Murder in the Heartland

by M. William Phelps

  Carl sat and looked at the letter. Headlines ran through his mind: COULD HUSBAND OF WOMB RAIDER BE MURDERER, TOO?

  Who would believe such nonsense?

  Lisa went on to say she had “refused” to grant interviews to the press “to save my kids,” and she was disturbed he had dragged them into it all, “missing school…for money?”

  She then talked about what she viewed as Carl’s lack of Christian values, before ending the letter: “You make me sick.”

  How does one answer a letter with such disregard for reality? Carl wondered. He was beside himself with anger and confusion. To him the letter proved what he had been saying all along: Lisa was more interested in twisting truth than facing it. Here she was, in a prison, still trying to control Carl’s life.

  Lisa had a hold on Kevin, Carl knew. Carl liked Kevin. He wasn’t ready to consider him a friend, but he knew Kevin had been duped by Lisa, and in some way, he felt sorry for him.

  When Kevin found out Carl had gone to New York with the kids to appear on television, he started in with the same tone Lisa had used in her letter.

  “What’d you do that for, Carl?”

  “It’s none of your dang business what I do with my kids, Kevin. You got that?”

  “The kids, Carl. It’s about the kids.”

  Part of Carl’s reason for making the trip was getting the kids out of Kansas for a few days and giving them a break from all the disarray in their lives. Carl didn’t have the money to take them to New York himself, and he felt it might be their only chance to see the city.

  “Don’t tell me about my kids,” Carl shot back. Carl was much bigger. He felt Kevin knew he was pushing things too far.

  Backing down, Kevin said, “Well, I had always wanted to take them to New York. I’m glad they got a chance to go.”

  93

  A series of e-mails and message board posts written by Lisa had popped up on the Internet during the first few weeks of January, seeming to display a premeditated plan on Lisa’s part to meet Bobbie Jo. “Keyboard sleuths,” as bloggers are sometimes called, discovered several posts written by Lisa on an unnamed message board, and they were discussing the validity of each message. In one, dated April 19, 2003, Lisa talked about the Melvern house she lived in with Kevin, and listed the ages of all their children. It was an invitation into her life, a way to say hello to everyone on the board. Homey and rustic in tone, the message would have seemed like any other, except Lisa ended the post: “We are also expecting new baby any day.”

  A week later, she posted again, saying, “Thanks…for the warm welcome!” before once again talking about her house.

  Lisa appreciated nostalgia and anything having to do with history. She loved visiting historic sites around Kansas and Missouri. In that second message, she rambled on about the house she shared with Kevin, expressing her love for its historic value and significance.

  “We started out a couple of years ago,” she wrote, noting it was a “second marriage” for both, “with the idea of learning how to do things ourselves….” Then she mentioned that “instead of buying everything,” she and Kevin wanted to teach the children how to live like pioneers and depend on the land more than modern conveniences. But, she said, they still had “…a lot to learn!”

  But the image of her living some sort of Little House on the Prairie fantasy was mere propaganda, according to those who knew Lisa best. Kevin’s children despised her and refused to go near the house, one of Lisa’s children later said. On top of that, her own kids were the first to say Lisa and Kevin hardly ever saw each other because they worked different shifts. During the last year Lisa was a free woman, she worked three jobs. She and Kevin must have passed each other on the way in and out the door.

  Yet, the last line of the post was probably what scared people the most when they read it later: Lisa said she and Kevin’s “next project” was to “butcher” a “pig.”

  Lisa and Kevin had a lot of animals at the house in Melvern—except pigs.

  Later, after she was arrested and every single word she had written was examined, the second to the last line of the post carried connotations Lisa forever would be known for: “Any suggestions [regarding butchering a pig] would be helpful.”

  Public discourse surrounding Lisa’s case became a cacophony of armchair detectives, cyber sleuths, and psychobabble-spouting Internet serial posters, who were basing much of their opinions on what the newspapers were reporting. No one knew what Lisa was thinking, nor did anyone know if there was a second suspect. Speculation turned to rumor, which became a feeding frenzy for television pundits discussing every statute and mental-capacity law in front of television cameras.

