True Crime All The Time - DeeDee Moore

Episode Date: October 18, 2021

In 2006, Abraham Shakespeare was down on his luck. He was working but having a hard time making ends meet. He spent his last few dollars on lottery tickets and ended up winning the 30 million dollar jackpot. He should have been on top of the world and for a period of time, he was. He spent lavishly but gave even more money away to family and people he didn't even know. Then, he met a woman named DeeDee Moore who said she could help him with the rest of his winnings. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the treacherous and murderous DeeDee Moore. Moore had no plans to help Abraham with his money, rather, she had plans to help herself to his money. In the end, Shakespeare wound up dead at the hands of DeeDee Moore. But, the police had a difficult time putting the pieces of the puzzle together until a friend of Abraham's stepped in to help out.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 255, the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And with me as always is my partner in True Crime. Mike Gibson, Gibby. How are you? Hey, man, I'm doing good. How about you? I'm doing great.

I'm doing great. You and I just had a little bit of fun. We had you hooked up to a polygraph machine and asked you about 25 questions that we put out on Patreon. It was a good time. I showed my skills. Yeah, you did. For lack of.

or lack of skills. And, you know, I bought this thing off Amazon and it was kind of a jockey type thing. But, you know, it was kind of accurate. Yeah. Scary how, how accurate it was. Right. You know, we had you hooked up like three different ways. And so it was measuring some different things.

And it was pretty accurate. Um, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Steve Cowles. Hey, Steve. Sam Crawley. What's going on, Sam? Chris Lucas. Hey, Chris.

Madison Campbell. Appreciate that, Madison. Kristen LaCroix up at our highest level What's up LaCroix? Sandra Brown jumped out at our highest level Hey Sandra Stacy Stacy Stacy

Postal Bunny What up Postal Bunny Darcy Rodriguez Hey Darcy Scott McNeese Hey Scott Master Bootin Well you gotta be a master booting

Tootin Kurena Ventur Matthew Goodman What's up Matthew Alex Gendrich What are you up to Gingrich Patty.

Hey, Patty. Deidre Marler. Hey, Marlar. jumped out to our highest level. Karen Spone. Hey, Karen. Lisa Kemp jumped out of our highest level. Appreciate that, Lisa.

Mary Reno jumped out of our highest level. Thank you, Mary. We had Carol Cocoraccio. Ooh, Cocoraccio, it's fun to say. It is. It's one of my new favorites. And last but not least, Wendy Meisenbach. I appreciate that, Misenbach.

And then if we go back into the vault, Gibbs. How far are we going back? I say let's go as far back as we can. This week, we selected Michelle Hamilton. Well, thank you, Michelle. So we appreciate the long-term support, the new support, all of that. We had some PayPal donations from Judy Larson. Hey, thanks, Judy.

And Brenda Olson. Oh, awesome. Thanks, Brenda. So thanks to you as well. Gibbs right now on True Crime All the Time Unsolved. We have a good episode out. It's one that hits very close to home. It does.

It's the unsolved murder of D. Dayton police officer Kevin Brayne. Yeah, that's a really interesting case. You got an officer that's off duty. He's outside of his estranged wife's house and somebody comes up behind him and shoots him in the back of his head with a shotgun. So we'll get into all the details and the who's and the whys and the whats. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time?

Man, I'm set. We're talking about D.D. Moore. and the murder of lottery winner, Abraham, Shakespeare. How many people Gibbs you think listening dream about winning the lottery? Man, I think a lot of people do, but I definitely believe here in the last month or so, with that mega millions and that powerball being really high like they were, I think a lot of people were dreaming. To be honest with you, I've not played the lottery as much since COVID.

Yeah. Because I just have not been, I guess, going inside the guy. gas stations as much as I used to. But I, throughout my adult life, have played the lottery from time to time. And it goes the same way every time. When I buy a ticket, especially for those big jackpots, sometimes I'll lie awake at night in the bed, just kind of dreaming or, you know, thinking, because I'm not asleep, but thinking about what would I really do?

How much would you give Gibby? That's an easy question. Don't answer. But, you know, what would I buy? where would I live? And I'm sure there are millions of people who have all of those same types of thoughts and questions. I think probably what is universal though? When people are thinking about, you know, being instant multi-millionaires overnight is they're usually thinking about the positives. Oh, for sure. Right? I can pay off my house. I can buy a big mansion, a new house,

new cars. I can go on vacation. What we don't think about, probably most of us is the downside to having a bunch of money. When Abraham Shakespeare won the lottery in 2006, a man with only a few dollars to his name, turned into a millionaire overnight. And as I think happens to a lot of lottery winners, right, friends come out of the woodwork. They did with him. They took advantage of his generous nature and he lost almost everything. Florida businesswoman D.D. Moore stepped in, offering to manage Abraham's remaining money and help him create a company to build his wealth.

What he didn't know was that D.D. was going to murder him and create an elaborate plot to pretend that he was still alive and in hiding. D.D. thought that she had the perfect plan to get away with murder, but Abraham's friend worked with the police to expose the truth. And it is kind of sad because this is not the only case where, you know, people who have won a ton of money had their lives go south quickly. I mean, there's, I think there's a TV show devoted to, or at least a documentary or something. I remember seeing it one time two lottery winners whose family have tried to kill them, all kinds of bad stuff. Yeah, I actually think it might have been a series. I can't remember. Yeah, I think it was too.

