Cold Case Files - REOPENED: A Son Remembers

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

Leslie Powers opened a box of family photographs to discover a Great Aunt she never knew existed. A Great Aunt who was murdered, and whose case was never solved. That is, until Leslie starts asking questions, and gets police to re-open the case. Sponsors: Hydrow: Join the growing, rowing community at Hydrow. Head over to Hydrow.com and use code COLDCASE to save up to five hundred dollars off your Hydrow. Factor: Head to FACTORMEALS.com/coldcase50 and use code coldcase50 to get 50% off. Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.  

On October 24th, 1970, the body of 30-year-old Gwendolyn Moore was discovered in the bottom of a well. She had four children that she loved more than anything, and she proved that love by staying in an abusive relationship with her children's father and her husband, Marshall. Through small-town secrets and the what-happens-at-home-stays-at-home mentality of the day, only minimal time was spent trying to find the person responsible. It was theorized that perhaps Gwendolyn chose the well as an alternative to her abusive marriage. Her son didn't believe for a second, though, that his mother left her children intentionally. In 2006, it's Gwendolyn's great-niece Leslie that helps reopen her case and set a true investigation into motion. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files. I'm Brooke, and here's the awe-inspiring Bill Curtis with a classic case, A Son Remembers.

My grandmother had passed away, and I had went with my mom to her house to go through some of her belongings and pack things and stuff like that. In the spring of 2001, Leslie Power and her mom sort through a box of family photos and happened upon a picture of a relative Leslie never knew she had. So we pulled them down and started going through all the pictures and seeing who they were, and this was one of the pictures that was in there, which I found out was a picture of Gwendolyn

we think was probably a school picture. Gwendolyn Moore was Leslie's great-aunt. Leslie's mom tells her Gwendolyn died when she was just 30 years old. And I said, well, that's kind of weird. How come I didn't know her? I knew all my other, you know, great aunts and uncles. And she told me what had happened,

that they had, you know, found her in a well. And I was like, what do you mean? They found her in a well. So I didn like, what do you mean? They found her in a well. So I didn't let that go for the rest of the day. I just, you know, I think I kept saying that. What do you mean? Isn't there more to that story? There is more to the story.

A lot more. For that, however, Leslie needs to seek out the oldest living member of her family, Gwendolyn's sister, Pat. They went together for quite a while and was very happy. And then when they got married, after about the second child, all this abuse started. The year was 1970. Fat Terry was 36 years old and an eyewitness to the train wreck

that was her younger sister Gwendolyn's marriage. She had been beaten so bad, he had stomped her feet until they was about twice the size they should have been. She was black and blue all over, and I said, what happened to you, honey? And she said, Marshall stomped my feet.

Marshall is Marshall Moore, Gwendolyn's husband, and according to Pat, a man with many faces. When he was around us, he was like a knight in shining armor, to speak. You know, he was the sweetest thing. Honey wouldn't melt in his mouth. He smiled, His eyes danced. And then as soon as he would get her home, he would beat her. According to her sister, in the spring of 1966, Gwendolyn Moore contacted a lawyer who drew up divorce papers and offered some free advice. The lawyer sat there and told her, he said,

lady, I'm going to tell you one thing. He says, if you don't get out of it and get out of it in a hurry, he said, he will wind up killing you. Gwendolyn never served the papers on her husband. Four years later, she was found dead at the bottom of an abandoned well.

And my mother, God rest her soul, she put a gun in her pocketbook and she carried it to the funeral home when she died. She was going to kill Marshall because she knew what he had done. And my brother was carrying her down there and he had to talk her out of that gun, take that gun away from her because she was going to kill Marshall right there in the funeral home. She didn't care. The family was told Gwendolyn's death was an accident. Pat Terry, however, never bought it. I called down there to the police station, and I called, and I called, and I called.

Well, I could never, never get any answers out of them. So finally I just gave up, you know. Thirty-one years later, Gwendolyn Moore's niece, Leslie Power, picks up the hunt, searching for the answers as to how and why Gwendolyn Moore found her way to the bottom of a Georgia well. I just thought it was kind of strange. I just wanted to know, you know, who she was and what had happened to her. Leslie takes her search to the local archives, pulling newspaper clips on her great aunt's death. This article basically says that some children playing across the street from her home found Gwendolyn in a well. The articles provide some names and dates,

but the biggest question, Gwendolyn's official cause of death, remains unanswered. That is, until Leslie obtains Gwendolyn Moore's death certificate. I thought that it would probably say it was an accident of some sort. So I went up there and got a copy of it, and that's when I actually found out that they had listed it as a homicide. Part of the cause of death says blows to the head. It also has some notes of a bottle broken on her temple,

beaten in the eye and mouth. The black and white details provide some substance to the story of abuse told by Pat Terry. Leslie takes her findings to the local police. The investigator that I was speaking to at the police department called me and said that he couldn't find absolutely anything and he was as confused as I was. Leslie's search seems to have hit a dead end, until the file falls on the desk of an investigator who remembers the case as part of his own childhood. The day that that case came to me was on the 24th of October, and that was my father's birthday.

