Bobbie Jo Stinnett
Woman pleads not guilty to fetus kidnapping
Federal judge sets trial to begin in March
The Kansas woman accused of strangling a pregnant acquaintance and cutting the 8-month-old fetus from her womb pleaded not guilty Thursday, and is to stand trial the week of March 14, federal prosecutors said. Appearing before U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge John Maughmer in Kansas City, Missouri, Lisa Montgomery pleaded not guilty to the charge of kidnapping resulting in death, said Don Ledford, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office there. Montgomery, 36, was represented by two public defenders, and the judge indicated he may appoint a third because of the potential for a death sentence. Prosecutors say Montgomery strangled 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett on December 16 in Skidmore, Missouri, then cut the near-term fetus from the mother's womb and kidnapped the baby.
January 19, 2005
Gruesome evidence, faked pregnancies,
insanity defense likely at stolen-baby trial
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Five times she faked pregnancies. At least once her stomach grew hard and large like an expectant mother's, even though she was incapable of having children. Desperate for a child, she killed an expectant mother and stole her baby, according to a grand jury indictment. Now, a jury may have to decide whether Lisa Montgomery was insane or should be held responsible for her alleged actions.
January 10, 2005
Family warned of lies about pregnancy
KANSAS CITY -- Members of Lisa Montgomery’s family say they tried to warn people that the woman was making up stories about being pregnant, and their concerns became even greater after learning in November that she had purchased a home birth kit. Montgomery, 36, of Melvern, Kan., is accused of strangling a pregnant Skidmore woman on Dec. 16 and cutting the woman’s 8-month-old fetus from her body. The baby was found the next day in Melvern after Montgomery and her husband spent the morning showing the newborn off around town as their own. Montgomery’s mother, Judy Shaughnessy, told The Kansas City Star she knew something was wrong when she began receiving congratulations about being a grandmother again. "I just said, ‘Yeah, right, she either stole it or bought it,’ " Shaughnessy told the newspaper for a story in yesterday’s editions.
January 03, 2005
Bail Is Denied In Fetus Kidnapping
A federal magistrate issued a written order Friday formally denying bail to a woman accused in the kidnapping of an 8-month fetus from a strangled pregnant woman. U.S. Magistrate John T. Maughmer said in his order that he found no set of conditions imposed on Lisa Montgomery that would reasonably ensure her appearance in court or the safety of others. He also rejected alternative forms of release for Montgomery such as house arrest and daily reporting.
January 03, 2005
'Womb Raider' Wanted To Buy Tot: Report
New York Post
The alleged evil "womb raider" who butchered a Missouri mom-to-be and stole her baby reportedly demanded $45,000 from her ex-hubby's new wife in a desperate bid to buy a child on the black market. Lisa Montgomery threatened and harassed Vanessa Boman, who is married to the Montgomery's former hubby, Carl Boman, before her alleged crime, the woman told a London newspaper. Montgomery allegedly told Vanessa Boman that she was going to "destroy" her if she didn't fork over the funds — and that made Boman fear that the unhinged sicko would do something brutal.
No release for suspect in killing
News-Leader.com
Kansas City -- The woman accused of killing an expectant mother and cutting the baby from her womb waived her right to a preliminary hearing Thursday, and a judge ruled she must remain behind bars.
Attorneys for Lisa Montgomery did not ask for bond during a brief hearing before U.S. Magistrate John T. Maughmer, who granted the prosecution's request to keep her in jail. Maughmer said there is no condition, or combination of conditions, he could impose that would ensure she would appear if he released her from custody.
December 30, 2004
Ex-husband: Deceit Was Lifestyle
for Woman Accused of Stealing Fetus
BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (Knight Ridder Newspapers) - Carl Boman has had 20 years to figure out Lisa Montgomery, his ex-wife and the mother of his four teenage children. He said he knew her as untruthful and strangely obsessed with making people believe she was pregnant. But when Lisa Montgomery was accused Dec. 17 of strangling another woman to death and stealing her eight-month fetus, Boman saw her in a chilling new light. "I never would have thought she was capable of this," Boman said. "We can paint any picture we want. She is a chronic liar, very selfish and her self-esteem is very low. She is very critical of others. She is not the kind of person you would want to be friends with. But I'm still shocked."
