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 thought it was a stolen "fetus" what news have you been watching?
"The pastor had not seen the couple since October, and everyone in the congregation expected her to give birth around Dec. 12."
Well, there's the angle the liberal media will dig into because to them she had to be a wild-eyed raving "Christian Fundamentalist" or some such.
Layer upon layer of weirdness. Unnngh.
What happened to "Mass of flesh"?
This is a very strange story. But I suppose that's an understatement.
A North Carolina dog breeder helped solve the case? Great!
Rather Dan. Think it's fake? Me too...
Is it just me or am I the only one that thinks the term "stolen baby" is not quite harsh enough to describe this situation. How about "Baby that was ripped out of the uterus of her innocent mother after she was murdered in cold blood by a monster of a woman". Nope, still not harsh enough.
Someone needs to post this story if it hasn't already been posted. It's an interview with a guy who claims he knew both Stinnet and Mongomery, and that the 2 women knew each other, competed in dog shows against each other, and more.
http://www.maryvilledailyforum.com/articles/2004/12/18/news/news2.txt
According to Google, the Maryville daily forum posted it 10 hours ago.
NO! You are not the only one. I cried when I heard about this. To just say "stolen baby" does not begin to describe the absolute depravity of this act. I HOPE THIS PEOPLE FRY! Thank goodness the baby survived. That's the only good thing. The little girl lived. Oh, the poor mother.
Lisa Montgomery to wed Scott Peterson in hell--breaking.
Kudos to this website that got the interview with this dog breeder/website host guy who knew both the women. Time will tell if it's all accurate, I suppose.
http://www.maryvilledailyforum.com/articles/2004/12/18/news/news2.txt
Friend of alleged killer, victim speaks to Forum
By MATT KELSEYForum Managing Editor
A man who was friends with both Bobbie Jo Stinnett and her alleged killer says Stinnett was a kind and gentle person and Lisa Montgomery was not to be trusted.
The man agreed to speak exclusively to the Forum on condition of anonymity. He is a rat terrier breeder, just like Stinnett and Montgomery, and spoke frequently to both of them over the Internet.
Montgomery is charged with killing Stinnett and cutting open her womb to steal the eight-month-old fetus.
"I host an internet community online about rat terrier breeding," the man said, "and I met them both through that a couple years ago.
The man said the people who chatted through the Web site frequently would often share personal information without thinking of any possible consequences.
"Over time, people would say, 'Hey, I'm pregnant,' and they share that personal information," he said.
So the man was not surprised when, several months ago, both Stinnett and Montgomery announced, within a few days of each other, that they were pregnant.
After meeting Montgomery, the man said they often had business relationships breeding their dogs, and on occasion Montgomery would "just lie to my face for no particular reason," he said.
"Lisa, in my dealings with her, was not all there mentally... I just knew she wasn't right. I just kind of steered clear of her."
The man said Montgomery had four or five children with two ex-husbands, but had a strong desire to have another child with her current husband.
"She had really wanted a baby really bad," the man said.
Although he did not trust Montgomery, the man said Stinnett was a different story. He had spoken with her over the Internet two days before the murder.
"She was a person that had no enemies," the man said. "One of the sweetest young ladies I've met."
The man said the two women knew each other well.
"Lisa and Bobbie would go to dog shows together and compete against one another," he said.
Chillingly, the man said Montgomery had posted a week ago on the Internet site that "she was going to have her baby on Thursday," the day of the murder. He believes this indicates a certain level of premeditation.
"I can't even fathom this," the man said, "and for me to know both of them... it just blows my mind."
The man said Stinnett would have been familiar with Montgomery, and would not have hesitated to let her in.
"If Lisa showed up at my house, I'd let her in the door because I know her," the man said.
BTW, do we know the URL of the Stinnett's website? It's probably been taken down by now anyway.
http://www.imageevent.com/happyhaven
There's a Bobbie Stinnett here talking about rat terriers. Is this it?
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