A Florida man is behind bars after confessing to murdering his fiancée and sleeping next to her body before discarding her at a local Walmart.
On Tuesday morning, 56-year-old Michael John Despres entered a Walmart store and told the manager that his soon-to-be wife, Jeanine Bishop, was experiencing a medical emergency in the parking lot. The manager called 911, and when police arrived, they found the body of the 67-year-old in the passenger seat of her Chevy Silverado. Authorities noticed ligature marks around the woman’s neck that were “consistent with being strangled.”
During an interview with investigators later that day, Despres admitted to strangling Bishop to death with a rope as she sat in a kitchen chair at their home Monday evening. The man told police that he’d carefully planned the murder for several days after becoming angry with Bishop. Despres explained that once she was dead, he moved Bishop’s body to their master bedroom and laid her face up on the bed before lying next to her and going to sleep. He awoke at around 5:30 a.m., changed the dead woman’s clothes, and put her in the passenger side of her truck. Bishop then put his bicycle inside his van and drove it to the Walmart. After dropping off his vehicle in the parking lot, he rode his bike home and then took the pickup truck to the store. Despres moved his van to a nearby Dollar Tree and then returned to the Walmart to report that Bishop needed assistance. Surveillance footage from Walmart backs up Despres’ account.
Loved ones and neighbors described Bishop and Despres’ relationship as abusive and claimed it had been for years. They also stated that the victim had no plans on marrying him.
Despres remains in Indian River County Jail without bail on charges of first-degree murder.
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