ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 8, 1996 TAG: 9604080072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MIAMI
SOURCE: Associated Press
The FBI on Sunday found the 5-year-old daughter of a Virginia man accused of stabbing his estranged wife 33 times then fleeing the state, but the man got away before officials could arrest him.
Michael Moore, 23, of Richmond was featured Saturday on the television show ``America's Most Wanted.'' Calls from South Florida led agents to a home north of Miami where he had been staying for about a week.
But by the time they got there, Moore had fled, leaving behind his unharmed daughter and the homeowner who unknowingly had befriended him and offered him a place to stay, officials said.
Police found Moore's car a few hours later at a nearby supermarket parking lot, but there was no sign of the man, said Paul Miller, an FBI spokesman in Miami.
``We owe our soul to `America's Most Wanted,''' said Sgt. Bob Loving of the Henrico County police department. The daughter ``was found because of direct results of the case airing on `America's Most Wanted' Saturday night. ... They started receiving tips within the first minute of the story being aired.''
Lisa Moore, 26, survived the March 22 attack, which was apparently sparked by the pending divorce from her husband. She was due to be released from the hospital this week.
The two, separated for 10 months, had visited Lisa Moore's lawyer earlier in the day to work out custody arrangements for their daughter, Alexis, officials said. They began arguing when Lisa Moore went to Michael Moore's home later in the day to drop Alexis off for the weekend.
``She was in her bedroom, but she came out while he was beating me, and I heard her crying, `Daddy, stop hurting Mommy,''' Lisa Moore said from her hospital bed. ``I just felt so sorry she had to see that.''
Moore then allegedly took off with Alexis in his 1988 Chevrolet Cavalier.
A desk clerk at the Days Inn on Plantation Road in Roanoke said a man fitting Moore's description and a young girl checked in March 23 and checked out about noon the next day.
When Moore got to Miami, he met the homeowner, who offered him a place to stay and a job in construction, Miller said.
On Saturday, a relative contacted the homeowner, who was not identified, to alert him that Moore had just been on ``America's Most Wanted.'' The homeowner confronted Moore at the home, and Moore took off, Miller said.
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