GRAFTON, W. Va. (WDTV/Gray News) – A West Virginia woman was arrested Tuesday for allegedly killing her 82-year-old mother with insulin in 2023.
Kelly Moore, 61, of Arthurdale, was living with her 82-year-old mother, Ethel Moore, in Grafton in May 2023 when she allegedly injected her with 20 units of her personal insulin, which resulted in her death, according to the Grafton Police Department.
Police responded to a cardiac arrest call at 40 Howard Street in Grafton on May 25, 2023, at approximately 11:50 p.m. and found Ethel Moore dead.
Kelly Moore told police that her mother’s blood sugar was 250, so she gave her 20 units of her own insulin, which was not prescribed to Ethel Moore.
Kelly Moore seemed angry and annoyed when she told police that Ethel Moore, who recently had a full hip replacement, had been feeling bad for a couple days, adding that her blood sugar was really high. She said her mother had heart problems, arthritis, dementia and “all kinds of s— wrong with her,” according to court documents.
When Kelly Moore mentioned the dementia, she seemed annoyed and said that’s “why I’m here with her,” police said.
Kelly Moore had been living with Ethel Moore for a little over a year prior to the incident, police said. She told investigators that she lived in Arthurdale previously, but she was the only one who is not married and was “elected” to stay with Ethel Moore because there “wasn’t anybody else” to do it.
Kelly Moore also said Ethel Moore told her other daughter that she “wasn’t doing nothing for her,” so she called from Florida “freaking out” about her not helping, court documents say.
Ethel Moore weighed about 130 pounds, according to her officials, and Kelly Moore’s listed weight is 275 pounds. However, Kelly Moore injected her mother with 20 units of insulin into her shoulder. She typically injects herself with 30 units in the stomach, court documents say.
An autopsy confirmed that Ethel Moore’s cause of death was insulin shock and the manner of death was homicide, police said.
Police also said Kelly Moore’s sister believed their mother died due to complications from her hip replacement and the sibling allegedly never mentioned anything about injecting Ethel Moore with insulin.
Kelly Moore is charged with murder and was booked into the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on Tuesday with no bond set.
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