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Brother planned murder

Fourteen-year-old Ian Bishop planned his brother's murder days before the attack and showed no remorse as his sibling lay bloodied in the family's Bovard home, face-down in a bathtub filling with shower water.

That version of events, outlined by police in court documents, included a chilling exchange between Bishop and the neighbor he called for help at 3:30 p.m. Friday.

"Shut the water off, or your brother will drown," said the neighbor, Teri Lynn Bumbaugh.

"Maybe that would be good," Bishop replied, according to court records.

Bumbaugh had driven to the Bishop home, at 307 Laurentz Lane, after Ian Bishop called her house, yelling for help, police said. Inside, she saw blood on the upstairs carpet and walls, and on the bathroom's floor, ceiling and tub. A bloody claw hammer and a small wood club were on a hamper in the hallway.

Ian Bishop was walking upstairs, drinking from a gallon milk jug, when she arrived, Bumbaugh told police. He did not appear upset, she said. As she helped his brother, who by then was unresponsive, Bishop changed clothes, she said. He fled when she called 911.

State police arrested him between midnight and 1 a.m. Saturday at a pavilion outside Wendover Middle School.

Police also arrested a juvenile they said was standing at the door to the Bishop home when Bumbaugh arrived. The boy, who was not identified by police, said Bishop had planned the attack "a few days prior," police said.

That boy was charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy. He was being held at Westmoreland County's juvenile detention center. His role in the attack was unclear Saturday night.

Bishop was in the county prison, facing adult charges of homicide and aggravated assault. He was denied bail, and faces a preliminary hearing April 30.

His brother, Adam, an 18-year-old pianist and a reporter for The Royal, the student newspaper at Hempfield Area High School, was pronounced dead at UPMC Presbyterian, Oakland, at 8:30 p.m. Friday. His parents, Jeff and Karen, were present, according to the Associated Press.

Adam Bishop had been flown to the hospital after paramedics could not revive him at the scene. The Allegheny County Coroner's Office listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head.

Adam Bishop would have graduated this spring. He had worked hard to improve his academic standing, said Denise Valerio, a journalism teacher at the high school and an advisor to the student newspaper and yearbook staffs.

"He was an interesting kid," she said. "He had a really clever, witty sense of humor. He'd had some academic problems, and he was trying to turn that around. Recently, he had."

Bishop and Valerio had talked Friday. "I have a lot to prove," he told her.

"Not too many people know how talented you are," she said.

"And he said to me, 'I hope time will tell,'" she continued. "The irony is that now no one will know."

"It's a shame."

Ian Bishop is a freshman. He normally sat near the front of the school bus, said Bryan Jones, 18, who knew both boys. Adam Bishop rode in the rear of the bus, Jones said.

"They seemed like they got along fine," he said. He saw the pair returning from school Friday and noticed nothing unusual.

"Everything seemed normal," he said.

Others said the boys appeared to live a normal, middle-class life near Bovard, an old mining town off Route 119 in Hempfield Township. A sign on the home's front door Saturday read, "Home is where you build your nest."

"I feel for the family," said Carol Dupilka, a neighbor. "I just can't fathom it. My heart goes out to them."

Hempfield school administrators will make additional guidance counselors and a school psychologist available to students Monday, high school principal Kathy Charlton said. The district also operates a 24-hour hot line students can use.

Lou Ann Judice, the president of the district's teachers union, said the next days will be difficult for students.

"We try so hard to protect kids," she said. "How do you protect them from something like this?"