Murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett

Bobbie Jo Stinnett was a 23-year-old pregnant woman who ran a dog-breeding business with her husband from their home in Skidmore, Missouri. On December 16, 2004, she was strangled to death in her home, and her full-term unborn child was cut from her body. The baby survived the crude cesarean section and was recovered alive by authorities the following day.

Stinnett had met Lisa Marie Montgomery, then 36, through dog show events and an online Rat Terrier chatroom called Ratter Chatter. Using the alias "Darlene Fischer," Montgomery told Stinnett she was pregnant too, and the two women corresponded about their pregnancies. Montgomery, who had been falsely claiming to be pregnant, contacted Stinnett on December 15, 2004, expressing interest in buying a puppy, and the two arranged to meet the next day.

On December 16, Montgomery drove from her home in Melvern, Kansas, to Skidmore and arrived at Stinnett's home around 12:30 p.m., carrying a kitchen knife and a white cord. After the two spent roughly two hours together, Montgomery strangled Stinnett with the cord until she was unconscious, cut into her abdomen with the knife, and, when Stinnett regained consciousness and struggled, strangled her a second time, killing her. Montgomery then removed the baby from Stinnett's body, cut the umbilical cord, and drove away with the infant. Stinnett's mother found her daughter's body roughly an hour later and called authorities; paramedics were unable to revive Stinnett, who was pronounced dead at St. Francis Hospital in Maryville, Missouri.

Investigators traced online communications to an IP address at Montgomery's farmhouse in Melvern, Kansas, and found a car there matching the description of one seen at the crime scene. Montgomery was arrested on December 17, 2004, and confessed within about an hour of questioning to killing Stinnett and abducting the baby. DNA testing confirmed the infant was Stinnett's child, and the baby was returned to her father.

Montgomery was charged with the federal offense of kidnapping resulting in death because the baby had been taken across state lines. At trial, her defense argued that she suffered from pseudocyesis, a condition causing a false belief in pregnancy, along with depression, borderline personality disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder; prosecutors and an opposing expert witness disputed the pseudocyesis diagnosis. On October 22, 2007, a federal jury found Montgomery guilty, and on October 26 it recommended a death sentence. Montgomery was formally sentenced to death on April 4, 2008.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Montgomery's certiorari petition on March 19, 2012. She was incarcerated at Federal Medical Center, Carswell, in Fort Worth, Texas, as the only woman on federal death row, before being transferred for execution. Montgomery was executed by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on January 13, 2021, becoming the first female federal inmate executed by the U.S. government in 67 years.