GUILTY AR - Louise, 81, & Christina Bishop, 40, Bentonville, 18 June 2009

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BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) - Bentonville police are searching for a mother and daughter who haven't been seen for more than a week.
Police say 40-year-old Christina Bishop and 81-year-old Louise Bishop last spoke to family members June 18.
http://www.wxvt.com/Global/story.asp?S=10600334&nav=menu1344_2


Family members told police when they went to the home the mother and daughter shared, they found some personal items, including medication, that were left at the home.Police said the Bishops may be driving a black 1997 Toyota Tacoma extended cab pickup with a disabled Arkansas license plate.
pictures at link http://www.4029tv.com/news/19860184/detail.html

They live together in a secluded, wooded area on J Street in Bentonville. The women were nowhere to be found. . .
"It's not customary for them to leave without telling anyone they are going, it's been a long amount of time since anyone's heard from them and the fact that they left medication in the house leads us to believe they weren't going on vacation," said Sgt. Justine Thompson, of the Bentonville Police Dept.
Neither of the women have a history of mental illness.

http://www.kfsm.com/news/kfsm-news-nwa-missing-women-bishop-bentonville,0,2559921.story
 
Bentonville police still don’t know the whereabouts of a mother and daughter who have been missing for more than a week. Louise Bishop, 81, and Christina Bishop, 40, were reported missing after family members could not reach them.
. . .

The Bishops may be driving a black 1997 Toyota Tacoma extended-cab pickup truck with disabled Arkansas vehicle license plate 129587.

On Tuesday, Bentonville Police Chief James Allen said police had not received any information concerning the women’s whereabouts.
http://www.nwanews.com/story_breakingnews.php?id=427
 
"When asked about the possibility of abduction, Simpson [Police Lieutenant] would say only the investigation is ongoing and police are examining all possibilities.

"All the options are still open," Simpson said. "That's probably the best way to put it."

Skupien
[Christina's cousin], a retired police investigator from Chicago, said he could not comment on the possibility of foul play in the Bishops' disappearance, but said he worried about some of Christina Bishop's friends.

"She had friends that were not the best of people, and it really concerns me," he said.

Simpson said Christina had some run-ins with police, mostly for alcohol-related offenses.
"
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2009/07/22/news/072309bzmissingwmn.txt

The surveillance video was taken on June 18 at 5:35 p.m. Louise Bishop and her daughter Christina Bishop were shopping at a Sam's Club in Bentonville. Two days later, when family went to their home, those groceries hadn't even been unpacked."When we came in, nobody was found inside and there was unpacked groceries from Sam's Club on the counter," said George Skupien, whose cousin is Christina Bishop.He last spoke with his cousin a few hours after that shopping trip. Police said they saw nothing out of the ordinary on the tape, which also shows the pair leaving in the car police are looking for.
http://www.4029tv.com/news/20123783/detail.html#

I hope they are looking at all possibilities. They owned land located in a rapidly developing area of Bentonville, so even if they didn't live luxuriously, they had quite a bit of money on paper, at least.
I don't understand how Christina's cousin spoke to her "a few hours" after the shopping trip, yet the groceries hadn't been unpacked yet when relatives went by the house 2 days later.
I've heard of no organized searches on the land where these women lived.


ETA Just noticed this thread should be titled "Notes to Myself." :crazy:
 
I'm here and following Steadfast. Thank you for the updates.
 
News tonight says their vehicle was found at an impound lot in Avoca, AR, on Thursday. It had been towed from Hots (sp) Gentlemen's Club in McDonald County, MO.
I'll go see if I can find links to print articles.
Here's an article about finding the truck from before they released the info about the gentlemen's club.
http://www.nwanews.com/news/2009/aug/22/truck-found-missing-women-case-20090822/
Also some info that may help identify the women:
Skupien said his aunt and cousin have unique characteristics that would make them difficult to forget.
“My aunt talks a lot like Zsa Zsa Gabor of ‘Green Acres,’” Skupien said. “She calls everybody darling.”
Louise Bishop is unstable walking and must be aided by someone, Skupien said. He said his aunt would not be walking around by herself.
Skupien said his cousin had a stroke years ago; she has a lazy eye and talks loudly. Her right hand also swings when she walks, he said.
Family members of the Bishops are offering a reward up to $5,000 to any person providing information concerning the whereabouts of their relatives.
The reward will be valid for 120 days and will be awarded by the family or their representatives.
Anyone with information concerning the Bishops is asked to call Bentonville police at 271-3175 or 271-3170.
Another link: http://www.4029tv.com/news/20537322/detail.html
 
