By Jordan Wilcox
Assistant Publisher
“I just shot my boyfriend,” 44-year-old Jennifer Dana Moore told 911 dispatchers just after 10 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, while calling to report the shooting inside her home
Deputies with the Allegan County Sheriff’s Office were promptly dispatched to Moore’s residence just north of the Allegan–Van Buren County line on East Baseline Road near Hillside Drive and Baseline Lake. Inside, deputies found her boyfriend, 52-year-old Joseph Wayne Worley, deceased from a single gunshot wound to the back of his head.
Court records revealed additional details about the incident. When deputies first arrived, Moore was sitting on the front porch but went back inside as they approached. She was later seen standing at a window, crying hysterically and repeatedly telling deputies, “I shot him” and “I killed him.”
Officers observed a person’s feet through the window as Moore stood over the body and ordered her to exit the home, which she did. Deputies then entered and located Worley’s body.
In a later interview with detectives, Moore acknowledged that she and Worley had argued but said she did not intend to shoot him.
According to court documents, the couple had just returned home from dinner in Paw Paw when an argument began. Moore said she made a comment that upset Worley, prompting him to lock himself in a bedroom. After he opened the door, she picked up a revolver that had been in the room and pointed it at him as he walked toward the kitchen. She then made what she described as a “Doc Holliday”-style motion with the gun to simulate a shot, but the firearm accidentally discharged.
The court documents also noted that investigators noticed a bullet hole in the bedroom television.
Moore was located at the scene and immediately taken into custody. Investigators with the sheriff’s office launched a homicide investigation, citing apparent domestic issues.
On Monday, April 27, Moore appeared via video before Allegan County’s 57th District Court Magistrate Meredith Biedler for arraignment on one felony count of open murder.
Her attorney waived the formal reading of the complaint and argued for her release on bond, stating that she has family in the Kalamazoo area that she can stay with and no history of violent criminal offenses.
However, Allegan County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Jessica Winsemius vehemently opposed the request, arguing that there is a “very, very serious flight risk for this individual, who is from the state of Virginia, has no permanent housing here in the area, and was living in a rental at the time.”
Winsemius also stated that Moore is currently on suicide watch at the county jail.
Following those arguments, Moore asked Magistrate Biedler if she could speak, but the request was denied.
Biedler then ruled from the bench: “This is a very serious charge, one of the most serious there is. Given the lack of ties to the community that Ms. Moore has, the danger she poses to both herself and the community, and the flight risk she presents, bond is going to be denied.”
In an interview with WOOD-TV News 8, neighbors said the couple had recently moved into the rental home.
Moore is scheduled to return to court for a probable cause conference on May 7 before Judge Skocelas and a preliminary examination on May 12 before Judge Burnett.
The Allegan County Sheriff’s Office was assisted in the investigation by the Allegan City Police Department, Michigan State Police, Bloomingdale Fire Department, Life EMS, the Michigan State Police Crime Lab, and the Allegan County Medical Examiner’s Office.
