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Murder In The Heartland
Murder In The Heartland
Murder In The Heartland
Ebook465 pages7 hours

Murder In The Heartland

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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The New York Times bestselling author examines the shocking case of a Kansas woman who murdered to become a mother.

On December 16th, 2004, a 911 operator in rural Missouri received a frantic call from the mother of twenty-three-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett. The eight-months-pregnant mother-to-be had been found bleeding on her family room floor—her unborn baby gone.

More than 150 miles away, in Melvern, Kansas, Lisa Montgomery proudly showed off “her” new baby, duping many while arousing the suspicions of others. Across the nation, televisions broadcast the first Amber Alert for an unborn child.

Here is the true story of the frantic search for a baby born under shocking conditions, of the lucky break that led to the killer, of a tortured history of sexual abuse, and the pain that lingers in two American towns. With the exclusive cooperation of key witnesses and participants, award-winning investigative reporter M. William Phelps reveals what really happened that fateful December day.

“The most disturbing and moving look at murder in rural America since In Cold Blood.” —Gregg Olsen

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 19, 2010
ISBN9780786026371
Author

M. William Phelps

Crime writer and investigative journalist M. William Phelps is the author of twenty-four nonfiction books and the novel The Dead Soul. He consulted on the first season of the Showtime series Dexter, has been profiled in Writer’s Digest, Connecticut Magazine, NY Daily News, NY Post, Newsday, Suspense Magazine, and the Hartford Courant, and has written for Connecticut Magazine. Winner of the New England Book Festival Award for I’ll Be Watching You and the Editor’s Choice Award from True Crime Book Reviews for Death Trap, Phelps has appeared on nearly 100 television shows, including CBS’s Early Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s Today Show, The View, TLC, BIO Channel, and History Channel. Phelps created, produces and stars in the hit Investigation Discovery series Dark Minds, now in its third season; and is one of the stars of ID’s Deadly Women. Radio America called him “the nation’s leading authority on the mind of the female murderer.” Touched by tragedy himself, due to the unsolved murder of his pregnant sister-in-law, Phelps is able to enter the hearts and minds of his subjects like no one else. He lives in a small Connecticut farming community and can be reached at his website, www.mwilliamphelps.com.

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Rating: 3.9285714285714284 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    There's a bookshelf at work full of random crap people have donated for us to keep ourselves occupied during our vast downtime (I work in a call center), and I have a weakness for true crime, and...yeah. Not the most heinous example of the genre I've ever read, but definitely not the greatest; while the story -- a woman who'd been deluding herself and everyone she knew into believing she was pregnant attacked and killed another woman, this one actually pregnant, cutting the baby out of her and taking it as her own -- begs for some psychological and perhaps even cultural analysis, all you get is the usual "Aren't women crazy?" narrative.

    2 people found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Okay. I finished this book last night. As someone who did not know anything of this case I really wish true crimes would change the way they build up a story.
    Nothing wrong with the writing. As always Matt Phelps is doing a phenomenal job. No my problem is with the way the story is build.
    Lately when you read a true crime book, after you read the first few pages you will already know, who was murdered, how, and by who. Why not build this story from the beginning. build a little suspence?
    I wanted to know more about Lisa, but only at the end of the book her youth and her marriage comes in to play. But when that happens, you read a little bit about her past, but then he does not continue but after each chapter we were brought back to the now. Very annoying.
    Still ended up with a lot of questions but I do think M Phelps did a great job what he was dealt with.Great author. Now I am off to search internet to find out what happened with Lisa.
    3.5 out of 5 . 7.5 out of 10

    1 person found this helpful

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Murder In The Heartland - M. William Phelps

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