  Todd Graves kept a tight lid on his case, and save for the last press conference to announce Lisa’s indictment, he had been quiet. Nevertheless, the legal case against Lisa was moving forward. On January 20, 2005, she was once again brought into court to make her plea.

  “Not guilty,” her lawyers entered into the record.

  Lisa never spoke.

  After the hearing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office indicated it was now leaning toward seeking the death penalty.

  “That is the direction we are going,” said Todd Graves.

  The news of Lisa’s not guilty plea inspired a resurgence of media interest in the case. Fox News Channel ran with the headline FETUS-SNATCH SUSPECT PLEADS NOT GUILTY. CNN kept it simple: WOMAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN FETUS KIDNAP-PING.

  After the most recent news, Carl received an e-mail from Judy, which outlined just how confused and conflicted Judy was about the way things had transpired.

  The stress factor between the two families was only elevated by Lisa’s arrest and the media coverage of the case. Carl was beginning to feel as though it might not be such a good idea for the kids to see Lisa’s family for a while. They had too much to deal with already. Carl believed Lisa had not turned out the way she did without help from someone. The last thing he needed was her family confusing the children, as Lisa was trying to do, telling them things they didn’t need to know.

  In one e-mail, Judy indicated she knew “how hard” it was on Carl, and said she didn’t want to “add to the stress.”

  Without realizing it, Judy seemed to back up what Carl had been saying all along: Lisa had repeatedly abandoned the children, leaving him to pick up the pieces. “I remember how many times Lisa didn’t want them….” More pointedly, she also said she felt Lisa had “mentally abused them with all the things she did in the past and now.”

  According to Carl, Judy never showed any affection toward Lisa or her siblings. Now she was admitting she didn’t have any feelings for Lisa as a daughter. “I have no sympathy for her,” Judy wrote, adding, “I feel so sad for her for everything she lost,” while saying she loved Lisa, “but it’s not the love I should have and I feel bad about that.”

  It was obvious from the e-mail that Judy was having a hard time “forgiving” Lisa. She “struggled with it every day,” and didn’t want to “see her or talk to her” at this point, “but I know someday I will face her, and I dread it.”

  Next, Judy said, “I haven’t said anything to anyone about the conversation we had about what Ryan told you about Kevin knowing.”

  Although her syntax was a bit confusing, Carl understood exactly what she meant. Ryan had gone to Carl shortly after Lisa was arrested with some rather disturbing news: he and Kevin discovered that the sonogram Lisa was showing to people was actually downloaded from the Internet. It was not hers.

  Lisa’s children were talking about their lives with her. The stories they told made their way back to Carl and Judy. Judy was conflicted: she didn’t know how much to tell the kids about Lisa’s early life and what to leave out. She was seeking some sort of advice from Carl.

  “It’s hard,” she wrote, “because I can’t lie to them, and when they ask me, I feel like I have to tell them. I did tell them I don’t think she is insane. They asked about my belief about justice and I told them, but I said whe
n it comes to family, am I supposed to change?”

  94

  The U.S. Attorney’s Office made an announcement near the end of January. It was going to focus “officially” on pursuing the death penalty against Lisa. All the talk and speculation regarding “weighing their options” was set aside as a formal statement declared the ultimate result of the decision was now in the federal hands of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

  More important, the judge in the case had set a trial date of March 14, 2005, a little over two months away.

  To most, it seemed too soon. Yet, the Speedy Trial Act of 1974 “mandates the commencement of the trial of a defendant within seventy days from the defendant’s first appearance before a judicial officer of the court in which the charge is pending.” There could be a delay, but the defendant’s lawyers had to prove the “court finds the ends of justice served by the taking of such action outweighed the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial, provided the court sets forth the reason for such finding.”

