Amanda Bishop, the wife of Tennessee Army National Guard member Jacob Bishop, who was discovered by his mother shot to death, bound, and zip-tied in his apartment in 2019, has been arrested, along with her cousin, Eric Byrd, authorities said.
On Wednesday, the Loudon County Sheriff’s Department issued a Facebook statement announcing the break in the now five-year-old murder investigation.
Amanda Bishop, 39, and Byrd, 39, were arrested in Kingston, Tennessee, on August 13. Amanda is a Kingston resident, according to court records. Byrd is a Lenoir City resident. Both are incarcerated at the Loudon County Detention Center. Both are charged with first-degree murder, according to an indictment acquired by Law&Crime. Each defendant’s bond is set at one million dollars.
“We hope that these arrests bring some measure of peace to Jacob Bishop’s family and all those affected by this senseless tragedy,” Loudon County Sheriff Jimmy Davis stated.
According to investigators, in October 2019, Jacob Bishop, then 35, returned to the United States from a yearlong Army deployment in Poland.
In a 2021 interview with Knoxville NBC affiliate WBIR, Bishop’s mother recounted how she found her son five months after he returned to the States. She arrived at his place, alarmed because he had not returned her calls, and found him tied up.
“When you find your son dead on the floor in his apartment, it sticks in your mind and doesn’t go away. “It does not go away,” Diane Bishop stated.
For years, the case went unsolved, and when WBIR reported two years after Bishop’s death, Jacob’s case was the last unsolved homicide in Loudon County in decades.
Bishop’s mother described him as a kind, sociable man, and police confirmed this during their investigation. Detectives ended up looking at over 400 probable suspects with ties to the late soldier.
And nobody talked badly of him.
Bishop’s mother told WBIR that she would not call her son a “saint,” but that he was a good man.
Jacob and Amanda Bishop were in the midst of a divorce and custody struggle when he died, according to authorities.
On Wednesday, after police announced the charges, the late soldier’s brother Josh Bishop told reporters that, while he was grateful for the discovery, it “doesn’t change nothing.”
“I still do not have my brother. My mother still does not have her son. But, in terms of justice, it’s good to know where they are, so no one can do this again,” he said.
Jacob Bishop is survived by his daughter, who is now seven years old.
Jacob Bishop’s brother stated that he wants his niece and the rest of the world to know that his brother loved his children, family, and country.
“What I really want is for his children to learn about their father. “There’s a 7-year-old girl who lost both her father and her mother,” Josh Bishop said.
“Today’s arrests are an important step toward justice for Jacob Bishop and his family,” Sheriff Jimmy Davis said Wednesday. “This case has remained a top priority for our office, and I commend the relentless efforts of our detectives and partner agencies who have worked tirelessly to bring those responsible to justice.”
Prosecutors did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s request for comment on Thursday.
Amanda Bishop and Byrd will appear in court again on August 19.