Going West: True Crime - Bradford Bishop // 60

Episode Date: March 4, 2020

In 1976, a family of 5 was found brutally murdered, their bodies set on fire and left in the woods nearly 300 miles from their home in Maryland. The number one suspect in the case has been on the run ever since. This is the story of Bradford Bishop. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Heet and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Today's case is brought to you by this really nice girl named Ellie that we met at a bar. Yeah, thank you so much Ellie. So we have got a lot of shout outs today. Thank you everybody who, by the way, has joined our Patreon. We uploaded half an episode a couple days ago for you guys to listen to and kind of get a better idea of what our Patreon is like. Sorry for anybody who was misled with that. We just wanted you to see what the bonus episodes were like and not like Pull the rug out from underneath. So sorry about that guys if if that's how you felt

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So let's get into it. Tonight, there's a new man on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. He's former U.S. State Department employee William Bradford Bishop, and he's been on the run for 38 years after the brutal murder of his entire family. Investigators in Maryland believe he used a sledgehammer to kill his wife, mother, and his three young kids in 1976. Then they say he set their bodies on fire in a shallow grave in North Carolina. The FBI thinks the Bishop could still be living in plain sight under a different name. William Bradford, Bishop Jr., who just went by Bradford or Brad, was born on August

1, 1936 in Pasadena, California, which for those of you who don't know is a beautiful upscale town located in Los Angeles, Chip parents LaBelia Bishop and William Bradford Bishop Senior. His father worked as a geologist independently and the three of them lived in a suburban area of South Pasadena. In high school, Brad was known to be an easygoing, confident, well-liked guy. He loved camping, being outdoors, and especially loved hiking. Brad attended South Pasadena High School and he was a quarterback on the football team, and that's how he met his high school sweetheart Annette Weiss, who was

a cheerleader. He was a good student and always boasted about wanting to be a doctor, and after graduating high school in 1954, he went on to study economics at Yale in Connecticut with plans to become a physician. Meanwhile, Annette, who was a year younger than him, stayed at South Pasadena High another year until her own graduation, but they remained in a cross-country relationship. Annette Weiss was born on April 14, 1938 in Toledo, Ohio, to her parents Gilbert and Eunice. She had a younger brother named Robert, and when they were kids, their parents decided to pick up and move the family to the beautiful residential city of San Marino.

After high school, Annette went to Berkeley in Northern California. Brad went on to play football in college too and he did very well in his classes at Yale, but he didn't end up graduating in 1958 like he had planned. During his junior year of college, he actually dropped out. It's believed that he did this because his dad was having a hard time finding work as a geologist and money wasn't really good at this point in time. But Richard returned to Yale the following year and graduated with the class of 1959, but he had changed his career plans. He no longer wanted to be a doctor, and now he was trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life.

In the summer of 1959, just after graduation, Brad moved back to California to be with a net. At that time, her family lived in San Clemente, which is a coastal town in southern California. So the two lived there at first, but in the fall, Braden listened himself in the army and was sent to New Jersey, where he went through basic training. At the same time, he also became a student at the Army Intelligence School in Baltimore, Maryland. After about a year of schooling, he was sent to Monterey, California for the Army's language school, where he began studying the Serbo-Croation Language and lived with his wife and net. In the fall of 1961, their first child, William Bradford Bishop, the third, was born. And just 10 days later, do you have something to say?

Well, that's a lot of brads. It's a lot of brads. So just 10 days later, Brad was then assigned to a military intelligence based in Europe. So the whole family moved to Italy. And more specifically, they were in Verona, Italy. So while living there,

Brad studied the Italian language as well as French and Spanish. For work, he basically spied on the Yugoslavians by gathering intel while listening to radio broadcast. After just less than a year, the bishops moved back to the US, more specifically for Mont, and Brad got a master's degree in Italian.

Months later, they moved back to Pasadena and had another child, a second son named Brenton Germain Bishop. These are very regal names. I feel like they did that on purpose, you think they just wanted that. Yeah, I feel like it's kind of like a status thing for sure. And if we know anything that we know about Bradford or Brad, it's that he definitely thought of himself pretty highly.

