All language subtitles for no.one.saw.a.thing.s01e05.1080p.web.h264-flx.EN

[gun cocks]

[Diane Fanning] Here's a crime that
hasn't been solved for decades.

It's there, it's constant,

it's part of
your fabric of life.

Does that compel
more violent acts to occur?

[Mark Reinig]
Since Ken's death,

we've had a lot of tragedies
in the town

that is unusual
for a rural American town.

[Fanning]
Skidmore is so haunted

that it permeates their culture

and makes violence more likely.

[male reporter] Since 2001,
folks here in Skidmore

have lived with a big question
on their minds:

What happened
to one of their own?

[James Klino] Branson went to the
shed to return some jumper cables,

and, at that point,
was not seen from thereafter.

[Marty Small] Branson, you know,
he had a lot of potential in life.

Growin' up, I used
to go over to his house.

[Reinig] It's just one of those
things we sit there and go,

"Why is this happening?"

[Ben Espey] Branson was
no innocent young kid

that somebody just walked up
and shot they didn't even know.

Branson was totally involved

with fixin' and makin'
methamphetamine.

We know exactly what's happened.

We know who was involved.

And I can tell you right now,
they were from Skidmore.

[Steve Booher]
Nobody saw anything,

nobody overheard anything,

but make no mistake about this,

just like in the murder
of Ken Rex McElroy,

somebody knows.

[♪♪♪]

[Kirby Goslee] Being a farmer is so
many, many things.

It's changing
so very, very fast.

But the root part
of being a farmer, for me,

it's a great sense
of satisfaction

that you've weathered
the elements,

you've got rid of the weeds,

you get to work outside,

you're close to nature and God.

That's just basic life
on this earth.

I enjoyed it growing up
and I enjoyed it as a man.

[Espey] I graduated
out of high school in 1971,

and I always thought then
I'd kind like to be

in law enforcement and maybe
be a highway patrolman.

They drove nice cars,

dressed nice

and they was well respected.

I loved doin' my job.

But if somebody called--
and I didn't care

what time
of day or night it was--

if they wanted me to come
and protect them from somebody,

that's what I was there for.

[David Baird]
When I became prosecutor,

I didn't want to be prosecutor.

I was the newest and youngest
attorney in town,

and they contacted me and said,

"Would you serve
as prosecutor?"

So I went and got
sage advice from my father,

who had lived here a long time,
and said, "What do you think?"

And his quote was,

"Go ahead and take it.

"It'll be good experience
for a couple years.

"And besides, nothing
ever exciting ever happens

in Nodaway County anyway."

[Goslee] I let my daughter
have our home place

to raise her two boys.

You know, that's my gift to her.

And my grandsons.

That's the thing to do,
you pass it on.

[Small] As a kid,

I knew I was gonna be a soldier.

I knew that it more important

to take care of the people
around me,

because that's the way
I was raised.

Shakespeare said,
"All the world's a stage.

All I am is a player."

You have
to understand your role.

And we all pick our own roles.

Well, in some cases, you get
thrown into your role,

and you get stuck.

Branson was a good kid.

He was one of those people that,

if he'd have made
different decisions in life,

he could've done
a lot of great things.

[Fanning] Branson was
kind of a shy boy.

Blue eyes, blonde hair,

and he had that baby face
that made him look

a lot younger than his years.

His parents got divorced

when he was a small kid.

[Klino] He liked snakes,
reptiles and things.

And he liked
his artifact collection.

[Small] I tried to spend time
with him as much as I could.

As we get older,
you start to drift apart.

And it's truly unfortunate,
'cause I do think

he's a great kid.

It's about life choices.

But ultimately,
he made the choice

and go do what he was gonna do,

and it came back to haunt him.

I think the family
still has a hard time

coming to terms with that.

And it's horrible that
they had to go through

what they went through.

You live with the fear
that the worst has happened,

but you pray for the best.

[Small] The big part of
gettin' through

hard things in life is hope.

We've heard about hope.

Some people's hope is religion

and faith.

Some people's hope is love.

If there's no hope, at the end,

then what's there to live for?

