[narrator] a mother of four vanishes.
It was like she ceased to exist.
Also missing was her infant son.
You get a dependable person and they disappear,
You know something's wrong.
[narrator] the search dredges up a host of small-town secrets.
Maybe the relationship wasn't as good as he was reporting.
An anonymous female caller said,
"you oughta take a look at these people."
[narrator] a tip leads to an outlandish claim...
She proceeds to tell me that she used to mule drugs.
Her drug boss had gotten ahold of her.
She said, "two fellas show up and they hand me this baby."
[narrator] the truth will reveal a scheming killer
And a deadly obsession.
When he got there, she had the baby in her arms.
She presented me as newborn,
But I looked maybe three months old.
She's deceiving, she's manipulating.
It's a matter of getting attention.
I don't remember how long I was missin',
But kind of often wonder, why'd it have to be my family?
[music]
[narrator] with a population just over 10,000,
Residents in the riverside town of keokuk, iowa
Feel a sense of security in their tight-knit community.
But on August 29th, 1996,
That small-town comfort is rattled with
One alarming phone call.
At approximately 10 a.M.,
Charlene hiskey calls the keokuk police department
Saying she's worried about her friend,
34-year-old theresa lund.
Charlene was concerned that theresa had not picked up
Her children from school the previous day.
[tressa] I was five at the time,
And all the teachers left,
And then finally the principal came out
And took us to my grandmother's house.
[narrator] but theresa's absence isn't the only thing
That makes this report so worrisome.
This was unusual because also missing was her infant son,
Who was approximately six weeks old.
They must've been together.
I got a phone call to respond to an apartment building
Where I took a missing persons report.
While I was speaking to charlene,
Velva green, the mother of theresa, showed up.
Theresa was last seen dropping off her children at school
At pretty close to 7:30 in the morning
On Wednesday, August 28th.
[narrator] velva tells the investigator
She went looking for her daughter
And her infant grandson, paul.
[kevin] velva had discovered her daughter's car
Parked beside the county market store
And thought maybe the car had broken down.
That's what she was hopin'.
[narrator] but when velva used her spare key to look inside,
Her worry grew.
A pocketbook, checkbook were under the front seat.
[bruce] that was concerning. Unusual.
Why would somebody take off
And leave their checkbook and their purse in the car?
[kevin] velva did tell me that there was a car seat
That would be routinely in the vehicle for her infant son,
But the baby seat was missing.
Where did the baby seat go? Was theresa with the baby?
What's happened to this mother and her new baby?
[joni] they take it seriously.
These are two people who are missing.
One of them is a six-week-old baby.
[heather] she's left those kids, and that's not like her.
You get a dependable person and they disappear,
You know something's wrong.
[narrator] theresa green was born to parents
Velva and william on January 9th, 1962,
In iowa city.
She was raised alongside three brothers.
[tressa] they did a lotta stuff outside.
They rode bikes, they played in the creek.
She was a tomboy.
She got married pretty young. She married when she was 18.
She went straight from kid to married life.
Then shortly after, they had my older sister.
She would've been born in '81.
[narrator] following the birth of their daughter,
The young couple struggled to support themselves,
And it wasn't long before they divorced.
My mom moved back to the small-town area
Where she grew up in keokuk,
And she met randy.
And my other sister would've been born in '86.
But my mom and randy just didn't work out.
[narrator] by the time theresa met terry bell in 1990,
She was twice burned by love ad a mother to two girls.
My mom met my dad and then they had got to talking.
When she was in a room, all attention would go to her,
'cause she just had a love of life.
And my dad made my mom laugh. He could be funny.
My dad was also a big personality.
[narrator] after a whirlwind romance,
The happy couple announced that they were expecting
And they moved in together.
My dad liked a woman that was happy to be a stay-at-home mom,
A homemaker,
Because my dad had a pretty decent job
And he made good money.
He was a crane operator, and he would travel quite a bit.
[narrator] after years of doing it all on her own,
Theresa was happy to focus on motherhood.
Her third daughter, tressa, was born in 1991.
