Baby Be Mine (24 page)

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In Deming, New Mexico, the people who knew Lisa and Carl Boman scratched their heads. Lisa had not ever seemed to be a violent person. On top of that, she made no secret of her tubal ligation. She told friends that she regretted having the procedure because it meant she could not have any more children, but she did not obsess over having another child.

In Melvern, Kansas, the dazed citizenry struggled to make sense of it all. The twinkling lights and cheerful Christmas decorations put up weeks before seemed to mock their sorrow. The joy of the season died an early death and lay buried beneath their gloom and horror. They performed the rituals of Christmas with wooden determination, for the sake of the children. But their hearts were heavy and the days were dark.

The reason for their community becoming a household name filled them all with torment. Led by Darrell Schultze, the Community Pride group that worked year-round to improve the town met informally to tackle the problem. Roger and Joy Montgomery were active members in the loose-knit organization, but they were not in attendance at this gathering.

The group of concerned citizens wanted to rebuild their image—to let the world know that Melvern was a town full of good people. Lisa Montgomery was only a solitary aberration, not a common denominator.

Although none of them knew Bobbie Jo Stinnett, they ached for her family's loss. They wanted to do something positive—to assuage their unmerited feelings of guilt and to reach out a helping hand to a family in another rural community whom they envisioned as kindred spirits.

They set up a fund for Bobbie Jo's family and hung signs up and down Melvern's main streets and in the nearby county seat of Lyndon. The Lyndon State Bank accepted donations at its branches in both of those towns. They raised a little over $2,000 in a month and transferred that money up to a bank in Maitland, Missouri, and into an account in Zeb's name.

Then they turned their fundraising concerns to finding
money to meet the needs of the children Lisa had left behind. They were sickened by the burden placed on their young shoulders by the thoughtless and despicable actions of their mother. It some ways what these kids had to face in their current circumstances was more difficult and more challenging than if they'd been forced to deal with the death of their mother.

Whistle Stop Café owner Kathy Sage rued the day she ever spoke to the media. Immediately after the arrest of Lisa Montgomery, she was quoted saying: “You read about this stuff. It blows you away when it's here. This stuff is supposed to be in New York City or Los Angeles.”

Kathy—along with the whole town of Melvern—was shocked at the massive news coverage the statement received. Melvern rarely made statewide news. Now their every word streaked across the nation and around the world.

Kathy hunkered down as attacks and ridicule for her sound bite rained on her head. Nobody made allowances for the shock of the moment or the inexperience Kathy had with the media. To the world at large, she had spoken, and now she was fair game. Scorn thundered in from journalists in New York and Los Angeles. Worst of all though were the bloggers on the Internet.

One man wrote:

This stuff is supposed to be in New York City or Los Angeles
, But strangely happen mostly in the Red States. Just ask Andrea Yates about that. Oh, and most of these pregnant women murders occurred in Red States, too. So, tell me, Ms. Sage, why is it
supposed
to be happening in NYC or LA?

I wasn't going to say anything about this case being an example of Red State pathology, but how insulting can you get, Ms. Sage? This is your crazy neighbor lady, you need to take responsibility in your community for her, don't blame NYC or LA for
her, she wouldn't fit in or be welcome here either. We have [our] own problems and we are just as appalled by your mama-killin'-baby-stealin' crazy as a loon Lisa Montgomery as you are. Possibly more so because, you know what? In a big city somebody might have spotted crazy Lisa and sent in Social Services before she subdued Bobbie Jo Stinnett and sliced her baby out of her still living body. Contrary to popular belief in the Red States, big city people look out for each other. That seems not to have been the case in Skidmore, Missouri or Melvern, Kansas.

