Page 3 - Petes Uncle News Today

Dad. and anybody that has anything bad to say about pete never really took the time to get to know him because he is a good, loving person with a huge heart. we need more petes in this world. >> reporter: why were the cops so focused on pete to begin with? well, as pete tells it his cousin paul planned the whole thing. set out to frame him. first by lying to him telling him that roberto or robert as pete calls him was out to steal his birth right. >> paul would come over and tell me horrible stu...

>> reporter: but petes wife mary ellen said she could clearly see paul was baiting pete. i would talk to him all the time. >> reporter: when pete got home -- >> he would be angry, upset. telling us things we didnt even know if they were true. >> reporter: dave and sue moore told investigators they, too, thought paul had been setting pete up. >> they talk a lot between themselves, too. and i think paul has been able to manipulate peter. >> reporter: but pete just didnt see it. didnt realize he ...

Suspicion once embedded is remarkably resistant to actual evidence that might disprove it. when paul moore was arrested and charged with the murder of roberto ayala his cousin peter began to experience that particular phenomenon quite personally. around town people still seemed to believe that pete was the murderer. ironic, perhaps, but for all his bluster, pete has never been in arrested, never been in trouble with the law, runs his own business, has been a good father, and over the years has t...

Hearing? >> we were hearing that people were saying that they thought pete did it. >> they were following us everywhere. >> didnt make a secret of it either, said mary ellen. from them or the neighbors. >> how did they start to look at you? >> like we were guilty. >> after they raided my house, i spent days crying. days and days. you know, id be at work and just -- just crying because you dont know whats going on. you dont know -- you dont know who to trust. >> reporter: how much were you watche...

Country cop crying wolf. >> and now, ive got atf and fbi showing up. i was a little overwhelmed. i was a little concerned that maybe, you know, were calling these big agencies for help and really what we have is an accident. we had bomb guys saying it was a bomb but theyre bomb guys. you know, were not 100% convinced its a bomb yet. >> reporter: and then three days after the explosion. >> we got a visit from paul moore. >> reporter: paul. petes beloved cousin. the handsome golden boy of the pair...

Younger. >> reporter: committed felonies in fact. then he said he just grew up and wanted to help now any way he could even if it meant informing on his beloved cousin peter. >> i think pete is a little envious of robert. i think he felt his dad treated robert better than pete got treated and he worked there. he said something about his dad taking him out of the will. >> reporter: one thing, though. paul, like his second cousin dave, didnt think that pete was capable of making that bomb. somebod...

The only tipster detectives would hear from. they were about to get a fresh lead. a man killed by a homemade bomb. and the suspect was notoriously hot headed. petes uncle, roger moore, believed an audiotape from his answering machine could help the police. the point on the tape was pete. >> i worked for 29 years doing what im doing so that i could one day have a chance to farm. >> he wanted to talk about how

He had been disenheritted. >> hey, this is pete. ive worked for 29 years doing what im doing so that i could eventually one day have a chance to farm. >> reporter: pete wanted to talk about having been disinherited. >> and ive been taken out of my dads will i guess you know. >> reporter: the phone messages contained nothing directly incriminating but after being diverted by those strange letters about assassins and a drug gang the investigation was now back to where it started, that peter moore ...

In short order, i was pretty much told by my dad and my uncle that they didnt need my help anymore. and i didnt know whether it was animosity because i had gotten so close to their dad or what it was. >> after a particularly ugly fight with his dad, pete was exiled from the land of plenty. moved north into town and started a landescaping business. >> my wife and i had nothing. i mean, and i -- when i say nothing, i mean nothing to do with the moores. >> reporter: and paul? paul remained the fami...

>> reporter: there was a lot of town talk going on. lot of gossip. rumor. about a week after his house was searched, pete got a visit from a friend who had heard some things. >> i was working one day and he saw me. a high patrol friend of mine and he backs up and goes what the hell are you doing? and i go im working. he goes no youre not. you go get in your car. you get to yuba city. go to sacramento. get an attorney, pete. theyre coming after you. youre the number one suspect. >> announcer: com...