Victim's computer led police to baby

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - In the end, it wasn't a fingerprint or a blood spatter that led authorities to the woman suspected of strangling a mother-to-be and cutting the baby from her womb.

It was an 11-digit computer code.

Police zeroed in on Lisa Montgomery by trolling computer records, examining online message boards and tracing an IP address, 65.150.168.223, to a computer at her Melvern, Kan., home.

"That in and of itself led us to the home," Jeff Lanza, an FBI spokesman, said of the Internet protocol address, the unique number given to every Internet-connected computer.

Investigators say that just before the slaying, Montgomery had corresponded over the Internet with the victim, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, about buying a dog from Stinnett.

Montgomery, 36, made a first appearance Monday before a packed courtroom in Kansas City, Kan., where her attorney refused to waive her right to preliminary and identity hearings. Both are scheduled for Thursday.

Montgomery is charged with kidnapping resulting in death. Her attorney, Charles Dedmon, would not comment after the hearing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Terra Morehead also declined to comment, but authorities have said Montgomery confessed to the crime. The 4-day-old girl left a hospital in Topeka, Kan., Monday with her father.

Within hours of Stinnett's killing Thursday at her Skidmore, Mo., home, investigators realized the potential leads her computer could hold.

Stinnett, 23, raised rat terrier dogs at home and had been expecting a potential customer the afternoon she was killed. In fact, she ended a call with her mother because the customer was at the door, investigators said.

Besides looking for the killer, investigators were racing against time to find the baby, who was one month premature when she was cut from her mother's body and, it was feared, may have suffered oxygen loss or other trauma when her mother was strangled.

At the lab, clues seemed to pour out of the computer within minutes - who Stinnett had been e-mailing, what sites she had been visiting. Important tips from the public came in, too. Among them: a North Carolina dog breeder pointed to a rat terrier message board.

At 4:22 p.m. on Wednesday, the day before Stinnett's slaying, someone identifying herself as Darlene Fischer posted a message to the victim on a rat terrier message board. "Please get in touch with me soon as we are considering the purchase of one of your puppies," it said.

About an hour later, Stinnett communicated with Fischer for about 20 minutes, investigators said. Then, at 7:44 p.m., Stinnett posted a message to Fischer: "I've e-mailed you with the directions so we can meet. I do so hope that the e-mail reaches you. Great chatting with you on messenger. And do look forward to chatting with you tomorrow a.m."

Investigators traced Fischer's IP address back to a dialup connection from Montgomery's home in Melvern, about 120 miles southwest of Skidmore. On Friday, less than 24 hours after the slaying, investigators found the baby at the home and arrested Montgomery.

As for how the killer knew Stinnett was about to become a mother, Stinnett had a Web site about her dogs that investigators said may have included a picture of Stinnett pregnant. The FBI would not comment on whether the pair had ever met before last week, or how the killer knew Stinnett was still pregnant.

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