He was into status. So this family moved a lot, because in the fall of 1965, just a year after Brenton's birth, the bishops moved to Washington, D.C. and Brad entered the Foreign Service program for the state. A couple years later, he was transferred back to Italy this time in Milan. In the late 60s, the bishops returned back to California, and Brad actually went to go study at UCLA, where he got his master's degree in African studies. And this was his second master, so he was like doing very well in school, learning all these languages. He was definitely building up a resume for himself.

Yeah, definitely. That's when they had their third son, Jeffrey Cordor Bishop. Shortly after Jeffrey was born, Bradford's father then had passed away. So his mother, who was still living in the Pasadena area, moved in with her son and his family. Upon returning to the Washington, DC area in 1974, the Bishop family settled into Bethesda, Maryland,

which is a quaint yet urban metropolitan town that borders Maryland and Washington DC. Their home, located in Carter Rock Springs, featured four bedrooms, and although it was in a suburban neighborhood, it was surrounded by trees and big lush lawns, making each home in the area feel somewhat secluded, even though they were just a stones throw away from the neighbors. I actually looked at this house on Google Maps and the area is super beautiful. I mean, it's very green like you said, very lush, and like you also said, they're really close to the neighbors, but the houses are slightly pushed back and they're surrounded by trees, so definitely that nice neighborhood vibe, but you still have your privacy.

Right, so it doesn't feel like it's so cramped together. Yeah, not like cookie cutter, cold to sack thing. Brad's new job title in Washington, D.C. was Assistant of the Special Trade Activities and Commercial Treaties Division in the Office of International Trade of the special trade activities and commercial treaties division in the office of international trade of the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. Holy shit, say that fucking ten times in a row as fast as you can. I had to take a breath in the middle of that, that was long as hell. Basically it was a desk job that he wasn't too keen on.

It was pretty good for his sons though to be in this area. He kind of felt like they were settling in. They liked the area or at least the rest of the family did. And a lot of people noticed how special Brad's bond was with his sons. So all three boys, including Brad and Annette, they all enjoyed like local community sports and activities. For example, Brad and Annette were tennis players at the local tennis and swim club, and while they would play tennis, the boys would enjoy swimming when the weather was nice.

So kind of like a nice family atmosphere. So the bishops seemed to be living a beautiful and happy life in Maryland. Alongside being a stay at home mom, Annette really wanted to pursue her own interests as well So she started taking art classes at the University of Maryland and the whole family was incredibly neighborly and they really Attracted friends very easily Brad's mother LaBelia helped a lot around the house. She helped care for the kids She cooked she cleaned took the dog on a walk each night She didn't really have much money at all,

and actually in the earlier days when the bishops were going back and forth to Europe and other countries, he wasn't making very much money, and so a little bit before his father died. His mom would send him money and help let the family live in nicer places within these other countries, since Brad wasn't doing very well with his work, even though it seemed like he was, maybe because he was spending a lot of time with his coursework, I'm not really sure, but regardless, now, present day, she doesn't have a lot of money left because, you know, she's retired, she's in her late 60s, so she kind of relied on the bishops to help support her, and in turn, she helped in every way that she

could. Yeah, on the outside, they appear to be like the all-American family upscale kind of. Well, and they wanted to have this upscale appearance. And you know, you think they go to the tennis club, they swim, they have a nice home. He has a government job. You might think that they make pretty good money, but he was only making $26,000 a year at that time, which is more now, but even in that day that wasn't very much to support a family of five plus his own mother. So they really weren't doing that well. And I think that really bothered Brad because he was raised in that more wealthy

atmosphere. I mean, Pasadena is a very nice area. So I think he was used in that more wealthy atmosphere. I mean Pasadena is a very nice area. So I think he was used to this certain lifestyle and wanted to make something for himself. I mean he went to freaking Yale and now he's working a government job at a desk. He's not into it and he doesn't make very much money. Yeah, and not only that, but I mean he pretty much grew up having his ego stroked. I mean, let's think about it. This guy is extremely popular. He's the quarterback for his football team. Place football in college. Dates the cheerleader. Marries the cheerleader. This guy pretty much

has this appearance that he's like the perfect guy. And that's what a lot of people who knew him categorize him as. Is this all American? Well to do man." But as we know, things aren't always as they appear on the outside. Brad actually hated living in the US because there was a lot more competition for work and he wasn't making very much money. He loved being overseas mostly Italy and Africa. The jobs he worked overseas were more tight-knit and his good work was noticed more over. Back in Washington, D.C., it's much more of a doggie dog world, but Annette and Brad's mother didn't want to live overseas anymore, and they wanted to stay in the states.