A woman in New York added more fuel to the fire:

Ms. Sage, let me assure you, as a New Yorker, as a non-Christian, as a member of a population routinely accused of treating People Not Like Us with contempt: this stuff is
not
supposed to be in New York City or Los Angeles. I assure you, if one of my neighbors came into the Italian deli where I buy my cheese and polenta on a nearly daily basis, with a baby to whom she had just given birth, and we found out three days later that she had murdered a pregnant woman and stolen her child from her body, we would not just be horrified, we would be shocked. We would be in pain for the man who has just lost his wife, the mother of his child; and we would be sickened by the deception practiced on us by a killer. And yes, I'll say it again, we would be shocked, because this stuff, as you put it, is not supposed to be anywhere. Not New York, not Los Angeles. Not Melvern, Kansas or Skidmore, Missouri. Not London, not Paris, not rural China, not Central Africa, not in a packed tenement neighborhood or an isolated farm belt town. This is an abomination no matter where it happened, and your suggestion that it is
less so in my backyard than yours is contemptible. And I'm sorry, but your shock, while understandable, does not get you off the hook.

Another blogger lashed out with an attack that encompassed everyone in the Midwest and the South.

Perhaps, like Kathy Sage, Red-Staters are just full of themselves—and full of something else, too.

The old adage that tragedy brings us all together struck a hollow note. This spirit of brotherhood had been seen many times and in many ways in the past, but at the time of Bobbie Jo's death, the nation was divided and its people divisive. Even a tremendous personal tragedy like this one did not bring out the best in everyone. In the America of 2005, it was easier to find people content to point fingers and scold than it was to find those willing to hold hands and sing “Kum Ba Yah.”

L
aw enforcement worked to solidify the case against Lisa Montgomery. They encountered a roadblock when they attempted the forensic analysis of the computer found in the Montgomery home—it was an Apple iMac and their software was created for computers using the Windows operating system.

They knew that important evidence indicating premeditation could be hidden on that hard drive. The case now took a detour to New Zealand.

Daniel Ayers of McCallum Petterson, an accounting firm in Auckland, developed the original Windows-compatible software. The FBI went to the source and asked the New Zealand computer expert to modify the software to work on an iMac.

Ayers was not new to serious crime investigations. He aided law enforcement in abduction and drug trafficking cases in his country and in a murder in Canada. It was his
first encounter with a case in the United States, but he plunged in with vigor and determination. Soon authorities had the tool they needed to penetrate any secrets lurking on Lisa's hard drive.

On December 23, Lisa appeared in court again. Under her orange jumpsuit, she wore a dark blue sweatshirt. She sat between her lawyers biting her lips and tugging on her shirt.

When Magistrate Judge Waxse asked her to-consent to waive hearings in Kansas, she nodded her head. Waxse asked her to respond out loud. Her voice broke as she said, “Yes”—the only word she uttered during this hearing.

Although her agreement on this point changed the jurisdiction of her case from Kansas City, Kansas, to the Missouri U.S. District Court, Lisa remained incarcerated in the federal penitentiary in Kansas.

On Christmas Day, Patty and Gene Day hosted a dinner party in honor of their great-granddaughter Victoria Jo Stinnett's first Christmas. Grief-stricken family members tried to focus on the joy of Tori Jo, but the memory of her mother hung heavy in the air.

On December 27, at 2:30
P.M.,
Lisa entered court again—this time in a different state with a new judge—Chief Magistrate John T. Maughmer. She was dressed again in the orange coverall with the dark blue sweatshirt—the outfit accessorized with chains on her hands and feet. Her demeanor was subdued—her voice soft.

Maughmer questioned her to determine whether or not she qualified for a public defender. “Do you have a job?”

“I did,” Lisa said.

“How often are you paid?”

“Once every two weeks.”

“What type of vehicle do you own?”

“A 1986 Isuzu Trooper.”

“How many children do you have?”

“Four.”

“Can you read and write?”

“Yes,” she said.

After ruling that she was qualified, the judge appointed Anita Burns and David Owen to represent her. The prosecutors informed the court that Nodaway County prosecuting attorney David Baird would be co-counsel and requested that the judge deny bond for Lisa Montgomery. He postponed a decision on that matter until after the New Year. In less than ten minutes, her first appearance in a Missouri courtroom was over.

On January 7, the judge denied the defense request to release their client on bail. He said that there was no set of conditions that could be placed on Montgomery that would be sufficient to ensure the safety of others.

