Hardy case from Iowa
jill...@aol.com
Does anyone have any more information on the following?
Subj: Mother Killer Trial Set to Start
Date: 97-02-24 01:35:10 EST
From: AOLNews...@aol.net
.c The Associated Press
By GREG SMITH
KEOKUK, Iowa (AP) - Robert Hardy came home from work last Aug.
28 to be told he had a new son, born urgently that day in the
bathtub.
A few blocks away, at the police station, an anxious Velva Green
was filling out forms; her daughter and 6-week-old grandson were
missing.
Later, both learned the truth.
Green's daughter, Theresa Lynn Lund, was dead. Her grandson was
in the care of Robert and Kimmi Lynn Hardy. Prosecutors say Mrs.
Hardy faked pregnancy for months, lured Ms. Lund to her home, then
killed the woman to claim her child as her own.
Mrs. Hardy's trial for first-degree murder begins Tuesday;
jailed on $2 million bond, she has pleaded not guilty by reason of
insanity.
Last spring, Mrs. Hardy told husband, family and friends in this
Mississippi River town of 13,500 that she was pregnant. She wore
maternity clothes. She tried out baby names.
At some point, she struck up an acquaintance with another
expectant mother, Theresa Lund, 34, whose fifth child was due in
July.
On Aug. 28, police say, Mrs. Hardy lured Ms. Lund with her baby
to her home and shot her twice in the head with a .38-caliber
handgun. She hid the body in a basement crawl space.
When Hardy arrived, she told him labor had come on suddenly,
that she'd had no time to get to a hospital and so delivered the
baby in the bathtub. He believed her.
A few weeks later, when police came to take the boy, Hardy
fiercely defended his wife and son, holding officers off with a
steel pipe and getting arrested for the trouble. Police told him
the child was not his - and not his wife's.
``My son is a big, easygoing guy, but not that bright,'' his
father, Ralph Hardy, said at the time.
Robert Hardy was Kimmi Hardy's third husband - and apparently
the second she had fooled with a concocted story of pregnancy.
Wendell Smith had been through it before.
In 1993, she told Smith she was pregnant. What she had never
told him was that she'd had a tubal ligation nine years before,
after the birth of her third child to her first husband, making
pregnancy virtually impossible.
Like Robert Hardy, Smith believed her.
``She had all the symptoms of being pregnant; sick in the
morning, big belly,'' he said later.
In October 1993, they drove to Iowa City, where his wife had a
doctor's appointment at University Hospitals and Clinics.
About 45 minutes after she had gone in for an exam, Smith got a
phone call in the waiting room. The female caller told him Kimmi
had delivered a stillborn baby boy, then hung up. Soon after, his
weeping wife entered the waiting room.
She arranged to have the body cremated; a cardboard box of
remains arrived at the home a few days later and they buried it at
Keokuk's National Cemetery.
Some 30 friends and family members attended the funeral for
little Zachary Smith. There were tears. There was a priest. A
notice of the child's death was put in the Keokuk Daily Gate City.
Smith didn't learn he'd been played for a fool until Oct. 18 - 2
1/2 weeks after his ex-wife was charged with first-degree murder in
Theresa Lund's death.
On that day, with Smith's permission, investigators took shovels
and backhoes to what he thought was the grave of his stillborn son.
They dug up a crumbling cardboard box, but it held only a baby
quilt, a teddy bear and packing material. No cremated remains.
``I really feel like an idiot, burying a cardboard box,'' Smith
said.
Authorities had anticipated finding no remains. They knew Mrs.
Hardy had had her tubes tied. And they knew no hospital or state
record listed any birth, death or stillborn delivery of a Zachary
W. Smith.
Police had been looking into Mrs. Hardy's background since
getting a tip from a guest at a baby shower Mrs. Hardy threw for
herself and her new son, whom she'd named Dusty Eugene Hardy.
The guest realized the boy, who would have been more than 6
weeks old by then, was much older than a newborn. Police made the
connection with the still-open missing persons report on Theresa
Lund and her baby.
They arrested Kimmi and Robert Hardy on Sept. 18. Through
footprint records, they discovered their infant was actually Paul
Lund, born July 16.
