Georgia Leah Moses

Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene detail as well as talk of sexual assault. It may be sensitive for some listeners. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now on true crime, and then together we are going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go Hey, guys, welcome to this week's episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We are going to go ahead and get into right now in true crime. In Charlie Adelson news he had made a motion to re sentence and it was officially stamped denied. Peace out, Charlie. In last week's episode, I talked about how there was going to be that hearing. It was going to be over two days with BK Brian Koberger and his team's attempt to get the investigative genealogy stuff thrown away, which they had also made that attempt previously when the trial was going to be in Moscow with Judge Judge that is his name, Judge John Judge, and it was of course moved to Boise, So now they are trying to make another attempt with the new judge who is named Steven. Hibler, and that hearing was close to the public. There were portions that were live streamed, but primarily it was close to the public. But Judge Stephn Hipler has told the court officials that they need to hand over verbatim copies of the unredacted transcript from the sealed hearing on January twenty third to both the prosecution and the defense so they could recommend their redactions because they are going to release it to the public, and they have fourteen days to identify the portions of the transcript that they want to be reducted, and then it will then be released. So I said, Brian's side is very much arguing that the FBI violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, and Steven Hippler, who is probably going to be one of the best judges in my opinion, said, quote, I struggle with the idea that the DNA left at a crime scene that there's any expectation of privacy end quote. He told that to Brian Coberger's lead defense attorney, who is named Ann Taylor. So I will continue to keep you guys updated on this. But Coburger's scheduled to go to trial later on this year and is expected to last a couple of months, and I am going to be hanging on every single literal word that goes on in that courtroom. I feel like this is going to be the year that those four kids and their families finally get justice. Lord Willing, it has been a long journey to get here. There's been a lot of hoops that they have had to jump through as individuals, for their kids, as a community. It is going to be just a wild ride. I feel like there is so much evidence that points to Brian Coburger and I can't wait to hear all that they have on him because I feel like they have a very very strong case. That's just my opinion. So there was an article that came out and the headline of it is killer Mom Susan Smith is now a quote unquote complete nightmare after parole was denied, and I'm just going to read it. South Carolina killer Mom Susan Smith is reportedly acting like a complete nightmare behind bars, months after she was convicted of a disciplinary charge for speaking with a filmmaker and ultimately denied parole. The fifty three year old who was serving a. Life sentence for drowning her two young sons in a lake in nineteen ninety four. Was denied parole on November twentieth, after spending thirty years incarcerated. Last year, when she had a chance of getting out, she was really cooperative, helpful, even pleasant, a Leaf Correctional Institution employee told The New York Post. But now she's the complete opposite, just rude and bitchy all the time. Overnight, she went from being a model prisoner to a complete nightmare. The employee continued, believing that smith previously positive character was just an act to get out of prison. So you mean to tell me that the woman that what her two children in a car, drove it in a lake, and then blamed it on a guy who allegedly carjacked her and then killed her children. You're telling me that she's not a good person. What I am absolutely just shocked by this news. If you can't tell, I am being a million percent sarcastic. Of course, Susan Smith is a nightmare. She is a grade A manipulator. That is what her ex husband, the father of the two children, has come out and said that is why he is always at her parole hearings and doesn't want her to ever see the line a day again, because she is a manipulative person. We have heard time and time again that's how she is. But of course, of course she's acting like a nightmare in prison because she is a nightmare. That is just who she is as a person, and she is going to do everything she can to try to get her way. And yeah, she thought she was going to get out, she thought she had a chance. But thank god, she is at least going to be behind bars a little bit longer, and hopefully the parole board and the next time she's up for parole will also realize what a deranged. Human she is. I will continue to keep you guys updated if there are any other updates on any of these cases. That I am trying to keep up with and try to follow. It is I feel like a full time job trying to keep up with all of the what's going on right now in the true crime world. But it's something I would be doing if I had a podcast or not, So I'm going to try to do my best. So we are going to. Go ahead and get into this week's episode now. Okay, today I am going to be telling you about the unsolved homicide of a child a twelve year old girl named Georgia Moses in nineteen ninety