By Walter Elliott
EAST ORANGE – About the only clear fact regarding Jashyah Moore’s Nov. 11 finding and mother Jamie’s Nov. 12 arrest is neither they nor Jashyah’s three-year-old brother will be returning to their Third Ward house here anytime soon.
Jashyah, 14, and her brother, as Acting Essex County Prosecutor put it in his 11 a.m. Nov. 12. press conference in Newark, “is safely in custody between us and (the N.J. Department of Children and Families) Division of Child Protection and Permanence.”
News broke at 11 p.m. that Thursday that Jashyah was found by NYPD on the corner of 110th St. and Lenox Ave. in Harlem. Although she had cut most of her hair off, she was discovered there by a good Samaritan while waiting for an acquaintance to show.
“Jashyah is a resourceful girl,” said Stephens Friday. “She took a circuitous route in New Jersey to New York. She had been staying in a shelter in Brooklyn.”
Jashyah Moore’s story brought a massive 29-day missing person’s search, and its growing momentum, to an end.
The fallout involving Jamie Moore, since ECPO’s 5 p.m. Nov. 12 arrest announcement, may have just begun.
Jamie Moore, 40, is being held until at least Nov. 23 in Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility She has been held on two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Moore was to face Superior Court Judge Michael L. Ravin 9 a.m. Nov. 17 in a pre-trial and bail hearing. Moore’s attorney Duraan Neil, saying she just received discovery materials, sought and received the five-day postponement.
ECPO arrested the mother on a complaint based on the daughter’s testimony. The daughter said that her mother had physically abused her for at least the last two years. That abuse includes pulling braids out of her hair, spraying bleach in her eyes, striking her head with a frying pan, stabbing her and putting her knees on her back and neck until she had difficulty breathing.
Jamie Moore had effectively kept her out of high school for 18 months. She had logged her out of remote learning in the 2020-21 school year and did not register her for 2021-22. The daughter’s “free time” went to babysitting her younger brother, housekeeping and begging for change on city streets.
Stephens added that “CP&P had no open case file on Moore” from before or during the disappearance.
Stephens, Nov. 12, had indicated that ECPO’s investigation was considering Moore’s case as “a runaway” rather than “foul play.” He said that there was no evidence of an abduction or a kidnapping, which kept Jashyah’s name being put on Amber alert.
That Jashyah lost Jamie’s debit card on way to a Central Avenue delicatessen 7:30 a.m. Oct. 14 became the last straw or shiver of fear remains to be heard.
Jamie said that she had sent her out to Poppie’s Deli, 522-B Central Ave., to buy orange juice and paper towels. The daughter returned a few minutes later, saying she had lost the card.
“I simply told her to ‘backtrack you steps’ to the deli,” said Jamie several times. “She went back out – and that’s the last I saw her.”
A video surveillance recording at U.S. Quick Food Mart, 478 Central Ave., had Jashyah entering with “an older man.” They both went to the counter, where the man paid for her purchases.
“The video showed no indication that she and the man left together,” said East Orange Police Chief Phyllis Bindi at a Nov. 5. press conference. “He has been fully cooperative with law enforcement; he is not a person of interest.”
Nor is it known whether Jashyah’s scheduling to testify against her ex-stepfather before a Newark grand jury Oct. 18. Her aunt, Yolanda Moore, told WPIX-Channel 11 Nov. 4 that her niece got the notice from New Jersey Superior Court regarding a simple assault charge going back to 2020 while the family had lived in Irvington.
Yolanda said that she saw the then stepfather twice strike Jashyah back then. The stepfather, who has since separated from Jamie, was an East Orange police officer until his May 2020 firing.
It is not known whether the ex-police officer’s indictment was handed down or not, or whether a new grand jury has been emplaned, as of press time.
“At this point, the domestic violence assault and the status of the missing person don’t appear to be related,” said ECPO spokeswoman Katherine Carter Nov. 4. “The domestic violence case against the defendant is proceeding. The missing person’s case is being handled by East Orange.”
Jamie Moore said she began searching local delis for Jashyah an hour after her not returning. She flagged down an EOPD squad car along Central Avenue and told of her missing daughter.
“This isn’t like Jashyah,” said Jamie. “She doesn’t stay out at night. She’s a homebody, likes to play video games with her younger brother.”
“Have You Seen Jashyah?” missing person posters and hand bills started appearing online Oct. 25 and physically Oct. 28. The first, family made poster WPIX reporter Mary Murphy’s Facebook page that Saturday.
The official poster was put on East Orange City Hall’s FB page that Thursday. The poster, over time, would have its $10,000 Essex County Sheriff’s Office CrimeStoppers reward doubled by Nov. 10. The FBI-Newark Office, the State Police, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and, on Nov. 11, ECPO, joined EOPD’s search.
Jashyah Moore’s disappearance meanwhile got mentioned on the D.L. Hughley Show and by West Orange resident Whoopi Goldberg on “The View.”
Volunteers held two Central Avenue handbill canvassing campaigns, including one with the East Orange Fire Department. Moore’s handbills became a common sight along Central Avenue and other commercial areas in East Orange, Irvington, Orange and Newark.
A police search party, assisted by the Orange Police Department, probed the depth of a Monte Irvin Orange Park pond with sonar. The Elizabeth Police Department supplied one of its drones.
Stephens said that 50 officers from various law enforcement agencies were combing for leads. Mayor Theodore “Ted” Green and Bindi were planning to hold 11 a.m. Wednesday Zoom updates on the case for the media.
Those Zoom update briefings and a 6:30 p.m. Nov. 12 prayer vigil for Jashyah, hosted in part by the East Orange Clergy Affairs Alliance, were called off when she was found Nov. 11.
