Inset left: William Turnage (Hamilton County Sheriff”s Office). Inset right: Tamara Moore (Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Belgreen Lane in Springfield Township, Ohio (Google Maps).
An Ohio mother’s fate has been sealed for chaining her adopted son to a cot and starving him to death in what authorities called a case of “depravity.”
Tamara Moore, 53, was sentenced to the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for the death of 16-year-old Jeremiah Moore. This came after she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Tamara Moore’s boyfriend, then-59-year-old William Turnage, pleaded guilty to the same charges. The Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office said that as part of the plea deal, charges of murder and failure to report a crime were dropped.
Turnage accepted the plea deal after agreeing to testify against Moore, Cincinnati-based Fox affiliate WXIX reported, and he was sentenced to 11 to 15 years in prison. Tamara Moore was also originally charged with murder in the case.
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Authorities’ involvement in the case began in February 2024, when Jeremiah Moore was found dead in the basement of his family home. Prosecutors said law enforcement officers found the child, who had autism, in a closet “in nothing but a t-shirt and an absolutely disgusting pull-up diaper.”
“There were restraints strapped to the side of the bed. There were marks on his wrist,” prosecutors added, per WXIX. “There was not a trace of food in any part of his digestive tract, not in his stomach, not in his intestines, nothing.”
He was treated “worse than an animal,” according to then-Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers, who vowed to secure justice for the child.
“Words alone cannot describe the level of depravity displayed by these two defendants,” she said. “My heart breaks for this little boy. He was treated worse than an animal, forced to live in a basement closet unwanted, unloved, and denied the most basic of necessities.”
An obituary for Jeremiah Moore says he “had a smile that would light up a room” as well as “a gentle soul.” He loved to eat, to sit outside, and to spend time with his dog and cat. “He didn’t let his delays keep him, from living his life to the fullest,” the obit added.
