A 20-year-old orphan who was living alone in his dead mom's Long Island home was murdered by his two best friends — because they wanted to use the house as a sex den to sleep with their girlfriends, police said yesterday. The young killers concealed the body of Michael Moore in the basement of the Freeport home, then drove around in his Lincoln Continental, hung out in the house, watched his large-screen TV and partied with their girlfriends, police said.Investigators said the accused murderers, who had never been arrested before, wanted a trysting place because they lived at home with their parents. After the slaying, they also allegedly stole cash and valuables from the house, including a stereo. "This is the ultimate case of identity theft," because it involved murder, said Nassau County Homicide Squad Detective Sgt. Dennis Barry. Moore was working and going to college after his mother Margueritte's death from cancer five years ago.
On Aug. 11, Moore was at his home on Randall Avenue when his pals Antonio Pegues, 22, of Uniondale, and Keith Martin, 20, of Hempstead, allegedly attacked him in the living room. When he was unconscious from the beating, "they strangled him to death," Barry said. Later, when the smell of the hidden corpse became too strong, Pegues and Martin put it into plastic bags and dumped it into the East River, where it was discovered in The Bronx 12 days after the slaying, Barry said.
Sorry if I got your hopes up, folks.