The Federal Bureau of Investigation is formally involved in the case of two sisters who have been missing for more than 21 years. A Houston woman has come forward with claims that she is Diamond Bradley, one of the sisters. Diamond was 3 years old and her sister, Tionda Bradley, was 10 when the girls disappeared from their Chicago home back in 2001.
A massive search took place to find the girls, but they were never located. Now, two decades later, part of the mystery may be solved. In a TikTok video posted May 17, the video's narrator claims she is standing beside Diamond Bradley in a parking lot. The alleged missing person smiles for the camera and shows the missing toddler's scar on her head.
More from CafeMom: Drug Traffickers 'Lured' Mom Who Went Missing While Working as a Rideshare Driver
The Texas woman contacted her aunt.
The Daily Mail reported that the woman claiming to be Diamond Bradley contacted the girls' aunt, Sheliah Bradley-Smith, who has never given up her search for the girls. After they went missing in 2001, Chicago enacted the largest missing persons search in the city's history, NBC 5 reported.
Bradley-Smith was shocked by the news, but she admitted that it has happened before. In the 20-plus years since the Bradley sisters disappeared, more than a dozen people have claimed to be Diamond, but no one ever proved to be the missing girl.
This time, there is something different.
The woman claiming to be Diamond Bradley has submitted a DNA test to the FBI and has undergone fingerprinting, which will prove exactly who she is. Bradley-Smith told the Daily Mail that they learned results could take a few weeks but are hoping testing can be expedited.
Although the young woman contacted Bradley-Smith first, the aunt told her she needed to inform the police. Her niece would be 25 now.
"She said she has information about Diamond Bradley, and I say 'what about …?'" Bradley-Smith told NBC 5. "Well, she says, I am Diamond Bradley."
Bradley-Smith is cautious about the claims.
The sad aunt said the situation has haunted her for years. She learned of the missing girls when someone called to tell her they were on the news, NBC 5 reported.
She said the woman claiming to be Diamond Bradley is opening old wounds, and it's traumatic.
"Personally, [I] don't believe that I'm living this nightmare," she said. "You have your hopes up, especially with this happening before. But at the same time you can't ignore, I have to follow through on any tip that comes, and unfortunately, that's part of the territory," she told the news outlet.
Now all the family can do is wait.
With the DNA test pending, the whole thing has become a waiting game.
"Well, my life has to keep going. But it's been, I mean, when I think about that 22 years if it had not happened, I wonder where I would have been, who I would have been, what vacation home I would be living in or you know, retire and go ahead on with your life," Bradley-Smith told NBC 5.
The TikTok account @diamondandtiondabradley has posted multiple videos about the case and defending the family, claiming they did not have anything to do with the girls' disappearance. Videos include potential age progression photos and a balloon release dedicated to their memory.
More from CafeMom: Friends, Family 'Appalled' By Sherri Papini's Arrest After 2016 Abduction Deemed a Hoax
The story bears a striking resemblance to another missing person's case recently in the news.
In late February 2023, Polish woman Julia Faustyna claimed to be Madeleine McCann, who went missing from a family vacation in Portugal in 2007. Many people claimed that Faustyna was making up the whole thing as she posted on a since-deleted Instagram account that she believed she was the missing girl.
Police later dismissed her claims, saying there was no way she was the missing girl. In early April, DNA test results confirmed that Julia Faustyna, aka Julia Wandelt, is not McCann. She apologized to the McCann family on her now-deleted Instagram account, according to the New York Post.
"It wasn't my intention to bring sadness or any other negative emotion to anyone, especially to McCann's family," she said in a social media post.
DNA results from the woman claiming to be Diamond Bradley are pending.
