Prosecutors say a mother charged for gassing her children to death this month in Connecticut left a detailed suicide note, but failed to kill herself before a friend and police intervened.
New Haven officials also report that the “despondent” woman -- LeRoya Moore -- has a history of child abuse and mental health issues, and that the two murdered children were at least once the subject of a social services investigation.
Almost four dozen bottles of prescription painkillers, muscle relaxants, antidepressants and sleep aids were seized from Moore’s gas-contaminated home at 541 Strong Street the day she deliberately turned the gas on there, killing both of her young kids.
Following those grim conclusions, police arrested the 36-year-old yesterday, formally charging her with three counts of reckless endangerment and two counts of murder. Below is her suicide message:
“I’m sure there’s an expert somewhere that will say the children suffered, but I let them know they were loved very much and they were going to heaven. We said the Lord’s Prayer to protect their souls I know this was meant to end the way it did. I don’t know the reason why, but we were meant to die today…
“I’m numb and if I burn for eternity at least I’ll know why I deserve it…
“I couldn’t leave any more of my kids to the system… They were in pain and now they’re in heaven. I prayed and God knows my heart, he made me the way I am and knew we wren’t [sic] fit for this world past this time…
“I will be cremated and the bank will get the house and the car… I asked God to stop me if I was making a mistake. I asked to show me I was wrong and save them. They should not be left to burden anyone because I am the only one who could love them like a mother. Not an institution or social worker … They will be in heaven with the people who we lost and loved…
“They got to do all of the things they wanted to do before they died today. They ate their favorite things. They had ice cream and they wanted to paint their nails so we got nail police and they had fun and really liked how it came out … My older kids escaped the same fate because I was too depressed to move and make it happen…
“There’s no more pain for Aleisha and Daaron. They left this world as innocent as they were when they came into it … I’m done. There’s nothing else to say and no further explanation to give…”
LeRoya Moore’s farewell letter was emailed to a girlfriend only moments before she committed double infanticide and then slashed her own wrist in a failed suicide attempt.
She has 14 other prior convictions, prosecutors told the judge, who subsequently ordered the suspect to be held on $2-million bail at the Department of Correction in Niantic, and put on suicide watch.
@EponymousRox
