Slain Pregnant Woman, Suspect Had Met Before

Dec. 21, 2004 -- -- When dog trainer Nancy Strudl learned her pregnant friend Bobbie Jo Stinnett had been killed and her baby cut from her womb, she said her thoughts turned to another woman in their small community of rat terrier breeders and trainers.

"When I settled down a bit, my thoughts went to Lisa [Montgomery] because of the baby connection," Strudl said on ABC News' "Good Morning America." "That she's told everybody that she was going to have a baby and Bobbie had one, and it had been taken from her. But then I put it out of my mind because I didn't think that she was capable."

Then, just hours after she first heard the news, Strudl learned that Montgomery had been arrested in Stinnett's slaying and the kidnapping of her baby.

Authorities said Montgomery, 36, confessed to strangling Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, on Thursday in her Skidmore, Mo., home. They said Montgomery then cut the baby from the slain woman's womb and took the infant girl back to her own home in Melvern, Kan., where she tried to pass off the child as her own.

Strudl, who knew the victim and the suspect from their similar interests in raising and showing rat terrier dogs, says Montgomery had told people in their dog breeding community that she was pregnant, but they never believed her. Strudl says Montgomery's appearance never changed even though she had been telling people she was going to have a baby.

"That's why none of us in the rat terrier community can understand that the family and the community where she lived was fooled by this," Strudl said.

Hours before her arrest, Montgomery and her husband reportedly showed off a newborn girl at a local restaurant before heading to their pastor's home with the infant.

Since Montgomery's arrest, her husband, Kevin Montgomery, has said that he had "no idea" the baby was not their own. He has not been charged.

Strudl, of Omaha, Neb., also told the The Kansas City Star that Stinnett and her alleged attacker were both at a dog show in November of last year.Strudl says she, Montgomery and Stinnett all went to a café after the outdoor show.

Strudl, who says she used online instant messaging as a way to communicate with both Stinnett and Montgomery, said Stinnett had left a cheery message for her just about a week before she died. The message said, "Baby any day, maybe today," according to Strudl.

Montgomery is scheduled to be back in court for a preliminary hearing on the charges Thursday. The baby, Victoria Jo Stinnett, is in good condition and has been released from the hospital to her father, Zeb Stinnett.