seven. I was not familiar with Georgia's story, but my bestie Katie had tagged me in a post on Facebook about her, and I ended up. Going down the rabbit hole and here we are. So there is a lot of new media out there now about Georgia, the coverage that she didn't get when her crime first happened. For my research, I did listen to a few different YouTube videos as well as I read through the website that Georgia's family had put together about her case. I fully listened to. The podcast called They Called Her Georgia Lee, which is a podcast that was created by Georgia's sister Angel along with a friend named Maria, who I. Will speak on later. This podcast is great. It's very thorough and they really lay out the timeline of everything that happened. A little side note that I want to talk about. Before I get started into the episode about Georgia. In twenty twenty one. Georgia's sister Angel discovered that George's birth name was Georgia Lia Moses instead of what she thought was Georgia Lee Moses. A lot of what Angel had done for her sister's case is under the name Georgia Lee Moses, and they do kind of intermittently use the hashtag Justice for Georgia le Moses along with the hashtag Justice for Georgia Lia Moses. So I just wanted to lay that out there. There has been a lot of work done on this case by Angel, so you're going to be hearing kind of both names used interchangeably, but I just wanted to put that disclaimer out there so it didn't get confusing. We do call her Georgia Leo Moses. That is her name, so that is primarily what I'm going to be using. However, if I do say Georgia Lee at any point in time, that is why. So, like I said, Georgia's sister, Angel is the one who has very much taken Georgia's story and publicized it. It did not get much media attention when it happened, and any media attention that it did get was skewed and more of a cautionary tale. And as we'll talk about it, it didn't. Really get much attention from law enforcement either. Although Georgia was murdered and sex trafficked and whoever did it was a hateous person. It didn't seem to be a top priority for the police department, so we're going to talk about that too, and Angel's fight to get it to be a top priority. I felt that it was so important for me to cover this case because everyone matters, and Georgia and her family deserve resolution in her case, her sister deserves it, her mom deserves it, her brother deserves it. Every single life in person is important, which I always say, one story is not more important than the other. But I do want to give you guys a trigger warning. This episode is very upsetting and it does discuss the homicide of a child as well as sexual abuse against a child, so please please please listen with caution. Georgia Leah Moses was born on January seventh of nineteen eighty five in Buffalo, New York. Her mom, Ada was very much around and present. However, she struggled with mental health issues. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Georgia had two older brothers named Germaine and Mario, and a younger sister named Angel, who I spoke on earlier. Angel and Georgia were five years apart. Angel said that Georgia wasn't just a great sister, but a great person and like a mother to her. She said, she was so kind andful and selfless. And Georgia was young, so that is only as a small child, so she truly sounds like she was an amazing kid. She loved to dance, and despite being so young, she was definitely an old soul. So two years after Angel was born, Angel and Georgia and their mom, Ida, moved to Sonoma County, California. Their two brothers, Mario and Jermaine, who were older, stayed behind in New York. So Georgia was only seven at this time, but given the fact that Ida had some different mental health issues, Georgia really had to step up and help care for her baby sister. And I can't even imagine being seven and having to step up like that with no questions asked when you're a child yourself. I think about myself at seven and caring for a two year old. I can't even imagine that. So Georgia truly was one of a kind and a diamond. In the rough. From the first I heard about her story, I knew it needed to be told because it's the story of a girl who did so much for everyone around her, and the systems failed her in the biggest way. I truly think that George's impact and legacy is her sister Angel, and that is why the story is so important to tell. Sorry I had to go off on that side tangent, but Georgia's story really touched me. How amazingly Angel remembers her sister and speaks on her, and how George's legacy is what Angel is doing now to give back into this community, and really everything she's doing to help propel her sister's case forward. So back to our story. Georgia and Angel's mom, Ida, like I said, struggled a lot with her mental health and was having a really hard time raising her daughters. She did what she could, and there were even points in time that she had reached out to the state of California for help and was even willing to place her daughters elsewhere so that they could get the proper care, but the state ultimately never came through for her. They would sometimes take the girls, place them in a group home, and then they would be returned to Ida, just out. Of the blue, randomly one day. So CPS was involved in and out of the girls' lives, but sadly CPS failed these girls. In early nineteen ninety seven, Ida started dating a man named Eddie Pope, who was a convicted sex offender. Now, the Internet was not really prevalent back