[heather] when she was born, they were both excited.
And he was a good dad. You could tell he loved her.
[tressa] she was very much a very hands-on mom.
She would play with us, help us with things,
Shared her love of music with us.
[narrator] in 1996, the family received good news.
[joni] terry gets a promotion, which he's excited about,
But it requires him to travel to gary, indiana.
[heather] with him working so far away,
Theresa didn't get to see terry a lot.
We didn't have texting. We didn't have the internet.
So, if you didn't catch someone at home,
You pretty much didn't get to talk to 'em back then.
[narrator] the family settled into a groove,
But more change was coming.
[tressa] I remember, like,
My mom getting a little bit bigger,
And they kept talking about a baby being in her tummy.
[narrator] on July 16th, 1996,
The family was overjoyed to welcome a fourth child,
A son named paul.
Theresa was the happiest I'd seen her the whole time.
You know, that new mom look.
I know, four kids, she had her hands full.
And she was tired,
But she was very proud of those kids.
[tressa] so that my dad didn't have to continue to
Travel back and forth,
We were actually supposed to move to indiana with him
Over the summer.
He was gonna be able to be home a lot more
And a little bit more stable,
And that's what my mom was looking forward to.
[narrator] plans for a future under one roof
Are thrown into turmoil when theresa and baby paul
Vanish six weeks after paul's birth.
Keokuk police officer kevin church
Questions theresa's mom on terry's whereabouts.
Terry actually was working in gary, indiana
As a heavy equipment operator.
So, he was not in town.
[narrator] velva implies that
Her daughter's relationship with terry is strained.
[tressa] he was gone so much. My mom was anxious about moving.
She'd never lived that far from any of her family.
[narrator] before filing the report,
Officer church makes an attempt to reach terry.
I placed a few phone calls
Trying to get in contact with him.
I'm givin' him the benefit of the doubt,
But certainly we're gonna look at him,
Because if they're involved in a relationship,
To see if there's a prior incident.
[narrator] coming up.
Detectives find trouble at home...
We were hopin' that that polygraph
Would put him on the sideline.
That didn't happen.
[narrator] and a cryptic tip offers hope.
The baby is older than they claim it is.
This is not a newborn.
[music]
[narrator] authorities in the small town of keokuk, iowa
Are in the midst of an urgent search
For theresa lund and her six-week-old son, paul,
Who have been missing for just over 24 hours.
[kevin] we had a mother that was missing,
Her infant son that was missing,
Still trying to hang onto hope that she had taken off.
But as time went on,
The thought that something bad had happened was growing.
[narrator] theresa's daughters are taken to stay with family.
My grandmother called my sister's dad, randy,
And he came and picked her up,
And my aunt charlene actually came and picked me up.
[narrator] while waiting to hear back
From theresa's partner terry,
Investigators look for answers at theresa's home.
When they were able to get into her residence,
Nothing appeared to be missing.
I discovered that no banking activity had been done
On any of her accounts.
It's hard to move about without money.
It was like she ceased to exist.
[narrator] with concerns mounting,
Investigators are eager to spea to theresa's partner,
And father to missing baby paul terry bell.
We all know that when a wife goes missing,
The number one suspect is the husband,
And they can't get ahold of him.
Maybe he doesn't want us to find him.
[narrator] just a few hours later,
Terry returns their call
To let them know he just returned home.
[bruce] when he learned that theresa was missing,
He got in the car and drove all the way back,
Five hours to keokuk.
[narrator] when investigators meet with terry
On September 30th,
He says he last saw theresa and paul on Sunday,
Two days before she went missing.
[kevin] theresa and the children had just come out to
Spend the week with him at gary, indiana.
They were planning on moving out there.
[narrator] after the week in gary,
Terry and theresa spent the weekend back in keokuk
Before terry returned to work on Sunday evening.
[kevin] he called her on Tuesday
And spoke to her at 7 p.M. That night,
And everything was fine.
[narrator] terry says he didn't speak to theresa
On the day she went missing,
Which wasn't out of the norm.