'There Was a Desperation There'
Of all the details of the recent kidnapping and murder in Missouri, perhaps the most pathetic was the image of the murderer, Lisa Montgomery, holding a sweater-swaddled puppy as if it were an infant. The photo captures precisely the driving passion behind the crime -- the overwhelming desire for a baby to have and hold. According to those who knew her, Mrs. Montgomery's desire was an obsession. She repeatedly claimed to be pregnant, even though, according to her ex-husband, she had undergone permanent sterilization years ago; she perpetually wore maternity clothes; and she once told her pastor that if she could only have a baby, she and her current husband would be "attached at the hip." "There was a desperation there," he noted. Indeed there was. A desperate need to experience, if only for a year or two, unconditional love.
December 29, 2004
Judge Taps Lawyer
Lisa Montgomery claimed poverty Tuesday during her initial hearing before a federal judge in Missouri, prompting appointment of an attorney to defend the woman against a charge that could put her on death row. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Maughner presided over the 10-minute hearing Tuesday. Maughner instructed the federal public defender's office to represent Montgomery, and an attorney from that office, Anita Burns, was at Montgomery's side.
'Womb-Ripper' Wants Public Defender
New York Post
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A woman accused of killing an expectant mother and cutting the baby from her womb asked for a public defender yesterday during a court appearance. Lisa Montgomery answered a series of questions from the judge, who ruled that she would qualify for a public defender. It was not immediately known if a lawyer was appointed for her. Montgomery, 36, is accused of strangling Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant.
Chilling slayings share too much
Fort Wayne News Sentinel
The likelihood is almost unfathomable. In more than 30 years of police work, Oklahoma deputy Wayne Metcalf has worked two cases where a mother-to-be was killed and her baby cut from her womb. "I held both of those babies, in both of those cases," said Metcalf, a deputy with the Hughes County Sheriff's Department in eastern Oklahoma. So a horrible feeling came to Metcalf as he heard a snippet of a radio broadcast about the December death of Bobbie Jo Stinnett in Missouri.
December 28, 2004
Montgomery appears in court
Lisa M. Montgomery, 36, appeared in an orange jumpsuit and shackles for the 10-minute hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge John T. Maughmer. She asked for a public defender to represent her, and Maughmer asked her a series of questions. Montgomery answered quietly -- her responses often inaudible to the those gathered in the courtroom. If convicted, Maughmer said, Montgomery faces a minimum of life in prison and a maximum of the death penalty.
Homicide Suspect Due in Court
Kansas City -- Attorneys for Lisa Montgomery face an immediate hurdle that could challenge the defense throughout her case: Her alleged confession to killing a pregnant woman and cutting the baby from the victim's womb. Montgomery is due in federal court today, her first appearance before a judge in Missouri. It is the next step in a long judicial process in which she will likely fight for a declaration of innocence — and possibly to save her own life.
Sleuths Follow Digital Crime Trails
Kansas City, Mo. -- First, they testified that a suspect in a Douglas County murder searched the Internet for terms including "How to murder someone and not get caught." Then they used computer records to find the Kansas woman suspected of strangling a pregnant Missouri woman and cutting her fetus from her womb.
December 27, 2004
Lisa Montgomery
Lisa M. Montgomery fits rare profile, expert says
In the first hours after Bobbie Jo Stinnett was murdered and her fetus cut from her womb, police and the FBI hunted for two men and a woman, based on a witness' report. They chased down a tip about a ring of thieves planning to sell the infant for $50,000 on the black market. But John Rabun, who has studied hundreds of infant abductions for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, knew who authorities should look for: A woman of child-bearing age who lives with a man. She is feigning her own pregnancy. She did this alone. She won't hurt this new infant. She'll parade the newborn around like a proud parent. And her husband will not have a clue.
