By early 1976, Bishop was anticipating a promotion at work. Bishop and his wife were both psychiatric patients.[6] Bishop suffered from depression and insomnia and was taking the medication Serax.[9] On the afternoon of March 1, he learned he would not receive the promotion he had sought.
After learning of this career disappointment, Bishop told his secretary he didn’t feel well and left work early.[1] Shortly thereafter, police believe that he first drove from Foggy Bottom (the neighborhood where he worked at the U.S. State Department headquarters) to the bank where he withdrew several hundred dollars. He then drove to Montgomery Mall and bought a sledge hammer and a gas can at Sears.[10] He then filled the gas can and family station wagon up at a gas station next to the mall.[10] From there, he drove to Poch's Hardware, which at the time was located next to Safeway, at the intersection of River Road and Falls Road. This is where police believe he purchased a shovel and pitchfork.[10] He returned to his home in Bethesda, Maryland, at around 19:30 to 20:00, after the children were put to bed. The police investigation shows that his wife was probably killed first.[2] His mother, who was returning home from walking the family's Golden Retriever, was killed next.[2]
Finally, his three sons (aged 5, 10, and 14) were killed while they slept in their beds in an upstairs bedroom.[2]
With the bodies loaded into the family station wagon, Bishop allegedly drove 275 miles (443 km), about a six-hour drive, to a densely wooded swamp off North Carolina Highway 94, about 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Columbia, North Carolina.[10] There, on March 2, he dug a shallow hole where he piled the bodies, doused them with gasoline, and set them ablaze.[10] Later the same day, a North Carolina state forest ranger was dispatched by a spotter in a fire tower to an area where smoke was rising from the trees; the fire spread over three acres.[10] The ranger discovered the burned bodies along with a gas can, a pitchfork, and a shovel with a label of "OCH HDW", which was tracked to Poch's Hardware a week later.[10]
It was later confirmed that Bishop visited a sporting goods store in Jacksonville, North Carolina, that same day and used his credit card to purchase tennis shoes.[1] According to witnesses, he had the family dog, a golden retriever named Leo, with him on a leash and was possibly, but not certainly, accompanied by a woman described as "dark skinned".[11]
According to police reports, a week later, on March 10, a neighbor of the Bishops in the Carderock Springs neighborhood in Bethesda grew concerned about the family's absence, claiming she hadn't seen them for about a week. The neighbor contacted local police, who dispatched a detective to the nearby neighborhood. After meeting the neighbor, who had a key to the Bishop home, the detective decided to enter the home to see if anything was wrong. As he approached the front door, he found droplets of blood on the front porch and entered the house to discover spattered blood on the floor and walls. The children's room was covered from ceiling to floor and wall to wall with blood, as well. The detective stated that in his 12 years as a police officer, it was the worst crime scene he had ever observed. In addition, it was stated that one of the most disturbing pieces of evidence were marks on the ceiling of a bedroom where two boys were sleeping in bunk beds of the hammer swinging and hitting the ceiling. Shortly afterward, dental records were used to confirm that the bodies found in North Carolina were of Bishop's wife, Annette, his mother, and three sons.[12]
On March 18, the Bishop family car, a 1974 Chevy station wagon, was found abandoned at an isolated campground in Elkmont, Tennessee[13] in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a few miles from the Appalachian Trail and about 400 miles (640 km) from the Columbia-area pyre.[1][10] The car contained dog biscuits, a bloody blanket, a shotgun, an ax and a shaving kit with Serax; the spare-tire well in the trunk was full of blood.[10] According to a witness, the car had been there since March 5–7. Police theorized that Bishop could have joined the flow of hikers on the Appalachian Trail. They attempted to follow his scent with bloodhounds, without success.
Europeans, have you ever seen this man before?
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Originally Posted by Anthrotardanoia
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