Police search for infant who may have survived being cut from womb after mother slain

Friday, December 17th 2004, 10:57 am

By: News On 6

SKIDMORE, Mo. (AP) _ An eight-months-pregnant woman was slain in her home, and her fetus was then cut from her womb, authorities said. Believing the infant survived, they issued an Amber Alert early Friday.

Bobbi Jo Stinnett's mother found her body Thursday afternoon. The 23-year-old woman had apparently been strangled. Early Friday, authorities issued an alert and said the missing child is believed to be a girl.

``The doctors who examined Bobbi Jo gave us information indicating we probably would have a live child if we could find it,'' Nodaway County Sheriff Bill Espey said Friday. ``The child would be in danger because of being one month premature.''

``Someone was wanting a baby awful bad,'' he had said earlier.

There were no visible signs of struggle and no indication of forced entry into Stinnett's home in this small community of 500 in the northwest corner of Missouri, the sheriff said.

``We know she was alive in the afternoon, within an hour of being found,'' Espey said.

Authorities said they were looking for a person who may have blond hair and possibly was driving a red vehicle.

Stinnett worked at a motor factory in nearby Maryville; she was expecting her first child.

A neighbor, Bill Dragoo, said Stinnett and her husband raised dogs and ``didn't bother anybody. It blows my mind that this happened. She was such a shy person. They didn't deserve this.''