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Woman held for 'womb theft'
18/12/2004 07:44 - (SA)
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| Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, shown in a photo provided by Nodaway-Holt High School, was killed and her unborn baby girl cut from her womb. (AP) |
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Maryville - Authorities have arrested a woman they claim came to the home of an eight-months-pregnant woman, strangled her and cut the baby from her womb.
Authorities found the abducted infant in good health, ending a day of frantic searching.
According to a criminal complaint, Lisa M Montgomery admitted she strangled Bobbie Jo Stinnett and took her baby.
The complaint also said Montgomery lied to her husband about giving birth, although United States attorney Todd Graves declined to give a motive for the crime.
Stinnett's mother found the 23-year-old nearly dead on Thursday in her home in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore. Paramedics tried to revive her, but she was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The baby was found on Friday in an eastern Kansas home.
Although DNA tests were pending to confirm the baby's identity, authorities called off the alert issued for the child.
Father reunited with baby
"We're confident we have the little girl that was taken from Skidmore," said Nodaway county sheriff Ben Espey at a media conference in Maryville.
A federal bureau of investigation agent had said the father had already been reunited with the baby, but officials with the bureau and the Topeka, Kansas, hospital where the baby was taken later said that was not the case.
Graves said Montgomery, 36, of Melvern, Kansas, was charged with kidnapping ,resulting in death.
Montgomery, a mother of two, had been pregnant, but lost a child, Graves said, although it was unclear when or under what circumstances.
Missouri state highway patrol sergeant Sheldon Lyon said authorities were questioning a man and a woman who were in the place where the baby was found.
Resisted the attack
Graves said the investigation was continuing, but would not say if additional charges might be filed or if there was another suspect.
Espey said there was no indication of forced entry into Stinnett's small white home in Skidmore, a community of about 500.
Espey said he believes Stinnett was strangled and resisted the attack.
Stinnett, married for little more than a year and expecting her first child, worked at an engine factory in nearby Maryville. Her husband was at work at the time she was killed, authorities said.
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