(NECN: Ally Donnelly, Boston, Mass.) - It was ruled an accidental shooting, but lots of questions go unanswered in the death of Seth Bishop. Like, why did Amy Bishop go get her father's shotgun in the first place?
"Amy Bishop and her father told police that they had an argument and he left the house, and she went to her room. But despite the investigation, we still don't have a clue as to what that argument was actually about," says Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating.
On Thursday Keating announced a judicial inquest into the 1986 shooting, in no small part, he said, because Bishop's parents have refused to talk to investigators. Other than Amy, they are the only living people to know what truly happened that day in Braintree.
We went to the Bishop's current home in Ipswich, but no one would come to the door. Their attorney wouldn't speak on camera, but says his clients want to be left alone. He says they're not interested in getting involved in what he calls a "media frenzy." But if called to testify at the inquest, Attorney Bryan Stevens told us they will testify. He says they will say the same thing they said in 1986: the shooting of their son was an accident.
"It's clear that there are serious questions as to whether this was accidental at all," says former Suffolk County prosecutor Tim Burke.
Burke likens the Bishop case to the peeling of an onion, each layer revealing a new one. Like what current prosecutors found in the original crime scene photos. A newspaper article on the floor of Amy Bishop's bedroom right next to a spent shotgun shell. Could it have been a copy cat crime?
"We were struck with how parallel the circumstances were," says Keating.
The District Attorney's office will not confirm the case or the paper, but there was a high profile murder case in 1986 with some similarities to the Bishop shooting. The parents of television star Patrick Duffy, from the show Dallas, were gunned down by two shotgun-weilding teens in Montana. The men then fled to a car dealership and stole a getaway car. After shooting her brother, investigators say Bishop took off on foot demanding a getaway car from two Braintree car dealer employees.
"This is not somebody who is somehow unaware of what she's doing," says Burke.
According to police reports, Bishop fired three shots that day from the 12-gauge pump action shotgun and had a fresh round in the chamber and another round in her pocket when police arrested her.
"I don't know if you've ever fired a shotgun inside a closed room. It's deafening. It's stunning. The first thing anybody who is --has this -- who does this is they're gonna throw the gun down. They're not going to reload it and then run out the door," says Burke.
The DA has tempered the call for an inquest with the warning that just because he could file new charges against Bishop, doesn't mean the state would.
"She's facing the death penalty in Alabama," says Burke. "You can only have one execution."
Burke says the DA has ordered the inquest in some part to restore public trust in the system. He says the presiding judge, likely Quincy District Court Judge Mark Coven, has a responsibility to ask hard questions of the Braintree Police, the State Police and current Congressman, then DA, Bill Delahunt.
Burke says, "Who knew what and when?"
The DA says the inquest will likely take less than a week, though it's unclear when it will be held. It is closed to the public, but once there is a decision and any subsequent outcome -- it is likely *all of the records and the inquest interviews will be made public.
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