Fate deals an evil hand
Two women whose destinies met in one shocking crime
They were two women from two completely different worlds until their paths collided, ending with an almost unfathomable crime. Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, a fresh-faced mother-to-be who was a high school cheerleader and honors student adored by her Missouri community, was building an ideal life with her childhood sweetheart. Lisa Montgomery, 36, was a twisted drifter and pathological liar who constantly claimed to be pregnant despite having had her tubes tied, neglected her four teenaged children and frightened Kansas neighbors and family members with her bizarre ways.
A ballad for Bobbie Jo
Nine days before Christmas, Lisa Montgomery of Melvern, Kan., went to the Skidmore, Mo., home of Bobbie Jo Stinnett — who was 8 months pregnant — and allegedly committed a crime that ought to have been unimaginable. She murdered the expectant mother to steal her unborn child. Three days later, The Washington Post began a remarkable investigative series by reporter Donna St. George. Miss St. George spent a year researching murders in which the victim was a pregnant woman or new mother. She learned "no reliable system is in place to track such cases." But her probing uncovered 1,367 cases nationwide over 14 years.
Pregnant Woman’s Death Leaves Two Towns Shaken
One town grieves over the unthinkable - a woman dead, her baby stolen from her womb - and another town is left stunned that one of its own could be responsible. About 175 miles apart but joined by tragedy and a baby named Victoria Jo, residents in Skidmore, Mo., and Melvern, Kan., say no one in either community will soon forget this holiday season. Skidmore is steeped in grief. Hundreds attended funeral services for Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, killed just a month shy of becoming a mother.
December 23, 2004
Lisa Montgomery waives preliminary hearing, case transferred to Missouri
Suspect in slain mom case waives preliminary hearing
Woman in fetus kidnapping case transferred to Missouri
Suspect accused of killing pregnant woman, taking baby
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (CNN) -- The U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri said Thursday that Lisa Montgomery -- the woman charged with strangling a pregnant woman, cutting the near-term fetus from her womb and kidnapping the baby -- will make an initial court appearance Tuesday in Kansas City, Missouri. Thursday morning, Montgomery, 36, waived her preliminary hearing in U.S. District Court in Kansas, and the court transferred federal custody from the District of Kansas to the Missouri district, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Todd P. Graves said in a written statement. The reason is that the crime occurred in Missouri. The Melvern, Kansas, woman's initial court appearance is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Western Missouri U.S. District Court, the spokesman said. Montgomery is to appear before U.S. Chief Magistrate John T. Maughmer in the federal courthouse. Her detention hearing is scheduled before Maughmer two days later, at 2 p.m. She is being held in a detention facility in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Bobbi Jo Stinnett Remembered By The Nation And the World
Hundreds of mourners gathered Tuesday in this small northwestern Missouri farming community for the funeral of a young pregnant woman who was strangled and whose baby girl was cut from her womb. The crowd filled the flower-filled Price Funeral Home and overflowed into the entrance for the service for Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23. Cars lined the streets on a bitter cold day. “I’ve known her since she was a baby,” said family friend Carl Montgomery. “She grew up into a beautiful swan.” The Rev. Harold Hamon, who married the Stinnetts in spring 2003 at the Skidmore Christian Church, spoke at the funeral; burial followed at a cemetery in Skidmore. Many mourners were unable to get into the service. Others, some crying and exchanging hugs, took turns letting each other get closer to the sanctuary. One tearful mourner carried a dozen pink roses, but became so distraught she had to be taken outside. Afterward, pallbearers waited outside as the gold coffin was placed into a hearse.
