By George Jared
Jonesboro Sun

RAVENDEN SPRINGS — A local man was found dead in a Dubai hotel room Monday, and authorities in the United Arab Emirates are investigating the cause, according to his family.

Michael Bradley, 55, was in the country on the Arabian Peninsula for about a week when he failed to report to work at Recon International, his wife Debbie said Thursday.

“We got very concerned when nobody had seen him,” Debbie said. “We don’t know how he died.”

Bradley’s body is being held in Dubai pending an autopsy, his wife said. Seth Bradley, his son, is in Dubai with his father’s body, which may be returned no earlier than Tuesday, the family said.

E-mails by The Sun to the United States Consulate in Dubai and Recon International, also in the city, were not immediately returned.

A former Army sergeant, Bradley grew up in the Ravenden Springs area and graduated from Sloan-Hendrix High School in 1973, his sister, Kathy Wells said.

“We’re in the dark right now,” Wells said. “Mike was a good man.”

Bradley spent more than 21 years in the Army after he graduated from high school. During the early part of his military career he married Debbie, Wells said.

“They had the kind of marriage everybody wants,” she said.

The couple also had three other sons, Cody, Patrick and Michael Jr.

Complicating the investigation into the death is the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. During the monthlong observance, Muslims fast during daylight hours. Debbie said she was told it could slow the process.

Although he’d been retired from the military for several years, he went to work for Recon in Afghanistan last year, she said, adding, “It’s something he knew real well.”

After spending a year there he came home for three months and then left for Dubai, she said. Bradley served as an administrator with Recon.

Since he left the military, Bradley worked for other military contractors such as Halliburton and KBR in exotic locales including Africa, Bosnia and Hungary.

Rumors have been circulating that he died from a heart attack or that it was his nephew or son who also bear the same name who died instead. The rumors are untrue, Debbie said.

“Right now we don’t know anything,” Debbie said. “There’s a lot of red tape in Dubai, and they’re going to do a thorough investigation.”

When the police reports are completed, Debbie said the family will let the community know the cause.

Bradley planned to spend a couple of years working and then retiring. “He wanted to hunt and fish,” Debbie said. “That’s not going to happen now.”