Mrs. Hardy initially told police she'd bought the child from
someone out of state, paying $3,000.
But Hardy eventually told police his wife had shot Ms. Lund and
that he had found the body later that day. On Sept. 27, he led
authorities to the body, lying alongside railroad tracks near
Alexandria, Mo., less than 10 miles from the Hardys' home.
Hardy, charged with seven felony counts in the case, will
testify at his wife's trial.
Miniya
By GREG SMITH
KEOKUK, Iowa (AP) - Robert Hardy came home from work last Aug.
28 to be told he had a new son, born urgently that day in the
bathtub.
A few blocks away, at the police station, an anxious Velva Green
was filling out forms; her daughter and 6-week-old grandson were
missing.
Later, both learned the truth.
***Hi Jill,
I don't have any more info on the above case, but my God! What a terrible
thing! I remember two other similar cases; I can't remember the names
tho'. In one case the woman killed the pregnant mother and cut open her
stomach to deliver the baby using a set of car keys. She left the mother
lying an a field; and to compound the horror for the mother, she didn't
die right away - she suffered tremendously. I can't imagine what she went
through mentally, knowing what was happening to her.
***It's amazing how they all fooled the people closest to them into
believeing they were pregnant. I can understand coworkers and friends
being fooled; they see a maternity top and gained weight - hey, it looks
like a pregnancy. But a husband? How uninvolved in your relationship can
you be? Some men must not take a close look at their wives. Good thing
all men aren't that way.
Mary Ann
Mary Ann
-Moment of inner freedom when the mind is opened and the infinite universe revealed and the soul is left to wander dazed and confus'd searching here and there for teachers and friends - James Douglas Morrison
The Proctors
jill...@aol.com wrote:
>
> Does anyone have any more information on the following?
>
> Subj: Mother Killer Trial Set to Start
> Date: 97-02-24 01:35:10 EST
> From: AOLNews...@aol.net
>
> .c The Associated Press
>
> KEOKUK, Iowa (AP) - Robert Hardy came home from work last Aug.
> 28 to be told he had a new son, born urgently that day in the
> bathtub.
> A few blocks away, at the police station, an anxious Velva Green
> was filling out forms; her daughter and 6-week-old grandson were
> missing.
> Later, both learned the truth.
Another one where one parent is going to get a deal and some time off
for testifying against the other??? I'd like to know what the counts
against him are and the penalties associated with them. The guy found
the REAL mother's body THAT VERY DAY and he never told authorities.
Gee, who hauled the body those ten miles to dump it?? He certainly knew
where it was. He may not have participated in the planning and murder
of Theresa Lund but he was an accessory after the fact. He WILLINGLY
kept the stolen baby of another family. He was so excited to have a
son, but he wasn't concerned another father may have been looking for
that baby. His father was right. He's not too bright. What losers. I've
seen these stolen baby cases before and it seems the duped *father* is
usually horrified at the circumstances, not a participant in the
cover-up. I don't know how many people that woman had at her baby
shower, but only ONE could recognize that a six-week old child wasn't
really a newborn???!! At least SHE came forward with the truth.
karen
Miniya
From: The Proctors <cpro...@flash.net>
> ***It's amazing how they all fooled the people closest to them into
> believeing they were pregnant. I can understand coworkers and friends
> being fooled; they see a maternity top and gained weight - hey, it looks
> like a pregnancy. But a husband? How uninvolved in your relationship can
> you be? Some men must not take a close look at their wives. Good thing
> all men aren't that way.
>
> Mary Ann
That's a good statement about the lack of involvement. I guess that's
why these sick women do this, to get his attention. (and other people's,
too, I understand) There's no way someone could fake a pregnancy with a
lot of the men, I know. Heck, they're down there at sonograms and
doctors' visists, and stuff. karen
Hi Karen,
Thanks. I think it's great that the hospitals allow fathers to be more
involved in the birth now; they should be. My cousin's wife just had their
first last Friday, and they really made him work with her. It was a
beautiful experience for both of them.
Unfortunately, some people just don't want to be involved. Or maybe they
want to believe it. I don't think I'll ever understand why people do the
things they do, especially when it comes to murder, and murdering your own
child.