In 1976, so within a couple years of their move back to the Washington, D.C. area, Brad was up for a promotion. But he didn't believe that he was going to get it because of all the competition in his field, so he was also very upset about that, and it definitely was affecting his overall attitude. And he sincerely believed he deserved this promotion because of his achievements. At one point, he was even top of his class. This caused some issues in a net and Brad's marriage because all of the work related stress,

so Brad began having an affair with another woman. And this is something a net would never find out about. So obviously it doesn't seem like Brad's very happy with his life at this point, even on the outside they seemed like they were a perfect family. And he had been seeing a therapist to try and help him through these issues, so it seemed like he was trying to improve his life, but things just weren't really going in his favor. Also I did read that the Foreign Service was very serious about promotions, so if you didn't get a promotion, you're pretty much out.

Like if you passed your opportunities of getting promoted, it was their way of saying you weren't really good enough to be there and it's not going to work. On Monday, March 1st, 1976, Brad, not to his surprise, learned that he did not, in fact, get the promotion. Afterwards, he told his secretary that he wasn't feeling well and that he would be leaving for the day. Brad drove from his office, which was the US State Department headquarters, to the bank where he withdrew all of his funds, which was only about $400. Which by the way today would be just under $2,000, but it was all they had in the family's

account. Then he went to the Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, where he purchased a ball-pean hammer, which is basically just a small sledgehammer, as well as an empty gas can, which he filled up later at a gas station. After these errands, he headed over to a hardware store where he bought a pitchfork and a shovel. Early the next day, a forest ranger in Columbia, North Carolina, had been dispatched to a densely wooded area near a swamp after someone in a fire tower had seen smoke coming from the trees. And I didn't know what a fire tower was,

so I had to google it. But for anyone else out there who does not know, a fire tower is basically just a look-out tower where someone known as a spotter will look around the area to detect fires. And actually those were also used during World War II, so they would use these fire towers to actually see planes that were flying overhead who were potentially gonna drop bombs and they were also used by the Forest Service to detect fires as well but there's actually a lot of them in Oregon and nowadays you can actually rent those and stay in them like Airbnb's. Really? Yeah it's actually pretty cool. I would definitely do that. Well I did read that they were also used for protection from fire, so I guess that makes sense

that you can stay in it. So, a spotter had seen smoke coming out of the trees near Columbia, North Carolina, and they reported it. When the forest ranger arrived to the area, he found a shallow grave with a pile of burned bodies. Alongside the bodies was a shovel with a label on it that indicated it was purchased at the Montgomery Mall. This grizzly scene was nearly 300 miles away from the bishops' home, and since none of the five bodies found had identification on them, they had to wait to find the victim's further investigation. The following week on Wednesday, March 10, 1976, one of the bishops' neighbors called the police. She hadn't seen anyone in the family and over a week, and she was beginning to worry that

something had happened. The newspapers had began piling up in the driveway, and Annette had missed their tennis match. When police arrived to investigate, they noticed blood on the Bishop's front porch. When they entered, they were surprised to find an absolute blood bath, and one officer even described it as a horror house. There was blood in the front hall, as well as on the walls and the furniture and all the bedrooms. Around this same time, the five bodies found in North Carolina were identified to be a

net bishop, her three sons Bradford, Brenton, Jeff, and Brad's mother, LaBelia, through dental records. So, now that this case crossed multiple states, the FBI became involved. What's strange to me is that the neighbor was the one to call police and that Brad's work never got worried enough to do that. And I mean, maybe they called the house to check in on him or just figured he bounced after not getting the promotion, but it's weird that nine days went by and that it was the neighbor who did it.

You know, it wasn't a friend or, I mean, she was a friend. But yeah, you'd think maybe a relative or a close friend or maybe a coworker or a boss maybe. Usually work notices when you don't show up, especially because the day that Brad left for work, he said, I'm not feeling well, I'm gonna leave early. So you think they would've been like, hey, Brad wasn't feeling well yesterday

and he's still not here today Next day still not here came kind of worried right exactly and nowadays I think what they do is they do a welfare check so they'll send a police officer to the house to make sure that Everything is kosher. I feel like they honestly probably just thought that he left after the promotion thing Because like I said his line of work was very serious about promotion So maybe they were gonna fire him anyways since he didn't get the promotion? I don't know. Yeah, that's very possible. So police were now on the search for Brad Bishop.

