Killing of Bibi Lee

Bradley Page and Roberta 'Bibi' Lee met in the fall of 1983 when both lived at Lothlorien, part of the University Students Cooperative Association, they and began to date in early 1984.

At the beginning of the fall semester, Lee moved to Fenwick, a USCA apartment residence, and her relationship with Page became tense, particularly right before her disappearance.

[1][2] On November 4, 1984, Page and Lee, as well as 19-year-old Lothlorien resident Robin Shaw, went on a morning jog at the Skyline Gate of Redwood Regional Park in the Oakland Hills.

When they reached Roberts Park, their predetermined destination, Shaw, who was lagging behind the others, saw Page turn in one direction while Lee veered off in another.

They discussed various ways that Lee might be able to get home on her own and after about ten minutes, decided to leave; however, Shaw was uncomfortable with this decision.

They decided Page would spend the night in Lee's room, and they would file a missing person report in the morning.

Approximately forty people participated in the search, this included five bloodhound teams, fourteen explorer scouts, several four-wheel drive vehicles, and two horses.

She stated that on November 4, just after 12 pm she was driving in Oakland and saw a man pulling a woman up a street toward a parked van.

Approximately a week after its creation, “The Friends of Bibi Lee” was joined by Patricia Chavez, a volunteer with the Missing Children's Project and a former nurse who had experience conducting searches.

[2][4][5] On November 16, following the massive publicity, the FBI joined the Berkeley and Oakland Police departments to form an official task force devoted to the search.

Small animals had apparently been gnawing at her decomposing flesh, and there were vines growing in the compost material on top of her body.

Waiving his Miranda rights, he was questioned by two officers, starting just after 10 a.m. Consenting to his statements being recorded, Page explained how he got to know Lee and that they fell in love with each other.

He and Shaw looked for Lee in the Roberts Park area and then ran back to the car at Skyline Gate, where they again failed to find her.

When officers entered about twenty-five minutes later, Page had his head in his hands and was making a low moaning or wailing sound, saying, “I really loved her, but I really loved her.”[2] The second interview session began with the two officers repeatedly impressing upon Page that they believed he had something to do with Lee's death, telling him that their suspicions were based on, among other things, the fact he had failed the polygraph test, had only superficially searched for Bibi in the park, had convinced Robin Shaw to leave, and had not told anyone what had happened when he got back to Lothlorien.

When he was done, he moved her body closer to Skyline Boulevard where he used a hubcap to cover her with a layer of dirt, smoothing it over so as to give her a “decent burial".

[2] However, Page was very specific regarding many of the details of the assault, such as kissing Lee on the top of her head before he backhanded her with his left hand.

He noted that when he came back in the evening, he had parked on the right side of the street and used his car's hubcap to cover her body with pine needles and a big branch.

Page immediately recanted his confession, stating that it was a product of confusion, fear, and imagination, and that he never saw Lee after he left Shaw at Skyline Gate.

That taping ended at 9:48 p.m.[2] Page was left alone in the interview room until 11:25 p.m. when he knocked on the door and told the officers he wanted to talk.

In a rambling statement, Page mentioned a number of factors that caused him to give a false confession: the officers said they found his fingerprints at the scene and were convinced he was involved in the killing, that the polygraph scared him and that he felt guilty for not having helped Lee.

He backhanding her across the face, causing her to fall, and then smashed her head against something firm on the ground, possibly a rock or a tree root, crushing the back of her skull and killing her.

[9][2] It was noted that Page began confessing after he was told that he failed the polygraph test and that there was physical evidence directly tying him to the killing.

[10] The prosecution also emphasized that in both cases the alternate suspects would have had to return to the park and place Robert's body close to where she was last seen.

[9] Page's lawyers presented him a popular youth seen, as "gentle, kind and artistic" by his peers, who was devastated by Lee's disappearance and deeply involved in the massive effort to find her.

I couldn't remember any of it, but they were so persistent [the police] and adamant that they had this other evidence, and if I was up there, if they had people that saw me up there, and I couldn't remember, then maybe I was capable of doing it...[13]Cleve Baxter, an expert witness who designed the polygraph test administered by the police, testified that the exam was improperly administered and that, based on the results, the conclusion that Page failed the exam was incorrect.

[16] In addition to its previous line of arguments, Page's defense team added expert testimony from Elliot Aronson, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

[18] In 2002 while visiting New Zealand, Page was found guilty of indecent exposure to a woman while hiking on Mount Kakepuku about 11km away from the city of Te Awamutu.

[21][22] Leo found it to be a "vague, confused, and speculative confession statement to murdering Bibi Lee" following 16 hours of investigation.

It was emphasized that Ihde fit the suspect's description in the missing person's flyer, specifically with regard to his face, hair, and beard.

[21][23] On the other hand, Paul G. Cassell, a professor of law at University of Utah, pointed out several possible flaws in Leo's arguments.