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This case is a reminder that we never completely know what another person is capable of. We see people through the version of themselves they choose to present, knowing them as a friend, a partner, a co-worker, a neighbor, maybe someone we’ve trusted for many years. Most of the time, we assume that the person standing in front of us is exactly who we believe them to be.
Sometimes there can be a side of someone that remains hidden until it’s too late. Violence doesn’t always announce itself with obvious warning signs, it can be hiding behind familiarity, charm, routine & the comfort of believing that we know someone well.
In February 2005, 34-year-old Lisa Underwood was building a life for herself & her 7-year-old son, Jayden, in Fort Worth, Texas. As a single mom & business owner, she had always been a fiercely independent woman. She was more than 7-months-pregnant at the time, preparing to welcome a baby girl into their lives that she had already named Marleigh Ann.
When Lisa failed to show up for her baby shower on Saturday, February 19, 2005, those close to her immediately knew that something was terribly wrong. What began as a desperate search for a pregnant mother & her little boy, quickly became something so much darker than anyone could have ever imagined.
It’s a tragic fact that women in the U.S. who are pregnant or who have recently given birth are more likely to be murdered than to die from obstetric causes such as hypertensive disorders, sepsis & hemorrhage. Pregnant women are 16% more likely to die by homicide at the hands of their partner than non-pregnant women.
Lisa & her friend, Holly Pils, had owned Boopa’s Bagel Deli in Fort Worth, Texas since February 2000. The shop was named Boopa after a nickname that had been given to Lisa’s son Jayden by his grandma Sheila. Jayden absolutely loved helping his mom at the shop, often telling his mom that because his name was on the building, he wanted to be referred to as one of the owners.
According to her friends, Lisa was an incredibly independent, resilient woman who was devoted to 7-year-old Jayden, who she raised on her own without ever batting an eye. Everyone who knew Jayden described him as a wonderful kid with big brown eyes & glasses. According to his first grade teacher at North Riverside Elementary, with his kind & caring nature as well as his sense of humor, he was the type of kid who was loved by everybody.
Despite the fact that Lisa was a very busy small business owner who worked at her bagel shop Monday through Saturday, she always made sure that Jayden remained her top priority in life. Not only was she a member of the PTA, but Lisa also helped out with his Cub Scout group & she was always on the sidelines of each of his soccer games where he was a player for the Sharks & Lions.
About a year & a half before she & Jayden vanished, in the fall of 2003, Lisa began dating a regular customer at the bagel shop named Stephen Barbee, a man who also happened to be married.
When their relationship was over by the end of that year, Lisa began dating a new man in early 2004.
While she was still dating this man, in July 2004, she resumed her relationship with Stephen right around the time that she realized she was pregnant. Although she told both men that she was pregnant, she specifically told Stephen that she believed he was the father of her unborn baby.
By this time, Stephen had divorced his first wife Theresa & he was in another relationship with a woman named Trish. They had been dating since September 2003 & went on to get married in Las Vegas in December 2004 when Lisa was about five months pregnant.
Despite the fact that Stephen & Theresa were divorced, they still owned & operated a tree-trimming & concrete-cutting business together. She remained in the home they shared during their marriage, living with a man she was dating named Ron Dodd, who was also their employee.
According to Holly Pils, Lisa’s friend & business partner, since Lisa wanted her baby to have health insurance, she had a conversation with Stephen about this as her pregnancy progressed.
On Friday, February 18, 2005, when Lisa was more than seven months pregnant, she decided to stay home from work since she had a cold. Holly planned to host a baby shower in her honor the next day at the bagel shop.
When they spoke on Friday night, Lisa seemed to be in great spirits, relieved to be feeling better after being sick for a couple of days. She told Holly that she was really looking forward to her shower & that she & Jayden planned to get to the bagel shop a little before 4 pm on Saturday.
When they didn’t show up the next day as planned, her friends were immediately concerned. After they contacted the police to report both Lisa & Jayden missing, an Amber Alert was sent out.
When officers were dispatched to the home she shared with her son, they found no sign of forced entry. Jayden’s shoes were on the fireplace hearth while his glasses had been left next to his bed.
There was blood on the entertainment center in the living room, as well as on the walls & a fitted couch cover. It also appeared that someone had tried to clean & then conceal a blood stain on the living room floor with another piece of furniture. According to investigators, the amount of blood in the home was consistent with a person or people suffering serious bodily injury.
When officers went into the garage, Lisa’s car was gone & there was blood on the garage floor. The blood found in both the house as well as the garage ended up being a match with Lisa’s DNA.
