NC - Loving father or abusive parent, spouse? Tales conflict in suspicious dog-leash death

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Durham teen charged with killing his father never had a ‘discipline problem,’ attorney says
February 25, 2019 11:30 AM
Durham
A Durham County judge on Monday set a $250,000 bond for a 16-year-old charged with killing his father, who was found unresponsive last April with a dog leash around his neck.
[...]
Sharp raised concerns about how law enforcement handled the case, including a Friday arrest that resulted in Alexander Bishop spending the weekend in jail. Sharp also argued there is a dispute between medical experts about whether Bill Bishop’s death was a homicide.


The North Carolina state medical examiner ruled Bishop’s death a homicide and said he died from strangulation. But a Greenville pathologist hired by Bishop’s family cast doubt on that ruling, The News & Observer reported. Bob Idol, an attorney representing Bishop’s sons in estate-related matters, has said the family believes Bishop died from a heart attack.
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Read more here: Durham teen charged with killing his father never had a ‘discipline problem,’ attorney says
 
OTPTarheel2018 said:
I'd like to know what his Durham Academy classmates think. They won't be talking under advisement of their attorneys.

And didn't Michael Peterson live in Hope Valley?

I lived in Durham for 4 years and Hope Valley was THE neighborhood to live in back in the day.

JMO
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I would say now that it’s a good neighborhood but not THE neighborhood anymore. I assume he lives in the ritzy part of it, which is still ritzy though.

I still don’t know what to make of this case but it just doesn’t seem like any of the adults had pure intentions.
 
Doghairrules said:
The whole situation is bizarre and all of the familial/close relationships seem suspect. The gf’s actions, IMO, are just as if not more suspicious, as the son. And what a bizarre way to kill someone.
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Yes, you put it where it is! :eek:
I was about to use the word, "bizarre" to describe this whole thing as well. I also have become suspicious, at least a little, about the "ex-girlfriend." OTOH, I don't like the smell of the findings of the searches done on the son's cellphone.
This thing is about as wild as I've seen in a while.
Dog leash, ex-girlfriend, syringe, gold bars.....damm.

What is it about Durham, NC, that makes cases so flippin' peculiar? What is it about the Hope Valley subdivision? Crazy stuff. I live about 30 miles from Durham, and this is one weird doggone case.
 
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borndem said:
Yes, you put it where it is! :eek:
I was about to use the word, "bizarre" to describe this whole thing as well. I also have become suspicious, at least a little, about the "ex-girlfriend." OTOH, I don't like the smell of the findings of the searches done on the son's cellphone.
This thing is about as wild as I've seen in a while.
Dog leash, ex-girlfriend, gold bars.....damm.

What is it about Durham, NC, that makes cases so flippin' peculiar? I live about 30 miles from Durham, and this is one weird doggone case.
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It's the fault line that runs under the Pepsi plant...according to my late mother, the earth science teacher.

JMO
 
OTPTarheel2018 said:
It's the fault line that runs under the Pepsi plant...according to my late mother, the earth science teacher.

JMO
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Well, good -- now we know what/where it is. Earth Science teachers are great -:)- I remember mine -- he was pretty cool! Fault line, hmmm. Scary. Now we know -- fault line. I hope the Pepsi plant is not in danger -- that is my no. 1 beverage, no lie. I don't drink alcohol or milk, so it's Pepsi Cola pour moi.
Now I'm worried about the Pepsi plant... :oops:

Seriously, this case will be a good one to watch. I don't know how many more details we will get about this case. They've got a suspect, an ADA, a defense atty, and they'll need time, time, time to investigate.
 
Agree, this case hits all the buttons for hinky.

Wasn’t Durham also the place where a guy named Peterson killed his wife?

How long was this dog leash? It was supposedly wrapped around father’s neck three times and the dog was still on it.
I can’t picture the dog still standing with all four feet on the ground. :(
 
1&2&3 said:
Agree, this case hits all the buttons for hinky.

Wasn’t Durham also the place where a guy named Peterson killed his wife?

How long was this dog leash? It was supposedly wrapped around father’s neck three times and the dog was still on it.
I can’t picture the dog still standing with all four feet on the ground. :(
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A retractable leash could be 26 ft long. The chair was a leather chair in a home entertainment area. That chair could have been big enough that the dog, knowing something was wrong, could have been jumping all over him, trying to get him to move.
 
Breezie said:
A retractable leash could be 26 ft long. The chair was a leather chair in a home entertainment area. That chair could have been big enough that the dog, knowing something was wrong, could have been jumping all over him, trying to get him to move.
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Can they tell if leash marks were postmortem. If a dog was wrapped around you because you were dead shouldn't the bruising be different than if you were strangled?
 
borndem said:
Yes, you put it where it is! :eek:
I was about to use the word, "bizarre" to describe this whole thing as well. I also have become suspicious, at least a little, about the "ex-girlfriend." OTOH, I don't like the smell of the findings of the searches done on the son's cellphone.
This thing is about as wild as I've seen in a while.
Dog leash, ex-girlfriend, syringe, gold bars.....damm.

