MURDER in the HEARTLAND

AN UNIMAGINABLE CRIME.
AN UNLIKELY PLACE.
AN UNRELENTING KILLER.

On December 16, 2004, a Nodaway County, Missouri, 911 operator received a frantic call from the mother of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett. The eight-months-pregnant mom-to-be, Bobbie Jo, had been found lying on her family room floor bleeding profusely and barely breathing. Most disturbing of all, her baby was gone.

Only 187 miles away in Melvern, Kansas, Bobbie Jo's killer, Lisa Montgomery, dressed the baby she'd brutally kidnapped in a Winnie-the-Pooh outfit and called her husband to say that she'd given birth to a baby girl she called Abigail. While televisions blared the nation's first Amber Alert for an unborn child, Lisa proudly showed off "her" new baby at church and a local diner, duping many while arousing the suspicions of others. And that was only the beginning of one of the most unthinkable events in American history, one that shocked the nation and left two Midwestern communities reeling in the crime's aftermath.

Now, investigative journalist and acclaimed author M. William Phelps delivers a definitive literary investigation of this compelling story, one that is as suspenseful as it is heartbreaking. Working with the exclusive cooperation of Lisa Montgomery's ex-husband, Carl Boman, Lisa's children and mother, law enforcement officials, friends, relatives, and neighbors, Phelps reveals what really happened that fateful day in December and traces the tortured history of sexual abuse, abandonment, and desperation that planted the seeds of a potential sociopath destined for "moral insanity." Here is the true story of the frantic search for a baby born under the most horrific conditions imaginable, of the lucky break that led to the killer, of Lisa's family's fears about her mental health, and of the shock waves that still linger in two small American towns that will never be the same again.

Like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Murder in the Heartland takes an unflinching look at an American tragedy, exploring its terrible trajectory with unparalleled courage, insight, and compassion.

SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE

 "An exceptional book ... exposing long-hidden secrets, disquieting truths, probing the disturbed mind of a mother guilty of the ultimate betrayal." - Kathryn Casey, author of She Wanted It All and A Warrant to Kill

"M. William Phelps is the best true-crime writer to come along in years . . . and the future of the genre." - New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen

EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE

"You've got to read [Every Move You Make] ... truth is stranger than fiction. Amazing story by M. William Phelps!" - Catherine Crier, author of NY Times bestseller A Deadly Game

LETHAL GUARDIAN

"An intense roller-coaster of a crime story," says New York Times bestselling author Steve Jackson. "Phelps's book Lethal Guardian is at once complex, with a plethora of twists and turns worthy of any great detective mystery, and yet so well-laid out, so crisply written with such detail to character and place that it reads more like a novel than your standard non-fiction crime book."

PREFECT POISON

"A first-rate investigative examination." - Dr. Michael Baden, forensic pathologist, host of HBO's Autopsy series, and author of Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers and Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner

"A stunner from beginning to end, Phelps renders the story expertly, with flawless research and an explosive narrative." - Gregg Olsen, author of several best-selling true crime books, including Bitter Almonds, Abandoned Prayers, Mockingbird, and If Loving You Is Wrong: The Shocking True Story of Mark Kay Letourneau

"In perfect harmony with the best true crime writers, Phelps unmasks the psychopath with facts, insight and journalistic leg work." - Lowell Cauffiel, author of Masquerade, Eye of the Beholder, Forever and Five Days and House of Secrets

"Captivating, exciting, a jolt-a-minute. With his encyclopedic knowledge of police procedures, Phelps earns a deserved place among the best." - Harvey Rachlin, author of 13 books, including The Making of a Detective and The Making of a Cop

mwilliamphelps.com

All Rights Reserved.

Web Design By: Online In Olalla