[WARNING: Some content on this list may disturb some readers] The phenomenon known as fetal abduction seems to defy all logic and challenges us to confront an unthinkable crime. In a publication titled “Newborn Kidnapping by Caesarean Section,” published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in 2002 by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there were 8 documented cases of fetal abduction in the USA. I have found two more since that study was published, bringing the total to ten. Most of the offenders have traits in common, such as faking a pregnancy up until the point where they would eventually be expected to give birth. Planning ahead for the inevitable end of their “pregnancy,” they seek out a woman or women who are near term and either befriend them or simply stalk them with the intent of stealing their baby straight from their womb. At least ten women have not only plotted and planned such a heinous act, but followed through and done it. In most cases, the baby survives and the mom is murdered. [JFrater: Due to the terrible nature of the crimes listed here, there are no images to match each item.]
In the first recorded instance of fetal abduction in the United States, Darci Pierce, 19, kidnapped eight-month pregnant Cindy Ray as she left a prenatal clinic at Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Peirce eventually strangled Ray, killing her, and used a car key to remove her unborn child. The child survived the attack. Millie, the daughter of murdered Cindy Ray, who is well aware of the circumstances surrounding her entrance into the world, when asked what she thinks of Darci Peirce said, “I don’t think of Darci Pierce.”
In this case, three perpetrators identified as Jacqueline Williams, her boyfriend Fedell Caffey and her cousin Lavern Ward went to the apartment of Deborah Evans and shot her in the head. They then used a knife and scissors to remove her fetus. The three also killed two of Evans’ other children. Evans was the ex-girlfriend of one of her killers and actually had a child with him. The baby was eventually recovered alive.
Felicia Scott, 29, sliced open Carenthia Curry, 17, and stole her child before shooting the mother in the head and stuffing her body in a plastic garbage bag. In this case, the perpetrator and the victim were friends. They had plans to go out to dinner, when Scott abducted Curry. When Curry did not return home by the next day, the family reported her as missing. The abductor returned home in the early morning hours the next day and told her husband that she had had her baby and needed to see her doctor. Three months later, the victim mother’s body was located at the bottom of a 50-foot ravine, stuffed into a plastic garbage can sealed with duct tape. The victim’s abdomen had been sliced open and she had been shot repeatedly in the head. The baby girl survived.
Josephina Saldana contacted Margarita Flores and offered her family gifts of free baby furniture and a one-year supply of diapers. The woman went to the victim’s on the day of the abduction and told her that they needed to go to a warehouse to collect the gifts. The victim was eight months pregnant. When Flores did not return, the family called the police. The next day, Saldana showed up at a hospital with a dead fetus. She claimed she had given birth to the child in her car. She was subsequently arrested and found guilty. While in prison she hung herself.
Michelle Bica, 39, was faking a pregnancy when she casually met Teresa Andrews, 23, while the two were shopping. They exchanged home addresses, and Bica began stalking Andrews, who was pregnant. Bica eventually shot and killed Andrews and removed her fetus and buried her body in a shallow grave in her garage. There is haunting video of the first few days of the baby’s life as Michelle Bica shows off her “new baby” to family and friends. Bica shot herself as FBI agents showed up at her house to question her.
Effie Goodson, 37, shot Carolyn Simpson, 21, in the head, and then used a knife to cut out the woman’s 6-month-old fetus. Goodson was arrested after taking the dead fetus to a hospital, claiming to be the mother. In this case, the perpetrator, Effie Goodsen, was a patron of the casino where the victim mother was employed. Video cameras at the casino captured the image of the victim and the suspect departing the building. The abductor offered to give the victim a ride home and also provide her with some baby clothes. The victim’s husband reported her missing. The next day, Goodsen arrived at the hospital with a very small, unresponsive infant. Staff determined that the three month premature infant was deceased. An exam of the alleged mother proved that she had not recently delivered a baby and law enforcement was notified. Hunters found the victim’s body a few days later in a ditch about two miles from where the abductor used to live. The victim had been shot in the head and her abdomen had been cut open. Goodsen was found incompetent to stand trial.
