Skidmore, Part One - The Murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett

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** Lisa Montgomery was executed at 01:31AM on Jan. 13, 2021 **

Desolate, lonely, unlucky - just a few ways one might describe Skidmore, Missouri. Located in Missouri’s north west corner, photographs portray a town that could once have been the picture of quintessential small town America, but if that image ever did exist, it is now long gone.

The small farm town of Skidmore is located in Nodaway County, northwest Missouri.

Nowadays, residents drive their trucks down the mostly empty streets, their destinations either church or the gas station. Good Time Charlie’s, one of Skidmore’s few restaurants which boasts a traditional, all-American menu, does look pretty good though; the tenderloin appears to be their specialty.

From the early 20th Century to present day, Skidmore’s population has fallen by half. Residents began to break free from the small, quiet farm town, which offered them little chance to thrive, in search of the kind of opportunities available in bigger cities such as Omaha to the north or Kansas City to the south.

As of 2019, an estimated 257 people lived in Skidmore, mainly making ends meet by farming and working in nearby factories.

Bobbie Jo Stinnett

23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett’s work was more enjoyable than that of the average Skidmore resident. She and her husband, Zeb, bred rat terrier dogs out of their home. To supplement their income, they also worked at Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Co. in nearby Maryville.

Zeb and Bobbi Jo Stinnett (source: Find A Grave)

The couple had been married for about a year. As of December 2004, Bobbie Jo was 8 months pregnant with their first child.

“Ratter Chatter”

As part of her dog breeding business, Bobbie Jo regularly contributed to an internet forum with a group of fellow rat terrier breeders. The name of the forum was “Ratter Chatter”, and members discussed the ins and outs of breeding, showing and caring for the dogs.

Other members of the group knew Bobbie Jo for her sweet and caring nature. As well as discussing their passion for rat terriers, they also shared details of their lives outside of dog breeding. Bobbie Jo announced to the group that she was pregnant and was expecting her new arrival in January 2005.

A pregnant Bobbi Jo Stinnett at a dog show (source: Find A Grave)

Lisa Montgomery with one of her rat terriers (source: AP/Guardian)

Lisa Montgomery, another breeder and dog show participant from Melvern, Kansas, also announced her pregnancy on the site. Lisa posted that she had been pregnant with twins, but one had died, and that she was due to give birth to the surviving baby in December. Fellow breeders were suspicious of Lisa’s claims of pregnancy after seeing photos of her at dog shows, as she never appeared to gain any weight, despite her supposed due date getting closer and closer.

Bobbie Jo, however, had no reason to be distrusting of Lisa. The two exchanged messages about the ups and downs of pregnancy, baby names and supplies they planned to buy. In April 2004, Bobbie Jo and Lisa met at a dog show in Abilene, Kansas. Everything seemed normal.

A group shot from the dog show in Abilene, Kansas. Lisa Montgomery (second from left), Bobbi Jo (second from right) and Zeb Stinnett (far right) pose with their dogs.

Darlene Fischer

In late 2004, Jason Dawson received an email from a woman named Darlene Fischer. Dawson was a breeder of rat terriers and friend of Bobbie Jo, whom he had gotten to know through dog shows. He was also a member of the Ratter Chatter forum, on which he had gotten to know Lisa Montgomery. Dawson had never met Darlene Fischer before, but it wasn’t uncommon for him to receive emails from strangers enquiring about adopting puppies.

Fischer asked Dawson if he knew of anyone in Northern Missouri who had puppies up for adoption, as she wanted to give one to her kids for Christmas. Dawson knew Bobbie Jo’s female dog had had a litter recently, and the puppies would be ready to go to new homes in time for Christmas. He gave Fischer Bobbie Jo’s name and her website address, www.happyhavenfarms.com.

Fischer emailed Bobbie Jo, and got in contact with her via the Ratter Chatter message board. Her username displayed on the forum was “fischer4kids” and she told members of the group she lived in Fairfax, Missouri, about a 25-minute drive from Skidmore.

A message from Fischer to Bobbie Jo on December 15, 2004 read:

"I was recommended to you by Jason Dawson and have been unable to reach you by either phone or email. Please get in touch with me soon as we are considering the purchase of one of your puppies and would like to ask you a few questions."

