Joseph Norman Hill

BOARDMAN – Boardman Police Chief Todd Werth announced Tuesday afternoon that after more than 50 years, the murder of 12-year-old Brad Bellino has been solved.

Werth in a news conference at the Boardman Township Government Center identified Joseph Norman Hill, deceased, of Yucapia, Calif., as the man who killed Brad on Easter weekend 1972.

Police compared DNA from a relative of Hill’s to DNA found on Brad’s body and found a 98 percent match. Werth said a 100 percent match isn’t possible because the sample cannot be compared directly to Hill, who was cremated after his death in 2019.

Hill was a truck driver in the Boardman area in 1972 before moving several years later to California for work, according to Boardman police. They found no connections between Hill and the Bellino family.

Brad was last seen leaving a friend’s house on Teakwood Drive in Applewood Acres around 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 31, 1972. Brad’s family reported him missing the next afternoon, prompting a search.

A sanitary worker discovered his body the following Tuesday morning, April 4, in a dumpster behind what was Isaly’s Dairy Store in the Boardman Plaza. There were indications he had been sexually assaulted, according to reports. A belt was found around Brad’s neck and a coroner ruled that strangulation was the cause of death.

The use of DNA to finally identify Brad’s killer cost just over $29,000 in total – an amount Werth said was well worth it to bring closure to Brad’s family. He said the department was bringing attention to the case again now to see if identifying Hill can lead to solving any other cases in Boardman, California, or in between.

For more on this story, read Wednesday’s Vindicator newspaper.