Where the truck was left in Jane, MO and then towed to Avoca (AR?). It had been in this parking lot for a long time -- that's why the owners had it towed. Jane, MO is about 18-19 miles away from the women's home in Bentonville, AR.
Area: SOUTHERN - Jane area Business
name: HOTS Gentleman's Club
Type: Exotic Dance Club - No Minors - Limited Food Menu
Location: US 71 south, across from Jukebox Bar & Grill
Hours Open
[read this!] Lunch & Dinner
Telephone:

Tourist
Friendliness:​
Very Good - Must be 21 or older. Smoking: Smokers welcome. "Non-Smoking area Un-available" Review: An exotic dance club with scantily-clad ladies performing for tips. Full service bar. They also serve bar food (limited menu). Two large professional-sized pool tables for the serious pool players, and four standard-sized pool tables available. (All coin-op.) Gentlemen are welcome to bring their spouses/girlfriends/dates with them. If this is the kind of fun you're looking for, it's the only club of its kind in the county.
There is a dress code that is enforced: No tank tops, cut-off jeans, or do-rags.
http://www.4noel.com/dining.html

It seems weird that the truck would be towed from Jane, MO, to Avoca, AR, about 25 miles away. Avoca, AR, is way out in the boonies and you'd have to bypass lots of more convenient towns, including Bentonville, where the car came from.
 
Authorities in McDonald County are working in conjunction with cops from Benton County, Arkansas following the discovery of a pickup truck belonging to two women who vanished from Bentonville on June 18th.

Surveillance footage show 81-year-old Louise Bishop and her 40-year-old daughter, Christina Bishop -- who also went by the last name of Johansen -- shopping at the Sam's Club in Bentonville. That is the last time they were seen.

http://crimesceneinvestigations.blogspot.com/2009/08/missing-mother-and-daughters-vehicle.html


****Thanks for the tip Steadfast
 
Authorities in McDonald County are working in conjunction with cops from Benton County, Arkansas following the discovery of a pickup truck belonging to two women who vanished from Bentonville on June 18th.

Surveillance footage shows 81-year-old Louise Bishop and her 40-year-old daughter, Christina Bishop -- who also went by the last name of Johansen -- shopping at the Sam's Club in Bentonville on June 18th. That is the last time they were seen.

http://crimesceneinvestigations.blogspot.com/2009/08/missing-mother-and-daughters-vehicle.html

Thanks for the tip, Steadfast.....will keep on this until we can bring them home. Keep in touch.
 
Apparently, the nephew was notified by the tow company that they had the truck, and he's the one who called LE.

"As he often does with vehicles regularly left for extended periods of time in the parking lot, the owner of the strip club finally had the truck towed- by an Arkansas company not registered with the state, so the plate number didn't throw up any red flags.

But Skupien did when the company contacted him two weeks after the tow.

“He knew enough to say, ‘don't touch that truck, stay away from it; I'm calling the Bentonville Police Department immediately,’” says Chief James Allen."
http://www.kspr.com/news/local/54858737.html
 
Steadfast,
Thanks for keeping this updated.

Ruflossn
 
I've been thinking about some of the implications of the truck being left in Pineville and wanted to share them, so I'm going to open a thread in the Missing Persons Discussion forum.

Please post any ideas or theories or comments you have in that thread. This case seem soooo solveable.
 
Christina and Louise Bishop went missing from Benton County, Arkansas, without a trace June 18th.

Thursday a trace surfaced at Club HOTS, about 20 miles north in McDonald County.