We're talkin' 1996, before cell phones,
And the level of communication between terry and theresa
Consisted of a long-distance phone call
Every other night from terry.
[narrator] terry insists he has no idea
Where paul and theresa might be
He was not physically present in lake county, iowa,
When theresa disappeared.
[narrator] with terry claiming to be nearly 300 miles away
When theresa disappeared,
Investigators retrace
The new mother's steps through keokuk.
[bruce] the children were dropped off
At 8:15 that morning.
Theresa had stopped over at
The department of human services office.
She was there for some business.
We confirmed that, through another witness,
That occurred sometime before 10 o'clock,
And that was the last notice we had of her being in town.
[narrator] it's now been 48 hours
Since theresa's last known whereabouts,
And concern over the missing mother and baby
Spreads quickly through the small town.
Everybody knows everybody. It just sends these ripples.
It affects the whole community.
We asked the public to get involved
And asked them, "please, help us."
[kevin] I entered her as a missing person August 29th.
But reaching out to the news media
And the local newspaper would've been first part of
The next week, September 1st.
It rattled the small community of keokuk, most definitely.
You got a mother and infant that's gone, just vanished.
It's a small town, everyone's talkin'.
[narrator] after reaching out to the public,
Investigators begin to hear mor murmurs about trouble at home.
[kevin] I started askin' around
And interviewin' theresa's friends, and so forth.
And there were some reports that maybe the relationship
Wasn't as good as he was reporting it.
My partner and I decided maybe it would be a good idea
Just to rule terry out.
And the best way to do that
Would be to offer him a polygraph test.
We were hopin' that that polygraph would
Put him on the sidelines.
That didn't happen. The results were very worrisome.
After the polygraph results came back,
We were unable to rule him out as a suspect.
But there was nothing that pointed to him as
Bein' involved in this.
[narrator] despite the inconclusive polygraph results,
Terry's airtight alibi is quickly confirmed.
[kevin] we had spoke to a few people there
At the scrap yard where he worked.
He got back there Sunday evening
After he had left theresa and the kids,
So his whereabouts were documented.
[bruce] he was in gary, indiana.
That was confirmed through his pay records
And also from his supervisor.
[narrator] with terry officially ruled out,
Investigators find themselves at a dead end.
[bruce] she'd been missin' for about a week.
We had no idea where she was. We had no evidence.
We'd run outta leads.
[narrator] in a surprise break,
A tip comes in almost two weeks after theresa's disappearance.
[bruce] on September 14th, an anonymous female caller
Contacted the fbi office in kansas city,
And she said that,
"there's a woman and her baby missing in keokuk, iowa.
You oughta take a look at these people."
[narrator] the tipster says that a married couple in keokuk
Has been celebrating the birth of their son.
This baby was born on August 28th,
The same day that theresa lund and her baby went missing.
They say they've just had a baby.
But the baby is older than they claim it is.
This is not a newborn. Something's not right here.
[narrator] coming up.
A strange tale unfolds.
[kevin] she said, "I'll just tell you straight up,
The baby's not mine."
[narrator] a standoff leaves a life hanging in the balance.
I jump back, draw my weapon, and start yelling.
[music]
[narrator] nearly three weeks into the search for
Theresa lund and her baby, paul
Keokuk investigators get a tip that a local couple
Is parading a newborn around town.
[bruce] the anonymous tipster had said,
"kimmi and bob hardy had a baby on August 28th,
And the baby is older than a newborn,
And the baby has no birth certificate."
So then, at that point, we knew that it was a real tip,
And we needed to check out kimmi hardy
And this baby that she had immediately.
[narrator] kimmi was born and raised in keokuk,
And she was popular among the men in the small community.
She was real skinny. She's kinda tall.
She's got red hair, blue eyes.
[bruce] kimmi had four husbands.
The first was a fella named gary.
She had two children with gary.
She was then married to doug, and she had a son with him.
The next husband was wendell smith,
And she had a stillborn child.
[narrator] in 1996, kimmi married bob hardy.
It seemed to everyone in keokuk that the 35-year-old
Had finally found the love of her life.