Lisa Montgomery, 37, drove from her Kansas home to the house of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, where she strangled the 23-year-old woman before using a knife to cut out her unborn daughter. In this case, the perpetrator and victim mother were casual acquaintances. The victim mother was 8 months pregnant at the time of the incident. She and her husband bred rat terrier dogs and had a website. Montgomery had contacted the victim using a fake name and requested directions to the residence under the guise of buying a dog. The victim’s mother arrived at her daughter’s home about 1 hour later and found the victim lying in a pool of blood, the fetus cut from her womb. Premature but healthy, baby Victoria Jo Stinnett, was recovered in Melvern Kansas the day after her birth.
Tiffany Hall killed a pregnant woman, Jimella Tunstall, cut the fetus from her womb, drowned the pregnant woman’s three young children, ages 7, 2 and 1, and left them in the washing machine and dryer of the family’s apartment. The two women grew up together and attended the same schools. Hall frequently baby-sat Tunstall’s children. Hall knocked Tunstall unconscious and then cut the unborn baby from her womb with a pair of scissors. She left Tunstall’s body in a vacant lot. The baby did not survive the attack.
Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong, 23, stabbed and killed Araceli Camacho Gomez, 27, in the chest multiple times and then cut out her fetus. Court documents said Gomez had her hands and feet bound with yarn. Gloves soaked in blood, a boxcutter, bloody paper towels, yarn, baby bottles and baby socks were among some of the items found in Sisouvanh Synhavong’s purse. The child survived and the killer tried to pass the baby off as her own when she called police for help. She was arrested when it became apparent she did not give birth to a child.
18-year-old Kia Johnson’s body was discovered in the apartment of Andrea Curry-Demus, 38. Johnson’s womb had been ripped out and Curry-Demus had taken the baby as her own. Curry-Demus had just been released from jail after serving 8 years for stabbing a woman in a plot to take her baby and then kidnapping a baby from a hospital. Johnson didn’t know about her past, but found herself victim to the woman’s plot to steal a baby. The baby survived.
Contributor: rushfan
Where to start? I’ve read most of the comments (sorry some were too long for my attention span!!) About case no. 1 – the woman she was in jail for stabbing didn’t die (fortunately) which is why she was only in jail for 8 years. It’s fairly clear that all these women are mentally unbalanced, because there is no way that a sane person could ever think this is ok. I’m not using this as an excuse for the crimes they committed or as a way to justify it. But I don’t think it’s right to execute a mentally ill person for a crime no matter how horrible. I remember once seeing a programme about it and they spoke to a man who was mentally ill and on death row for the rape and murder of a 4 year old child. Instead of thinking about ways in which we can punish these people (not just these women but any mentally ill person who commits a crime) we should be trying to find ways to prevent these kinds of things happening in the future. Of course, there are times when a person (mentally ill or otherwise) will show no signs of any intentions to commit crimes. I have to wonder if Andrea Curry-Demus was psychiatrically evaluated before she left prison, considering how soon after being freed she committed her crime.
.121 ligeia
You are right on with your viewpoints. And you are also right not to be bothered with reading some of those comments which are too long and boring to read anyway. Speaking of which…
.118/120 Segue
Make up your mind, you are either for or against the death penalty. If it’s ok with you to execute a person for one crime then you are for it…period.
As far as mental illness is concerned, you are clueless about what you speak of.
Carina: Yes, none of them make sense to me. It’s horrid. However, logically speaking, if you wanted to succeed in this crime, you would think you’d wait a little longer so the baby had hopes of survival. All the other women, albeit unstable, managed to think logically enough to realize that the chances of survival for the baby would be higher if they waited until at least the third trimester.
Dishuker: Don’t be silly. You’re feelings on abortion can’t compare in this list. You’re talking about aborting a fetus by a consenting adult through a doctor vs. double-homicide. Let’s say a 6 week old fetus could be removed from a woman without killing her- I say it’s still theft and damage.
Vallen: Could you cite sources? I’ve never heard of fetal abduction occurring in the animal kingdom or historically. More a curiosity than trying to negate your argument.
