Massachusetts Woman's DNA Test Reveals Father Is Murder Fugitive

A Massachusetts woman found out more than she bargained for after receiving results from a DNA test recently.

Kathy Gillcrist, 63, who grew up south of Boston, says her birth father was confirmed to be William Bradford Bishop Jr., who is accused of violently murdering his wife, mother and three sons with a small sledgehammer and a notorious fugitive wanted by the FBI since 1976, Boston.com reports.

“I just laughed,” Gillcrist told WECT last week in relation to finding out then shocking results. “We have a great sense of humor in my adoptive family and I thought, ‘Of course, my father’s a murderer!'"

Gillcrist said she first took a 23andMe test in 2017, which resulted in a single match: her third cousin, Susan Gillmor, a genealogist in Maine who, like Gillcrist, was also an English major and a teacher.

Gillmor decided to use her profession to help Gillcrist learn more and convinced her to take an Ancestry DNA test next, which revealed more about their connection through Gillcrist's birth mother.

Gillcrist eventually discovered her father's lineage, which revealed to match the man wanted by the FBI since the 1970s.

“To be able to take a hammer to your children’s heads and faces while they’re sleeping, I think, really exhibits the brutality of the crime,” said FBI case agent Charles Adams via WECT.

The FBI said Bishop suffered from insomnia and was under psychiatric care prior to the murder incidents and was reported to have driven his family's remains more than 300 miles from Bethesda, Maryland to Columbia, North Carolina.

Bishop's vehicle was later discovered at the Great Smokey Mountains National Park with maps and hiking information inside. The FBI characterizes him as an avid outdoorsman who had camping experience, which made it difficult to track him after locating his vehicle.

Bishop was added to the FBI's most wanted list in 2014.

You can read more here.

Photo: FBI