Monday, September 2, 1996

Mystery of Cowboy's death solved

By Associated Press

PALO PINTO (AP) - The mystery of how a likable 300-pound cowboy died last January has been solved.

As part of a plea bargain, Helen Moore, 41, admitted Friday that she drugged 27-year-old Casey Elliott with lethal doses of morphine, used a saw and knife to cut his body into eight pieces, then scattered body parts over a four-county area.

Elliott's torso was found Jan. 21 near Possum Kingdom Lake in a wooded area off Farm Road 1148 near Lake Shore Marina in Palo Pinto County. It wasn't until late March that DNA tests confirmed the remains as Elliott's. His head was discovered in Eliasville, in Young County, on March 31, and one of his legs was found in Stephens County in May.

Elliott, described by friends as "a big friendly cowboy whose heart was as big as his hat," had lived the past five years with Moore and her two sons in a residence in Fort Belknap, a town in Young County.

In the weeks before Elliott died, Moore took out a $150,000 insurance policy on him in which she was the sole beneficiary.

But in her confession, she denied money was her motive.

"She asserts emphatically that it was not murder for money," he said, adding that she offered no explanation for her actions.

She pleaded guilty Friday to capital murder in exchange for a sentence of life in prison. She must serve 30 years in prison before she is eligible for parole.

"I hope that if she is alive in 30 years, she does not make parole. I hope she dies in prison," Palo Pinto County District Attorney Jerry Ray told the Wichita Falls Times Record News.

Moore told investigators she gave Elliott a final dose of morphine the morning of Jan. 16 before taking her boys - whom relatives described as "Casey's little shadows" - to school. She said she returned home to find Elliott dead in bed.

She said she rolled Elliott's 300-pound body into a tarp, tied a rope around it and rigged a pulley system to move the body into a two-horse trailer, which she had backed up to the rear door of the residence.

Moore said she ran the rope through a window in the trailer and tied it to the hitch of a truck. She drove forward, pulling the body through the home and into the back of the trailer, she said.

Once inside the trailer, Elliott's girlfriend said she cut up the body before starting off through four counties to dispose of the remains. She said she rummaged through rivers and low-lying areas in Young, Stephens, Palo Pinto and Erath counties to hide the remains.