CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The body of a civilian truck driver missing since April in Iraq has been found near the place where his convoy was ambushed nine months ago.

William Bradley, 50, lived in Chesterfield before going to Iraq nearly a year ago to drive trucks for Texas-based Halliburton Co., which on Thursday announced the discovery of his remains.

He was in a fuel truck convoy that was ambushed near Baghdad on April 9.

A sister, Donna Cureton of Carlsbad, N.M., said Friday she was informed of her brother’s death the day before by a representative of Halliburton subsidiary KBR. She said she was told that his remains were in a shallow grave and stripped of clothing.

“My heart broke,” Cureton said. “His body had been stripped and he just had a bullet hole right in his forehead.”

Suzanne Behringer of Galveston, Texas, was Bradley’s common-law-wife. The two broke up in 2001 but remained in touch.

On Friday, she said a military medical examiner who checked the bones determined Bradley was killed during the ambush and buried shortly afterward.

“I’m glad he’s home in the United States and I’m glad he wasn’t tortured – those things I can thank God for,” she said.

Bradley’s remains arrived this week at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, she said.

Chesterfield resident Wilma Procter was Bradley’s girlfriend. Also a truck driver, she was on the road in Massachusetts on Friday afternoon when she learned the news in a call from The Associated Press.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said, crying. “I’m never going to see the sparkle in his eyes. I’m never going to see that smile.”

The two shared a passion for motorcycles, and had talked about traveling through Europe when he completed his stint in Iraq.

Family and friends said Bradley was an outgoing man – gentle and fun, with an adventurous streak – who went to Iraq despite pleas not to go.

Cureton recalled her brother’s decision.

“He wanted to help, he wanted to meet the people; there wasn’t any way to talk him out of it,” she said. But she was angry, too.

“I’m angry cause he was killed for nothing, I’m angry that they didn’t find his body sooner.”

Bradley is survived by Cureton; a son, Jackson Bradley of Wichita, Kan.; a daughter-in-law; and a grandson. A brother, Charles Wooldridge, lives in Galveston, Texas.

Funeral arrangements were being made by Jackson Bradley, Cureton said. He previously declined to talk to the media, but Halliburton issued a statement from him Friday.

“We are going to have to spend the rest of our lives wondering if he was scared, in pain, did he suffer, is there anything that we could have done different. …

“I thought knowing what happened would bring closure, but I am learning that we will never have closure.”

According to friends, Bradley left New Hampshire 11 months ago, traveling to Wichita before heading to Texas. He arrived in Kuwait March 14; less than a month later, he was missing.

Two members of Bradley’s convoy still are unaccounted for. They are Army Spc. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, and Timothy Bell, also a truck driver for Halliburton, of Mobile, Ala. Arab television reported June 29 that Maupin had been killed; he is listed as missing by the U.S. military. Halliburton says it has no new information about Bell.

Another contractor, Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss., was captured but managed to escape in May.

In a statement Thursday, Halliburton said the April 9 attack “remains the deadliest day for Halliburton employees in the Kuwait/Iraq region.”

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On the Net:

Halliburton’s statement: http://www.halliburton.com/news/archive/2005/kbrnws-010605.jsp

AP-ES-01-07-05 1742EST