(Update at 12 p.m.) More than 38 years after the murder of five members of his family in his Bethesda home, the FBI on Thursday put William Bradford Bishop on its “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list.
Police believe Bishop, at the time an employee at the State Department, bludgeoned to death his wife, mother and three sons aged 5, 10 and 14 between March 1 and March 2 after failing to get a desired promotion.
Detectives determined that Bishop left his Foggy Bottom office on March 1, bought a small sledge hammer and gas can from the Sears at Montgomery Mall and filled the gas can at the Texaco station next to the mall.
Detectives said Bishop then killed his 37-year-old wife Annette Bishop, 68-year-old mother Lobelia Bishop and three sons, William, Brenton and Geoffrey before putting the bodies into his maroon 1974 Chervrolet station wagon and dumping and burning them in a heavily forested area of North Carolina.
The bodies were located on March 2 with a shovel at the scene that police said was bought at a hardware store in Bethesda. It was not until a call from a concerned neighbor that police headed to Bishop’s 8103 Lilly Stone Drive home and found the gruesome murder scene.
On March 18, a park ranger found Bishop’s car at a campground near Gatlinburg, Tenn. Bloody clothing and an axe were in the vehicle.
Bishop vanished.
On March 18, 1976, a Montgomery County grand jury indicted Bishop for the murders of his family, but he has never been located.
Montgomery County Police and the FBI hope putting Bishop on the widely circulated “Ten Most Wanted” list will help. He would be 77. As a State Department employee, he was well-traveled and fluent in five languages.
There are a handful of supposed sightings of Bishop by people traveling in Sweden and Italy.
Even so, the FBI believes Bishop may have assumed a new identity in the U.S.
“If you’re a U.S. citizen it’s usually easier to hide in this country,” FBI special agent Steve Vogt said in a press release. “Americans overseas tend to stand out.”
“The reality is, he could be anywhere,” Vogt said. “But we don’t want people to assume that he’s out of the country and overlook the fact that he might be living in their community. People might see someone who looks like him and think, ‘It couldn’t be him.’ Well, it could be him. That’s why we need the public’s help.”
Law enforcement officials didn’t dismiss the possibility that Bishop is dead.
“If he’s dead, so be it,” Vogt said, “but until we know for certain, we will not stop searching for him.”
“The circumstances of this crime have motivated us to use all of the resources at our disposal to locate Bishop. Even 38 years later, we still look to bring justice in this case. We owe this to the victims, to their extended family members, and to the community. We will never give up on our efforts to hold Bradford Bishop accountable for the murders of his family members,” Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said in a press release.
Manger and the FBI held a press conference Thursday at county police headquarters in Gaithersburg.
“It is our most recent opportunity to make progress towards apprehending Bishop. This is a case with both national and international pieces,” Manger said. “While it is possible that Bishop may still be in the United States, we know that he had the means and the experience to relocate himself to a foreign country. No matter where he is, however, news spreads fast and all we need is just one person to call us with the right tip as to Bishop’s whereabouts.”
Photos via FBI, MCP