As he often does with vehicles regularly left for extended periods of time in the parking lot, the owner of the strip club finally had the truck towed- by an Arkansas company not registered with the state, so the plate number didn't throw up any red flags.

But Skupien did when the company contacted him two weeks after the tow.

“He knew enough to say, ‘don't touch that truck, stay away from it; I'm calling the Bentonville Police Department immediately,’” says Chief James Allen.

Skupien has been living in the house his cousin and aunt share since they vanished, leaving behind enough essentials to suggest foul play- medications, unpacked groceries, clothing.

Their bank accounts are inactive, their cell phone idle.
http://www.kspr.com/news/local/54858737.html
I've been thinking about the implications of the truck being found at the Hots stripper bar in Pineville, MO. (I'm going to call it Pineville because technically I suppose it is, but people in this area think of it as Jane, MO.)

First of all, the truck being taken to Pineville means that possibly
(1) There was more than one perp, and one drove the truck up to Pineville (with or without the women in it) while the other one followed and picked him (?) up.
(2) There was only one perp who walked to the house or whom the women picked up on their way home, who then drove the truck to Pineville (with or without the women in it) and got a ride home from someone at the bar.
(3) Both women left the groceries out and all their things and drove the truck to a strip bar in MO for some reason and were killed or kidnapped there. (I'm pretty sure that didn't happen.)
(4) One of the women did something to the other one and drove the truck to MO, meeting someone at Hots and is in hiding.

Okay, I'm only going to focus on #1 and #2, because the other possibilities seem highly unlikely considering the health problems of both women.

Why did someone take the truck to Hots, just across the state border? Why there?
After you cross the border into MO, there are a few liquor store/gas stations, which are pretty busy. Then there's a huge liquor store/restaurant and a Walmart Superstore which are both always busy. Really, until you get to the driveway to Hots, which is really long and dark, there's no place that isn't well lighted and busy to pull into.
OR maybe it was just a place where an accomplice would like to spend time waiting for the perp.

Was the perp from McDonald County? (Sorry to any locals that might read here, but McDonald County has a reputation for crime going back to Jesse James days -- bootleg, marijuana fields, etc. I don't know if it's deserved or not statistically.) And caves. And bodies hidden in caves. Remember the Rowan Ford case? That was McDonald County.

But here's the part that is so perplexing -- What was the motive??? I haven't heard that there was a robbery at the home. So, why were these women kidnapped and/or killed? Since the only thing missing was the truck, was that the motive? Stealing a truck? Or was there an argument at the home with a friend or relative?

Why wasn't the truck hidden? Why was it left in a parking lot with a lipstick message to take it on the windshield? Why would the perp want to draw attention to it? (Or there's always the possibility that someone at Hots got tired of seeing it and wrote the message during the 6 weeks it sat there.)

Hmmm . . . that's all I've got right now. I think those women are buried either on their property or in the woods behind Hots.
 
The property was posted on Yahoo! Real Estate a little less than 2 months before Louise and Christina disappeared.
It was listed for $2,930,000, and the ad says seller financing is available. According to the ad, the property has been taken off the market. But I drove by there today, and there's still a real estate sign on it.

18.07 ACRES Zoned A-1 in the heart of Bentonville

Arkansas(home to WalMart)all utilities available.Site has curbing, sidewalks. Located in an area that will excite any investor or developer. Priced for immediate sale with seller financing available.
Here's a link to the Google cached version of the Yahoo! ad: http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache...10+SE+J"+Bentonville&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
 
Welcome to WS, sandy! I'm so glad you're here!

Funny, I was under the impression that GS was their only relative. How about that?

I'm not sure if the house and land are for sale or just part of the land. There's a sign on the land, but you can't see the house from the road.

If locals wanted to search the land, they'd have to get permission because it's private property. I don't know about the land behind Hots strip club.

Does anyone in the family know who is to inherit if Louise and Christina die? (Just looking around for motives.) I think you guys should call and talk directly to law enforcement and not go through GS for your information.

PS Go to this link for discussion. The one we're on is for information and support to the family.
There's some more info at link. AR- Bishop, Louise (81) and Christina (40), Bentonville 6/18/09 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community
 

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