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Baby Ripping (Killing Pregnant Mother; Stealing Unborn Child)

Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
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This is pretty unpleasant stuff - I'm not sure I've heard of anything remotely similar:

Charges filed in the death of an Okemah woman and her unborn child

New details out of Hughes County on the case of a woman killed, authorities believe, for her unborn baby. Murder charges were filed late Monday afternoon against a woman already in jail.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says the victim lived and worked in Okemah.

Hughes County Sheriff's deputies say this case is about a bizarre as they come. Hughes County Sheriff's deputy Wayne Metcalf: "It's something that a lot of people around here are going to remember for a long time."

It started as a missing persons case out of Okemah. 21-year-old Carolyn Simpson [pictured], never came home from work the Monday before Christmas. She worked at the Creek Nation Bingo Hall.

A survellience camera there showed her leaving with one of the customers. Authorities believe Effie Goodson was the woman in the video. They believe she she befriended Simpson with the intention of taking her baby.

Sometime last Monday night, they believe Goodson drove the victim to a remote field about 20 miles south of Okemah. They say the victim had been shot once in the head, and her baby had been cut out of her stomach with a sharp object, possibly a razor blade.

"Miss Goodson came to the hospital with a deceased fetus she had given birth to, no reason to doubt that, she was treated as woman who had just given birth." But her story fell apart when medical personnel realized Goodson showed no signs of delivery.

She was being held as a material witness to a crime, when the missing person's report came in. Deputies say Goodsen told her husband and her friends she was pregnant. "The story is around the community that she was pregnant, and had a baby shower, and she was having a baby boy, that was what we found during our investigation that she told people that."

Mrs Simpson was 6 months pregnant. Officials presume her baby, a little girl, died soon after she was delivered.

Hughes County prosecutors charged Effie Goodson Monday afternoon with 2 counts of murder, one for the mother, another for the unborn child.

While charges have now been filed, the investigation continues. Tulsa Police are checking out some sort of ID and other papers of the dead woman, that were discovered Monday afternoon in west Tulsa.

They've alerted the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the forensics in the case.

http://www.kotv.com/pages/viewpage.asp?id=55783

Suspect in pregnant woman's slaying jailed

Tuesday, December 30, 2003 Posted: 0218 GMT (10:18 AM HKT)

Effie Goodson was arrested for the slaying of Carolyn Simpson and Simpson's six-month-old fetus.


HOLDENVILLE, Oklahoma (AP) -- A woman who had convinced her husband she was pregnant -- and was even thrown a baby shower -- killed a pregnant acquaintance and cut the fetus from her womb, authorities said Monday.

Effie Goodson, 37, faces two first-degree murder charges and a kidnapping count in the slaying of Carolyn Simpson, 21, who was six months pregnant, and the fetus.

A hunter found Simpson's body in a field near Lamar, about 100 miles from Oklahoma City, on Friday. She had been shot in the head, authorities said.

Simpson was last seen on December 22, leaving a tribal casino in Okemah where she worked and Goodson was a patron, Sheriff Houston Yeager said. Investigators believe the two left the casino together.

The next day, Goodson brought a dead fetus that had reached six months gestation to a Holdenville hospital. Goodson claimed to be the mother, but investigators determined she could not have given birth, and she was taken into custody, authorities said.

Goodson had falsely told several people that she was pregnant, going back as far as 10 months, Yeager said. Her husband believed she was expecting, and a shower was thrown for her, he said.

"I think anybody would agree she wanted a baby," Yeager said. "She already had baby items. She was really set up for a baby."

However, investigators have not yet settled on a motive in the slaying, the sheriff said. "We've got a few more questions we haven't got answered yet," he said.

Goodson and Simpson had known each other for about a month after being introduced by family members, he said.

Oklahoma courts have ruled that murder charges can be filed in the killing of a fetus if the fetus was viable -- that is, if it could survive outside the womb. Under the state's abortion law, a fetus is presumed viable after the 24th week.

A prosecutor said Goodson was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/Southwest/12/29/woman.slain.ap/index.html
 
Emperor said:
This is pretty unpleasant stuff - I'm not sure I've heard of anything remotely similar

It's not a common crime, but it seems to pop up every few years here in the States. There was a case two years ago that happened near where I was living. The woman in that one almost got away with it. I'll post a URL if I can find one.
 
The same thing happened here in Alabama a few years ago.

sureshot
 
(Sept., 1998)

A Tuscaloosa woman was found guilty of capital murder Saturday in the
shooting death of a pregnant teen-ager whose full-term fetus was then
cut from her womb in a crude Caesarean section.


Felecia Scott, 31, could receive the death penalty or life in prison
without parole when she is sentenced at a later date for the Jan. 31,
1996 slaying of 17-year-old Carethia Curry. The sentencing phase of
the trial, in which jurors decide on a sentence recommendation,
begins Monday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.


The jury deliberated about 7 1/2 hours over 2 days before returning the
verdict around noon. Mrs. Scott showed no emotion as the decision was
read.