There was at least a couple shows out there about the after. math of winning the lotto. Abraham Shakespeare was born April 24th, 1966, and he grew up in a working class community in Lake Wales, Florida. Abraham dropped out of school in the seventh grade and could barely read and write beyond really just the most basic level. As a teenager, he was in and out of homes for juvenile delinquents. In 2006, 41-year-old Abraham Shakespeare was working.

as a day laborer at various jobs. He had all kinds of different ones. At different times, he was a sanitation worker, a dishwasher. He had a job where he helped unload trucks. Most of these jobs paid him somewhere around $7 or $8 an hour. Abraham didn't own a car, didn't have a driver's license. So I'm pretty sure he was limited on what type of jobs he could take anyway. Well, it does limit you, I think.

he had a long history of petty crimes such as loitering, driving without a license, theft, assault. He did hit somebody once and got an assault charge. But from what I understood, he wasn't considered to be a violent person. He also had a charge of failing to pay child support. He went to prison twice for burglaries, but obviously those are nonviolent crimes. Still crimes. Still crimes. when he was released from his second prison stent in 1995.

He moved in with his mother Elizabeth Walker, who owned a house in Lakeland, Florida. So I think it's important, right, to talk about this individual. He had his issues. I don't think there's any doubt about that. He was struggling. He was also, you know, in and out of prison, picked up for doing things he shouldn't have been doing. But now he's out. He's living with his mother.

November 15th, 2006 was a pretty normal day for Abraham Shakespeare. He was assigned to ride with the truck driver named Michael Ford on an overnight food route to Miami, Florida. They made deliveries in Lakeland and Winter Haven before stopping at a mini mart in Frostproof. Michael asked Abraham if he wanted anything. Abraham asked him for a pair of quick picks and he gave him $10. apparently Gibbs, it was all the money that he had in his wallet. He said, I'm going to go for bust. Going for it, man.

One of the sets of numbers that Abraham got was 6, 12, 13, 34, 42, and 52. And Gibbs, it was those numbers that won him the $30 million lottery jackpot prize. So basically, you had a man who at the time had almost nothing. Was the wallet was empty. Yeah. And instantly became a multi-millionaire. And he chose the $17 million lump sum options. So after taxes, he walked away with $11 million.

But like we said, within a matter of less than three years, he lost almost everything. I always take the lump sum option. Always. Because from what everything that I've read, you're much better off doing that, invest it the way that you want. instead of the government giving you know you a set determined amount over whatever it is 30 years. Plus your heirs get to receive that money, which I don't believe they do if you take the payout. Yeah, and I'm sure it varies by state. You and I always get in trouble because we talk about what we know here.

Right. And it always turns out to be something different. In a recent episode, we talked about how we thought it was so strange in Minnesota that somebody wouldn't take their tags off. Right. when they sold their car. Well, come to find out, I got all these emails that apparently when you sell a car in Minnesota, the tags go, the license plates go with them. And for us, that is so strange.

It is strange. Because that would never happen here. And I don't believe it happens in the majority of states. But the other thing I think people are always surprised about is, yeah, okay, you won 30 million, but you walked away with 11. Well, where did all of that money go? You know, first of all, they chop off a bunch if you take that lump sum option. And then, of course, the tax man wants their share always.

That's a given. It's a given with everything, right? I think they're waiting at the lotto office for you. In a black robe with the hood holding a sickle. Yes. Give me that money. So he got the $11 million. And then really one of the first things that happened was the government took about $9,000.

for back child support that he owed. Abraham put $1 million in a trust fund for his son, Moses. He gave his stepfather a million dollars. He gave three stepsisters $250,000 each. He paid off a friend's $185,000 mortgage. He paid off a $60,000 mortgage for a man he barely knew. Wow. And a $54,000 mortgage for a man he'd known.

just a few years. He also took his girlfriend, Centoria Butler, on trips to New York. So, you know, this is something that I think you hear about quite a bit, right? Somebody comes into a ton of money. One of the first things that happens after the taxes and all that, the government, is everybody comes at you. Sure, yeah. Because you've got a ton of money, they're going to hit you up for all kinds of different things, some small, some large. Now, some people are just generous, too, and they want to help out their family. I get that. I think most people would do that. I remember Steve Martin and the jerk, writing all those checks. Yeah, yeah. That's pretty funny. But where I think people get into trouble and, you know, you can kind of see it here is doing things on a grand scale, right?

paying off 50, 60, 80, $100,000 of someone's mortgage that you don't know all that well. Yeah, it's great. It's nice. Yeah. But eventually that money will run out. You know, $11 million seems like a ton. But if you're giving a million here, a million there, 250 to three different people, the next thing you know, that money is dwindling.

Abraham purchased a $125,000 house near Lake Wales, and he rented it out to tenants. He gave his brother's son's best friend, $40,000. Wow. He gave his mother $12,000 and his sister $10,000. Seems strange, right? It does, you know. Your brother's son's best friend got more than your mother and sister combined.

Well, and his step sister's got 250,000 each. Oh, that's true. You know, but yet his sister gets 10. And his father got a million. His mother only got 12,000. There's got to be something to that that wasn't really explained in the research. You know, this was a man who just wrote checks out to friends who asked for money. He paid for funerals.

He even sent money to inmates who wrote him letters. I mean, these weren't like, sellies, right? These weren't people that he was very, very close with. These were inmates who just found out that he won the lottery and they started sending him letters. His phone was constantly ringing. And I think what happened Gibbs was eventually pretty quickly, actually, word spread. Not only that he won the millions, that he was willing to give it out when asked. Yeah, just ask, you shall receive. And that's what happened. So you had more and more people coming to him, asking him for money, and he would give it to them.

I mean, you're already kind of a recluse anyway. But if you won lotto, I would think that we would just never hear or see from you ever again. Well, you would. Yeah. And I would set you up. You and I have talked about that before. We have a pact. We do.

If one of us were to win the lottery, the other one would, you know, get a bit of it. Sure. Not saying half, but get some. And I would help my close family. Yes. What I wouldn't do is feel any pressure whatsoever to just start handing out money to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who called asking for it. And there be a lot of Tom, Dicks, and Harry's.

