Deceased/Not Found UT - Acacia Bishop, 19 mos, Salt Lake City, 25 May 2003 *K. Lodmell NG/Insanity*

Doyle

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The parents of two-year old Acacia Bishop hope to help all missing children this holiday. You may remember, Acacia disappeared in the spring. Police believe she was drowned by her grandmother in the Snake River in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=62667
 
Wouldn't it be wonderful if Acacia were found alive and well! Let's all pray that she is found safely and returned to her parent's loving arms. :angel:
 
I was just thinking about her hoping the same outcome. Sending Prayers to her and her family.
 
Grandmother accused of drowning toddler found not guilty of kidnapping

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A woman accused of snatching her toddler granddaughter and drowning the child in a river was found not guilty by reason of insanity Monday on federal kidnapping charges.

Kelley Jean Lodmell still faces state kidnapping and murder charges in Idaho. The insanity decision was reached by a judge in federal court in Salt Lake City, where prosecutors said 19-month-old Acacia Bishop was taken from her home in May 2003.

Lodmell, 40, then allegedly fled with to Idaho and jumped with the child into the Snake River. Lodmell climbed back out of the swift water near a power plant, but Acacia's body was never found.

* * *

U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball said Lodmell knew her actions were wrong. But experts for both the defense and prosecution agreed that she suffered from severe mental illness, most likely a type of schizophrenia.

* * *

Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Utah, said federal prosecutors will ask the judge to commit Lodmell to a locked mental health facility as a danger to the public. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Feb. 11.

The prosecutor for the case in Idaho said he would wait to see what happens before moving forward with the trial.

"Our main objective in this case is to ensure that the defendant is held in custody," said Bonneville County Prosecutor Dane Watkins Jr.

If the federal judge agrees that Lodmell should be committed, she would be held until she could prove that she was not a danger to society, Rydalch said.

"It's not necessarily for life, but could potentially be. We're confident that the record in this case will support a commitment for a substantial length of time," she said.

www.courttv.com
 
Oh wow.. I remember this case... from when the little girl was first missing.

I did not follow the trial and I don't know what to say about the not guilty verdict, I need to read up on it more. This was a young Grandmother as I recall in her late 30s I think.
 
Dear "Was Blind,"

Did your message not go through? I just read "for Acacia."

Everyone else: Has anyone heard any updated news on Acacia? Has Casey or Adam contacted anyone lately? How about the outcome on the psych exam?

I am working on our website's (http://TrueCrimeFanatic.com) pages for Acacia, if anyone has photos, memories, thoughts, information, or poetry for Acacia, please send me a private message so I can give you my email address. I have permission from her family to use photos and words, and have been sick, so unable to do so all the way as of yet, but if anyone has more--well, the more, the merrier.

Thanks,

Teraisa
(thanks WasBlind!)
 
I read recently that the grandmother was ordered released because she was mentally incapacitated and couldn't be held accountable for what she did to Acacia. I know they never found the baby's body. Is this true?
 
... as far as I know, anyway. I have not heard from Adam, or anyone from their family. But, since I have been sick, I have not been very available. Anyone else hear anything?

"...woman accused of kidnapping and drowning her own granddaughter, Acacia Bishop, will not stand trial in Bonneville County. On Tuesday, prosecuting attorneys announced the charges against Kelley Lodmell have been dropped. On January 3, Lodmell was found not guilty by reason of insanity in federal court..."

Also, I am searching for Emily Jeanette Garcia's family. We used to write and call, but their phones are out of service, their emails are off, and the site they had for Emily (she was 15, murdered when going off to take a preg. test--which was positive) is locked out because the period of time has passed and someone needs to renew. This is NOT like her family. I am so worried about the Bishops and Emily's family.

Teraisa
 
Does the family of Emily Garcia know the circumstances surrounding her death? Who did it, etc.?
 
No, they do not have a clue who took Emily and killed her and her unborn children. It's still so cold, it's frozen. I don't even know what to say.

One of the books I am working on will highlight her case, perhaps just one person who knows someone who knows someone... will read it and we'll learn the circumstances surrounding her death.

No news on Acacia or even her parents. I am devastated. Anyone hear anymore since her grandma, Kelley Jean Lodmell, got off on insanity?

Teraisa
 
There is so much information regarding some of these cases that is either wrong or not timely updated. Sites that have a large caseload in their database have a hard time keeping it accurate. I recently came across a site that listed Elizabeth Smart as still missing on it's site as of June 2005 as well as some other mistakes.

Acacia Bishop is still listed on NCMEC here
We also list her as well.

It sounds like a forgone conclusion that the grandmother drowned her from reading through this thread. I have read the trial information and will be updating our site to reflect the information of the grandmothers trial.
 
I agree with you, even my site often has stale information and sometimes wrong information. For instance, I simply reported the news as I got in on the Aruba case, and the next thing I know, the police came forward and said the police info. was wrong. The bummer is that I was watching CNN in bed and could not get up or I'd wake up my hubby. It took me two days to change it. I try to keep a log on my site saying when it was last updated and am thinking about placing one on the news section... it depends on the load time. For me, though, I try to list links to take others to the news outside of my site, where they change it day to day. Newspapers are notorious for wrong information.