According to her home computer, Lisa logged onto the internet at 11:22 pm on Friday night, visiting the website birthplan.com before logging off 40 minutes later at 12:02 am, now on Saturday morning, February 19, 2005, the day of her baby shower.
Investigators began by speaking with those who were close with Lisa in hopes of narrowing the scope to a particular suspect or suspects. This is how they came to learn that she believed she was pregnant with Stephen Barbee’s child, a man who had gotten married to his second wife only two months earlier. As they began to try to locate him for an interview, officers were dispatched to the home of his ex-wife, Theresa, where Stephen once lived.
Moving back to 3 am on Saturday morning, February 19, 2005, three hours after Lisa had logged off her computer, Denton County Deputy Sheriff David Brawner noticed a man walking along a service road of Interstate Highway 35, a 39 minute drive north from where Lisa & Jayden lived in Fort Worth.
When Deputy Brawner stopped his patrol car behind the man, he activated his overhead emergency lights as well as his in-car video camera system. When he asked the man for his identification, he saw that his clothing was soaking wet & covered in mud.
The man told Deputy Brawner that he didn’t have his ID on him since he’d left it at a friend’s house nearby. After giving his name & date of birth, he suddenly sprinted away on foot, vanishing into a thickly wooded area. Deputy Brawner spoke with dispatch, learning that the name & date of birth he’d been told was false.
Although Deputy Brawner as well as other officers searched the area for hours, they were unable to find him.
Moving forward two days to Monday, February 21, 2005, a farmer in Denton found Lisa’s Dodge Durango in a creek only 300 yards from where Deputy Brawner had encountered the wet & muddy mystery man.
The front end of the SUV was submerged in the water, while the windows were down & the hatchback was up. A bottle of cleaning solution was found in the cargo area while Lisa’s keys & purse were located nearby.
When Stephen Barbee went over to Theresa’s house on Sunday morning after officers had left, she confronted him, asking him what he’d done. She indicated that he began crying, telling her that his life was over while he instructed her to get the business out of his name. Assuming he had done the worst, she urged him to turn himself in.
Theresa later testified that on Friday night, February 18, 2005, both Stephen & Ron Dodd had been at her house until they left together at 10 pm. After Ron came back, he was home with her through Friday night into Saturday morning, but Ron repeatedly left in response to Stephen’s multiple phone calls.
On Sunday morning when Theresa asked Stephen about Ron’s involvement, he reportedly told her that Ron’s mistake had been picking him up that night.
In the meantime, investigators showed Officer Brawner a photo spread that included a picture of Stephen, which was how he was able to identify the wet & muddy mystery man from Saturday morning as 37-year-old Stephen Barbee.
That same day, two detectives from the Fort Worth Police Department traveled 130 miles east to Tyler, Texas after learning that Stephen & his co-worker Ron Dodd were working there. His wife Trish had also gone along with him that day with her two children.
After they located Stephen, Trish & Ron in a Walmart parking lot, Stephen agreed to go to the Tyler Police Department for questioning where he & Ron were questioned in separate rooms.
Stephen’s interview began at about 7:30 pm that evening. He admitted that he had previously dated Lisa & could potentially be the father of her unborn child, but he claimed that he hadn’t seen nor heard from her in months.
He told detectives that on Friday, February 18, he had been cutting down trees in Tyler. After work, he made the two hour drive back home to Fort Worth & then he went over to Theresa & Ron’s house later that evening to work on the truck they used for their business.
Although Theresa later testified that Stephen had left her house with Ron on Friday night at about 10 pm, he told detectives that he didn’t leave until about 2 or 3 am. Since the truck was sputtering & leaking oil, it took him more than an hour to get home. When he did get home, he decided to sleep on the couch so he wouldn’t wake his wife, Trish.
Stephen eventually acknowledged that he was the man who had been stopped by Deputy Brawner at 3 am on Saturday morning. He also admitted that he’d given him a fake name & date of birth before running away.
During his questioning, Stephen asked to use the restroom. According to Detective Carroll, after he accompanied him to the restroom, they had an unrecorded conversation for about an hour. It began after Detective Carroll told Stephen that Ron was planning to tell them everything because he wanted Lisa’s family to have closure.
This was when Stephen told him that he & Ron had created a plan to kill Lisa because she wanted to use his name on the baby’s birth certificate. He claimed that she was trying to get money from him & she intended to ruin his relationship with his wife, Trish, as well as his relationship with her two children, a 6-year-old son & a 9-year-old daughter.
