Slain Henderson County woman's daughter said mother had been trying to help suspect
HENDERSONVILLE - The daughter of an 82-year-old woman who was found dead in her Clear Creek Community home earlier this month gave more details about her mother's life and death in a recent interview with the Times-News.
The Henderson County Sheriff's Office first reported finding Patricia Moniz dead in her home on Regency Loop Drive in the northern part of the county in the early morning hours of July 6 and charged Amber Nelson, 35, with felony murder and felony larceny of a motor vehicle later that same day.
Hendersonville's Rebecca White, Moniz's daughter, said the family realized her mother was missing on July 5, the day after her mother's birthday. Calls to her mother's house were going unanswered and no one had seen or heard from her in more than 24 hours, White said. So she called 911.
"They put a silver alert out, and family and friends went looking for her," White said.
Later that evening, White said she and her husband went inside her mother's house and found her dead. According to the incident report from the Henderson County Sheriff's Office, the weapon used on Moniz was "a knife/cutting instrument."
White said she believed Nelson had been homeless.
"We found out she was staying with my mom that night to get a shower and stay until the next day when friends from church were going to drive her to a rehab center near Charlotte. My mom would’ve driven her there I know, but due to a restricted license couldn’t drive on highways," White said.
Nelson is being held in the Henderson County Detention Center without bond. Her next scheduled court proceeding is July 25. Nelson's attorney, Will Sullivan, with the Henderson County Public Defender's Office, declined to comment on the case.
'Loving, doting grandma'
The family held a funeral for Moniz at Hendersonville Seventh-Day Adventist Church on July 16. Still in shock and mourning, White told the Times-News more about her mother on July 20.
"My mom was born and raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She lived there until she was 50 years old and moved to Hendersonville a month before her first granddaughter, Brittany Walters, was born. Her second granddaughter, Heather White, was born in 1994. Her granddaughters brought her so much joy and she was a loving, doting grandma and was so very proud of them," White said.
White said she was Moniz's only child.
"She raised me as a single mother. She was the hardest-working person I know. She worked several side jobs to support us and keep me in a private Christian school," White said. "She sacrificed everything to give me opportunities she never had. I will love her and forever be grateful for the mother God gave me."
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"She loved the Lord with all her heart and used all her talents, money and time to help people in her church and community. For years she organized and ran the Angel Tree ministry in her church, which gives gifts to local children of inmates for Christmas," White said.
Moniz had three siblings, Janet Hatcher, Barbara Carreau, Richard Moniz and sister-in-law, Palmiria Moniz. She also has three step-siblings: Virginia Lindahl, John Fonseca and the late Jim Fonseca. White said her mother was an active member of Hendersonville Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
"She’d wrap and deliver them all the gifts and loved seeing the joy it brought to the children and their families. For years, She was a sponsor for the prison ministry in her church. She’d take women from the Swannanoa's correctional facility to do errands, shop or just out to eat. She had a passion to help them and would save and find household items, clothes, etc. to help get them settled when they would be released."
White said although her mother didn't have much money, she loved going overseas on mission trips.
"She loved adventure and traveling and although she had little money for extras, she was able to go on three mission trips that were the highlight of her life. She went to Mexico, Ecuador and Africa," she said.
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White said her mother also loved painting, wallpapering and any type of yard work.
"Years ago the Upward SDA church’s gym needed painting and she did it all herself. She’d visit family and insist on washing their windows, pulling weeds or doing whatever needed to be done. At 81, she was still mowing friends' yards, pulling weeds, chopping down shrubs and small trees, using her small chainsaw much to the chagrin of her family," White said. "She loved to be outside and working hard and did it for them and not for money. She volunteered her time to others all her life, and it just increased after her retirement from Walmart.
"She had to be a patient at the Life Care Center after surgery once, and when she recovered she would go back there once a week to help out in their ice cream shop. My mom's joy in life came from being of service to others and sharing God’s love with them. She left a great legacy of love that we all should try to emulate."
Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at DHensley@gannett.com. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Daughter of slain 82-year-old Henderson County woman tells her story
