Trista Evans Bradford

Trista Evans is the daughter of Barbara Evans, the niece of Frank and Martha Evans, and the cousin of Marlena and Samantha Evans, and of Rick Paige. She is the ex-wife of Mac, and of Eugene Bradford.

In March of 1983, Trista Evans arrived at Marlena and Roman's penthouse and was greeted by her overjoyed cousin. Trista was coming to live in Salem while entering the nursing program at Salem University Hospital. Orphaned at age four when her mother was murdered and her father died of an illness, Trista was raised by her uncle Frank and aunt Martha, and grew up with her cousins Marlena and Samantha. Consequently, Trista considered Marlena her "Big Sis" and had moved to Salem from Colorado to be closer to her. On her first night in Salem, while waiting for the school dorms to be prepared, Trista wandered around the docks and found and interesting bottle with a message in it. The message was a simple request for a date with whomever found the bottle. Amused, Trista answered the message and spoke on the phone with its sender, one Eugene Bradford. Though she set up numerous dates with Eugene, Trista wasn't able to draw up enough courage to show up for any of them.

Trista soon began the nursing program at the hospital and quickly became friends with Kayla Brady, among other nurses. She also gained the liking of the hospital administrator, Alex Marshall. One day, she found herself in utter shock at the sight of the hospital's delivery robot. This immense gadget delivered mail to hospital staff and helped entertain the children in the pediatrics wing. However, the robot didn't have a name. Nearby, she saw a ballot box asking people to write in their votes for the nameless wonder. Trista decided to cast in her own vote by simply writing in the only word she could think of to describe the robot: Awesome. Trista's simple suggestion won the heart of the robot's keeper, Eugene Bradford. Eugene was nothing short of amazed and was immediately smitten with her. What Trista didn't know about the robot's name contest was that whoever won also earned a date with Eugene!  Trista realized that he was the man from the bottle messages; likewise, he realized the same thing about her. Frightened, Trista turned down the date and ran away from Eugene. When she met him later at the docks, Eugene apologized to Trista for frightening her and insisted on going on a date with her. He was convinced she was the perfect woman for him. Though she apologized for breaking all those dates with Gene, Trista staunchly refused to go out with him, saying that she just didn't like dating. So instead, Eugene invited her to share an orange soda at Shenanigans. While on their non-date, Trista got to know Eugene, but she also inadvertedly revealed that she'd had a troubled childhood that kept her from enjoying many things in life, among them relationships with men.

Though Eugene constantly asked about her past, Trista avoided telling him. Meanwhile, she began to have flashbacks from her childhood. When she was four years old, her mother had been murdered right in front of her by a man. After various non-dates, Gene and Trista grew very close. Their peculiar tastes in drinks (orange soda) and music (they both enjoyed the auto-harp) made them a perfect match. When she was finally ready, she told Eugene about her mother's death. Although they were still "not dating", they certainly saw a lot of each other. During this time, Trista mentioned to Eugene that sometimes she felt as if someone was watching her. This fear heightened when, while strolling through the park with Eugene, Trista found an exact replica of the gun that had been used to kill her mother. Convinced that her mother's murderer was following her, Trista decided to try to find out more about her mother.

Meanwhile, Trista decided to bring her parents' furniture out from storage in order to help Roman and Marlena, who had just bought a house. While opening the crates of furniture, one particular piece grabbed Trista's attention. It was a grandfather clock. Although she'd grown up with it in her bedroom, there was something about the clock that made Trista nervous. While unpacking the clock, Eugene tried to comfort Trista about her past, and finally dared to kiss her. Trista was taken aback by the kiss. Later, she even tried to continue to deny that she and Eugene were not involved with each other. However, another kiss resolved that denial. From that moment, Trista and Eugene officially began dating each other. In the meantime, Trista moved into Roman's old apartment along with Kayla and Nikki Wade.

During this time, Trista's fear of being followed grew more. She became convinced that the person who had killed her mother knew that she was beginning to remember, and was keeping an eye on her. One night, Trista was alone in her apartment when she opened her closet to hang her coat and was ambushed by a man who'd been hiding there. After binding and gagging her, the man rummaged through Trista's things looking for something. While he was doing that, Eugene came to the apartment. A struggle between Eugene and the man began. Trista managed to get loose and tried to knock the man out with a wine bottle, but she missed and hit Eugene instead. Though Eugene was okay, Trista now had proof that someone was indeed keeping tabs on her. Wanting to protect her, Eugene invited himself to move into the apartment. During this time, Trista began receiving strange letters from a man in Denver named Mac who hated her. When Eugene questioned her about it, Trista clammed up. Meanwhile, Trista brought the grandfather clock to her apartment.

Some time after this, Trista received a box from her uncle full of letters that her mother had kept. The letters revealed the painful truth about her mother: she'd had numerous lovers. Furthermore, the letters revealed that someone had blackmailed Barbara with that truth. Shortly after this, Trista was lured to a warehouse full of boxes. Her mother's apron was on the floor, and she heard countless angry voices asking her where the gun was. The episode severely traumatized Trista, who fainted before being able to leave the warehouse.Trista, Eugene, and Bo Brady later returned to the warehouse only to find it completely empty. Though they doubted her story at first, further investigation revealed that Trista hadn't imagined it. Someone had set everything up. Unbeknownst to her, Alex Marshall was behind it.

