LENOIR CITY, Tenn. — Loudon County deputies announced they have arrested two people nearly five years after the death of Jacob Bishop, a Tennessee Army National Guardsman from Lenoir City who died in Oct. 2019.
According to the Loudon County Sheriff's Office, deputies arrested Eric Byrd, 39, from Lenoir City and Amanda Bishop, 39, from Kingston for first-degree murder in Jacob Bishop's death.
Investigators said Amanda Bishop was married to Jacob Bishop at the time of his death. Byrd is Amanda Bishop's distant cousin, according to deputies.
LCSO said it worked with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, some law enforcement groups in Texas and other investigating agencies across East Tennessee to make the arrests.
According to LCSO, Jacob Bishop's mother found him dead at his home in Lenoir City on the morning of Oct. 1, 2019. Investigators said he was shot several times and bound with zip ties.
“Today’s arrests mark a crucial step towards justice for Jacob Bishop and his family,” said Loudon County Sheriff Jimmy Davis. “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.”
Deputies said Amanda Bishop and Byrd are being held at the Loudon County Detention Center for first-degree murder charges on $1 million bonds each.
According to Davis, investigators faced several challenges in cracking the case, but new technology allowed evidence to surface.
“We hope that these arrests bring some measure of peace to Jacob Bishop's family and all those affected by this senseless tragedy,” Davis said.
A Mother's Plea: "Time Doesn't Heal"
Jacob Bishop had recently returned home from a year-long deployment in Poland when his mother found his body on Oct. 1, 2019. At the time, investigators were confident that the 35-year-old Tennessee guardsman's murder was not a random killing.
The case remained unsolved for years. Investigators said it was not a cold case, but a particularly complex one.
Jacob Bishop's mother, Diane Bishop, said she thought her son had overslept and was late for work. She walked over to his apartment, which was three doors down, and found him dead inside.
"When you find your son dead on the floor in his apartment, that’s something that sticks in your brain and it don’t go away. It does not go away," Diane Bishop said in a 2021 interview.
Investigators had identified hundreds of possible suspects who all had ties to Jacob Bishop because of his friendly nature. None of them had a bad word to say about him.
"He never met a stranger and he could talk to anybody at any time, but that’s the way Jacob was," his mother said. "I don’t want to make him out to be a saint, he wasn’t a saint. But he was a good man."
The sheriff's office said a white SUV may have been involved in the case as a vehicle of interest, but their attention shifted elsewhere as they continued to investigate day in and day out.
In 2021, Diane Bishop feared that the case would never be solved and that she would never find closure in knowing who killed her son or why they did it. She pleaded for anyone with information about her son's death to reach out to investigators.
"There's not a day that goes by that I don't cry. Time doesn't heal. It doesn't," she said in 2021.