Slain N.J. student mourned in Montco

As the Facebook posts turned from "get better soon" to "R.I.P.," several recent graduates and current Upper Merion High School students spent the weekend mourning the murder of 2009 graduate Jessica Moore.

Moore, a 2009 cocaptain of the Upper Merion girls basketball and softball teams, was fatally shot at a Seton Hall University off-campus apartment early Saturday morning by a gunman who also wounded four others after he was denied access to a party.

The gunman remained at large Sunday, authorities said.

A sophomore honors student whose current residence was listed as Disputanta, Va., Moore was majoring in psychology, said the university's interim president, Gabriel Esteban, who appeared to be on the verge of tears during a news conference on campus.

The other victims' names have not been released.

Though Moore was in Upper Merion only her junior and senior years, she left an impression on everyone at the school, said those who knew her.

Her big smile, her athleticism, her singing voice, and her friendly personality are just some of the qualities Moore's Upper Merion friends said would be sorely missed.

Katie Boyk, a 2009 graduate of Upper Merion who is a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh, was doing her usual Facebook check Saturday morning when she saw several posts on Moore's Facebook wall that read "Get better soon," Boyk said Sunday.

It was moments later that Boyk, who was also cocaptain of the girls basketball team during the 2008-09 season, saw the first "R.I.P." post come up.

She looked up the news accounts on the Internet and texted her former basketball teammates, who were all quickly finding out as well, she said.

"The girls here were devastated," said John Whitney, Upper Merion High's softball coach.

Moore started her junior year at Upper Merion High School after living in Tennessee for a few years. Her father is in the military and was working at Valley Forge Military Academy, Whitney said.

She wasted no time getting involved in school. Moore joined the school choir and the basketball and softball teams in her first year at the school. Making friends came easily for Moore.

"She was one of the most positive people I've ever known in my life," Boyk said. "She always had a smile."

In the locker room, Moore's voice would always be heard coming from the showers, Boyk said. She would often make up her own songs.

"She was always trying to make people laugh," Boyk said.

Not only was she charming and smart, but Moore was also a great athlete, her coach and friends said.

Following basketball practices and games, when, Boyd said, the girls would be beat, the 5-foot-2 guard would still be shooting hoops.

She was voted a captain by her softball teammates in her senior year, which Whitney said "says a lot about the kind of person she was."

Moore, an outfielder, helped lead her softball team to the regional playoff games both years.

"To have a kid like that on your team, it was just a blessing," Whitney said.

About 500 students, faculty, and staff attended a Saturday evening prayer service at Seton Hall, in South Orange, N.J., to remember Moore. Her parents, grandparents, and uncle were also on campus.

After the service, Christian Powe, who said he and Moore were classmates who became "real tight" after sharing an oral rhetoric class, called her someone "you can really open up to."

She was nicknamed "Tennessee," he said, a nod to her roots there, and said she was a fan of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, texting him the scores of their games when he couldn't watch them on TV.

He had returned from a college retreat in Pennsylvania for the prayer service.

"She had a magnetic personality," he said.

Moore had been at the party early Saturday when a fight started after a man was kicked out because he didn't want to pay the cover charge, said a student who said she attended the party and had classes with Moore. The woman did not give her name, citing fears for her safety because the shooter was not in custody.

She said the man came back and began firing, sending screaming partygoers rushing out the door and climbing out windows.

The other four victims were hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, and one was released, said East Orange Police Sgt. Andrew Di Elmo.

The victims did not know the gunman, who ran from the apartment, Di Elmo said. Police offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the gunman's capture.

Police said that two of the wounded are 19-year-old women who go to Seton Hall, and one is a 25-year-old man who attends the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The fourth is a 20-year-old man from New York City who is not a student.