There would be. Centoria Butler told the Orlando Sentinel, he thought with his heart, not with his head. And I think that's very apparent. This was a caring guy. Sure was. He obviously wanted to help people, Gibbs, but I don't think he knew how to shut it off or how to shut it down or how to say no. Well, probably because he came from where they're at, you know, not having anything, needing help. No one could ever help him.

He's in position to give help. So he's like, I'll give help. And I absolutely get it and you have to commend it. But at a certain point, you can't just give everything away. because you're going to be back in the position you were in before. Well, eventually Abraham decides to treat himself. Yeah, he did. In January 2007, he bought a new truck.

He bought a BMW. He also bought a 6,500 square foot mansion in a gated community in Lakeland that cost $1.1 million. Well, that's how you treat yourself. That is. Get yourself a nice mansion, a BMW, and a truck. Well, and you and I talk about this from time to time. But for the most part, you're not really going to go wrong with real estate. That's kind of been universal throughout the years.

Obviously, there are cycles and there are ups and downs. But for the most part, you're not throwing your money away. Exactly. If I smart, you'd be okay. But just think about the money that we've talked about already. He only had $11 million. So a million here, one point million for the house, a quarter million to his step scissors.

you can just see how the money is flowing so quickly. Before he won the lottery, one of Abraham's part-time jobs was cleaning up his friend, Greg Smith's, barbershop. All of a sudden, he stopped coming to work. Greg called to ask what was going on, was he going to come in? And Abraham said, no, man, I won the lottery. I guess this guy thought he was joking. But later that day, a black BMW was parked outside of Greg's shop.

Abraham got out of the car and told him, hey, man, I really did win the lottery. I wasn't lying to you. Yeah, look at me, man. Look at my new car. According to Greg, Abraham gave people money even when they took advantage of him. I think on a certain level, Gibbs, he might have even known that some of these people were taking advantage of him. He gave Greg $63,000 after his mother's house went into default. but Greg refused to accept the money.

But even that didn't stop Abraham. He went behind Greg's back and somehow got a cashier's check with Greg's name on. So, I mean, he's going out of his way to give this money to people. But eventually, even after he won the lottery, Abraham still came to sweep the barbershop. He picked up spare change on the ground. According to True Crime Daily, he liked to tell his friends, I got millions. of dollars, but pennies make dollars. Well, they do.

You see me pick up pennies all the time when we're walking across a parking lot. I don't not pass it up. Well, no, but you're not a millionaire. No, so. But I still like money. I just don't like to spend it. That's true. I collect it.

In April 2007, Abraham had to defend himself at a civil trial with his former coworker Michael Ford. Ford accused him of stealing the winning lottery ticket. and he demanded the remainder of Abraham's money. So this Ford guy was the truck driver. Right. That went in and bought the quick picks. Michael Lerato, Ford's attorney said in court,

from my background investigation, Abraham was always kind of a transient type. If it wasn't for his criminal record, he kind of didn't exist. Arnold Levine, Ford's second attorney, said Abraham was an angry man, whose gifts always came with strings attached. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Abraham said he never stole anything.

He knows the truth. I know the truth. He said that he gave away so much money because the Bible states that it's better to give than to receive. And that's true. It does state that. And I think that's a pretty good philosophy. You know, take the religion out of it. I just think that's a pretty good philosophy.

Yeah, it is. But you can't give, give, give everything you have away. I think like with everything, right, the key is moderation. You like Twizzlers. I do. Okay. Well, they should be eaten in moderation. I try.

Not a whole bag a night like you sometimes do. Can't help it. Same way here. You end up with $11 million. Hey, be nice to people in moderation. Right. Don't give the whole 11 away, you know, right off the bat. Dole it out in small.

all amounts and do some good and all of that. Buy somebody some dinner every now. Sure. Instead of paying their mortgage off. In October 2007, Abraham won the trial. But Ford appealed, Abraham's appellate attorney was a guy by the name of Jim Valenti. Jim recalled that the first time the two met, there were 10 people in the room. Valenti had no idea who any of them were.

He thought it was very sad. By the time he met Abraham, actually, how little money he had left. He told the Tampa Bay Times, I'm not sure by whom, but I think he'd been taken advantage of. He was a man who was very weary. By the time he got to me,

I wonder if Abraham wouldn't say he would like to go back to the day before he won that money. I think there's some truth behind that. No, I do too. I also think that's true for a lot of people, take out the lottery. You know, people who make a,

series of mistakes that ultimately kind of avalanche down on them. Well, would they like to go back and have a do-over? Sure. Yeah. After the trial, Abraham told reporters, I really would like my old life back where I could walk to streets like a normal person without people coming up asking for money. I think the one thing we haven't talked about, Gibbs, is, you know, we mentioned he didn't make it past the seventh grade.

What kind of financial skills, financial literacy, life skills? Money management skills. Money management skills did Abraham Shakespeare have? My thought is it was very, very limited. There's a really good documentary. It's called Broke. I think it might be one of those ESPN 30 for 30s. But it basically details out these very famous athletes who, you know, over the course

of their career made. 20, 40, sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars. And because they just didn't understand how to manage it, they lost it all. I know there was one guy lost $140 million. How do you lose $140 million? Now, if you've got a 40 person honorage and you're paying for them every night and pop and champagne and doing some. Yeah. That's how it happened. It goes quick. It was in 2000. 2008 that Abraham met Doris D.D. Moore. Dede owned American medical professionals, a medical staffing outfit in Plant City, Florida. In November of that year, Didi attended an annual small business conference in Kissimmee. There, she met a woman named Barbara Jackson, who was the

realtor who sold Abraham his house. Barbara told Dede how Abraham changed her views on money. Dede.D.D. told Barbara, she was a writer and that she wanted to do a story on Abraham. So Barbara set up a meeting and the three of them got together in Lakeland in late 2008. You know, one of the things that I found interesting Gibbs is that D.D. was in a wheelchair when she met Barbara. There's a ton of different articles that talk about this. But once they got to the meeting, she was no longer in a wheelchair. She was walking. and apparently she told Barbara that she had healed herself through something called scuba therapy.