Bobbie Jo replied to Fischer later that evening. She wrote:

“Darlene, I've emailed you with the directions so we can meet. I do so hope that the email reaches you. Great chatting with you on messenger, and do look forward to chatting with you tomorrow am. Thanks, talk to you soon, Darlene! Have a great evening. Bobbie."

December 16, 2004

Zeb Stinnett went to work at Kawasaki Motors that day, leaving Bobbie Jo home alone with the dogs, waiting for the arrival of Darlene Fischer. Nothing felt out of the ordinary to Bobbie Jo; Fischer had come across as perfectly friendly when they talked on the forum the previous evening.

At around 2:15pm, Bobbie Jo was talking on the phone with her mother, Becky Harper. She told her that a woman was coming by to look at the puppies soon. When Bobbie Jo heard a knock on the door at around 2:30pm, she told her mother that her visitor had arrived and she had to go. This would be the last time Becky would speak to her daughter.

Bobbie Jo answered the door to a familiar woman: Lisa Montgomery. But before she could invite her inside, Montgomery barged in and overpowered the heavily pregnant Bobbie Jo. Lisa produced a cord, wrapped it around Bobbie Jo’s neck, and began strangling her from behind until she stopped struggling.

Lisa then pushed Bobbie Jo onto her back, and with a kitchen knife, began cutting open her womb. Once the cut was large enough, she extracted the fetus. She wrapped the infant, which turned out to be a girl, up in a blanket. She then went back out to her car and drove away, leaving the younger woman lying there fighting for her life.

A Horrifying Discovery

At 3:30pm, Becky Harper came by to see her daughter. She entered the home, only to find a scene that could only be described as something you would see in a horror movie. There was blood was everywhere. Bobbie Jo lay on the ground unconscious. In her fists she clenched strands of long blond hair.

Harper ran to the phone and dialed 911. She explained to the operator that it looked as thought her pregnant daughter’s stomach “had exploded”. There was no sign of an infant anywhere.

Paramedics arrived almost immediately, but were unable to revive Bobbie Jo. She was pronounced dead at 4:27pm.

It was concluded that the infant was likely alive, given that he or she had been carried almost full term, but would be small. The baby could be in distress after enduring such a traumatic birth.

The home of Bobbi Jo and Zeb Stinnett (source: St. Joseph News-press Via AP)

Tracking Down “Darlene”

The investigation into who murdered Bobbie Jo and kidnapped her baby began immediately. Authorities knocked on doors, asking neighbors if they had seen anything suspicious that afternoon. One resident said they had seen a dirty, old, red car parked in the Stinnett’s driveway sometime around 2:30pm. They had never seen the car before.

Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey was determined that an AMBER Alert be put out for the missing baby. It proved difficult at first to convince his colleagues of this, given that very little was known about the baby; usually information on the most basic details like eye and hair color are required, which they did not have. However, around 12:30am on December 17, an alert was put out.

As the sun rose the next day, news of the murdered young mother whose baby had literally been pulled from her womb spread like wildfire.

North Carolina rat terrier breeder Dyanne Siktar saw the news that morning and recognized the young pregnant woman as fellow breeder Bobbie Jo Stinnett from Missouri. Sitkar was shocked and saddened by the murder; she had come to think of Bobbie Jo as a friend, having had many conversations with her on the Ratter Chatter forum.

Sitkar logged onto the forum. Of course, Bobbie Jo’s tragic murder was all everybody spoke of. Scrolling through posts from the last couple days, Sitkar looked for any clues on the message board as to what might have happened to Bobbie Jo. She read the back and forth that had gone on between Bobbie Jo and Darlene Fischer on December 15, in which Bobbie Jo had told Fischer she had emailed her address and directions to her house. Fischer was to be meeting Bobbie Jo at her home on the 16th. Sitkar looked at Fischer’s account name, “fischer4kids”. It struck her as creepy. She called the FBI and notified them of her discovery.