then, and Ida had no idea that Eddie was a sex offender when she started dating him. This man ultimately would move into the home with Ida, Angel and Georgia. Now Georgia did not like him, and she didn't understand why he lived there because he had his own house and now suddenly he was living with them and basically intruding on her space. This was her family. So Eddie, of course, because he was a sex offender and a predator, It wasn't going to be long before Eddie tried to harm Georgia, and that happened in March of nineteen ninety seven. Angel said he had followed her into a room, ended up closing the door and Georgia screamed for him to stop, and luckily he did. But in this he ended up kicking Georgia out of the house. So basically his attitude was if you aren't following my rules, you need to leave, which is so ridiculous because this isn't even his house, and he was fully taking advantage of the fact that Ida suffered from. Mental health issues. Eddie is just not a good guy. So Georgia ended up moving in with family friends, and even though Georgia wasn't living with Angel, she would always visit her sister any chance that she got. Angel said that the people that Georgia ended up moving in with are the ones that are responsible for her ending up in sex trafficking, which essentially is where this case takes us. Unfortunately, Georgia even dropped out. Of school during this time, and again nobody said anything about this. The school didn't question anything, like why was it okay for a twelve year old to drop out of school without any adult who was responsible for looking after her questioning this, The school didn't question it. It makes absolutely no sense. So on Wednesday, August thirteenth of nineteen ninety seven, Georgia was spending the day at one of her friends' homes. Angel said that she remembers seeing her sister that night. They had been out walking towards the home where Angel lived with Ida, and there was this car that had approached them, and Georgia had told Angel to go ahead and walk ahead, and the car ended up pulling up Georgia. He handed the man that was in the car her pager, and he eventually ended up handing the pager back. He then pulled away, and Georgia ended up catching up with Angel and walked her home, braided her hair, and then left to go back to her friend's house. So Georgia was back at her friend's house by ten pm that night, and while they were together, she got a page. She ended up using her friend's phone to return the call and had made plans to meet a man at the seventy six gas station. As you can see, this is a super safe situation for any twelve year old girl to be in. It's a super insafe situation for any teenager to be in, and Georgia. Was very much living older than she was. She unfortunately was put into contact with people that were not the best and didn't have the best of intentions. And essentially she was planning to go to that party that night, and Georgia had wanted her friend to come with her, but the friend's mom said no, so Georgia ended up going by herself and going without her. So, like I said, she's living this very grown up lifestyle at the age of twelve, and by no fault of her own, she was put into these situations and she just had to become what her environment was. Georgia was last seen getting into this man's car at the gas station. She had contacted her friend to let her know she wasn't going to be back that night, and that was the last time anyone heard from her. Unfortunately, Georgia ended up not being reported missing. Her remains were found nine days later on August twenty second of nineteen ninety seven. In Petaluma, California, there was a worker that had been fixing a guardrail off of Highway one oh one when he discovered a body that was nude and very badly decomposed. The coroner first thought that the body belonged to someone between the ages of eighteen and forty, and they had no idea that this was a twelve year old girl. This was actually a child. This was Georgia. And Angel doesn't really understand why they came to the conclusion, because she said Georgia was taller for her age, but she wasn't super. Developed or anything like that like a full adult would be. She was five for one hundred and twenty pounds, and Angel thinks that they basically made the assumption that this person that they found was older because there wasn't any reports locally of a missing child, and surely if a child was missing, someone would be looking for them. So on the same day that George's body was. Found, law enforcement came to Angel's home to do a welfare check as they had received a tip that a sex offender was living in a home with children, so they came. They talked to Angel. They kept questioning her about Eddie, and at this point she was confused as to why nobody was asking her about Georgia. She assumed that they were there to ask about Georgia. Angel used this. Opportunity to tell them that she hadn't seen Georgia. She was missing and it was very unlike her sister to not come see her. She was always in touch even though they didn't live together. They also ended up removing Angel from the home that day. Now, remember Angel was seven, a seven year old child. I can't imagine again going back. I can't imagine a seven year old trying to navigate something like this and having the smarts to realize that this was her opportunity to speak about her sister and let somebody know that something was going on, since she hadn't seen or heard from her sister. So that day they ended up doing a missing person's