A silver Dodge Stratus sat damaged at the intersection of Coliseum and State Boulevards in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on the night of November 19, 2004 — but the man who had borrowed it to pick up his fiancée from work was nowhere to be found. That man, Bradley Dale Ross II, has not been seen since, and nearly 22 years later his family is still searching for answers about what happened to him.
Ross was last seen near Old Maumee Road in Fort Wayne before he vanished, according to ClickOnDetroit, which reported that he was 24 years old at the time. A separate account from Project: Cold Case states that Ross was 25 when he disappeared, and the discrepancy in his age has never been resolved. What both sources agree on is the basic outline of that night: Ross had agreed to pick up his fiancée from work in her silver Dodge Stratus, but he never arrived.
The vehicle turned up damaged in a crash at Coliseum and State Boulevards, but there was no sign of Ross at the scene, the station reported. The Charley Project notes that it remains unknown whether Ross was even the one driving the car when it crashed. A description of the same collision on The Vanished podcast adds further detail: around 10 p.m. that night, two men were struck at the intersection by a 2004 Dodge Stratus that ran a red light, and the podcast's episode description states that the driver fled the scene and was never identified.
A Pregnant Fiancée Left to Walk Home
Ross's sister, Crystal Ross, told the station that his fiancée walked five to 10 miles home that night after he failed to show up, while seven or eight months pregnant. Crystal Ross also said the fiancée later claimed her roommate had stolen the vehicle rather than that her fiancé had borrowed it, and that this claim appears in the police report — though that detail has not been independently verified.
According to Crystal Ross, the fiancée picked the car up the day after the crash and had it completely detailed. The family was initially told that Ross simply failed to show up for work the morning he vanished, and was not contacted by investigators until several days after he went missing. Police later told the family that Ross had been seen at work about a week after his disappearance, but the station reports that detail has never been confirmed by anyone.
A New Life Cut Short
Ross, from Saint Helen, Michigan, had moved to Fort Wayne and was living with his aunt while working in construction and trying to build a new life, partly to leave behind a tumultuous past relationship. He had decided to make things work with his new fiancée and was planning to marry her and raise their child together. He already had a daughter, and his son was born three months after he disappeared — a child who never got the chance to meet his father.
The Charley Project describes Ross as a white male with brown hair and blue eyes, known by the nickname Little Brad. Crystal Ross remembers her brother as her best friend, someone who was full of life and the life of the party.
Still Searching After Two Decades
Still Searching After Two Decades For nearly 22 years, Crystal Ross has continued searching for her brother. She has vowed not to stop. “I'll never give up, never. I will continue until my last breath,” she told the station. She has also said that if she is no longer able to search, her brother's daughter will carry on the effort — and that her own daughters would do the same if Brad's daughter couldn't.
The family believes Brad Ross is deceased, Crystal Ross said, but the hardest part remains not knowing for certain. Ross's case is one of at least 16 missing-persons cases from Fort Wayne dating back to 1991 that remain unaccounted for, according to NAMUS and Fort Wayne Police Department records cited by 21Alive. The Fort Wayne Police Department has asked anyone with information about Ross's disappearance to call (260) 427-1222, per Project: Cold Case.