It was a little more
than eight years ago

when Branson Perry vanished
from his hometown

in western Nodaway County,
and this weekend, authorities

honed in on a farm
in that area, hoping to uncover

clues as to what happened
to Branson.

There's one true story

to Branson Perry's case.

[male reporter]
In 2001,

Perry, who was 20,

vanished from outside his home.

Signs from across the area
are giving the message out

about this missing man,
but still, there have been

no signs of Branson himself.

[Espey] Branson Perry's case
led us into the drug scene.

[Booher] During a time
of his disappearance,

there was an active drug culture

in rural northwest Missouri.

[Britt Small] At that time,
when you hear of a house blowing up,

very frequently,
it was a meth lab explosion.

They do happen.

[Leona Hayes] Ben Espey,

he was a pretty good sheriff
to have been trusted.

Pretty good.

Back then, Skidmore
was full of drugs,

and he was thinnin' 'em out
in this town pretty good.

[Espey] We developed
drug enforcement agencies,

that that's all they did.

Their whole job was to go out
and find these young kids,

follow them, film them,
and we would bust their labs

where they was makin' it.

Several people were taken,
put on a polygraph,

and asked questions about,
"Were you there?"

"What do you know?"

Then we started
puttin' things together.

Branson was totally involved

with fixin' and makin'
methamphetamine.

Part of Branson's job

was to supply the ingredients

to make the drugs.

Branson somehow had gotten in
some kind of trouble

with an officer,

and, I think,
what happened is that

the kingpin of several
different people that would meet

thought that Branson would talk.

[♪♪♪]

I can tell you right now,
there was nine people

involved in that case.

And we knew, all of us knew,

who the nine players were
that were involved in it,

who the person was
that pulled the trigger.

[male reporter] Investigators
say a tip came into them

about two weeks ago that
Branson could be buried here

in Quintmet.

[male officer] The information
that we received in this case

we felt was very credible

and that we certainly needed
to act on it.

[Espey] Two of the people
involved showed us on a map

where they thought
that they'd buried Branson.

Both people
were interrogated separately,

both people showed us
the same place on the map.

[male reporter]
They combed these empty fields

and the area near
these old grain beds.

A canine unit
from North Carolina

even joined this search.

We turned the dogs loose
and we cover

about a two-mile area.

[Klino] These dogs kept hittin'
this one spot pretty hard.

So they took the dogs
a mile away,

and walked 'em back
towards there,

and they hit the spot again.

[Espey] Nine of the ten dogs

hit on exactly the same place.

[male reporter]
Clues to what happened to him

my still lie beneath this dirt.

We found some items that
we feel has substantiated

the information
that was given to us.

So we feel
that we're on the right track.

[Espey] When they was diggin'
right where the dogs hit,

the earth underneath the ground

was different.

So what that told me is,

the body probably
had been buried there,

but it had been removed.

We have a case,
we don't have a body.

I suspect that's when
the heat got on

and law enforcement
got a little too close,

I think they dug the body up
and put it somewhere else.

Ultimately, at the end,

our investigation
led us to that house

where Branson Perry was shot.

[Klino] Unfortunately,
the house burned

before the investigation got

to see if there was
any evidence in the home.

No evidence was found.

The disappearance of Branson
is like the bully case--

there's a lot more out there
that is known

that people
are not talking about.

They're a small town,
they're all close knit.

They don't want
to open their mouths.

They're afraid of retaliation.

[Becky Klino] People say that
they're afraid

to mention something

because they're afraid
for their own safety.

And I don't understand,
because how could they be

so afraid
of something that is causing

somebody else so much pain?

[Hayes] A lot of people
in town wouldn't talk

because, in this town,

you'll get killed
for tellin' the truth.

[female reporter] It's a case
that's never been closed.

Nearly 10 years ago,
Branson Perry disappeared

from his Skidmore home.

Law enforcement says leads
are more valuable

than ever in the case
and tips continue to come in.

[Randy Strong] We are still
working the disappearance

of Branson Perry.

That case, I have open.

We are actively pursuing
that case.

There is an underbelly of people

that live there that they're
involved in the drug culture.

We believed him to be
a homicide victim at this time,

but his body
has yet to be recovered.

