Woman's Skull Found On Stick In Iowa Park; Man Charged With Murder: Police

OSAGE, IA — An Iowa man is accused of killing a woman whose skull was found mounted on a stick in a local park, according to police.

Nathan James Gilmore, 23, of Osage, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 28-year-old Angela Nicole Bradbury, police said.

The investigation that led to Gilmore’s arrest began July 12, 2021, when a teen saw the skull on a stick at the Greenbelt River Trail Park south of Mitchell, according to police, who reported the teen contacted her mother, who then contacted law enforcement. Authorities confirmed the skull was that of a human woman but made no further progress until February 2022, when Bradbury’s family reported they hadn’t seen her since April 2021. Her dental records matched the skull, and, on April 5, 2022, more of Bradbury’s remains were found in the park, police said.

Bradbury's Facebook account was last active April 5, 2021, and she was last seen April 6, 2021, when she went to an associate’s house after spending the night in the Cerro Gordo County Jail, according to police. She left the house with a young man and was going to St. Ansgar, police said. Gilmore was associated with a St. Ansgar address and had an arraignment April 6, 2021, at the jail, according to police.

Google records of Gilmore’s account showed a screenshot of a Snapchat message in which the sender told the recipient about six weeks after the skull was found that “Youll be lookin like the body they found outside Mitchell” and expressed a predilection for violence, according to police.

On Friday, law enforcement interviewed Gilmore, who admitted to picking up a woman near the jail the day Bradbury disappeared, police said. GPS records from Gilmore’s Facebook account that day put him near the park where the skull was found, according to police.

While searching his home Friday, authorities found a drawing of a satanic goat’s head in the shape of a pentagram with blood spatters drawn on it, police said. Written on the drawing were the date of Bradbury’s disappearance, a GPS coordinate for the park, and a numerical shorthand for the sentence “someone is tired of living,” according to police.

Gilmore is being held on $1 million bond in Mitchell County Jail, police said.

The case remains active and anyone with information about Bradbury’s death is asked to call the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office at 641-732-4740 or contact local law enforcement.