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The Murder of Patricia Mak
● Case Closed
Homicide
Los Gatos, California
July 1984
01
Victim Profile
Patricia Anne Mak
Patricia "Trish" Anne Mak
Victim, Age 29
Patricia "Trish" Anne Mak
Patricia Anne Mak, known to those around her as Trish, was born on February 2, 1955. She was 29 years old, married, and working as a computer software specialist in the Los Gatos, California area, just south of San Francisco. Bradfield Clark was her co-worker. In July 1984, Clark invited Trish and her husband to his apartment for dinner. Her husband was unable to attend. She went alone.
She went in good faith, as a co-worker attending a social engagement. She did not come home. Her husband and family had no way of knowing what had happened to her until three days later, when Bradfield Clark called 911 and told police she was in the trunk of his car.
Patricia "Trish" Mak was 29 years old. Her Find a Grave memorial, created decades after her death, records the basic facts of her life and the manner of her death. She deserves more than those facts. She was a person who went to a co-worker's apartment for dinner and was murdered for rejecting his advances. She is not forgotten.
01
Overview
What We Know
In July 1984, Bradfield Clark was 33 years old and working as a computer software specialist in the Los Gatos, California area. He had moved from Massachusetts to California in June 1984 and was living at the Riviera Terrace Apartments. He held two university degrees and was regarded as competent and knowledgeable in his field. He also had a documented history of drug and alcohol abuse.
Clark invited Patricia Mak and her husband to his apartment for dinner. When her husband was unable to attend, Trish came alone, on a strictly platonic basis as a co-worker accepting a social invitation. As the evening progressed, Clark made sexual advances toward her. She rejected them. His response to her refusal was to grab her and repeatedly slam her head against the concrete wall bordering his small patio. He then strangled her.
After killing Trish, Clark dismembered her body into eleven pieces in his bathtub. He cut off her breasts, cooked them on his backyard barbecue grill, and consumed them. He wrapped the remaining eleven pieces of her body in green plastic bags and placed them in the trunk of his Datsun 200 SX. He had intended to bury her remains, but he did not follow through.
At approximately 6:15 p.m. on July 23, 1984, three days after the murder, Clark called 911. He had attempted suicide before placing the call. He told investigators: "She's in the trunk of my car." He provided a full confession. He was taken into custody. Patricia Mak's remains were recovered from his vehicle.
02
Chronology
Case Timeline
June 1984
Bradfield Clark Moves to California
Bradfield Clark, 33, relocates from Massachusetts to California and settles in the Los Gatos area just south of San Francisco. He takes a position as a computer software specialist and moves into the Riviera Terrace Apartments.
July 20, 1984 — Evening
Patricia Mak Arrives for Dinner
Clark invites co-worker Patricia Mak and her husband to his apartment for dinner. Her husband is unable to attend. Trish arrives alone on a strictly platonic basis. As the evening progresses, Clark makes sexual advances. She rejects him. He grabs her and repeatedly slams her head against the concrete wall of his patio, then strangles her. Patricia Mak is killed in his apartment.
July 20 to 22, 1984
Dismemberment and Concealment
Clark dismembers Patricia's body into eleven pieces in his bathtub. He cuts off her breasts, cooks them on his backyard barbecue grill, and consumes them. He places the remaining eleven pieces of her body in green plastic bags and loads them into the trunk of his Datsun 200 SX. He intends to bury her but does not follow through. He keeps her remains in his vehicle for three days.
July 23, 1984 — Approximately 6:15 p.m.
Clark Attempts Suicide, Then Calls 911
After three days, Clark attempts suicide. He is taken to hospital. He tells investigators: "She's in the trunk of my car." Responding officers find Patricia Mak's remains in the vehicle as described. Clark provides a full and detailed confession. He is arrested and charged.
June 1985
Guilty Plea — 18 Years to Life
Legal proceedings are straightforward given Clark's full confession. He pleads guilty to second-degree murder and mutilation of human remains. He is sentenced to 18 years to life in California state prison. He is admitted to the California Department of Corrections on June 25, 1985.
Present
Bradfield Clark Remains Incarcerated
As of 2026, Bradfield Clark, now approximately 75 years old, remains incarcerated at California State Prison Solano. He has been held since June 25, 1985. He is serving an 18-years-to-life sentence. Patricia Mak's case is one of two documented instances of cannibal homicide among the Clark brothers. His younger brother Hadden Clark was subsequently convicted of two murders in Maryland.