"It's just a real good verdict," said Miss Curry's mother, Carolyn
O'Neal.


She and other family members hugged each other and prosecutors after
the verdict.


"Just sorry Fred got away," Valeska told Curry's godmother, Barbara
Hood, as she went up to hug him. He referred to Frederick Polion, Mrs.
Scott's former boyfriend, who was convicted of kidnapping but acquitted
of capital murder in a separate trial.


Miss Curry was 9 months pregnant when she disappeared Jan. 31, 1996,
after going out for pizza with Mrs. Scott, who witnesses said was also
claiming to be pregnant.


Prosecutors said Mrs. Scott killed Miss Curry out of her obsessive
desire for another baby. Mrs. Scott has 2 sons, but underwent a
hysterectomy 3 years before the slaying.


Miss Curry's mutilated body, the full-term fetus missing, was found in
March 1996, stuffed in a garbage can that had been rolled into a ravine
in Jefferson County.


Before the body was discovered, Mrs. Scott visited relatives and friends
with a newborn girl she claimed was hers. Prosecutors said the child
was Miss Curry's.


Mrs. Scott admitted during the trial that she had lied repeatedly, but
she denied killing Miss Curry or stealing her baby. Instead, she tried
to lay the blame on Polion. Defense attorneys said Mrs. Scott suffered
from post-traumatic stress syndrome and was intensely afraid of Polion.


The stolen baby is now a healthy 2 1/2 -year-old girl, who lives with
her father.


Polion was sentenced to 20 years in prison on his conviction for
kidnapping Miss Curry's baby. He has been allowed to remain free
on bond pending a decision on his motion for a new trial.
 
sureshot said:
(Sept., 1998)
...Felecia Scott, 31, could receive the death penalty...

"It's just a real good verdict," said Miss Curry's mother, Carolyn
O'Neal.
Indeed. It'll send an unmistakeable message to all those other emotionally/psychologically-disturbed women whose judgement is so impaired that they can convince themselves that it's ok to kill someone so that they can steal their babies.

...Mainly the message that the state will be too cheap (and legislators too afraid to risk getting on the wrong side of vengeful voters by doing the right thing) to get them the psychiatric help they clearly need. :rolleyes:
 
Colombian baby 'stolen from womb'

Colombian police say they have arrested a woman for stealing an unborn baby from its mother's womb.

The woman faces charges of drugging the child's mother and leading her to a house where her womb was cut open.

Police say the operation to remove the eight-month-old foetus may have been performed with a kitchen knife.

The baby - found with the alleged kidnapper - has been re-united with its true mother, who had been left for dead in the central town of Girardot.

'Not acting alone'

She managed to summon help, despite bleeding heavily from the surgery.

"When I felt my belly, it was empty," Angela Cartagena told a local television station from her hospital bed. "And the baby was crying and crying."

The mother said she remembers seeing the kidnapper leave with her baby wrapped in cloth.

Police believe the kidnapper was not acting alone and are hunting for her accomplices.

They arrested their suspect after tests showed a newly-born baby she claimed as her own was not hers.

Kidnapping is rife in Colombia, mostly carried out for ransom by armed criminals or soldiers from one of several guerrilla forces fighting the state.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3778663.stm

Published: 2004/06/05 01:05:10 GMT

© BBC MMIV
 
Kidnappers steal baby from mother's womb

November 24, 2004 - 9:39AM


A woman who was eight months pregnant had the baby snatched from her womb after kidnappers drugged her and performed a rudimentary caesarean section, the woman told Colombian television today.

Sol Angela Cartagena told RCN television she was drugged at a hospital in Girardot in Cundinamarca province and carried by a woman to a remote place on a hillside where the caesarean was performed and her infant abducted.

Cartagena said she arrived at the hospital with her two-year-old daughter for a pregnancy checkup and drank a glass of water she had left unattended for a few minutes.

Immediately after drinking the water, she began to feel ill, she said.

"I felt I was falling asleep, and when I woke up, I was on the hill with my two-year-old daughter by my side," she said.

"I felt as if they had thrown hot water on me, and then I saw a stream of boiling blood," Cartagena said. "My little girl began to scream and call me. Then she told me the woman had wrapped the baby in a sheet and had left quite calmly."

Physicians at the hospital confirmed Cartagena's story.

"The patient arrived bleeding, and after checking her, we were able to verify that she was operated on to remove the baby and placenta," said gynaecologist Carlos Cespedes.

"It was the strangest thing I have seen in my career, and I think she was very lucky to arrive at the hospital alive," he said.

Authorities were investigating the case.

Source
 
Friday, December 17, 2004 · Last updated 9:40 a.m. PT

Amber Alert out for fetus cut from womb

By MARGARET STAFFORD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SKIDMORE, Mo. -- An eight-months-pregnant woman was slain in her home, and her fetus was then cut from her womb, authorities said. Believing the infant survived, they issued an Amber Alert early Friday.

