FBI Follows 480 Leads in Search for Bethesda 'Family Annihilator'

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In the year since the FBI put fugitive Bethesda diplomat William Bradford Bishop Jr. on its Ten Most Wanted list -- for the murder of his wife, three sons and mother with a hammer in 1976 – investigators have tracked leads from Mexico to Africa.

No one has seen Bishop, dubbed a “family annihilator” by the FBI, four nearly four decades. For years investigators assumed Bishop used his experience in the diplomatic corps to live overseas, likely in Europe.

Bishop was added to the notorious FBI list on April 10, 2014. On the one-year anniversary of that date, the federal agency said authorities have followed up on more than 480 leads. According to a news release, investigators have checked lookalike reports in grocery stores, neighborhood bars, truck stops, and even a bridge club. They have also learned from witnesses who came forward in the past year that Bishop had multiple extramarital affairs with women, a fact not previously known.

Possible Bishop leads include a loner living in Mexico whos body was found off the coast and an Alabama John Doe killed in a car accident in 1981, both determined through DNA testing not to be the fugitive.

In December 2014, investigators questioned a man living in Mexico, who they learned was 81-year-old fugitive Robert Anton Woodring, wanted in South Florida for failing to surrender to serve a sentence for mail fraud. Other tips have come in from the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, and Africa, the FBI says.

“The incredible amount of information we’ve received from the public has been great for this investigation. We have learned new details about Bishop from people who knew him and came forward when we put him on the Ten Most Wanted,” said Steve Vogt, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Baltimore Division. “We can’t stress enough that the calls and e-mails from the public will eventually lead us to finding Bishop and solving this tragic case. We need people to keep giving us those tips.”

FBI’s Most Wanted

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of William Bradford Bishop is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI. A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered for information that leads to his arrest.

Log onto www.fbi.gov to view more detailed information about the Bishop case, study the age-progressed photos, and view other related images that may help to identify Bishop.

A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Bishop in 1976 for the murders of his mother, wife and sons, ages 5, 10 and 14. Authorities have no sightings of him and say they don’t know whether he is still alive or if he has died in the past four decades. But they want to resolve the brutal slayings.

Investigators believe Bishop killed his family on March 1, put their bodies in the family station wagon, along with the family’s golden retriever, then drove to North Carolina where he buried them in a shallow grave and set their bodies on fire.

The last confirmed sighting of Bishop was one day after the murders when he purchased a pair of sneakers at a sporting goods store in Jacksonville, NC.

“Nothing has changed since March 2, 1976, when Bishop was last seen, except the passage of time,” said Special Agent Steve Voct of the FBI’s Baltimore field office.

Timeline of events

On March 8, 1976, a neighbor called police because she was concerned about the lack of activity at the Bishop home at 8103 Lilly Stone Drive in Bethesda. The neighbor had not seen anyone at the home for about a week. When Montgomery County Police officers entered the residence, they found a gruesome, bloody crime scene in several rooms.

Montgomery County detectives had been contacted earlier in the week by North Carolina authorities about five burned bodies that had been found in a wooded area. A shovel at the scene was purchased at a hardware store in Montgomery County.

Once police went to the Bishop home, investigators linked the two crimes, believing the burned bodies in North Carolina to be the missing family members. Dental records, jewelry, and clothing descriptions were used to positively identify the bodies found in the shallow grave as Bishop’s family.

As part of the investigation, detectives developed a timeline of Bradford Bishop’s activities before and after the murders. He had purchased a small sledgehammer and a gasoline can from the Sears at Montgomery Mall on March 1. That same day, he had also purchased gasoline at the Texaco station adjacent to the mall.

A vehicle similar to Bishop’s had been observed in the area of the fire. Bishop was last seen about 5:30 p.m. on March 2, when he bought a pair of tennis shoes at a sports store in Jacksonville, NC.

On March 18, 1976, Bishop’s vehicle was found by a park ranger at the Elkmont campground in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg, TN. Bloody clothing and an ax were inside the station wagon.

» Photos of fugitive William Bradford Bishop Jr. from the 1970s, plus FBI age-progressed images

Previous Patch Stories about Bishop:

• ‘Family Annihilator’ from Maryland Named to FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List
• Bethesda Father Sought for Killing Family Likely in Italy Says WTOP
• FBI: Bethesda Father Sought for Killing Family Likely in California
• 350 Tips in Hunt for Bethesda ‘Family Annihilator’
• Is Body Exhumed in Alabama That of Bethesda ‘Family Annihilator’?