Cory Dale Moore -- Missing Person Found, A Case Study

Author: Shane Lambert
Original time of writing: February 21st, 2021

The case of Cory Dale Moore, someone who went missing in September 2020 and was found deceased in February 2021, is a case that people who look at missing person cases should be interested in. It's a case where an individual went missing, there were reports of heavy searching, and yet the discovery of his remains was more due to a chance event than formal searching. This was the case even though Moore was found just one-half mile from his last-known location.

Cory Dale Moore went missing on September 3rd, 2020. The odd detail that was included in his case was that he seemed to have left without wearing any shoes. I wondered if he had a second pair as there was a question as to how far he could have gone without his footwear. As reported by Yahoo! News, his wallet and cell phone were missing and he didn't have a car (author: Andrea Cavallier).

According to Yahoo: "The Lee County Sheriff’s Office launched a search in the surrounding area with crews, cadaver dogs and drones. But there was no trace of Cory."

However, Cory was found on February 12th, 2021, about five months after the disappearance. That he was found just one-half mile away from his last-known location is important to note. 

Often, when I read missing person forums, participants think that because the police searched with cadaver dogs, drones, and lots of manpower and failed to find a missing person, the target of the search must have gone far away from where he was last seen. However, this is definitely not the case.

Cory was found by individuals that were on a real-estate scouting trip. They were thinking of purchasing a piece of land, they were inspecting it, and they discovered Cory. How he got to where he was found isn't known at the time of writing (February 2021).

But what Websleuths and amateurs should take away is the fact that one-half mile can make for a challenging search area when you don't know which direction someone went in. The area of a circle that has a radius of 0.5 miles is 0.79 square miles. If you are dealing with a heavily forested area, then the search is all the more difficult.

However, 0.79 miles squared still isn't a huge area to cover. Next time you read a missing person report that says the police looked extensively near where the person went missing, don't take that to mean that the person didn't end up staying in the vicinity of where he was last seen. It's a mistake to think that just because there are reports of police scouring an area with drones, cadaver dogs, and crews that the area was covered for every square inch. 

I think there are loads of cases that are currently baffling to searchers where the individual is very close to where they were last seen. In Cory's case, he was found after five months. However, if not for the chance discovery, animal activity or vegetation could have hidden his body for who knows how long. In other cases, that may have happened.

Read more: Paula Jean Welden, Emma Fillipoff