Baby Be Mine: The Shocking True Story of a Woman Accused of Murdering a Pregnant Mother to Steal Her Child

by Diane Fanning

When Lisa Montgomery presented her husband Kevin with their new-born baby girl, he was ecstatic. Naming the child Abigail, the couple brought her to their local pastor. Miles away, police were investigating the brutal murder of a pregnant woman...
Twenty-three year old Bobbie Jo Stinnett was found by her mother, lying in a pool of blood, looking as if her stomach “had exploded.” Investigators soon determined: Someone had strangled Bobbie Jo to death — and then cut her fetus from her womb...
In late 2004, two women met in a dog-breeding internet chat room. When Elizabeth Montgomery came face to face with eight-months-pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett, prosecutors claim she already had a plan.
Investigators knew that Bobbie Jo had fought desperately for her life — and that her fetus, alive or dead, was gone. Investigators scrambled after a killer. An “Amber Alert” went out for an hours-old infant. And this horrifying case was about to shock neighbors and a nation: of a woman accused of murdering for a baby...

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, True Story

265 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 29, 2006

Reviews

[Rebecca Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. For anyone who likes true crime novels, I wouldn't recommend this to you. When I read about a killer, I want to learn about the killer and the victim. This author told me to much about other family members and other killers instead of them. I feel like I didnt really learn anything about the killer at all. I was not impressed with this book at all.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good for a true crime. It felt like it was a struggle to get through at times. I just cant believe that Lisa would do something that horrible! My heart was broken for Bobbie Jo's family and her daughter.

[Rachel Aranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the beginning and middle of this book were very intriguing and well-written, but somehow the ending just seemed to lose steam in both regards. To me the ending not being that good is crazy because it was when the crime is solved and everything comes to a close so people can try to move on. There just seemed to be an overflow of unnecessary information that didn't pertain to the book.

[Nat PlainJanetheBookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the topic, I found the author strayed away from the specific case to talk about other cases too often.

I wanted to know more about this specific case and the words wasted on the others could have been used to tell me more about this one. This story felt a little to cardboard for me.

[Mwrogers · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books I have ever read. I put it down and read another book and my OCD made me try to finish this. But I still couldn’t.

Horrible editing. Skips all over the place. Other crime stories worked in to pad this one. Repetition. Awful.

This book was so bad I permanently deleted it from my Kindle library.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

i gave this book only two stars not because of the story itself but because of the large amount of unnecessary extra "crap" that was included and also because of the large amount of grammatical errors i found while reading. the story of what happened to bobbie jo and her baby was fine. it was a horrible thing that happened. i just didn't much care for how much extra stuff was added that didn't really pertain to bobbie jo and what happened to her. i mean, there were some parts and i was just thinking "what the heck does this have to do with anything?" i guess maybe the author thought it would enhance the book or something. i don't really know. i just know that for me, personally, i could have done without all that extra non related stuff. all the spelling and grammatical errors i encountered also really bothered me. that's one of my pet peeves and i just feel like the publisher, editor, or whoever should really catch all those before it gets to print and me reading it. i'm really not sure if i will read any more books by this author for fear they might have the same issues.

[Susan Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was interesting in terms of reporting the crime and how it occurred, as well as the some of the aftermath. However, there were a lot of spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors and incorrect words in the text, which were very distracting. The author’s politics also got in the way of the story at times. And there was nothing about the trial or it’s conclusion. All in all, sloppy.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't believe how someone could fake being pregnant and kill a real pregnant mother to take her baby. I remember not being able to put this book down.

[Jill Crosby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent, but wanders off on multiple tangents. Would've appreciated an update on the outcome of the trial of Lisa Montgomery.

[Ashton Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt this book relayed the case in a good, mostly linear format. It did get off topic and have many other cases mentioned in it that were sometimes overwhelming and confusing but overall I would suggest this book over the other book about this case.

[Donna Humble · Rating 5 out of 5]

A disturbing look into one woman's desperate need for a baby no matter what she had to do.

[Rhonda Garrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good book. It really makes you think; however, so many people can pretend to be something totally different over the Internet. Kind of scary if you ask me.

[suzanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think it’s stupid the author spent so much time talking abt other cases and then published this book before the trial even started. Could’ve been 150 pages shorter

[cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, there was too much that didn't relate to the story. History of the town, etc. Other cases... It was pretty much summed up in the first couple of chapters.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to know what kind of rating to give this sad, depressing book. Did I enjoy it? No, not at all. Was I horrified and disturbed? Yes, so I must admit the author's work had a strong effect on me.

She writes about cases of caesarian abduction other than the title incident. I was only generally aware of these cases before, and had never read any details. She also discusses the Brandon Perry disappearance. This young man was most likely abducted and tortured to death, and her description of what probably happened is one of the most disturbing things I've read in true crime.

I'll have to add this one to my list of "books I wish I could un-read."

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers the case of Lisa Montgomery, who murdered a pregnant woman and stole her baby. This seems insane to me, like something one would just watch in a movie. Not too long ago, there was a similar case a couple of hours away from where I live. Someone shot a woman and cut out her baby. That whole concept is just too much for my mind to grasp. Diane Fanning is a pretty good true crime writer, based on the couple of books of hers that I have read. Overall, it was an interesting book and the facts of the case were presented in a manner that was engaging and easy to follow.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Low standards for this work going in and got about what I expected. She seemed to have little knowledge in the case it itself and tried to fill it out with information from other cases. Which would have worked if it was a book specifically about those kind of cases but it was promoted as about this one particular case. The way she talked about the previous murder of that 'bully' and how he would have been proud of that behaviour? They had a woman cut out the baby of another woman and were rightly horrified but why would this make a man who stalked, assaulted and murdered proud?

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

BY FAR one of the craziest and "best" true crime books I have ever laid my hands on. I can't believe I forgot to add this when I first began on GR. This is a must for any t.c. reader. The story itself just is unimaginable and Fanning did a TERRIFIC job on the book.
If there was one t.c. book I was going to recommend it'd have to be this one as of right now.

[Irene Rice · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was very good until 3/4 to the end. Then the author begins telling you about similar murder cases...as if she needs to fill up the book to make it bigger. I found myself skipping chapters towards the end because I really just wanted to read the end of the story Baby Be Mine.... not all this other stuff.

[Sae-chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the problem was not the idea that women were just a baby producer, but the low self-esteem of these women. They thought that they needed to have or do something to earn the love of a man. And producing a baby was just a handy answer.

[Leslie Spangler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that this crime happens is just horrifying.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is very sad. It was brutal to get through.

[Heather Limoges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on a true story-it was hard to read for the facts and how heartbreaking it is, but it was a good book and covered the events that happened in Skidmore, MO very well.

[Darlene Hayes]

Did not read. Sounded sad

[Jodi Simon-Bollhofer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was ok.

[Crystal McCutcheon · Rating 1 out of 5]

All over the place

Many stories of other crimes - gruesome and unrelated were in this book. I ended up just skimming many sections and looking forward to it ending

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

How can a woman kill pregnant ladies in order to abduct their babies??? Horiffic accounts.