Aileen Wuornos’ girlfriend secretly taped a phone call that helped police secure the serial killer’s confession.
Tyria Moore, who met Wuornos in a Florida bar in 1986, agreed to cooperate with authorities in 1991 after they promised she would not face charges as an accomplice. The partnership between investigators and Moore produced a recorded jailhouse call that would become pivotal evidence against Wuornos, who was executed in 2002 after a decade on death row.
During that taped conversation, Moore adopted a frightened tone and warned Wuornos that police were closing in on her. Wuornos responded without hesitation: “I’m not gonna let you go to jail. Ty, I love you. If I have to confess everything just to keep you from getting in trouble, I will.”
Moore later took the stand against Wuornos during her 1992 trial. She told the jury that the pair had been “sitting around watching TV, drinking a few beers” when Wuornos casually admitted to a killing. According to Moore’s testimony, Wuornos said “she had shot and killed a man that day” and “put the body in the woods under a rug.”
Wuornos had been arrested in 1991 after investigators matched her fingerprints to a pawned item belonging to one of her victims. Authorities had been hunting a suspect in a string of highway murders across Florida: Richard Mallory, 51; David Spears, 47; Charles Carskaddon, 40; Troy Burress, 50; Charles Humphreys, 56; and Walter Antonio, 62. Witnesses had reported seeing two women driving cars stolen from the deceased men.
Despite her eventual conviction for six of the seven murders she was accused of committing between 1989 and 1990, Wuornos maintained her innocence for years and spoke of Moore with fierce devotion. “I loved her so bad,” Wuornos said in interviews. “[She’s the] only reason I carried that darn gun. I wanted to make sure that I got home alive – so I’d be another day breathing with her.”
The case and its central relationship have been revisited repeatedly in popular culture. Charlize Theron won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Wuornos in the 2003 film Monster. Netflix released the documentary Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers in 2025, featuring rare interviews with those closest to the convicted killer.
In one death row interview featured in the documentary, Wuornos offered a stark self-assessment: “The real Aileen Wuornos isn’t a serial killer. I was so lost I turned into one.”
Wuornos and Moore’s relationship began in 1986 and lasted through the period of the killings, though it ultimately collapsed under the weight of the investigation that Moore herself helped build. The taped call and subsequent courtroom testimony demonstrated how thoroughly Moore had switched sides, trading romantic loyalty for legal protection.
Wuornos spent ten years on death row before her execution in 2002, during which she gave multiple interviews reflecting on her crimes and her life. The documentary Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers is currently streaming on Netflix.