When the Bough Breaks: New Mexico
Desperate to be a mother, Darci Pierce murdered a stranger in cold blood and stole her unborn baby.
Narrator: Good evening and welcome back to Friday Night Crimes. Desperation can make people do unthinkable things, and that was certainly the case for Darci Pierce.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there have been 329 cases of infant abduction between 1964 and 2020, which makes this a rare crime. Still, rarity only serves to make it more horrifying when it happens, so let’s get into it.
The Timeline: 1987–1988
July 23, 1987, around 2:00 pm: Cindy Ray was eight months pregnant and was due to give birth in approximately two weeks. This was her second child. Cindy’s husband, Sam, was in the Air Force, so her prenatal clinic was in the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Cindy parked her red Chevrolet Blazer near the clinic’s door. Reports indicate that she was chatty and excited to have her baby. For her job, she delivered Tupperware containers and she’d had a busy day with that. If it weren’t for her pregnancy and appointment that day, it’s likely that she and her killer never would’ve met.
