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
That piece of info certainly changes things a lot. Maybe her judgment was only half as bad.
dang, I go to lunch, come back and we have all sorts of opinions on this whole case.
The bottom line, the jerk killed 3.... the unborn, the mother and the child. He is to blame.... and only him.
I do not think that this is a men/women deal it is about an angry heart. It is about hate. It is about a spur of the moment very very bad choice. He should get the Death Penalty and I am deeply saddened by the whole incident.
However, it is apparant that so many opinions on this thread think to blame the lady. That is nuts!
To follow your logic:
If I (a woman)was hitchhiking (exhibiting poor judgment)and allowed myself to climb into a car with a nice enough looking man--hapless, benign entity--and he proceded to murder me, I would be to blame?
You just expressed them better!
You do not know who I am or anything about me and I am not inclined to tell you except that I am not yellowdoghunter.
No, but you would have shown very poor judgement!
sundero
So tell us. Ever been married? Still married? Have any kids?
Okay, MSNBC reporting that they have found two bodies.
The guy has confessed; he said somebody dropped him off near her house and they were having a "discussion" about him leaving his new wife; it turned into an argument; she kicked him, he hit her in the face and her nose started bleeding, and the fight escalated. He smothered her -- the child came into the room and saw what was going on and he smothered him, too.
When the Apostle Paul warned against judging others, he was speaking of the hypocrisy of condemning others for the sins they themselves were guilty of. I know that I, in my life, have made many errors in judgment. I have thus reaped the consequences of my foolishness and live with the results daily.
I also know and believe that in the world to come I have another role to play: 1 Corinthians 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
I do not "condemn" those who have posted unkind and thoughtless words here today. I would only like to remind them that they, themselves, are not blameless in life, and that they should therefore use discretion in the words they use in the comdemning of this poor victim of violence.
pattyjo
["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
Thank you, brytlea
I never blamed the woman, where is that coming from? Yes, if you are hitching and the worse happens, well....one can be a fool and die before their time.
How in the hell is this mother to blame for what happened to her? She raised one son, she was a co-owner in a business, she owned her own home, she own a SUV.
Everyone loved her and her son or did you not read thge article?
Thanks. I wonder how the person who gave him a ride feels?
I'll admit I have one really big weakness...my son.
If anyone killed him, forgiveness is not possible, and I would have no control over my actions. The cycle of violence would continue.
When did I blame the mother? And when does owning a SUV make you a saint?
As should we all. You cannot tell someone what they did is wrong without first judging if it is or not.
sundero
All of these posts stating that "if only she made better choices" or "if only she had better judgment" or "if only she didn't sleep with every man who came down the pike" are all non sequitors.
My neighbor's toddler would still be alive today "if only he checked under the bumper of the car before starting down the driveway."
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