Cedestra – I’m pretty sure that Vallen probably overstated his/her point. I’ve also never heard of fetal abduction outside these listed cases, but there are plenty of instances of baby stealing, baby killing, mother attacks etc by all sorts of apes and monkeys (including us).
MT – thanks for your support, a lot of people wouldn’t agree with me. Some people believe that in certain cases, the offender should be executed no matter what their mental state is. As I live in a country where there is no death penalty (Ireland) and the length of sentences for serious crimes, such as murder and rape, are, to be quiet honest, a joke. You can kill someone here and be out of jail within two years. That’s if you even get convicted in the first place. The justice system here is terrible and I hope that neither I or anyone I know is ever the victim of aserious crime. At least these women will be locked away from society for (hopefully) a very long time. Unfortunately though I doubt they will receive the psychiatric treatment they so obviously need.
segue:
I like your encouraging talk i.e. we are all the architects of our own destinies, but frankly put sometimes mental illness is stronger than willpower. I do not intimate that getting help equals stifling creativity, but you must admit some greats would not have done some of their deeds if under psychiatric medications.
As for the balancing out bit, what great works are balanced out by atrocities, the question I probably meant to pose is should we give everyone mood-equalizing drugs, even if they don’t want it, to avoid atrocities, even if it is against their will and their creativity has been stifled. (sorry, wrote that bit a long time ago and now I’m wondering what I meant too) so I guess it’s a free will vs. the communal good… I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere along those lines.
122. MT
120 Segue
Make up your mind, you are either for or against the death penalty. If it’s ok with you to execute a person for one crime then you are for it…period.
As far as mental illness is concerned, you are clueless about what you speak of.
****
Ever hear of extenuating circumstances?
My guess would be no, because otherwise you would understand the ability to be against the death penalty *in general* but for it in particular cases.
As to my understanding of mental illness: I know whereof I speak. I studied it for many years. I still study mental illness.
Never end a sentence with a preposition.
.127 seque
You need to watch more court TV. Extenuating circumstances can be considered during the sentencing phase but not if the defendant is declared legally insane. In other words, regardless of the brutality of the crime if a person was legally considered insane at the time it was committed then the sentence would be the same. This has nothing to do with being for or against the dealth penalty. Either you agree people should be legally killed by the state as revenge for them killing someone else, or you don’t agree. There is nothing “general” about it.
And although you have “studied” mental illness for years I have lived with it for years. So who do you think is more of an expert on the subject?
Never end a sentence sounding stupid.
126. Anne O’Nemus…the question I probably meant to pose is should we give everyone mood-equalizing drugs, even if they don’t want it, to avoid atrocities, even if it is against their will and their creativity has been stifled…
****
Got it, Anne. Now that I understand your original post, it makes sense.
I think the *ONLY* time anyone should be given any mood altering drug against their will would be if they were an obvious and immediate danger to others. Period.
And you are right, sometimes mental illness is *far* stronger than will power. I meant, and was obviously not sufficiently clear, mental doldrums, the “blues”, the sort of depression which one allows, rather than the sort which is entirely chemically based. I’m sure you know women (don’t we all?), who go about their lives as if just waiting for the next bad thing to happen, yet, in truth, their lives are just fine but for their attitude?
I had a friend, whom I had to eventually wean, who was like that. She got so bad she couldn’t even hold a job and would spend days in her dark apartment huddled on a bare mattress (according to her), yet Psychiatrist after Psychiatrist, Psychologist after Psychologist pronounced her attention seeking, not chemically unbalanced, and the Psych’s would not prescribe drugs.
She knew I was on schedule 3 drugs and would call repeatedly, asking for some, knowing I had to refuse, knowing they weren’t any good for mood altering anyway.
She was a master manipulator, but not depressed, not bi-polar, not mentally ill. She just loved to see how many people she could jerk around.
She was not a danger to anyone, though her behavior was obviously strange, and *NOT* giving her mind altering drugs was the kindness here, rather than the giving of them, which was her objective.
She could have brought herself out of that mindset if she wanted to, but as long as she stayed there she got the attention she craved. If she brought herself out of it, she might have to actually perform, to write a third novel, get her recognition that way, but she had made the objective to difficult.
On purpose.
