Horror movie actress, 30, who was charged with shooting her uncle dead

Filmmakers have recalled how an actress was ‘so convincing’ in low-budget horror film where she shot a man dead – only for her to be arrested days later for killing her uncle in an ‘insanely similar’ manner 

Aisling ‘Tucker’ Moore Reed, 31, who has written for Cosmopolitan magazine and the Grants Pass Daily Courier, was initially arrested and charged with manslaughter in 2016 after she shot and killed her uncle Shane Patrick Moore, 63. 

At the time she claimed it was self-defence, and posted the necessary 10 per cent of her $200,000 bail, before auditioning for and filming indie movie From the Dark, in which she played the lead role of Valerie Faust. 

Speaking on Dateline’s Killer Role podcast, Matthew Spickard, Executive Producer for the film, said the parallels between the killing and the plot of their indie film were ‘like a sick joke’, saying: ‘In the movie, her character defends herself with a fire arm and she thinks she is doing it out of self defense.’ 

Meanwhile her co-star Meg Windows recalled her being incredibly convincing, revealing: ‘[During rehearsals] I could hear she had absolute panic in her voice. At first I thought something had happened. We thought, “Oh my god is everything okay over there?” But no – they just sold it so well, we thought they were in trouble over there.’ 

Days after the film wrapped in September 2018, video footage of the crime emerged and Reed was rearrested. She was sentenced to six years and three months in prison in May 2020. 

Reed was initially arrested and charged with manslaughter in 2016 after she shot and killed her uncle Shane Patrick Moore, 63

Prior to the crime, Reed was best known as a blogger, author, and one-time reporter at the Grants Pass Daily Courier. 

She was known by her pen name, Tucker Reed, under which she co-authored the young adult novel, Amber House, published in October 2012 and its sequel, Neverwas, which was released in January 2014. 

She had a restraining order against her uncle Shane, who she claimed was abusive, but in June 2016 received a phone call from her grandmother who said she was ‘scared’.

During police interviews shared on the podcast, Reed claimed Shane had been trying to intimate her grandmother Lore into signing a revised will. 

She claimed the family stayed and ‘barricaded the doors’ but her uncle kept ‘circling the house and threatening her mother.’  

She continued: ‘My mother said if we called the police, he would go berserk – set fire to the police, cause damage. That’s why nobody called in. 

Reed initially claimed the crime was in self defence, but mobile phone footage of the shooting was later uncovered (pictured, her uncle Shane Moore moments before he was shot dead) 

‘I saw Shane come around, he was on the porch, five feet from the glass. He was watching and I verbally warned everybody, “Shane’s right there.”‘

With Shane peering through the window, Reed said her mother picked up the document he wanted signed and tore it into pieces, all within his eyesight. 

She continued: ‘As soon as my mom tore up the document, he ran towards the front door which was unlocked. I ran, I started screaming, I picked up the gun.’

She told police there was a life or death struggle and she was forced to act, saying: ‘I was absolutely sure he was going to kill my mother.’

She said she ‘warned him’, but never made a conscious decision to fire a gun, and that she didn’t even know how to. 

Reed posted the necessary 10 per cent of her $200,000 bail and was released.

Reed went on to audition for the independent film while she was out on bail under the pseudonym ‘Wyn Reed’. 

Filmmakers said Reed ‘blew it out of the water’ when she auditioned for the main role of Valerie, who was a young tour guide at a lodge in an Oregon forest celebrating her last day when things take a sinister turn. 

Matthew said: ‘She was such a phenomenal actor, we absolutely adored her.’ 

‘She was the most responsible and professional one out of everybody. She had her lines down.’ 

Meanwhile Meg explained: ‘There was something about the way she read, the way they reacted to her reading, she nailed it.’  

But despite her talent, none of the theatre scene knew about Wyn, and had never heard of her before.

The filmmakers stated that because of the movie’s low budget, they weren’t able to perform background checks. 

Matthew said: ‘When I did my background search, I did a Facebook profile search. She had a Wikipedia page. Why wouldn’t we have trusted her?’  

The plot of the film sees Valerie along with other stranded staff of an abandoned lodge slowly realise there is a killer amongst them. 

During one scene, Valerie shoots someone and struggles to determine if it is self defence. 

However during filming, a classmate said Wyn looked a lot like an old school friend Tucker and the filmmakers started researching her background.

It was then they discovered she had been involved in the shooting of her uncle. 

