Pregnant woman is murdered and baby abducted

US police are hunting the killer of an eight months pregnant woman whose unborn child was cut from her body and abducted.

Doctors have said the baby may well have survived the attack in Skidmore, Missouri.

“Someone was wanting a baby awful bad,” said Sheriff Bill Espey.

The 23-year-old victim, who was found inside her home by her mother, was probably strangled, said police.

Sheriff Espey said there were no visible signs of a struggle and no indication of forced entry into her home.

He said the victim had been married for a little more than a year and was pregnant with her first child. The victim’s husband was not a suspect.

“I believe there is a live eight-month-old foetus out there we need to find,” said the sheriff.

There were no visible signs of struggle and no indication of forced entry into Bobbi Jo Stinnett’s home in the small community of 500 in the north-west corner of Missouri, the sheriff said.

“We know she was alive in the afternoon, within an hour of being found,” Espey said. Espey added that investigators were looking for a car that had been reported seen in the driveway at the Stinnett home.

Officers in neighbouring Atchison County saw a car that appeared to match that description early today and began chasing it, but lost sight of it after its lights were turned off, he said.

A neighbour, Bill Dragoo, said Ms Stinnett and her husband raised dogs and “didn’t bother anybody.”

“She was such a shy person. They didn’t deserve this.”