As Lisa's story was surfacing, my mind immediately went back a decade or so to when I was pregnant. Throughout that pregnancy, I participated in an online discussion board on a parenting site. We were arranged in forums by due date. As the months went by, disagreements and fights erupted between hormonal pregnant women (and then hormonal new mommies) about any manner of things that could result in a serious grudge, and a certain percentage of women ended up losing their babies at all stages of pregnancy, from early in the first trimester to stillbirths to SIDS.
I discovered some things in that time. First, too many people are too free with information. People posted details of their lives, full names of families and children, pictures of their houses and nurseries... everything.
Second, many people online lie. There were a couple of "tragic" incidents exposed as scams, after people had banded together and collected money and things, and some people's "lives" were completely invented and bogus. You'd think you really knew somebody, because they'd post information and pictures of their lives too -and find out later that nothing they presented was true.
Third, there are some mentally unhealthy people online and often people don't realize how serious it is until it's too late. At least one of the women who lost a child via stillbirth insisted on continuing with the group as we graduated from being an "Expecting Club" to being a "Playgroup". It was painful to see the ways she tortured herself as others embarked on lives with their new babies. Someone would say, "I got no sleep last night... Little Ralphie cried all night long", and she'd go into hysterics: At least you HAVE a baby to cry!!!!!"
I can see someone like that taking a baby. I can see her fixating on a certain baby, collecting photographs as they are posted and information about the family and house and daily life (because women on those groups post EVERYTHING!), stalking FB pages... shudder.
I hope as they are investigating, they look into whether Lisa's mother may have participated in a group like this. The internet can truly be creepy.