Bobbi Jo Stinnett's mother found her body Thursday afternoon. The 23-year-old woman had apparently been strangled. Authorities issued an alert hours later for the infant, a girl.

"The doctors who examined Bobbi Jo gave us information indicating we probably would have a live child if we could find it," Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey said Friday. "The child would be in danger because of being one month premature."

"Someone was wanting a baby awful bad," he had said earlier.

There were no visible signs of struggle and no indication of forced entry into Stinnett's home in this small community of 500 in the northwest corner of Missouri, the sheriff said.

"We know she was alive in the afternoon, within an hour of being found," Espey said.

Espey said investigators were looking for a car that had been reported seen in the driveway at the Stinnett home, a red two-door Honda hatchback from the late 1980s or early 1990s. Officers in neighboring Atchison County saw a car that appeared to match that description early Friday and began chasing it, but lost sight of it after its lights were turned off, he said.

Espey declined to say specifically where investigators were looking but did say the search had expanded to adjoining states.

The Missouri Major Case Squad, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and an investigation team from neighboring Buchanan County were assisting Nodaway County officials in the investigation. FBI agents who specialize in infant abductions also were being cunsulted, Espey said.

Stinnett worked at a motor factory in nearby Maryville; she was expecting her first child. Her husband was at work at the time she was killed, authorities said.

A neighbor, Bill Dragoo, said Stinnett and her husband raised dogs and "didn't bother anybody. It blows my mind that this happened. She was such a shy person. They didn't deserve this."

from Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 
Zygon said:
the message that the state will be too cheap ...to get them the psychiatric help they clearly need. :rolleyes:

The state, the state... :roll: the state is not responsible for giving people food, housing, medical care or psychiatric care. The state is responsible for governing. I have to say, anyone who complains that the government is too meddlesome in "moral" issues (e.g. right to life) should recognize that if you give the government power in one area of your life - like asking them to give you food, shelter or medical care - the same government will, justifiably IMO, take control in other areas. You can't have it both ways. So, is the government responsible or not? I personally say not.
 
Follwing 4 p.m.EST news conference, this alert just came across the wires:

MARYVILLE, Mo. — Authorities say a baby girl who was apparently cut from her mother’s womb has been found in good health.

Will update with full story ASAP.

EDIT: First write-thru
The Associated Press
SKIDMORE, Mo. — A baby girl who apparently was cut from her mother’s womb was found in good health Friday, a day after the slaying, and two people were being questioned, authorities said.

Sheriff Ben Espey said authorities were awaiting DNA testing to confirm the newborn is the child of Bobbi Joe Stinnett, an eight-months-pregrant woman found slain in her Missouri home Thursday. The child was found in Kansas.

“It’s about as good as we can get, people,” Espey said at a new conference.
 
More information on the baby found:
The Associated Press
SKIDMORE, Mo. — A baby girl who apparently was cut from her mother’s womb was found in good health Friday, a day after the slaying, and two people were in custody, authorities said.

Sheriff Ben Espey said authorities were awaiting DNA testing to confirm the newborn is the child of Bobbi Jo Stinnett, 23, an eight-months-pregrant factory worker found slain in her Missouri home Thursday. The child was found in neighboring eastern Kansas, state Bureau of Investigation spokesman Kyle Smith said.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Sheldon Lyon said authorities were questioning a man and a woman who were in the same place as where the baby was found. A red Honda hatchback matching a description offered earlier by police was in the driveway of the home.
Espey believes Stinnett was likely strangled and resisted the attack.

Authorities hoped that strands of hair found in the dead mother’s hands will help find the killers.

“The autopsy is going to show us there was some blond hair probably found in her hands,” the sheriff said. “That would also help us with the DNA.”

Doctors said the baby could have suffered a variety of traumas during the assault, including a lack of oxygen. But the girl could likely survive if treated.

“Ninety-five percent are going to do pretty well given a modest amount of medical attention,” said Dr. Perry Clark, medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit at The University of Kansas Hospital.

Espey said there was no indication of forced entry into Stinnett’s small white home in this community of about 500 in the northwest corner of Missouri.

A neighbor, Bill Dragoo, said Stinnett and her husband raised dogs and “didn’t bother anybody. It blows my mind that this happened. She was such a shy person. They didn’t deserve this.”

Espey said investigators knew Stinnett was still alive within an hour of being found around 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Paramedics tried to revive the young woman, who was pronounced dead later at a hospital. Espey was frustrated that it took hours for a statewide Amber Alert to be issued. It didn’t appear until about 12:30 a.m.

“We had a live baby, and I thought that should qualify as an Amber Alert,” he said. “The information I was getting was that we didn’t have enough information such as hair color, eye color, skin complexion, size and weight.”

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.

Several pregnant women have been killed in recent years by attackers who then removed their fetuses, in some cases to pass the children off as their own.

In the most recent case, a 21-year-old woman was shot to death in Oklahoma in December 2003, allegedly by another woman who pretended the 6-month-old fetus was her child. The fetus died and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Sorry, I get these directly off the wire, so I don't have a source site, but there's several other stories out there:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1103318466795_56/?hub=TopStories
http://www.news-leader.com/today/1217-Policefind-253595.html
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20041217-1340-pregnantwomanslain.html
 
WTF indeed.

Another report:

Sunday, December 19, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

Bizarre death, kidnapping shake 2 heartland towns

By Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Associated Press


MELVERN, Kan. — Dressed in pink and nestled in a baby carrier, the infant was paraded around town Friday, just as any newborn might be.

Kevin and Lisa Montgomery dropped by the Whistle Stop Cafe on Main Street to give patrons a look, then there was a visit to the home of the Rev. Mike Wheatley, pastor of the First Church of God.

"I held her in my arms for 15 minutes," Wheatley recalled yesterday. "Lisa talked about the delivery, about how her water broke. Kevin had his proud-papa face on." He said the couple was calling the baby Abigail.

The joy the community of about 420 residents shared with the Montgomerys transformed to shock and bewilderment hours later after law-enforcement officers swooped down on the family's home near Melvern and arrested Lisa Montgomery.

She is charged with kidnapping that resulted in death, accused of choking a Skidmore, Mo., woman who was eight months pregnant and cutting the child from the victim's womb (news reports disagree on whether the victim was alive at the time). Montgomery's husband has not been charged.

The baby, named Victoria Jo by her father, Zeb Stinnett, was in good condition yesterday at a hospital in Topeka, about 30 miles north of Melvern.

The child's mother, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, was found Thursday in her home by her mother. After searching the Stinnetts' computer, authorities found e-mails that led them to the Montgomery residence.

Authorities have said Montgomery, 36, had found Stinnett through a Web site for dog breeders. Using an assumed name, authorities said, Montgomery contacted Stinnett under the pretense of wanting to buy a rat terrier.

Zeb Stinnett was united with his daughter late Friday. A hospital spokeswoman said he was "pretty quiet. He's surrounded by friends and family."

In a news release from the hospital, Zeb Stinnett called his daughter "a miracle" and said, "I want to thank family, friends, Amber Alert and law-enforcement officials for their support during this time."

In Melvern, many Whistle Stop Cafe customers were surprised to hear the infant was 1 day old, owner Kathy Sage said. She knew an Amber Alert had been issued for a baby missing from Missouri but did not realize the Montgomerys' infant was connected until hearing from a reporter Friday.

"You read about this stuff," she said. "It blows you away when it's here. This stuff is supposed to be in New York City or Los Angeles."

The shock that Melvern residents felt reverberated through Skidmore in northwest Missouri. Christmas festivities had lost their sheen in the town of about 300 people.

Darla Roberts, who knew the baby's mother when she was a child, said she would want Victoria Jo to know this: "Your mother loved you very much. She was looking so forward to your birth. Although that pleasure was taken from her, she's with you every day, loving you still. Every day."

Across from the Stinnett home, a neighbor with two small children cried as she looked at the white clapboard house with its welcome sign, three-seat porch swing and what now is a revolving door to police and detectives.

"Bobbie bought some baby clothes from me in September, when I had a garage sale," said Tracy, who did not want her last name published.

Lisa Montgomery was being held yesterday in the Wyandotte County jail, said Brad Ratliff, a public-relations official for the Wyandotte County Sheriff's Department.

She probably will make her first court appearance tomorrow.

Montgomery is the mother of two high school-age children, but U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said she had been pregnant with another child that was never born. It was unclear when she lost the baby or under what circumstances, but the complaint said she had lied to her husband about giving birth.

According to court documents, Montgomery traveled to Topeka on Thursday to go shopping. She called her husband, saying she had given birth.

Kevin Montgomery and the couple's two children met Lisa and the newborn in Topeka and drove home, according to an affidavit.

How "could you not know that your wife's not pregnant?" said Gary Deskins, owner of a convenience store in Melvern. "There's something missing.

"I will never understand. ... Do I hate her? If it happened anywhere else in the country, I'd hate her. But she's from here. I just feel nothing."

---------------
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

Source
 
It's positively ghoulish. Do they really think they can get away with it? What a sick, sick world we live in..... :cross eye
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4111875.stm

Woman charged over 'womb theft'

A US woman has appeared in court accused of strangling to death a heavily pregnant 23-year-old and cutting the baby from her womb.
Lisa Montgomery, from Melvern in Kansas, was charged with kidnapping resulting in murder, with a further hearing scheduled for Thursday.

Mrs Montgomery, 36, is then likely to be transferred to a court in the state of Missouri, where the crime occurred.

Bobbi Jo Stinnett was found strangled in her Missouri home on Thursday.


Her baby was found safe and well in a house in Kansas.

False pregnancy

According to the affidavit, Mrs Montgomery has confessed to strangling the woman, cutting the baby from her womb and telling others that it was her child.

She is being held in federal custody without bail and faces possible sentences of life imprisonment or death if convicted.

Mrs Stinnett's mother found her daughter at her home in the Missouri town of Skidmore on Thursday. She was pronounced dead at hospital.

The baby, named Victoria Jo, was traced using information obtained from e-mails on Mrs Stinnett's computer and is now recovering at a Kansas hospital.

Funeral service

Mrs Montgomery, a mother of two, told her husband Kevin that she had gone into labour while out shopping.

Investigators said she had lied to family and friends about being pregnant with twins and suffering a miscarriage with one of the babies.

Mr Montgomery has said he knew nothing about his wife's alleged actions.

Speaking outside the court, he said: "My family has suffered a tragedy but I am not the only family. This has to be as hard or harder on them as it is on me."

A funeral service for Mrs Stinnett will take place on Tuesday.
At least the baby survived... :(
 
Police investigating whether attack was attempt to steal fetus
The Associated Press

FORT MITCHELL, Ky. — A nine-months’ pregnant woman fought off and killed a knife-wielding woman who may have been trying to steal the baby, police said Friday.

Police said 26-year-old Sarah Brady acted in self-defense in killing Katherine Smith on Thursday. No charges were filed.

Smith, 22, had been falsely telling neighbors for weeks that she was pregnant, and a search of her apartment after her death revealed a full baby nursery, investigators said.

“She had everything in place that you’d expect to have in place with a newborn coming,” said Steve Hensley, police chief in this Cincinnati suburb.

Brady, 26, suffered only minor cuts and is still due to give birth soon. The coroner’s office confirmed Friday that Smith was not pregnant, and that she died of stab wounds.

On Tuesday, Smith called Brady, whom she didn’t know, and asked her to come over and pick up a mistakenly delivered package, the police chief said. The next day, Smith called Brady again to pick up another package.
The pregnant woman went to Smith’s apartment Thursday, and that was when the attack occurred.

Several pregnant women have been killed in recent years by attackers who then removed their fetuses, in some cases to pass the children off as their own.

In December, a Missouri woman was strangled and her baby was cut from her womb. The baby was later found alive, and a Kansas woman was charged with kidnapping resulting in death.

In 2003, a 21-year-old woman was shot to death in Oklahoma, allegedly by another woman who pretended the 6-month-old fetus was her child. The fetus died.

Web version here.
 
Posted 4/14/2005 11:17 PM Updated 4/15/2005 3:45 PM


'Bizarre' Caesarean kidnappings increase

By Richard Willing, USA TODAY

The pregnant woman was covered with blood, and Steve Hensley, the police chief in Fort Mitchell, Ky., could scarcely believe her tale.

Sarah Brady, 26, said she had been lured to an apartment in Fort Mitchell that was outfitted with surgical tools and a nursery. There, a woman who had promised to hand over a mis-addressed baby present attacked Brady in an attempt to extract her unborn child by Caesarean section.

Instead, Brady, who was nine months pregnant, fought back and fatally stabbed her assailant, unemployed nanny Katie Smith, 22. Police say Smith had fooled her family into thinking she was pregnant by wearing padded maternity clothes and had planned to steal Brady's fetus — and presumably kill Brady — as the final act in a gruesome ruse.

"It's the most bizarre case I've seen in 22 years" of police work, Hensley says of the attack, which occurred Feb 10.

The incident came two months after a similar attack in Missouri in which the mother was killed and her baby survived. Such attacks on pregnant women are rare, but they have become increasingly common across the nation in recent years: The attack on Brady was the third such assault on an expectant mother since December 2003 and the ninth since 1987, according to statistics compiled by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va.

Seven of the nine pregnant women who were attacked died; seven of the nine babies survived. (Brady's attorneys in Covington, Ky., did not immediately return phone calls; the Associated Press has reported that she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, McKaila Grace Hatton, on Feb. 16.)

Caesarean kidnappings represent a small fraction of the 232 infant abductions by non-family members since 1983, according to the center. But such kidnappings — along with those of infants from public places such as shopping malls — have increased as thefts of newborns from hospitals have declined, says Cathy Nahirny, a supervisor at the center.

She says improvements in security at hospital maternity wards have led to forms of kidnapping that reflect the desperation and the creativity of those determined to steal children.

Although "it's assumed that (the perpetrators) must be delusional," Nahirny says, "they (also) are very organized and quite rational. They follow a predictable pattern."

The assailants in all nine cases were women, but they had help from two men in one instance and from another woman in another.

The Kentucky case had several elements in common with earlier Caesarean kidnappings.

Smith, who was not married, carried around an ultrasound picture of someone else's unborn twins and told family members that she had given birth previously but that the babies had died. Hensley says he's found no evidence Smith ever gave birth.

Smith apparently selected Brady as her victim by scanning an online baby registry. Smith then lured the expectant mother to her apartment by claiming that a baby present meant for Brady mistakenly had been delivered there.

Earlier Caesarean kidnappings followed a similar pattern.

Last December, 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett of Skidmore, Mo., was killed and her 8-month-old fetus was removed, allegedly by Lisa Montgomery.