The Female Hannibal Lector
America was transfixed on the strange, almost unbelievable story that trickled out of the small, rural town where nothing bad ever happens. The gruesome, macabre story actually developed in the mind of the killer—a female Hannibal Lector who had befriended the victim whose death would arouse a nation. The friend desperately wanted a baby. She even managed to convince her husband—and the town in which she lived—that she was pregnant. Her friends had even thrown her a baby shower. Somewhere and at some warped time on that bizarre, twisted fantasy-riddled journey within her own mind, the woman decided she would kill her pregnant friend and simply claim the friend's baby as her own.
Slain pregnant woman to be buried today
The 23-year-old pregnant woman who was strangled and had her fetus cut from her womb will be buried today. Bobby Jo Stinnett was killed last week at her home in Missouri. Lisa Montgomery has been charged in the death and kidnapping of the infant. She's scheduled to be back in court for a preliminary hearing on Thursday.
Fateful Day When Butcher Met Victim
It was a big weekend for Bobbie Jo Stinnett. She and her husband, Zeb, traveled from their Missouri home to Abilene, Texas, where they entered one of their prize rat terriers in a dog show. Bobbie's dog won a blue ribbon, giving the owner two things to glow about — her victory and her new pregnancy. The other dog owners certainly noticed the ribbon on that April afternoon as they gathered around a tree for a photograph. And one of them — Lisa Montgomery, a Kansas girl — took particular interest in Bobbie's pregnancy. Eight months later, Montgomery would get into the Stinnett home by posing as a potential dog buyer, strangle Bobbie to death, rip open her body and steal her baby, police say. Breeders who knew Lisa said "She was the kind of person that could look you dead in the eye and lie."
Stolen Baby Suspect Arraigned
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The woman who allegedly strangled an expectant mother and cut the fetus out of her womb was arraigned on Monday before a packed courtroom. Lisa Montgomery, of Melvern, Kan., was charged with kidnapping resulting in death in her first court appearance.
N.C. Woman Helped Crack Stolen Baby Case
Franklin Woman Alerted FBI To Message Board Conversation
FRANKLIN, N.C. -- A North Carolina woman had a big role to play in the arrest of Lisa Montgomery, who is charged in the death of Bobby Jo Stinnett. Stinnett was found dead in her Missouri home Friday, and investigators say Montgomery cut Stinnett open and took her 8-month-old fetus. The big break in the case came from a phone call from a dog breeder in Franklin, North Carolina.
Pregnant-Slay Probe Followed Cyber Trail
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In the end, it wasn't a fingerprint or a blood spatter that led authorities to the woman suspected of strangling a mother-to-be and cutting the baby from her womb. It was an 11-digit computer code. Police zeroed in on Lisa Montgomery in the most 21st century of ways, by trolling computer records, examining online message boards and — most important — tracing an IP address, 65.150.168.223, to a computer at her Melvern, Kan., home. "That in and of itself led us to the home," Jeff Lanza, an FBI spokesman here said of the IP, or Internet protocol, address, the unique number given to every Internet-connected computer.
Father United with Baby Cut from Slain Mother
CHICAGO -- The father of a baby girl snatched from the womb of her strangled mother greeted the infant as a miracle as the two were united after a grisly murder that gripped the United States, a Kansas hospital said on Saturday. The girl, Victoria Jo Stinnett, was healthy and "a miracle," the Stormont-Vail hospital in Topeka, Kansas, quoted the girl's father, Zebulon Stinnett, as saying after the two were united late on Friday. The girl's mother, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, had been found strangled in her Missouri home on Thursday with her abdomen sliced open, the baby gone and the umbilical cord cut.
Pregnant women slain more often than records show
WASHINGTON -- Their deaths passed quietly. Tara Chambers, 29, was gunned down on a June morning inside her North Carolina home. Rebecca Johnson, 16, was shot in the chest as she sat in a pickup truck in Oklahoma. Ana Diaz, 28, was killed in a parking lot in Reston, Va., as she stopped to get a friend on their way to work. They all were pregnant, with futures that seemed sure to unfold over many years. Their killings produced a few local headlines, then faded, each a seeming aberration in the community where it happened. But pregnant women like them have been slain in Maryland and Mississippi, in California and Kansas, in Ohio and Illinois.
