William Bradford Bishop has been added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.
The FBI is urgently seeking the public’s help to find Bradley, who s wanted for allegedly bludgeoning to death his wife Annette, mother Lobelia, and three sons, William Bradford III (14), Brenton (10), and Geoffrey (5) at their home in Bethesda, Maryland, on March 1, 1976.
Investigators think that Bishop drove the bodies to rural North Carolina, buried them, and lit them on fire.
He hasn’t been identified in public since he bought a pair of sneakers in Jacksonville, NC in 1976.
“Media wasn’t the same in 1976 as it is now. You didn’t have 24-hour news stations that many people watch in the gym or sitting in airports. You also didn’t have social media, like Facebook or Twitter back then,” said Steve Vogt, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Baltimore Division, in the announcement.
“All that has changed with the Bishop case is the passage of time. Bishop broke with his life and assumed a new identity. Because of that fact, most traditional fugitive investigative techniques are worthless. We’re hoping media and people who are active on social media pay attention to this; they’ll be the ones to solve this case.”
Bishop is a white man and 6’1” tall and 180 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes when he was last seen in 1976. He has a six-inch vertical surgical scar on his lower back that would still be visible.
“This was a horrific case that involved five innocent members of one family, including three young children, who were all brutally murdered in a place in which they felt safe and by a person whom they trusted. It is unthinkable that a man who is a son, a husband, and a father could commit such a terrible crime,” said Chief Thomas Manger with the Montgomery County Police Department in the announcement.
Anyone with information should go to tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
