A West Virginia woman now faces charges nearly two years after investigators claim she poisoned her 81-year-old mother to death using 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 informed police that Kelly Moore had said she was a diabetic and was on insulin. She supposedly indicated her mother’s blood sugar level had been high that day so she had administered 20 units of insulin. The mother was not on insulin by prescription from a physician, police observed.
“I think she actually killed her,” one of the EMT’s informed the first officer on the scene, the affidavit stated.
Police went inside the apartment when the younger Moore was on the telephone, informing the caller “it’s bad.” She sounded “angry and annoyed,” police reported. Ethel Moor’s body was found on a bed in the rear bedroom.
Kelly Moore explained she hadn’t been feeling well due to her blood sugar being low so she went to bed at about 8:30 p.m. on the evening in question. Her mother also wasn’t feeling well as she was recovering from a hip replacement surgery that had been done approximately a week earlier. She also explained her mother’s blood sugar was “really high.
“I gave her some of my insulin,” Kelly Moore purportedly told police.
She then went onto describe her mother’s health ailments which included arthritis “all over,” heart problems and dementia. Cops noticed the defendant “seemed very annoyed.” She allegedly said that’s “why I’m here with her” and that her mother “had all kinds of s— wrong with her.” Kelly Moore said she had been “elected” to live with her mother as she was the only one not married.
Ethel Moore on that day had telephoned her other daughter, who resided in Florida, and complained that Kelly Moore “wasn’t doing nothing for her,” the affidavit stated. The sister, who called “freaking out” because her mother was not being cared for, the affidavit stated. The defendant tested her mother’s blood sugar twice and it was elevated both times, which is why she administered the insulin to her shoulder. Asked how much she administered to herself, she replied that her doctor had prescribed her to take 30 units three times daily. She administered 20 units to her mother. Police said Kelly Moore weighs more than double her mother’s weight.
Once the medical examiner entered the residence, the defendant “sat down on the recliner,” wrapped herself in a blanket and wept, the affidavit stated.
The ME removed the body into custody and performed an autopsy. The prosecutors in August 2024 received the autopsy results concluding Ethel Moore had died of insulin shock and the cause of death was homicide.
Kelly Moore never told her sister that she had injected the mother with insulin, so that she would have thought she passed away due to complications of hip surgery. March 10 saw detectives interview the sister, providing them with the decedent’s death certificate.
Police last week arrested the defendant. She is currently detained in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail without bail.
Elected five children, six grandchildren and some great grand children, as reported in her obituary.
“Ethel never saw a person without hugging them,” the obituary added. “She enjoyed going on trips to Walmart and McDonalds where she could always find somebody to chat with. Ethel liked to rest while reading an enjoyable book. She enjoyed doing things with her family and liked the time that she spent with every one of them.”
