Did Alleged Killer Amy Bishop Murder Her Brother?

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As authorities continue to gather clues into what might have prompted University of Alabama neurobiology professor Dr. Amy Bishop to allegedly open fire on six colleagues at a Feb. 12 faculty meeting – at which three people died, including the department chairman, and the other three were wounded – investigators in her home state of Massachusetts have uncovered evidence they say suggests Dr. Bishop may have intentionally gunned down her 18-year-old brother with a 12-gauge shotgun in 1986.

The state's Norfolk District Attorney, William R. Keating, on Thursday requested a judicial inquest into the death of brother Seth Bishop, which previously was ruled accidental, reports the Boston Globe.

And, in a case that continues to fascinate, according to a New York Times report this week, shortly after Bishop's arrest in the Huntsville, Ala., incident became known, campus police received a series of unsettling reports about Dr. Bishop, 45, a neuroscientist with a Harvard Ph.D. Among them was one from several biology-department insiders who warned that she may have booby-trapped the university's science building with a type of "herpes bomb" to spread the hazardous virus, according to police.

Re-Examining the Brother's Death

In regard to the brother's shooting, Keating said at a Thursday press conference that serious mistakes were likely made in the initial investigation of Seth Bishop's death, and that witnesses gave conflicting stories describing the crime scene – making the DA wonder if perhaps the tragedy in Alabama could have been avoided has a more thorough probe occurred in 1986. "We owe this process to the Commonwealth," Keating said. "We also owe this to the grieving families in Alabama."

According to records, Bishop took her father's shotgun on Dec. 6, 1986, loaded it in her bedroom, and then fatally shot her brother in the kitchen of the family's Braintree, Mass., home. She followed by running to a car dealership, where she held two workers at gunpoint and demanded a car.

Keating further stated that attempts by his office to interview Amy Bishop's parents – mother Judy (the only eyewitness) and father Samuel (a material witness) – were declined. Their attorney, Bryan J. Stevens, also declined comment.

Many Questions Raised

An inquest into the 1986 death will remain closed to the public, though findings could be announced. According to the Globe Keating may then choose to offer evidence to a grand jury, which could indict Bishop for homicide, the only crime for which there is no statute of limitations.

U.S. Representative William D. Delahunt, who was Norfolk District attorney in 1986, earlier this week pointed a finger at Braintree Police for leading him to rule Seth Bishop's death accidental, but now supports a new inquest, "given the many questions that have been raised surrounding the death of Seth Bishop and its immediate aftermath, combined with the review by the DA and the lack of cooperation from Judith and Samuel Bishop."

Further related to Amy Bishop, on Thursday federal prosecutors announced a new review of a 1993 case in which a Harvard neurobiology professor who supervised Bishop received two pipe bombs in the mail three weeks after he terminated her job at the lab. The bombs did not go off, and there were no injuries. Although Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were questioned, no one was ever charged in the case.