Trial starts in murder of FBI worker

That's what FBI employees who were going to help her move wondered the morning of Aug. 6, 1999 when she didn't show up at work. David made his remarks during opening statements in the trial of Tyrone Delgado. The 38-year-old is charged with burglary and murder.

Mooney, a 28-year-old divorcee who had been working at the FBI since after she graduated from high school, was never late and she loved her job.

When an FBI agent and another co-worker went to look for her, instead of finding her packing, they stumbled into a murder scene.

They found her white front door badly damaged with a black boot print just below the doorknob.

Then, FBI agent Paul Cox walked into her bedroom and found her naked body sprawled on the floor next to a bare, blue mattress and moving boxes.

David said it was Delgado, her neighbor, who kicked in her front door, strangling her to death with his hands and a ligature. Her phone had been ripped from the wall. Those signs pointed to Delgado, he said, because they were Delgado's signature, his trademark.

The night she died, she had rented two movies from Blockbuster: Devil's Advocate and Cruel Intentions, said Public Defender Jennifer Harjo, who represents Delgado. One was returned Aug. 5, 1999, the night she was killed.

Harjo disputed that Mooney watched a movie, ate popcorn and drank soda alone in her house like David had said. Harjo also said the investigation was botched from the beginning by an agency, the FBI, that was too close to it because one of their own had been killed.

"They were too close to the case," she said. "I understand their pain, but they did not do a very good investigation."

Harjo also disputed DNA evidence tied to her client was unquestionably his and claimed it was unclear whether those were actually boot prints all over Mooney's place.

Mooney had recently bought a house on Reminisce Road with yellow siding and was in the process of moving in.

"At age 28, she was starting life over in many ways," David said. "She had just divorced her husband, Roger Mooney, and had recently broken up with a boyfriend, Jose Cintron."

David said the investigation started with her innermost circle: Investigators analyzed and questioned Cintron and Mooney. Both of them provided alibis.

Harjo was not satisfied with their alibis nor was she satisfied they had nothing to do with her death.

On the two-year anniversary of Mooney's killing, investigators went to Mooney's neighborhood and interviewed Delgado again.

During the investigation, they also talked to other women across the country who had known Delgado. A pattern emerged.

Delgado pleaded guilty in Louisiana to aggravated assault and false imprisonment for attacking his wife after he was released from custody for an unrelated charge in North Carolina.

Women who have never met each other "will tell you identical things about what this defendant did to them - how close it would be to Melissa if she could tell you the last hours on that bed," David said.

"There he was, standing over her, choking the life out of her," David said. "Where's Melissa? Oh, she's not here. It's her day in court, but you're not going to meet her. Melissa is in the ground, ladies and gentlemen, and the defendant put her there."

Veronica Gonzalez: 343-2008

Veronica.gonzalez@starnewsonline.com