Their initial theory was that the whole situation was a robbery gone wrong, so they started thinking that Brad had also been murdered and that his body was hidden somewhere. They thought maybe it had to do with his work, you know, since he was a diplomat, and some people believe that he was a spy. And with these kinds of government and military jobs, your life could be put in danger, so there's also that. Right, and they started looking into that. But they also noticed that the family's Golden Retriever Leo was missing, along with Brad's maroon 1974 Chevrolet station wagon. As police began interviewing people and putting a story together, Brad turned from a potential victim to a potential suspect. Especially when they learned that on the day the Bishop family was

suspected to be murdered, he'd lost out on a promotion, left work early, and purchased all these suspicious supplies. And the shovel he purchased was left at the scene of the crime. Autopsy reports state that a net in her three sons had died from blows to the head with a blunt object. Meanwhile, Brad's mother, LaBelia, is thought to have died from a heart attack. She had a bruise on her forehead, indicating that she had been hit. Either by the hammer, or she had fallen and hit it on something during the attack. Here's what police believed happened the night of the murders. Brad came home around 6.30pm or 7pm that night.

The family ate dinner and LaBelia did the dishes, and put the kids to sleep before heading out to take Leo the golden retriever on his nightly walk. While she was out, it's believed that Brad went first to his wife Annette who was laying on the couch and began beating her with a hammer. And this theory exists because of the blood stains found by the way. Brad then likely went to one of the boys' rooms and bludgeoned them before moving to the next room to murder his other sons who shared a bunk bed. Apparently, there were numerous marks on the ceiling above the top bunk, indicating that the back of the hammer had hit the ceiling while the blows occurred, proving it to be

incredibly brutal, especially because of the massive amounts of blood covering the entire room. It's believed that when LaBelia came back from her walk with Leo, the dog, she walked in on the horrifying scene and locked herself in the bathroom where she likely had a heart attack from the fear of it all. At the time of their deaths, a net was 37, LaBelia was 68, Bradford III was 14, Brenton 10, and Jeff was just 5 years old. When their bodies were found, Annette was wearing her day clothes and even her shoes. All the boys were in pajamas, and his mother was in the same coat she'd worn to take Leo on the walk. After the murders occurred, it's believed that Brad then piled the bodies

of his family members into the back of the station wagon one by one before heading back inside, taking a shower and changing his clothes. Police found a few items of Brad's bloodied clothing rolled up on a shelf in his closet, which proves their theory even more. He then would have driven 275 miles or 440 kilometers to Columbia, North Carolina, where he then burned the bodies. And that means that he drove six hours while his brutally murdered wife, children, and mother were all in the back of the car at night. How absolutely horrifying. And what kind of person could even do this drive let alone these murders because I just I can't get over thinking about driving the car and There's five dead people in the back of your car people who you supposedly love and they're murdered brutally You know what I mean like just driving at night like oh my god

It's just hard to think about yeah, that sounds like a nightmare. That sounds like a horror movie and honestly That's basically what this case is. This guy is truly evil. So the burning of the bodies didn't quite go as planned. Police believed that he was hoping to completely burn their bodies and then bury them so they couldn't be found hence why he drove so far away. But then, since it was in a wooded area, trees caught fire and it caused this massive blaze, so he had to get out of there fast. The following day, there was a supposed

sighting of Brad in North Carolina, but this sighting wasn't reported until later because of the fact that people didn't know who he was until after the bodies were linked to the bishops. Brad was buying tennis shoes at a sporting goods store in Jacksonville, North Carolina, which is a whole two hours from Columbia, North Carolina, where the bodies were found, and he was apparently seen with a reddish, large dog and a dark-skinned woman. And we do know that his dog was a more reddish-colored golden retriever. It's not confirmed if they were really together him and this woman, or if they just happen to be standing near each other, but I don't know, it seems like to me if this woman existed

you would hope that she would have come forward and nobody did, so. But we do know that the tennis shoes were definitely purchased because Brad's credit card was used, which is why the siding is believed to be very credible. What I'd really like to know is if he packed a suitcase, but I don't know if there's any way to really prove this because unless all or a significant amount of his clothes were gone, police wouldn't have any way of knowing what could be missing from his normal wardrobe. I feel like in cases like this they usually have someone within the family or within the home to say, these things are missing from this wardrobe.

