When Honda car salesman Stephen Moore, 44, didn’t show up for work one Monday, they called his ex-wife Kathleen. She said she hadn’t seen him since early morning. Two days later, a 911 call came in. A car had burst into flames. “The sound of popping tires woke up neighbors” on a quiet street in Long Branch, near the Jersey Shore. After the fire had been put out, human remains had been found in the trunk of the car. The medical examiner found a tattoo that was identical to Stephen Moore’s. So the missing person’s case turned into a homicide. Lucky for the investigators, Stephen left behind an audio diary which included a motive. Stephen Moore and his ex-wife Kathleen Dorsett were in a bitter custody battle over their one-year-old child.
Kathleen, 38, and her father, Thomas Dorsett, 66, admitted to killing Stephen Moore in their backyard, loading his body in a car and then setting it on fire. Warning: It gets worse. According to NJ.com, “While in jail, Kathleen Dorsett and her mother, Lesley Dorsett, 68, planned a murder-for-hire plot to kill Stephen Moore’s mother, Evelyn Moore.” Kathleen was sentenced to 58 years in prison. Her father, Thomas Dorsett, was sentenced to 45 years. Mother Lesley Dorsett was sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder. The daughter of Stephen and Kathleen is now 5 years old and in the custody of Stephen Moore’s mother. Dateline NBC will feature the gruesome murder case on April 10 at 10pm.