Clay Bryant is a cop, as well as the son of a cop. At the age of 15, he had stood by his dad and peered into a well. As Gwendolyn Moore's body was hoisted from its makeshift grave. As her body got to the top of the well, the tension on the cable, her body was just spinning around in a circle, and I'll never forget the swelling and the way that she looked as she hung over that pit. Clay Bryant's dad never got a chance to work Gwendolyn Moore's death as it fell outside his police jurisdiction.

Thirty-two years later, his son gets that opportunity. And knowing what I heard him say time and time again about the injustices that he felt about this case, I couldn't believe that it would come to me in that fashion. I thought about the times that I'd spent with him, running behind him in a police car, and the times that we spent together just as my dad and I. It was just like he was there with me. Clay's first order of business got in touch with Leslie Power.

The first thing he said was that he had something to tell me before we talked about anything. And I said, okay. I said, before we start about this, I want you to understand and know that I was there. I was like, wow, you've got to be kidding me. No way. Clay Bryant promises to take on the case and agrees with Leslie. Marshall Moore most likely beat his wife to death and then dumped Gwendolyn's body in the well.

The problem after so many years is one of proof. That is, until one of Gwendolyn Moore's children taps into some childhood memories of his own. Mama loved us enough that she took those beatings and never once left us. Mama loved us enough that she took those beatings and never once left us. Mama loved us enough that she took all the abuse and all the humiliation, things that most women nowadays take for granted. Mama didn't ever have any of that.

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a full and complete workout. Rowing with Hydro is low impact. There's a low risk of injury and I feel amazing after every workout. Regardless of your fitness level, from athletes to very, very beginners, you're going to find classes and coaches for you. Join the growing rowing community of Hydro. Head over to Hydro.com and use code COLDCASE to save up to $500 off your Hydro. That's H-Y-D-R-O-W.com, code COLDCASE, to save up to $500. Hydro.com, code coldcase. In 1970, Gwendolyn Moore's body was found at the bottom of a well.

A thorough investigation was never conducted, and the case was never closed. 32 years later, after her great-niece discovers an old photograph, another investigation is launched. Gwendolyn's son, who was 13 at the time of her murder, hasn't forgotten about the events leading to his mother's death. As an adult, he once again tells the story of the abuse inflicted on his mother by his father. This time, investigators listen. Generally, when we'd open a cold case file, we get volumes of information. Cold case reports, interviews from during the history of the case, much like the files that you see here. But with the Moore case, when the case began, the file pretty much consisted of an empty box. An empty box. That is pretty much what Clay Bryant has to work with as he investigates the death of Gwendolyn Moore, found dead at the bottom of a Georgia well 32 years earlier. One of the only items of real

significance in the murder file, a polygraph given to the victim's husband, Marshall Moore. In the opinion of the polygraphist, Marshall Moore has no guilty knowledge of the matter under investigation. By his own admission, he had struck her that night violently and had in the past. And the credibility of a polygraph alone in 1970 and under this situation especially, I don't see how you could lend the polygraph under that circumstance any credibility. Clay Bryant believes Marshall Moore might be his killer. Without any hard evidence, however, the investigator's best hope is a long shot. Someone who saw something 32 years ago

and now is willing to talk. My earliest memories is going to bed, listening to Mama get beat. In 1970, Al Moore was 13 years old. And I don't mean beat like what people think of today. I'm talking about hair being pulled out of her head. I'm talking about her not being able to see out of her eyes. Now 46 and estranged from his father,

Al is approached by Investigator Bryant, who asks him about life under Marshall Moore's roof. He spoke of beatings that he'd suffered, beatings he'd witnessed his mother suffer. He said that he'd been beaten with everything from limbs and sticks to shoes, swing chain. There's no way to describe the pain I felt for the man as he told what they went through.

Everybody was scared of Daddy. He was an abusive, hot-tempered individual that he only knew of one way, and if it didn't go his way, you would pay for it. Al tells Bryant about one night in particular when he went out looking for his mother and found her under a neighbor's porch. About seven foot from where the doorway was up underneath the porch, she was sitting on a block.

And her left eye was swollen completely shut. Her right eye, you barely could see any kind of her pupil. Her mouth was swollen up real bad, and she was black and blue in the face. I was scared to touch her. You could see she was in that much visible pain. And I've regretted that for 30-something years. I was scared to even touch her hand.

That's bad. When you're scared to touch your own mother because she's hurting so bad. Gwendolyn Moore made her son promise not to tell his father where she was hiding. She made me promise that I'd go back to the house and that I wouldn't tell Daddy where she was hiding. She made me promise that I'd go back to the house and that I wouldn't tell Daddy where she was at and that she loved me

and that she would be back to get us. And I never told Daddy that she was under the porch. I never told him that I saw her. The next time the 13-year-old saw his mother was the following morning, at the bottom of a well, dead. I looked down in the well, and I could see her. She was face down.

It looked like she'd been on her knees or something, but she was face down. My body went numb. My mind, I mean, all of it. Because it was something, you know something that I couldn't believe. This is not possible. This is not happening. And I knew then that this was not something that just

an accident. Mama loved us enough that she took those beatings and never once left us. Mama loved us enough that she took all the abuse and all the humiliation. She done all that for us, the children. Mama wasn't gonna end and fall in no well.

