Affidavit: Cold case murder suspect wiped bloody hands on apartment wall

Bradford Hudson, 59, extradited to Bexar County Jail

Bradford Hudson is charged with capital murder. (Bexar County Jail, KSAT)

SAN ANTONIO – An affidavit obtained Sunday revealed new details about a California man charged with capital murder in connection with a 2013 cold case.

Bradford Hudson, 59, was first accused of killing and sexually assaulting Martha Batchelor in her apartment when he was arrested on a domestic violence warrant weeks ago in California. Hudson’s DNA was a match for evidence found in Batchelor’s apartment shortly after death on July 6, 2013.

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Hudson was booked into the Bexar County Jail at 4:28 a.m. Sunday, officials said.

Investigators collected the DNA in the apartment from the interior bedroom wall next to Batchelor’s body, according to the arrest affidavit.

“It appears (Hudson) wiped his hands on the wall in an attempt to remove the victim’s blood from his hands," investigators wrote in the affidavit.

The DNA was placed in a database, and investigators did not receive a match until Hudson was arrested on suspicion of corporal injury to a spouse six years after Batchelor was killed, according to the affidavit.

Investigators confirmed Hudson lived at the same apartment complex as Batchelor.

Batchelor was awakened around 4:30 in the morning by someone knocking at her door or coming into the apartment, investigators previously said. Police said Batchelor tried to call 911, but was likely overpowered by the man in her bedroom, in a scene that was described at the time as “heinous.”

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Batchelor was found later by an apartment maintenance worker.