[Hayes]
They'll never find the boy.

To me, I think that's
the closure of that one,

because the FBI has come in
and everything

and they couldn't find nothing.

[Marty Small]
Now, his body was never found.

I mean, there's been no
official report of his death.

What they speculate happened
is the body had been cut up,

and then dispersed
in a body of water.

The way law enforcement
finds things now

is you find big chunks,
you find a whole arm,

you find a whole body.

Little tiny pieces of things
that are chopped up

are really difficult to find.

So they didn't have any of
the normal physical evidence

of the murder.

[female reporter] So far,
all tips have led to dead ends,

but the case remains active,

as those involved hope

for what
they've been waiting for

since he first went missing

in April 2001.

Those close to the case
are pushing forward,

still determined
to find answers.

[Espey] The sheriff
and the chief of police

and the highway patrol,
we don't file charges, we can't.

It's up
to the prosecuting attorney

to file a charge on a case.

And that's the reason
that Branson Perry

is still pending.

Back then, prosecuting attorney
was David Baird.

Obviously, David decided
that he didn't have enough.

[Baird] My focus has never been,

"Gosh, I wish I had this,"

or "Boy, wouldn't it be great
to have that,"

because that's
not what reality is.

The role of prosecutor is

that we are not
to file charges until

we are convinced
beyond a reasonable doubt

that a particular individual
committed a particular crime.

[Baird]
Before we file charges,

we want to make sure
we have that evidence.

We do not simply take someone
to trial for the purpose

of taking someone to trial
to get the case over with.

[Espey] Everything is there.

Because when I left,
everything was there.

That's the deal: the prosecutor
is kind of like God.

He has enough to file.

But if he decides
he's not gonna file,

then it never goes
in front of a judge.

When you're the sheriff
of the county, you feel like

whatever crimes are committed,
you carry 'em with you.

And you never get rid of 'em.

[Tom Carneal] It's a terrible
thing for the family,

when you never know for sure--
it's like, "Is he coming home?"

[Reinig] The signs are fading
and starting to fall in.

It's just kind of the ruminants

and the memorial to a child

that disappeared.

[male reporter] This Skidmore cemetery
backs up to the Stinnett home.

Family members say
they can't bear the thought

of preparing
for yet another funeral.

I asked my mom, I said, "Why
are we burying our children

instead of our parents?"

Our plots are all full
of our children.

[Reinig]
Needless to say,

Bob and Becky had a hard time.

And Bob eventually
moved out of town.

When he passed away,

I think that he died
of a broken heart.

In your heart, where
do you think Branson is?

I have
to keep believin' he's alive.

I can't go the other side yet.

I can't go that way.
I can't give up hope.

She prayed to God
every day for answers.

Like any mother would want to do
for their own child.

She went through hell

trying to find answers.

[Espey] When I got to the point

that the charges
did not get filed,

but we knew who did it,

Branson Perry's mother
was dying of cancer.

But before Branson's mother

went to her grave,

I had a meeting and told her

exactly what I knew
and what we feel

99.9% sure
that happened to her son.

[Fanning]
When Branson's mother died,

her obituary said

that she was preceded in death

by her son Branson.

Obviously, she accepted

the fact that he was gone.

[Booher] The question that
haunts Skidmore to this day is,

"Why all this violence?"

And "Why isn't
anybody talking?"

[Fanning]
Wendy Gillenwater,

who was brutally murdered,

Branson Perry disappeared
and is presumed dead,

and the murder
of Ken Rex McElroy...

[Booher]
That's a bad legacy for a town.

And then you have probably
the most horrific case

in the town's history,

Bobbie Jo Stinnett.

And it is literally repugnant

to think of what happened
to that woman.

And the person that did this.

This is something
a normal person can't do.

[♪♪♪]

[Reinig] In 2004,

a very,
very horrible thing happened.

Part of a line
of amazingly horrible events

that have happened in this town,

particularly after

the killing of Ken Rex McElroy,

Wendy,

Branson.

We had a couple other incidents
where there was

supposed suicides--

a young boy was found hung...

another was swimming
underneath the bridge,

and he drowned.

