After a nearly five-year investigation that targeted hundreds of suspects, Tennessee authorities have announced they believe a custody dispute was behind the killing of a National Guardsman who was zip-tied and shot to death in 2019.
Loudoun County authorities announced Tuesday that Amanda Bishop, 39, and Eric Byrd, 39, have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jacob Bishop, a Tennessee National Guard soldier who had returned from a deployment to Poland several months before he was shot and killed.
Amanda Bishop, of Kingston, and Byrd, of Lenoir City, were both arrested Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement that bail was set at $1 million for each. Court records in the case were not available as of Thursday night, and it was unclear whether Byrd or Amanda Bishop, Jacob Bishop’s wife at the time of his murder, had attorneys.
Byrd is Amanda Bishop’s cousin, Knoxville NBC affiliate WBIR-TV reported.
Loudoun County Sheriff Jimmie Davis argued at a news conference Tuesday that a escalating battle over custody of the couple’s children created the animosity that ultimately led to Bishop’s murder.
Details about the dispute were not immediately available. Relatives of Jacob Bishop did not respond to requests for comment Thursday night. Contact information for Amanda Bishop’s relatives could not be found.
Authorities found Jacob Bishop dead in his apartment in Lenoir City, southwest of Knoxville, just before 8 a.m. on Oct. 1, 2019. He had been bound and shot multiple times, according to the sheriff’s office.
According to the sheriff’s office, Jacob Bishop’s body was discovered by his mother, who told WBIR in 2021 that she had gone to her son’s home because he was late for work and thought he had overslept.
“When you find your son dead on the floor of your apartment, it’s a shock that’s burned into your mind,” Diane Bishop told the station. “It’s a shock that never goes away.”
She told the station that she wouldn’t treat her son like a saint, but that he was a “very good person.”
In a 2021 report, former Loudoun County Sheriff Tim Gidner told WBIR that the case is “complex” but remains open, with an ongoing investigation taking place daily.
More than 10 law enforcement agencies are involved in the investigation, including the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Texas State Sheriff’s Office, the sheriff’s office said in a news release Tuesday.
In a 2021 report, WBIR noted the sheriff’s office initially identified about 400 suspects with ties to Jacob Bishop. Asked about that figure during Tuesday’s press conference and whether Amanda Bishop had always been considered a prime suspect, Davis said she was “always at the top of the list.”
Davis credited the arrest to good detective work and modern technology, and said after five years of worrying whether the case would ever be solved, it was a relief to finally tell Diane Bishop that two people were in custody for her son’s murder.
“I don’t think we’ll ever really close a case like this,” he said, “but we can at least try to get her some justice.”