What is it about Durham, NC, that makes cases so flippin' peculiar? What is it about the Hope Valley subdivision? Crazy stuff. I live about 30 miles from Durham, and this is one weird doggone case.
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How does the girlfriend or ex get control the estate. Asking for the dog is possibly the right thing to do if you feel like the dog could be put down. You go out with someone for a year I don't think you get more than the dog. Did this man not have a lawyer or someone that could manage the estate. Could someone be appointed to do that that isn't an ex girlfriend? The son may have looked up things but he didn't follow through on the financial side.
 
Oh man, can I publically State here that my ex bc gets nothing? I’d rather my 6 year old nephew call the shots.
All speculation, but I get the feeling that a certain lady could have bamboozled this guy. Is there any info on her out there on the popular sites?
 
ilovematt said:
Oh man, can I publically State here that my ex bc gets nothing? I’d rather my 6 year old nephew call the shots.
All speculation, but I get the feeling that a certain lady could have bamboozled this guy. Is there any info on her out there on the popular sites?
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If you have been murdered shouldn't your assets be frozen so they don't end up paying any potential murderer's legal fees?
 
This strikes me as a crazy set of circumstances that are being interpreted as a murder. It seems reasonable and realistic that the man had a heart attack at the same time as taking the dog for a walk. The dog could have run circles around the deceased man and pulled on the leash, possibly causing injuries to part of his neck.

The girlfriend clearly wanted control of his estate, and casting suspicion on the man's son would have helped her achieve that goal.
 
Just wondering - when a second autopsy is conducted by a person hired by the deceased’s family, is it expected that person’s opinion will rule in favor of what the family wants it to read? If possible.

Were there obvious strangulation marks? How did the state examiner call the death strangulation, a homicide?
The private examiner called the death, a heart attack. Why did he not use strangulation marks to make his decision?
 
Breezie said:
It is strange that his girlfriend was allowed to temporarily control his estate.

https://heavy.com/news/2019/02/alexander-bishop/

5. Bill Bishop’s Girlfriend Sought Control of His Estate

There was a battle for control of William Bishop’s multi-million dollar estate after his death.
According to the Herald Sun, Julie Seel, the girlfriend of Bill Bishop “successfully sought temporary control of his estate, saying she needs to protect his assets worth millions of dollars.”

They’d dated for a year at the time of the death. The newspaper reported that Bishop’s divorce with his wife – and the mother of Alexander – was finalized just weeks before Bill Bishop died.

Julie Seel is a clinical psychologist at Duke Integrative Medicine and, according to the newspaper, Bishop’s ex wife and sons tried to get her removed from controlling the estate.

Girlfriend of Durham man in dog-leash death takes control of estate, demands dog

‘ON AND OFF’ RELATIONSHIP
On July 30, Bishop’s two sons ages 16 and 17, and Sharon Bishop as their mother and representative, petitioned for Seel to be removed and a family friend to be appointed.

The filing states that Bill Bishop and Seel dated “on and off” for less than a year and were broken up at the time of his death.

“Five days before decedent was found unconscious … she had sent decedent an email ending their relationship, and placed all of his belongings that were in her house into her garage for him to pick up,” the sons’ filing states.
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Uhm she also wants the dog?! WHAT?!
 
1&2&3 said:
Just wondering - when a second autopsy is conducted by a person hired by the deceased’s family, is it expected that person’s opinion will rule in favor of what the family wants it to read? If possible.

Were there obvious strangulation marks? How did the state examiner call the death strangulation, a homicide?
The private examiner called the death, a heart attack. Why did he not use strangulation marks to make his decision?
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Good question. Legally speaking (from a non-lawyer perspective), if there is a plausible alternate theory to explain the death, aren't prosecutors wasting their time asking a jury to ignore the alternate theory?
 
Breezie said:
It is strange that his girlfriend was allowed to temporarily control his estate.

https://heavy.com/news/2019/02/alexander-bishop/

5. Bill Bishop’s Girlfriend Sought Control of His Estate

There was a battle for control of William Bishop’s multi-million dollar estate after his death.
According to the Herald Sun, Julie Seel, the girlfriend of Bill Bishop “successfully sought temporary control of his estate, saying she needs to protect his assets worth millions of dollars.”

They’d dated for a year at the time of the death. The newspaper reported that Bishop’s divorce with his wife – and the mother of Alexander – was finalized just weeks before Bill Bishop died.

Julie Seel is a clinical psychologist at Duke Integrative Medicine and, according to the newspaper, Bishop’s ex wife and sons tried to get her removed from controlling the estate.

Girlfriend of Durham man in dog-leash death takes control of estate, demands dog

‘ON AND OFF’ RELATIONSHIP
On July 30, Bishop’s two sons ages 16 and 17, and Sharon Bishop as their mother and representative, petitioned for Seel to be removed and a family friend to be appointed.

The filing states that Bill Bishop and Seel dated “on and off” for less than a year and were broken up at the time of his death.

“Five days before decedent was found unconscious … she had sent decedent an email ending their relationship, and placed all of his belongings that were in her house into her garage for him to pick up,” the sons’ filing states.
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There are so much details on that article.
Especially the gf saying he died of a heart attack.
plus the ex-wife saying this
"“He’d want to be remembered as someone who loved people and the land and who enjoyed making the world a more beautiful place,” Sharon Bishop, his ex-wife, said in his Tampa Bay Times obituary, which added that he was a native of Pittsburgh."
However she claimed he was abusive and had a bad temper.

I am not sure what happened here, but it all stinks. Just confused.
 
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