Better to not try, and thus not chance failing, than do, and possibly fail, but also possibly achieve (as she had already done twice).
Would mood altering drugs have allowed her to write the Great American Novel?
Probably not.
She’d already decided she couldn’t do it, although, in fact, she could.
Her mind said NO, and it said NO without the need for drugs.
God, by now I’m so off topic I’ll have to make a jarring return.
As I now understand you, Anne, we agree.
And congratulations on the new little one.
128. MT
127 seque
You need to watch more court TV.
****
I’m sorry, MT, but I don’t have time waste, sitting around watching television.
Reading this while 8 months pregnant was not a good idea…
MT. I live with cancer. Am I, therefore, an expert?
.132 Spinner
Is that a rhetorical question?
From the standpoint you can speak about the pain, treatment and results and how it affected your life and your decisions about work,family, love,etc, that should make you an expert more so than someone that has just read about or studied it.
In a nutshell, I would rather have treatment provided by people who have studied it. That is , the professionals.
A lot of knowledge is gained by seeing the same illnesses in different people, reading vast quantities of academic and autobiographical literature and working with everyone concerned. Generally the person experiencing the illness doesnt have all that experience and information. They are usually limited to the level of their own inderstanding/denial/anger/ etc etc etc.
There are not many health professionals out there who are not touched by both mental illness or cancer in their lives. So the level of understanding is high in lots of them.
I do mean study as in a professional capacity though, not just someone who finds it all a bit interesting and thinks theyre an expert.
131. Cheez-It, I understand the feeling, but at least this way you can visualize ways to protect yourself. You can plan.
That gives you both power and control. Also, it reminds you not to take silly chances.
Congratulations. Have a happy, healthy, baby, and an easy birth.
What a tragic list.
Although none of the mothers survived, I find it astonishing that some of the babies survived such a traumatic arrival. I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that in one such case the mother actually survived.
If a director decided to make a film along these lines it would be dismissed as sick. Sadly the real world is sicker.
I knew it!
Number 1. Wilkinsburg is about 20 minutes from my house…NOT a good neighborhood…This was all over the local news. Happened just a few months ago. I knew when I was reading this list that it would be on it.
First and foremost people that are this sick and evil deserved to be tortured, over and over again. I can’t believe it happened to close to where I live.
I remember watching the live news broadcast and they panned the camera up to the woman’s apartment windows. All over the glass of the windows were flies. That was before they found and recovered the body of the mother.
I have seen some of the other cases on this list on tv.
It’s so sad. Creating a life is one of the most amazing, beautiful things a woman will go through. It’s so unbelievably sad that these women died horrible deaths because these sick *****es wanted their babies. I hope God punishes them and they all rot in hell.
Segue,
unfortunately I lost the child. But thank you anyways.
Anne, there is nothing I can say to make you feel better, but as a woman, I understand your loss and cry for you.
So sick. So sad. Heartbreaking. I would never recover if that happened to me and I survived. I know the mothers didn’t live. Maybe they were spared a lifetime of sadness and despair.
vallen (108) Humans don’t have instincts. Only drives.
Strange that all these cases are in the US
What’s strange about it, mysteryman?
well, how come there are no cases of this type of crime in other countries. are only americans sick enough to steal fetuses?
Yes, only Americans are sick and disturbed enough to do this. And there is no violent crime anywhere else in the world, right? I know what you meant with your first comment. But the US does not have the monopoly on sick, horrific crime. It just gets sensationalized here more often than other places.
Currently there is a drama series screening in Korea called East of Eden. In the first episode, set in 1961, a small-town nurse is pregnant to the local mine owner/kingpin. She is abducted by his henchmen, then a surgical procedure is shown. At that stage it’s pretty ambiguous, but she later confronts hims and says something like “You pulled a living fetus from me and killed him”. (He didn’t; he paid the doctor to.)
So here’s a new twist: fetal abduction and murder by the father. At least he left the woman alive.
I don’t know if this is based on a real event. If it is, it by far predates anything in this list. Presumably it is plausible enough for the scriptwriters to use in the story.
(She gets her revenge. She switches the newborn babies of the mine owner and his wife, and his sworn enemy, the mine union leader, and his wife. This has repercussions that last throughout the series.)
