A brutal convenience store shooting in Maryland has led investigators to a scene of unimaginable horror, uncovering the decomposed body of a missing pregnant woman in the suspect’s apartment. The case, which spans two months and involves three murders, has culminated in convictions that have shaken Montgomery County to its core.
The chain of events began on the afternoon of December 8, 2022, at a Dashin convenience store in Silver Spring’s White Oak area. Surveillance footage shows a man, later identified as 31-year-old Tory Moore, entering the store, browsing, and then approaching the counter with a bottle of iced tea. A tense, silent confrontation with 61-year-old clerk Ayalu Wandu escalated rapidly.
After Moore threw an item and Wandu grabbed a pole in self-defense, Moore drew a silver handgun and fired multiple shots. He then calmly retrieved his drink and walked out, leaving Wandu mortally wounded. Callers flooded 911, with one witness frantically providing a description and noting the gunman had walked toward the Enclave apartment complex directly across the street.
First responders arrived at 3:06 p.m., but Ayalu Wandu was pronounced dead at the scene. The autopsy would later confirm a bullet severed his spine. Store management revealed Moore was a known nuisance, frequently trespassing and asking customers for money. He had been banned before and had threatened to shoot the manager just days earlier.
“He told me that he’s going to shoot me. He already told me that,” the manager recounted to police. Despite previous reports, the threat had tragically materialized. With a clear suspect description and direction, police focused their search on the towering Enclave complex.
Approximately twelve hours after the murder, police secured a no-knock warrant. SWAT teams converged on an apartment, finding Tory Moore asleep on a bare mattress. The apartment was in disarray, but officers immediately detected a foul, oppressive odor. A subsequent search revealed a nightmare.
In a bedroom, they discovered the severely decomposed body of a woman. “You don’t want to go back there if you don’t have to. It’s pretty bad,” an officer is heard saying on bodycam footage. Initially, investigators speculated the victim might be Moore’s mother, but he dispelled that theory with a chillingly mundane request to text his mother.
The woman was identified as 26-year-old Denise Middleton, who was eight and a half months pregnant. She had been shot multiple times, with at least four bullets in her back. The autopsy placed her time of death around October 8 or 9—meaning Moore had lived with her remains for roughly two months before the convenience store shooting.
A deeper search of the apartment uncovered multiple weapons, spent shell casings, and a sword. Moore’s phone records, obtained after his arrest, revealed damning internet searches in the aftermath of Middleton’s death, including “how long before a body starts to stink” and “how to move dead body without being seen.” He also searched “how to plead insanity.”
Following the October incident, Moore traveled by bus to North Carolina and California before returning to Silver Spring about a month later. He continued residing in the apartment with Middleton’s body for 25 more days until the December 8 shooting that finally drew law enforcement to his door.
During interrogations, Moore was cavalier, suggesting his story was “for the books.” He admitted to the store shooting, claiming the clerk had attacked him with a pole, but vehemently denied killing Denise Middleton despite overwhelming evidence. He described a volatile, on-again, off-again relationship, stating they had reunited while she was pregnant.
He claimed they had taken a trip to New York to see her mother in October, a visit marred by arguments. The last known image of Middleton alive comes from elevator CCTV on October 9, where she appears to be crying and follows Moore out reluctantly. Moore told detectives they fought upon returning to the apartment, and weapons, including a sword, were involved.
“She said, ‘One of us going to die in here tonight,’” Moore recounted to investigators, framing the event as self-defense. He heavily implied he shot her without explicitly confessing, stating he gave police the truth “without pretty much… telling on me.”
Moore was charged with the murder of Ayalu Wandu, the murder of Denise Middleton, and, in a landmark legal move, the murder of their unborn son, whom Middleton had planned to name Ezekiel. It marked the first fetal homicide conviction in Montgomery County history.
At trial, his defense argued he was not competent to stand trial due to schizophrenia. The jury rejected this. In May 2024, he was found guilty of murdering Ayalu Wandu. In November 2024, he was convicted on the two additional counts for the deaths of Denise Middleton and baby Ezekiel.
At his sentencing, Moore offered no explanation or statement to the court. A relative of Denise Middleton expressed a desire for closure, stating, “A good explanation would have been good. Yeah, I would have liked to hear why.” Tory Moore was sentenced to life in prison and will not be eligible for parole until he is 90 years old.
The case exposes a tragic intersection of domestic violence and public violence, leaving two families and a community grappling with an irreversible loss and haunting questions about the warning signs that preceded the final, fatal eruption.