And I came to the end
of my rope, as it were.

And so, I found Christ.

I had a prayer partner.

And he lived
two blocks away from me.

And we would go out
every morning that we could,

and we'd walk through the town
and we'd pray.

We'd pray over the streets,
we'd pray over the houses.

We'd pray for the people
who lived in the houses.

And one day, as I was praying,

I heard an audible voice,

and it was not the voice of God.

And the voice said,
"I am stealing the children

from under your noses."

And I looked up,

and from under my nose,

was Branson Perry's house,

and then across the street

was Bobbie Jo Stinnett's house.

[Fanning]
Bobbie Jo Stinnett

was brutally murdered

in her own home

right there in Skidmore.

[Marty Small]
I remember being in college

in 2004,

sitting in class,

I got a text message

that there had been
another murder in Skidmore.

Bobbie Jo, she was
a really nice girl.

There was not a mean bone
in her body.

She had been
in my little sister's class

in junior high,
and that was crazy.

I remember the name comes
across, I'm like,

"Holy crap, I know her."

You know,
I can't believe that happened,

yet it didn't surprise me.

[phone line ringing]

[Espey] I was
in the sheriff's department

when the 911 call came in.

[phone line ringing]

I could hear the conversation

from the person
on the other end of the line,

which was Bobbi Jo Stinnett's
mother.

She said, "I need
somebody here right now.

My daughter's stomach
has exploded."

[police siren blaring]

[Reinig] It was a sight
that probably a county sheriff

in rural northwest Missouri
was not used to seeing.

[Espey] When I got there,
I walked through the house,

and get to the room

where Bobbie Joe Stinnett is.

I could tell,
as I walked through the door,

that there was probably
no life there.

[camera shutter clicking]

Bobbie Jo was laying flat
on her back, face up.

Becky, the mother,

looked at me and says,
"I don't know--

"I've never done CPR. I don't
know that I'm doing it right.

Can you help?"
I continued CPR

until the ambulance
personnel walked in with a cot.

[Booher] From the bedroom
to the kitchen,

it was a horrific crime scene.

[Britt Small]
There was so much blood,

I mean, it just--
It made me sick.

And the reason I knew
what all happened there

was because my chiropractor
was the coroner at the time.

[Booher] I was actually
here in the news room.

We had gotten calls
from people around the area,

saying, "Hey, looks like

there's something big
goin' on in Skidmore."

And of course, we thought,
"What, again?"

[people chattering]

Okay, here's modulation
mic check for KXCV Radio.

KXCV Maryville,
KRNW Chillicothe.

Mic check modulation.

And, uh,
we don't have anything yet.

[Espey]
There's been several crimes

in Skidmore
over the past several years.

But the Bobbie Jo Stinnett case

was probably the biggest case
that I had in my career.

Okay, we're gonna be real brief.

Is everybody ready?

This conference
won't last very long.

There was a lot of manpower
put into this.

There was a lot of hard
investigative work.

Right now, there's investigators

doing questioning.

[male reporter 1]

There's two people being
questioned at this time.

And, uh, I think that's
where we'll leave it.

[male reporter 1]

They're still
in the process of doing

an investigation on that.

[male reporter 2]

We're in the process
of doing that right now.

[Espey] As they loaded
Bobbie Jo onto the stretcher

and took her out
to the ambulance,

I could see that
her stomach was cut

from side to side.

I then went back into the house

and asked Becky,
the mother, I said,

"Is Bobbie Jo pregnant?"

"Yes, she was within a month
of delivering a new child."

So we had a baby that was cut

out of her mother,

and the baby's gone.

[male reporter]
When police entered this house

in tiny Skidmore, Missouri,

they discovered the slain body
of pregnant mother-to-be,

Bobbie Jo Stinnett.

Her murder was made
all the more horrifying

by what police did not find:

a pregnant woman
attacked in her home,

the baby she was carrying,
cut from her womb and gone.

[Hayes] I remember it was on
Friday when they found Bobbie Jo,

and I cried a lot that night

and I prayed a lot that night.

Makes me shiver yet today.

The cruelest, meanest

that I had ever seen in my life.