……..woah
awww. i really want some pictures of these
They must’ve been clinically insane. Maybe they were barren and couldn’t have a baby and, being a little wacko, decided to find the nearest pregnant lady to steal a fetus from. That’s probably why they keep trying to get teenagers. Their reasoning might be “Oh, there goes a teenage pregnancy. That family would never have a good future, let me at least save the unborn fetus.”
Ack. I knew i should not have read this- i am 4 months along and now have something else to freak about! Still- great list. Quite interesting.
To correct the post from the Kent State (Ohio) student. The house where the Andrews woman was killed has been torn down for years and Michael Bica (Michlle Bica’s husband) no longer lives in the immediate area. Also, Michael Bica didn’t run for public office; another relative from Ravenna has sat on city council for years and has done a tremendous job for the City.
I find it interesting that most of these “derange” women are much older than their victims. This must mean a few things…but Im banking on them not being able to have children of their own. Most commom reason for murders like these.
I heard about #9 I think the story gets even more terrifying … it was Fedells baby.. and he faught the victims parents for visitation… and won.
Wow…I just read this list for the first time. Uggh. Had no idea such a crime even existed.
THIS IS HORRIBLE AND SICK,…..REALLY SAD
I think when I get pregnant..
I’m gonna stay inside.
Doors locked.
And my partner can leave.
Secret knocks at the door.
Nothing like private practise.
Well… we can add another one to the list. July 28 2009 Worcester, Mass. These are horrible crimes indeed. The women who commit these acts are insane. No doubt about it. However, I believe that there is some defect in the society as a whole with these matters. I have watched some Discovery Health programs recently about couples who do “open adoptions” where they follow the birth mother right into the delivery room. And in just about every case that I have seen so far, the adopting mother shamelessly snatches the baby right out of the arms of the birth mother immediately after birth and starts this “bonding” ritual of chanting “my baby, calling her by her adoptive name etc”. It is as if they have absolutely NO consideration for the feelings of the birth mother. Maybe they think that if they let the birth mother hold the baby for a few hours she might change her mind? I dont know. What ever they are thinking it is just wrong and the women who commit these horrible crimes of doing their own c section to steal the baby are not far from the mind set of these “normal” people.
There are reports that the baby has been found alive: http://www.smh.com.au/world/baby-cut-from-womb-found-alive-police-20090730-e2ss.html
Y’all beat me, I was just going to post a link to the Mass. story when I saw it this morning. Absolutely shocking and horrible.
I am sure all crimes of this type are by people that are followers of conservatives.
@dean (160): That is now officially the stupidest thing I’ve read on this site. Congrats, moron.
@dean (160):
Yeah, thanks for that dean. That was really awesome of you to point out that only people of a certain political persuasion commit this heinous crime. I can really see how the way I vote connects with abducting babies thanks to you’re brilliant observation. Why not next time plug in a particular ethnic group or gays. That way you can show everybody how cool and smart you are.
That is incredibly disturbing…. but it happens every day by abortion.
weird how every single case is in america…
@whoa. (164): You’re kidding right. Did you even read the title?
Now, what I´m interested in is this: how do the partners of these women not know what´s going on? I´m talking about the Michelle Bica case specifically. How does the husband NOT KNOW that the wife is faking a pregnancy? Is he that clueless?? So that then begs the question, why wasnt the husband also arrested for conspiracy? He must have known what was going on and he did nothing about it. They filmed the first few days after the “birth”? Are you kidding? The husband was obviously either an accomplice or an absolute MORON.
It’s baffling that all serial killers and very macabre killings such as these are much much mcuh more abundant in the US and europe, but not so much in Asia. Notice?
Just a thought.
Whats scary is that, besides the very first one, this occurs about every 1 to 2 years. I heard of some of these on the news, but obviously not all of them. What a sad situation. The way this world is going, this is but a glimpse of things to come. People nowadsys only care about their own needs, with no regards to the damage they can cause to others. Of course not everyone is that way, but many think first of themselves and what they want, not thinking first how their actions may hurt others. As it says in the Bible, people will be lovers of themselves…having no natural affection…
without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers–2Timothy 3:2-5.