[theresa] they got married in front of the judge.
They seemed to be the perfect couple.
They used to go in their truck and go for rides,
And they sat home, watch movies.
[narrator] that same year,
Bob and kimmi announced they were expecting.
She said she was gonna have a baby,
And she went shopping for it, you know, baby clothes.
She was just happy.
[narrator] but just weeks after kimmi and bob
Announced the birth of their son,
A tipster sounds an alarm.
On September 17th, 1996,
Keokuk investigators pay the hardys a visit.
Kimmi does come to the door. She...
Very cordial, very polite.
[bruce] they explain what the anonymous tipster had said,
And kimmi's first remark was, "this is insane."
She didn't wanna let them look at the baby at first,
But she conceded.
So, she led us upstairs. The baby was layin' on the bed.
We told her we were satisfied, and we left.
[bruce] detective church and his wife had just had a baby.
The first thing out of detective church's mouth
When they get outside is,
"that ain't no three-week-old baby."
I said, "that baby's just as big as my daughter,
And my daughter is four months old."
So, we tried to get a warrant, but we had difficulty.
[bruce] after their visit to kimmi hardy's place,
The county attorney said, "well, okay, but,
But I'm not sure we're there in terms of probable cause
For a search warrant.
I think we need some more meat."
[kevin] we needed a little bit more evidence,
So we spent the next four hours
Trying to get us a witness or two.
[narrator] detectives get in touch
With kimmi's sister-in-law, theresa maness.
[bruce] she had seen the baby the day that kimmi purported
She delivered the baby.
[theresa] she had me hold the baby,
And I changed the baby's diaper,
And it had no umbilical cord and it's only been just born.
The baby had been circumcised, that was completely healed.
The baby seemed pretty big for its, you know what I mean?
For bein' just a newborn.
[narrator] during the visit,
Kimmi also made an uncomfortable request.
[bruce] kimmi had asked theresa to be
A witness on the birth certificate,
Essentially to lie that she'd witnessed the, the birth.
[theresa] I did not wanna be a part of that.
I actually wasn't there, so I really can't,
You know what I mean, be a witness.
She seemed like she was really worried about something.
She wasn't even as happy as I thought she would be after,
You know, havin' a baby.
[kevin] that proved very valuable in getting that warrant
To have that child taken to the hospital
For footprint comparisons.
We head straight over to bob and kimmi hardy's residence,
But bob and kimmi had left.
[narrator] carl blackburn answers the hardys' door.
He explains that kimmi and bob asked him and his wife
To babysit their older children
[bruce] he said, "they took the baby,
And we don't know where they are."
Agent kling says, "well, okay,
Do you think that bob will call you?"
And he said, "yeah, to check on the boys."
[narrator] investigators ask the phone company
To trace all calls to the blackburn home.
I had to wait 'til the next morning for the company
To tell me if there'd been any traffic the night before.
And there had been.
The phone company was able to give the address to us.
[narrator] the traced address leads investigators
To a home north of keokuk.
[bruce] armed with the search warrant,
That next morning they all go out there.
Bob hardy comes to the door
And bob takes the warrant, crumbles it up, throws it,
And grabs a big piece of angle iron.
And he says, "you're not takin' my baby."
I jump back, draw my weapon,
And start yellin' for him to put the pipe down.
And now he's screaming.
[narrator] amid the commotion, kimmi emerges from the home.
[bruce] kimmi says to the agents,
"let me talk to him."
She's able to calm him down, everything is okay.
Bob is actually cuffed up and taken into custody.
They explain the warrant to kimmi and they said,
"we're gonna take the baby to the hospital."
And she says, "may I accompany you?"
And they said, "yes, you can."
[kevin] she was still very cooperative, polite.
I drive kimmi and the child to the keokuk area hospital,
Where some footprints done by the hospital staff.
And eventually we bring her and the child
Back to the police department.
Once we got to the police department,
It was the first chance we had to actually interview her.
She just looked at us and said,
"I'll just tell you straight up, the baby's not mine."