Scuba therapy. Sounds like a very interesting therapeutic process. Somehow involving scuba. Yes. But the thing is, only about two weeks had passed between the time that these two met at the conference and this meeting. So, you know, Barbara wondered if D.D. had faked being in a. wheelchair. Now, D.D. had a criminal record. She had behaved strangely in the past. In 2001, she drove her brand new Lincoln Navigator into a garage in Pascoe County.

So not a, not a cheap ride. No, those Lincoln Navigators are pretty pricey. They are. But she got an accomplice to tie her up, take her to Wemama and throw her in a ditch. And then when a passerby stopped to help her, she told that person that she was raped at gunpoint by three Hispanic men and that those men stole her car. Well, it turned out that D.D. created this plot. She created this story because she still owed $46,000 on her car and she wanted an insurance payout. Well, her little plan did not work. It didn't. She was convicted of insurance fraud and falsely reporting a crime. For that, she received a sentence of a one year probation. That's really crappy, though.

You know, number one, to say that something didn't happen, you know, you've got to police out looking for three Hispanic men. Right. But really to say that you were raped and to lie about that, you know, that really upsets me for all the women who have actually gone through that. Sure, yeah. I think it's kind of deplorable. It really is.

I'm actually watching this show on Netflix called Maid. I don't know if you've seen the previews for it. It's really kind of upsetting me, to be honest with you. It's about a woman, a girl, a young woman with a baby, trying to escape an abusive relationship. Trying to get ahead in life and away from the stuff. It's upsetting me from the standpoint of how little the system is helping her. I'm only like, I'm very early on into it.

But I'm not surprised to hear that. No, you and I have talked to many people who have echoed those same sentiments. I just think that's horrible because that is such a brutal crime. Right. For a woman to, you know, use that in an insurance fraud scheme. It's just nasty. Now, we don't know a whole lot about this first meeting between D.D. and Abraham. But we do know what happened afterwards.

On January 9th, 2009, Dede's company purchased all of Abraham's real estate and other assets. On February 9th, D.D. became the primary manager of Abraham Shakespeare LLC. She took over basically all of his affairs, bought out the debts that people owed him, about $600,000. On February 13th, D.D. divorced her husband of 17 years. So this is a lot going on in about a month's time. Yeah, very busy. She sent herself on a vacation. She also paid herself $1 million.

Because why not? Sure. Now, what she claimed was that it was a gift from Abraham. She purchased a Hummer, a Corvette, and a truck. Because you know, you need to have three vehicles. Well, and you need a Hummer, a Corvette, and a truck. Because you really got to span the gamut of different types of vehicles. By spring of 2009,

D.D. was living in Abraham's home. This is the one we talked about, the $1.1 million mansion. In May of that year, she had a new boyfriend whose name was Sharr Krasnicki, and he purchased a home in Plant City, Florida. He leased part of it to a law office. And as part of his renovations, he installed a large concrete slab behind the home. So a lot going on in about the first three months of 2009. Absolutely. Abraham's last appeal for the lawsuit with Michael Ford was scheduled for May 27, 2009. But he never showed up. And it was around this time that Abraham's friends and family realized that they hadn't actually seen him since April.

So the concern's starting to sit down. Sure. They went to question Dedi, who said that Abraham was escaping. the constant pressure of people asking him for money. But she told different people different stories. She said he was in Miami. She said he was in Haiti. She said he was on a cruise.

And we've said it before, Gibbs. You shouldn't lie, but if you are going to lie, you better keep your story straight. That's like a key part of lying. It really is. Especially when you're going to be lying to different members of the same family. Do you think these people are not going to be talking to each other? Being consistent in your,

communication would be very important. Yeah. Yeah. She just wasn't. D.D. spoke to the ledger, a Lakeland newspaper in the summer of 2009. She said she helped Abraham disappear because that's what he wanted. She said he had a life of drama because of the money.

She told the ledger he intentionally did not want to be found. He didn't care what it took to get away. Well, it's always easy to tell somebody that a person decided to disappear because they needed this or that. Are you ever going to verify that? If they're disappearing because they want to disappear according to the person telling you, there's no way to verify that. Well, and obviously we're going to come to find out that this is not the truth. But you're absolutely right. Pretty easy to tell a reporter this because how is the reporter going to be able to verify it?

What I think is interesting is that somebody, at a newspaper is even reaching out to D.D. at all. So it had gotten to that point, right? Friends must have been worried. Family was worried. Somehow, maybe they, but somehow the newspaper picked up on the story, and they went to go talk to this woman. Yeah. D.D. gave the ledger a video. She recorded of Abraham in early 2009. She asked if he got tired of people asking for money and he responded, they don't take no for an answer. She asked on the video where he wanted to go and he told her, it doesn't matter to me. I'm not a picky person. And then finally, she asked him if he'd miss his house when he left. He said, I might miss it, but life goes on. So we just talked about, you know, how hard it would be

for a reporter to verify. Seems awfully convenient that you'd have a video of someone saying these things on camera. Yeah, how convenient. In early fall of 2009, rumors began to spread

about Abraham's disappearance. D.D. told three different reporters that she could get them an interview with Abraham. She promised Elizabeth Walker that she'd set up a meeting with him. But none of these meetings ever happened. Yeah, well, you can promise anything, right?

Can you deliver? Well, she didn't. And now it seems even more important that she produced this video. Yeah, absolutely. But here's the thing, Gibbs. Everybody insisted that Abraham just wouldn't disappear, right? His friends, his family. His family reported him missing on November 9th, 2009.