Proud Couple Showed Off Baby Cut From Womb
Friends and neighbors of a Kansas couple were excited for them when they showed of their new baby at a local cafe and at their pastor's home, but the joy turned to shock and dismay when they discovered the baby was cut from the womb of a slain Missouri woman.
Joy Over New Baby Turns to Shock Over Crime
MELVERN, Kan. -- Dressed in pink and nestled in a baby carrier, the infant was paraded around town Friday, just as any newborn might be. Kevin and Lisa Montgomery dropped by the Whistle Stop Cafe on Main Street to give patrons a look, then there was a visit to the home of the Rev. Mike Wheatly, pastor of the First Church of God. "I held her in my arms for 15 minutes," Wheatly recalled Saturday.
Woman Charged in Stolen Fetus Case
A Kansas woman has been charged with kidnapping resulting in death in connection with the murder of Bobbie Stinnett of Skidmore, Missouri and the cutting of her unborn child from her womb. The baby was recovered alive and healthy at the woman's Melvern, Kansas home. Lisa M. Montgomer, 36, has been accused of going to Stinnett's home on the pretense of buying a dog, strangling the 23-year-old pregnant Bobbie Stinnett, and then cutting the premature baby girl from her womb. Police records indicate that Montgomery admitted to taking Stinnett's baby and lying to her husband about giving birth.
One Charged With Killing Mom, Taking Baby
MARYVILLE, Mo. -- A baby girl that had been cut out of her mother's womb was found after a frantic search, and authorities arrested the woman they say strangled the mother and stole the child. The child was found Friday in seemingly good health in an eastern Kansas home. A red Toyota similar to a description offered earlier by police was in the driveway. Lisa M. Montgomery, 36, of Melvern, Kan., was arrested later Friday and charged with kidnapping resulting in death.
Police Find Baby Believed From Slain Mom
SKIDMORE, Mo. (AP) - A baby who was cut from her mother's womb during a grisly slaying was found in good health Friday, bringing relief to authorities who had spent the last day frantically searching for the little girl. Two people were taken into custody, and the baby girl was transported to a hospital in Topeka, Kan., authorities said.
Police find baby they think is child of slain mother
SKIDMORE — A baby girl who apparently was cut from her mother's womb was found in good health this afternoon, a day after the slaying, and two people were being questioned, authorities said.
Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey said authorities were awaiting DNA testing to confirm the newborn is the child of Bobbi Joe Stinnett, an eight-months-pregnant woman found slain in her northwest Missouri home Thursday. The child was found in Kansas. "It's about as good as we can get, people," Espey said at a new conference.
Fetus Removed From Mother's Body
(CNN) -- Missouri authorities issued an Amber Alert for an infant who may have survived after a woman was slain and a fetus removed from her body. Bobbi Jo Stinnett, who was eight months' pregnant, was killed Thursday afternoon in her home in Skidmore in northwestern Missouri, the Nodaway County Sheriff's Department said. The initial Amber Alert said that "the fetus was extracted from the victim."
Amber Alert Out for Fetus Cut From Womb
SKIDMORE, Mo. (AP) - An eight-months-pregnant woman was slain in her home, and her fetus was then cut from her womb, authorities said. Believing the infant survived, they issued an Amber Alert early Friday. Bobbi Jo Stinnett's mother found her body Thursday afternoon. The 23-year-old woman had apparently been strangled. Authorities issued an alert hours later for the infant, a girl. "The doctors who examined Bobbi Jo gave us information indicating we probably would have a live child if we could find it," Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey said Friday. "The child would be in danger because of being one month premature." "Someone was wanting a baby awful bad," he had said earlier.
Posted by Editor at January 20, 2005 08:29 PM