I would know what was missing from your wardrobe, maybe. I mean, even me, I live with you, and I don't know if I could really tell that. So, I don't know if the police could tell, but that would be something that would be some good information to have. Well, you know what else is interesting here in this case is that he left these bloodied clothes folded up in his closet behind. He took the bodies away to cover up evidence and burn the bodies, but he left his bloody clothes. I don't know why he would take them so far, because having blood on your clothes and, you know, rolling them up, throwing them in the closet, police are obviously going to find it, they're going to search the whole house. So this puts you at the scene of the murder if your clothes have blood on them. So I don't know why he would do this and then make such an effort to try and hide the bodies.

Unless he knew that he wasn't going to get away with this, or he just didn't give a shit, and he was more concerned about getting rid of the bodies so that he could get the hell out of the country or something, I don't know. Moving those bodies would have taken a lot of work. I mean, not only do you have to drive the distance, but you have to put them in and out of the country or something, I don't know. Moving those bodies would have taken a lot of work. I mean, not only do you have to drive the distance, but you have to put them in and out of the car, and then, you know, like he took the gasoline that he had purchased, and he set them ablaze. That's effort.

So why would he do that instead of just changing his clothes and running out of the house and starting a new? And also, I was thinking at first, I was thinking, well, how did none of the neighbors see him piling these bodies into the car? But then I thought, well, maybe he covered them in a blanket or black plastic, or maybe his car was in the garage,

and he put the bodies in the car there. That's a good point. I actually don't know if his car was in the garage or what their garage situation is, but like I said, their house was a little bit back. They had a not a long driveway, but their house was definitely not directly on the street, and their house was covered by a ton of trees. So especially at night, no one would have been able to see this happen. Oh, that's true. We also have to take into

account that he probably did this in the wee hours of the morning. And we know it happened, at least after 7pm. I believe his mother took the dog on a walk around 9pm, so it had to have happened after that some point when it was definitely dark. Sure, that makes sense. This case was major news, not just on the east coast or in the nation, but also internationally. Because Brad was a linguist, police feared that he had fled the country, so they notified international police agencies to keep an eye out for him. At the time of the murders, Brad was 6'1 and around 180 pounds with brown hair.

He had a cleft chin, a mole on his left cheek, and a 6 inch scar on his lower back from surgery when he was a kid. So the world was on the lookout for Brad Bishop. On March 18th, Brad station wagon was discovered at a campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Elkmont, Tennessee. A whole 400 miles or 640 kilometers from where the bodies were dumped and just a few miles from the Appalachian Trail. As we mentioned, Brad was an avid, hiker, and outdoorsman, and he was also a survivalist. He had mentioned to people before that he always wanted to just live off the land and be more off-grid.

Since his car was found at a campground, it's believed that he abandoned the car and set off on foot. Of witness came forward and stated that they believed to have seen the car there on March 5, meaning that he had potentially gotten there four days after the murders. Police had bloodhounds try to trace his scent, but they didn't have any luck.

When they searched the car, Brad was not in it. Nor was he anywhere in the area. That's when, inside the car, they found the receipts for all the supplies that he had purchased, the shovel, the hammer, the pitch fork, which were all bought using cash. In the car, they also found dog biscuits, a bloody blanket, likely placed over the bodies, so passing cars wouldn't see, and acts, a shotgun, a shaving kit, and pools of blood. The next day they matched the bloody fingerprints found in the home to those of Brad Bishop.

After more interviews, a coworker of Brad's stated that they were aware that Annette and LaBelia often belittled him and made him feel like he wasn't good enough. Not at work, not with family, not with anything. They apparently just looked at him like he was a fuck-up, and this helped police create motive and piece this whole puzzle together. It's also believed that Brad's family was driving him crazy. He had mentioned to other people that his mom living with him really wasn't ideal, and him having three boys running around the house kind of drove him nuts. I think also with the belittling situation is a big thing because that causes like major

resentment if someone makes you feel kind of like a peon. Yeah, and we're actually watching a show right now called Fargo. I was totally about to bring that up. Yeah, so in Fargo, this is basically what happens. One of the main characters in the show, his wife kind of be littles him, makes him feel like a small man, and then he ends up, well, I don't want to give it away, but he ends up killing her. And it's the same thing, you know, she's saying that he doesn't make enough money, that, you know, he's just basically not good enough, he doesn't do enough for her, he's not man enough, and that seems to be kind of what was happening here too.