report on Georgia. A tip ended up coming in shortly thereafter that the body that was found could belong to Georgia, and Georgia officially ended up being identified on August twenty sixth of nineteen ninety seven. They used dental records to do so. They were able to determine that her death was a homicide, and the cause of death was determined to be strangulation. She had also been sexually assaulted. They estimated her death to be between August thirteenth and August fourteenth, but they really didn't know when she was killed. George's family, unfortunately did not have money for a funeral service. However, the community did. Hold something in her honor, and Angel and her mom Ida were able to attend. But by this point Angel had been placed with a foster family and really doesn't have any memory of anyone coming to question her about her sister or the last time she saw her sister. She remembers being told that her sister's body was found, and she was living at the Foster home, and she just remembers going into a room by herself and crying because her own only person was gone. And I can't even imagine. It makes me want to cry. That Angel had to navigate this by herself at seven years old, just awful. So there was little to. No movement in George's case other than the fact that. She was murdered. And they had a brief description of the man she met with that night. Although it was somebody that Georgia seemed to know, they didn't know who he was. They didn't know his identity. So this man is described as an African American male. He appeared to be between the ages of twenty four to thirty, but he could be older. He was approximately six ' to two, approximately two hundred pounds, He had a short fade haircut, and he drove a white, small four door car like I said. She was last seen at the seventy six gas station getting into this car. The gas station was located at Sebastopol Road and Dunton Avenue in San Rosa, California. Around ten o'clock PM on August thirteenth of nineteen ninety seven. There is also a composite sketch of this man, so I will be sure to be sharing that on my Instagram and Facebook pages so you guys can see that. They also believe that this man could possibly have ties to San Francisco. By early nineteen ninety eight, Angel moved to Georgia to live with her aunt, and Ida moved there as well. Angel did not want to leave her mother behind. With the help of Georgia's friends and family and the organization's Sonoma County Women Against Rape, they were able to make a memorial garden that was placed at the site of where Georgia's body was found. So Georgia had a lot. Of people that loved cared for her, wanted to know what happened to her, wanted her murder to be solved. But unfortunately, a lot of the articles that were published after Georgia's death left out some major information, such as the description of the man that she was last seen with, or anything of super importance. It was more geared, like I said earlier, as a tale of a troubled girl who got mixed up with older men and ended up losing her life because of it. No mention of her being young and trafficked and then murdered. There were times she was referred to as a prostitute. A twelve year old is not a prostitute. That is called being groomed, and being a sex traffic child, that is not called being a prostitute. If you are under the. Age of eighteen, you cannot give consent because you are a child. That is why those type of things are illegal. And it blows my mind that there were articles and people out there spewing their garbage that Georgia was anything other than a victim in her own story. It's just insane to me that that was the narrative that was pushed when she was a child. They also didn't ever talk about who Georgia was as a person. I really wanted to make. Sure that with my episode that I took some time to really focus on who Georgia was and what she was doing with her life, and how much of a good child she was. She was doing everything she could to help those around her, and I think it's important to know that in the twelve years that Georgia lived, she lived a very hard life, but she was an angel on earth and I want to make sure people understand that, because that is what her sister, who was named Angel, has very much tried to bring to the forefront of this case. So in nineteen ninety eight, Georgia was finally buried, but it was done so without the knowledge of her family. The medical examiner had kept the body for some additional time to run some different tests. The memorial garden that was placed for Georgia ended up being replaced with an Angel statue in honor of Georgia, and that eventually ended up being moved to city Hall due to some new construction in the area. A fifteen thousand dollars reward was raised and being offered in Georgia's case, but the case was very much still at a standstill and nothing was really being reported on at that time. A group home for foster children was built in two thousand and six in Santa Rosa, California in honor of Georgia, and the community very much remembered Georgia, but this didn't help the case really get any more attention, and like I said, it was at a standstill. Georgia and her story essentially were lost in the shuffle. This poor child who had to become an adult so quickly found herself. In a bad situation. She was in a sex trafficking realm, and that ended up taking her life. It's just so sad and tragic that so many systems around her failed her, and then once she was the media failed her by telling her story in a