Bio

Robert Henry Moormann was born on June 4, 1948. He was born as Bobby Conger before being adopted. He was adopted as a young child by Henry and Roberta Moormann, a couple from Flagstaff, Arizona. Moormann had contact with the legal system long before the murder of his adoptive mother. By the early 1970s, he had been convicted of kidnapping a young girl and was serving a sentence of nine years to life at the Arizona State Prison in Florence. Arizona Supreme Court records state that he was in prison for kidnapping when he was temporarily released in January 1984 for a three-day compassionate furlough with his adoptive mother.

Before the murder, Moormann’s relationship with his adoptive mother had become a major part of both the defense and later appeals. His defense presented mental-health evidence and claims involving an incestuous relationship with Roberta. Court records show that one defense psychologist said the diagnosis partly depended on whether Moormann’s allegations about an incestuous relationship were believed. A state expert testified that Moormann had reported having sex with his mother on the night of the killing, though the medical examiner found no physical evidence of sexual activity.

In January 1984, Moormann was allowed to leave prison on a 72-hour furlough. His adoptive mother traveled to Florence to visit him, and the two stayed at Room 22 of the Blue Mist Motel near the prison. This furlough became the setting for the crime that led to Moormann’s death sentence.

Murder Story

On January 12, 1984, Robert Henry Moormann was released from Arizona State Prison in Florence on a three-day compassionate furlough. He was allowed to spend time with his 74-year-old adoptive mother, Roberta Moormann. They stayed together in Room 22 at the Blue Mist Motel near the prison.

On January 13, 1984, Moormann killed Roberta inside the motel room. Court records state that she was restrained, beaten, and suffocated. After her death, Moormann dismembered her body and tried to dispose of the remains in different trash bins around Florence.

Police became suspicious after Moormann asked a local pizza restaurant owner if he could throw away what he called “cow guts” in the restaurant’s dumpster. He also gave a box to a prison employee and said it contained “dog bones.” Authorities later discovered that the box contained human remains.

Officers went to the motel and found signs of a violent crime, including bloodstained items and suspicious stains in the room. Moormann gave different explanations about where his mother was, but police soon connected him to the remains that had been found. He was arrested at about 2:30 a.m. on January 14, 1984.

Moormann admitted that he killed his adoptive mother, but he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury rejected that defense. On April 4, 1985, he was convicted of first-degree murder. On May 7, 1985, he was sentenced to death.

Moormann appealed his conviction and sentence for many years, but the courts upheld the judgment. On February 29, 2012, he was executed by lethal injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. He was pronounced dead at 10:33 a.m.