The murder of Nancy and Richard Langert
Sisters Jennifer, Nancy, and Jeanne Bishop had an idyllic childhood in the wealthy Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Ill.
Road to Redemption
Nancy, the youngest, was described as the “comedian,” who could always bring a smile to their mother.
Road to Redemption
As the girls grew up, they remained close. According to her family, Nancy’s aspirations were all about family. “She wanted to be a wife and mother,” says her mother, Joyce.
Road to Redemption
In her early 20s, Nancy met Richard Langert, whom Jeanne described as her sister’s “perfect match.”
Road to Redemption
Richard and Nancy were married in 1987 and soon began looking for a home in the Winnetka area to start a family.
Road to Redemption
Within a few years, Nancy found out she was pregnant. Family said the couple were in their prime, and that Nancy claimed 1990 was “gonna be our year.”
Road to Redemption
But on Sunday, April 7, Nancy’s father went to check on the couple at the townhouse they had been living in and made a gruesome discovery. Nancy and Richard had been shot to death by an intruder.
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Police were mystified by the scene. Some clues, like the pieces of glass carefully cut out around the back patio door, looked professional, but others, seemed amateur.
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As investigators scoured the scene, they found a heartbreaking message that Nancy had left for Richard as she lay dying - in one last show of love, she wrote in her own blood near his body a heart and a letter “u”.
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A task force was assembled to solve the murders, but as the days dragged on, few leads - including one into Nancy’s sister Jeanne’s involvement with the Irish Republican Army - never panned out. Within a couple of months, the task force was disassembled, leaving many to believe the case may never be solved.
Road to Redemption
But then, six months after the murders, a local high school student told police 17-year-old David Biro committed the murders and he had the gun. Biro was quickly arrested and charged with killing the Langerts. He lived down the road from the townhouse and had easy access through a nearby bike path, but nobody could understand why the Langerts had been targeted.
Road to Redemption
After Biro was arrested police searched his padlocked bedroom. Police found a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings about the slayings, handcuffs similar to those found on Richard as well as the murder weapon, which Biro had stolen weeks prior to the murders. Biro denied killing the Langerts.
Road to Redemption
Investigators described Biro as “very arrogant” and “smug.” At trial, he claimed he was holding the gun for a friend who had actually committed the murders, but the jury didn’t believe him, and found him guilty. He was given two mandatory life sentences for Richard and Nancy’s murders, and the judge also gave him a discretionary life sentence for the intentional homicide of their unborn child.
Road to Redemption
After Richard and Nancy’s death Jeanne Bishop became a public defender and became a supporter for victims’ rights. But through her Christian faith, she came to see David Biro in a different light. She forgave him, but in 2012 she took her path to healing one step further and reached out to him to open a conversation.
Road to Redemption
That launched Jeanne on a journey she describes as “an incredible adventure.” At one point in her life she would not say David Biro’s name. Now every few months she visits him in prison. Incredibly, Jeanne is in favor of him having a chance at a new sentence. In speaking with Biro, she now had the answers to questions she has been waiting over 20 years to know.