Sunday marked one week since 19-month-old Acacia Patience Bishop was taken from her great-grandparents' Salt Lake County house and her parents have raised $5,000 for information leading to her safe return.

"We're currently trying to raise $10,000 more (in addition) to that," said the baby's father, Adam Bishop, in a telephone interview from Idaho Falls. "And hopefully with our contacts down in Salt Lake City, we'll get some corporate sponsors."

Acacia's parents reject the police theory that the baby died in the Snake River in Idaho Falls in a failed murder-suicide attempt by her grandmother, Kelley Jean Lodmell, 38, who has since been charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping. Lodmell remains in the Bonneville County Jail pending a June 10 preliminary hearing.

"We really believe somebody is harboring (Acacia)," Adam Bishop said. The baby's parents said Lodmell is mentally ill, and they doubt her story of trying to drown herself and the child.

Lodmell allegedly kidnapped the child from her great-grandparents, who were baby-sitting while her parents were at a wedding rehearsal dinner. Police issued a nationwide Amber Alert for Acacia May 26, but it was canceled later that day after they arrested Lodmell.

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Adam Bishop and his wife are also asking an Idaho mental health group to visit Lodmell in jail. They believe she needs to take medication for paranoid schizophrenia, from which she allegedly suffers. Maybe then, she'll be straight with police about what she did with the child, Adam Bishop said.

He estimates the family has posted 10,000 missing-persons posters in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Texas and California.

Family members are also talking to Idaho Falls residents. "She's been up here at least once in the past two years. We assume she didn't come up here and live in a bubble," Acacia's uncle, Shem Bishop said.


E-MAIL: lhancock@desnews.com

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