Lisa’s friend Debbie vehemently denied the accusation that Lisa had ever been harassing or trying to blackmail Stephen. The only thing she’d ever asked of him was that he provide health insurance for the baby. Since Lisa was a financially stable woman who had her own home that she & Jayden had been living in for three years, as well as her own business, she had absolutely no reason to blackmail him.
Stephen went on to tell Detective Carroll that after he dropped his car off at Ron’s house, Ron dropped him off at Lisa’s. When he went inside, although he tried to start a fight with her, he was unsuccessful, so he called Ron & asked him to pick him up.
Later that night, when Ron brought him back to Lisa’s, he told her that he refused to leave his wife, which is when he was able to upset her enough to start an argument.
He said that he wrestled her to the ground & held her face to the carpet until she stopped breathing. When Jayden came into the room & saw his mom getting attacked, he began screaming & crying. Stephen put his hand over his mouth & nose & held it there until the little boy stopped breathing.
Stephen Barbee had been a stranger to Jayden prior to this moment. Any time Lisa had gone out with him in the past, Jayden had been at a friend’s house.
After Lisa & Jayden were both dead, he attempted to clean up the house, covering a blood stain on the living room floor with a piece of furniture. He put their bodies into Lisa’s car & drove to a road off of Farm to Market Road 407 (FM 407) where he buried their bodies in a shallow grave using a shovel that Ron had given him. He put debris over their graves before he drove Lisa’s car to the creek where it was found on Monday.
When Stephen & Detective Carroll left the restroom & went back into the interview room, Stephen recounted his confession in a digitally recorded video statement that night. Detective Carroll also utilized MapQuest so that Stephen could show him exactly where Lisa & Jayden’s remains could be found.
When Detective Carroll told Trish about her husband’s confession, she asked to see him. While they were alone together in the interview room, unaware that they were being recorded, Stephen told his wife that when he spoke with Lisa on the phone on Friday, she’d threatened him.
He went over to her house to have a face-to-face conversation with her which was when she told him that she would ruin him. He claimed that because she began hitting & kicking him, he held her down too long, never meaning for her to stop breathing.
At this point in time, Trish had no idea that her husband had also murdered 7-year-old Jayden.
After spending the night in the Smith County Jail, on Tuesday morning, February 22, 2005, Stephen rode with officers to a wooded location near Northlake in Denton County, about 25 miles north of Fort Worth, where Lisa & Jayden’s bodies could be found.
He told the officers that he didn’t want to see their bodies & he wanted no interaction with the media. From his seat in the car, he yelled out the window, directing them to their grave. Lisa & Jayden’s remains were located in a shallow grave that had been covered by tree limbs.
According to Dr. Marc Krouse, the medical examiner who performed Lisa’s autopsy, she suffered facial abrasions & contusions as well as a broken arm. There were bruises on her back that could have resulted in her getting struck by something or by having external forces applied to her body for a longer period of time.
Her cause of death was traumatic asphyxiation. The injuries to her body were consistent with someone holding her down which prevented her from breathing. She had been seven months pregnant with a healthy female fetus that died as a result of fetal asphyxiation resulting from maternal asphyxiation.
7-year-old Jayden’s autopsy was performed under the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, with Dr. Marc Krouse acting as the ME who testified to these findings. He later testified that the first grader had a large bruise above his right temple that resulted from some sort of impact to the head. There were bruises & abrasions on his back, arm, hip & leg. His lips & gums were also bruised from some sort of compression to the mouth that resulted from his lips pushing into his underlying teeth.
The little boy’s injuries were consistent with someone placing a hand over his mouth & nose as well as someone pressing his face against a flat surface or a surface that gives when pushed against, such as a couch or a carpeted floor. His cause of death was asphyxia by smothering.
That same day, about 200 people gathered in Fort Worth for what had initially been planned as a candlelight vigil to pray for the safe return of Lisa & Jayden, but had transitioned into a memorial after their bodies had been recovered.
According to Ron Dodd, Stephen had asked him for rides several times on Friday night into the early morning hours of Saturday. In addition to dropping him off at Lisa’s house on Friday night, he also took him to an old elementary school early on Saturday & then came back to get him when Stephen called again.
When he got back in the car, he told Ron that he’d been visiting a female friend who he’d gotten pregnant. When he said, I just can’t do it, Ron only assumed that he meant that they were breaking up.
After driving him to a couple more places, Stephen called once again, directing Ron to an area east of Justin, between Fort Worth & Denton, where he found Stephen standing next to an SUV that had run out of gas.
According to Ron, when he walked over with the gas can, he was shocked to see the bodies of a woman & a male child in the back of the SUV. Shaken, he said he left the area & Stephen later told them that he was responsible for their deaths.