Matthew explained: ‘At that point, we were like “Oh my god, this is absolutely crazy. Who do we even ask, what their opinion or what do we do?”‘ 

The movie cinematographer, who was dating Reed at the time, then confessed he had known her story for a while but hadn’t mentioned it.

Matthew said: ‘We called a meeting and talked to him about it, and he said the uncle had assaulted her and broke her nose and almost blinded her.

‘He ended up trying to break into her grandmother’s house because they were fighting over the house and started beating her mother.

‘At that point, she went to where her grandmother kept her defense weapon and she had accidentally shot him.’ 

In the movie, Reed plays Valerie Faust, a young tour guide at a lodge in an Oregon forest celebrating her last day when things take a sinister turn. Her character is involved in a fatal shooting in the film.  Pictured: Reed in a still from the movie

But the tale arose suspiscions for Matthew, who felt the account sounded a lot like the plot of their film.

Matthew said she was well aware the plot before they started filming the movie, revealing: ‘We had the read through and she said it was fantastic – she said it shed a light on mental illness.’ 

They continued with production and, in August 2018, police obtained video footage of the shooting which surfaced a year and a half after the shooting when detectives got the family to unlock Reed’s iPhone. 

In the video, Reed’s uncle could be seen approaching the home as she, her sister, her mother, Kelly Moore, and her grandmother discussed deed documents that Shane wanted his sister to sign.     

In the video, Reed could be heard screaming: ‘He’s coming into the house, goddammit! You son of a b***h! Get out of here!’  

In video, Reed (right), her sister, her mother, Kelly Moore (left), and her grandmother, Lore Moore (center), are discussing deed documents that Shane Moore wanted his sister to sign

The phone continued to record through the panic and confusion until the sound of a gunshot was heard moments later. 

Court documents revealed that Moore suffered a gunshot wound to the chest.  

As the camera becomes covered, the uncle could be heard agonizing in pain in the background. 

‘He wasn’t supposed to be around me!’ Reed yelled, as her family members screamed ‘Jesus’ and ‘Oh God’ in the background. 

While the camera was covered, the phone picked up the sound of Reed becoming ill in a bathroom and sobbing. 

In the background, her mother Kelly Moore told her that Shane Moore was still alive, but bleeding. 

‘He’s not dead?’ Reed asked her mother, then, seeing he was still alive, yelled: ‘F**k!’

She then claimed she only meant to fire a bullet past his ear as a warning shot.

Authorities said the family members unsuccessfully administered CPR on the victim after he was shot. Shane Moore died a short time later. 

In September 2018, in light of the new video footage uncovered by police,  Reed was re-arrested and indicted on the murder charge by a grand jury. 

Reed (pictured in court in January 2019) is currently being held in jail with a trial date set for December

Prosecutors argued that the recording had been hidden from authorities, according to the Tribune. 

During the trial, it emerged  Shane reportedly called 911 and claimed Reed ‘had fired off a gun here this morning’.

He asked for a sheriff’s deputy to be present during his visit to the home to collect the property deed, according to the Tribune.   

Reed’s mother had previously said the shooting was an act of self-defense. 

Reed is known by her pen name, Tucker Reed, under which she co-authored the young adult novel, Amber House, published in 2012 and its sequel, Neverwas, published in 2014

Like Reed, Kelly also testified that her brother, who she claims was addicted to meth, and made death threats before the shooting.

Kelly shared details of him attacking Reed by throwing an oil can at her  through a screen door, which knocked her daughter to the ground. 

In August 2018, Reed filed a civil rights lawsuit claiming that she was ‘trapped into answering questions’ about her uncle’s shooting death. 

Reed said that she was sleep-deprived, malnourished and suffering from withdrawals from a potent prescription medication while being questioned by Medford police and Jackson County sheriff’s detectives following the shooting. 

She initially told detectives that she was physically and mentally unfit to answer their questions. 

Reed said in the lawsuit that she was pressured to make a statement after authorities showed her ‘an inflammatory and shocking document’ and demanded an explanation. 

At the time she didn’t elaborate on what the document contained. However, it was later revealed to be the dispatch log showing shots had been reported fired at the property that day.

The complaint, filed without the formal aid of a lawyer, sought ‘economic damages not to exceed $50,000’.

US Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke denied the complaint, writing that it did ‘not clearly allege that the statements Moore Reed made to the detectives were incriminating, nor is there any allegation that the statements were later used against her in a criminal proceeding’. 

In May 2020, Reed was sentenced to six years and three months in prison, which she is currently serving at Jackson County Jail.