And I was raised rough
in the country, and everything,

and never seen
anything like that.

It as just horrible.

Bobbie Jo was the niece
of my daughters.

And Bobbie Jo
and Zeb got married

and was doin' real good.

They were raising dogs together.

And I never knew of Bobbie Jo
and Zeb ever had any problems.

The mother, Becky, worked
at the filling station,

and Bobbie Jo would come down
and pick her mother up

and take her down home.

Well, that very day,

Becky knew that there
must have been something wrong,

because Bobbie Jo
hadn't got down there.

And so, that's when her mother
went up there,

and that's when the mother
had found out

they'd cut
Bobbie Jo's baby out of her.

[Brett Small] She was a
good friend of my daughters.

And she used to come out here,
ride her pony out here,

and sit right here at the table
and eat with the family.

[Goslee]
I knew Bobbie Jo real well.

I knew her folks.

Young cowgirl.

She wouldn't hurt a fly.

It's a real, real, real tragedy

of what happened to her.

[male officer] The sheriff, when
he started the investigation,

right away, he activated
the major case squad,

which brought in other
law enforcement agencies,

such as the highway patrol,
the FBI,

different sheriffs,
police departments

in northwest Missouri.

Essentially, half the town
was blocked off

because of the crime scene.

[Fanning]
They wanted every little

tiny piece of trace evidence

they could find
that would nail down

who came into this home.

[Booher]
The first thing they did

was take blood samples
of everything.

[camera shutter clicking]

There was a trail of blood

where her murderer
had dragged her body

down a hallway;

a bloody knife laying
on the counter

that was used to cut the baby
out of Bobbie Jo's womb.

[Fanning] Forensic scientists
took up a piece of floor

where she breathed
her last breath

to see what evidence
they could find.

[Booher] They don't want
to disturb the body.

They want the body
to remain as it was

when she died.

So they just cut
the whole floor up--

they pry it up, they lift it up

and they take it
out of the house.

[Strong] At the time, I was
a detective here in Maryville.

And shortly after Sheriff Espey
and his deputies arrived there,

I got a phone call.

The body was being taken
to St. Francis Hospital.

I was told to go down there

and document the body--
photograph the body

and look for evidence.

There were ligature marks
around her neck,

where I could see a pattern--

she was strangled at least
twice, if not, three times.

I could see
the distinct bruising

and the marks of the rope
around her neck.

She was barefoot.

I noticed that
on the top of her feet

there was no blood.

Her feet had been flat in blood

and that blood had come up
between her toes,

which told me that
once she had been cut,

and cut severely, that she was
not dead yet for a little bit,

that she was able
to get up and stand.

I believe that her attacker

started cutting on her,
blood spilled out

and that Bobbie Jo continued
to fight for her life,

or her baby's life.

People live in an area
like Skidmore, Missouri

because, basically,
they want a quiet life.

Then when
Bobbie Jo Stinnett died,

all their old misbehaviors
were brought out.

Everybody was focused on
what was wrong with Skidmore.

[male reporter 1] Bobbie Jo
Stinnett was found strangled,

lying in a pool of blood
inside this Skidmore home.

[male reporter 2] Keep in mind,
Skidmore was already no stranger

to the media, and this case
put them on the map again.

All these reporters

and all these journalists
were comin' into town,

and they were dredging
all this stuff up again.

This was something
so unusual that it captured

the attention of media outlets
all over the world.

A baby born of violence,

ripped from the womb
and her mother...

Fetal abduction
in the nation's heartland.

[female reporter] The vicious crime
has shaken this tight knit small town.

I just can't understand
why anybody

would do a trick like that.

[Jeff Lanza] File, and you might have
a lot more information at that point.

- [woman] Sheriff-- -[man] What time
you talkin', like later on tonight?

Yes, later on tonight,
I would anticipate.

I don't have
a specific time, okay?

[female reporter]

Nobody here,
nobody here could ever perceive

this ever taking place,

to have a fetus taken out
of someone's womb.

It's unconceivable.

And I'm a grandparent,

and I had a grandson born

six days prior to this incident.

And then for me to think that
now I'm workin' a case here

where someone's taken a baby
out of a mother...

