DELAWARE, Ohio — More than a year after he was arrested and charged with his wife’s murder, Matheau Moore went on trial Tuesday.
Emily Noble was reported missing in May 2020. Her body was found four months later, in September, in a wooded area near her Westerville home. Investigators later said her death had been staged to look like a suicide. She was found with a USB cord around her neck.
Whether her death actually was a suicide will be at least part of the focus during the trial, according to court documents filed in the days leading up to the trial.
The plans to call an expert witness who will testify that suicide cannot be ruled out as a cause of death. When prosecutors learned of this, they asked the judge for more time to find their own expert witness to rebut that. But the judge denied their motion for continuance. Their appeal to that ruling also was denied.
So the trial began on Tuesday, roughly 14 months after Moore was charged. The morning was spent seating a jury of 12 jurors and four alternates.
After that, the jurors went on a jury view, which is a field trip, of sorts. They saw the home where Moore and Noble lived and then saw the exact spot where Noble’s body was found in a wooded area not far from the home. The exact spot is now marked with a golf ball.
After the jury view, jurors were dismissed for the day.
Opening statements will begin Wednesday morning.