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
....Maybe some people don't understand the responsibility that comes with having children......
Does this apply to men also?
Wonder why a married man was having sex with a single woman?
The really swell thing about these threads is that when you disrupt them with remarks like yours, the replies to are going to keep coming for HOURS, as new people read the threads.
And just think how this next generation will turn out.
I can see that as a possibility. But who knows what the son might have known about the relationship and he might have been considered a threat.
Dear Yellow,
If she were married, what else would you have found fault with?
[I doubt your mother followed followed Oprah's advice and bedded every man that would have her.]
You would be correct, but she did eventually re-marry. So did my father - 4 times! But he never killed anyone!!!
(There was no Oprah in her day and I don't watch Oprah myself. I'm too busy getting my education at freerepublic)
No, per your first post, I was stating that she and other's like her are more likely to make 'bad' choices simply based on who their male role models were. We all tend to go for Dad, even if he was a world class ....nevermind.
Yes, she can LEARN to make better choices, but first it takes identifying that she was making bad choices, and then figuring out why. Some folks do it, others never do. Such is this great journey of life.
At least she did have the children......except for the little girl she was murdered before giving birth to.
I cannot express how sorry for you I am.
I hope someday that you will see what you don't see at present. Take care.
How awful, blaming the victim for getting murdered.
sorry to tell you this, but there are a lot of women out there that made the wrong choice with who is the father of their child. I am one of them, but I am very proud to be the mother of my 7 year old daughter, who is a very happy little girl and has never gone without. Yes, I was a single mom, but I took the liberty and responsibility of my actions and have raised my daughter on my own without government assistance. My family looked after her while I worked. I did not get romantically involved in any relationships until I met my now husband, who loves my daughter as his own. It doesn't matter who the father is, any man can be a father, however it takes someone very special to be a "Daddy" (rant off)
I have never said that this woman deserved to die. My concern is with protecting children. Nothing else matters except that.
Funny you should say that; when my son died, the book that helped me most was a book about how different religions around the world handle death.
This is the second major Tyler-related incident that I have heard about. The first was the Megan Holden/Wal-Mart kidnap-murder a few weeks ago.
All the guy did was make a valid statement - if the woman had followed a more moral lifestyle, she probably wouldn't have let herself get pregnant by the animal who killed her. There is a good reason why our society was originally founded on Christian values and the further we sink from those values, the sicker society gets. I ache for the poor woman and especially for her truly innocent son, but it probably could have been avoided. Surely the man who murdered them is the real culprit, but she cooperated enough to allow the situation by getting pregnant by a man who was not looking for marriage.
I haven't heard it reported she under investigation for neglect or abuse... is that what you are suggesting?
Actully, the going for the dad thing is not true. I have seen far too many women with nice, hard working dads (including family members) who go for the dangerous rebel type guy. There is probably no accounting for exactly why women choose who they choose, however, it wouldn't hurt to push them in the right direction.
sundero
It is a shame, indeed. But none of us are immune from making bad judgements in our lives. We have all done things we have regretted.
In light of any bad judgement she mayt have shown, she also made a good judgement-she did not abort the baby.
In all due respect, I would say that if we point out what she did wrong, we should point out what she did right.
I do not know anything about her or her circumstances. She made a bad judgement as far as men were concerned. But she did not choose to be murdered with her son and unborn child.
you did exactly what one should do when they have made a mistake that involves a child. children are a blessing from God. I commend you and wish you the very best. You sound like a great mother!
I know alot of women makes mistakes with their childrens fathers, I just want to stop so many from doing it....then tragedy results.
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