MD MD - Bishop Family murders, Bethesda, 1 March 1976

[PommyMommy]

OCT 31, 2024

https://www.wate.com/news/lonely-bones/5-missing-persons-cases-remain-unsolved-in-the-great-smoky-mountains-national-park/

There is also at least one additional person who is believed to have disappeared into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park who still has not been found that is not included in the NPS’ list: William Bradford Bishop Jr.

Bishop disappeared in March of 1976, and he was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list in 2014. According to the FBI, just one day before he was last seen at a sporting goods store in Jacksonville, North Carolina, Bishop allegedly bludgeoned his wife, mother, and three sons to death in Bethesda, Maryland.

 

[GoldenEagle]

Thanks! That's a good article. Interesting that Brad Bishop's cousin, who knew him rather well, said he was the definition of a narcissist.

There is an interesting crime podcast with Kathy Gilchrist. It was the 6/24/21 episode of “Ivy League Murders”. In it, Gilchrist and the podcast hosts discuss their recent conversations with an anonymous man who claims to have been neighbors with Bishop who was living under a different name in northern Wisconsin. The man went as far as to share pictures of this person who was supposedly Bishop to the hosts and Gilchrist. They didn’t specify what years or timeframe it covered, just that it was after the murders.

 

[mothwings]

There is an interesting crime podcast with Kathy Gilchrist. It was the 6/24/21 episode of “Ivy League Murders”. In it, Gilchrist and the podcast hosts discuss their recent conversations with an anonymous man who claims to have been neighbors with Bishop who was living under a different name in northern Wisconsin. The man went as far as to share pictures of this person who was supposedly Bishop to the hosts and Gilchrist. They didn’t specify what years or timeframe it covered, just that it was after the murders.

That's interesting. Where in northern Wisconsin? I grew up there. Definitely a great place for fugitives to hide for sure. I could see Bishop living there.

 

[Pirdie21]

He’s obviously DB Cooper

 

[Slater612]

There is an interesting crime podcast with Kathy Gilchrist. It was the 6/24/21 episode of “Ivy League Murders”. In it, Gilchrist and the podcast hosts discuss their recent conversations with an anonymous man who claims to have been neighbors with Bishop who was living under a different name in northern Wisconsin. The man went as far as to share pictures of this person who was supposedly Bishop to the hosts and Gilchrist. They didn’t specify what years or timeframe it covered, just that it was after the murders.

So,

I can’t stop looking at Franklin Delano Floyd and Seeing William Bradford Bishop.. Does anyone else see it? It couldn’t be, right? They would test Floyd’s DNA by now… right???

 

[Slater612]

I think the DNA needs to be compared for sure between Franklin Delano Floyd, and William Bradford Bishop… He may be off the streets after all, and that pesky chore of collecting serial killers dna or different jurisdiction (though fbi is all jurisdictions as far as I know…) was holding up justice in the first cases, eh ? It could not be possible, right???

 

[Slater612]

I think the DNA needs to be compared for sure between Franklin Delano Floyd, and William Bradford Bishop… He may be off the streets after all, and that pesky chore of collecting serial killers dna or different jurisdiction (though fbi is all jurisdictions as far as I know…) was holding up justice in the first cases, eh ? It could not be possible, right???

Someone please tell me this cannot be…

 

[iamshadow21]

So,

I can’t stop looking at Franklin Delano Floyd and Seeing William Bradford Bishop.. Does anyone else see it? It couldn’t be, right? They would test Floyd’s DNA by now… right???

Except when this happened, he was on the run with a very young Suzanne Sevakis.

MOO

 

[annemc2]

Except when this happened, he was on the run with a very young Suzanne Sevakis.

MOO

And he had a history of multiple arrests and incarcerations. You'd hope that the prints had been checked somewhere along the way. I think Bishop likely possessed a sophistication due to his background and education that FDF could not even hope to emulate. It would be very hard to keep up a charade as a sexually-deviant uneducated drifter when his actual background was that of a ivy league educated US foreign service officer and family annihilator. Would be an insane twist, though!

