CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The man accused of killing his roommate at the Salvation Army shelter this month told police he did it because the man “had a dirty, smelly energy,” according to Clarksville Police.
Corey Allen, 31, of Sevierville, Tennessee, was charged with homicide after allegedly strangling 79-year-old David Moore at the shelter, and then using a wheelchair, pillows and blankets to covertly roll his body into in the laundry room.
Longtime resident and new arrival
At a preliminary hearing Tuesday afternoon, Beverly Harrison, who was the shelter’s kitchen manager and overnight monitor that day, said Allen had just checked in, and she described him as “very talkative, arrogant” on first impression.
Harrison added that Moore had been a “longtime resident” of the Salvation Army shelter, staying there for over nine months.
“He was my friend; he was a gentleman. I saw him every day,” Harrisons said of Moore.
She worked the 1 to 8 a.m. shift that day, and while she was getting the report of the day from a co-worker, Harrison said Allen came in and introduced himself. He had been roomed with Moore.
“He was having a hard time going to sleep I guess,” Harrison said, and added that later in the night, Allen returned to the kitchen area, asking for trash bags and gloves.
“I just gave it to him,” she said.
About 30 to 45 minutes later, Allen returned to the kitchen area with a wheelchair full of what appeared to be pillows and blankets, Harrison said.
“All I saw was linens and pillows on a wheelchair,” Harrison said. She said she didn’t suspect anything abnormal, and she escorted him to the laundry room. She unlocked the door with her master key, and he rolled the wheelchair into the room. She locked the door afterward.
Discovery in laundry room
After the morning breakfast announcement, Harrison caught Allen and another resident smoking at a picnic table. The Salvation Army campus is smoke-free, so she asked them to gather their things and prepare to check out.
Allen returned to his room, but he did not promptly leave, so Harrison went to check on him.
“When I opened the door, I’m thinking, ‘Why haven’t you come back up here if you are going to be dismissed?’ That was in my mind, and he was lying down,” Harrison said. “He was comfortable, he wasn’t asleep, he was just lying there.”
She said Moore’s side of the room had essentially been stripped. Nothing was there but the mattress, and it was “too clean.” Harrison asked Allen where his roommate was, and he replied that no one was there when he checked in.
Harrison said she knew this to be false, since Moore had been staying in that room for over nine months. She escorted Allen to the office.
She said her intuition told her to check the laundry room.
She moved some of the laundry, found plastic underneath and realized that Moore was dead in the wheelchair, covered by the trash bag and linens.
Confession to police
Police Detective Benjamin Goble, lead investigator on the case, testified that Allen described feeling full of anger and rage during dinner at Salvation Army.
“Well, I just killed a man,” Allen said, according to Goble’s account of the interview at CPD headquarters.
When Goble asked why he killed Moore, Allen allegedly said, “Mr. Moore had a dirty, smelly energy.”
Goble described Allen as calm and friendly throughout the interview.
According to Goble, Allen also said he had robbed Moore. Goble said CPD recovered Moore’s bus card, driver’s license, bank cards and Kroger card from Allen’s belongings.
Judge Sharon Massey Grimes bound the case over to the grand jury to consider indictment.