TPMMuckraker

Alabama Professor Charged With Murder In Disputed 1986 Shooting

Amy Bishop

Amy Bishop, the Alabama biology professor who allegedly shot three colleagues to death in February, was indicted today in Massachusetts for the murder of her brother at their Braintree, Massachusetts, home in 1986.

As TPMmuckraker has reported, the shooting of Bishop’s brother Seth was presented as an accident at the time. She was not charged. But after the alleged Alabama shootings this year, media reports indicated the investigation of the 1986 incident was rife with irregularities.

The indictment for first-degree murder was announced by Norfolk District Attorney William Keating at a press conference today, and it follows a judicial inquest on the case that was initiated earlier this year.

The Boston Globe highlights one interesting discovery by the DA:

Keating also found that police reports, along with crime scene photos, suggested Bishop may have intentionally shot her brother. One photo of her bedroom, where she had loaded the 12-gauge shotgun, showed a National Enquirer article chronicling actions similar to Bishop’s that day. The article reported that a teenager wielding a 12-gauge shotgun killed the parents of actor Patrick Duffy, who played Bobby Ewing on the television show, “Dallas,” and then commandeered a getaway car at gunpoint from an auto dealership.

But don’t expect a trial on the Seth Bishop case anytime soon.

Norfolk District Attorney spokesman David Traub tells TPMmuckraker that the DA will defer to Alabama authorities and there will not be a review of whether Amy Bishop can be brought to Massachusetts until the Alabama case is finished.

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