FBI agents began going through Bobbie Jo’s emails from December 15. Sure enough, emails from Darlene Fischer were in her inbox. Their attempts to track down a woman with this name in Fairfax, Missouri were in vain. It appeared that there was, in fact, no Darlene Fischer after all.

The FBI employed computer forensic analysis to trace where the emails from Darlene Fischer had come from; it led them to a modem hooked up to a telephone line at the home of Kevin Montgomery on South Adams Road in Melvern, Kansas.

Our New Baby

On December 17, at the Whistle Stop Café in Melvern, Lisa and Kevin Montgomery showed off the newest addition to their family, a baby girl they had named Abigail. Lisa told friends that she had been shopping the previous day in Topeka, Kansas, when she had gone into labor in a store.

She was taken to the Birth and Women's Center in Topeka, where she gave birth to the baby girl. Montgomery called her husband, telling him what had happened and that she needed to be picked up.

Kevin and two of his teenage children got in his truck and drove to Topeka to pick up Lisa and the new baby.

The couple’s friends and family said that the baby was small, but otherwise looked healthy. They had no idea of the terrible ordeal the baby had endured.

The Arrest

Meanwhile, FBI agents sat waiting on South Adams Road in Melvern outside the Montgomery farmhouse, waiting for the arrival of an old red car. Eventually a dirty red Toyota Corolla pulled up and a man and woman emerged, the woman carrying a newborn baby.

The agents approached the couple, asking if they were Kevin and Lisa Montgomery. They confirmed they were. Kevin and Lisa went inside, followed by the agents, who proceeded to ask them questions about the baby. Lisa told the same story she had told her friends. It wasn’t difficult for the agents to catch her out. On telling them that she had given birth at the Birth and Women's Center in Topeka, the agents told her that they had checked with the staff there, and there was no record of her having given birth the previous day. Lisa Montgomery broke down, confessing to strangling the baby’s mother, cutting her from the womb, and kidnapping her.

Kevin Montgomery was shocked at his wife’s confession, as he believed that Lisa had really been pregnant.

Lisa was arrested and charged with the federal offense of "kidnapping resulting in death". It was established that Kevin was not involved in the murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett or the kidnapping of her baby, and no charges were brought against him.

The Real Lisa

Lisa Montgomery was charged with kidnapping resulting in death and sentenced to die in April 2008 (source: Wikimedia Commons)

Amongst those who testified at Lisa’s trial were her ex-husband, Carl Bowman, Kevin Montgomery, Kevin Montgomery’s ex-wife Lori Colwell and Jason Dawson, who had originally referred Lisa to Bobbie Jo, when she identified herself as Darlene Fisher.

Bowman, whom Lisa was in a custody battle over their four children with at the time of the murder, testified that his ex-wife could not have been pregnant because she had undergone tubal litigation in 1990 after the birth of their fourth child. Her doctor recommended the procedure due to his belief that Lisa would no longer be able to carry another pregnancy to term, after the child was born two months premature. However, I have also read that her mother pressured into undertaking “involuntary sterilization”.

After her procedure, however, Lisa would fake five more pregnancies, two while she was still married to Bowman. He mentioned that the day before Bobbie Jo’s murder, Lisa had called him, telling him she was “going to prove him wrong” in reference to him previously saying he would expose her lies about being pregnant and would use her deception against her during their upcoming custody hearing.

Bowman said to the press shortly after Lisa was arrested: "She never was pregnant. Anything they're buying about a lost baby, a miscarriage, all of it's a lie."

Kevin Montgomery testified that his wife had claimed to be pregnant three times since they had been married. Each time, he believed her. The first two supposed pregnancies of their marriage had ended with Lisa telling Kevin that there was something wrong with the fetus and she had to get abortions. The third time was different however, and when he saw Lisa carrying an infant when collecting her in Topeka, he genuinely believed it was their baby.

Although one of Lisa’s relatives told Kevin that Lisa was unable to get pregnant because she had had her tubes tied, Kevin said he did not know what this meant. Kevin’s ex-wife, Lori Colwell, testified that she believed Lisa had been tricking Kevin into believing she was pregnant. She explained that Kevin lacked social skills and was very easily manipulated.