They posted his picture at the Super Choice Market, one of his favorite hangout spots. they offered a $5,000 reward for information. The sheriff considered his disappearance suspicious and noted that homicide was possible. Well, it has to be suspicious. I mean, here's a guy that was always seen around town. He's a known lotto winner with lots of money. And all of a sudden now he's nowhere to be seen.

Yeah. And then I think also all of a sudden you have this woman, D.D. Moore, who comes into the picture is speaking on his behalf. That's suspicious, right? She's saying things about him wanting to disappear, but who knows? According to the Tampa Bay Times, Eddie Dixon, Abraham's close friend told the police, only thing I know is that's my best friend. You all need to go ask that white lady where that man at. And obviously he was referring to D.D. Moore. Yeah, sure was. So this is Abraham's best friend. He doesn't believe that there's any way that he would just up and disappear. Well, D.D., of course, notice all this suspicion wrapped around this.

Well, I'm sure she was continually being hounded by reporters and maybe even the sheriff was asking her questions. She told the ledger the money was like a curse to him. And now it's a curse to me. And I think she was referencing the fact that the police were constantly knocking on her door asking for information. Yeah, they're going to want to ask you some questions. They sure will.

Why wouldn't they? They need to know answers. And over the next few months, D.D. created an elaborate plot to make it seem as though Abraham was still a lot. She offered to give Centoria Butler, his girlfriend, a $200,000 house. If she would lie to the police and tell them that Abraham visited her one day. night. D.D. also paid someone $5,000 to deliver Elizabeth Walker a birthday card and say it was from Abraham. So she's working her angles. Yeah, you can tell she's trying hard because from my

point of view Gibbs, this is a house of cards, right? She has built and it's starting to crumble. She's seeing that and she's probably getting extremely desperate and thinking, okay, what can I do? Right. I can use some of this money to pay people to do things that will make it look as though Abraham is still a lot. Yeah. Well, by you a $200,000 house. I'll give you $5,000 to do this. She must be confident in herself, though, to reach out to these people and to ask them to participate in this.

Well, either that or she realized that she had nothing to lose. things were going downhill quickly so, you know, all bets are off. We better try whatever. Yeah, it's like emergency parachute. Yes. Yeah. In January 2009, Dedey turned to Greg Smith for help. She told him that everyone thought she had hurt Abraham.

He asked her if she had. Dede said, no, Abraham was on his way back, but she needed Greg to buy her time until then. So she offered Greg $300 if he would call Abraham's mother and pretend to be Abraham. Seems like a lot, not much money, though. No, but, you know, when you're dealing with people who don't have a lot of money, $300 can be a lot. $5,000 can be a ton of money. Sure. A $200,000 house can be extremely motivating to someone who doesn't have very much.

money. So, Dedey took Elizabeth Walker to a loud restaurant. When her phone rang, Dedey said, hey, it may be Abraham calling. You should answer that. Elizabeth answered, and it was Greg on the other end of the line. Apparently Gibbs, she was suspicious at first, but Greg somehow managed to convince her that he was Abraham. He told her he'd be home soon, and she could tell the police that he was okay. Now, I get it. You're at a very loud restaurant. It's kind of hard to hear. I do believe that most mothers would recognize their son's voice.

I believe that too. So there had to have been a lot of distractions, distractions, a lot of external noise. And it was set up that way on purpose. Now, for Greg's part, he didn't think a whole lot about it. I think, you know, later on, he would say that all he knew was that he was making a little bit of money. He also said he thought Abraham was hiding from Dede's harassment, but as time passed, he too became suspicious of her. He decided to call Abraham.

Abraham didn't answer, but he did text back and say, I'll call you in a little while, and Gibbs, this was a huge red flag for Greg because he knew this man. And he knew that Abraham did not know how to spell and couldn't text. Yes, so right there, like you said, Red Flag, Greg knew something was up. Yeah, I mean, it would be like, you know, if you sent me a text and everything was spelled correctly, I was able to understand all of it. I would think, I don't know if this is Gibby. Who is this? Who has Gibby's phone?

Yeah, especially if they say in that text, they want to take you to lunch. And pay. And pay. Oh, yeah, that's it. You've been kidnapped. Somebody's trying to pull a fast one on me. So as all of this is going on, Detective Greg Thomas was working the missing person's case.

Sheriff's detective searched Dede's home, her car, and her hard drive. Based on cell phone data and surveillance footage, Detective Thomas felt that Didi had something to do with Abraham's disappearance. But at the time, they didn't know if he was alive or dead.

He questioned Greg after he found out that D.D. gave him $300. The police told Greg that he wouldn't get in trouble if he helped with the investigation. What they wanted was for him to get information from D.D. Now, Greg didn't want to be a snitch. And there's a lot of people that don't. They don't want that label. They know what has happened to other people in the streets that have been given that label. but at the same time, he didn't trust this woman.

And I'm sure you wanted to find out what happened to Abraham. Yeah, I mean, Abraham was his best friend. The police gave Greg a wire to where at his next meeting with Didi, but Didi checked him for wires at their last meeting. The police, they wanted Greg to do things a certain way, right? They had a protocol. They wanted him to follow. But he wanted to do things his way.

He told them, hey, I'm from the streets. I know how to do this. Basically, just get on my way. I got this. Let me do my thing. Exactly. Greg got an idea when he was drinking his daily Red Bull. He took the top off, put styrofoam inside for padding, and he put the recording device inside the can.

And he placed the can in his center console. Greg normally smoked in his car. So he pretended that this can was his ashtray. And the idea worked. And he was able to record. court everything the police needed at his next meeting with Didi. This was sometime, you know, mid-January. Pretty smart.

