Self-Professed Female Anti-Christ Kills Son and Herself at Florida Shooting Range

April 09, 2009

Some pretty disturbing cases have occurred in Florida in the past year, but an incident that recently occurred in Casselberry, Fla., has got to be one of the most bizarre cases that local law enforcement has ever investigated.

On April 5, 44-year-old Marie Moore and her 20-year-old son Mitchell Moore went to the Shoot Straight Gun Range in Casselberry for an afternoon of target practice – or at least that is what Mitchel was led to believe. Unbeknownst to him, his mother had a much more sinister plan in mind.

After renting two handguns and purchasing ammunition, Moore and her son were led to a booth in the range where they proceeded to take turns shooting at targets. Most of the events that transpired were captured on surveillance video. Nothing on that video seems to suggest an impending tragedy; however, outside appearances can be deceiving, and we now know that Moore was actually biding her time, waiting for the opportune moment to put her plan into action.

At one point, Moore left the booth to purchase additional ammunition. While she was gone, Mitchell continued to shoot at a target down range. Upon Moore's return, mother and son chatted briefly with a man in the next booth. Afterwards, Mitchell refocused his attention on his paper target, unaware that his mother was drawing up her own gun and aiming it directly at his head. Seconds later, Moore fired off a single, execution-style shot into the back of her son's head.

"Mitchell Moore immediately went down from the shot," Casselberry officer Jeffrey Shumway wrote in his police report. "Marie Moore then placed the pistol in her mouth and fired a single shot."

Mitchell was pronounced dead at the scene. His mother was still breathing when paramedics arrived, but she later died at the hospital.

"I'm so sorry. I had to send my son to Heaven and myself to Hell," read a note found in Moore's purse.

Unfortunately, the note revealed little that would indicate a motive for the apparent murder-suicide.

In an interview with Fox News, Mitchell's stepmother said that she could not wrap her mind around the senseless crime. She said that Mitchell and his mother got along well and had a close relationship.

A graduate of Lyman High School, Mitchell was an employee of his father's construction company. In the weeks leading up to the shooting, he had moved in with his girlfriend. According to a profile he reportedly maintained on MySpace, he enjoyed riding dirt bikes and going to the beach.

"All you gotta know is I love having a good time and chilling with my girl," he wrote.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Mitchell's girlfriend left a heartfelt message on his profile that read in part:

"Mitchell baby, why did she have to take you? She wanted me to go with you but you were my savior. I feel like this world needs to come to an end. I just want to see u baby. I want to feel your skin touching mine. I miss laying my head on your chest under the shower. Baby, I don't know what to do with myself. I'm going crazy… You wanted a baby boy so bad, we were trying so hard. The day before you were gone I remember us talking about getting married and you said you wanted our honey moon in Hawaii. God help me, please!"

On April 6, Marie Moore's boyfriend found suicide notes and audio recordings that she had left behind. In the notes and tapes, Moore refers to her boyfriend as "King," herself as "Queen" and her son as "Prince."

"I love you," reads one of the notes. "I'm so sorry, I had to send my son to heaven, and myself to hell."

Read three of the notes: note #1, note #2, note #3

The audio tapes were far more disturbing, in that Moore hinted at the reasons she had killed her son and herself.

Listen to the audio recordings: audio recording #1, audio recording #2, audio recording #3, audio recording #4, audio recording #5, audio recording #6

"If you're listening to this now, I'm dead. I'm in hell paying. I had to die to save my son. My husband will give my son a wonderful funeral," Moore said on the tape. "I had to die, in order to bring the world 1000 years of peace. God has turned me into the Anti-Christ. I'm so glad God warned you!"

Moore also described previous suicide attempts and said that at one time she had been placed in a psychiatric hospital.

According to Deputy Police Chief Bill McNeil, records do show that Moore was involuntarily committed to a mental institution in 2002; however, the incident that precipitated that committal is not known.