After Stephen’s confession, which was followed by the recovery of Lisa & Jayden’s bodies, Stephen Barbee was arrested in Tyler & booked into the Smith County Jail on Tuesday where he was charged with capital murder for the deaths of Lisa & her son, Jayden. His bond was set at $2 million.
In the wake of her husband’s arrest, Trish Barbee was unable to believe that her husband was capable of the deaths of two people, especially one who had only been a child, saying that it was impossible. She called him a wonderful man, an angel & the sweetest thing in the world. She said that he adored her two young children, they planned to have a child of their own together, they’d never had a fight & Stephen had never so much as raised his voice at her.
Trish first learned about his previous relationship with Lisa a few months after she started dating Stephen in 2003. When Lisa came to Stephen’s former apartment one morning & began banging on the door, he told Trish that she was a woman he once dated who wouldn’t leave him alone despite the fact that she knew he was dating someone else. Trish was unaware that Lisa had remained in contact with her husband or that she was pregnant until after she & Jayden were reported missing.
33-year-old Ron Dodd was arrested the following day on Wednesday, February 23, 2005 for a parole violation. He had been sentenced to prison for eight years in 1997 for aggravated assault with a weapon & had been released on parole two years earlier in 2003.
At the time of his arrest in 2005, his full involvement in the murders was still being investigated & he’d yet to be charged in connection with Lisa & Jayden’s deaths.
Moving forward to November 2006, after he was offered a plea deal, Ron Dodd pleaded guilty to two counts of tampering with physical evidence in regards to the concealment & disposal of Lisa & Jayden’s bodies. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. Had he been convicted by jurors, he would have faced up to 20 years.
Despite Stephen’s recorded confession with Detective Carroll as well as with his wife, paired with the fact that he led officers to Lisa & Jayden’s bodies, Stephen recanted his confession days later. He claimed that he had been coerced into confessing & that Ron Dodd had threatened him & his family.
He pleaded not guilty, pointing the finger at Ron as the person responsible for Lisa & Jayden’s deaths.
His capital murder trial took place in February 2006 in Tarrant County, Texas in which prosecutors Kevin Rousseau & Dixie Bersano were seeking the death penalty. The State theorized that he murdered Lisa in her home because she was likely pregnant with his child & would expose their relationship to his new wife, Trish Barbee. He killed Jayden after the little boy came into the room while his mom was being murdered.
In a tragic twist of irony, DNA testing presented during the trial proved that Stephen had not been the father of Lisa’s unborn child after all. Instead, it had been the man she’d been dating during the same timeframe, someone who Holly Pils testified had been Lisa’s serious boyfriend.
Stephen’s videotaped confession with Detective Mike Carroll was not allowed to be presented after a judge determined it had been improperly obtained, as his questioning continued even after he made a statement suggesting he might want an attorney.
The judge did allow Detective Carroll to discuss Stephen’s earlier bathroom confession as well as other incriminating statements he made outside of the suppressed interrogation, as well as the fact that he had led detectives to Lisa & Jayden’s burial site.
Detective Carroll testified that while they had been in the bathroom together at the police station, Stephen confessed to suffocating Lisa in her home in the early morning hours of Saturday, February 19, 2005 after she threatened to break up his marriage. When 7-year-old Jayden came running into the room, he covered his mouth until he stopped breathing.
Jurors were able to watch the videotape of Stephen’s conversation with his now ex-wife Trish. He told her that he held her down too long, repeatedly describing it as a terrible decision or an accident, saying that his life was over.
When Dr. Marc Krouse testified about the autopsy findings, he admitted that late-stage pregnancy reduces a person’s cardiovascular reserve, potentially making it easier for a person to succumb to asphyxia. Although he believed Lisa had been restrained for at least 2-3 minutes, he said it could have happened in as little as 30 seconds.
After the prosecution rested, the defense called one witness before it rested as well. Stephen did not testify in his own defense.
During closing arguments, lead defense attorney Bill Ray agreed that Stephen had killed both Lisa & Jayden, while arguing that the State had not proven that he intentionally or knowingly killed both of them, which was necessary for this particular capital murder conviction.
Bill Ray relied heavily on Stephen’s conversation with Trish, focusing specifically on his statement about holding Lisa down for too long. This, paired with Dr. Krouse’s uncertainty regarding how long she may have been restrained, suggested that an argument had gotten out of control & he hadn’t actually intended to kill Lisa.
However, this had absolutely not been the case for Jayden’s death as the State’s confession evidence proved that Stephen had deliberately covered the little boy’s mouth after he came into the room while his mom was being attacked.