The grandparents, the family,

nobody was gonna be able
to see this baby.

I know you guys,
you really want a lot of stuff.

We're in the middle
of this investigation.

We're not in the back of it.

What I can't do
and we can't afford to do

is let anything slip from here
that can jeopardize

the murder case.
And you're gonna want--

If it's your grandkid,
you're gonna want this person

behind bars as well as we are.

[male reporter]

We're really not gonna
comment on that right now.

If you stick around
for a little while,

we may have some more
information about the case

in general. Thank you very much.

- [reporters clamoring]
- [Lanza] Get it right here.

[Booher] Law enforcement
was under enormous pressure

to solve this case,

and do it damn quick.

[female reporter] Officials
ask if you know anything,

to come forward.

[Espey] Don't assume
that we already know,

'cause we may not.

And that may be the one piece

of the puzzle
that we might need.

[Hayes] It was
December the 16th,

around 3:30...

my son and I
rolled up in the yard,

and here come this red car,

just abarrelin'.

I seen a woman in the back seat
doing something.

And the little one
that was doing the driving,

her hands were small.

So we run around
the truck to see,

and the vehicle went south.

And I thought, "Should I call
the sheriff to see?

Maybe it would
give him a lead."

I did go ahead and call.

I called the sheriff
to tell the FBI

what I seen.

[male reporter] Early on,
investigators got a lead--

an anonymous phone call
about a red car.

[Booher] The day that
Bobbie Jo Stinnett was killed

was different from Ken Rex
and Branson Perry's case.

I don't know if it was because

there was an infant involved,

but Nodaway County
asked for help that day.

Townspeople responded that day.

Tonight, the authorities
are still looking for

the red car-- they believe
the red car was used

to take the baby away.

[male reporter]
The FBI, highway patrol,

the sheriff, had nothing but red

as the color of
the getaway car. That was it.

Remember, they didn't know
if they would find a baby,

if the baby would be alive
or healthy,

or how to even tell
if it's the right baby.

Because this baby
had not gone full term,

but he's probably alive
out there somewhere.

[Fanning] And so the time factor
is even more critical.

[Espey] The mother
was eight months pregnant,

so we're lookin' at
a one-month premature baby.

From what it looks like
to us is, there was,

the evidence would show
that the baby

was probably wrapped up
and taken out of the home.

[Reinig] The sheriff immediately
called for an amber alert,

for the child that was missing.

And apparently,
the state refused.

We didn't have enough criteria
to meet it,

which would be
like hair color, eye color,

skin complexion, size, weight.

[Espey]
The amber alert is a system

here in the United States.

Law enforcement started this up,

and it's meant to help
find a child

that's in distress

or somebody's kidnapped.

[beeping]

There's a description
of the child,

description of the vehicle
you're looking for.

It goes out on all
the law enforcement networks,

on all the television,
all the radio,

right now
on all the cell phones.

[Fanning]
But there was a problem.

He could not describe the baby.

The baby hadn't been born.

[male reporter]
Sheriff Ben Espey had

a brutal crime to solve,
and fast.

But how could he request
an amber alert for a child

that had technically
never been born?

[Fanning] No one
could describe the baby,

but the person
who just abducted the baby.

Over here is where
Bobbie Jo lived.

And they've been in the process
of tearin' this down

ever since the murder, but...

uh, it's a real slow process.

Sad, sad deal.

My stepdaughter lived here

with her two boys
for a couple years...

prior to what happened
to Bobbie Jo.

I used to come up here
all the time.

[knocks on wood frame]

Living room and a spare bedroom.

Bathroom right there.

Little kitchen area.

I don't know
the gruesome details.

I wouldn't talk about 'em
if I did.

But you take a young woman

gettin' ready to have a baby,

and somebody murdered her?

I mean, it can't get
any worse than that.

Can't get any worse than that.

Probably the saddest thing

that's ever happened
in this town.

[Fanning] We have long heard
the phrase that

"The sins of the father
are visited upon their sons."

One generation stood
in the street

and shot down Ken McElroy

and ended his life.

With a small town like Skidmore,

these violent crimes
leave a mark

on the whole town.