Montgomery, 37, of Melvern, Kan., had posed as an expectant mother before the crime and then showed the baby boy off as her own to neighbors and family members, including her unsuspecting husband, the FBI says. She had won her victim's confidence by posing in e-mails as a fellow dog fancier, according to the FBI. Montgomery is scheduled to stand trial in the murder in April 2006.

Previous kidnappings by Caesarean have occurred in Oklahoma in 2003, Ohio in 2000, California in 1998, Alabama in 1996, Illinois in 1995, Texas in 1992 and New Mexico in 1987.

In the New Mexico case, Darci Pierce, a 19-year-old married woman, abducted a pregnant woman from outside a clinic in Albuquerque, choked her into unconsciousness, then used car keys to cut into the woman and deliver a baby girl. Pierce was caught when she sought a birth certificate at a local hospital and an exam showed she had not recently delivered.

It was the first recorded case of what a July 2002 study in the Journal of Forensic Sciences would call "newborn kidnapping by Caesarean section." Ann Burgess, a professor of nursing at Boston College and the study's lead author, says the women behind such attacks have a "childbearing fantasy" but are "cold, calculating and extremely self-centered."

Pierce was found guilty but mentally ill and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.

Of the six other alleged assailants besides Pierce, Smith and Montgomery, two received prison terms, two committed suicide, one was placed on probation and another was found incompetent to stand trial.

Since 1983, there have been 116 thefts of infants younger than 6 months by non-family members from hospitals or birthing centers, according to statistics by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The center trains police and social services workers to prevent child abductions.

Such abductions from hospitals have declined since 1991, when 11 of the 17 abductions that year were from hospitals. In 2003 and 2004, a total of 12 abductions were recorded by the center. Three were from hospitals.

Source
 
I forgot to mention this (it is repeated after House on Thursday):

She Stole My Foetus: Extraordinary People (Documentary)

Time - 21:30 - 22:30 (1 hour long)

When - Monday 6th June on five

Jordan and Elijah Evans are survivors of an extraordinary crime ? Jordan witnessed the moment when his younger brother, Elijah, was stolen from his mother's womb. Their mother is one of eight women who have lost their lives as a result of foetal abduction through caesarean homicide. We meet one of the perpetrators of this disturbing crime ? and a victim who, incredibly, survived.

It was very odd hearing the woman's account of stealing the baby :shock:
 
When i was bout 7 months pregnant with my daughter i was in a home improvement store. The cashier went on and on about me having a baby and she wanted a baby and she would just cut my baby out of me. It really freaked me out, as well as my sister. We left quickly and i didn't go back in that store for about a year.
 
Tanzanian killed for unborn baby
Two women in western Tanzania have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a pregnant woman and stealing her baby.
Siwezi Bundara's husband reported her missing last week after she had not been seen for three days, police say.

She was allegedly killed with machetes by three men hired for $2 by the women. Her stomach was then split open and the child removed. The baby girl survived.

Before the murder in rural Kigoma, one of the detained women pretended to be pregnant, police say.

After the arrests on Thursday, police said another female accomplice was on the run.

Mrs Bundara's baby is being taken to an orphanage to be cared for.

The BBC's Eric Nyampesa in neighbouring Mwanza regions says adoption is not common in Tanzania, and police often investigate incidents of baby snatching.

But this is the first report in the area pf a pregnant woman being murdered for her child.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/w ... 492008.stm

Published: 2005/12/02 13:01:59 GMT

© BBC MMV
 
Fetus-Theft Suspect to Claim Insanity

Sat Jan 14, 11:03 PM ET

KITTANNING, Pa. - A woman accused of slashing her neighbor's pregnant belly to steal the fetus will seek an insanity defense, her attorney said in court documents.

Attorney David DeFazio said his client Peggy Jo Conner suffers from "severe mental disorders, including but not limited to psychosis and schizophrenia" and that an insanity defense would be offered.

DeFazio also wants a judge to appoint a psychiatrist or psychologist to examine Conner because she cannot afford it, according to documents filed this month.

A hearing on DeFazio's motion is scheduled for later this month.

Prosecutors say Conner, 38, of Ford City attacked Valerie Lynn Oskin, 30, with a baseball bat in Oskin's trailer on Oct. 12, then took her to a secluded wooded area and sliced her belly in an attempt to take the fetus.

Conner's plan to steal the fetus was thwarted when a 17-year-old riding his all-terrain vehicle saw Oskin lying on the ground, bleeding, authorities said. He left to get his father and they notified authorities.

Oskin, 30, told investigators she recalled seeing Conner standing over her in the woods with a crowbar, but didn't remember who attacked her in the trailer.

Oskin's baby boy was delivered by emergency Caesarean section and is being adopted.

Source
 
Fallen Angel~ said:
"The state, the state... :roll: the state is not responsible for giving people food, housing, medical care or psychiatric care. The state is responsible for governing."

