Jamie Moore garnered media attention and community support in November as she led what seemed to be a desperate search for her missing teenage daughter. Her teary pleas for help made national news.
Moore's daughter vanished Oct. 14 after heading out to pick up some groceries from a local deli. The 14-year-old had returned home with the groceries but left again to find the family's EBT card she lost along the way. Her family reported her missing that same day, with Moore telling police she thought her daughter had run away.
Instead of going back home, the teen ran away until police in New York City located her safely four weeks later.
Any public sympathy for Moore quickly disappeared when soon after the daughter was located, the mother was arrested on child abuse charges.
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She insists that her side of the story — that of a single, loving mother — has not been told.
"I take care of them, I love them very much and I would never do anything to harm them," she told NBC New York.
Moore, 39, was accused of a long history of harming the then-missing daughter she publicly fought so hard to find. Some have since criticized her for the press conferences she took part in during the search for the teen, saying the emotional moments were nothing more than crocodile tears. Moore vehemently rejects those accusations.
"There was nothing nothing rehearsed or scripted about how I was feeling at that time," she said.
But the same day prosecutor’s announced the 14-year old East Orange girl had been found after running away from what she claimed was a violent home, Moore was arrested on allegations of brutal abuse. The list of allegations against her was as long as it was disturbing.
Her daughter accused Moore of:
- Stabbing her in the shoulder
- Spraying bleach in her eyes
- Pulling her braids out
- Striking her in the head with a frying pan
- Striking her with hangers, a broom handle, Febreze can
- Placing her knees on the victim's neck and back, causing the girl to struggle to breathe
Moore denies all the allegations, telling NBC New York she never struck her daughter. She also said she had doubts that her daughter actually made the accusations.
"I don’t believe she said this," Moore said. "If I had something to hide, I don’t think I'd call the FBI."
When pressed as to why someone would believe the allegations against her are lies, Moore had a different answer.
"We don’t always tell if our kids have any issues. Because those are our kids and we protect them," she said, seeming to imply that something may have led her daughter to lob the accusations. "Children don’t always tell the truth and some children have a repetitive history of not telling the truth."
Moore is also accused of forcing her daughter to beg for money on the streets and keeping her out of school, which she denies. But East Orange police say they corroborated the girl's panhandling charge, and a neighbor who saw the teen daily told NBC New York last month that the girl had confided she wasn’t in school.
"She had on the same clothes every day...she was always by herself, never saw her with any friends...never accompanied by an adult," local salon owner Grace Olyfveldt said at the time.
Investigators said the girl's forced care for her brother lead to a deteriorating education. Moore forced her daughter to skip virtual schooling to make trips to the store and spend more time watching her brother during the day, according to the complaint. The daughter told law enforcement that she was forced to care for her young brother when he woke in the middle of the night and cook for both of them, or else they wouldn't eat.
Following the first year of online instruction, the complaint states Moore refused to enroll her daughter for the 2021-22 school year.
The criminal complaint also offers a counter narrative to Moore's public version of events regarding the disappearance. The day her daughter left, law enforcement officials allege the mother verbally and physically abused her daughter for losing the EBT card. They said the 14-year-old told investigators she did not return home over fears of additional abuse.
Moore is now under house arrest, and charged with child and endangerment. Her daughter and 3-year-old son are now in the custody of Child Protective Services, and she was allowed her first visit with her son on Wednesday.
"He said 'Mommy, I want to go home,' and then he started to cry," Moore said.
A tale of two mothers, an alleged abuser and a woman who claims she desperately wants to be reunited with her children.
"I was placed under arrest when I should have been celebrating," she told News 4.
Moore said prosecutors have told her that her daughter refused to see her. She is due back in court next month.
