Police identify motel homicide victim

11-17-2016 Missouri:

COLUMBIA — The man found dead from an apparent gunshot wound earlier this week in a motel is Gregory J. Moore, a 54-year-old Columbia resident, police said Saturday in a news release.

Moore's body was found around 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Welcome Inn on Providence Road, where police say Moore was a long-term resident. Authorities are treating his death as a homicide.

A man with Moore's full name, address and birth year is registered as a sex offender with the Missouri Highway Patrol, though authorities have not confirmed they are the same person. In 1996, the man pleaded guilty to second-degree sodomy against a 16-year-old girl in St. Charles, along with supplying a minor with liquor, according to online court records and the sex offender database.

Police ask anyone with more information about the homicide to call 875-8477 to leave an anonymous tip. ..Source.. by Huilan Zhan

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Charges filed in Welcome Inn homicide

COLUMBIA — A Columbia woman was charged Wednesday in the shooting death last week of Welcome Inn resident Gregory Moore. This was the second time she had been arrested since the homicide.

Jaclyn Amber Rose, 33, of Columbia was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. She was detained by the Fulton Police Department early Wednesday morning, and was then transferred to the Columbia Police Department.

Rose was the last person seen leaving Room 149 of the Welcome Inn before Gregory J. Moore, 54, was found dead, according to a probable cause statement filed Wednesday in Boone County Circuit Court by Detective Alan Mitchell of the Columbia Police Department. Rose was seen on the hotel’s surveillance video entering Moore's room with him last Wednesday carrying a bag. She was later seen leaving the room alone with two bags, Mitchell wrote.

The probable cause statement described this series of events leading up to and after Moore's death:

While Rose was in Moore’s room, a witness identified as S.P. briefly visited Moore to pay a debt. S.P. told police that he did not see anyone else in the room while he was there but could not recall if the bathroom door was closed.

S.P. told police that Moore sold methamphetamine and that Moore kept a gun for protection.

Sometime after S.P. left the room, surveillance footage showed people standing near Room 149 turn and look in the direction of the room "as though they heard something." A short time later, video shows someone resembling Rose leaving the room.

A witness identified as E.Mc. told police he saw someone leaving the room who matched Rose’s description but with "wild" blonde hair. Rose’s booking photo shows her with brunette hair.

Moore's body was discovered by an acquaintance the following evening. Moore had been a long-term resident of the hotel at 1612 N. Providence Road, according to previous Missourian reporting.

Rose’s mother, identified as E.M. in the probable cause statement, said Rose told her that Moore was dead before Moore’s name had been released by the police. Rose also told her mother that police were searching for her.

Rose’s mother told investigators that Rose used methamphetamine and that she bought it from Moore. She said that Rose had become more violent since she started to use meth a couple of months ago. She also said that Rose and Moore had been romantically involved several years ago but that the relationship recently was centered around drugs.

Columbia police arrested Rose on Range Line Street on suspicion of drug-related charges early last Thursday morning, about 16 hours before Moore's body was discovered. Officers during that arrest seized a cell phone from which the battery and SIM card had been removed. On Tuesday, after obtaining a search warrant, officers determined that the phone belonged to Moore.

Officers also saw a blonde wig in Rose’s 1999 Hyundai Sonata.

After discovering the phone belonged to Moore, Columbia police notified other law enforcement agencies in the area to detain Rose if they came into contact with her.

No further information was provided on the whereabouts of Moore’s gun.

Police Department spokeswoman Latisha Stroer said Wednesday that she did not know how Columbia police came to arrest Rose on the alleged drug offenses before Moore's body was discovered. She was also unaware of how Fulton police came into contact with Rose before detaining her. She had no information about the whereabouts of Moore's gun or why it took five days to determine that the phone they seized from Rose belonged to Moore.

Rose was being held in Boone County Jail on Wednesday on a cash-only bond of $1 million. by Scott Swafford.