[narrator] kimmi then begins a baffling tale
That no one could have predicted.
Kimmi believed that her husband, bob, wanted a son.
She told him she was pregnant, and she wasn't.
[narrator] it was then that someone from her past
Stepped back into her life.
This old associate, anthony matrona, her drug boss,
Had gotten ahold of her.
She proceeds to tell me that she used to mule drugs.
[narrator] when kimmi confided in anthony
That bob believed she was pregnant,
He offered to help.
He said, "I know a lady that doesn't want her baby boy,
And it'll cost you $3,000."
[kevin] anthony agreed to do this for her,
But she had to do some things for him.
He said, "you have to start muling drugs for me again."
[narrator] for months,
She secretly waited for word from anthony.
[bruce] she faked the pregnancy.
Bob really believed that she was pregnant.
[joni] he would see her wearing maternity clothes,
Getting baby items.
And she has had children before.
So, I'm sure that she used that experience to somehow
Figure out how she was going to pretend to be pregnant.
[narrator] until August 28th,
When anthony finally made good on his word.
She said, "on August 28th, about 9 o'clock in the morning,
Two mexican fellas show up at my door
In a car with florida license plates.
And they hand me this baby,
And they wish me luck and take off."
They said, "well, how can we get ahold of this matrona?"
She doesn't know his address
And she doesn't know his phone number.
She says, "he calls me."
[narrator] though kimmi's story seems farfetched,
Investigators must consider
Whether anthony matrona and his underlings
Kidnapped theresa and paul.
Meanwhile, they get news from the hospital.
The footprint analysis is back,
And they've confirmed that the baby is paul.
If this was the lund baby, what happened to theresa?
Where is she?
[narrator] investigators take the information to kimmi.
They ask if she knows theresa. And she said, "no."
[kevin] she told the same story that she had told us earlier.
Nothin' different.
Did I believe the story that she was telling?
No.
[narrator] even with lingering questions
About how baby paul was abducte and theresa's welfare,
Investigators have enough to arrest her.
[bruce] I charge her with child stealing,
Purchase of an individual,
And kidnapping in the second degree.
[narrator] relief rushes over the bell family
When authorities reunite them with baby paul.
I don't remember how long I was missin',
But I was found with kim hardy.
She kidnapped me and presented me as newborn,
But I looked maybe three months old.
She had a whole baby shower and everything.
It was crazy.
[narrator] paul is safe,
But concerns over theresa's whereabouts
Grow by the minute.
[kevin] we still haven't found theresa,
And we don't have a lot of evidence here.
We had to do something.
[narrator] coming up.
Investigators find
An unsettling trail of evidence...
[kevin] she was askin' the salesperson
If this gun would blow their head completely off.
[narrator] and old loyalties start to crumble.
[bruce] I said, "we'll work somethin' out,
But we need to know where the body is."
[music]
[narrator] 36-year-old kimmi hardy
Is behind bars after telling police
A wild story concerning a missing baby.
[bruce] kimmi purported that she didn't know theresa lund.
And says that she bought the baby from anthony matrona.
She can't give us a phone number or an address.
All she can tell us is he's from florida.
[narrator] unable to locate anthony matrona in florida,
Investigators turn back to
The community of keokuk for answers.
They start with kimmi's neighbor, kim steele,
Who reached out with a tip.
[bruce] kim steele, who spent a lot of time with kimmi hardy,
She told us during late July or early August,
She went shoppin' for a handgun with kimmi hardy.
She purported to kim that she wanted it to target practice.
[narrator] kim quickly got the impression
Her friend was planning for mor than a new hobby.
[kevin] she was askin' the salesperson
How close she had to be to somebody
For this gun to kill them.
And whether it would blow their head completely off
Or just make a little bit of a mess.
The salesperson became so alarmed that
They wouldn't even sell her the gun.
So, she had to try a second pawnshop,
Where she was successful.
She actually did purchase a 380 lorcin handgun
And took it home.
We've got kimmi in possession now of theresa lund's baby.
