Detectives executed a search warrant at the home of a suspect in the fatal shooting of a gas station clerk and uncovered a woman’s decomposing body, Montgomery County, Maryland police said. The cops said that the suspect, 31-year-old Torrey Moore, was residing in the apartment for a while with the dead body of a woman who was eight months pregnant when she died.
Moore went to a nearby Dash In convenience store at the Shell gas station in the 11100 block of New Hampshire Avenue in the White Oak neighborhood at 3 pm on Thursday, December 8. He brought some merchandise to the counter to check out and got into an argument with the store clerk, 61-year-old Ayalew Wondimu of Silver Spring.
The dispute escalated and Moore started throwing items at Wondimu, who tried to beat Moore off with a stick. Moore allegedly pulled out a revolver and shot Wondimu, killing him. Detectives tracked Moore to an apartment across the street and obtained the search warrant. While searching the home, a SWAT team found the woman’s body in an advanced stage of decomposition and arrested Moore.
Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones said that Moore was in a relationship with the pregnant female found dead inside the apartment and that there had been some sort of argument between the two around one month before, that led to the victim losing her life. There were no complaints about an odor coming from the unit, but a neighbor mentioned an awful odor that would hit him as he stepped off the elevator. “It simply smells like trash,” he said. The neighbor said he resided at the apartment building for two years but had no idea there was a deceased woman’s decaying body down the hall. The unidentified woman’s body was taken to the medical examiner.
Moore was charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during a felony for the death of the gas station employee.
An investigation is underway to determine if a gun found in Moore’s apartment was the gun that killed Wondimu. The death of the woman in the apartment is also under investigation.
