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In 1986 Aileen Wuornos met Tyria Moore at a bar in South Daytona, Florida, and the two women began a romantic relationship. After Moore left her job as a motel maid, Wuornos supported them through sex work. In 1989 Wuornos killed her first known victim, 51-year-old Richard Mallory. He had picked her up along a highway in Florida, and his body was later found with three gunshot wounds. At least six more male motorists were killed over the next year. In July 1990 Wuornos and Moore crashed the car belonging to Peter Siems, one of Wuornos’s alleged victims. A witness provided a description of the women, and drawings were circulated to the media. Moore subsequently returned home to Ohio.
After Wuornos was arrested in 1991, Moore agreed to help investigators in exchange for immunity. (Moore denied any involvement in the crimes.) During a taped phone call, she was able to elicit a confession from Wuornos, whose main concern seemed to be protecting Moore. During the call Wuornos said, “I’m not gonna let you go to jail. Ty, I love you. If I have to confess everything just to keep you from getting in trouble, I will.” Moore was later a key witness for the prosecution during Wuornos’s 1992 trial. She testified that Wuornos had told her of the murders while they were dating and gave statements that contradicted Wuornos’s claim that she had acted in self-defense. After Wuornos was convicted, Moore largely left the public eye, with unconfirmed reports claiming she entered the witness protection program.
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Amy Tikkanen