  Although most agreed that the sooner Lisa’s case was presented in a court of law, the better off everyone would be, Lisa’s lawyers undoubtedly faced long nights in the office if they wanted to delay the trial. Would two months be enough to prepare for what was sure to be one of the most high-profile murder trials the heartland had seen in decades?

  Many believed it would take sixty weeks, not sixty days.

  95

  Many of Lisa Montgomery’s friends and extended family had a hard time accepting the fact that Lisa wasn’t pregnant, because she had been so convincing in spinning her tale. Lisa, of course, wasn’t the first female to feign pregnancy; her case was one more in a growing list in the United States over the past thirty-odd years.

  In 1982, The American Journal of Psychiatry published a detailed description of the condition pseudocyesis, a term John Mason Good coined in 1923 from the Greek words pseudes (false) and kyesis (pregnancy). Many claim the condition has been around for thousands of years, as it was first mentioned in 300 B.C. by Hippocrates, who wrote about twelve women who “believed they were pregnant.” Every definition of pseudocyesis is, for the most part, the same: a hallucination “pregnancy in women usually resulting from a strong desire or need for motherhood,” which clearly defined Lisa Montgomery’s behavior. Many women even stop menstruating as their “abdomen becomes enlarged and the breasts swell and even secrete milk, mimicking genuine pregnancy.”

  Lisa Montgomery, several members of her immediate family agreed, had been irregular with her menstrual cycle most of her life. Whenever she claimed to be pregnant, her stomach was distended—possibly because she swallowed air and made it happen—and she displayed other characteristics that would have led people to have no reason to question her. In some women, the syndrome is so pronounced, the desire to have a child so deeply engrained in their psyche, the uterus and cervix “show signs of pregnancy” and “urine tests may be falsely positive.”

  No one has suggested that any of Lisa’s false pregnancies had gone that far. But some agree that the mind is, indeed, a controlling machine, and a person’s will, if powerful enough, can cause the body to react in many different ways.

  In 1990, Dowden Health Media, Inc., a company publishing “journals that reach more than 300,000 physicians each month,” published an article with supporting research to break down the dynamics of women—and, shockingly, four men—who suffered from pseudocyesis. “There are several theories regarding the cause of pseudocyesis,” the article stated. Among the most common included are: (1) the “conflict theory: A desire for or fear of pregnancy creates an internal conflict and causes endocrine changes to explain the signs, symptoms, and laboratory findings in pseudocyesis”(2) the “wish-fulfillment theory: Minor body changes initiate the false belief in pregnancy in susceptible individuals” and (3) the “depression theory: pseudocyesis may be initiated by the neuroendocrine changes associated with a major depressive disorder.”

  “Pseudocyesis,” the article went on to explain, “is considered a heterogeneous disorder without a unifying cause. Research to discover the underlying cause of pseudocyesis has been hampered by the relatively low numbers of patients with the illness.”

  Dowden Health Media’s research was substantiated by a study dating back as far as 1890 to 1910, “when one-hundred-fifty-six cases were reported….” By contrast, “only forty-two cases were reported between 1959 and 1979.” Interestingly enough, as it pertained to Lisa’s life, “the age range of patients with pseudocyesis is six-and-a-half” years old to “seventy-nine” years old. Even more important, the “average age” of a female suffering from the disorder was “thirty-three” years old. (Lisa was thirty-six when she alledgedly murdered Bobbie Jo and kidnapped her child; thirty-two when she began talking about a series of false pregnancies.) “Eighty percent of women with pseydocyesis [sic] are married,” the article continued, while “14.6 percent [were] unmarried….”

  Perhaps most relevant, Dowden’s research found that “pseudocyesis is more common in women during their second marriage” and “thirty-seven percent of women with pseudocyesis have been pregnant at least once.”

  For some women, the belief they are pregnant is rooted so deeply in their minds that it is hard for them ever to admit the opposite. Friends and family of these women are stunned later when they learn the truth because the argument by the affected person was so powerful.

