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
We can hope. But they are reporting that one body has been found.
"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 don't know what you were trying to say, but the above is exactly what you did say. Without any proof or evidence you immediately attacked the woman as a bad mother just minutes after it was announced that she and her children had been murdered.
[You are right, I should have pointed out the right things she did, and I am sure she did many. And you are right about having the baby, etc...that was the right decision....I know we all make bad mistakes, I have, I just want to start talking about how women pick up losers and then the children pay. Mothers should be the ultimate protector of her children.]
Then you may have chosen your words and the time very poorly. Lucky for you that is not a death sentence.
Your point may be well taken in a different context, but I would still have to disagree that a mother should be the ultimate protectors of the children. I believe that should be a shared responsibility of both parents. Even if they no longer or never did live together.
Wasn't it reported he was being charged with three murders though?
"Please, if these people are "Christians" I'll eat my hat."
I completely agree with that. There is a great divide between people who are religious, and people who are Christians. Two totally seperate things. Extremely easy to tell the difference between them.
As a side note: My thoughts are with you about losing your child...I cannot imagine. When my husband's step mom lost her daughter, I bought her How Different Religions View Death & Afterlife. It was all I could think to do for her besides being there. Again, my thoughts are with you.
That bears repeating.
There's an adjacent on-going thread on the ramifications of not paying child support.
Explains a lot, IMO.
Yes, but I am thinking this news is "fluid," if you will.
I would like to add to my previous thought, that we also should be teaching boys how to be good fathers and husbands. We just seem to be missing the boat all the way around.
sundero
Let's pray very fluid. The prosecutor can always drop one or two of the murder charges.
BINGO!
After I hit the "post" button I was afraid it might read as a flame instead of just a differing opinion.
It is such a sad story. I bet no one regreted her choice of men any more than Lisa.
It will be interesting to see how this story develops....what the circumstances of that evening were. My heart breaks for her, the unborn baby, but most of all for her little boy who must have experienced a horror no child should endure.
It breaks my heart.
["Please, if these people are "Christians" I'll eat my hat."
I completely agree with that. There is a great divide between people who are religious, and people who are Christians. Two totally seperate things. Extremely easy to tell the difference between them.]
Oh goodness.
sundero
Barbee beat and strangled Lisa and her son. He also lead the police to the bodies.
Barbee was married until 2 years ago and married his current wife, a legal secretary, a couple of months ago.
That was the perfect pick, I can tell you!
All the other books were too "you'll never get over this" types; that's very hard to read in the beginning. You don't ever "get over it," but you learn to accept that accidents happen on this earth and you live with it.
Thanks for your thoughts; it's been four years now and it still hurts every single day.
Another poster stated that she had threatened to out him to his new wife. That's motive. Who really knows?
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.
That sounds pretty definitive.
I hope that one of them, either the mother or son, has been spared...but the two statements cannot both be right, that both bodies were found and that only one has been found.
Now I'll really be sitting on pins and needles until they come out with more.
This is a bazaar thread. Catching up from being out in the field.
The crime happened Friday night the 18th from what the the Fort Worth PD is revealing. The discovery of the crime scene Saturday revealed quantities of blood indicating that a person did not survive. Not known/revealed if there were two sets of blood stains.
Too early.
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