In Lisa’s Defence

Lisa Montgomery pled not guilty to kidnapping resulting to murder. Her defense attorney, Fred Duchardt, made the decision to pursue an insanity defense in an attempt to avoid the death penalty.

Duchardt argued that Lisa had suffered a lifetime of mental illness due to relentless physical, psychological and sexual abuse she received as a child at the hands of her stepfather, Jack Keliner, and her mother, Judy.

However, much of the abuse and torture about to be described was not revealed to the jury during Lisa’s trial, and only came out during her appeal after the verdict came out. Many see this as a massive failing on the part of Fred Duchardt.

The abuse inflicted on Lisa by those who were supposed to protect her can be described as nothing short of evil. Lisa also suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome, as a result of her mother drinking heavily from the time Lisa was conceived to her birth.

The following information might be particularly upsetting to some.

When Lisa was very young, her mother began selling her to male friends and acquaintances for sex. Lisa’s older sister Diane, the only person who ever cared about her, received the same treatment from their mother and stepfather. The two would lie together in bed at night as a male friend of Judy’s raped Diane. When Diane was eight and Lisa was four, Diane was removed from the home by social services and placed with a loving foster family. Lisa, however, was left behind.

Judy would later marry a thoroughly despicable man, Jack Kleiner. Lisa quickly became the target of Jack’s sick acts. Jack had built a room on the side of a trailer he owned in the woods in which he would keep Lisa. Nobody knew about the place. It was somewhere he could come rape and sodomize Lisa whenever he pleased. Because it was in the middle of nowhere, no one could hear her screaming.

Lisa learned not to resist Jack’s attacks when he slammed her head so hard into the concrete floor that she sustained traumatic brain injury.

One time, when Jack was raping Lisa in Judy’s home, Judy walked in. But instead of being appalled at what her husband was doing to her daughter, she directed her rage towards Lisa. She rushed into another room where she retrieved a gun. When she came back, she pointed it at Lisa’s head and screamed at her, “How could you do this to me?”

Lisa began drinking alcohol to cope with the torture she endured.

Lisa Montgomery is the product of a system that failed her, over and over again. Despite the clear abuse Lisa suffered and the dire poverty she lived in, social services only came to check on Lisa once. But nothing ever came of the visit.

Lisa’s living hell did not stop at the hands of her carers, however. Her mother would force her into marrying her stepbrother, Carl Bowman, when she was 17-years-old. Bowman continued to abuse Lisa, regularly raping and beating her. The two would go on to have four children together. The family lived in severe poverty and received multiple visits from social services.

According to the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide:

“Lisa’s trauma was so severe that it compromised her neurological functioning and development. As a result, Lisa has trouble processing information and navigating social relationships. She struggles to maintain her own hygiene, loses focus during conversations with others, and has trouble planning simple tasks.”

Lisa Montgomery as a girl (source: Time)

Duchardt also claimed his client suffered from the delusional disorder pseudocyesis, a condition in which a woman’s body mimics all the signs and symptoms of being pregnant, but she isn’t actually carrying a fetus. Renowned neuroscientists V. D. Ramachandran and William Logan MD, supported Duchardt’s defence as expert witnesses during the trial. They confirmed claims that Lisa was delusional and likely did have pseudocyesis, as well as depression, borderline personality disorder and PTSD.

The Prosecution of Lisa Montgomery

Federal prosecutor Roseann Ketchmark and expert witness for the prosecution, forensic psychiatrist Dr Park Dietz, strongly disputed the defense’s argument that Lisa suffered from pseudocyesis; Ketchmark claimed the defense trying to link the murder and kidnapping to pseudocyesis was some kind of “voodoo science”. The jury saw the pseudocyesis defense the same way.

Ketchmark argued that although Lisa had suffered this terrible abuse in childhood, this did not take away from the fact that the murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett was carefully planned, and therefore premeditated. Ketchmark speculated that Lisa kidnapped the baby because she was worried her ex-husband would use her fake pregnancy claims against her in their custody hearing.

On October 22 2007, after just five hours of deliberation, the jury found Lisa guilty of kidnapping leading to death. Four days later, they recommended the death penalty. On April 4, 2008, U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner officially sentenced Lisa to death.

