On December 16, 2004, a Nodaway County, Missouri, 9-1-1 operator received a frantic call from the mother of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett. The eight-months-pregnant mom-to-be, Bobbie Jo, had been found lying on her family room floor bleeding profusely and barely breathing. Most disturbing of all, her baby was gone.
Only 187 miles away in Melvern, Kansas, Bobbie JoΓ’β¬β’s killer, Lisa Montgomery, dressed the baby sheΓ’β¬β’d brutally kidnapped in a Winnie-the-Pooh outfit and called her husband to say that sheΓ’β¬β’d given birth to a baby girl she called Abigail. While televisions blared the nationΓ’β¬β’s first Amber Alert for an unborn child, Lisa proudly showed off "her" new baby at church and a local diner, duping many while arousing the suspicions of others. And that was only the beginning of one of the most unthinkable events in American history, one that shocked the nation and left two Midwestern communities reeling in the crimeΓ’β¬β’s aftermath.
Now, investigative journalist and acclaimed author M. William Phelps delivers a definitive literary investigation of this compelling story, one that is as suspenseful as it is heartbreaking. Working with the exclusive cooperation of Lisa MontgomeryΓ’β¬β’s ex-husband, Carl Boman, LisaΓ’β¬β’s children and mother, law enforcement officials, friends, relatives, and neighbors, Phelps reveals what really happened that fateful day in December and traces the tortured history of sexual abuse, abandonment, and desperation that planted the seeds of a potential sociopath destined for "moral insanity." Here is the true story of the frantic search for a baby born under the most horrific conditions imaginable, of the lucky break that led to the killer, of LisaΓ’β¬β’s familyΓ’β¬β’s fears about her mental health, and of the shock waves that still linger in two small American towns that will never be the same again.
Like Truman CapoteΓ’β¬β’s In Cold Blood, Murder in the Heartland takes an unflinching look at an American tragedy, exploring its terrible trajectory with unparalleled courage, insight, and compassion.
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