A 65-year-old Florida woman was stabbed to death while shopping for Christmas gifts inside a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Palm Beach Gardens just days before Christmas, according to police and court records, in an apparently random attack that received limited attention beyond local and a small number of national outlets.
Police say Rita Loncharich was inside the Barnes & Noble at 11380 Legacy Avenue on the evening of December 22 when she was attacked without warning. Officers responded to a report of a stabbing around 7:53 p.m. and found Loncharich inside the store suffering from a stab wound. She was transported to a local hospital, where she later died from her injuries.
The suspect, Antonio R. Moore, 40, fled the store on foot but was located and taken into custody several hours later, according to police. Jail records show Moore was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail around 5:30 a.m. the following morning and is being held without bond on a charge of first-degree murder.
According to an affidavit cited by investigators, Moore admitted to the stabbing and told police he had no prior interaction with Loncharich. He instead blamed a psychotic “internal buildup,” saying he selected “the closest person in the store,” investigators said in an affidavit.
Police have not publicly released details of Moore’s criminal history. According to CBS12, Loncharich’s husband said police told him the suspect was mentally ill and had been living in the woods after arriving in Florida by bus roughly a week earlier. CBS12 reported authorities were still working to independently confirm those details at the time of publication.
The killing was reported by local outlets including WPTV and CBS12, as well as by the New York Post and USA Today. However, only some outlets reported police statements citing mental illness and transience, and neither the Dallas Morning News, which is now under New York–based ownership, nor the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, owned by New Jersey–based McClatchy, published a standalone report on the killing as of publication.
Barnes & Noble declined to comment on the incident, citing the ongoing investigation. Palm Beach Gardens Police have not released a motive. Moore is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
