Arrest made in 10-year cold case of DC mom’s disappearance
Investigators suspected the victim's companion, Isaac Moye, was linked to the crime
An arrest has been made in a 10-year old cold case of a mother of three who vanished from her apartment in Southeast Washington in 2010.
Isaac Moye, 43, was arrested last week and charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of 23-year-old Unique Harris. For the past decade, investigators suspected he was linked to the crime, as a GPS monitor confirmed he was at the victim’s apartment on the night of Oct. 9, 2010 when she disappeared, leaving her children alone. His DNA was also found on a couch cushion, Washington Post reports.
Moye was interviewed by police several times early in the investigation, but the scrapes of evidence, false leads and sightings were not enough to arrest him.
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Harris’ two sons, who were four and five years old at time of her disappearance, told police they woke up to the apartment in disarray on that fateful night and their mother was gone. Her body has not been found.
“It was very much a mystery how she would just disappear in the middle of the night with her kids still in the apartment,” said Joel Maupin, chief of the District’s Housing Authority police. “We always wondered what had happened to her,” he added.
In 2017, when a new detective was assigned to the case, Harris’ eldest son offered new information-that placed Moye in the apartment with his mom before she disappeared. He also claimed to have heard arguing followed by her muffled screaming, according to the report.
Valencia Harris, the victim’s mother, reportedly told police she received a tip that her daughter’s disappearance was the result of foul play and Moye was responsible.
“The last words I said to Unique was, ‘I love you Yukee Pookie.’ That’s my nickname for her,” Valencia Harris told FOX 5 in 2016. “We had a nice conversation on the phone. The boys were rambunctious on the background.”
Maupin said Moye’s arrest “took a long time,” but added, “Thank God it’s done.”
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The arrest affidavit states that in Oct. 2020, an informant in custody told police Moye confessed to him that there was a missing girl “but that they will never get him (Moye) because he (Moye) did it the right way so they will never figure it out.”
Moye’s arrest on the murder charge follows his release from prison last month after serving nearly five years for assaulting a woman with a knife.
His attorney argued at a hearing Monday in D.C. Superior Court that the evidence fails to support a second-degree murder charge, considering investigators have yet to conclude that Harris is dead.
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