Posted on 02/22/2005 10:09:10 AM PST by Dubya
FORT WORTH -- The bodies of a missing seven-months pregnant woman and her 7-year-old son were found Tuesday morning off Farm Road 407 in Justin, just hours after police arrested a Fort Worth man charged with capital murder in their disappearance.
It was not immediately disclosed how Lisa Underwood, 34, and her son, Jayden, were killed.
Stephen Barbee, 37, who previously had been romatically involved with Underwood, was taken into custody in Tyler and held initially with bail set at $2 million. He was later released to Fort Worth police and transported back to Tarrant County.
Police on Monday found Underwood's Dodge Durango abandoned in a creek bed off Farm Road 2449, just east of Interstate 35W in Denton County, about 10 miles north of where the bodies were found.
Lt. Gene Jones confirmed an arrest had been made in the case but declined to comment further.
Sources said major case detectives traveled to Tyler on Monday night by helicopter after requesting that Tyler police locate Barbee and take him to their headquarters to be interviewed by Fort Worth police.
It was unknown how police knew Barbee was in Tyler.
About the same time that Tyler police were taking Barbee into custody, Fort Worth police raided a residence in the 4100 block of Walnut Creek in north Fort Worth, a home where Barbee lived with a woman named Trish.
A neighbor who did not want to be identified said she was awakened by flashing police lights and noise about 3 a.m. Tuesday. She said officers went to the back of the residence and later came out the front carrying four or five bags of evidence.
The house, she said, had been under police surveillance since Sunday with officers in unmarked police vehicles cruising through the neighborhood.
About 8 p.m. Sunday, she said, officers came to her home asking "when was the last time I saw them and what kind of cars did they drive." She said she told them she last saw Barbee earlier Sunday.
At 11 a.m. Monday, she said, she saw officers rummaging through trash bags that had been set curbside outside the residence.
The discovery comes more than three days after relatives last heard from the 34-year-old mother, seven months pregnant with her second child.
Police issued an Amber Alert for the mother and son Saturday after relatives discovered a pool of blood inside Underwood's north Fort Worth home and noticed her sport utility vehicle missing.
On Monday, the search for the pair shifted to Denton after authorities found Underwood's blue 2002 Dodge Durango abandoned in a creek bed off Farm Road 2449, just east of Interstate 35W.
The search ended about 6:30 p.m. Monday before resuming this morning.
Party planned
Saturday was supposed to be a day of celebration.
Underwood is expecting a little girl, and her friends and family had planned to throw her a baby shower at Boopa's Bagel Deli, which she co-owns with her best friend, Holly Pils.
Marla Hess, who had traveled from Wichita Falls for the shower, looked forward to prying out of Underwood the name she had chosen for her unborn child.
Because "Jayden" is such an unusual name, family and friends assumed that Underwood had also picked an unconventional name for her daughter.
"She had a name that she wasn't going to tell us," Hess said. "We were going to try to make her."
But Underwood never made it to the party.
A farmer discovered the SUV about 8:28 a.m. Monday and called Denton police.
Throughout the day Monday, searchers scoured nearby pastures and wooded areas, some in helicopters, others on horseback and on foot with trained scent dogs.
Kamper said searchers found the keys to Underwood's SUV but declined to comment on whether they found blood in the vehicle or other evidence inside it.
The area where the SUV was found is largely isolated farmland, although signs along Farm Road 2449 point the way to a new housing subdivision just to the north. Monday afternoon, dozens of patrol vehicles, unmarked cars and media trucks lined the rural road.
Meanwhile, about 30 miles away, more police vehicles and yellow crime scene tape encircled the Underwoods' modest red brick home in the 3700 block of Chaddybrook Lane.
Neighbors talked quietly outside their homes as children rode bikes and drew on the sidewalks with colored chalk.
"They are awesome," said neighbor Vicki Wilson. "They are the nicest people anyone would want to meet. They are very, very sweet."
Wilson said Jayden and the other neighborhood children often played soccer together or came to her house to play on the swing set or swim in her pool.
Jayden was "kind of shy, but ... a smart, intelligent, happy little boy," Wilson said.
Jayden was a first-grader at North Riverside Elementary School. Today, extra counselors will be on hand to talk to the students, said Jason Meyer, a spokesman of the Keller school district.
Customers knew 'Boopa'
Outside Boopa's Bagel Deli, well-wishers left messages and trinkets of hope.
A large brown teddy bear, several notes and balloons graced the window.
Scrawled in colored markers were the words "God Bless Lisa and her two little angels." Another one read: "We're praying for you! Lisa, Jayden and Baby Underwood."