Closing arguments were delivered on Thursday, February 23, 2006 & that same day, the jury found Stephen Barbee guilty of capital murder.
The jury was then tasked with deciding if he should receive life in prison or death.
The prosecution presented evidence to prove that he would remain dangerous, making a point that a man who was willing to kill a pregnant woman & her 7-year-old child in order to protect his marriage, represented an ongoing threat.
They also presented evidence that he had assaulted his ex-wife Theresa on four occasions during their marriage, threatening to put her through a wood chipper. He’d also assaulted a driver in a road-rage incident & verbally abused a former female co-worker who had rejected his romantic advances.
Meanwhile, the defense argued that Stephen had been a man without a criminal record who was active in the children’s ministry at his church, growing the program & performing puppet shows to raise money for children. They also discussed a recent head injury he suffered weeks before the murders when he was struck in the head & knocked unconscious by a 400-500 pound pipe, saying he had been experiencing ongoing headaches since.
His mom also testified that her son had never been the same after his two siblings died at a young age.
The entire guilt & sentencing phases of the trial were exceedingly fast, concluding in less than three days. On Monday, February 27, 2006, after three hours of deliberation, jurors sentenced Stephen Barbee to death.
Four years later in 2010, Stephen provided another version of events as to what led to Lisa & Jayden’s deaths, claiming that after Ron had offered to talk to Lisa about getting a paternity test so they went to her house. While he waited in Ron’s truck, Ron had gone inside for 15-20 minutes. When he came out, he told him that the problem had been solved which is when Stephen went inside & saw that Lisa & Jayden were dead.
Fearing he would be blamed for their deaths, Stephen said he put their bodies in Lisa’s SUV & drove to the burial site where Ron met him. Ron helped remove their bodies from the SUV before tossing Stephen a shovel & driving away. After he buried their bodies, Ron was supposed to pick him up along the highway, which is where he was stopped by Deputy Brawner.
After spending nearly 17 years on death row, Stephen’s execution date was set for November 16, 2022 after the courts rejected his appeals over claims of religious freedom violations as well as indifference to his medical needs.
In his final statement, he spoke about his faith in God & his hopes that this wouldn’t be a sad moment for his family & friends. He never looked in the direction of Lisa & Jayden’s loved ones who watched from a viewing room.
Through tears he said, I’m ready, warden. Send me home. I just want everyone to have peace in their hearts. 55-year-old Stephen Barbee was pronounced dead at 7:35 pm, 26 minutes after he was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital.
He was the fifth inmate to be put to death in Texas that year & the last scheduled in the state for execution in 2022.
In February 2005, Lisa Underwood had been a 34-year-old single mother who was raising her little boy who she loved deeply, while preparing to welcome her baby girl into the world. 7-year-old Jayden had been an innocent little boy who should have had his whole life ahead of him with school, friendships, birthdays, mistakes, accomplishments & every little detail in between that makes up a life.
Instead, both of their lives were taken in their own home by a man that Lisa knew & trusted. Lisa’s baby girl, Marleigh Ann, never even got the opportunity to take her first breath.
Although Stephen Barbee eventually paid the ultimate legal consequence for their deaths, no punishment would ever bring the lives of three innocent people back.
References:
- Stephen Dale Barbee v. State of Texas
- Stephen Dale Barbee v. William Stephens
- Stephen Dale Barbee v. Lorie Davis
- Stephen Dale Barbee petition
- Brief in Opposition
- CBS News: Ex arrested in Texas double murder
- NBC News: Love triangle blamed for slayings of woman, son
- NBC News: Texas executes man for killing pregnant ex-girlfriend & her 7-year-old son
- ABC News: Bodies missing pregnant woman, son found
- Star-Telegram: Lisa & Jayden Underwood
- Legal Momentum: Pregnant women are 16% more likely to die by homicide. What happens after Roe?
- Harvard: Homicide leading cause of death for pregnant women in U.S.
- CNN: Police: Man admits suffocating pregnant woman, son
- CNN: Transcripts – CNN Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
- My Plainview: Business partner of murder suspect jailed on parole violation
- My Plainview: Man sentenced to death in pregnant woman, boy’s deaths
- My Plainview: Suspect’s wife says he is ‘not capable’ of killing
- SF Gate: Man sentenced to 10 years for helping friend hide bodies
- WAFF 48: Texas murder update
- Mrt: Murder suspect wasn’t father of victim’s unborn child
- Mrt: Confession thrown out in deaths of woman & son
- Mrt: Jurors see videotape confession in murder trial
- Death Sentences Today: Texas 2006
- Death Penalty News
