William Bradford Bishop Allegedly Murdered His Wife, Mother, and Three Sons. Fifty Years Later, He Is Still Missing.

 

William Bradford Bishop Allegedly Murdered His Wife, Mother, and Three Sons. Fifty Years Later, He Is Still Missing.

Annette Bishop was 37. Lobelia Bishop was 68. William was 14. Brenton was 10. Geoffrey was 5.

On March 1, 1976, according to the FBI, William Bradford Bishop Jr. allegedly bludgeoned all five members of his family to death inside their Bethesda, Maryland, home.

Investigators allege that Bishop then loaded their bodies into the family's station wagon and drove hundreds of miles to Columbia, North Carolina.

There, authorities say, he placed his wife, his mother, and his three children in a shallow grave and set their bodies on fire.

Then Bishop disappeared.

The abandoned station wagon was eventually discovered in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Bishop was nowhere to be found.

He was charged with murder in Maryland and federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. The FBI eventually placed him on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in 2014. He was removed from that specific list four years later, but the FBI's wanted notice for him remains active today.

If Bishop is alive, he would now be 90 years old.

That is what makes this case so fucking difficult to comprehend.

Fifty years.

Five people killed.

Three of them children.

And no arrest. No trial. No verdict.

Bishop has never been convicted of these murders, so the allegations against him remain exactly that. But law enforcement has not closed the book. The FBI still lists him as wanted and warns that he should be considered armed and extremely dangerous.

Annette. Lobelia. William. Brenton. Geoffrey.

Half a century later, their names still deserve to be said.

And until this case has an answer, it belongs in The Accountability Archive.