Woman charged after allegedly killing her mother by insulin injection in Taylor County

Yahoo

25-03-2025

GRAFTON, W.Va. (WBOY) — A woman has been charged with murder after allegedly injecting her mother with insulin that had not been prescribed to her, causing her death in 2023.
Just before midnight on May 25, 2023, officers with the Grafton Police Department were dispatched to assist with a call of a cardiac arrest at an apartment on Howard Street where EMS had found the patient dead, according to a criminal complaint.
When officers arrived, they spoke with Kelly Moore, 61, of Arthurdale, who said that 'her mother's blood sugar was 250, so she gave mom 20 units of her [Moore's] insulin,' officers said.
Upon entering the apartment, officers heard Moore 'on the phone stating 'It's bad'' and said Moore 'appeared angry and annoyed' when she got off the phone; at that point, Moore gave officers her identification and the identifying information for the deceased, 81-year-old Ethel Lucille Moore, according to the complaint.
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Officers photographed the scene before returning to speak with Moore, who said she 'had gone to bed around 8:30 p.m. because her sugar was really low,' officers said.
Moore told officers that Ethel 'had been feeling bad for a couple of days,' and had received a hip replacement on May 19, 2023, before returning home on May 22, and that Ethel's 'blood sugar was really high today,' so Moore said she 'gave her some of my insulin,' which she said was a total of 20 units, according to the complaint.
During that conversation, Moore told officers that Ethel ''had all kinds of s*** wrong with her',' including 'heart problems, arthritis all over and dementia,' and when Moore talked about Ethel's dementia, she 'seemed very annoyed and stated, 'That's why I'm here with her.''
Officers located the used insulin vial on the kitchen table and noted it to be an empty Lilly LisPro Injection Kwik Pen U-100, which comes with 100 units of insulin when unused, but Moore told officers the pen was not full when she injected Ethel with it, according to the complaint.
A medical examiner arrived on scene, and when speaking with Moore learned that 'the insulin she had injected Ethel with was prescribed to [Moore] and that Ethel had never been prescribed insulin,' officers said.
When Moore was asked why she would give Ethel insulin when it had not been prescribed to her, she said 'Ethel had taken her blood sugar readings twice [that day] and that it was really high and that Ethel had told [Moore's] sister that she 'wasn't doing nothing for her',' according to the complaint.
According to Moore, Ethel's blood sugar reading was 'was '250 or 260 something'' at 8:30 p.m. that day after Ethel had eaten two small scoops of ice cream 'because her blood sugar was high and [Ethel] was convinced it would lower [it].'
Moore 'indicated that she administered 30 units of fast-acting insulin to herself in the belly,' and that she had given Ethel 20 units 'at the left deltoid,' according to the complaint.
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Officers noted that Ethel's listed weight was 130 pounds and that Moore's was 275, and that the instructions listed on the insulin container said for Moore to inject herself with 30 unites three times daily, officers said.
Moore told officers she had lived with Ethel since 2022 and 'went on to explain that she was the only one not married, so she 'got elected' to stay with Ethel because there 'wasn't anybody else' to do it,' according to the complaint.
On Aug. 22, 2024, the Taylor County Prosecutor's Office received a fax from the West Virginia Chief Medical Examiner's Office with the death investigation and post-mortem examination for Ethel which showed she had died as a result of 'insulin shock,' showing an insulin assay of 93mcIU/mL when a reference range was meant to be from 2-25mcIU/mL, officers said.
On March 10, 2025, officers received the West Virginia Death Certificate for Moore which lists the cause of death as 'Insulin Shock' from a relative of Ethel who stated that 'she had believed [Ethel] died as a result of complications from her hip replacement surgery' and that Moore had 'never mentioned to her anything about injecting [Ethel] with insulin,' according to the complaint.
Moore has been charged with murder. She is being held in Tygart Valley Regional Jail without bond.
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