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
The little boy was just there when it happened...he was a witness
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.
Exactly what I see!
And maybe you should consider that the MURDERER is the criminal here.
See the little city Coppell in the middle of the map, that is where I live.
I thought one of the cornerstones of conservative thought was personal responsiblity. Meaning, if you killed someone, YOU are responsible.
Blaming the victim is so, so, so lib speak.
You know the whine...."If his mama let him play Nintendo, he wouldn't have taken an ax to her."
This smacks of the same.
You've very, very close to "she got what she asked for."
Maybe you, too, should stop posting on this thread.
Dr. Laura would be ashamed of you. She may lecture about morality, but she would NOT blame this poor woman.
I don't have any answer. I wish I did.
Even in war its hard to kill person.
What do you know about the father of the boy that the rest of us don't? How do you know he is/was a loser?
"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."
OK, another country heard from. So, you believe that this woman should have known this guy was going to kill her? Another person blaming the victim. I'm just amazed at what I've read here.
So, perhaps she made a bad choice in men. Women do that all the time, and men often make bad choices in women, too. Does she deserve to die for a bad choice? Is that what you're saying?
Where's your compassion, man? Where's your sense of outrage that this POS killed this woman, her son, and an unborn baby?
Sorry, but I'm done with this ugly thread.
...This case is very sad. Too bad the mother did not provide a stable, loving home for that boy. But as you see, she did not use good judgement in picking whom she made kids with.
I wonder if this would have happened if she had used better judgement in picking a husband......
Wonder if this would have happened if the murderer had used better judgement in picking his girlfriends?
Wonder if this would have happened if the murderer had proven to be a worthwhile man instead of a murderer?
Wonder if this would have happened if the mother had just taken welfare instead of working to support her family?
Wonder if this would have happened if the murderer had just chosen to marry her instead of merely having one night stands?
Of course, the woman is always responsible for bearing the children, raising them, feeding them, and if single, finding a great man to serve as a father. All, while she is working to provide a home.
No responsibility to those who chose to use women for their own sexual gratification and then willfully go on to others. After all - that is their right as men, isn't it?
HMMM, I'm starting to think you and your friend must be bitter men who are divorced and have to pay child support or something like that. I'm also thinking you must be a father's rights guy, since most like to always blame the women for anything and everything!
Maybe she should just "put some ice on it."
Is that what you're saying?
GIVE ME A BREAK!
Lot's of women, AND MEN, have made poor choices and even made them TWICE but few of them end up DEAD.
The only one to blame is the LOOSER who deprived ALL three of them of thier RIGHT TO LIFE!
"This case is very sad. Too bad the mother did not provide a stable, loving home for that boy. But as you see, she did not use good judgement in picking whom she made kids with.
I wonder if this would have happened if she had used better judgement in picking a husband."
He wasn't her husband to my knowledge. The facts aren't in yet. She may have used bad judgement and knew he was a creep, she may have dumped him after she figured it out. We just don't know. He could have been one of those closet psychopaths only a shrink could recognize. My heart goes out to the family, friends and community of this beautiful lady, the unborn child, and her little boy! Prayers for them all!
They just found her body and the bodies of her babies....can we not condemn her lifestyle for a few hours?.....btw no one leads a perfect life...we are all sinners.
He was there? (not being glib)
Sad, really sad!
All I can think of is EVIL is everywhere.
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