Al Moore told police he believed his father was responsible for his mother's fall down the well. Investigators apparently ignored the boy. Apartments.com has helped millions of renters find their perfect places. And the beauty is, they're all different. None of us are the same, so why should our homes be? Someone may want hardwood floors. Someone else may say carpet all the way. Questionable call, but hey, to each their own. Some may want a doorman. Others may say, I can open the door myself. But Apartments.com has all the right tools to help you find a place that's uniquely perfect for you. Sort through and filter listings by amenities and make sure you never miss out with their

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between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. I think there was more than ample evidence at the time to substantiate that. The old, good old boy corruption of the South back in 1970, where he had a friend that had a friend that had a friend. For whatever reason, law enforcement just elected to forget about Gwendolyn Moore. Now Investigator Bryant offers Moore a chance to put away the bad memories and find some measure of justice for his mom.

It was during this conversation that, you know, I decided that this case got to proceed, that this was one of the biggest miscarriages of justice I'd ever heard of. And at that point, I was going to go as far as it would go. We're walking into the main morgue facility of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Medical Examiner's Office. And here is where we perform all of our autopsies. On May 2nd, Dr. Chris Sperry examines the remains of Gwendolyn Moore, exhumed from her grave after almost 33 years. Once we'd found that the soft tissues, the muscles, the blood vessels, the organs, everything like that was just decomposed and gone. Then we turned all of our attention to the skeleton to see if we could find any injuries,

specifically fractures or breaks in the bones. Of the 206 bones in the human body, one in particular piques the doctor's interest. What we're looking at here is the specimens that I saved from the examination of Gwendolyn Moore's skeleton. And I saved the hyoid bone. The hyoid is a small U-shaped bone that sits at the front of the neck and holds the clue to Gwendolyn's demise. So if someone is being strangled, the thumbs and the hands are being pushed in from the front, and the hyoid will be pushed backwards against the front of the spine, and when that happens, that is what breaks off the little ends of the horns of the hyoid.

And when I looked at these pieces, I found that the ends of each one of the hyoid bone horns had been broken off. This is conclusive evidence that a woman like this had been strangled. Chris Sperry summons Clay Bryant and shows him the smoking gun Bryant has been hoping for. And I'll never forget what he said. When he reached down and he washed a handful of bone off and he said, Oop, this is interesting. And he said, it's not interesting, this is murder. Marshall Moore, now 66 years old and still living in the community,

is arrested and charged with murder. Moore wants his day in court and taps Bill Stemberger to build a defense. Without any new evidence in regard to anyone seeing Marshall with her, in order to commit that act, you've got to be right there. You've got to be in the vicinity. And no one ever saw them together. So when did it happen? How did it happen? That's up to them to prove.

Stemberger believes he can beat the case. The defense attorney, however, never gets the chance. On July 6, 2005, six weeks before his trial is scheduled to begin, Marshall Moore dies of cancer. Well, we did bring you some flowers. Know how you like the colors. On an autumn morning, Al Moore pays a visit to his mother's grave. I don't know if you know it, but Daddy's dead too. We didn't get it the truth though.

For Moore, the visit is a difficult one. His reflections tinged with guilt over the last time he saw his mother beaten, bleeding, and hiding under a porch. Had I have taken her by the hands that night from underneath that porch and walked her down the road to the police department, maybe she'd be alive today. She'd probably still sitting with my Aunt Pat right now, and they'd be having a good time.

She'd have got to see what her boys grew up like. There's a lot of things, you know. And I didn't do that. The murder of Gwendolyn Moore holds potent memories for investigator Clay Bryant as well, of a childhood spent learning life at his father's side. It takes me back. Of all the lessons I guess I learned on the seat of a police car, I expect I learned twice that many on the seat of a boat out here in this river.

I hope and I know that my dad would have been very proud of the fact that we did the right thing about the case. It was a really remarkable case to be able to get back to where we were, considering where we started from. And it was just, it took a little more than luck. In the United States alone, 20 people per minute are subjected to intimate partner violence. One out of every three women and one out of every four men will experience this type of abuse. Intimate partner violence doesn't only affect

the people in the relationship. It also touches the lives of their friends, family members, and children. One in 15 children are exposed to intimate partner violence. And in 90% of those cases, the children are eyewitnesses. Like Gwendolyn's own son, Al, children's accounts are often dismissed or unheard. And that creates feelings of helplessness and guilt that last for their entire lives. If you or someone you know is a victim of intimate partner violence,

you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. They also have a chat-based help system. It's on their website, thehotline.org slash help. Cold Case Files, the podcast, is hosted by Brooke Giddings, produced by Scott Brody, McKamey Lynn, and Steve Dallamater. Our executive producer is Ted Butler. Music by Blake Maples. We're distributed by Podcast One. Cold Case Files Classic was produced by Curtis Productions

and hosted by the one and only Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at aetV.com. with our special celebrity guests dissect our favorite true crime cases every other Thursday. And between those episodes, join us as we talk about current true crime headlines in our About Damn Crime series. Skip the ordinary

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