True Crime Brewery · Tiegrabber Podcasts

A Life for a Life

·1 hr 40 min·5 clips

Becky Harper finds blood, her daughter on the floor, and says, "my daughter's intestines exploded."

True Crime Brewery opens with a warning about disturbing real-life crimes and then goes straight to the emergency call. Becky Harper has just checked on Bobbi Jo Stinnett when everything falls apart. Bobbi Jo is found on the floor of her home. She is dead. Her unborn baby is gone. Paramedics and investigators arrive at a scene that points away from a random break-in. There are no signs of forced entry, which suggests the killer may have been someone Bobbi Jo knew. An Amber Alert goes out as detectives canvas the neighborhood. One witness remembers an unfamiliar car parked outside. The investigation keeps narrowing toward a deliberate plan instead of a sudden attack. The episode makes clear that the murder was premeditated and that the motive was the abduction of Bobbi Jo's baby. From there, the story follows how investigators worked the case and how that search led them into another one. The episode does not stay with the killing alone. It also steps back to look at similar cases and the broader phenomenon of fetal abductions. Lisa Montgomery enters the story through an online connection to Bobbi Jo's dog breeding world. Both women were involved with rat terriers. They knew each other through message boards and the dog community. Bobbi Jo ran Happy Haven Farms from her home in Skidmore. She had a website with pictures of herself and her dogs. When Bobbi Jo announced her pregnancy, Lisa was among the people who learned the news. Around that same time Lisa began telling others that she was pregnant too. She wore maternity clothes and acted as if she were expecting. Her husband believed her. Some people around her did too. Others did not. Using the alias Darlene Fisher, Lisa contacted Bobbi Jo on December 15 and said she wanted to buy a puppy. They arranged to meet the next day. Bobbi Jo told her family that a woman from Fairfax was coming by to see the puppies. On December 16, Lisa drove to Skidmore and arrived around 12:30 p.m. The two women spent time together at the house. They took the puppies outside and played with them. Lisa had brought a sharp kitchen knife and a white cord in her coat pocket. Bobbi Jo got a phone call from her mother and said she would be picked up later in the afternoon. After that, Lisa attacked her. She strangled Bobbi Jo until she was unconscious and cut into her abdomen. Bobbi Jo regained consciousness and fought back. Lisa strangled her again. The episode then follows the aftermath of the attack and the wider criminal pattern around it. The hosts keep the timeline clear and the tone sober. The conversation stays grounded in the practical details of what investigators saw, what they inferred, and why the case mattered far beyond one house in Skidmore.

As heard by us

A grim, orderly true-crime account that keeps its focus and lands hard.

The episode moves carefully from the 911 call into the investigation, then opens out to other fetal abduction cases for context without losing the thread.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For a grim true-crime story built around a premeditated murder, a missing unborn baby, and a trail of dread.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from True Crime Brewery