 

[Jets4Life]

So,

I can’t stop looking at Franklin Delano Floyd and Seeing William Bradford Bishop.. Does anyone else see it? It couldn’t be, right? They would test Floyd’s DNA by now… right???

Floyd was a career criminal and conman, who was in and out of jail since the late 1950s. Bishop was a respected US Foreign Service Worker, who worked in the Army, then was posted in many countries from the late 50s, onward. In other words, they are not the same person, considering Floyd would have been in prison when Bishop was overseas.

 

[dotr]

Jun 16, 2025
Bradford Bishop is a high ranking state department official accused of killing his entire family and disappearing without a trace.

 

[dotr]

Mar 2, 2026
A woman took a DNA test that led her to identify her father: accused family killer William Bradford Bishop. It’s now been 50 years since investigators say Bishop brutally killed his wife, three children and mother in their Bethesda home, dumped their bodies in North Carolina and was never seen again.In this 2021 story from the News4 archives, Shawn Yancy learned the FBI hopes the identification of a daughter of Bishop will lead to more clues and tips in the cold case that has rocked the D.C. area for decades. _______

Updated on March 2, 2026 lengthy article.​

50 years on the run: Maryland family killing suspect still never caught

Two questions still haunt investigators: Why did William Bradford Bishop kill his family and where did he go?

www.nbcwashington.com

''Where did Bishop go?​

How is it possible that with so many investigators on the case over the last five decades, Bishop has never been found?

“If you’re disciplined, you stay out of trouble, you don’t get fingerprinted, you create a new identity and don’t talk to anybody you ever knew before, you won’t get caught, especially in 1976,” said Vogt.

Vogt was instrumental in getting Bishop added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List in 2014. News4 asked him where he thinks Bishop went after leaving those mountains.

"I believe southeast, southern United States somewhere. I think that's where he went and stayed,” he said.

But Brian Stafford, who worked the case for years as a detective for Montgomery County police, isn’t so sure. He keeps going back to a missing resolver that investigators knew Bishop had but that was never recovered.''

 

[mothwings]

Screenshot from America's Most Wanted webpage through archive.org (approximately 2001).

It is interesting to note the last sentence.

New information from State Department files indicates that Bishop might have fled with the help of a female accomplice, who may have been on parole from a North Carolina prison.

I have searched the internet for more information on this but I can't find any information that further elaborates on this. Has anyone heard this before?

 

[dotr]

Mar 3, 2026
It’s now been 50 years since investigators say William Bradford Bishop brutally killed his wife, three children and mother in their Bethesda home, dumped their bodies in North Carolina and was never seen again.In this 2014 story from the News4 archives, investigators said they believed Bishop could be living in plain sight anywhere in the country.Tisha Thompson showed what he might look like and what he might be doing. The FBI wanted everyone to look out, to see if a quiet neighbor or even a relative could actually be Bishop.

Mar 2, 2026
It’s now been 50 years since investigators say William Bradford Bishop brutally killed his wife, three children and mother in their Bethesda home, dumped their bodies in North Carolina and was never seen again.In this 2021 story from the News4 archives, Shawn Yancy and the News4 I-Team share how they got an interview with a woman who learned she is Bishop’s daughter, and their years covering his case.“I continue to get tips about it. It’s the one story that people still call me about, claiming he lives in their neighborhood,” producer Rick Yarborough said. “It’s a story I’ve never let go of.”

 

[sportstergirl]

A keen fisherman, swimmer, camper fluent in several languages with military training. Brad Bishop was a very fit man also. Could he have gone off grid and survived on the land ? America has huge wilderness areas even today.
Another thought did he arrange fake ID, have a secret stash of money? He abandoned his 2 year old Chevy, a rather expensive car. Also his motorcycle (make and year unknown)
This sounds like a TV thriller but happened 50 years ago! I was having a look through some cold cases and found this though I dont remember it in 1976 living in England