THE SEARCH FOR BRAD BISHOP

After government worker Bert Bishop killed his family on March 1, 1976 - Bishop had about a week before the bodies of his family were discovered and identitied. It has been suggested that he could have traveled on his diplomatic passport. FBI Special Agent Steve Vogt stated in 2014 that neither Bishop's wallet nor passport have ever been found. It has also been speculated that Bishop may have had intelligence training in the 1960s which could have helped him evade detection in 1976.Since 1976, there have been numerous claimed sightings of Bishop in various European countries, including Italy, Belgium, England, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The three most credible sightings noted by the United States Marshals Service are:

In July 1978, a Swedish woman, who said she had collaborated with Bishop while on a business trip in Ethiopia, reported she had spotted him twice in a public park in Stockholm during a span of one week. She stated she was "absolutely certain" that the man was Bishop. She did not contact the police at the time because she had not yet realized he was wanted for murder in the U.S.

In January 1979, Bishop was reportedly seen by Roy Harrell, the State Department colleague who had last seen him before the murders, in a restroom in Sorrento, Italy. When Harrell greeted a bearded man eye-to-eye, asking him, "Hey, you're Brad Bishop, aren't you?", the man responded in a distinctly American accent, "Oh no", and fled.

On September 19, 1994, on a Basel train platform, a neighbor who had known Bishop and his family in Bethesda was on vacation and reported that she had seen Bishop from a few feet away. The neighbor described Bishop as "well-groomed", and said that he was getting into a car.

After the initial investigation, the Bishop case became the subject of articles in national publications like Reader's Digest and Time at milestone anniversaries. It was followed on an ad hoc basis by The Washington Post, the Washington Star, and The Washington Times as well as local Washington, D.C. television stations. The case was featured on television shows such as NBC's Unsolved Mysteries, ABC's Vanished and Fox's America's Most Wanted. Bishop was profiled on the AMW website thirty-three years to the day since his family's bodies were discovered, with a new age-enhanced bust of him with facial hair. A German TV show, Aktenzeichen XY… ungelöst, also featured the case in its 250th episode on November 6, 1992, to find possible evidence of Bishop living abroad.

In 2010, authorities believed Bishop was living in Switzerland, Italy or elsewhere in Europe, or possibly in California; he may have worked as a teacher or become involved in criminal activities. Authorities revealed in 2010 that before the murders, Bishop had been corresponding with federal prison inmate Albert Kenneth Bankston in the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, though it is unknown why or how. Bishop evidently had instructed Bankston to send letters to his State Department office address. America's Most Wanted posted on its website the last letter from Bankston, which he had mailed to Bishop sixteen days after the murders unaware that Bishop was a fugitive and unable to receive mail at his office. Bankston died in 1983, ten years before law enforcement discovered his connection to Bishop.

In 2014, the FBI exhumed the body of an unidentified man resembling Bishop who had been killed by a car in 1981 while walking along an Alabama highway. A DNA test indicated the man was not Bishop. The FBI also used fingerprints to determine in 2011 that reports that Bishop had died in Hong Kong or France were false.

Authorities stated in 2014 that Bishop was probably living in plain sight in the U.S. and avoiding discovery by avoiding arrest. An arrest on any charge would enable law enforcement to fingerprint him, which in turn would link him with the murders.That same year, at the request of the FBI, forensic artist Karen Taylor created an age progression sculpture to suggest Bishop's projected appearance at about age 77. Using Taylor's sculpture, several alternative images were created by Lisa Sheppard to show the addition of facial hair and glasses.

In early April 2014, WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. launched a webpage to display multiple investigative reports and extensive information on the Bishop case. This included samples of Bishop's handwriting, fingerprints, dental records and previously unseen Bishop family videos. On July 27, 2014, the search for Bishop was a featured story on The Hunt with John Walsh on CNN.

In March 2021, a woman who had been adopted came forward claiming she found out through a DNA testing service that Bishop was her biological father. The FBI confirmed that she was indeed his biological daughter.

If you have any tips or sightings of Brad Bishop, please reach out to the FBI...