Posted on 12/18/2004 12:01:35 PM PST by kattracks
CHICAGO (Reuters) - 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.
The woman was eight-months pregnant when discovered in a pool of blood by her mother, Becky Harper. Investigators said Harper "noted it appeared as though her daughter's stomach had exploded."
A nationwide "Amber Alert" for the missing baby drew intense attention. It was credited with helping authorities find the girl alive and in the possession of Lisa Montgomery, 36, of Kansas, who was arrested on Friday on murder and kidnap charges.
Montgomery confessed to killing Stinnett and taking the baby, according to a federal criminal complaint. Based on the statement, the authorities united the baby girl and her father, although DNA tests are pending, Nodaway County, Missouri, Sheriff Ben Espey said through a spokeswoman.
"I want to thank family, friends, Amber Alert and law enforcement officials for their support at this time," Zebulon Stinnett said in the hospital statement.
Stinnett, of Skidmore, Missouri, and other family members had traveled to Topeka to be with the baby, who was listed in good condition.
COMPUTER SLEUTHS
Montgomery probably will appear in court on Monday in either Kansas or Missouri, authorities said.
Authorities desperately trying to find the prematurely born baby had honed in on Montgomery with the help of a tip and FBI (news - web sites) computer sleuths tracing Internet communications. They tracked the baby to the town of Melvern, in eastern Kansas, where she was found at Montgomery's home.
Bobbie Jo Stinnett bred and sold rat-terrier dogs, and had been in communication on her computer with someone who asked for directions to her home to make a purchase, according to an affidavit released by the U.S. Attorney in Kansas City.
Stinnett's mother also told the authorities her daughter had said in a phone conversation that she was expecting someone to come and look at her dogs and then said, "Oh, they're here, I've got to go."
Marks on Stinnett's throat indicated she had been strangled from behind, and blond hair was found clenched in both of her hands.
The motive for the crime remained unknown, investigators said. Local media in Kansas City reported that Montgomery had suffered an earlier miscarriage.
Agents who made the arrest said Montgomery had told her husband, Kevin, that she had unexpectedly given birth.
"She had ... called her husband, we allege in the complaint, and told him that she had a baby in Topeka," Todd Graves, U.S. District Attorney for Western Missouri, told ABC's "Good Morning America.
"She was at Long John Silver's (restaurant) in Topeka, he should come and meet her. He went to meet her; there was a baby; they took it home."
Prayers for all the family members.
Lisa Montgomery, if found guilty of this heinous crime, should be put to death. But considering the fact she is female, that isn't likely to happen.
"The motive for the crime remained unknown, investigators said. Local media in Kansas City reported that Montgomery had suffered an earlier miscarriage.
Agents who made the arrest said Montgomery had told her husband, Kevin, that she had unexpectedly given birth."
____________________________________________________________
Hokay! All you legal eagles. We have a novel defense in the making. Post-miscarriage psychosis. From now on any woman suffering the psychological effects of miscarriage will be absolved of any heinous outrage she might happen to commit immediately afterward.
God bless this poor family.
Rest in peace, Bobbie Jo Stinnett.
I hope they have a death penalty there in Missouri....
Poor mother discovering the crime, and poor family. I'll keep them in my prayers.
Her husband SHOULD have turned her in.
They'd do it in Texas.
I can see that happening! We live in a sick world. I hope this women gets the death penalty for what she has done! She deserve no mercy or understanding!
unbelievable, never heard of a crime like this before. I recommend the death penalty but some liberal professor will find a way to turn this woman into the victim.
DNA tests pending?
What's up with that?
Were they not living together as a couple??
Enquiring minds, and all that......
They would? I seem to recall a Texas woman that chased her own kids around the house, drowning all 5 of them, some in the toilet. Texas didn't give here death.
Sadly, it happened here in Oklahoma last year. There are many case studies about these types of crimes in psychiatric literature.
bttt
I'd give her the death penalty and let God sort it out. He's much more able and qualified to make such determinations.
And we wouldn't want to annoy you now would we. That has got to be one of the most selfish statements I have ever seen on this forum.
The nutburger said she killed Mrs. Stinnett and took her baby but what if that baby died sometime before the police took custody of a baby from nutburger?
And crazy woman grabbed another baby out of a grocery shopping cart or something right before she called her husband - very unlikely but just better to tie up all loose ends since there were no Stinnett baby footprints on file at a hospital anywhere, but I bet there will be soon if not already.
I believe the DNA tests are to prove that the baby is, in fact, the child of that couple and not perhaps someone else's.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.