Unborn child theft: ex-husband steps in (2024)

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Lisa Montgomery's ex-husband filed for custody of two of their children just six days before Montgomery allegedly murdered Bobbie Jo Stinnett and stole her baby from her womb.

Carl Boman filed a motion on December 10 in Osage County seeking custody of two of the four children he and Montgomery had together. A copy of Boman's request was mailed on December 10 to Montgomery's home in Melvern.

On December 16, the FBI says, Montgomery strangled Stinnett in her Skidmore, Missouri, home and stole Stinnett's unborn child, who survived.

Two days later, Boman said in an amended filing that the custody question had become urgent.

"The actions of the mother are such that the children may be in danger, if not from the mother directly, from the emotional stress of the situation caused by media coverage of the event, or from other sources," said Boman's request to the court.

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Citing Montgomery's arrest on a charge of kidnapping resulting in death, Osage County District Judge Phillip Fromme on Saturday granted Boman temporary custody of all four children. The ruling was placed in public court files last night.

The children are staying with their stepfather, Kevin Montgomery, and other family members in Melvern. A saddened Kevin Montgomery said he soon will lose the children when they move to Oklahoma with their birth father.

"They're taking my kids away," he said.

Kevin Montgomery said he had sent flowers to Stinnett's funeral today and offered condolences to Zeb Stinnett and his infant daughter.

"I hope Zeb and Victoria Jo are getting the same support there that I'm getting here," he said.

Montgomery said he may get to visit his wife in two or three weeks. He has not spoken with her since her arrest.

"I didn't even get to say goodbye," he said.

Boman could not be reached for comment.

Montgomery became acquainted with Stinnett through their mutual involvement in breeding rat-terrier dogs. Pictures posted on the Stinnetts' Web site indicate they were at a dog show together in April in Abilene, Kansas, the FBI and other sources said.

Lisa Montgomery was desperate to have a child with her husband, persons who knew her have said recently.

Montgomery had told her husband and others she was pregnant, and the FBI said that she told her husband she had the baby at a birthing centre in Topeka, where she went to shop.

In reality, Montgomery killed Stinnett and took the child, the FBI said.

"The only thing I can think of is she wanted a baby so bad," Kevin Montgomery said.

Divorce-court files show that Boman and Lisa Montgomery had four children, now ranging in age from 14 to 17. The couple was divorced in 1998 in New Mexico. Lisa and Kevin Montgomery married in 2000.

Interviews indicated Lisa Boman often complained about her first husband, and records contain some conflicting information about their past.

In their 1998 divorce proceedings, Montgomery said the two were wed June 11, 1994, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

But in his custody request, Boman said the marriage was August 21, 1986. He did not say where.

Arkansas marriage licence records confirm a 1994 marriage; the bride listed her name as Lisa Boman.

According to those who knew the Bomans in New Mexico, her mother was married to Carl Boman's father.

Monica Gutierrez, advertising saleswoman at The Deming Headlight daily newspaper in Deming New Mexico, said that Lisa met Carl when he came home from the Navy and moved into the home of his father and stepmother.

The couple had their first child in 1987, when Lisa was 19, according to her divorce papers.

Gutierrez and Bill Armendariz, editor of The Headlight , both said Montgomery, who worked in the circulation department at the paper, often was at odds with her husband.

"Generally, she complained about everything he did and did not do," Gutierrez said. "She was just a girl with a lot of ... problems, trying to get her life together."

But she called Montgomery a good mother and close friend.

Armendariz said she was a good worker but that she openly talked about her marital problems.

"It seemed like she always carried a lot of emotional baggage," Armendariz said, adding that his wife worked at a fast-food restaurant with Carl Boman. "We'd hear both stories."

Montgomery was transferred today from the Wyandotte County jail to federal custody, the county announced. She is being held at a federal detention facility in Leavenworth. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday on transferring her case to Missouri.

She has not entered a plea to the charges, which could carry the death penalty.

AFP

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