The case moved from an industrial site in Orange to a jury verdict nearly three years after Casie Lynn Graves was killed.
ORANGE, Texas — What began with a body found near railroad tracks outside an Orange industrial facility ended with Derek Lennon Bradley sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering Casie Lynn Graves.
The case followed a path through a worksite discovery, a medical examiner’s finding, a yearlong investigation, a grand jury indictment and a six-day trial. Graves, 38, was found Sept. 16, 2023, near the former International Paper facility on Highway 87. Bradley, 47, was convicted May 5 of killing her by strangulation. The two had been together for several years and shared two children.
The first official step came in the afternoon, when an employee arriving near the International Paper site found a body off the road by the railroad tracks. The location sits in Orange, a Southeast Texas city near the Louisiana line and the petrochemical and industrial corridor around Beaumont. Deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office responded, and investigators identified the victim as Graves. The medical examiner later ruled that she had been strangled. That ruling shaped the rest of the case because it meant investigators were looking for a person, not an accident.
For months, the investigation stayed mostly out of public view. Authorities did not immediately announce an arrest. Investigators reviewed video, spoke with witnesses and examined Bradley’s connection to Graves. Prosecutors later said surveillance footage showed Bradley’s truck leaving his home at about 12:30 a.m. on the day Graves was found and returning at about 12:57 a.m. The vehicle was seen traveling toward the area where the body was later discovered, giving investigators a timeline that linked Bradley’s truck to the industrial rail location.
The inquiry reached a new stage when investigators learned that Bradley contacted a mechanic about removing the GPS function from his truck. Prosecutors said that information mattered because it suggested an effort to erase or block location evidence. With the video timeline, the mechanic information and witness interviews, investigators obtained search warrants for Bradley’s home and vehicle. The searches produced evidence later used at trial. Orange County District Attorney Krispen Winfree said the case was built from several pieces that supported one another, rather than from one isolated discovery.
The grand jury phase arrived in September 2024, about a year after Graves’ death. Prosecutors presented the case, and grand jurors indicted Bradley on a murder charge. Deputies arrested him the next day and booked him into the Orange County Jail. Local reports listed a high bond after the arrest. Graves’ mother, Vickie Graves, said then that the arrest did not erase her pain. She said she felt empty, lost and broken. Graves’ brother said the family wanted justice and closure after waiting for movement in the case.
The trial opened in late April 2026 and carried the case from investigation into public proof. Jurors heard testimony from witnesses and investigators, along with evidence collected after the search warrants. Assistant District Attorney Bard Anderson prosecuted the case. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office was the lead investigating agency, and the Texas Rangers assisted. Rebecca Patterson Smith, the victim assistance coordinator for the district attorney’s office, also assisted during the case. The state’s presentation centered on the truck, the GPS request, the autopsy and the timeline from the night Graves died.
The jury returned its verdict on May 5. Bradley was found guilty of murder, then sentenced by the same jury to 30 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He had faced a possible punishment range that could have reached life in prison. The verdict established the legal finding that Bradley killed Graves. The sentence set the prison term but did not answer every public question about motive or the final moments before Graves was strangled.
Graves’ life remained central to the case even as the courtroom focused on evidence. She was a mother of four, and two of her children were Bradley’s. Local reports said the two youngest girls were younger than 6 at the time of the killing. Family members described Graves as a person with a big heart who could lift a room. Her death became a local case followed across Orange County, not only because of the violence but also because of the children and the long period before trial. The industrial setting also gave the case a stark public image: a woman’s body near train tracks, found not by family but by a worker arriving at a facility. Prosecutors used that setting to anchor the timeline. The truck’s alleged trip from Bradley’s residence to the area and back before dawn became one of the strongest pieces of location evidence. The later GPS removal request gave jurors another way to judge Bradley’s conduct after the killing.
Some information remains limited to court records and testimony not fully detailed in public reports. Authorities have not released a complete list of physical evidence taken from the home and truck. Public accounts also did not provide a full defense narrative after the verdict. What is clear is that jurors accepted the prosecution’s account after hearing six days of evidence and then chose a 30-year sentence.
As of May 27, 2026, Bradley stood convicted of murder in Graves’ death. The next public record in the case would come through any post-trial challenge, appeal notice or state prison processing after sentencing.
Author note: Last updated May 27, 2026.