FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) —When Dorothy Moore lost her brother seven years ago, the senselessness caused her unimaginable pain.
It was Bobby Moore’s birthday when he stood outside the front door of an Avondale Drive home. Around 11 p.m. on Sept. 20, 2016, while the party was going on, a sedan drove by, pulled into a driveway and one of the four occupants shot him, mistakenly taking the 55-year-old for a rival gang member.
Four weeks later, on Oct. 19, her 30-year-old son, Anton Moore, was found dead in a ravine in the 6600 block of Fairfield Avenue. His girlfriend, Jaime Klein, also 30, was found stabbed at her New Haven home.
Five police officers came to her door that day to break the news about her son.
On Friday, she got a phone call to say two people had been arrested for Anton’s death. Gregory Robinson, 40, and Priya Whitt, also 40, have been preliminarily charged in their homicides with a third person implicated.
The tragedy left her so broken, she spent seven days at the old St. Joe hospital where the long-time certified nursing assistant found herself tending to other people suffering from mental distress. Helping others helped her, she said Friday.
The already thin Moore went down to 97 pounds, but has since become healthier at 130. She’s still thin and relies on cigarettes to calm her down.
She has her good days and her bad ones. At least, she eats and she reminds herself why she must get stronger. She still has four sons. She has 12 grandkids and five great grandkids.
She had to quit her job as a CNA because of severe depression, but managed to keep her home on West Wildwood Avenue where her sons and their families constantly visit as well as friends and other family members.
“When they killed Anton and Bobby, I was never the same person and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same,” Moore said. “I have good and bad days. These days, I have more good days than bad.”
She’d never heard of the two people charged in her son’s gun death, she said.
The year 2016 was one of the deadliest with 48 homicides in Allen County. This year, there’ve been 19 homicides with a clearance rate above 85%. Her son’s death was considered a cold case, but new information gave detectives from New Haven and Fort Wayne enough to ask the Allen County Prosecutor to file charges.
“They’re (the police) not playin,’” Moore said as she sat on her front porch, smoking a cigarette. “They’re sick of these guys.”
Both Robinson and Whitt appeared for their first hearing Friday. WANE 15 was in the courtroom when Whitt appeared in front of Magistrate John Bohdan. She slumped down into her seat, barely responding as Bohdan read the probable cause affidavit out loud.
Her family members sat in the courtroom at the Bud Meeks Justice Center in disbelief. Her sister, Keisha Townsend, turned to WANE 15.
“Is this on the news?” she asked. “We don’t know what’s going on.” There were tears in her eyes as she sat next to her mother.
“I never thought this day would come, but we’ve been hurting since it happened,” Moore said sitting between her sons, Tywon Martin and Tyson Martin. “And I’m so happy you guys got him. Now, he can hurt like we hurt.”
Moore said Anton was “amazing. He gave. He just gave too much and there was somebody out there that didn’t want him to have what he had.”
