Ex-husband of suspect in slaying of pregnant woman says she often faked being pregnant

Thursday, December 23rd 2004, 6:08 am

By: News On 6

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ The woman accused of strangling a mother-to-be and cutting the baby from her womb often faked being pregnant to get attention, even though she had her tubes tied 14 years ago, according to her ex-husband.

Carl Boman, of Bartlesville, Okla., told Kansas City television station WDAF-TV on Tuesday that he thinks his former wife, Lisa M. Montgomery, became so wrapped up in her pregnancy story that she needed to come up with a baby to save face.

``I believe it drove her, this fact that she didn't want to be proven wrong in this situation,'' Boman said. ``People were looking at her like something wasn't quite right.''

Montgomery has been charged with the death of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, who was found dying in her Skidmore home Dec. 16. The baby Stinnett had carried for eight months was missing.

The baby and Montgomery, 36, of Melvern, Kan., were found the next day. Family and friends said she tried to pass off Stinnett's baby as her own. Stinnett's child survived and is being cared for the victim's family.

Montgomery has been incapable of having a baby since having her tubes tied in 1990 after delivering a baby girl, according to her ex-husband.

``She never was pregnant,'' Boman told WDAF. ``Anything they're buying about a lost baby, a miscarriage, all of it's a lie. Since 1990, she has never been pregnant.''

According to Boman's attorney, James R. Campbell, Boman married Montgomery _ then Lisa Kleiner _ in 1986 in Cleveland, Okla. The two were divorced in 1994, then remarried four months later. The two were divorced again in 1998 and Montgomery married her current husband in 2000.

Investigators have said Montgomery confessed to the crime, and she is scheduled to make a second appearance in a federal court on Thursday. A message left Wednesday with Montgomery's public defender was not immediately returned.