Bradley County cold case dismissed, again

CLEVELAND, Tenn. (WDEF) — A Bradley County cold case, from nearly a decade ago, was set to go to trial, but on Monday all charges were dropped.

Marsha Brantley disappeared in June of 2009.

Her body was never found, but her husband Donnie Brantley was charged in her murder.

The District attorney says circumstantial evidence including her husband’s behavior led authorities naming him as a suspect in her disappearance.

Her family had long suspected that Brantley killed her.

Before jury selection began, the charges were dropped.

BREAKING: Charges against Donnie Brantley have been dropped. He was accused in his wife’s murder. Jury selection for his trial was set to start in Bradley County today.

— Robyn Estabrook (@RobynWDEF) February 5, 2018

This is the second time the charges have been dropped. In 2013, Brantley was indicted for Marsha’s murder, but a year later it was dropped because family and the District Attorney’s office felt the case was not strong enough to get a conviction.

District Attorney Steve Crump tells News 12 this morning that he didn’t feel there was enough evidence, but he also says they aren’t giving up. The case will go to their Cold Case Unit.

“That involves going back to your basic building blocks of the case and all of the assumptions you made and tearing those apart and making new assumptions and going forward and retesting where you can and trying to locate things that you thought were probably not locatable,” Crump said.

Brantley and his lawyer say they are thankful the charges were dropped.

“I would like to thank the judge for dismissing the charges. I would also like to thank my family for all of their support during this extremely stressful period. I look forward to putting this difficult time behind me,” Brantley said.

Donnie Brantley and his lawyer address the media. pic.twitter.com/UVlQ4p1j7S

— Robyn Estabrook (@RobynWDEF) February 5, 2018