By The Canadian Press

B.C. police say they know who killed Bradley Kline in 2018, as family pleads for help

Dec 8, 2025 | 2:29 PM

Police in British Columbia say they think they know who killed 26-year-old Bradley Kline seven years ago, but with no arrests made, investigators are appealing for fresh leads as his family says their “hope is fading.”

B.C.’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says Kline was found dead “with injuries consistent with criminality” inside a Surrey home around 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 7, 2018.

Kline’s maternal aunt, Clare Southcombe, recalled receiving a call that same day from an unknown number that she uncharacteristically answered. The person on the other end informed her that her nephew had been killed.

“I couldn’t even speak at the time,” she said in an interview on Monday. “I was just so shocked.”

She explained that Kline had a hard life, describing him as “troubled.” She said her sister, Kline’s mother, struggled with addiction and died in 2001 and his father was “largely uninvolved” in his life.

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Her family took him in for a short period, she said, before he went into foster care.

“We stayed involved, but he had a really tough go of things,” Southcombe said.

She said they had lost contact in the years before his death, but had briefly reconnected in October 2018 and had made plans to spend time together that Christmas.

“When we saw him that last time at the end of October, it sounded like he was trying to get on track. He was trying to do some better things in his life and I was totally prepared at that point to help him,” she said.

Southcombe said he died less than three weeks before Christmas.

A year later, Sgt. Frank Jang said the homicide unit had identified several people who they believed had key information about what happened to Kline but they would not speak to police.

Six years on, the unit says investigators have pieced together details “resulting in the identification of suspects involved in the murder.”

Sgt. Freda Fong is appealing to people with information about the murder to come forward, saying it’s “not too late to do the right thing.”

A statement provided by the homicide team and attributed to Kline’s relatives — which Southcombe said she wrote — said they are “changed forever” by their nephew’s death and want the public’s help to find those responsible.

“After seven long years with no justice, our hope is fading. We are asking the people who know the truth to come forward, so we can finally give Bradley the justice he deserves.”

Southcombe said she feels largely left in the dark about the investigation.

“We don’t know anything and the police haven’t shared anything,” she said.

She said she routinely contacts investigators twice a year — around Kline’s birthday in June and around the anniversary of his death in December.

She said she is mostly met with the same response: “No new developments.”

“It’s torture for (our) family to not know,” Southcombe said. “It’s torture for me personally to know there’s a killer out there who hasn’t come to justice over this.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2025.

Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press