As I’ve reported before, Kathleen Dorsett and her father are both in jail and charged with the murder of her ex-husband, former speed skater Stephen Moore. Dorsett and Moore had divorced and he was trying for greater custody rights when one day, just after he dropped off his daughter at Kathleen’s house, he disappeared.
His body was found two days later in the trunk of his car. He had been bludgeoned to death and his body and the car torched. Police arrested an employee of Thomas Dorsett, Kathleen’s father. That employee apparently had been paid by Thomas to get rid of the body and the car. He immediately led police to the two Dorsetts.
Read about recent developments here (Asbury Park Press, 1/31/11)
So the police began investigating and they found out some more amazing facts that eventually led to even more charges against Thomas and Lesley Dorsett.
Stephen and Kathleen’s divorce decree ordered that, if Kathleen moved to Florida and took the child with her, she had to provide housing for Stephen for five years and charge no more than $600 a month in rent. That was so Stephen could move to Florida to be close to his daughter.
And sure enough, Kathleen and her parents planned to move to Florida and Stephen planned to move there too so he wouldn’t lose contact with his child. So, for reasons I haven’t yet figured out, Thomas and Lesley Dorsett started hiding money in multiple bank accounts to avoid bank reporting of cash transactions. All in all they stashed $96,000.
When police figure all this out, they charged the two elder Dorsetts with money laundering.
So Kathleen and her father are in jail awaiting trial in lieu of $1.5 million in bail. Lesley was out of jail on bail for the money laundering charge against her.
But it’s beginning to look like Kathleen takes this child custody thing seriously. It seems that the family court placed Stephen and Kathleen’s daughter in the custody of Evlyn Moore, Stephen’s mother, after Kathleen was arrested.
And apparently that didn’t sit well with Kathleen who started surveying other women in jail with her about who might be a good person to kill Evlyn Moore. She instructed her mother to pay the hit man who of course turned out to be an undercover police officer.
Lesley did so while out on bail on the money laundering charges.
Last Monday, a grand jury indicted Kathleen and Lesley Dorsett on charges of the attempted murder of Evlyn Moore. Now the whole family is behind bars and it sounds like a good place for them.
The truly amazing thing? It was all over custody of a child.