Be My Baby

Theresa Lynn Lund was born in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1962, the only girl among three brothers. She grew up outdoors, fishing and playing ball, and married for the first time in 1980, when she was eighteen. A daughter followed in 1981. She divorced and married a man named Randy, with whom she had another daughter in 1986, and in 1990 she married Terry Bell, a crane operator. Their daughter Tressa was born in 1991. On 16 July 1996 Theresa gave birth to a son, Paul Eugene, her fourth child and her first boy.

Terry's job took him to Gary, Indiana, that summer. He went ahead to set up home while Theresa stayed in Keokuk with the children, and the plan was for the family to follow. In the days before mobile phones, they spoke by long-distance telephone every other night.

this part of the story is covered for now She had been married five times by the age of thirty-six. details of the account remain covered until revealed She told him she was pregnant, and Bob, who had never had children, was delighted. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it She had told one boyfriend that she had delivered a stillborn baby at the hospital, and another that she had been pregnant by his brother and then had an abortion. Years earlier she had also signed a notarised agreement with a teenage mother for custody of the woman's infant son, an arrangement that was undone because it was not legal.

this part of the story is covered for now She was never seen alive again. Her mother, Velva, could not find her, and neither could a friend. Velva drove around the small town and found Theresa's car in the parking lot of the County Market grocery store. Theresa's purse and chequebook were under the front seat, and the baby's car seat was gone. Velva called 911.

details of the account remain covered until revealed Bob left work at once. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it They named the boy Dusty Eugene and spent the day in bed with him.

The police began a missing person investigation on 29 August. Nothing was missing from Theresa's home, there was no forced entry, and there had been no activity on her bank accounts. They could trace her movements only to about half past eight that morning. Bob told them his marriage was perfect, although Velva and Theresa's friends described it as strained. He agreed to a polygraph, which was inconclusive, but his work records showed he was operating a crane in Gary that morning and he was ruled out.

this part of the story is covered for now Bob noticed a foul smell and assumed the sewer had backed up. details of the account remain covered until revealed After the guests left he went down, removed a board over a crawl space in the laundry room, and saw a woman's body in a red sweat suit. He pulled it out by the ankles, wrapped it in plastic and an old comforter, carried it to his pickup and drove to a remote stretch of railroad tracks near Alexandria, Missouri, just over the state line. He dumped the body, disposed of the wrapping separately and threw a gun into a pond. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Another guest, Theresa Manis, noticed that the boy's circumcision had healed and his umbilical cord had fallen off, which did not fit a newborn. this part of the story is covered for now

On 17 September 1996 police knocked at North Sixth Street. They took the baby's footprints and found he was Paul Eugene Lund. details of the account remain covered until revealed Bob came at the officers with a piece of rebar and had to be wrestled to the ground. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

Bob then led investigators to the body and to the places where he had dumped the wrapping and the gun. this part of the story is covered for now The body was badly decomposed, with two gunshot wounds to the head, and the doctor who carried out the autopsy found that most of the organs had been eaten away. details of the account remain covered until revealed Bail rose to two million dollars.

The state also exhumed a grave at Keokuk National Cemetery. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it A box arrived and the family buried it. On 19 October 1996, in freezing weather, workers dug down and found a cardboard box containing a dirty pink teddy bear and no human remains.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

The prosecution called twenty-seven witnesses in two days. Bob testified under a deal. details of the account remain covered until revealed She said she had paid three thousand dollars, then changed it to fifteen hundred dollars plus an antique shotgun and a .380 handgun. The prosecution showed that no Anthony Matrana appeared in FBI drug databases and that her phone records had no calls from Florida. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed In September 2023 the case was featured on the television series Snapped.