Following this, Trista, Bo, and Eugene tried to contact more people from her mother's past. One of these people was Barbara's best friend, Gloria Matthews. Gloria had known Barbara and about her lovers. In particular, one of them...a hospital administrator named Alex Marshall. When Trista heard this, she wondered why Alex had never mentioned having known her mother or even living in her hometown of Clarkesville. Convinced that Alex was most likely the man harassing her, and therefore her mother's killer, Trista made very possible effort to stay away from him. Meanwhile, Trista began hypnosis sessions with Marlena to try to remember more about her mother's murder. Also, Eugene decided to travel to Clarkesville to investigate Alex's past in that town. He found a woman named Nora living in Trista's old house, claiming that Alex had killed Barbara.

While Eugene was in Clarkesville, Trista finally remembered something during hypnosis that she'd blocked out. After her mother's death, the killer had left behind the gun accidentally, and Trista had hidden it in a secret compartment inside the grandfather clock. After her session with Marlena, Trista went home and looked inside the clock. Indeed, along with some childhood mementoes, Trista discovered the gun that had killed her mother. Trista was unaware that Alex was watching her from inside her closet. While she stepped out of the room, Alex came out and took the gun, but Trista saw him before he could leave the apartment. In shock, Trista accused Alex of murder and demanded to know why. Before Alex could tell her, Bo arrived and attacked him, grabbing the gun from her. Alex denied having killed anyone. At that moment, Eugene arrived with Nora. Alex and Nora knew each other from the past. Seeing Nora triggered a memory in Trista. Before she could fully remember, Nora grabbed a gun from her purse and pointed it at Alex. Although Nora was mentally unbalanced, the truth came out: SHE had killed Barbara. Years ago, Alex had left her for another woman, Barbara. Jealous, Nora had stolen one of Alex's guns and his clothes, and shot Barbara hoping to frame Alex for the murder. Alex had merely been looking for the gun to avoid being implicated in Barbara's death. Now more crazy than ever, Nora hoped to kill Alex for having hurt her. Following an altercation, Nora was subdued by Bo and Eugene.

With her mother's murder finally resolved, Trista was now able to conquer her fear of men and move on with her life with Eugene. Now, Trista was able to proclaim her love for Eugene, and they finally made love. Meanwhile, Trista decided to come clean to Eugene about her past once and for all. She had been married before. Her ex-husband, Mac, was the one writing her hate mail. Trista went on to explain that he had pursued her; afraid that she was strange for having an aversion toward men, she'd married him on impulse. But on their wedding night, Trista had left him. After annulling their marriage, Trista had come to Salem. This was the reason for why she'd tried to avoid Eugene in the beginning -- she didn't want to end up hurting him the way she'd hurt Mac. But now, having conquered her fears, she knew that she and Gene would be together forever.

A short time after this, Gloria Matthews, Barbara's best friend, died after coming in contact with Eugene. Another man did the same. Convinced that he was cursed, Eugene went to his family home in Haiti to find out more about a supposed Bradford Curse. He returned convinced that there was such a thing and tried to steer Trista away. However, Trista refused to remove herself from his life, curse or no curse. Shortly after this, Trista and Eugene attended Alex and Renée DiMera's engagement party. Renée surprisingly chewed out Alex and just about half of Salem in a bitter speech, and finally went upstairs, pushing Eugene and Trista out of her way. Not really giving Renée's scene much importance, Eugene and Trista took a walk along the grounds of the estate. At the stables, Eugene proposed to Trista, and she accepted. When they returned to the party, they were shocked to learn that Renée had been murdered. Trista managed to convince Eugene that he hadn't had anything to do with her death. Meanwhile, she and Gene planned their upcoming wedding, which would be a small ceremony in Roman and Marlena's house. About two weeks later, Eugene and Trista left Shenanigans and found their friend Kelly Chase dead on the pier. She, too, had been in contact with Gene before she died.

Now very afraid for Trista, Eugene returned to Haiti to find out more about the Bradford Curse that seemed to be killing everyone around him. Trista followed Eugene and surprised him on the airplane. Though they didn't discover much about the Bradford Curse, Gene decided that he couldn't wait to be married to Trista and asked her to marry him right there in Haiti. He promised that they'd keep their marriage a secret so that they could do it again in Salem with their family and friends. Trista eagerly said yes. To her shock, all the servants of the estate had already planned a wedding. In no time at all, the ceremony was ready. Wearing an old Bradford family wedding dress, Trista married Eugene in a quiet ceremony witnessed by the overjoyed servants of the estate. After a very short honeymoon, Eugene and Trista returned to Salem without telling anyone that they'd gotten married. That night, after making love in their new apartment, Eugene left Trista for a short time while he went to an all-night deli to get some hot pastrami sandwiches. When he returned, he found Trista's dead body on the floor. She had been stabbed in the back, and was holding a raven's feather in her hand.

Trista had been a victim of who would be later named the Salem Slasher. The Salem Slasher, André DiMera, had killed those people who could possibly uncover Stefano DiMera's faked death earlier that year. Trista had unfortunately been on duty the night that Stefano had died. She had seen Kelly acting nervous while taking care of Stefano's body. Kelly had told her that Stefano had died while on his way to have some tests done; but when Trista looked at his chart to see what tests had been ordered, she saw that there'd been none. Afraid that Trista would remember this discrepancy and lead the police to investigate it further, Stefano ordered her death.

The character of Trista Evans was played by Barbara Crampton in 1983

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