Yeah, and also remember, Brad thought very, very highly of himself. He thought that he was going to grab the world by the balls and just really achieve every goal he ever had. And since he wasn't living up to that, I think he was extremely discouraged, but still not an excuse for murder. Of course, but I agree. I think he was probably disappointed in himself and felt like his family was holding him back, and here they are blaming him for all this stuff, and he's not achieving his goals because of them in a way, like I said, holding him back or whatever, so just a lot going on. Yeah, and I guess the one thing that I would say to this is, if you have a different idea for your life, don't have a family. Don't have kids. Don't get married.

I mean, go do your thing by all means, but you know, once you have a family and you start this family, killing your family is not going to make anything better for you. I mean, shit, just get a divorce. So since this was the late 1970s, you could pretty much get on a plane and barely have to show identification since there was no TSA. After 9-11, as we know, things became a lot more secure, but in the 70s, when flying was much more casual, it would have been very easy for Brad to have gotten on a plane without being seen or noticed. And especially because back then we didn't have smartphones where we could record everything that happens.

Or security cameras. So he probably would have had to have done this within the nine days between when he likely murdered his family and when the police searched the bishop home, but I mean that's still a ton of time. Regardless, police also believed that during his diplomatic training, it was possible that he would have learned how to flee without being detected. I think if he had gotten on a plane within these nine days, no one would have even known to look for him, but even if he had done it afterwards, it's not like today, like I said, where they can track if he got on a plane or not. They wouldn't have even been able to access that kind of information and by the way

I looked up the closest airport to see if he could have either hitchhiked or walked to one and The McGee Tyson airport, which is a public and military airport that opened in 1937 to serve Knoxville, Tennessee is just about 25 miles away from where his car was found, and that airport only appears to fly domestic flights. That's the only airport that's close by, but it's also possible that he hitchhiked somewhere else entirely. It's also possible that he never left the States and even remains in the area or flew or else in the US to start over. Or it's also possible that if it's true that he had a female affair going on or a accomplice, maybe not a accomplice, but she could have picked him up and taken him to

an airport as well. That's a great point. And a little bit more about Brad. He loves riding motorcycles so he definitely could have used one as transportation, but since he also loves exercising, so a long hitchhike or a long hike wouldn't have been hard for him. He also had his pilot's license, which makes people believe he could have really gone anywhere, especially since his passport was missing from the home. The only information we were able to obtain regarding his mental health was

that he had a history of insomnia and depression. Interestingly enough, the police went to his therapist and hopes to learn more about his mindset, and the therapist wouldn't tell them anything. And that's pretty common because of patient confidentiality, but when the therapist heard what had happened to the Bishop family and that Brad was likely the one behind it, he actually closed his practice altogether. Yeah, that's pretty wild. I mean, I understand because he probably had gotten to know Brad and felt like holy shit, I was trying to help this guy and then he did something so horrific.

Maybe he felt some guilt. I mean, he shouldn't have it all. It's not his fault. But a lot of people speculate that maybe the therapist knew more than he would say. I mean, he didn't say anything. So some people think that maybe he was just so ridden with guilt because maybe he could have stopped this. Maybe there were warning signs, things like that because in therapy, you know, you go deep. So the therapist would have probably known warning signs more than anybody else.

Right, but at the end of the day, I mean, there's only so much that a therapist can do. Oh, absolutely. I mean, Brad had his life in his own hands and he chose to make this horrific decision. Exactly. So let's get to some sightings. There have been numerous sightings of Brad since the Bishop Family Murders in 1976. In July 1978, a Swedish woman believed to have spotted Brad in Stockholm on two separate occasions during the same week at a public park. She was positive that it was him, and she had actually met Brad years prior while he had been living in Ethiopia on business, because she too had been there for her job and they worked together briefly.

She truly believed that her sighting of him was legitimate, though she didn't speak to him or interact with him at all during these sightings. But when she saw him, she apparently didn't know that he was wanted for murdering his family. So when she eventually found out, she then reported it. At this point, it was too late, and police unfortunately had no way to confirm whether or not this was true.