Yeah, I'll go as far as to say it's ingenious, really, if you think about it. If you know that at the last meeting, this woman checked your body for wires, hey, who thinks that a can of Red Bull is going to be wired up? Well, obviously she didn't. During their conversation, Didi told Greg, I've only been talking to. to you because I'm trying to find Abraham. I feel like if Abraham was okay, he would have contacted me by now because he transferred all that stuff into my name and he was forced to leave and, you know, not come back for a

while. According to True Crime Daily, Dedey told Greg about a man named Ronald, a drug dealer whom she believed killed Abraham. She said to Greg, I guarantee you Ronald has killed him. I just know it because the man threatened to kill my son. I don't even know Ronald's last name. So, you know, kind of like what we talked about before, right, as you're building this, this house of cars. Right.

Just as she told the reporters, hey, Abraham wanted to get away. He was tired of all this stuff. You know, now you have a mystery character. Ronald. He must have done it. It's just kind of another layer. Well, she's going to try to distance herself, right? Well, I think that's the key, right?

When you're in that situation, now she put herself in that situation. So, but she doesn't want the truth to come out. And I think she's going to do anything and everything that she can possibly do to make sure that doesn't happen. So she implied that she knew that this Ronald killed Abraham. But she couldn't tell the authorities. She said she had to cover up the crime. to protect her family, right? Ronald had threatened to kill her son. So police told Greg that he needed to try to get the murder weapon from Didi and to get her to tell him where Abraham's body was buried.

And to try to do this, the police decided to bring in an undercover officer to play the role of a man who was about ready to serve a lengthy prison sentence. What they hoped was that Deity would asked this man to move the body. And then once he was in prison, confessed to the murder. Greg was present. He recorded the meeting. He acted as the middleman saying to Dedi that he knew someone who could help. So, you know, this is pretty smart.

Gibbs on the part of police. Somebody had to think this up. Because if you needed somebody to move a body, if you needed somebody to take the wrap for something that you had done, well, who better than a person who is getting ready to serve, let's say, life sentence. Right. What are they going to get another life sentence? And maybe they get a bunch of money for their family.

So you could see how maybe someone like Didi could buy that. Oh, sure. Yeah. You do a favor for me. I'm going to do a big favor for your family. So D.D. met with this undercover officer. And the agreement.

that was made was that D.D. would pay his family $50,000 after he went to jail and confessed to the murder. He mentioned that he'd need evidence to convince the investigators that he had killed Abraham. Greg told Dede after the meeting, listen, hey, if we're going to convict this guy, let me get the gun, bring me the gun that killed him so we can pin it on him. And that's what she did. She brought the gun a few days later. And police were able to get receipts proving that she purchased it. They even found video of her using it at a gun range.

Yeah, I don't think they could hope for anything better than this, right? I mean, Greg did a great job on getting Didi to follow through. Yeah, I think between the murder weapon and the recordings and all that, it's pretty good evidence. but they still needed to figure out where Abraham's body was located. And finally, Dedi took Greg to Plant City, Florida. She showed him a fresh slab of concrete in the yard of the house owned by her boyfriend, Shar, Krasnicki. There was a piece of rebar near the concrete.

And Greg asked her to get the rebar and set it on the concrete where the body was buried. And really, that's all the police needed. They went to the house the next day. The sheriff's office started digging up the concrete slab on January 27, 2010. And the very next day, they found Abraham's body under the slab of cement. The authorities used fingerprints to confirm his identity on January 29. Abraham had been shot in the chest by a 38 caliber pistol on either April 6th or April 7th of 2009. He was just 43 years old when he was murdered.

The authorities theorized that he and Didi got into a fight over the money. She got angry and she shot him because she wanted to keep all of the money for herself. Greed Gibbs, pure and simple. D.D. Moore was arrested on February 2nd, 2010. According to True Crime Daily, she told the police, Well, I hope you're still looking for the people who did it. and one of the officers responded, well, I've got one of them in my hands right now. Love it.

It's kind of funny if you think about it. Sure. Not that a man lost his life, but that even then, right, she's still trying to hold on desperately to this facade. Yeah, she's trying to really sell that ruse. And the officer is like, hey, I'm not falling for your BS. I got you. We know you did it. After Didi's arrest, the police learned that she asked her ex-husband to dig the hole with a backhoe.

She told him she needed a place to burn trash. Then she hired an unsuspecting contractor to cover the body with the concrete slab. That'd be kind of strange, right? To find out as that contractor later on. Oh, for sure. That you did what you thought was legitimate work. And it was. Obviously, it would come out later that the work was really to cover up a dead body.

Dedi initially told the police that she needed a concrete pad to park her boat and vehicles. During her interrogation, she brought up Ronald, the drug dealer. She also blamed her 14-year-old son. Gibbs, she said that her son shot and killed Abraham at her office, and then she tried to cover it up. This was a woman who just absolutely would not confess. She's willing to sell her son out. Yeah.

And you know exactly what she's thinking. He's 14 years old. What are they going to do to him? If I can sell this, the worst that I'll get is a what? Conspiracy after the fact or, you know, some charge like that. They're not going to do anything to him. And I won't go away for the rest of my life. But even though she wouldn't confess, through other interviews with people and the evidence, police were able to piece it together.

And in 2012, Dede went to trial on first-degree murder charges. The prosecution decided not to pursue the death penalty. So what they laid out, Gibbs, was that Dedy befriended Abraham in the fall of 2008. After giving away most of his money, Dedy told him that she could help him. him manage what he had left. But during an argument over the money, she shot him and she had her ex-husband help bury the body in the yard. Polk County authorities testified about their evidence against D.D. She offered Centoria Butler a $200,000 house, right? We talked about that in exchange for reporting a false siding of Abraham. She also sent his son $5,000 in cash for his

birthday, acting as though it had come from Abraham. She used his cell phone to send text messages, to try to trick people into thinking that, you know, these messages were from him. Abraham's mother, Elizabeth Walker, testified that D.D. tried to hide the fact that he was missing. D.D. also told her that Abraham had AIDS. I mean, this was a woman who was willing to do anything. And she really was trying to do anything. But I want to go back to, you know, just some of this evidence, which I'm sure was just a small bit of it, why would you need to pay someone $200,000 to say that they saw someone when they really did? You know, there's only one reason. Sure. It's because you're trying to cover up the fact that this person is not coming back

and you're responsible for the reason why they'll never come back again. Why else would you do it? There's no reason. $200,000 is a lot of money. And D.D. Moore was not Abraham Shakespeare. No. She wasn't about giving two people in need. The only reason why she gave away any money was to try to cover up her tracks. Yeah.

