Murder In The Heartland Part 9

Why?

"...Due to being pregnant...."

On Ratter Chatter Friday morning, when everyone was beginning to understand the connection between Bobbie Jo and Darlene Fischer, one blogger, after going back and rereading postings from the days and weeks prior, wrote, "Darlene Fischer was supposed to meet her [Bobbie Jo] on Thursday."

Was this the last time anyone had heard from Bobbie Jo?

Later, another member would bring a sense of reality to what had happened: "We just saw a murder plan in front of us...."

Lisa, posing as Darlene Fischer, had even sent an instant message to one board member, explaining that she was due to have her baby the same day as Bobbie Jo.

"Now I'm just sick...," the woman posted some time later, after learning the details of the crime.

As Dyanne Siktar sat at her computer and realized there might be a connection between Bobbie Jo's death and Darlene Fischer, instead of posting her feelings on the board, she acted. "I recognized her name immediately," Dyanne recalled, meaning Darlene Fischer. "When I did, my heart started racing."

Dyanne scrolled down the message board list to see if Bobbie Jo had posted any messages on the day she was murdered.

As far as Dyanne could tell, she hadn't.

Next, Dyanne learned Bobbie Jo had posted a message back on Wednesday, December 15, the night before she was killed. In that message Bobbie Jo had given directions to her house in Skidmore to Darlene Fischer so Darlene could supposedly look at a few of Bobbie Jo's pups.

Staring at the post again, Dyanne found it odd that Darlene's e-mail address was Fischer4kids. It bothered her. Fischer4kids? In view of the details of the crime, the e-mail address seemed creepy.

"Fischer4kids," Dyanne kept repeating to herself. Something in the e-mail address struck her as "weird," she recalled. "And I didn't think about anything else at that moment except calling the FBI."

38.

Pastor Mike Wheatley and his wife weren't the only people in Melvern to get a glimpse of the child Lisa and Kevin Montgomery were calling Abigail, on the morning of December 17. After Lisa and Kevin left Pastor Wheatley's, they drove to the Osage County Courthouse in nearby Lyndon, just outside Melvern. Authorities now believe that Lisa was on a mission to prove that she hadn't been lying about being pregnant, and this carefully staged visit to a friend of her mother's was designed specifically for that reason.

In Lisa's mind, some insisted later, presenting the child at the courthouse was a way for her to stuff her successful pregnancy in the faces of Judy Shaughnessy and her ex-husband, Carl Boman. They believed that Lisa knew all she had to do was bring the child into the courthouse, display it in front of a few people, and word would get back to Judy and Carl that she'd had the baby.

Apart from Lisa's kids and Kevin, no one in the family believed Lisa when she said she was pregnant. This trip to the courthouse, Carl Boman said, was Lisa's way of showing them she hadn't been lying. After all, here was the child. Who could question her now?

At about noon, Judy took a ride into downtown Lyndon with one of her daughters, Lisa's half sister, to run a few errands. Judy happened to run into her lawyer in the parking lot of the bank. "Congratulations, Judy," he said.

Judy had no idea what he was talking about.

"On being a grandma. Come on, Judy. You don't know?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Lisa had a baby and was at the courthouse earlier this morning."

Judy paused; then she said, "She either stole it or bought it." She shook her head and walked away.

"I knew she couldn't have kids and she had lied so much...," Judy recalled. To her there was just no way the story held any truth. It had to have a reasonable explanation. Lisa certainly hadn't given birth to the child herself.

After they left the bank, Judy and her daughter drove to the courthouse so Judy could pay her taxes. "Again," Judy said, "another person told me Lisa had a baby girl."

Shortly after Judy got home, she e-mailed her ex-son-in-law, Carl Boman, and told him what had happened earlier.

"Just wondering," she asked Carl, "if she bought it...."

Judy was beyond puzzled. She knew there had to be a rational explanation. Not once did she think Lisa had committed a criminal act; but still, what was going on? She had obviously gotten the child from somewhere.

At the end of her e-mail, Judy made an astute observation: "She'll make us out to be liars one way or another, Carl."

