Saturday marks 30 years since Columbia teenager Kristina Bishop went missing.
Columbia police say 13-year-old Bishop was on her way to Jefferson Middle School along Rogers Street on Oct. 19, 1994, but never made it to school.
Columbia Police Department Assistant Chief Lance Bolinger said she was last seen at about 8:20 a.m. that day when she was getting ready to leave for school.
“It initially was reported to us as a runaway,” Bolinger said. “So when officers responded to the scene initially, they believed she had run away from the home.”
Bolinger said police know Bishop previously ran away at least one time from her home. During that time, she left the state. Bolinger said he could not say where she ran off to, because it could compromise the investigation.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Bishop has light brown hair, brown eyes, was 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 105 lbs.
According to a poster created by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, a witness allegedly saw Bishop get into a four-door vehicle driven by a man after talking to him for a few minutes. Bolinger said he “could not speak to” that tip.
“We’ve received numerous tips and a lot of those tips were unfounded at the end of them,” Bolinger said. “But, we received a large number of tips regarding her possibly being in the Kansas City area, possibly being in the Las Vegas area possibly being in the Oklahoma area and then as far away as California.”
Bolinger said it is hard to pinpoint her exact last known whereabouts, but he said police have recovered evidence.
“This is an active case and some of the details I can’t go into,” Bolinger said. “We have recovered some evidence related to the case.”
Bolinger said CPD has received multiple tips over the years regarding the case. He said information has come in about the case as recently as 2018.
“There are numerous people who have been interviewed as suspects in this case,” Bolinger said. “Right now, we do not have any…our focus is not on any one person per se.”
Bishop would be 43-years-old at the time of publication. Bolinger gave a message to Bishop’s family and friends who are still holding out hope in the case.
“I can only imagine the situation that they’ve gone through,” Bolinger said. “This case is important to us and it’s one of those cases that we’ll continue to follow up on and will continue to research leads when they come in. I wish we could devote a full time detective to work on it nonstop until it’s solved. Unfortunately, that’s just not the reality of it. But as information and leads come in, we’ll continue to do our best to try to bring closure to the incident.”
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Columbia Police Department at 573-874-7652 or CrimeStoppers at 573-875-8477.
