The 15-year-old daughter of an Army soldier found dead in her Braselton home Thursday has been charged with the shooting death of her mother.
1st Sgt. Karen Moore, 42, was a soldier and recruiter with the U.S. Army, Assistant Police Chief Lou Solis of the Braselton Police Department said.
Solis told the AJC that officers dispatched to the home on Sahale Falls Drive about 1:15 Thursday afternoon were met by a neighbor and the victim’s daughter.
“The daughter told us she called the neighbor because she said her mom was not waking up, and the neighbor went over there to assist the daughter,” Solis said.
“When we arrived at the residence, we saw Mrs. Moore on the couch with a single gunshot wound to the back of the head,” he said.
Solis said that the GBI was called in to assist with the investigation, and when the girl’s father, who is also in the Army but stationed in Alabama, arrived at the home, he gave the GBI investigator consent to talk with his daughter.
“This is when we learned that the mother and the daughter had an argument of some sort,” Solis said. “The daughter admitted to shooting the weapon.”
Police also interviewed 17-year-old Christopher Nieves, who Solis described as a “friend” of the victim’s daughter.
“Mr. Nieves told us they just met in January; it’s not a long, drawn-out relationship,” Solis said, adding the victim’s husband told investigators that he did not know Nieves.
Solis said, however, that Nieves “admitted to us that he had sex with the girl.”
Nieves was arrested and charged with having sex with a minor.
As for the argument that apparently sparked the shooting, Solis said that the daughter “said that they were arguing and one of the points that was brought up was the friend, Mr. Nieves.”
Solis said that the district attorney will make a decision on whether to charge the daughter as an adult. Until that time, her name is being withheld due to her age. She was charged with murder and taken to a juvenile facility in neighboring Gwinnett County.
Keith Crandall, who lives next door to the Moores, said he was shocked to return home from out of town late Thursday afternoon to find all the police and GBI agents at his neighbor’s home.
He said that in the year since the Moores moved in, he “never saw anything that would even lead us to think that something like this could ever happen.”
“I feel sorry for the family,” said Brian Karr, who lives two doors away from the Moores, who police said have an older son who is also in the military.
“It’s very surprising,” Karr said. “Stuff like that doesn’t happen up here in Braselton.”
Karr said that while he didn’t know the family very well, “they seemed like a very happy family. Never a hint of anything wrong.”
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