Potential Puppy Buyer Murders Rat Terrier Breeder
Lisa Montgomery sentenced to death for murder of dog breeder Bobbi Jo Stinnett, and kidnapping of Stinnett's unborn child.
Thanks to Jen and Yes Biscuit for reminding me of the worst ‘potential puppy buyer’ scenario of all time – the murder of Bobbi Jo Stinnett, a Missouri Rat Terrier breeder, and the theft of her unborn child.
The crime took place on Decemeber 16, 2004. According to CNN,
“Montgomery met Stinnett through an online chat room and — using a fictitious name — expressed interest in a rat-terrier dog, a type she bred and sold. Montgomery allegedly obtained directions to Stinnett’s home and visited her there Thursday. Hours later, officials have said, Stinnett’s mother found her body.
The baby, who has since been named Victoria Jo, was located in Montgomery’s custody the following day, police said. She was taken to Stormont-Vail Regional Health Care Center in Topeka, Kansas, and was released Monday night after being united with her father, Zeb Stinnett.”
Lisa Montgomery had a long history of feigned pregnancies, and was a ‘hanger on’ in several rat terrier chat rooms. Bobbi Jo Stinnet had apparently even once defended Montgomery when she was “accused of misrepresenting the pedigrees of her dogs” – source: http://karisable.com/stinnett.htm
Montgomery used the same rat terrier chatroom where she had met Stinnett to arrange the meeting that would lead to Stinnett’s death.
On Wednesday, December 16, 2004, Lisa, posing as “Darlene Fisher” contacted Bobbie Jo in an Internet chat room under the pretext of wanting to buy a rat terrier. Bobbie Jo gave her directions to her house and they agreed to meet the next day.
Like most of us have done in the past – or continue to do now – Stinnett didn’t check ‘Darlene Fisher’s’ credentials or other information before giving her directions to her home. The next day, Stinnett’s mother discovered her daughter’s body dead in pool of blood, with fistfulls of blond hair and the fetus removed from her body.
MSNBC.Com reports that –
“Prosecutors said Montgomery used a rope to choke Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant. But Stinnett was conscious and trying to defend herself as Montgomery used a kitchen knife to cut the baby girl from the womb, prosecutors said.
Montgomery was arrested the day after the killing after spending the morning showing off the infant as her own in her hometown of Melvern, Kan.”
The Grand Jury indictment against Lisa Montgomery read:
On or about December 16, 2004, at Skidmore, in Nodaway County, in the Western District of Missouri and elsewhere, LISA M. MONTGOMERY, the defendant, a/k/a Darlene Fischer, a/k/a Fischer4kids, 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.
On Oct. 22, 2007, a jury found Lisa Montgomery guilty, and on Friday, April 4, 2008, U.S. District Judge Gary Fenner gave Lisa Montgomery the death sentence, making her the third woman on federal death row.
Montgomery remains on death row to this day, and has appealed her conviction.