I'm enough of a Libertarian to agree with you, but when it comes to having knife-wielding maniacs roaming the streets, or not, I don't really care WHERE the money for their treatment comes from. I'm normally a strong supporter of limited Jeffersonian government and laissez faire economics, but sometimes practicality and pragmatism have to rule.
 
"SKIDMORE, Mo. — A baby girl who apparently was cut from her mother’s womb was found in good health Friday, a day after the slaying, and two people were being questioned, authorities said."

Long-time Forteans and news hounds may recall that it was ALSO in Skidmore, Missouri, back in 1980, that the townspeople gathered together and killed the village bad guy. Although there were dozens of witnesses this still remains an officially "unsolved" crime and will almost certainly remain so.
 
Children's bodies found in kitchen appliances
JIM SUHR
IN EAST ST LOUIS, ILLINOIS

POLICE discovered the bodies of three children inside a washing machine and a dryer in a flat, hours after a woman was accused of killing their pregnant mother and her unborn child.

The discovery on Saturday night inside a flat at a public housing complex in East St Louis, Illinois in the United States, came two days after the mother of the children - aged seven, two and one - was found on waste ground, her abdomen torn open and the foetus missing.

Investigators had carried out a desperate two-day search, including scouring an 1,100-acre Illinois state park, for the children, who were last seen on Monday with 24-year-old Tiffany Hall, a family friend prosecutors charged on Saturday afternoon with killing Jimella Tunstall and her unborn child. Hours later, Hall pointed authorities to Ms Tunstall's flat, which investigators briefly visited earlier in search of photographs of the children to give to media outlets to publicise the search.

Ace Hart, a deputy county coroner, explained that Hall had "'fessed up where the kids were". "She didn't say she killed them," he said, adding that he understood why investigators may have overlooked the children during their previous trip to the flat. "Who would be looking in the washer and dryer?"

But by Saturday night, Mr Hart said, "you could find them by the smell".

Two of the children were naked and the third wore only underpants, Mr Hart said. The oldest, seven-year-old DeMond Tunstall, was found in the dryer and the younger children - two-year-old Ivan Tunstall-Collins and one-year-old Jinela Tunstall - were in the washing machine.

Initial results of post-mortem tests last night confirmed they had been drowned. Police said there were no signs of physical abuse or trauma on the children, but toxicology tests were pending "to see if they were poisoned or possibly drugged".

Hall remained in custody in nearby Belleville on a $5 million (£2.6 million) bond, charged with first-degree murder over Ms Tunstall's death and with the intentional homicide of an unborn child.

Captain Craig Koehler, of the Illinois state police, declined to say on Saturday whether Hall was suspected of killing the children. "Any time you have three deceased children, it's a very emotional time," Capt Koehler said, fighting back tears. "All these investigators have worked tirelessly with one outcome in mind - to find these children alive."

A post-mortem examination showed that Ms Tunstall, 23, whose body was found on Thursday, bled to death after suffering an abdominal wound caused by a sharp object, believed to be scissors, Mr Hart said. Authorities believe her womb was cut open after she was knocked unconscious.

Relatives say Ms Tunstall had grown up with Hall and let her babysit her children. Officials suspect that Ms Tunstall, who was seven months pregnant, was killed on or about 15 September, said Robert Haida, the county prosecutor. On the same day, Hall called police to a park, saying she had given birth to a stillborn, Mr Hart said. Hall and the baby were taken to a hospital, where she would not let doctors examine her. She offered conflicting reasons for why she went into labour, alternately saying she had had consensual sex and had been raped, Mr Hart said. The dead baby showed no signs of trauma, and an examination was inconclusive.

Authorities say Hall acknowledged to her boyfriend during the baby's funeral on Thursday that the child was not his, and that she had killed its mother to get it. The boyfriend, reportedly a sailor home on leave, told police, who arrested his girlfriend hours later.

Hall has two children of her own. Capt Koehler said they were "safe and sound".

Hall will today face two charges, each carrying a sentence of 20 to 60 years or life in prison, Mr Haida said. She may face the death penalty for the count of murder.

DNA tests should determine whether the dead baby was Ms Tunstall's.

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/international. ... 1413992006

http://news.scotsman.com/international. ... 1413992006
 
There was an attempted baby ripping in Northern Kentucky around three years ago. The wannabe ripper invited a pregnant woman to her apartment, using the ruse that baby presents for this lady had been mistakenly delivered there.

But when the ripper attempted to slash her victim , the victim grabbed the knife and stabbed the ripper to death. She then called the police.

The cops discovered the apartment to be filled with baby items including a complete, decorated nursery.

The dead woman, who'd convinced neighbors that she was pregnant, was discovered to have had a long history of severe psychiatric probledms.
 
rynner said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4111875.stm

Woman charged over 'womb theft'

A US woman has appeared in court accused of strangling to death a heavily pregnant 23-year-old and cutting the baby from her womb.
Lisa Montgomery, from Melvern in Kansas, was charged with kidnapping resulting in murder, with a further hearing scheduled for Thursday.
....

