Left: Kelly Moore (Tygart Valley Regional Jail). Right: Ethel Moore (Bartlett Funeral Home).
A West Virginia woman is facing charges nearly two years after authorities say she fatally poisoned her 81-year-old mother by injecting her with unprescribed insulin.
Kelly Louise Moore, 61, stands accused of murder in the 2023 death of Ethel Moore. Police and paramedics in Grafton, roughly 140 miles northeast of Charleston, responded shortly before midnight on May 25, 2023, to a cardiac arrest call at an apartment. EMTs arrived and pronounced Ethel Moore dead on scene, a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime said.
The EMTs told cops that Kelly Moore had explained she was a diabetic and was prescribed insulin. She allegedly said her mother’s blood sugar was high earlier in the day so she gave her 20 units of insulin. Her mother was not prescribed insulin by a doctor, cops noted.
“I think she really killed her,” one of the EMT’s told the first responding officer, according to the affidavit.
Cops entered the apartment as the younger Moore was on the phone, telling the person on the other line “it’s bad.” She seemed “angry and annoyed,” police said. Ethel Moor’s body was lying on a bed in the back bedroom.
Kelly Moore said she hadn’t been feeling well because her blood sugar was low so she went to bed around 8:30 p.m. on the night in question. Her mother also wasn’t feeling well as she was recovering from a hip replacement procedure that was performed about a week prior. She further stated her mother’s blood sugar was “really high.”
“I gave her some of my insulin,” Kelly Moore allegedly told cops.
