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CHICAGO (AFP) – In 2004, Lisa Montgomery strangled a pregnant woman and used a kitchen knife to remove the fetus from the victim’s uterus and kidnap the girl.
Sixteen years later, the United States is preparing to execute it, and experts are still studying the case to understand what causes such a crime and how to prevent it in the future.
“It’s such a horrible act to do and it takes a lot of planning,” says Dr. Ann Burgess, a Boston College professor who has studied the rare phenomenon of fetal abduction since the 1990s.
Dr. John Rabun, senior consultant on baby abductions for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), says crime has been more visible in the past 15 to 20 years.
The organization has documented 21 fetal abductions in the United States since 1964, 18 of them since 2004.
That year, Montgomery was 36 years old and the mother of four children. She had undergone a procedure years before that made pregnancy impossible, but those close to her did not know it.
Prosecutors say he carefully identified his victim online: dog breeder Bobbie Jo Stinnett.
Under the pretext of buying a puppy, Montgomery went to Ms. Stinnett’s home, where he strangled her to death and cut the baby from her body. Left Mrs. Stinnett dead in a pool of blood.
Montgomery crossed state lines with the child and told her unsuspecting husband, who believed she was pregnant, that the baby was hers.
In 2007, she was found guilty of federal kidnapping resulting in death and was sentenced to death.
The US Department of Justice called the crime “especially heinous” by announcing an execution date, which was pushed back from this month to January 12, 2021.
Montgomery’s lawyers never refuted the facts, but asked that his sentence be commuted to life in prison, saying that he had been the victim of repeated violence, including rape, in his youth.
She will be the first woman to be executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years if the lethal injection continues in the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
‘They really plan’
Experts say cases like the murder of Ms. Stinnett, the most recent such incident in Texas in October, have certain similarities.
“The person wants a baby, usually to correct or help in a relationship that is not going well,” explains Dr. Burgess.
Dr. Rabun, who has been with NCMEC since its inception, agrees.
“She has a boy in her life and that is really the only reason she steals a baby,” he told AFP. Her organization also says that women have compulsive and manipulative personalities.
Another hallmark of a fetal abduction is careful preparation.
Dr. Burgess points out that many attackers gain weight, host baby showers for them, and even set up nurseries in their homes, all to facilitate their false narratives.
“They plan to open up a woman. They really plan. They read medical texts,” adds Dr. Rabun, saying that bullies often don’t know that mothers are fatally injured.
“None of these women seem to have the idea, even after having their own babies, that if you open someone, they may die.”
In the 21 cases documented by NCMEC, 19 mothers died from their injuries. Meanwhile, the attackers take care of the babies as if they were their own.
Thirteen of the 21 babies have survived.
Victims ‘vulnerable’ at first
For Elizabeth Petrucelli, a former hospital safety director who counsels parents on childbirth and bereavement, pregnant women must learn to recognize several key warning signs.
In 2015, a post on a Facebook breastfeeding education group sounded the alarm: a woman said her friend was two months late in labor.
“If she’s desperate, she can do the unspeakable,” Petrucelli said.
They called her an alarmist, but two months later, her fears were confirmed: Dynel Lane attacked a pregnant woman after pretending she was selling baby clothes.
The woman survived, but the baby did not. Lane was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
“Even though the signs were there, he doesn’t want to believe that someone would actually do that,” Petrucelli said.
“It’s one of those things that nobody wants to talk about for obvious reasons, but more people need to be aware.”
Dr. Burgess said educating prenatal health care providers is one way to get the word out.
Many victims “are drawn to the promise of food or clothing or things for the baby, so they are vulnerable to begin with,” he said.
Petrucelli said that sadly, it may never be enough.
“How do you prevent something so weird from happening? I don’t think you can,” he said.
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