickery from the National Herbarium at Sydney's Botanic Gardens reported that vegetarian fragments on the clothing came from two types of cypress bush. Two detectives carrying samples of the cypress sprigs, soil and mortar, trudged around the streets of Seaforth and finally called at 28 Moore Street, Clontarf, the Bradley's second last address. Jackpot! They matched the soil from the rug, the shrubs and the pink mortar. They were all there.
Police forensic experts reported that hair found on the car rug, hair found in the trunk of the Ford Customline and hair in the bag of the vacuum cleaner were all from a single source — a Pekinese dog. The Bradleys owned a Pekinese dog, named "Cherry." The dog was now a vital piece of evidence. But where was Cherry?
A Clontarf resident remembered a vet had called at the Bradleys in a Volkswagen. They found a vet at Rushcutters Bay on the other side of Sydney Harbour who picked up animals in a Volkswagen. And they were holding Bradley's dog, a Pekinese named Cherry, for shipment to London. The hairs from Cherry matched the hairs found on the rug in which Graeme Thorne's body had been wrapped.
A real estate agent told police he had shown the Bradleys several houses that were for sale on June 24. One had been in Grandview Grove, Seaforth, next to the vacant lot where Graeme's body was found. Detectives rummaging in the garden of the apartments on Osborne Road, Manly, the Bradleys' last known address, uncovered a number of discarded 35 mm film negatives among the weeds.
The film which was crumpled and torn and had been lying out in the weather was carefully cleaned, printed and enlarged to be shown in court. One photo was of Mrs. Bradley and her children sitting on a car rug with the same pattern as the one found around Graeme. Other frames showed Stephen Bradley himself.
The court was told that on Monday morning, November 21, 1960, sixteen men, all looking somewhat alike, stood in a line-up. Mrs. Thorne was asked to identify the inquiry agent who called at her apartment looking for Mr. Bognor. She stopped at Stephen Leslie Bradley. "Please place your hand on him," the policeman asked. "No," Mrs. Thorne replied. "I will not put my hand near him."
Then, amid heckles and hissing from the public gallery which Justice Clancy ordered stopped or he would have the court cleared, Stephen Bradley took the stand. Bradley was extremely confident and articulate. He said he was never at 79 Edward Street, Bondi and that he had nothing to do with taking Graeme Thorne away.
Bradley testified that on July 7, he got up at 7.30 and finished packing. He sat and read the papers in the car, annoyed with his wife for going off early to Surfers Paradise, leaving him to do the packing. A taxi had collected Mrs. Bradley and the children to take them to the city airport terminal in time for the 11:45 a.m. flight to Coolangatta. The moving van arrived shortly after.
Bradley said his wife had been in a concentration camp during the war. He had been a prisoner of the Gestapo for five months in 1944. Knight suggested that the Bradleys had argued over the kidnapping of the boy. He also suggested that Magda had taken a taxi to the city to avoid being associated with the Ford Customline and that Bradley could have gone over to Bondi and arrived back comfortably in time for the moving van at 10 a.m.
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