The following year, in January of 1979, another colleague of his spotted him, but this time in Cerento, Italy. He had a beard and he had previously always been clean shaven. But the man was still able to recognize him since he was working with him for the US State Department at some point. The man was in a public restroom in the town square when he looked at the bearded man right in the eye and said, hey, your Brad Bishop, aren't you? The man then apparently looked a bit panicked and responded in a distinct American accent

with, oh no, before running out of the bathroom and down the alleyway. But we have no idea if this was, oh no, or it's just a, oh no, I'm not him. Either way, I think that's kind of an odd response. Like if someone recognizes you and you're wanted for a quintuple murder, you should probably just act dumb or put on an accent and say, who? And then leave. You know, like, oh no, that's like, really suspicious. Well, if it was the, oh no, that's not me, then why the fuck would you run out of the

bathroom? Right. It was probably more of like an oh no. But all, I mean, just like I said, why would you say that? That's so, what's the word incriminating yes, but I mean who's if it was him who's probably super caught off guard you know you're not expecting to be noticed on September 19th 1994 so a whole 18 years after the murders on a train platform in Switzerland one of theishops' neighbors in Bethesda was on vacation when

they could have sworn they saw a clean shaven and well-groomed Bradbishop getting into a train car. As with any disappearance, there have been countless spottings from Belgium to England, to Finland, to the Netherlands, to Greece, to Spain, to California, you name it. But these ones are the most credible since they're all from people who have previously met Brad. So more than just somebody who's told him on the news, they would know whether or not it was him. Right, and in a lot of these different cases like this,

there's hundreds, if not thousands of people who come forward and say, oh yeah, I saw that person. And we've covered a lot of disappearance cases where the person was quickly murdered and we talk about the sightings of them and it's just like, no, they were dead at that point, you couldn't have seen them, you know? But I wonder how Brad would have survived

off that $2,000? I mean, it's definitely not nothing, but he would have had to have gotten a job wherever he fled to assuming that he did flee. And it probably would have had to have gotten a job wherever he fled to, assuming that he did flee, and it probably would have not been nearly as hard as it is now to establish a new identity back then, so I mean it's definitely possible, but people also have reason to believe that he's now deceased. At this time, Brad Bishop would be 83 years old.

Although he was always known to be very healthy and fit, he also had a heart murmur. And heart murmurs aren't always a big deal, and they don't always develop into something completely life-threatening, but many believe that this mixed with his older age could have already led to his death. In 2014, there was a deceased male in Alabama that was believed to be Brad Bishop. This man had been homeless and a similar age and build as Brad would have been, but he had been buried without being identified. After about a year, they looked at the photo of the man that was taken during the autopsy and so on on the team stated that he looked very similar to Brad Bishop. So they actually

exhumed this body to do DNA testing in 2014, but it proved not to be him. And this John Doe really does look similar to Brad. They have the same kind of turned down nose and thin lips and similar hair and hairline. If I had seen that photo, I probably would have said the same thing. So to me, knowing that that's not him, it's actually kind of surprising. It looks very similar to him. Well, I guess the way that they found out that it wasn't him was obviously through DNA testing, but also because of that surgery scar that Brad had on his back. Right.

So they noticed that this homeless man didn't have that same scar so they knew it wasn't Brad. Since police still believe that Brad could potentially be living either inside or outside of the US and in plain sight. A forensic artist for the FBI named Karen Taylor made an incredible age progression sculpture to show what Brad looked like at the time at about 77 years of age. And this age progression is pretty spot on as well and very well done. For anyone who wants to see that photo, check out our Instagram, which is at Going West Podcast. And I'll also throw it up on our Twitter at Going West Pod. We just passed the 44th anniversary of this horrible crime,

and we still don't have closure. Most importantly, neither do the friends and family of the bishops, and justice has not been served for a net, LaBelia, Bradford III, Brenton, and Jeff. Take a look at the photos we posted on social media to get a good look at the 2014 age progression done on Brad Bishop. And if you see him, please contact your local police department or the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office at 240-777-7022.

Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everyone, and next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. If you want bonus episodes, head on over to patreon.com such going West Podcast. And if you wanna see photos from this case or from other cases that we've covered, check out our Instagram at Going West Podcast,

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