‘Paradise’ Becomes a House of Horror for Moore Family

It was a few months after the 1985 baseball season when Angel reliever Donnie Ray Moore, as rich and successful as he had ever been, moved out of a condominium and into an Anaheim Hills home on 1.5 acres.

Moore’s three young children were enchanted by the place, and couldn’t wait to start boating around its private lake and bouncing on a trampoline built into the back yard of the four-bedroom house, recalled Robert Andri, who sold Moore the property for $850,000.

“It was paradise,” Andri said. “They were very excited about it.”

But the house that heralded Moore’s arrival as a big-time pitcher became the scene of tragedy, when a dispute about selling it ended with Moore shooting his wife in front of the children and then killing himself Tuesday, family spokesman Randall Johnson said at a news conference Wednesday.

Tonya Moore, 35, was in serious but stable condition at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Anaheim, recovering from two bullet wounds to her neck and chest, Johnson said. She was alert and talking to family members on Wednesday from her bed in the intensive care unit, he added.

Cynthia Powell, a psychologist and friend of the family, said that the couple’s 17-year-old daughter, Demetria, seemed to be coping with the tragedy, but that her younger brothers were having a difficult time understanding what happened.

“They still (are) asking about Dad,” Powell said of 7-year-old Ronnie and 10-year-old Donnie Jr. “Just imagine your worst nightmare.”

About 30 friends and family members gathered at the hospital Wednesday.

Demetria, Ronnie and Donnie Jr. went back and forth from the lobby to the intensive care unit waiting area. Ronnie went to the hospital gift shop and bought a necklace for his mother. At times, both boys were running around, playing with friends and family members. And once, Ronnie stopped by a newspaper rack and pointed to his father’s photograph on the front page.

“See--he’s on the cover of the newspaper,” Ronnie said.

In 1985, it appeared that Moore had nothing but a bright future ahead of him. After 13 years as a professional baseball player, Moore signed with the Angels and proceeded to set a team record of 31 saves. The Angels rewarded him with a three-year, $3-million contract after the season, making him the team’s highest-paid pitcher.

After that, Moore bought his Anaheim Hills house and started another successful season in 1986, saving 21 games and helping the Angels reach the playoffs. But in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, with two out in the ninth inning and two strikes on Dave Henderson, Moore gave up a home run that helped propel the Boston Red Sox to a victory. Boston then went on to win the playoff and advance to the World Series.

Moore became despondent about giving up the home run, and at one point, Dave Pinter, his agent for 12 years, advised that he seek professional help.

Johnson said Wednesday that “Donnie felt bad about what happened. But he didn’t feel it was entirely his mistake. He was told to make that pitch. He felt it was a good pitch.”

In any event, after that game Moore’s baseball career deteriorated. Unable to recover from persistent injuries, the pitcher was released by the Angels in September of last year, and trouble was not far behind.

Although Moore was signed by the Omaha Royals, Kansas City’s triple-A team, Andri said Moore began to be regularly late making a $2,000-a-month second mortgage payment to him. (Andri said Moore paid $4,000 a month to a savings and loan that held a first mortgage on the house.)

“The first couple of years when he received a million dollars a year, it (Moore’s payment pattern) was like clockwork,” Andri said. “The last year, it hasn’t been so good.”

However, Johnson denied Wednesday that the Moores were behind in making any mortgage payments.

“They traveled extensively,” Johnson said. “Like anyone they might have been one or two days late (in making the payments) when they came home.”

Moore’s flagging career also took its toll on his marriage.

Last month, the Royals’ farm club released Moore, 35, and his wife filed a change-of-address form with the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The form indicated that Tonya Moore had moved to Ontario, although Johnson denied Wednesday that the couple had separated.

Last week, Moore called Anaheim real estate agent Jimmy Weatherspoon through a newspaper advertisement and told him he wanted to sell the house, according to a secretary in Weatherspoon’s office. “He was real anxious to sell,” the secretary said.

Johnson said the Moore family had sat down Tuesday afternoon to discuss selling the house and moving to Texas, where the parents had grown up, when an argument erupted. Moore went for a 45-caliber handgun that he kept in the house, and fired four or five rounds, police investigators said. After two bullets struck Moore’s wife, their daughter dragged her into a car and sped to the hospital, Johnson said.

Moore then shot himself once in the head in front of the two boys, said Anaheim Police Lt. Marc Hedgpeth. One of the boys called police at 4:41 p.m. Autopsy results released Wednesday showed that Moore had died from a single gunshot wound to the head and had no other injuries, Hedgpeth said.

Demetria Moore, who was in the house, said she did not see her father turn the gun on himself after shooting her mother.

“I guess while we were leaving (for the hospital), he committed suicide,” Demetria told KABC-TV sports director Jim Hill. “I really didn’t find out what was happening until I was at the hospital with my mom and everything.”

The teen-ager said she did not know what had started the argument between her mother and father Tuesday.

“I just know that he was really depressed. First of all, when he got cut from Kansas (City’s farm team); he’d been really depressed about that. . . . And then he comes back to home and the marriage, the family is all destroyed. I mean, what else does he have left?”

Hill asked if her parents were trying to patch up their differences.

“They were,” she said.

“It was an off-and-on (thing). I mean they’d argue and they’d be fine, and they’d argue and they’d be fine.

“It’s kind of weird, because they’re both kind of the same people: Whatever they say, they think it’s right. I think that’s why they mostly argued a lot. I don’t know. They loved each other. I knew that much.”

The parents of both Tonya and Donnie Moore were expected to arrive Wednesday in Orange County.

Funeral arrangements are pending, Johnson said.

Times Staff Writers Elliott Almond, Chris Baker and David Reyes contributed to this report.