Good grief. when I was pregnant, I worked right up until my baby was born, and I walked around in the woods and back loggin roads…my biggest fears were not of abduction, but of having a nuclear explosion (such as chernoble)cast its radioactive fallout, and cause a deformity in my infant.
As for the facts of the fetal abduction crimes, we are only reading about them now, because of the internet and modern media…who knows how long this has been going on successfully…I wonder how many have been successful…the ones we never hear about.
You hear about this, you wonder how/why anyone would/could do this, it is when your family lives through it that you realize just how sick some people truly are.
On the evening/morning of July 23-24, 2009 my niece Darlene Haynes was added to this list. She was 23 years old and eight months pregnant. Her body was discovered July 27th, and her baby was found ‘ALIVE”, late in the afternoon of July 29th.
It is still difficult to understand, nor do I think I will ever understand why this was done. I ask that all woman pregnant please beware, even a person you consider a friend, you must be aware of your safety.
It was my nieces friend that the baby was found with.
I, for one, am pro fetal abduction
As a woman of 45 who cannot have children i feel cheated,lonely angry so many emotions to read obout people who commit these uncomprehensible crimes is absolutely sickening.where is it all going to end?bring back hanging i say.im disgusted to think there are people who carry out these crimes.heartbreaking
oh my god! a lot of psycho! i am 3 months pregnant and this list is disturbing, now i am gonna keep my gun next to me before i go to sleep.
Um, in regards to comments 49 and 66…
I’m mentally ill (psychotic-depressive, in fact, which means that I’m delusional every so often) and I just have to say that even some of the more rapid-cycling bipolar people I’ve met in therapy wouldn’t begin to implement something like this. This sort of behavior is beyond the scope of ordinary mental illness. Murder, whether you like it or not, takes more than just disease. A little bit of help is not going to make much difference with a killer. They lack impulse controls I couldn’t even begin to cogitate. Their pathology is alien to even the mentally ill…which isn’t to say that they can’t be mentally ill and capable of heinous crimes. It’s just to say that they shouldn’t be getting off light for it.
Maybe it’s too late to argue this point, but in all honesty? Yes. Men do, in fact, have just as many hormones as women. Slightly different, but they affect a number of things from their pain tolerance (it’s less than ours) to the way they handle aggression. (It’s not all socialization; they do tend to be, on average, more aggressive because of testosterone.)
In all honesty, the problems you mention can be corrected with a laxative and midol in short order. (Even in people with hormonal imbalances such as yours truly…a psychotic depressive with a not-very aggressive pituitary gland.) If you feel emotional dysregulation is worth killing people over, you lack the ability to function in society.
The previous comment was related to the eyeroll-inducing comment #112.
I've recently started reading the lists on this site and this one is so disturbing. As a mother of 3 (one miscarriage of a dear son and successful births of 2 beautiful daughters), I am a huge fan of "true crime" novels and stories. My mother bought me a book along that theme called "Lullaby and Goodnight" not knowing what it specifically was about, just that it was true crime. I was pregnant with my youngest daughter when I read this horrible story…which is the story about number 10 on this list. The book and story was also mentioned in a performance at a lecture hall by John Waters called "This Filthy World". I was SO bothered by that story that I became paranoid to go out for the rest of my pregnancy, and when I did go out, I never went anywhere alone. As soon as I finished that book (yes, I finished it), I called and told my mother to please check out a few pages of any further true crime books before buying them for me, and then proceeded to throw the book in the trash! I can't imagine what could possess anyone to commit such a depraved act, especially since so many of the babies don't survive the attacks. I sometimes wonder if you have to be a mother, at the very least, a parent of either *****, to fully wrap your mind around how truly horrible something like this is. Not to say that non-parents don't understand, to think that would be insane, but it seems to trigger an almost visceral, rock-you-to-your-core reaction in parents who hear or see things like this.
its really sad that people do this
This is really terrible. Why the ***** should people like this even be put on trial? These are the most sickening, horrible crimes in the world. having said that, this was a very interesting list.
…And screw the Death penalty, let Chuck Norris loose upon these losers!