Skidmore, Missouri is renowned for its village charms, but 18 years back, it grew to become the scene of the unthinkable crime that also makes seasoned government bodies tear up.
On December 16, 2004, Becky Harper, mom of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnet, made an anguished call to 911 at 3:30 p.m.. Harper stated her daughter, who had been eight several weeks pregnant, what food was in home on the ground which “it appears like her stomach had exploded.”
Paramedics raced towards the scene, where they found Stinnett dead. She’d “a jagged gash across her abdomen that uncovered a few of her organs,” Randy Strong, Sheriff, Nodaway County, told “Twisted Killers,” airing Thursdays at 9/8c on Archiweekend. Her developing fetus have been cut from her womb and it was missing.
Investigators found no indications of forced admission to the house, suggesting that Stinnett might have known the killer. An Amber Alert was released for that baby. The FBI and also the Highway Patrol became a member of law enforcement around the situation.
Detectives canvassed the area, and located one witness, who reported visiting a dirty red subcompact vehicle parked near Stinnett’s home which had never been in the region before.
Police interviewed the victim’s devastated husband, Zeb Stinnett, who’d met Stinnett in senior high school. He claimed he left home at 7 a.m. for work on a producing plant coupled with nothing related to the crime. His alibi examined and that he was removed like a suspect.
Investigators found that Stinnett bred and elevated rat terriers. Additionally they discovered Harper spoke on the telephone together with her daughter at 2:30 p.m. at the time from the murder. Stinnett had exchanged emails the night time before having a lady in Fairfax, Missouri, about 20 miles in the crime scene, who wanted a puppy, along with a lady was with Stinnett when her mother known as. Detectives narrowed your window from the slaying to between 2:30 and three:30 that mid-day.
A forensic search of Stinnett’s computer was transported out by Curtis Howard, a upon the market Det. Sgt. Electronic Crimes Unit, St. Frederick PD. He discovered that the lady asking concerning the dogs known as herself Darlene Fisher. Much deeper digital analysis ended to find out much more about her.
Simultaneously, autopsy reports says Stinnett have been strangled. But the reason for dying was exsanguination – she bled out of the crude c-section. Bloodstream between your victim’s toes established that Stinnett had was at some point throughout the attack. Investigators believed Stinnett was unconscious after being clogged but found when the knife was stepped into her abdomen
“She was attempting to protect against this attacker in order to save herself and her baby,” stated Strong.
“There’s multiple explanations why somebody may wish to steal a baby child, one of these being to market that child around the underground community,” described Dr. Kate Termini, a forensic psychiatrist.
On December 17, a lady in Texas known as along with some advice regarding a lady named Lisa Montgomery, whom she’d met in a dog show. Montgomery, like Stinnett, elevated rat terriers. Montgomery, the tipster stated, gave birth within 24 hours Stinnett was murdered.
Officials looked for Lisa Montgomery and located that they resided in Melverne, Kansas, 170 miles from Skidmore. Detectives headed to interview her.
Simultaneously the forensic analysis of Stinnett’s computer says the Darlene Fisher emails had originate from a pc registered to Kevin Montgomery, Lisa’s husband.
FBI agents surveilled the Montgomery home, in which a dirty small red vehicle was parked. The automobile matched the outline from the vehicle seen close to the crime scene each day earlier
Around 1 p.m., Lisa and Kevin Montgomery were observed by government bodies coming home having a baby. Skidmore detectives showed up in this area a short while later.
Because they contacted the house, stated Strong, “We didn’t determine if i was about to walk within the devil’s house.” He told Kevin Montgomery, who had been cooperative, that they are investigating an Amber Alert and looking at all recent births. Within the home, officials saw Lisa Montgomery sitting down on the couch holding an infant.
Detectives saw the baby was breathing and required care to not alarm Lisa by any means that may cause her to harm the newborn. Lisa stated she’d had a baby yesterday in a birthing center in Topeka, Kansas. She’d no discharge papers.
Investigators discreetly known as the middle determined that there was no births there on December 16. Detectives requested Lisa if the agent could contain the baby when they spoken further. “Surprisingly, she stated sure,” stated Kurt Lipanovich, an old FBI special agent.
When she was separated from her husband, Lisa told officials she gave birth in your own home, with the aid of three buddies. Requested for that names of her helpers, Lisa altered her story again. They weren’t together with her, these were available.
“As these investigators begin to peel away the layers, they are boxing her right into a corner,” stated upon the market LAPD investigator Tracey Benjamin. “She’s losing ground. She recognizes that they are onto her.”
Eventually Lisa broke lower. She accepted the baby was Bobby Jo Stinnett’s.
Investigators determined that her husband was not aware of his wife’s criminal actions. She’d convinced him that they would possess a baby — but tragically, that baby was Stinnett’s unborn baby.
“She needed to realize that there is an enormous risk that Bobbie Jo would die,” stated former New york city prosecutor Janet Karas. “She meant to cut the infant from her womb and then leave this lady bleeding on her behalf floor.”
Inside her red vehicle they found an email using the victim’s address onto it, a bloody knife and a rope knotted with hair. A search from the suspect’s computer says Lisa had tracked Stinnett’s pregnancy through pictures, researched Cesarean sections, and arranged a gathering on December 16.
“The evidence was overwhelming this would be a premeditated cold blooded murder,” stated Lipanovich. “She planned it, she performed the murder.”
Lisa Montgomery was billed with first-degree murder and faced the dying penalty. Her trial started on October 2, 2007, in which the defense claimed that Lisa had endured abuse growing up and didn’t understand her actions.
But on October 22, 2007, the jury came back having a guilty verdict. On The month of january 13, 2021 Lisa Montgomery, 52, was performed by lethal injection. She was the first lady performed by the us government since 1953.
In 2021, the brand new You are able to Publish reported that Stinnett’s baby, now a teen named Victoria Jo, hasn’t spoken openly concerning the tragedy.
To understand more about the situation, watch “Twisted Killers,” airing Thursdays at 9/8c on Archiweekend, and stream episodes here.
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