The case finally gets to trial:

Mother 'still alive' as baby was cut from her womb
By Maria Sudekum Fisher in Kansas City
Published: 06 October 2007

An eight-months pregnant woman was probably still alive and trying to fight off her attacker as her unborn baby was crudely cut from her womb, according to prosecution testimony in the trial of the woman charged in the mother-to-be's death.

"You could see swirls in the floor in the blood, showing there was a struggle," said Nodaway County Sheriff Ben Espey, the first law enforcement officer to respond to an emergency call at victim Bobbie Jo Stinnett's home.

Lisa Montgomery, 39, is accused of strangling Stinnett on 16 December 2004, and using a kitchen knife to cut the baby from her womb. Ms Montgomery has pleaded not guilty.

The baby, Victoria Jo Stinnett, survived and is now almost 3 years old.

Police tracked down Ms Montgomery and the baby the next day in Melvern, Kansas through emails Montgomery had sent Stinnett about buying a rat terrier, which Stinnett and her husband raised at their home in Skidmore, Missouri.

Prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty if Ms Montgomery is convicted. The trial, which began on Thursday, is expected to take at least three weeks.

In his opening, federal prosecutor Matt J Whitworth said the government will call witnesses who will testify that Montgomery was not insane at the time of the killing, as well as a physician who will testify that Stinnett was "likely still alive when the baby was being cut from her womb".

"This defendant spent a great deal of time planning this crime," Mr Whitworth said as he detailed Montgomery's computer searches on websites about how to perform cesarean sections and home births.

The defence attorney, Frederick Duchardt Jr, told the jury that the defence would not deny Montgomery's involvement in Stinnett's death but they intended to show Montgomery suffered from mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by years of abuse that included being raped by a stepfather.

On cross-examination by the defence, Espey acknowledged that his original report said Stinnett was found lying "in a pool of blood" and did not mention patterns in the blood that would have suggested a fight.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/ame ... 033362.ece
 
Stab suspect 'cut baby from womb'

A 23-year-old woman stabbed to death a pregnant woman and cut the child from her womb, US court papers say.

The documents say Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong called emergency services after last Friday's attack and tried to pass off the newborn baby as her own.

The child survived the ordeal and is said to be seriously ill in hospital.

Judges in Benton County, Washington, remanded Ms Synhavong in custody on Monday. She is expected back in court on Wednesday.

Court papers said 27-year-old Araceli Camacho Gomez had her hands and feet bound and suffered "massive trauma to her stomach area" during last Friday's attack.

An autopsy showed Ms Gomez died as a result of the chest wounds, but had other wounds "consistent with the cutting of the body to remove an unborn child", the documents said.

Her body was found on Saturday in Columbia Park in the city of Kennewick, 225 miles (360km) south-east of Seattle.

Hours earlier, Ms Synhavong had called emergency services to say she had given birth to a baby.

When crews arrived, they discovered her in a car holding what appeared to be part of an umbilical chord with the new-born baby next to her, court documents say.

Police found gloves soaked in blood, a rudimentary medical kit and a baby bottle in her bag.

A medical examination later revealed Ms Synhavong had not given birth, according to the authorities.

She is accused of first-degree murder and could face the death penalty.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7484535.stm
 
Our sole Greater Cincinnati (Northern Kentucky) episode of this type, which Renigirl and Emps revealed here more than three years ago (see above), still fascinates, mainly because of its less-than-unhappy ending.

A nine-months-pregnant woman was lured to the spider's web, as it were, by the ruse that baby presents intended for her had been mis-delivered to that address.

The upshot of this was that the intended victim afterwards staggered from the house, physically unharmed save for a few minor cuts and scratches, though covered with blood (not her own) and the would-be-murderess wasn't with us any longer.

Renigirl and Emps also cited the equally-notorious baby-ripping case which occurred in Skidmore, Missouri.

This was the second time in 25 years in which Skidmore had become front-page news around the world. The first was when the townspeople gathered at the church and decided to take out the local "bad guy," after receiving repeated statements from the police that they could not take action against the fellow.
 
'Womb raider' accused of killing heavily pregnant woman and then trying to steal her baby
By Paul Thompson
Last updated at 9:33 AM on 09th June 2009

A suspected 'womb raider' lured her victim to her home by pretending to be selling baby clothes before killing her and claiming the baby as her own.
Korena Roberts has been accused of murdering a heavily pregnant 21-year-old in the latest gruesome killing to shock America.

US authorities are expected to reveal the baby boy, who did not survive, had been torn from the womb of Heather Snively.
Her body was found stuffed into a crawlspace at the home of 27-year-old Roberts who had falsely claimed to friends and family that she was pregnant.

Autopsy results on Snively and her stillborn son were due to be released today.

Police became aware of the grisly murder after paramedics had been called to Roberts's home in Portland, Oregon.
They found her boyfriend trying to revive a newborn baby and noticed a large amount of blood on the floor.
Roberts told paramedics she was the mother of the baby and was rushed to hospital where an examination revealed she had not given birth.

etc...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... -baby.html
 
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