On December 16, 2004, Becky Harper made a call to 911 after checking in on her 23-year-old daughter, Bobbie Jo. Bobbie Jo, who was 8 months pregnant, was lying on the floor in her home and something was horribly wrong. Paramedics raced to the scene, where they found Bobbie Jo dead with devastating injuries to her abdomen. Bobbie Jo had been brutally killed and her unborn baby was missing.

In today's episode, A Life for a Life, we will discuss this case as well as a couple of similar cases and the phenomenon of fetal abductions. Investigators found no signs of forced entry into Bobbie Jo’s home, suggesting that she may have known her killer. An Amber Alert was put out for the baby as detectives canvassed the neighborhood. They found one witness, who reported seeing an unfamiliar car parked out front. Investigators would learn that Bobbie Jo’s murder was premeditated and the motive was the abduction of Bobbie Jo’s baby. Efforts to find the baby and solve this murder would lead investigators to a twisted plot and an unexpected perpetrator.

Sources

Baby Be Mine by Diane Fanning, 2006.

Biden Administration orders Halt on Federal Executions After Surge Under Trump, Forbes, Walsh Joe, retrieved 6/4/2025.

Murder in the Heartland by William Phelps, 2006.

United States v. Montgomery, Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, 4/5/2011.

The women who kill for babies, BBC news, Summers Chris, 10/1/2007, retrieved 6/5/2025.