In another tape, which Moore had marked for police, she gave directions to a storage facility where investigators found dozens of handwritten journals that Moore had written about the turmoil in her life.

Unfortunately, Sunday's tragic shooting might have been avoided if Florida had stricter laws governing the rental of firearms. When purchasing a handgun, individuals must pass a comprehensive background check, but there are no such requirements for those who rent weapons. Individuals who rent are required to fill out a self-certification form on which they are supposed to indicate whether they are mentally ill. It is up to the customer to declare his or her own sanity, and that is exactly what Marie Moore did. In retrospect, she was obviously a severely troubled individual who should not have been allowed to handle a firearm.

Perhaps politicians will now recognize the serious flaws in Florida's gun rental policy.

Photo Credits: Shooting Range and note: Police File Photos

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission from Discovery Communications. All quotes must include a link back.

Comments

[Kim]

My heart is in my throat. This story is just too much. This woman had a stoarge facility full of journals about her turmoil, she had a boyfriend and people in her life. I don't understand how noone saw how sick she was.

What did she mean by " God has turned me into the Anti-Christ. I'm so glad God warned you!"

Did someone tell her to do this? Who did GOd warn?

That poor poor kid, that photo is very disturbing!

[ilene schon]

what a sad story

[ilene]

so sad

[Unamused]

Someone had obviously seen how sick the woman was, if she'd been involuntarily committed to a mental institution in the past. It's terribly sad to hear about these cases where a person with a clear history of mental illness was given or sold a firearm through perfectly legal means - one other that comes to mind is the Wayne Lo college shootings back in 1992. Despite a history of mental disturbance, he was still able to legally purchase a rifle and ammo from a local gun store.

It seems like a no-brainer, but a thorough background check including a look at a person's mental health history is an absolute must before handing them a device that represents the pinnacle of efficient, hand-held killing technology currently available. As it stands now, there are more steps involved in renting a movie from a new store than there are in renting a handgun and buying ammo in some states.

I can only echo the first poster and say that poor, poor kid. Even if he knew his mom was completely cracked (and I'm sure he had some idea she was slipping away from the real world rapidly, it's hard to hide that large a delusion from your immediate family) he clearly never thought her capable of murdering him, or he'd never have gone to the shooting range in the first place.

I feel for the boyfriend too, especially after listening to the first audio tape. Well, half of it, I had to shut off her self-pitying, mad monologue before I punched a wall. It's hard to accept that someone who seems completely normal or sane on the outside can be UTTERLY broken mentally, as she clearly was. Her delusions are fully developed, and her persecution complex is in full swing, and despite it all he still tried to support her and understand her problems.

...and the complete sentence that was referenced above, Kim, was "I'm so glad God warned you not to sleep with me!", directed to the boyfriend in the middle of a self-loathing rant in the first recording. She apparently had come to believe that God would reward her son and boyfriend with great riches and make them the 'King' and 'Prince' if she killed herself, or something to that effect - honestly it's hard to tell, and quite possibly she herself didn't fully understand the compulsion. It's just a shame she started with an innocent victim instead of turning the gun on herself first.

Sorry for the lengthy post, this one got to me a little even through my usual callous hide.

[pak31]

This WAS a very disturbing and tragic situation. What do you say in response to this? Yes, people need to be aware of others around them but most of us don't want to walk around in life contemplating the worst of everything. This young man had his whole life ahead of him and did nothing to deserve this, that's the obvious. The other obvious thing here is that his mother was extremely disturbed. If no one noticed it then she was able to conceal all of it inside of herself or people just didn't expect her to go this far. I think if you know that someone has mental issues then going to a gun range isn't the best place to be. But, if this guy felt like his mom would hurt him, I am sure he wouldn't have gone there. Life is a gift, it should be cherished and not taken from someone. When a person is not right, this kind of thing can happen. It's one of those things that is so hard to try and figure out. Very sad.

