Osage man arrested and charged in murder, decapitation of missing Mason City woman
Sheriff's deputies arrested an Osage man Monday and charged him with murder as part of a year-old investigation of a skull found in a state park last July.
Nathan James Gilmore, 23, was charged with first-degree murder in Mitchell County District Court Monday with the death of Angela Bradbury, a Mason City woman missing since April of that year.
Bradbury, of Mason City, was a day away from her 30th birthday the last day she was seen in April of that year.
Bradbury was arrested for trespassing at a car dealership on April 5, 2021, and taken to jail. She was released around noon the next day.
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A teenager found a human skull on a stick along the Cedar River Greenbelt Trail south of Mitchell, in July 2021. Meanwhile, Bradbury's family contacted law enforcement to report Bradbury as missing in February 2022, saying they had not seen her since the previous April.
Law enforcement used dental records to identify the remains as Bradbury's that month, according to court records.
More of Bradbury's remains were found in the park earlier this year and medical examiners ruled her death a homicide.
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Someone who knew Bradbury told police that she went to their house in Mason City on April 6, 2021, after being released from jail to change her clothes and later left with a younger white man who the witness did not know, heading for St. Ansgar, investigators said in court records.
The witness never saw Bradbury again, and her Facebook account logged no activity after April 5, according to court records.
Authorities connected Bradbury and Gilmore in part because Gilmore had an arraignment that day at Cerro Gordo County Courthouse in Mason City around the time Bradbury was released from jail.
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The criminal complaint says that Gilmore changed his story multiple times during a police interview Friday. He told them he picked up a woman he did not know outside the Cerro Gordo County Jail, they said in court records.
Facebook records showed Gilmore at the trail where Bradbury's remains were found on the evening of April 6, 2021, investigators said in court records.
Police searched Gilmore's home on Aug. 19, 2022, and found a drawing they described as a "Satanic" goat's head in the shape of a pentagram with blood splatters and different numbers, including "04-06" and the approximate latitude and longitude of the park.
Gilmore is being held in jail with cash-only bail set at $1 million, according to court records. His attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
Chris Higgins covers the eastern suburbs for the Register. Reach him at chiggins@registermedia.com or 515-423-5146 and follow him on Twitter @chris_higgins_.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Osage man charged in death, decapitation of Mason City teen