We don't know where theresa is,
But we know kimmi has purchased a firearm well before
Theresa's gone missing.
[narrator] well aware that kimmi's recent gun purchase
Doesn't bode well for theresa,
Investigators turn back to kimmi's husband bob for answer.
Bob hardy was charged with going armed with intent,
A class d felony,
And the bond was set at $100,000, cash only.
After bob hardy was charged,
He was appointed a lawyer to represent him.
Bob is in jail, so is kimmi.
[narrator] from his erratic behavior,
Investigators believe bob may know more than he's letting on.
We really believed that kimmi was the main player here
And bob was a participant,
But we had to reach out and see if bob would be willing to
Provide the evidence to us.
[bruce] I said, "you better get ahold of your guy
And we'll work somethin' out,
But we need to know where the body is."
We kept kind of a plea deal with him for his cooperation.
Within the hour,
The lawyer calls me back at the police station
And tells me where theresa's body is.
[kevin] he told us that they had taken it to
About a mile southwest of the purple cow bar.
In the ditch, by the railroad tracks,
In a bean field.
That was the description.
[narrator] investigators rush to the area,
Where everyone's worst fears are confirmed.
A body was recovered.
It was in a pretty decomposed state.
[bruce] the lee county medical examiner
Was able to positively identify theresa lund
With her dental records.
During the course of that autopsy,
Dr. Torez extracted two bullet fragments
From theresa lund's head.
[joni] they have theresa's body, they've recovered paul,
And there are still so many questions.
Why? What happened?
[narrator] although bob is cooperating,
Investigators aren't certain of the extent of his involvement.
When they press for more information,
He says it all started with
What should have been a happy milestone.
Bob told us that he went to work
On that Wednesday, August 28th.
That his wife, kimmi, was pregnant,
And that this baby's his.
Kimmi was expecting anytime.
And that this midwife was gonna come over
When she went into labor.
It was about 9:30, 10 o'clock when a supervisor says,
"bob, your wife just had a baby."
Bob told us when he got there, she had the baby in her arms.
And that was it. It, it was just joy after that.
[narrator] the joyous occasion
Was marred by an unpleasant smell.
There was this foul odor in the house,
And he attributes it to sewer backup
That they'd had trouble with before.
[narrator] but when the smell continued to worsen,
Bob says kimmi made a shocking confession.
She said, "bob, there's a body downstairs.
That's what that smell is."
He says, "I, I don't believe it.
I, I go downstairs, and sure enough,
There's a body in that crawlspace.
I'm freakin' out."
[narrator] kimmi told him that anthony matrona
Sold her the baby.
He then stashed the body there,
Telling kimmi it was up to her to get rid of it.
[bruce] bob and kimmi are able to drag
The body out of the house.
And they take it down to where we found the body.
[narrator] bob says that kimmi also brought along a gun.
They threw it in a pond called heart's quarry.
The next day, divers go out to heart's quarry and,
And recover this lorcin handgun.
And it was a lorcin 380 that kimmi had purchased
At a local pawn shop in town.
And that, in fact, was the gun that killed theresa.
We had ballistics from the dci verify that.
[narrator] on September 30th, 1996,
Authorities charge kimmi hardy with first-degree murder.
A week later,
Kimmi's ex-husband reaches out to investigators.
[bruce] his name is wendell smith,
And he says he was married to kimmi from '93 to '95.
And he says that, "she purported to me that she was pregnant
Three times during our marriage."
The first time, she says it ended in a stillbirth.
He went out and made arrangements to have the baby,
Whom they named zachary smith,
Buried at the national cemetery.
And when they had the burial,
They buried the box with the remains, a blanket,
And the, a teddy bear.
On two more occasions, kimmi said she was pregnant,
And it never resulted in a birth.
At this point, he's wondering if
Anything that kimmi ever told him is real.
We got a warrant to dig up the grave.
And we found what was buried on that day.
It was just nothin' but bubble wrap and a teddy bear.
Who thinks of faking a pregnancy?
She was willing to lie, to toy with people's feelings,
To create all kinds of scenarios.
She was living a lie so often.