Updates On Lisa Montgomery’s Execution

OCT. 16, 2020: The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Lisa Montgomery would be executed by lethal injection on Dec. 8, 2020, at U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute, Indiana.

She will be the first woman executed by the U.S. Government in nearly 70 years, the last being that of Bonnie Heady in 1953, who was put to death in the gas chamber in Missouri.

NOV. 14, 2020: Montgomery’s execution date was rescheduled to Jan. 12, 2021, after her lawyers contracted COVID-19 when they went to meet with their client in prison.

DEC. 26, 2020: Montgomery’s execution date is in limbo after a federal judge said her execution date was unlawfully rescheduled. It may end up that her execution is scheduled for after President-Elect Biden takes office. According to NBC News, a Biden spokesperson told The AP that the president-elect “opposes the death penalty now and in the future” and would work as president to end its use in office.

Representatives for Biden have not said whether executions would be paused immediately once Biden takes office on Jan. 20, 2021, however.

“Given the severity of Mrs. Montgomery’s mental illness, the sexual and physical torture she endured throughout her life, and the connection between her trauma and the facts of her crime, we appeal to President Trump to grant her mercy, and commute her sentence to life imprisonment.”
- Sandra Babcock, one of Montgomery’s lawyers.

JAN. 2, 2021: A federal appeals court ruled that Lisa Montgomery's execution date of Jan. 12 should not have been vacated by U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss. Judge Moss vacated the execution date after her lawyers, who caught COVID-19 while meeting with Montgomery in prison, asked for more time to file a clemency petition. As it stands now, Montgomery's execution date has been reinstated for Jan. 12, 2021.

JAN. 11, 2021: Just hours before Lisa Montgomery was set to be executed at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, Judge James Hanlon of the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted a stay of execution.

He wrote: "Ms. Montgomery's motion to stay execution is GRANTED to allow the Court to conduct a hearing to determine Ms. Montgomery's competence to be executed."

This is based on evidence that she is “unable to rationally understand the government’s rationale for her execution”.

Under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, the execution of individuals who do not understand the basis for their executions, due to severe mental illness or brain damage, is prohibited. One of Lisa Montgomery’s attorneys, Kelley Henry, has argued that her client is mentally deteriorating and therefore an opportunity to prove her incompetence is essential.

JAN. 13, 2021: Just before midnight on Jan 12, the Supreme Court lifted the stay of execution granted by Judge Hanlon, allowing the federal government to immediately proceed with Montgomery’s execution.

“The craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight. Everyone who participated in the execution of Lisa Montgomery should feel shame.”
- Kelley Henry, in reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision.

Lisa Montgomery was executed by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana at 01:31AM. She was 52 years old.

Henry said of the execution:

"The government stopped at nothing in its zeal to kill this damaged and delusional woman. Lisa Montgomery's execution was far from justice."

Victoria Jo Stinnett

Once Lisa Montgomery had confessed to murdering Bobbie Jo and kidnapping her baby, authorities took the baby to hospital in Topeka, Kansas, where she was reunited with her father. Zeb Stinnett named the baby Victoria Jo, referring to her as “a miracle.” After a short stay in the hospital, Zeb was allowed to take Victoria Jo home. Despite the trauma that she had experienced at the hands of Lisa Montgomery, she was doing extremely well.

Zeb and Victoria Jo in 2005 (source: BBC News)

Victoria Jo Stinnett miraculously made it through her ordeal unharmed (source: Murderpedia)

On that horrible day in December 2004, Bobbie Jo Stinnett’s family were robbed of a loving daughter, wife and sister.

“Bobbie Jo would have been a wonderful mother,” Becky Harper, Bobbie Jo’s mother, expressed tearfully.

Bobbie Jo was laid to rest at Hillcrest Cemetery in Skidmore. Despite the bitter cold, over 400 mourners attended the memorial service. They sobbed and embraced one another as they remembered the sweet, kind-hearted young woman who once smiled and waved at them as she walked her dogs. The day Bobbie Jo was ripped from this Earth, Skidmore lost one of the few lights it still had left.