Woman charged with cutting open pregnant neighbor to steal baby

PITTSBURGH -- A woman hit her pregnant neighbor over the head, drove her to a secluded area and cut her belly in an attempt to steal her baby, authorities said.

Police said the attack was stopped only because a teenager on an all-terrain vehicle came across the women.

Peggy Jo Conner, 38, of Ford City, was being held without bond.

An emergency Caesarean section was performed on Oskin, 30, at Allegheny General Hospital. State police said Thursday that the baby was in stable condition and the mother was in the trauma wardAn emergency Caesarean section was performed on Oskin, 30, at Allegheny General Hospital. State police said Thursday that the baby was in stable condition and the mother was in the trauma ward, but hospital officials said they couldn't release any information about either patient.

State police said that after hitting Oskin, Conner drove her about 15 miles to a secluded, wooded area in Armstrong County, about 50 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, and cut Oskin across her abdomen.

"She was sliced over an old (Caesarean) scar and severely bleeding," Trooper Jonathan Bayer said. She probably would have bled to death had the teenager not found her when he did, Bayer said.

Conner told the 17-year-old boy that Oskin was fine, but he called his father, who notified police.

Bayer said he believed Oskin was in her third trimester of pregnancy.

Last December, a Kansas woman was accused of strangling Bobbie Jo Stinnett, a 23-year-old who was eight months pregnant, at her Missouri home and cutting Stinnett's baby daughter from her womb. Prosecutors have said Lisa Montgomery showed the baby off as her own before her arrest. The infant went home with her now-widowed father and Montgomery's trial is set for next April.