And the people that she was supposed to be closest to
Had no idea.
[narrator] coming up.
Lies are exposed.
She underwent sterilization procedures
Back in 1984.
[narrator] and a last-minute witness
Throws the case into chaos.
[bruce] we were able to find him and contact him.
She lied to us the whole time.
[music]
[narrator] in February 1997, kimmi hardy's trial begins.
Prosecutors present kimmi as a desperate woman
Who fabricated a tale about a former drug boss
To misplace blame.
At this point, we didn't even think anthony matrona
Really even existed to begin with.
[joni] she has maintained this charade
That she's pregnant for months.
I think she has this idea in her head
That what would be the ultimate joy
Would be to produce a son for bob.
At some point, she begins looking for a baby,
Then she finds this person.
[narrator] they allege that kimmi befriended theresa
With promises of hand-me-downs.
She lured theresa lund to her house to give her baby clothes.
A theory is that theresa was shot in the back of the head
When she was down by that crawlspace,
Most likely looking for baby clothes.
And then just rolled into the crawlspace.
[narrator] prosecutors believe after the murder,
Kimmi abandoned theresa's vehicle
Before returning home to bob and their new baby.
[joni] it really is much more about a relationship with bob
Than the baby.
The baby is almost a means to an end.
[narrator] kimmi takes the stand,
Where she continues to make outlandish claims.
[bruce] she said that she actually was pregnant,
And she had miscarried five days before theresa lund disappeared.
[narrator] it was then, kimmi says,
That anthony offered to help.
Kimmi said her drug boss had gotten ahold of her.
She says that, "I gave them 15 hundred dollars in cash,
And a lorcin 380 pistol."
She says, "these guys took the stuff and, and said,
'go take a ride in the car.'"
[narrator] kimmi testifies that she left her house
For an hour and a half.
When she returned, they handed over the baby.
They take off and then she gets a phone call from anthony,
Sayin', "we ran into a little trouble.
You gotta look in your crawlspace."
And there's a body in there.
[narrator] prosecutors have faith
The jury won't buy kimmi's stor
Until a surprise witness is suddenly added to the defense.
This witness is gary drummond, which is kimmi's first husband.
He was gonna talk about anthony matrona,
Who was a real person that lived in houma, louisiana.
He and kimmi had actually lived with anthony,
Who was their supervisor at a bakery.
[narrator] prosecutors reach anthony by phone.
[bruce] I said, "do you remember kimmi?"
And I said, "she's up here on trial for murder.
And she's tellin' us you're the guy who did it."
And he says, "well, that's some bull[bleep] there."
He told us he'd never been to iowa.
Never seen those people, kimmi or gary, since they left.
[narrator] prosecutors tell the jury that
The man kimmi claims is responsible for theresa's death
Is a baker, not a drug lord.
She lied to us the whole time.
Anthony had played no part in this investigation
Other than in kimmi's mind.
[narrator] anthony matrona is not all she lied about.
Prosecutors call kimmi's former doctor to the stand.
[bruce] she underwent sterilization procedures
Back in 1984.
She had a tubal ligation.
She was married at the time,
And they decided they didn't want to have any more kids.
So, she had a tubal ligation.
It's really only after she has this tubal ligation
That she starts manufacturing pregnancies.
I do think there was some change in her psychologically.
She wanted another child, but she couldn't be pregnant,
And it's what really tipped her over the edge.
She's deceiving, she's manipulating,
And ultimately, she murders somebody.
She was convicted of murder in the first degree,
Kidnapping in the first degree,
And child stealing.
And she was sentenced to life in prison.
[tressa] at the end of the day,
There's nothing that anybody can do to her on this earth
That's really gonna make up for what she did.
My dad loved my mom very, very, very, very much,
And when he lost her, it changed a piece of him forever.
[paul] mom was actually wantin' this house
Next to the train tracks in keokuk.
After mom passed, dad eventually went ahead and bought it.
That's actually where he lived until he passed.
Why'd it have to be my family?
Kind of often wonder what it would be like
If they were still together.
[music]