When researching for book, The U-Haul Murders, I first used the newspapers as a guide to locate real information. Well, they got theirs from the police reports. The young man murdered at U-Haul (there were two murders, FYI) was totally identified BUT they spelled his last name wrong, turning it into a completely different name. This is the police report! Luckily, the news changes daily and soon it was corrected. For writers, at least it helps us figure where to go. I feel bad for news reporters (not only do they come off as rude many times, but) they have less than 24 hours to locate their story, do all reseach, write, rewrite, edit, rewrite and publish. What a deadline! There are bound to be mistakes (oooh, I just realized this may sound like I am upset about the previous post, but I am not, I assure you all, just wanted to get a bit of sympathy AND to remind people there are a lot of good sites, many not good sites, and many sites that mean to be good, but only the reader can decide what information goes in the cart stored in your head!).

Gee whiz, I am rambling (supposed to be working!). Sorry, as I continue...

I personally know many of the sites for the missing, murdered, found bodies, etc. and the majority are caring volunteers working from home after working all day and taking care of babies or kids, or worse, they are grieving parents dealing with too much stress... Does all this make sense? She is right, though, probably every site will have mistakes--every single one, but you just need to sort through it and get to the heart of the story--then do whatever you can to help. If you see a mistake, please write to the editor in a kindly way (who EVER wants to be told they made a mistake?)--tell them something you love about them or their site, mention the mistake AND HOW IT CAN BE CORRECTED, then remind them you'll come back because you adore them, ha, ha!

Okay, back to Acacia. As for the grandma probably drowning her. It is a 50/50 possibility, though the passing of time makes it very difficult to believe (think of A Beautiful Child, 16 yerars passed, then they found her--though she was dead when they did, she was kidnapped at 4, found at about 19-21).

What many stories do not mention, is that Kelley had done this BEFORE. This is not the first time she took Acacia, hid her with others, then said she killed her.

What do I personally think? It's too hard to tell not being there and not having heard from Adam or Casey in about a year. I am nervous for all of them. I wish they would find her body or find her. I guess that tells you what I think. Hmmmm...

I'll let you go. I was up crying for her parents all night. It just hit me hard last night as I was rewriting the story I know.

Teraisa
 
Bumping this for Acacia, have there been any new developements in this case? I was hoping, if she is alive, that maybe the grandmother would try to retrieve Acacia once she was released.
 
Thanks for the bumping of Acacia. I hope it works for more than you and I. I'm always searching a bit, just don't find anything new. I don't really want to bother the police, as if they could tell us anything legally, I'd guess we'd have heard something.

Good thinking about the grandmother. Is she out already? I will have to check that out. I was pretty sure she would not stay in for life, but I certainly thought it would be longer than this. You should go there and follow her around, ha, ha!

The Charley Project has age progression photos. They are a year behind, I believe, but she probably looks similar to the last photo still.

Charley Project Age Progression Acacia Patience Bishop

Here's a random story I found on Lodmell:
Mission of Help

If I find more, I'll come back and share the news.

Teraisa
 
Thanks Fanatic. I think about her so often and pray that her parents will get an answer one day, whether it be good or bad. I for one think that the grandmother passed her off to someone, and I hope that she is being cared for.
 
Oh, no thanks to me. It's something I HAVE to do. Like you, she just means a lot to me. I have had plenty of cops and detectives tell me how big Snake River is and how it's actually quite possible for her to be thrown into it and to never be seen again, even if they got divers there right away... but there's just something about Lodmell having done this before. There's something about Casey and Adam. There's something about Acacia.

Other families in the same position, I have listened understood, known there was a decent chance of either possible outcome and I did what I could to help move it forward. But none of the missing children cases hit me like this one. My mom is a bit--well, she has mental issues, even though she is very bright. Being smart combined with the other is a bad thing, really. My family also believes that because we had a major blow to our family just one month before I was born, that the things she did to me, the reasons I was in the hospital too much, now point to Munchausen by Proxy. It won't matter now, but it does show me things I need to know so I can understand others.

With Casey's mom, who really knows what's up with that, but there is something and it can unlock the door we are all looking for. Keep praying, keep hoping, and like you, I do hope for pretty much any kind of resolution, just so they can keep going.

You know what really scares me? If they find Acacia, she's alive, she gets to go home, and then she leads a life like Steven Staynor. That would be so sad and terrible. Oh man, now I am depressing myself. Sorry 'bout that.

Here's to a great new year, to finding out where Acacia is and to bringing her home safe, healthy and happy and to prosecuting all those involved with her abduction and imprisonment.

Teraisa (who promises to come back later with a smile)

PS: my website has been down for a long time now, my illness is just irritating me and when I do feel good, my computer is a pain--I finally got two new Apples, but as great as they are, they stink at creating websites. I don't really want to do it all by hand, as it takes long enough as it is. Once I do get it all up, though, I'll link to you. We are still managing to be in the top ten of Google, when you type in "true crime," so that means if nothing else, perhaps we can lead others to you guys. I'm off to read about the Butts' case.
 
Thanks for the candles and prayers. Between us all, Acacia's parents will at least know the true love and care of strangers. Anyone hear something new? I haven't heard from ANYONE regarding the case.

Teraisa
 

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