Posted on 12/18/2004 8:12:56 PM PST by Libloather
Kan. Woman Said to Show Off Stolen Baby
24 minutes ago
By JOHN MILBURN, Associated Press Writer
MELVERN, Kan. - A woman charged with killing an expectant mother and cutting the baby from her womb was showing the child off to people at a cafe and to her pastor hours before she was arrested, residents said Saturday.
Lisa M. Montgomery, 36, was charged Friday with kidnapping resulting in murder and was expected to appear in federal court Monday. The baby, whose mother had been eight months pregnant, was in good condition.
Hours before her arrest, Montgomery and her husband showed off a newborn girl at a restaurant, said Kathy Sage, owner of the Whistle Stop Cafe in Melvern, a small eastern Kansas town.
Many customers were surprised to hear the infant was only a day old, Sage said. She knew an Amber Alert had been issued for a baby missing from Missouri but did not realize the infant the Montgomerys carried was connected until hearing from a reporter on Friday.
"You read about this stuff," she said. "It blows you away when it's here. This stuff is supposed to be in New York City or Los Angeles."
Montgomery was arrested later in the death of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was found Thursday in a pool of blood inside her small white home in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore.
Montgomery's husband, Kevin, has not been charged in the case.
Authorities said Lisa Montgomery contacted Stinnett through an online message board, and investigators zeroed in on her using computer forensics. Montgomery was seeking to buy a dog from Stinnett, who raised rat terriers.
While Montgomerys ate breakfast, another customer showed the baby off around the cafe. After eating, they took the girl to visit their pastor.
"It was a beautiful baby," Mike Wheatley said. "Absolutely beautiful."
Wheatley and his wife commented that the baby, whom the couple called Abigail, did not look like a newborn because her head was not misshapen from passing through the birth canal, a common result of childbirth that soon goes away. The only marks she had were a small scratch on her head and a slight bruise on her hand.
The pastor had not seen the couple since October, and everyone in the congregation expected her to give birth around Dec. 12.
U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said Lisa Montgomery contacted Stinnett through an online message board after seeing a Web site about the rat terriers Stinnett bred and raised. The site included a picture of Stinnett, showing she was pregnant.
Investigators searched Stinnett's computer and found the victim had been communicating through the message board with someone claiming to be a Darlene Fischer who lived north of Fairfax, Mo.
Authorities, helped by a North Carolina dog breeder who was familiar with the message board, determined the communication from Fischer actually came from Montgomery's house.
The Montgomerys were taken in for questioning Friday, and Lisa Montgomery was charged. Investigators said she confessed to the crimes.
Officials said Montgomery had not hired an attorney. Messages left by The Associated Press at the home of Kevin Montgomery's parents went unreturned Saturday.
Jeff Lanza, an FBI spokesman in Kansas City, Mo., declined to discuss motives and said the investigation was ongoing.
He would say only that Montgomery was being held in Kansas and was expected to make her first appearance in federal court Monday, though authorities did not know whether it would be in Missouri or Kansas.
The baby's father and several other family members saw the infant, named Victoria Jo, for the first time Friday night at Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center in Topeka.
The infant was in an intensive care unit. Hospital officials said she was responding normally for a baby taken from the womb one month premature.
"She's doing well," hospital spokeswoman Carol Wheeler said.
The family was not speaking to reporters, but Victoria Jo's father, Zeb Stinnett, issued a brief statement calling her "a miracle."
"I want to thank family, friends, Amber Alert and law enforcement officials for their support during this time," he said.
Montgomery is the mother of two high-school-age children. Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey said Saturday that Montgomery had told people she was pregnant with twins, though investigators were still trying to determine if that was true.
"She told people she was pregnant and had a miscarriage and lost one of the twins," Espey said. "We're thinking she never was pregnant."
According to court documents, Montgomery traveled to Topeka, about 30 miles north of Melvern, on Thursday to go shopping. She called her husband from there, saying she had gone into labor and given birth.
Kevin Montgomery and the couple's two children met Lisa and the newborn in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant in Topeka and drove home, according to an affidavit.
The arrest stunned many townspeople who apparently had believed for months that Lisa Montgomery was pregnant.