It's almost biblical,

that one act of violence

seemed to have bred

three acts of violence
in the next generation.

[male reporter 1] Bobby Jo Stinnett
would never see her child born.

The 23-year-old pregnant woman

was strangled
in their small town home--

her womb cut
and her unborn baby kidnapped.

The medics told us
at the hospital that

this baby is
probably still alive

and is gonna need
medical attention.

[male reporter 2] The sheriff's
first amber alert request was denied,

because this child
had not been born yet.

[Espey] Well, they wouldn't
give me the amber alert.

The said you gotta have
the baby's height, weight,

eye color, hair color.

Well, we didn't have
any of that.

The only thing I really had was

the fact that we had a baby
that was a month premature

that had been taken.

And to me,
that should be enough.

[male reporter 3]
Espey would not be deterred.

He made some calls,
pushed his case,

He even lobbied his congressman

to make sure the word got out.

[Espey] So here's what we got.

We've got a baby
that was cut out,

we've got a murder--
the mother's dead--

and I need the amber alert.

Within two hours,
the highway patrol

called me and said, "All right,
Sheriff, you got what you wanted."

Well, I didn't like
that attitude.

But I got it.
I got what I wanted.

[male reporter 4]
After a day long nightmare,

police sounded an amber alert,

triggering a dragnet in Missouri

and nearby states.

[Espey over radio]
Keep an eye out for

an infant with possible
health issues,

a newly cut umbilical cord

and bloody clothing.

[Fanning] It was all over
national television.

Where is this baby?

We're back here live.
Now, they are just going to go

with a press conference--
they're going to give an update.

Here is the latest
from the investigators...

- ...in this case.
- [Espey]...involved in the case.

[Espey] When this
amber alert come out,

we took an anonymous tip
that come

from several states away
from here...

[Fanning] Meanwhile,
they're taking

lots of calls from people

who are noticing odd things.

But the real trigger
to find out what was going on

was in Bobbie Jo's computer.

[male reporter] A fellow dog
breeder from North Carolina

led FBI agents
to Stinnett's website.

Investigators
searched her computer,

discovering a vital clue.

[man] Bobbie Jo ran a website

where she sold rat terrier dogs.

[mouse clicks]

They took that computer in,

they started analyzing it,

and they found this chat group

of rat terrier breeders...

[mouse clicks]

[Booher] At the time,

we didn't think
it was important.

[Strong] Anybody
getting on the website

could look at that
and see that she was pregnant.

[mouse clicks]

She documented
her pregnancy on that.

She showed
different stages of that,

and she talked about
how excited she was--

this was gonna be
her and Zeb's first child.

[mouse clicks]

Her address is on the website,

so anybody could get on there
and find out where she lived.

The day before the murder,

a woman gets online,

and introduces herself

as Darlene Fischer.

She says she wants to buy a dog

from Bobbie Jo Stinnett

in Skidmore, Missouri.

Bobbie Jo was

making arrangements

to meet with someone,

and it was supposed to happen

that day.

So they wanted to find

this person--
find out if that person

had come to the house

to look at the puppies.

She was Darlene Fischer

from Fairfax, Missouri.

They flooded Fairfax

with tons of cops,
trying to find Darlene Fischer.

[police siren blaring
in distance]

[thunder crashes]

But it was all a ruse.

The FBI then, very quickly,
was able to track

this Darlene Fischer's
domain name

back to Melvern, Kansas.

[♪♪♪]

[Espey] So that's when I sent

Randy Strong and Don Fritz

to Melvern, Kansas

to try to figure out

who Darlene Fischer was.

[thunder crashes]

And at the same time,

a woman from Melvern

was calling in and saying,

"There was this woman walking
around with a newborn baby."

Lisa Montgomery.

[♪♪♪]

Lisa Montgomery is incapable

of having a newborn baby.

She had a tubal ligation
years ago.

[female reporter]
That woman, Darlene Fischer,

turns out to be Lisa Montgomery.

[Fanning]
Everything was closing in.

That baby had to be located

as fast as they could.

There are all sorts of things
that could go wrong.

This child is in danger.

[♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪]