SAN ANTONIO – Autopsy results and DNA analysis was presented to the jury during day three of the capital murder trial of Larry Moore.
Moore, who is now 69, is charged with the 1987 murder of Dianna Lowery.
Testimony began Thursday with former Bexar County Medical Examiner Dr. Robert Bux on the stand.
Bux conducted the autopsy on Lowery in 1987 and his report concluded that Lowery died by asphyxiation, which means she was strangled.
“Internally there was hemorrhage on the larynx,” Bux said.
His report also noted that Lowery was bound by the wrists and ankles and had what appeared to be adhesive around her mouth.
Next to take the stand was forensic serologist Garon Foster from the Bexar County Crime Lab.
Foster explained that he got involved in Lowery’s case in August 2004 when he began analyzing DNA samples from the medical examiner’s sexual assault kit from Lowery’s autopsy as well samples from a bedsheet and comforter.
In Feb. 2005, he concluded that male DNA was found but could not determine a genetic profile which means he wasn’t able to conclude whose DNA it was.
Several other tests were done to exclude potential suspects in the case including Lowery’s boyfriend at the time.
It wasn’t until July 2005 that San Antonio Police Department cold case detectives requested testing be compared to a sample from Moore.
“Larry Moore is not excluded as a donor of the Y chromosome,” Foster said. “It means that the Y chromosome type from Mr. Moore does match.”
Moore would later be arrested and charged in 2005 but the charges were later dismissed.
When the case was reopened in 2018, Moore was arrested again and charged with capital murder.
In 2020, more analysis was done on the DNA collected.
“It is a 780 quintillion times more likely that they originated from Dianna Lowery and Larry Moore,” Foster said.
The trial continues on Friday and is expected to go to the jury for deliberations.
If Moore is found guilty he is facing up to life in prison, as the prosecution is not seeking the death penalty.