Shocked by the e-mail, Carl wrote back immediately. "Don't let this news bother you at all. We all know that she was not pregnant...and Kevin knew that, and so do the kids." Carl was baffled by the e-mail and could only draw one conclusion. "Listen, Judy, maybe she adopted the kid? Who knows?" Then came a bit of prophesy on Carl's part: "It might not even be her child, anyway, Judy. She is a liar, and we all know that, so it doesn't matter what she says or does.... We don't care if she's had a baby of her own, or has bought one from some place. What she does is only a sham and she is false. People will believe what they want to. Don't worry about her. Don't esteem what she says.... What she does can only hurt you if you let her bother you. She doesn't worry us at all anymore as we know the truth...."

Carl had always viewed himself as a "Sunday Christian." G.o.d was a major part of his life, but he hadn't made church an everyday affair. Some (including Lisa) later called Carl a "fake Christian," but Carl was quick to admit he never claimed to be devout. If that was what people thought of him, who cared? He knew what he believed in his heart and how he presented himself in public.

Still, on that morning, G.o.d's word seemed to be infused in a lot of Carl's thoughts about the stresses Lisa had brought into his life recently.

Carl ended the e-mail to Judy with: "We know G.o.d, who is the Truth. Let Lisa go and wait for the reaping to start as we all reap what we sow in the end. We love you guys and look forward to seeing you over the holiday season.... Truth will always win out in the end."

Neither Carl nor Judy had any idea just how close they were to the truth. If there were two people who knew Lisa's history better than most, it was Judy and Carl. They knew she had lied about being pregnant and had tubal ligation surgery in 1990. There was no way the child could be hers-no matter what she was telling people.

Judy wrote back to Carl later that night and observed that Lisa's life, and her many claims of being pregnant, "just continues one thing after another." She then questioned her own feelings for Lisa, saying she really didn't feel "anything" anymore, which made her consider how "heartless" she was for, basically, deserting her own daughter. "All mothers," she continued, "should love their children...." Yet, there was too much baggage between them. It had all built up over the past few years. No one, Judy said later, could reach Lisa anymore. She was in her own world, as if something in her had just snapped.

"I love my daughter and always have, still to this day," recalled Judy. "A mother's love is always there, no matter what. You might not like what your children do or the things they say, but the emotion of your heart tells of the love. I also can hate the things they do and I know that everyone makes mistakes.... Unlike a lot of people, I have had to endure a lot of things in my life with my children. We've survived. My love for Lisa will remain in my heart and will always have a place."

From Lyndon, Lisa and Kevin drove to the Whistle Stop Cafe, on Southwest Main Street, in downtown Melvern. Lisa and Kevin knew many of the people who hung around the cafe, either personally or by common acquaintance. The Whistle Stop wasn't a place Lisa frequented, but people recognized her. It was pus.h.i.+ng noon now. The Whistle Stop seemed like the perfect place to have a bit of lunch and, naturally, show off the newborn, before heading home to give the child a well-deserved nap after another attempt at breast-feeding.

39.

On the day following Bobbie Jo's murder, the search for Victoria Jo continued throughout the morning and into early afternoon. In the span of just two minutes, Sheriff Ben Espey pointed out later, the case took a remarkable turn because of two important telephone calls. One of the calls came from Dyanne Siktar in North Carolina.

Throughout her life, Dyanne had been a bit of a whistleblower. As a young woman, she worked for a large food corporation in Florida. One day, she noticed what she called "shady business" going on at the New York City division of the company in charge of s.h.i.+pping products overseas. "The invoices," recalled Dyanne, "were being typed up under an a.s.sumed company name with the same typewriter that the people who worked for [my company] on the same pier used to type up their expense report vouchers."

Dyanne believed the company being billed for services was fict.i.tious: the brainchild and cash cow of someone in the company she worked for. The typewriter made certain letters and numbers almost identically for both companies, which had given it away.

Dyanne called authorities and reported what she had observed. "They sent the auditor up there," Dyanne said, "and he got rear-ended on his way to the pier." It was like a scene from a Hollywood movie, Silkwood, Norma Rae.

