In a harrowing turn of events that began on New Year's Day in 2021, Brodrick Moore, a 40-year-old male, was discovered deceased in Memphis, Tennessee. His death marked the city's first homicide of the new year. The investigation into his death quickly revealed a sinister plot of kidnapping and murder.
The tragic story began to unfold on January 1, 2021, when Moore was last seen in his hometown of Greenwood, Mississippi.
Later that day, he contacted his wife, instructing her to gather a large sum of money and marijuana to be left in a trash bag by a dumpster at a gas station on South Mendenhall in Memphis. His wife complied with the demand, and upon her arrival at the location, she was approached by a man who told her to wait at a nearby fast-food restaurant for her husband to contact her. That contact never came. During one of the calls with her husband, she reportedly heard the voice of a man she knew in the background.
On January 2, 2021, workers at a vacant home on Flowering Peach Drive in southeast Memphis made a gruesome discovery: the body of Brodrick Moore. He had been bound with duct tape and had suffered two gunshot wounds to the head. The location of the discovery was approximately half a mile from where his wife had been instructed to drop the ransom.
Investigators utilized surveillance footage which ultimately led them to a suspect, Alfonzo Buford, a 44-year-old man who was an acquaintance of both Moore and his wife. Upon questioning, Buford provided inconsistent statements to the police and denied any involvement in Moore's death. Despite his denials, he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping. In June 2022, a Shelby County Grand Jury indicted Buford on charges of first-degree murder, murder in the perpetration of aggravated kidnapping, especially aggravated kidnapping involving ransom, and especially aggravated kidnapping involving serious bodily injury. Following the indictment, Buford was released on a $300,000 bond.