She wasn't trying to help anybody but herself. No, no. Yeah. She definitely just wanted to cover her ass. Centoria Butler testified that D.D. was divisive and manipulative. And that she told her. Abraham ran off with the lady from the back. Jurors watched a Walmart surveillance video showing DD purchasing gloves, duct tape,

plastic sheeting, and other tools. All of these items were later found near Abraham's body. That's not going to help her case. No, no. It comes up in a lot of cases, right? Video footage of somebody buying gloves, plastic, cleaning supplies, all of this. yeah, could that just be the day that you needed to restock all of your cleaning stuff? It could be or it could be a trip to the department store because you just killed someone.

And you need this stuff to try to cover it up. In the cases that we do, it always turns out to be the latter. And then finally, jurors heard from Greg Smith, Abraham's friend and police informant. He said that D.D. forged a letter from Abraham. and she instructed him to give it to Elizabeth Walker. During her trial, D.D. declined to take the stand. And then on December 10th, 2012, the defense rested without calling any witnesses. So, you know, a tactic, right?

Sometimes used by the defense. My understanding is normally you would do that when you just don't think that the prosecution has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that your client is guilty. I do think it's strange, though, not to even call like character witnesses or things like that. You think at the very least, I get why you don't want to put your client on the stand or why she would not want to take the stand. That's pretty evident.

Yeah, and I think the prosecutors were hoping they would put her on the stand. Oh, they would, I think they would be salivating the night before if they knew that going in the next day, she was going to be taking the stand. But you would think at the very least that the. defense would call character witnesses, hey, maybe they couldn't find it. I'm thinking that might be what it was. Because, you know, she was such a bad person. They couldn't find anybody willing to take the stand and say something good on her behalf. Maybe they just didn't have any witnesses. On December 10, 2012, D.D. Moore was found guilty

of first-degree murder and possessing and discharging a firearm resulting in death. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Judge Emmett Battles said to the court, after trial and listening to all of this over two weeks, words that were said were cool, calculated, and manipulative. Abraham Shakespeare was your prey and victim. Money was the route of evil you brought to Abraham. You were sentenced to life in prison. You shall not be eligible for parole.

So, I mean, obviously judges can say whatever they want. Sometimes they're very harsh when they hand down the sentence. Sometimes they're not. I think this judge knew, right, from the testimony, from the evidence that this was a cold woman, very darkhearted. Ice cold. Yeah. Yeah. Just mean, nasty, killed for money.

D.D. is currently held at Lowell Correctional Institution. Crime Watch Daily spoke to her in 2019. She told them that she thought Greg had. something to do with Abraham's death. She also said that she had no idea what happened to Abraham. She thought she was burying money, Gibbs, under that concrete slab. Money. Yeah. Okay. Because this seems like a woman who would want to bury money. Right. And not buy a Hummer, a Corvette, a truck. She said Abraham wanted to bury $1 million and cover it up since he was going to go away for a while. Now, she couldn't explain how his body ended up under that concrete slab. And then finally,

she blamed Ronald for killing Abraham. She said that Ronald, the drug dealer, threatened to kill her son and chop up his body if she said anything to the police. This is a woman who has never acknowledged what she did. And if you ask me, I don't think she ever will. Maybe in her own world, she believes she did nothing wrong. Boy, if that's true, then you're talking about someone who's truly delusional. Yeah. I mean, it's a sad story, right? When this man, Abraham Shakespeare, won the lottery, you know he was ecstatic. Who wins the lottery and is not over the moon thinking all of the things that they can do with their life, how much better their life is going to be. Right. But that's not what happened. Yeah, his life took a bad turn.

Yeah, he was constantly harassed by friends and family who wanted to get some of his money. And because he was such a generous person, he gave almost all of it away. And then he trusted this woman, D.D. Moore to help him manage what he had left. But she betrayed his trust by stealing his money for herself and killing him. Well, now D.D. gets to spend potentially the rest of her life in prison. Yeah, I would say she will, unless. there is some type of appeal or something where her conviction gets overturned, I think she'll die in prison. And to be honest with you, I have no problem with that.

Oh, she's deceitful and murderous. Yeah, you and I talk about a lot of murderers. And obviously, there are a lot of really bad people. You have people who kill for the fun of it. You have people who kill for sexual gratification. And then obviously, you have people that kill for money. Greed. Yeah. Greed is the root of all evil. And it's the root of a lot of it, that's for sure.

Abraham's friends and family have said that, you know, they just wish he never had won the lottery. Because if he didn't win it, then he'd still be with him. That's probably an accurate statement. It probably is because if he doesn't have the money, D.D. Moore doesn't come into his life and she doesn't steal it and kill him. It's such a tragic event, right? This is a time when you should be happy. You know, you have all this money. You're helping people out.

You've helped your family out. You've got this beautiful mansion. You got this BMW, a truck. Life should be good. You have this woman that takes advantage of them and then kills them to cover her tracks. Yeah, I say it all the time. I don't understand why people do what they do, right? When it comes to murder, I don't get it or, you know, crimes in general.

I really can't understand how someone can take another person's life just to get to their money. I just can't get it. You got to wonder if this was Dee Dee's game that she always did anyway. I mean, if she was in that wheelchair but didn't need to be in that wheelchair, but it was trying to be a, what is that word? Is it a grifter? Yeah, a scammer. Scammer. Yeah, I kind of think that you might be on to something.

