It was a bad divorce. Very bad. And the final filings in the nearly two-year legal process to end the marriage between Amy and Matthew Moore happened just a week before police say Matthew Moore orphaned their three children by shooting Amy, a second-grade teacher at Grove Elementary School. Police say he then killed himself in her house on Red Jasper Street in Normal early Wednesday.
Court documents in the case are filled with alleged accounts of toxic behavior and grandiose utterances from Matthew Moore, some left on social media and systematically documented by Amy, and others left on a court-approved app used to smooth and foster communication between contending parents in court cases.
“Follow the case and you will know the truth. I don’t like to start fights but I will never lose one. I have to protect my kids and myself against malicious attacks even if it cost me and Amy $100,000 in attorney fees,” posted Matthew Moore.
On 11 different occasions, the judge in the case dealt with orders of protection, assessing them, granting them, modifying them, and in one instance, lifting an order by agreement of the parties. In the court docket, there is a juxtaposition of developments in the case followed days later by the three emergency requests for orders of protection that provided the core for the rest of the court’s considerations. The divorce case was filed July 28, 2022.
The basis for the first order of protection included an incident four days before the divorce filing. Amy consistently documented her husband's actions throughout the thick case file.
Amy claimed Matthew had gotten drunk on a vacation in Wisconsin and left, taking the family vehicle and leaving her and the children to rent a vehicle to come home, according to the divorce case file. The first emergency petition for protection came less than two weeks later. The filing also cites two emails in early August that Amy characterized as erratic and made her concerned about Matthew’s stability.
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Unit 5
“Petitioner claims respondent has reverted to previous behavior of harassing, discussing divorce case with kids,” said the case file.
The case file does not indicate Amy interacted with police in Normal over physical abuse of her or the children, though in many domestic violence cases abuse is emotional and mental, not physical. Normal Police Chief Steve Petrilli said Wednesday he was unaware of a pattern of abusive behavior.
Documented harassment
Court documents include a felony arrest of Matthew for allegedly damaging Amy’s vehicle and her accusation that Matthew stalked her and took things from the house he was supposed to stay away from. On Aug. 17, 2022, the court lifted a longer-term order of protection. Another request for an emergency order came just six days later.
“The respondent has sent numerous rambling, nonsensical, and threatening messages to the petitioner,” said one petition.
Other harassing behavior she documented included angry social media posts.
“See you in jail, you nasty woman,” wrote Matthew in a Facebook post.
Amy claimed Matthew stole cash from her wallet when she was out of the house, used an app to remotely change the thermostat setting in the house while she was at home, and installed a doorbell with a camera in the house while she was teaching and the children were at school. She said he put sex toys and condoms into the family Amazon account cart that the children could have seen. He claimed in one message to have initiated a fraud investigation against her at a local bank.
There was court-ordered mediation at one point. As late as February of last year, the record reflected the two were still attempting reconciliation, records show.
In July and August of 2023, records showed his erratic behavior continued. Amy noted Matthew had left two younger children unattended for a lengthy period during a trip to an amusem*nt park so Matthew could go with the eldest child on a roller coaster. When the older child balked, Amy wrote that Matthew told him the child had to go on the ride because Matthew had paid “a lot of money” to go to the park.
Mathew posted a picture of an invoice addressed to Amy’s parents on social media.
“The invoice had the petitioner’s parents checking account and routing number on it. A report was filed with police for disorderly conduct,” said part of one petition for protection.
There was gaslighting: “The respondent has been telling the minor children the petitioner has a mental illness.”
In fact, Matthew was the one ordered to undergo a mental health assessment as part of his guilty plea for damaging the car.
“Upon information belief the respondent in this matter has been diagnosed with bipolar II and the respondent is not consistent in taking his medications as prescribed,” said a motion for mental health evaluation of Matthew.
At one point Amy claimed Matthew was unemployed. He said he was a Realtor and had a startup construction company, but acknowledged at that time he had no income.
Some of the statements showed a grandiose turn of mind by Matthew. In one message he said he was unable to spend time with the children because he needed to drive to Sarasota, Florida, to talk with a business partner, promising a deal to build a $30 million apartment complex.
“Meeting with a developer who has a private jet. This could be very good for our family,” messaged Matthew.
Multiple orders of protection
On Aug. 3, 2023, records showed a filing of a counter petition for appointment of an evaluator and a request for disclosure of records. Six days later came another emergency request for protection.
On May 20, 2024 — just days before the apparent murder-suicide — the court docket showed agreement on financial matters and a parenting agreement.
Grove Elementary principal Sarah Edwards called Amy Moore as an “outstanding mother, daughter, educator, and friend.”
“A graduate of Unit 5 Schools, Amy was a gifted educator who impacted the lives of thousands of students,” Edwards wrote in a statement. “She was a beloved second-grade teacher at Grove Elementary for almost 20 years, and lived her life to serve others, especially her three children.”
On May 22, final papers were filed in the divorce.
On May 29, in the middle of the night, police say Matthew Moore took his final act to deprive his children of a mother and father, and to permanently change the lives of hundreds of other people taught and touched by Amy.
Later that morning, police worked the crime scene as neighbors gathered in nearby driveways. It was quiet. Officers stood in the driveway, near a basketball hoop. A swing dangled from a tree in the front yard.
