WASHINGTON (AP) – The FBI exhumed the body of an unidentified man in Alabama on Thursday in its search for a former diplomat accused of killing his family with a sledgehammer nearly 40 years ago.
In court filings, the FBI said there is a strong resemblance between photos of the John Doe in Alabama and former State Department diplomat William Bradford “Brad” Bishop Jr. He is accused of using a sledgehammer to kill his wife, mother and three sons in their Bethesda, Maryland, home in 1976. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave in Columbia, North Carolina.
The John Doe was killed when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver while walking on a highway in Scottsboro, Alabama, in October 1981. No charges were ever filed in that case
The last confirmed sighting of Bishop was at a sporting goods store in Jacksonville, North Carolina, the day after his family was killed. Two weeks later, his station wagon was found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, just over 200 miles from Scottsboro.
Given the size of the park, which encompasses more than 500,000 acres, Bishop, an avid outdoorsman, “could have remained in the North Carolina/Alabama/Tennessee area for many years without being discovered,” FBI agent Pamela Hanson wrote in an affidavit.