03
Law Enforcement
The Investigation
The investigation into Patricia Mak's murder required no extended investigative period. On July 23, 1984, Bradfield Clark called 911 himself, following a suicide attempt. He directed officers to his vehicle and gave a complete account of what he had done, including the method of killing, the dismemberment, the cooking and consumption of portions of her body, and the three days during which her remains had been in the trunk of his Datsun 200 SX. The case was resolved through confession rather than detection.
Patricia Mak's remains were recovered from the vehicle as described by Clark. The extent of the post-mortem mutilation was documented. Legal proceedings were described as straightforward given the full confession. Clark was charged with second-degree murder and mutilation of human remains. He pleaded guilty in June 1985 and received a sentence of 18 years to life. He was admitted to the California Department of Corrections on June 25, 1985.
The circumstances of the murder drew significant attention at the time, in part because of the nature of the post-offense conduct and in part because it would later emerge that Clark's younger brother Hadden Clark would go on to commit at least two murders in Maryland between 1986 and 1992, making the Clark family one of the more documented examples of sibling violent criminality in American criminal history. Bradfield's case was later discussed in the context of the broader Clark family history in Adrian Havill's book Born Evil (2001) and in the Michael Bay Investigation Discovery docuseries Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior (2024), both of which primarily focused on Hadden. Bradfield Clark's case remains a matter of California state prison record. He is currently held at California State Prison Solano and, as a person serving a life sentence, is subject to periodic parole review.
Clark property — searched in connection with the case
Related Case — Hadden Clark
Bradfield Clark's younger brother Hadden Clark was convicted in Maryland for the 1986 murder of six-year-old Michele Lee Dorr and the 1992 murder of 23-year-old Laura Houghteling. Both brothers were convicted of homicide involving the consumption of human remains. The Clark family cases are documented separately.
Read: The Murders of Michele Dorr and Laura Houghteling ↗
04
Convicted
The Accused
Bradfield Clark
Computer Software Specialist — Los Gatos, California
Age at Time of Offense: 33
Hometown: Troy, New York (raised); Massachusetts (prior residence)
Education: Two university degrees; computer software specialist
Known History: Documented drug and alcohol abuse
Relationship to Victim: Co-worker; she rejected his sexual advances
Charges: Second-degree murder; mutilation of human remains
Plea: Guilty — June 1985
Sentence: 18 years to life
CDCR Number: D08863 — Admitted June 25, 1985
Current Status: California State Prison Solano — serving life sentence, subject to parole review
Case Disposition
Bradfield Clark pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and mutilation of human remains in June 1985. He was sentenced to 18 years to life and admitted to the California Department of Corrections on June 25, 1985. Legal proceedings were described as straightforward given his complete confession. As of 2026, Clark, now approximately 75 years old, remains incarcerated at California State Prison Solano. He has been held for more than 40 years. No public confirmation of a parole grant has been reported.
Forensic Breakdown
Criminal Investigative Analysis
Developmental History
Bradfield Clark was born approximately 1950 to 1951, the oldest of four children raised in Troy, New York. His father held a PhD in chemistry, worked in industrial research, and moved the family frequently across the country due to dissatisfaction with his pay. Both parents were alcoholics who fought regularly in front of their children. Despite this environment, Bradfield earned two university degrees and was regarded as professionally capable in the emerging field of computer software. He had a documented history of drug and alcohol use into adulthood. His younger brother Hadden Clark would later be convicted of two murders in Maryland. A third brother, Geoffrey, had a separate criminal record involving domestic violence. The public developmental record on Bradfield specifically beyond these family circumstances is limited; accounts of his childhood and adolescence are primarily recounted in the context of the broader Clark family history documented after Hadden's arrest.
Pre-Identification Profile
Because Clark confessed immediately rather than being identified through investigation, there was no formal profiling process in this case. Had investigators been required to work from the crime scene evidence alone, the profile would have been clear: we know the offender had a prior relationship with the victim because she attended a private dinner at his address; we know the killing occurred in a domestic space known to the offender because no signs of forced entry or struggle outside the apartment were present; we know the post-offense conduct required sustained effort and time because the degree of dismemberment and the cooking of remains are not impulsive acts; and we know the offender's access to the victim was through a professional relationship because her husband was also invited, establishing co-worker proximity as the vector of contact.
Confirmed Offender Profile
Bradfield Clark confirmed every element the evidence would have suggested. He was a co-worker who had arranged a social context that placed the victim at his address alone. He committed the killing inside his own apartment, a space entirely under his control. He had the time, the privacy, and the domestic infrastructure to carry out an extended post-offense process over three days before the body was discovered. He was educated and technically capable, consistent with the sustained and methodical nature of the post-offense conduct. His substance use at the time of the killing is documented but does not account for the three-day period of continued concealment that followed, which required consistent decision-making over an extended period.
