A Connecticut State Police detective Thursday read aloud in court an emotional letter from
defendant LeRoya Moore in which she said that she and her two young children “were meant to die today.”
Detective Brian Connolly testified he found the letter near the bodies of Aleisha Moore, 6, and Daaron Moore, 7, when he searched their East Haven home for evidence.
Moore, 39, is
charged with two counts of murder. The bodies of her son and daughter were discovered the afternoon of June 2, 2015. When police led her out of the house on Strong Street, they noticed she had cuts on her arms and wrists.
An associate with the state office of the chief medical examiner testified Wednesday that Aleisha died from acute intoxication of diphenhydramine and alcohol, while Daaron died from acute intoxication of diphenhydramine.
Moore began the lengthy letter by saying, “I’m sure there’s an expert somewhere that will say the children suffered, but I let them know they were loved very much and they were going to heaven. We said the Lord’s Prayer to protect their souls.”
She continued: “I know this was meant to end the way it did. I don’t know the reason why, but we were meant to die today.”
She wrote that at age 35, “I was convinced for a while I would be okay and I wouldn’t ever be this sad again because I had great jobs, good kids and a house and car and I did these things all by myself. I am all by myself still.”
“I’m not meant to be here past this time,” she said. “It’s okay and I’m not scared. I’m numb and if I burn for eternity, at least I’ll know why I deserve it. I don’t know what I did to deserve this life and these kids don’t deserve to be brought into it to have sadness and suffering all of the time. I watch them cry and act out because they don’t know what they did for their parents to leave them to fend for themselves.”
In her letter Moore made repeated references to her marital struggles with Michael Moore, the father of the two children. She wrote: “I told you when I first got pregnant with Daaron that I could not be a single parent again.”
Michael Moore has not appeared in court during the first two days of testimony.
In the letter she wrote, Moore said, “I couldn’t leave any more of my kids to the system. They don’t all get a happy ending. I love them all. I love them all so much. I only wanted to be better for them but they were missing the one thing I couldn’t ever give them on my own. They were in pain and now they’re in heaven.”
Moore added, “I will be cremated and the bank will get the house and the car. ... I really tried. ... I asked God to stop me if I was making a mistake. I asked (him) to show me I was wrong and save them. They should not be left to burden anyone because I am the only one who could love them like a mother. Not an institution or a social worker.”
She said of her children, “They will be in heaven with the people who we lost and loved. They deserve that.”
Moore then wrote, “They got to do all of the things they wanted to do before they died today. They ate their favorite things. They had ice cream and they wanted to paint their nails, so we got nail polish and they had fun and really liked how it came out. I saw them truly happy, not being shipped off to multiple babysitters and just hanging out with mommy.”
Moore alluded to her three other children; she had lost custody of them to the state Department of Children and Families. She wrote: “I made the mistake the first time and didn’t end things when I could have, before I made it far and had more kids. My older kids escaped the same fate because I was too depressed to move and make it happen. My angel saved me, saved us. Now they are suffering. I won’t do this injustice to my other kids.”
Toward the end of her letter, Moore wrote, “There’s no more pain for Daaron and Aleisha. They left this world as innocent as they were when they came into it ... not scarred and heart-broken by people who make promises to love and protect them.”
In the final paragraph of her letter, Moore wrote: “I’m done. There’s nothing else to say and no further explanation to give. We love you and be proud of these two angels that will watch over and protect you all.”
Moore showed little or no emotion during the testimony, even when photos of her dead children were displayed on a computer screen near her.
Her defense team is expected to pursue a strategy of impaired mental health.