Indiana firefighter arrested for stalking, sending lewd texts
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) A Fort Wayne firefighter has been arrested and charged with stalking a woman for more than 10 months.
Michael T. Moring, 48, faces a single felony charge of stalking following an investigation launched by a Parkview Health Police Department investigator in April 2016. It was then that a woman said she’d been getting texts, as well as photos and videos, sent to her from someone she didn’t know.
The woman said she felt “creeped out” and said she thought the first text might have been a mistake. In a second text, though, the sender referred to the woman by her name, the affidavit said.
“She then started to feel freaked out and scared because she realized the person knew her, but she did not know who it was,” the affidavit said.
In another text, the sender said they’d met and he seemed to think the woman was not in a relationship, the affidavit said. The woman said she felt afraid at that point, the document said.
In subsequent texts, the woman received a picture text of a penis with the question, “Any interest,” and a video of a man masturbating, the affidavit said. In more texts, a man could be seen performing oral sex, and then a dog the same breed as her’s performing oral sex on a woman, the affidavit detailed.
The woman said she felt a “renewed fear” and wondered if she was being followed. The affidavit said the texts indicated the sender knew things about the woman, and as a result, she said she became reclusive and resisted interacting with anybody, the affidavit said.
More texts of lewd behavior followed for weeks later, the affidavit said.
In February 2017, the sender told the woman in a text that “he was the lonely married guy that loves to give oral sex and wanted to see if they could make a connection,” the affidavit said. The texts stopped in mid-February, according to the affidavit.
Police spoke with a woman who said she was familiar with the number the texts were coming from, and she knew the sender to be a Fort Wayne firefighter, the affidavit said. Investigators asked the victim if she knew of any firefighters, and she said she knew one who’d done some lawn work for her and another – Moring – who had done some painting in her home in 2015, the affidavit said.
Another woman told police that she had the number the texts were coming from saved in her phone under ‘Mike Moring,’ the affidavit detailed.
The victim said she never replied to any of the texts she received from the number after February 2017.
The woman said she’d only spend 15 minutes with Moring discussing how she wanted to home painted, the affidavit said. She said she gave Moring access to her home to do the painting, and she wonders if he installed cameras in her home or if he made a second key, the affidavit said.
The woman said she no longer lives at the home.
Fort Wayne Fire Department spokesman Adam O’Connor said the department does employ a firefighter named Michael Moring, and he remains employed with the department. He was not aware of any suspension. O’Connor said there’d have to be “a whole procedural thing” to change Moring’s employment status.
Moring is in custody at Allen County Lockup.