Teen murder suspects were members of 'Plad Mafia'

By Paul Peirce
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 16, 2002

Two teen-agers accused of plotting and carrying out the murder of a Hempfield Area High School senior last month were part of a small, clandestine clique at the school known as the "Plad Mafia,"recently filed court documents disclose.

Ian Bishop, 14, of 307 Laurentz Lane, Bovard, and Robert Laskowski, 15, of 516 Buckingham Drive, in the Wendover section of the township, are charged with first-degree murder in the April 19 claw hammer slaying of Ian's brother, Adam Bishop, 18. Both are being held in the Westmoreland County Prison.

The two younger boys were part of a group at the school that compiled a "hit list" of other students, according to court documents filed recently before Youngwood area District Justice James Falcon. The number and identities of the students on the list were not disclosed — but police said the list did include Adam Bishop.

Police and school officials reportedly have notified other students whose names were on the hit list.

Police also reported that Laskowski, a freshman, told them after his arrest that he was head of the "Plad Mafia," which was first organized when the students were in middle school.

Although the recently filed court documents do not disclose a motive for the killing, they indicate the two teens had planned for at least three days to kill Adam Bishop — as well as Ian and Adam's parents, Jeffrey and Karen Bishop — and then burn down the family's house.

State police investigators obtained a search warrant and seized a number of items from Laskowski's house, where he was arrested. A list of those items indicates that a diagram of an "explosive device" was among papers Laskowski carried in a bookbag.

Other papers seized from the teens included a list of purported "bisexuals and homosexuals" attending the school.

Yesterday, Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said investigators still are searching for a motive for the slaying and planned killings.

"At this point in the investigation a motive is still unclear," he said.

Peck declined further comment on the case, or on any of the material seized in the investigation and listed in the court documents.

After Laskowski's arrest at 11 p.m. April 19, state police said, the teen and his mother, Susan, agreed to allow investigators to search Laskowski's belongings. The teen willingly gave troopers his blood-stained clothing, including blue jeans, white socks, a T-shirt, brown shoes and a brown belt, documents said.

Adam Bishop was killed in his family's home after school, between 3:30 and 4 p.m. on April 19, according to reports. Trooper Dennis Bernard reported in court documents that Laskowski, after his arrest, said Ian Bishop had bludgeoned Adam with a claw hammer while Laskowski, holding a small red-and-black club, stood by and watched.

Bernard reported that he arrived at the Bishop home at 4:20 p.m. on the day of the killing. He saw Adam Bishop lying in a hallway outside a second-floor bathroom, being treated by paramedics who had found him lying face down in a bathtub. Bernard saw that the ceilings, walls, carpet and floors of the home's second floor were covered in blood, and there also was bloody tissue in some areas.

Bernard said Adam Bishop had a severe open-head injury to the back of his head and appeared unresponsive to the paramedics' treatment.

He was airlifted by medical helicopter to UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh, where he was pronounced dead at 8:37 p.m.

According to the court documents, the Allegheny County Coroner's Office conducted an autopsy and determined that Adam Bishop had been struck at least 18 times in the head. Police confiscated both a blood-stained claw hammer and the small red-and-black club from the scene.

Bernard said the claw hammer and club both were lying next to Adam Bishop in the second-floor hallway when Bernard arrived at the house.

Police allege that after Ian Bishop beat his brother, Laskowski helped him drag Adam down the hallway from a bedroom and place him face down in a bathtub. Then Ian turned on the shower and began filling the tub with water.

"Robert Laskowski said he witnessed Ian strike his brother numerous times in the head with a hammer," Bernard stated in court documents.

Bernard said Laskowski told investigators he had "a club ready," but didn't strike Adam. Laskowski told police that Ian Bishop eventually took the club and struck Adam with it.

After the assault, Ian Bishop and Laskowski called a third boy, Matthew Bumbaugh, to the house to help them kill Adam, police said. Laskowski told police that he heard Ian telephone Bumbaugh, a neighbor, asking him to bring a gun because Adam wasn't dying fast enough.

When Bumbaugh and his mother went to the Bishop home, they found Laskowski at the front door and Ian Bishop walking up a flight of stairs drinking from a gallon jug of milk. Ian reportedly changed his clothes and fled the house with Laskowski after the assault.

According to court documents, police believe they have recovered the clothing Ian was wearing when he bludgeoned his brother. They include gray, blood-stained shorts, white socks and a red, short-sleeved shirt.

Police also confiscated computers, computer disks, journals, notebooks, telephone records and address books from both teen-agers. Court documents disclosed that Laskowski also turned over to investigators a folder of pornographic photos he kept at his house.

No prescription or illicit drugs were confiscated from either teen, according to the documents filed to date.

Police seized a collection of swords, knives and a crowbar that Ian had displayed in his bedroom. Police also confiscated several items from Ian's locker at the high school, where he was seen at about 7 p.m. the night of the killing, before a school dance.

Police arrested Ian Bishop at about 1 a.m. April 20 near a pavilion outside Wendover Middle School.

Both he and Laskowski are charged as adults. Their preliminary hearings are scheduled Tuesday before Falcon. Ian Bishop's attorneys have asked that he be tried as a juvenile.

Paul Peirce can be reached at ppeirce@tribweb.com or (724) 837-5374.

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