I imagine this is a woman who was pretty scammy. Yeah. if that's even a word for a large part of her life. And I don't know if she went into this thing thinking, okay, I'm going to kill him. What I think is she probably thought, you know, I'll finagle this money out of him. But then something turned. Yeah. He realized what was going on.

He started fighting with her. And then she had to make that decision. Okay. in order to keep this money, I've got to get rid of him. Right. And the decision that she made Gibbs was that, yeah, she was okay with that. That's what she was going to do. And she did.

Didn't lose any sleep over it. No. But that's it for our case on D.D. Moore and the murder of Abraham Shakespeare. We got some voicemails, Gibbs. You want to check those out? Yes, hear them. Hi, guys. It's Emma from the UK again.

I was just listening to your most recent episode on William Huff and, your discussion about nature and nurture. It just reminded me of a really great book that I think you guys should read. It's called Sons of Kane. I can't remember who wrote it, but he's a really good crime author. And basically it investigates the link

from our kind of ancestral origins of needing to kill. You know, a kill-l-be-killed situation, our interactions with Neanderthals and how we most likely killed them. Yeah, it's really, really fascinating. and it talks about that kind of leftover part of our brain

that is triggered in some people and how you get that unique mixture of upbringing and genetics because basically what he's saying is that it's inside all of us. So really, really fascinating book, highly recommend. I hope you guys are

well, keep yourself safe and keep your own time ticking. Bye guys. Oh, great voicemail and it sounds like a book that I would really enjoy. Sounds like a book that I would like to skim myself. Depending on how many pictures are in it. When you say skim, you mean just flip the pages until you get to the end?

Exactly. Yeah. Well, you are a speed reader. I am a speed reader. I do that Z thing, you know, that's nice. Z? You mean, like what you're doing with your finger? You make a Z with your finger?

Yeah. As you go across the pages? Yeah, you pick up those words that are within the Z only. Okay. I got you. It basically summarizes it. It's close enough. Yeah.

You get the gist. Exactly. Hey, y'all. This is Sherry. First time calling and leaving you a voicemail. I've been listening to you for a couple of years now. And I wanted to give you a case. I am also from Ohio.

This happened very close to where I live. It was June 15th, 2007 in Lake Township, Stark County, Ohio, the murder of Jesse Marie Davis. She was almost a full-term pregnant. woman and Bobby Cuts Jr. was convicted of her murder. So anyway, just look into that. I love you guys. I would say I'm not any team one way or the other. So I guess I'm a T-Cat team. And you guys take care and keep your own time taken. Bye-bye. T-Cat team. Team T-Cat. So that voicemail was a lot longer. She gave a lot more details about the case, but I had to shorten it because it was super, super long. But it does sound like a fascinating case that we need to to make sure we have on the list.

And I will do that. Thank you. Hey, Mike and Gibby. I just wanted to call and let you folks know that I've been listening for many years at this point. And I really respect the way that you treat the prosecutors when they're giving off their sentences for a lot of the cases that you folks cover. Has somebody who's worked on both sides, lectern for many years, there's a bunch of stuff that happens behind the scenes. And a lot of times the results are not what, you know, people would want to have happened.

But, but nonetheless, that's the best that they can do. So I appreciate that you folks aren't super critical of it, not having really like a window into what actually happens behind the scenes there. Anyway, I really appreciate the show. I've been listening to it for a long time. You guys do a great job. I love the camaraderie. And I'm team both of you guys.

So anyway, keep your head on the swivel. that's a point of conversation we have a lot. It is because, you know, sometimes we're flabbergasted for the lack of a better word about why this sentence or that sentence. Sometimes we think they're low. Sometimes we agree with them. But as with a lot of people involved in the system, we try not to be too critical because, yeah, we're not there. We don't know all of the ends and outs and the limitations and everything that goes on. It doesn't keep us from saying, wow, that, you know, that seems awful low.

I'm surprised that it was that low or things like that. But we're also very aware that there are deals made behind the door between the defense team, prosecutor and the whoever's sitting on the judge. Who's that, whoever's sitting on the judge? Is that what you're going with? Whoever is sitting over the drive. Okay, we'll just leave it at that. Yeah. Hey, guys.

I was just listening to the anthrax. murders and you guys mentioned the Haynes Crosk book, the big one. I actually work for the

local county government doing code enforcement and things like that and we have stacks and stacks of these things and we use them fairly often to try to verify addresses and where people are.

So they are still a thing and we still use them. So there you go. So there you go. Maybe he got cut off there at the end. But I definitely wanted to play it because that's something that you've talked about. I still don't exactly know what it is. But apparently it is a real thing and it's still being used in government, which is surprising.

with all the technology that we have, that those would still need to be used. Because I remember towards the end of me being in real estate, I know that they switched over to like a CD form, but it was still nice to go to the book because the book was quick and easy and... Sure. You know, I can't believe you've never seen one of those.

They were so cool back in the day, man. No. Listen, everybody. Everybody. No, I'm very rarely trying to find people, so... That's very true. I'm trying to get away from people. Yeah.

If anything, you would have went in and found your name tore that page out. Exactly. So that other people couldn't find me. We did have one thing in the mailbag, and it came from fitness trainer, Alita Farlano. Gibbs, she sent us a ton of this drink mix called Bolero. I'd never heard of it, but it's amazing. My whole family is into it.

It's basically little packets of powder that you mix in water. Yeah, when I used to train with Arnold, we used to do that. You and Arnold used to use the Bolero? Yeah, quite a bit. I bet. That's how you got so buff. Exactly. But we appreciate it. And my family loves it. So I'm sure we're going to be buying some more of it. But that's it, Gibbs, for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.