Grisly murder-kidnappings show similarities

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The bloody killing of an expectant mother whose attacker wants her child is no common crime. But similarities connect the handful of women accused of such an atrocity during the past few decades.

Experts have generated a profile of such killers and say the perpetrators typically share a history of deception, a fantasy of bearing a child and a predetermined target with whom they may have developed a relationship.

"They focus on themselves and their needs," said Cathy Nahirny, who supervises case analysis at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and helped write a 2002 study entitled "Newborn Kidnapping by Cesarean Section."

"They don't care about anybody else," she said.

The Dec. 16 killing of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in Skidmore, in which the eight-months-pregnant mother was sliced open and her baby removed, was the eighth such crime recorded by the center since 1983.

The study, published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, examines six of the incidents. Along with the more recent killings of an Oklahoma woman last December and Stinnett this year, the crimes have similarities.

Prosecutors have asked those investigating Stinnett's killing not to discuss the case. But experts say an apparent history of lying by Lisa Montgomery, who is charged with the crime, is something shared by women convicted of robbing babies from a mother's womb.

Prosecutors say Montgomery had been lying about being pregnant and had told people she was due in December. An ex-husband claims she previously lied about pregnancies despite having undergone tubal ligation 14 years ago. Several fellow dog-breeders said she'd been known for deception.

Jason Dawson, a Kansas City breeder who met Montgomery last year, said she lied about seemingly arbitrary facts like the number of dogs in a litter that she had sold.

"Just random, nonsensical stuff," Dawson said Wednesday. "It just didn't make sense why she was dishonest."

Messages left with Anita Burns, a public defender for Lisa Montgomery, have not been returned. Montgomery is charged with kidnapping resulting in death, a federal count that is punishable by execution. She is due back in court Thursday for a detention hearing.

Killings like that of Stinnett are almost exclusively committed by women who experts say often are living in a fantasy world in which they've faked a pregnancy. They may have associated with various potential victims. And they may view a birth as a fix for a relationship with a husband or partner that's failing.

"They are not psychotic," said study co-author and Boston College professor Ann Wolbert Burgess, using a term for fundamentally deranged individuals who are completely detached from reality. "It's generally premeditated."

Prosecutors followed a digital trail to Montgomery they say shows online communication with Stinnett the day before the attack. According to court documents, Montgomery showed up at Stinnett's home purportedly with an interest in buying one of the rat terrier dogs Stinnett bred and sold.

"The majority of these abductors use a confidence style approach to the victim's mother whom they have befriended, conned or recently met," the study says.

Despite the similarities, each case is unique, too.

In a 1987 incident in New Mexico, the woman convicted of killing 19-year-old Darci Pierce used car keys to slice her open. In a 1992 case, a clueless woman had her baby removed during a doctor-performed C-section the infant's abductors arranged. An Ohio woman found the young expectant mother she killed four years ago through a newspaper classified advertisement.

The perpetrators are so immersed in their fantasy, Wolbert Burgess said, that they often forget to consider basic questions, such as where they'll get a birth certificate.

Many find it difficult to believe that unwitting men accept the stories of a wife or girlfriend who fake a pregnancy. But experts say they're usually not an accomplice.

"They are really clueless," Nahirny said. "It's really sad."

Co-workers said Montgomery's husband, Kevin, commuted 70 miles each way from his home to his job at a sign company. A former employer said Lisa Montgomery had juggled three jobs at one point, though she had apparently cut back her work as the due date she announced drew closer.

"A lot has to do with how skillful the woman is in hiding it," said Wolbert Burgess. "If she's putting on weight and wearing bulky clothing, in addition to how much contact the male might have."

Kevin Montgomery has not been charged with any crime, though prosecutors refuse to say if an indictment could name others.