In the end, "a couple of heads rolled." It was apparent the company had ties to the mob and was skimming money off the books. Dyanne stated, "I didn't think about it-I just called someone and believed I was doing the right thing."

When Dyanne realized she had potential information that might help find Bobbie Jo's child and killer, she called information and asked for the number of an FBI office in Missouri.

"Which office would you like, ma'am?" the dispatcher asked.

Dyanne said, "I don't care.... I don't care."

Time now seemed crucial. As minutes went by, Dyanne became more anxious.

"Any office will do, ma'am. Please," she said during a long pause in the conversation.

The number Dyanne was given turned out to be the FBI's Resident Agency Office in St. Joseph, Missouri. ("Just a lucky break!") Special Agent (SA) Kurt Lipanovich took the call. (Another lucky break.) Lipanovich had been working the case all night long. Ben Espey later praised Lipanovich for his efforts. "Kurt was terrific. A professional all the way."

An agent for fifteen years, Lipanovich handled jobs including "investigating violations of federal criminal law in the seventeen northwest counties of Missouri," which included Skidmore, in Nodaway County.

When Dyanne Siktar got Lipanovich on the phone, she said, "I think I know who was in contact with the victim of that murder case in Skidmore."

Although the Amber Alert had generated scores of tips, nothing had really panned out for Espey and the FBI. They had the name Darlene Fischer an hour or so into the investigation, after one of Espey's men had pulled it from Bobbie Jo's computer, but they had no idea how-or even if-the name was connected to the case, or where Darlene Fischer lived.

Dyanne Siktar was now connecting the two.

Lipanovich was floored by what he was hearing. Here was a "tipster," which this case desperately needed, possibly handing over the murderer.

"The agent, Kurt Lipanovich," recalled Dyanne, "got really excited when I told him what I knew."

"I'll call you right back," said Lipanovich after Dyanne explained how she had logged on to the Ratter Chatter Web site and made the connection between Darlene Fischer and Bobbie Jo.

Moments later, Lipanovich called Dyanne back and asked if she had any more information about the Web site, specifically an IP (Internet protocol) address. With it, the FBI could find out whose computer the e-mails and instant messages written to Bobbie Jo had been generated from.

"I have to go," Lipanovich said after Dyanne gave him as much information as she could, "but I will call you back when I can."

Meanwhile, in Maryville, Ben Espey was hunkered down in the war room of the Nodaway County Sheriff's Department, going through every lead coming in, a.s.signing different officers their jobs. With his wrinkled s.h.i.+rt and five o'clock shadow now grown out, Espey was feeling the effects of not having slept in some time. Yet, the adrenaline rush of maybe finding Victoria Jo was pumping energy into him. Surprisingly, he felt wide-awake.

At nearly the same time Dyanne Siktar called the FBI, a woman in Georgia (thought to be Auntie Mary) called in a second tip after seeing the Amber Alert and adding it to what she already knew about Lisa Montgomery's newborn. "She said she knew a woman named Lisa Montgomery, who lived in Melvern, Kansas, had been showing off a 'newborn' child earlier that morning, but suspected the she was never pregnant."

With Dyanne Siktar and the woman in Georgia calling in tips within minutes of each other, the only problem became putting the two tips together: one had been phoned into the FBI, the other into the Amber Alert hotline.

Ben Espey never stopped communicating with Zeb Stinnett. Throughout the night, he had given Zeb as many details as he could regarding how the investigation was unfolding, without giving him false hope or "insider" information he didn't need to know. Now, with these two new leads, Espey was more confident he was going to be able to fulfill a promise he'd already made of getting Victoria Jo back to Zeb.

Espey had set Bobbie Jo's family up with a press spokesperson he knew could field questions and keep media away from the family. Dan Madden, a "super guy," Espey noted, recently had been appointed director of communications for the Conception Abbey Development Office, in Conception, Missouri, seventeen miles from Maryville on Route 136. The Conception Abbey was many things to the community of West Missouri. According to its statement, the Conception Abbey was there to "praise G.o.d and become more Christ-like through a common life as given in the Rule of St. Benedict."