T
he courts granted custody of Lisa's four children to Carl. Kevin wanted them all to stay with him. Three of the children chose to live with their biological father. The oldest, Desiree, however, elected to stay with Kevin in Melvern to finish her senior year in high school. She continued managing the basketball team and getting good grades. The student body had not ostracized her as she had feared, but embraced her as a victim and a friend. After the school year ended, she still remained in Melvern and—with the community's financial help—attended college classes in Emporia.

Desiree went to see her mother in prison as often as she could, but a suicide watch was in place and that often prohibited Lisa from having any visitors. Visits with Lisa helped her to cope with the new reality of her life.

Kevin, though, was lost. He did not cope well at all. He found it very difficult to accept the reality of the woman he
married. He avoided talking whenever possible and carried the demeanor of a widower—grieving the loss of a woman he thought he knew and the illusion of a daughter who existed only in his heart.

The townspeople provided as much emotional support and encouragement as they could, too—to both Desiree and Kevin. The ceaseless baying of the media and the unending train of curiosity seekers drove Kevin from his home and away from the rooms filled with memories of the Lisa he thought he knew. In January, he and Desiree moved into the modest home of Roger and Joy just blocks away from downtown Melvern.

Kevin kept paying the rent on the farmhouse through April as if that act would transform the last few months into nothing but a dreadful nightmare and allow him to return to the life he knew before December 16. Without that miracle, he could not bear to walk through the door of his former home on South Adams Road. Roger and Joy took charge of cleaning up and clearing the house before turning the key back to Isabel Phelon.

Zeb Stinnett was numb, too. With quiet dignity, he accepted awkward expressions of sorrow and gifts of sympathy. On Bobbie Jo's website, he watched emails that once sent wishes for the safe return of his baby morph into condolences and promises of prayer. Zeb withdrew from the public eye.

The second week of January, the grand jury convened in Kansas City, Missouri. The prosecutor alleged that Lisa Montgomery killed Bobbie Jo Stinnett in “a heinous, cruel and depraved manner” and that the murder included torture and physical abuse. Thirty-two jurors and three judges listened to the testimony about the crime. When Sheriff Espey took the stand, his description of the attack on Bobbie Jo caused six jurors to cry out loud.

Espy turned to a judge, questioning the necessity for his graphic recounting of the events on Elm Street.

A judge said, “You've got to tell it like it is.”

Espey continued his gruesome tale of strangulation and
brutal amateur surgery accompanied by a backup chorus of sobs. The only other witness at the hearing was Special Agent Kurt Lipanovich from the FBI.

U.S. Attorney Todd Graves focused the jurors' attention on the definitions in their manual. “ ‘Heinous,' ” he read out loud, “means extremely wicked or shockingly evil, where the killing was accompanied by such additional acts of torture or serious physical abuse of the victim as to set it apart from other killings.

“ ‘Cruel' means that the defendant relished the killing or showed indifference to the suffering of the victim, as evidenced by torture or serious physical abuse of the victim. ‘Depraved' means that the defendant relished the killing or showed indifference to the suffering to the victim, as evidenced by torture or serious physical abuse of the victim.

“ ‘Torture,' ” he continued, “means the victim must have been conscious of the abuse at the time it was inflicted, and the defendant must have specifically intended to inflict severe mental or physical pain or suffering on the victim, in addition to the killing of the victim.” He argued that torture could apply in this case, since Bobbie Jo may still have been alive when Lisa cut the baby out of her body.

The grand jury returned an indictment charging that Lisa Montgomery a/k/a Darlene Fischer “willfully and unlawfully kidnapped, abducted, carried away, and held Victoria Jo Stinnett, and willfully transported Victoria Jo Stinnett in interstate commerce from Skidmore, Missouri, across the state line to Melvern, Kansas, the actions of the defendant resulting in the death of Bobbie Jo Stinnett.”

The indictment went on to cite eleven special findings including “participation in an act that constituted a reckless disregard for human life,” the death and injury of Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the commission of another crime, the “especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner” of that killing, the existence of “substantial planning and premeditation,” and the vulnerability of both of the victims—one for her young age, the other for her pregnancy.