How "could you not know that your wife's not pregnant?" said Gary Deskins, owner of a convenience store in Melvern, a community of about 420 residents. "There's something missing."
I guess this is either old news or I'm in here just talking to myself.
People are signing the guestbook at their website. Scroll down to the bottom of this page:
http://imageevent.com/happyhaven/otherpets
Ah, thank you. I was beginning to think everyone had gone to bed already. :-)
wow
A ghoul!
This has surely already been posted here by now, but in case it hasn't, here are some photos of Bobbie Stinnett at a recent dog show (one month ago). She's the one in the pink sweater or the white blouse (depending on which set of pics you're looking at).
http://imageevent.com/ramirezratz/ourukcshows/kateandbobbiesnorman1104photos;jsessionid=6t1fh09ru1.buffalo_s
Also, I'm wondering if pic #41 is the Montgomery lady. It sort of looks like her to me. She's the one named "Nancy" with the white dog named "Booker."
http://imageevent.com/ramirezratz/ourukcshows/kateandbobbiesnorman1104photos/normanshownovember2004;jsessionid=g0axpp9lj1.zebra_s
Sick very Sick. A future fore warning for doggie breeders, careful who you share your love of dogs with.
BTTT
Crucify Her!
Link not working, for me anyway.
I ended up here while searching for a picture of this EVIL woman! The story is all true. We adopted a Rat Terrier in July from a rescue, and I didn't know anything about the breed. I've been reading the message board there since July, and the board is (mostly)wonderful caring people, and are very close.
The only thing that has not been very clear is, Bobbie did "know" Lisa Montgomery for a long time, but the woman that came to to her house that day WAS Lisa Montgomery, but poor Bobbie was expecting Darlene Fischer (AKA Lisa Montgomery)
This is the post from Lisa "Darlene" making the her plan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Message for Happy Haven Farms
Posted by Darlene Fischer on December 15, 2004, 4:22 pm
65.150.168.223
I was recommended to you and have been unable to reach you by either phone or email. Please get in touch with me soon as we are considering the purchase of one of your puppies and would like to ask you a few questions.
Darlene
Posted by Bobbie on December 15, 2004, 7:44 pm, in reply to "Message for Happy Haven Farms"
207.192.230.197
Darlene,
I've emailed you with the directions so we can meet. I do so hope that the email reaches you. Great chatting with you on messenger. And do look forward to chatting with you tomorrow a.m.
Talk to you soon Darlene!
Have a great evening
Bobbie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wish I had not seen Lisa's picture, I now feel sicker than I did before. This is beyond belief. There is a fund being set up for Bobbie & Zeb's sweet baby girl, and when I find out more on that I will post it in case any of you would like to help out.
Karen
Some article, this man needs to talk to the police, this is premeditation & she deserves just what Peterson got!!!
I can barely stand to hear about this heinous murder..May God be with the family..
This whole thing creeps me out BIG-TIME!!
I'm on a few dog "lists", and people share personal information all the time, just like some of us do on this forum.
Let it be a lesson--you never know who you are talking to....
I show dogs, and have many friends that show as well. If someone is familiar with you from that hobby, and poses as someone else on a message board there is no way you could protect yourself. I guess the moral of the story is NEVER let someone you don't know into your house if you are home alone.
Now there's some justice.
"How "could you not know that your wife's not pregnant?" said Gary Deskins, owner of a convenience store in Melvern, a community of about 420 residents. "There's something missing."
I agree with this guy. No way this husband could have known that she wasn't pregnant. IF she had been pregnant and miscarried he would have known that also unless she was opnly pregnant for a short while.
Nothing could be too harsh. Remember, this mother was still alive when her baby was cut and ripped from her womb. As a mother, I can't even imagine that. I pray that this mother was in shock and it eased the pain of everything that was going on. My prayers are for the mother, her precious child she never got to hold and her grieving family. Lord ease their pain.
I don't like the way the media is categorizing this crime either. "Kidnapping resulting in murder". To me it should be "First Degree Murder, with concomitant kidnapping". The murder took place first, kidnapping second. Regardless of what her motives are. And there is no doubt in my mind that this should be a death penalty case.
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