Hundreds Mourn The Deaths of 2 Children Allegedly Killed By Their Mother

Hundreds of people attended the memorial service of Daaron, 7, and Aleisha Moore, 6, who were laid to rest Tuesday six days after their mother, LeRoya Moore, 36, was charged with their murder inside their East Haven home.

The memorial service was held at Varick Memorial AME Zion Church at 246 Dixwell Avenue in New Haven.

About 200 people attended the service, which was closed to the media.

The funeral was officiated by the Rev. Eldren D. Morrison, while the Rev. Janene Hawkins, pastor at Walters Memorial AME Church in Bridgeport spoke, the New Haven Register reports.

Morrison told the Register’s Esteban L. Hernandez that the “service was somber but joyful.”

“These things just happen because there’s evilness in our world,” Morrison told the Register after the service. “But the church is always there to support families in time like this.”

Morrison said he just wanted to add support to the family and to the community.

B.C. Bailey Funeral Home of Wallingford served the family and offered to do the funeral arrangements at no cost.

The burial was at Mountain Grove Cemetery in Easton.

LeRoya Moore, 36, was charged last Wednesday with two counts of murder and three counts of reckless endangerment for the death of her two children.

While Moore allegedly told police she stabbed her two kids, blunt force trauma has been ruled out as a cause of death, reports the New Haven Register, while adding police believe the children may have been poisoned.

An official cause of death could still be months away.

When investigators arrived at the house earlier this month they say someone had turned the gas on purpose.

Moore told investigators, “I stabbed them .. I released them,” the Hartford Courant reported last week via court documents.

In a note left near the children, Moore allegedly wrote, “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.”

As a potential motive for the killings, Moore wrote she didn’t want to have the kids raised by the “system” or a “social worker.”

DCF and Criminal Record

Moore has had 13 complaints filed against her with the state Department of Children and Families, WTNH News 8 reports. Moore’s history with DCF dates back to 1997, the Register reports.

DCF is investigating its own conduct in this case.

Moore, who has an extensive criminal past, had already faced pending assault charges involving her ex-husband, Michael Moore.

In September 2014 she is alleged to have assaulted her ex-husband, Michael Moore, in front of the children at their magnet school in New Haven. Those criminal charges are pending.

The Hartford Courant reports that the state Child’s Advocate Office is investigating why child-protection officials didn’t continue to supervise Moore after her recent arrest.

There were reports of “suspected abuse or neglect” of the two youths as recent as the fall of 2014. The state Child Advocate’s Office says it doesn’t appear there was any follow up by DCF.

In 2006 LeRoya Moore had two other children removed from her custody after she repeatedly beat her 4-year-old daughter with the handle of a sponge mop. LeRoya Moore’s daughter said she was beaten for spilling juice and screaming, the Courant reported.

LeRoya Moore was placed on a $2 million court set bond and will appear next in court on June 23.

The investigation was conducted by the East Haven Police Detective Division with the assistance of the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Unit.

Police arrived at 541 Strong Street around 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2 and found the two children, Daaron, 7, and Aleisha, 6, deceased.

At the time, police said LeRoya Moore, 36, was also injured, but they declined to comment further on the nature of her injuries. She had cut wounds, court documents revealed.

It’s likely the children were in the house for more than 24 hours, officials said.

Police were only called to the house after a friend of the mother’s called 911 saying she received a note from Moore indicating she planned to take her own life. The friend went to the house, and Moore told her that she had cut herself, the friend said on the 911 call.

Three days after the tragedy, East Haven residents and officials held a vigil on the Green to help facilitate the healing.

Read the New Haven Register’s full story about Tuesday’s memorial service here.