The Proctors
Miniya wrote:
>
> By GREG SMITH
> KEOKUK, Iowa (AP) - Robert Hardy came home from work last Aug.
> 28 to be told he had a new son, born urgently that day in the
> bathtub.
> A few blocks away, at the police station, an anxious Velva Green
> was filling out forms; her daughter and 6-week-old grandson were
> missing.
> Later, both learned the truth.
>
> I don't have any more info on the above case, but my God! What a terrible
> thing! I remember two other similar cases; I can't remember the names
> tho'. In one case the woman killed the pregnant mother and cut open her
> stomach to deliver the baby using a set of car keys. She left the mother
> lying an a field; and to compound the horror for the mother, she didn't
> die right away - she suffered tremendously. I can't imagine what she went
> through mentally, knowing what was happening to her.
>
Terence P Higgins
From article <19970227174...@ladder02.news.aol.com>, by min...@aol.com (Miniya):
> Thanks. I think it's great that the hospitals allow fathers to be more
involved in the birth now; they should be. My cousin's wife just had their
first last Friday, and they really made him work with her. It was a
beautiful experience for both of them.
Off topic I know, but while I whole heartedly agree with Mary Ann
(having been there for the birth of my two children) I think an unintended
side effect is that the husbands get yelled at a lot more in the delivery
room. My wifes epidural is wearing off, she's pushing and in pain, and I'm
in there saying "remember your breathing, puff, puff, blow..." It's a wonder
she didn't brain me with the bed pan...
--
Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads...
http://www.uwm.edu/~thig/rumpus.html
Daisy
Hi Jill,
I was in Keokuk, Iowa when this murder was solved. It's truly a strange
case.
My mother is grew up in Keokuk and I have lots of family there. Is
there anything in particular about the case you're curious about? I can
ask them if they know anything more. It's a very small town.
Daisy
jill...@aol.com wrote:
>
> Does anyone have any more information on the following?
>
> Subj: Mother Killer Trial Set to Start
> Date: 97-02-24 01:35:10 EST
> From: AOLNews...@aol.net
>
> .c The Associated Press
>
cyli
Not too bright, from a small town, probably not at all sophisticated.
Many men in that situation haven't yet found the currently fashionable
thing of learning much about women. She doubtless picked him for many of
those reasons. It's a common and old time male myth that women's
hormones make them anything from odd at times to completely crazy from
men's views. There's no telling what story she fed him about the body.
Perhaps that the woman came to the house to steal their baby. After all,
the corpse couldn't tell him anything to deny it. He could go with
'Well, she's the mother of my child and giving birth made her weird and
then this woman came and tried to take the baby.' Stupid, yes. Smart
enough to know the body had to be disposed of somehow or the whole family
would be in trouble and then his wife arrested and what would happen to
his baby? Or else she supplied that part of the smarts, too.
Theres nothing in the report to indicate that the guy thought anything
until after the arrest to indicate it wasn't his own child. If she could
fool him through the pregnancy (probably simply by saying that pregnant
women shouldn't have sex (a common belief until fairly recently) or that
she was too delicate or ill or the doctor said.), why not after?
Kudos to the woman who did notice. Many of us don't pay much attention
to the baby at these gatherings. I tend to let my glance slide past and
go "Oh, how sweet." I've seen so many babies. I've had some. It's a
rare baby nowdays that actually captures my attention. Only 3 in the
past 5 years and one of those was a grandchild. Some kids are born big,
too. So I can see a few wrinkled brows, but no one really devoting much
thought. After all, she was, in their minds, a woman who'd been pregnant
for the right amount of time. What were they to think? Who'd imagine
that it wasn't her baby? Especially with no possible hospital mixup to
blame any difference on? If something doesn't quite fit the facts I know
and it doesn't seem of any importance, I'm apt to simply assume that my
mind has done some extra twink and let it go.
Yes, the husband, however dull and manipulated he was should do jail
time. But I feel sorry for the poor guy. Nowhere near the sorrow I feel
for the victims in the case, but some left for him.
--
"If I die of curiousity, who will entertain you with naive questions?"
I only answer my mail on an average of once every two months. Be
patient.