[briana]

This is sad and sick at the same time...we need more facilitys and counseling-medication for the mentally ill in this country...and maybe people to watch and make sure the mentally ill are taking there meds on a normal basis...so sad for this young man..

[MeLissa]

Wow. I'm stunned. I don't understand. This story hurts.

[SKIPD82]

I seen the video of this I didnt know what i was watching until i saw it and it was just so sad. They said she tried committing you suicide at the same gun range 6 months before this happened my heart goes out to their family

[DJ]

This is too deep!!

[SWEETCAROLINE]

omg... so sad - so gutwrenching sad that in a split second he will be dead ! and it's caught on film ! yes, too deep for me.... and it does hurt your soul..............

[Kelly O]

what a tragic and disturbing story!

[Gracie]

... and the girlfriend knew that Mitchell, the son, had caused her to stay home and not have to deal with his mother that day??? so that his sacrificial dealing with his mother solo literally kept his girlfriend from possibly being murdered, too?? Did I read that right??

Makes me angry that sick, sick people can't just leave this world by their own hands, they have to be evil enough to take others with them.

I know the young man is gone, nothing can bring him back. This is just too sad for words: the one person he should have been able to trust his very life with, violated that trust in the most heinous way.

[Nadja West]

I don't know how to get the following posted so I'll just add this: My brother, Jay Stephen Clark, disappeared in August 2004 from either El Paso, Texas, or just across the border, in Juarez, Mexico. He had a lot of cash on him, but wouldn't flaunt it. Jay was born in Berkeley, California in 1944 and was almost sixty years old when he disappeared. He was gaunt so he appeared ten years older. As an adult he lived in Oakland and Sacramento, CA, mostly. Jay had had mild schizophrenia from his teens. He was a very sweet, soft-spoken person, easy to get along with, but as much as I wanted to help him, he just would not stay put, moving about most of the time. Jay was Caucasian, six feet tall, very thin, hair grey, eyes hazel, broad forehead and roman nose. He often wore a navy blue wool windbreaker-style jacket and dark jeans. He lived in Juarez as the rent there is so much cheaper, but spent a lot of time in El Paso, just walked across the border. He enjoyed a flea market in El Paso near the border, had an account at Bank of America there and ate at inexpensive diners, mexican food most of the time. He had an account at one of these mexican diners, charged his food and paid for it monthly. Jay had recently moved in Juarez so I didn't have his home address. I tried to find him via the American Consulate in Juarez and the El Paso police, to no avail. Juarez authorities were completely uncooperative, while the El Paso police did all they could to find Jay. If anyone has any information about my brother please reach me via this website. Thanks so much.

[Mary]

As a shaman and full time healer, I work with these types of, an in emotional pain their whole lives and have a really difficult time with *change*. The gifts they carry are emotional sensitives, deep intuition, oracle and truth gifts, dreams that are prophetic, psychic abilities and much more.

But psychiatrist, doctors, nurses, medical techies, do not have a right brain to explain such things, or these experiences and deny them as psychotic, off balance, not real, not knowing how to approach the Soul dis-eases and they are never diagnosed by gifted people like me who are from gifted families.

So by the time something like this happens, the sleeping have no clue.

Society deems them as devil worshiper when they try to find some answers in their shadow side that will not be judged, and god forbid if they go to a church, rabbi, cleric or priest and that old school mantra that daemonizes the gift dormant below of the emotional body soul because they fear it so much themselves.

We will see more and more and more and more of this after 2012 everywhere with even ordinary people.

Soul dis-ease must be treated like myself and others like me who moved through our dormant gifts and had to go through mental break-THROUGHS, mystical experiences, of seeing beyond, feeling beyond and hearing beyond, called clair-audio, clairvoyance, clair-sentanance, and that is just the surface of the dream.

After 2013 the dream is going to be revealed. We killed off those in religions like the Oracles of Delphi and the Cassandra's of Troy.

You may need us again in the near future.

[Alicia]

Gracie!!!! Please contact me immediately regarding your brother!! Email me and I will forward my number!