Russell Thomas Moore
Not found on the Florida Department of Corrections’s published list of deaths in custody.
Russell Moore was born in Fitzroy North, Melbourne, in 1963, and was taken from his birth mother as a baby during the stolen generations and raised in the United States. He reconnected with his Wemba-Wemba heritage later in life, and friends and family remember his large brown eyes, his love of letter writing, and his longing for a life on the Murray River. He died in June 2021, aged 58, at Apalachee Correctional Institution in Florida, where he had been held for more than 30 years; his US lawyer, Richard Bourke, said he died after a medical emergency. His body was returned to Australia and he was buried at Swan Hill beside his birth mother, and more than 100 people attended his funeral. Earlier applications to transfer him back to Australia were denied in 2007 and 2012, and a third was delayed by the pandemic.
Cause of death, as reported: Died of illness. His US lawyer, Richard Bourke, said he died after a medical emergency at Apalachee Correctional Institution.
Reported by: Richard Bourke, his US lawyer (family or their lawyers).