completely false narrative way, not calling out the real issue here, which was these different systems, the CPS system, the school system. That failed her. She was only twelve, her mom tried to get help for her kids, CPS failed to intervene. Everybody failed to intervene. The systems that are in place to protect children failed to intervene. And you know, Angel, like I. Said, was only seven when her sister was murdered, and she very much grew up under the assumption that the Sonoma County Police Department was doing everything that they could to solve George's case. Angel ended up joining the military growing up, she got married, she had children of her own, and she settled in Texas. And in October of twenty twenty, something happened that really changed the course of this investigation and kind of brought a new narrative to the case. Angel received a Facebook message from a woman named Maria. Maria didn't know Georgia, but she was from Sonoma County and her dad was part of the sheriff's office back when Georgia was murdered. Maria worked in entertainment and very much wanted to help Angel and in any way she could with her sister's case, maybe breathe new air into it, get fresh eyes and ears on her case. So they ended up talking on the phone, and they bonded pretty quickly, and it was almost like they were just meant to be friends. They were meant to find each other. Around the same time, somebody else had contacted Angel and they wanted to do a candlelight vigil for Georgia. The date ended up being set for November seventh of twenty twenty, and Angel and Maria ended up going together and meeting, and like I said, they had an instant bond. It was almost like a heaven sent friendship. And now Maria's part of the story because she did have the entertainment media experience, she was willing to help. They ended up going on to do a podcast together, which I talked about earlier, that was about Georgia and Maria also had kind of a roundabout connection to Georgia. So Maria went to the same school as Georgia, although she didn't personally know her, but her dad remembers when the case happened, he said he would never forget it. At the time, he had two young daughters, Maria and her sister. His retirement very much coincided with Georgia being found, and he only retired a few weeks after the fact, so he wasn't personally involved in the case. And for whatever. Reason, Maria said, Georgia's name just kept kind of popping up in her head and she couldn't stop thinking about her, and she knew that she had to reach out to Angel. So once Maria told her. Dad what she was doing and that she had made contact with Angel and they were going to try to dig into George's case, her dat had told her that the Sheriff's office wasn't going to like it, and he went on to. Say that when he retired, they did it exactly. Part ways in the greatest way, and he said that they're very much not going to like the fact that his daughter is digging into things and holding their feet to the fire. So Maria at this point was willing to back off and not do it because Georgie's case very much was plagued. By mishandling and law enforcement scrutiny. Maria had a conversation with her dad and she basically told him, if you don't want me to go through with this, then I'm not going to. But for whatever reason, he told her that she needed to go ahead and do it and not let anyone hold her back. He said, your friend needs you. You've got to do this no matter who gets uncomfortable with it. And then he ended up passing away a week later. So I think all of this is just so amazing. The good old boys system is definitely one for the books. And knowing her dad was willing to have her disrupt that to call people out that needed to be called out, I truly believe that her dad's involvement in this was heaven sent and necessary to get this case to where it is today. So Angel and Maria at this point know that they want to join forces and dive into George's case. They go about getting the records and start digging in. Now, they did have to get an outside agency to help them get the records they needed. They ended up being turned away, and then they were told the records were destroyed. And then after they pried a little more and kept digging in and kept pressing, they were able to eventually get what they needed. The records just magically reappeared. So once Angel got. Her hands on all of the files and evidence, she said that she thought for such a long time that George's case wasn't solvable because they hadn't solved it. She didn't think they had enough evidence. But she quickly realized that wasn't the case, and it was more just the fact that the police weren't taking it seriously. There were numerous examples of different pursons of interest being brought to law enforcement's attention and those people still not being questioned and checked off the list. Why weren't they interviewed? Why weren't they followed up with the timeline of when Georgia was killed, Georgia being found by the worker that was fixing the guardrail. That guardrail was. Fixed on that particular day, because there was a process to that guardrail being fixed. There's a series of events that have to happen for that guardrail to be fixed, so there's usually a report, then there's somebody that comes out to survey it, and then it's finally fixed. So this is super important in the timeline because it could leave us a clue as to when Georgia. Was placed at that area. There is so much here that was ignored, and it's truly sad that Georgia just fell