A lined piece of notebook paper bore a child's handwriting: "I'm sure she's OK. I miss her as much as you do. I hope you're going to be OK."
It was signed with a heart and a face with a frown.
Pils said Lisa Underwood had named her bagel shop "Boopa" after a nickname that her mother, Sheila, had bestowed upon her grandson.
Jayden expressed pride in having his nickname adorn his mother's business.
"He wanted to be referred to as one of the owners because he said, 'My name is on the building,'" Pils said.
Deli customers knew Jayden and often asked for him by name.
"They would say, 'Is Boopa here today?'" Pils said.
Pils said that Jayden often passed the time helping her and his mother in the shop, in Fossil Creek Plaza at Western Center Boulevard and Beach Street.
"He would sweep better than our employees," she said. "He loved being at the bagel shop, he was just a real special guy. I love being around him. He is a joy, just a complete joy."
Pils said Underwood has worked hard to provide for her son, who is active in Cub Scouts and soccer and can easily beat Pils at chess.
"He was a wonderful child because she was a wonderful mother."
Pils said Underwood has been looking forward to becoming a mother a second time.
"She felt like, 'I have a perfect boy. Now, I want a perfect girl,'" she said.
Staff Writers Kelly Melhart and Alex Branch Contributed to This Report Deanna Boyd, (817) 390-7655 dboyd@star-telegram.com
I was enjoying watching you be smacked down up to this point. For you to say this to rintense is beyond reprehensible, and I must speak out.
You need to change your screen name to PHARISEE.
OMG, you just couldn't stop yourself, could you?
I pity your family and friends.
Yeah, what the hell is wrong with --
Oh, wait a minute . . . never mind. ;-)
I will try to contain my anger and remorse that we, as a society seem unable to prevent this type of crime.
Sorry. Can't agree with your statement. We ALL have anger and remorse over these kinds of crimes. But...don't blame me and others (we are society ya know.) Put the blame where it belongs and that's on our justice system. If more of these people were put away for the rest of their lives the first time around there would be less of them walking this earth to do harm to others. This person did not kill in self defense. This person murdered a woman, her child and her unborn baby.
Years ago this would have shocked a nation. Today, it is just another crime. It's sickening and disgusting and shows the lack of respect for women and pregnancy. My heart goes out to the family of those dead. I dont' know how they can ever feel peace again. I will pray they do but...it's so terribly sad.
We need to put more value on life period. Life is precious and a gift from God. Today people kill anyone and everyone. But...to kill a pregnant woman and her little son not to mention the unborn...well, this should send a message to all that our justice system is not working. You watch...this person will only do some time. A little time for snuffing out the lives of three human beings.
The country and the world have come to make me sick to my stomach anymore.
Lets not blame this women for her and her sons death. Ther only one responsible is the man who did it!
As we say down here - 'It's time for a short rope and a tall tree.'
"There was a report on a local radio station that she had threatened to expose him to his wife."
That's too bad.
Me, too, Pippin. I was asking who this mean-spirited people on this thread are; the ugly face of conservatism, if you ask me.
I am not asking you to judge the mother. I am asking you to judge the DNA donor that murdered her. Can you see the difference? I have no way to judge her but the fruit of the murderer condemns him. Would you say now that she made a good choice? It has nothing to do with judging her.
I have made and do make plenty of mistakes. I hope I never am so confused in my logic that I will not realize my bad choices hopefully before I make them but always after I make them.
News conference coming up
Oh my word, this is the moms fault? You are obviously a womem hater to think something so rediculous!!!!!!
Maybe the guy is just like dear ole Dad, younger Bubba, Uncle Joe, Cousin Harry. Maybe to her, those guys are perfect cuz they are exactly like the screw ups that raised her! The men in a girl's life do shape her choices later on. ;)
I think they should stop and lay the blame were it really belongs, on the perp who did this dispicable thing!
"Fox reported a few minutes ago that he will be charged with 3 cap murder charges..."
It's a good thing the baby is considered a human being still. I bet he killed her because she dumped him. But why the little boy?
Have you absolutely no decency and/or shame? Stop posting about this woman for a few days.
C., I hope this POS gets a change of venue to Williamson county. I know any jury there will give him the needle.
That surely is a question, isn't it?
Why the child.
Maybe you need to consider that women should be held responsible for their choices. If they choose losers and keep ending up in trouble is it "their bad choices" or the "bad boys" that they choose that are the problem? It is the old - fool me once (shame on you) - fool me twice (shame on me) logic. SOME PEOPLE NEVER LEARN.
It must be the womens fault always if a divorce happens, I'm sure is what yellowdog believes!
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