Left: Kelly Moore (Tygart Valley Regional Jail). Right: Ethel Moore (Bartlett Funeral Home).
A West Virginia woman is facing between three and 15 years behind bars after she pleaded guilty to fatally poisoning her 81-year-old mother by injecting her with unprescribed insulin.
Kelly Louise Moore, 61, was initially facing a murder charge in the 2023 death of Ethel Moore, but earlier this month she entered a guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter.
“Kelly L. Moore got upset and gave her mother 20 units of insulin in which her mother while a diabetic did not have a prescription for and caused the death of her mother,” said the plea agreement.
Kelly Moore had originally faced a charge of murder, but prosecutors indicated that she lacked malicious intent.
“It wasn”t premeditated. It wasn’t done with malice,” Taylor County Prosecutor John Bord explained to Law&Crime about why his office offered the plea agreement.
The prosecutor said he was worried a jury might convict the defendant of involuntary manslaughter, which is a misdemeanor. Another issue, according to Bord, is that West Virginia law does not consider insulin a poison.
Bord said Kelly Moore flew “into a rage” during an argument with her mother and injected her with the insulin. While they were both diabetic, only the younger Moore was prescribed with insulin.
“It put her into shock,” said Bord.
Kelly Moore immediately called 911.
“I think afterward she regretted what she did,” Bord said.
Prosecutors will complete a pre-sentencing report and then set a date for a hearing where a judge will determine Kelly Moore’s fate.
As Law&Crime previously reported, 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 at the scene, a probable cause arrest affidavit 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.
“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 Moore’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 told cops.
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 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 among her siblings.
Ethel Moore on the day in question had called her other daughter who lived in Florida and claimed Kelly Moore “wasn’t doing nothing for her,” the affidavit said. The sister called “freaking out” that her mother wasn’t being taken care of, the affidavit said. The defendant checked her mother’s blood sugar twice and it was high both times, which is what led her to inject her with the insulin in the shoulder. Asked how much she injected herself, she said her doctor prescribed her to take 30 units three times a day. She gave her mother 20 units. Cops noted that Kelly Moore weighed more than twice as much as her mother.
After the medical examiner came into the home, the defendant “sat down on the recliner,” covered herself with a blanket and began sobbing, the affidavit said.
The ME took custody of the body and conducted an autopsy. Prosecutors in August 2024 received the results of the autopsy that determined Ethel Moore died of insulin shock and the manner of death was homicide.
Kelly Moore never mentioned to her sister that she injected their mother with insulin, leading her to believe she died of complications of the hip surgery. On March 10, detectives spoke with the sister, who provided them with the decedent’s death certificate.
According to her obituary, Ethel Moore had five children, six grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
“Ethel never seen a person unless she gave them a hug,” the obituary said. “She liked taking trips to Walmart and McDonalds where she always found someone to talk to. Ethel enjoyed relaxing while reading a good book. She loved spending time with her family and cherished the time she spent with each of them.”