through the cracks in so many ways. But her murder case never should have been one of them. Everything else that happened in Georgia's story never should have happened, but it did. But her murder never should have gone off the rails like it did. So, like I said, Angel and Maria ended up creating a podcast called They called Her Georgia Lee, and it's an episodic podcast and it tells the story of Georgia, the story that so many people got wrong for so many years, the real story of Georgia and how wonderful she was and how the systems in place to keep people safe failed her. Please go give it a listen. I am going to be sure to also link it in the show notes. Angel and Georgia just truly want to spread awareness on Georgia's case and change the narrative. I feel like they've already done that, and in that they're very. Hopeful that someone is going to come forward and say something that maybe they saw something that night, maybe somebody has told them something. And it's very much the mantra. If you see something, say something, no matter how tiny you may think. It is. The night that Georgia went missing, she was wearing jeans, a white tshirt, and a white nylon windbreaker. She was last seen getting into that four door white sedan and she was headed to a party which may have been a sex trafficking site. If you have information, you are encouraged. To call the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department at seven oh seven five six. Five two one two one. Angel is very deep in her faith, and she told the story on the podcast about how she knew when she first met the man that is now her husband and father of her children, that she was going to marry him, that that was her husband. And of course all relationships go through periods of separation and then they get back together, so on and so forth, but that man did become her husband, and she remained rooted in her faith that that was her husband. One way or another, she was going to end up marrying this man and she said, it's the same way for George's case. She knows that justice is coming, and that's because God told her justice is coming. And if you look at the timeline of everything that happened in George's case, Maria coming into the picture, the podcast happening, Maria's dad's involvement, and him giving the blessing of going ahead with everything knowing that it would probably make some people uncomfortable. It all is happening for a reason. I do believe that. I fully, one hundred percent believe that, and I think Angel's right. I think this case is super solvable, and I think that justice is coming. It's just a matter of when is that going to happen. And that is why me sharing the story today is so important, because even though Georgia story has been told in such a fantastic way by Maria and. By Angel, this episode is. Maybe going to reach a whole new level of listeners, different people that might not know about George's case, that haven't listened to the they called her Georgia Lee podcast before. So that's why these stories are so important and getting them out there to different groups of people that might know something. When I go about picking the episodes I do and the cases I cover. I never want to do anything to harm the investigation, harm the case, because many of the cases I cover are still active investigations because they're cold cases. So I very much approach it in the way of I want to help, I want to help advocate. I want to get the story out there to a group of new people that might not know about it, to get the right attention on the case, so maybe somebody out there knows something. There are a multitude of podcasts about Georgia, and they all, I think, do a really good job at telling her story as it needs to be told and not the old cautionary tale that we were fed for such a long time. So that is the story of Georgia Leah Moses. I am going to be posting pictures of Georgia and photo of her Angel statue and photos of Angel, and I'm going to link the podcast in the show notes. I'm also going to be linking the website that the family has put together. In the show notes as well. And justice is coming for Georgia. Maybe twenty twenty five is going to be the year that we finally see resolution in this case. Angel has done amazing things in the world of advocating for missing and murdered people unsolved cases. She has become that person that has really stepped to the forefront. And I think that that. Right there is George's legacy, and I think that's what we need to remember about Georgia is that she was a selfless, loving twelve year old girl who simply happened to be in a situation that she couldn't get out of, and it unfortunately ended with her losing her life. But I don't want people to forget that Georgia was still a child, and that her life mattered, her case matters, and getting whoever did this to her off the streets a million percent matters. So please be sure to check out my Instagram and Facebook pages for photos of Georgia, and please check the show notes for all of the sources I used for this episode. I listened, like I said, to the whole. They called her Georgia Lee Podcast, and that is where I got a big chunk of the information on who Georgia was and her whole story. So check out my Instagram and Facebook pages for photos of Georgia and any other things relevant to the case. And I appreciate you guys so so much for listening. I will see you next week for a brand new unsolved case. Until then, stay safe, have a great weekend, and I will see you next week. Bye.