  The night before Bobbie Jo was murdered, Lisa had called a former friend, Brenda Stanford, and told her she’d just had a baby girl. The possibility that Lisa was lying about being pregnant was something Brenda had never considered. Brenda had been over to Kevin and Lisa’s house in Melvern for dinner. “Kevin and Lisa loved each other.” She knew Kevin from her work in the community. “Great guy. He was really suckered. An innocent victim.” A lot of people, Brenda said, believed it as much as she did.

  In addition, weeks before Bobbie Jo was murdered, Lisa had talked to Brenda about a home-birthing kit she had purchased online. “I want to have the baby at home,” Lisa said.

  “Well, call me,” Brenda said, “if you need any help when you go into labor. Be glad to help you out.”

  “Thank you, Brenda; you’re the best.”

  “I know an EMT,” Brenda added. “If you need help, Lisa, just call.”

  “I will.”

  96

  On October 20, 1989, Lisa gave birth to her and Carl’s third child, Ryan. They were still living in Hominy. By then, Carl’s job at the prison had become a burden. According to him, there were 120 inmates per guard. He was increasingly bothered by the name-calling, spitting, fighting, and aggressive behavior. “I had always told myself that if I woke up in the morning, went to work, and feared for my life, I’m not working there anymore.”

  During his tenure as a guard, Carl was assaulted several times, receiving stitches, broken bones, cuts, minor bruises. He could, in some way, accept all of that as part of the job. But then one day he arrived home with a rather large welt on his head and two black eyes.

  “What happened to you?” asked Lisa. She was holding Ryan. The other two kids were in the playpen.

  An inmate had whacked Carl over the head with a two-by-four and knocked him unconscious.

  “My, God, Carl.” Lisa put her free hand over her mouth.

  “It’s just not worth it anymore.”

  With three kids and a wife at home, Carl needed a job with stability that paid well.

  By this point, Richard and Judy had moved to San Diego, California, seeking new surroundings for their fractured, dissolving marriage. Richard claimed Judy had cheated on him. In a way, moving to the West was an attempt to save the marriage.

  It didn’t take long before they were at odds again.

  “I left Richard in California,” said Judy. “I moved to Ponca City [Oklahoma] and filed for divorce. Yes, I did go with someone, and if you want to call it ‘cheating,’ fine with me. But I had already filed for a divorce. The man I was go
ing out with was divorced. He helped me a lot. While he was fixing my car, I used his. We knew some of the same people. We went out to eat and didn’t hide a thing. So, yes, I had an affair. But I was separated and, at the time, thought my marriage was over with Richard.”

  Richard and Judy still had feelings for each other, though.

  “I divorced Richard on the seventh day of December 1989,” Judy recalled. “He called me soon afterward.”

  “Let’s work things out, Judy,” she claimed Richard said. “Come back out here.”

  Judy called the court and got “a paper” she and Richard would have to sign. She told him after he signed it, he would have to send thirty dollars to the court with the paper and their marriage would be reinstated.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Richard told Judy when she arrived in California. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Okay, Richard.”

  With Richard and Judy in San Diego, Carl sat one night and thought about it. “Sun and fun was the real reason. The prison was dangerous and I’d had enough of it.” Looking at Lisa with a strange, daydreaming look in his eye, as if he were picturing himself on the beach, Carl stated, “San Diego sounds perfect.”

  97

  In January 1990, Carl packed up Rebecca and Alicia and took off for San Diego, while Lisa stayed behind in Hominy with Ryan, who was only a few months old. Carl figured he’d find a house or apartment close to Richard and Judy, move in, and then send for Lisa and Ryan.

  On paper, it seemed like a good plan.

  While Carl was in San Diego, he developed a sense things weren’t right back home with Lisa. “I felt she was either being unfaithful, or was about to be.” Carl had never had this type of “strong sixth sense” before, he recalled, and had no real reason to even consider Lisa was fooling around. Since they married in 1986, things had gone well. Work. Baby. Work. Baby. Work. Another baby.