There was a bit of history between Espey and the Conception Abbey. Back on June 10, 2002, a gunman-a former postal worker-entered the abbey and went on an "eight-minute rampage," wounding Father Kenneth and Father Norbert and murdering Father Philip Schuster and Brother Damian Larson before taking his own life. Espey, along with one MSHP trooper and two of his deputies, were the first officers to respond to the scene. Their actions helped save Father Norbert's and Father Kenneth's lives.

On December 17, Dan Madden showed up at Espey's office and offered himself to the Stinnett situation, saying he had seen the news and decided to make himself available to help in any way he could. Espey knew Madden could be an a.s.set to the Stinnett family and Becky Harper, who were being hounded by the media.

After introducing Madden to Zeb and Becky Harper, Espey walked over to Zeb. He didn't know what to say. Leads were coming in. The investigation had taken a promising turn. But who knew what would come of it all? The last thing Espey wanted to do was make a promise he couldn't keep. But still, he felt something. Espey couldn't explain it. He just knew Victoria Jo was okay and they were going to find her soon.

Turning, looking at Zeb, he introduced Dan Madden and then said, "I won't sleep until I find your baby, Zeb."

40.

Located in the center of town, across the street from the park, the Whistle Stop Cafe, with its Native American storefront design of red-and-white-brick diamond shapes over a canopy of asphalt s.h.i.+ngles, served up ham and eggs, steaks, coffee, beer, meat loaf and potatoes. With a soda machine standing guard out front the Whistle Stop had always been one of those hometown diners many residents in Melvern made a routine part of their day.

Kathy Sage owned the Whistle Stop and worked hard to serve home-cooked meals to the tough men who worked with their hands (and there were plenty of these rugged men in Melvern), "sunup to sundown." Because the cafe had a television set on most of the day and night, patrons had seen reports of the murder in Skidmore and the abduction of Bobbie Jo's child.

Inside the Whistle Stop, men sat at booths and on stools, wearing farmer jeans and John Deere caps, killing time and swapping stories. To owner Kathy Sage and those who hung around the Whistle Stop on that Friday, exactly one week before Christmas, it was just another mundane day in the heartland. Talk centered on the murder in Skidmore, but also on politics, religion, the economy, and sports, just as it did in thousands of communities throughout the Midwest. Crop prices were down, inflation rising through the roof. Heating oil was going to be more expensive as the winter progressed.

The Whistle Stop door creaked as Lisa and Kevin walked into the diner. Victoria Jo was sitting comfortably in a portable car seat Lisa was toting her around in, not making much noise.

A few customers turned and looked as Kevin and Lisa entered. "Hey," someone said, with a nod and two-finger salute.

Sitting down at a booth, Kevin and Lisa reportedly ordered eggs, bacon, and hash browns, while the baby sat in her seat on the floor nearby. A few customers walked over to the table and marveled at the child. How cute.... She's beautiful.... How old?

Lisa smiled. "Pick her up if you like. Go ahead."

While Lisa and Kevin ate, a patron took the baby around the restaurant and showed her to some of the other customers.

As the child was pa.s.sed around the restaurant, Kathy Sage walked over to Lisa and Kevin's table and asked Lisa how old the baby was. She thought the infant looked awfully young to be out and about.

"Yeah, she's only a day old," Lisa said. She seemed excited.

"We didn't know you were expecting, Lisa," said one woman.

"Most people didn't," said Lisa.

Listening to this made Sage, who recalled the story later to reporters, "irate." She was disturbed because Lisa and Kevin had shown up with the child to begin with. "You don't bring a newborn out in public."

The child was, by Lisa's own account, a day old, and she and Kevin were pa.s.sing her around the restaurant like some sort of family photograph, while filling their faces as if it were just any other ordinary day.

"You hear about this stuff happening in Los Angeles or New York City," Kathy Sage stated after she learned the truth. "But not here. Not home."

41.