Victimology
Patricia Mak was a 29-year-old married woman who attended a dinner at a co-worker's apartment alone after her husband was unable to make it. Her vulnerability in this case was created entirely by the social and professional context: she was in a private domestic space with someone she knew through work, with no reason to anticipate violence. She rejected Clark's advances, which was the precipitating event for the attack. Research on homicide following rejected sexual advances consistently identifies the perpetrator's inability to tolerate rejection as the activating factor rather than any characteristic of the victim herself. Trish Mak did nothing wrong. She went to dinner. She said no. The outcome has no legitimate connection to either of those facts.
Modus Operandi
Clark used blunt force first, repeatedly slamming Mak's head against the concrete wall bordering his patio, before strangling her. The use of the apartment's fixed structural features as the primary weapon rather than a brought implement indicates the attack was situationally initiated rather than premeditated with a specific weapon. He then dismembered the body in his bathtub using a kitchen knife, dividing the remains into eleven portions, which he packaged in green plastic bags and transferred to his vehicle. The intent to bury the body was stated and not carried out. The decision to keep the remains in his car for three days rather than immediately disposing of them reflects an inability to complete the concealment process that ultimately led to his self-disclosure.
Signature Behavior
The cooking and consumption of portions of Patricia Mak's body is the defining signature element of this case. This behavior was not operationally necessary to killing, concealing, or disposing of the victim; it served no practical concealment purpose and in fact increased Clark's legal exposure. It reflects a specific psychological need rather than a functional step in the commission of the crime. Both Bradfield and Hadden Clark engaged in the consumption of human remains after killing their respective victims, a pattern that has drawn significant attention in the forensic and criminological literature as a documented familial parallel in deviant behavior. Whether the shared behavior reflects genetic predisposition, a shared environmental developmental factor, or convergent but independent pathology has not been established in the public record.
Geographic Profile / Anchor Point
The entire offense was committed within Clark's own apartment, the space he had occupied for approximately one month since arriving in California from Massachusetts. He had no established network in the area, no prior victims in the region, and no documented criminal history in California before this offense. The killing was committed at his own address, the most forensically exposed location available to him. Unlike his brother Hadden, who operated across a broader geographic area and buried victims at remote locations, Bradfield kept the remains in his vehicle for three days before calling police. The geographic profile of this case reflects a single discrete event at a known address rather than the sustained mobile pattern seen in serial offender cases.
Risk Assessment
Bradfield Clark's personal risk exposure was extremely high from the moment of the killing. He committed the murder at his own address, where the victim was a known co-worker who had told her husband she was going there for dinner. He kept the remains in his own vehicle for three days rather than disposing of them. He ultimately called police himself. These are not the actions of an offender who actively managed his detection risk; they reflect a breakdown of concealment capacity that resulted in self-disclosure rather than investigative breakthrough. Clark's suicide attempt before the call is consistent with a post-offense psychological collapse rather than a strategic surrender. The case was resolved not by investigative work but by the offender's own decision, under acute psychological distress, to end the concealment.
In Memoriam
They Are Not Forgotten
Patricia "Trish" Anne Mak was 29 years old and she went to a co-worker's apartment for dinner. That is the whole story of how she ended up there. She was married. She was doing well at her job. Her husband was supposed to come and couldn't make it, so she went alone because it was a colleague's dinner and there was no reason in the world not to go.
She said no to him. She said no and he killed her for it. What happened after that is documented in court records and forensic reports and it is the kind of documented reality that is almost impossible to hold in your mind about another human being. But whatever was done to Trish Mak after she died does not define her. She was a person who went to dinner and said no and was murdered for it. The rest is what was done to her, not who she was.
Her name is Patricia Anne Mak. She was born February 2, 1955. She died July 23, 1984. She was 29 years old. She had a husband who was going to come to that dinner. She had people who loved her and did not know what had happened to her for three days. She deserved a long life and she deserved to be safe and she was neither.
Trish Mak is not forgotten.
Sources
Odd Murders and Mysteries — "The Murder of Patricia Mak" (December 2022) | NZ Herald — "How cannibalistic killer's brother became a deranged multi-murderer" (2020) | Crime Library — "Serial Killer: Hadden Clark — Born Evil" | Bonnie's Blog of Crime — "Patricia Mak murder 7/20/1984 Los Gatos, CA" (2012) | Find a Grave — Memorial for Patricia Anne "Trish" Chaillou Mak (ID 229921566) | California Department of Corrections — Inmate record, Bradfield Clark, CDCR #D08863 | Adrian Havill — Born Evil: A True Story of Cannibalism and Sexual Murder (2001)
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