Lyons Sisters

And if they can find the remains of the Lyons sisters we can finally put to the top two missing persons cases from the DC area. The Lyons sisters were my age when they disappeared in March of 1975. I also remember the hunt for Bishop back in 76 and the Washington Post and Washington Star printing a picture of the burnt out station wagon. The digital age has been a boon to cold cases.

WILLIAM BRADFORD BISHOP

DNA Test Surprise Reveals Woman's Father Was Maryland Killer William Bradford Bishop

“She said ‘OK, I found your father. All I’m going to do is give you his name,’” Gillcrist told WECT. “I said, ‘Is it someone famous?’ She said, ‘Um, yeah.’

By WECT • Published March 4, 2021 • Updated on March 5, 2021 at 3:44 pm

A North Carolina woman who was adopted discovered via DNA test and newly found relatives that her biological father was a mass murderer from Montgomery County, Maryland, who was put on the FBI's most-wanted list in 2014. ... Kathy Gillcrist said she always knew she was adopted, and wanted to track down relatives using a 23andMe DNA test in 2017, NBC affiliate WECT reports.

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The Case Against William Bradford Bishop

The trail for Bishop has been cold for 45 years. But that hasn't stopped authorities from trying to find the man they say killed his wife, mother and three sons. ... On the night of March 1, 1976, according to police, Bishop withdrew $400 from a bank before leaving work, telling his boss he might be getting the flu. ... But before going to his home in Bethesda, Bishop drove to Sears at Montgomery Mall and bought a gas can and a short-handled sledgehammer. He then headed to a hardware store in Potomac Village, where he purchased a shovel and a pitchfork.

Once home, authorities say, Bishop used the sledgehammer to kill his family: his wife, Annette; his mother, Lobelia, and his three sons, 14-year-old Brad, 10-year-old Brenton, and 5-year-old Geoffrey. ... Bishop then traveled with their bodies to the tiny town of Columbia, North Carolina, police say. There, he buried his family in a shallow grave and set their bodies on fire.

Later, investigators would find Bishop’s car in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, abandoned in a parking space at the base of a trail. Police think he left it there after driving eight hours from Jacksonville, N.C., where a store owner remembered a man with a dog buying a pair of Converse tennis shoes on March 2, 1976. ... After that, the trail went cold.

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