Lori Kim Moon was born on July 2, 1963 in Frankfurt, Germany where her father was working at the time for Raytheon Corporation, a company that produces everything from missiles to microwaves.  Lori descended from Virginia Carolina Stonecipher of Morgan County, Tennessee.

Lori during her tenure with the Oklahoma Courts

When Lori was only three weeks old her family returned home to Owasso, Oklahoma.  Through all her public school education, she was an excellent student.  During her years at Owasso High School, she excelled in many areas.  She was the co-editor of the yearbook two different years at Owasso High, and was a member of the All State Orchestra her senior year.  She graduated in 1981.  For the next four years, Lori pursued a Bachelor’s Degree at The University of Tulsa, and graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor’s in Management of Information Systems (MIS).  She was married that same year to John Robert Kastner.  For about the next three years, Lori worked for PennWell Publishing, a business-to-business media company, which publishes books, maps, directories, and a number of business magazines.  Her real dream though was to pursue a degree in law, and she applied to the University of Tulsa College of Law.  She was awarded a Full-tuition Academic Scholarship to the school of Law.

Lori Kim Moon at The University of Tulsa while earning her Bachelor’s Degree

Lori while pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree

I quote from Tulsa World Obituaries, “Lori earned many academic and leadership awards while in law school, including the highest grade award in three classes – Administrative Law, Civil Procedure I, and Taxation of Estates, Trusts, and Gifts.  She received the Martin-Fellows-Smith Award for scholarship standing and leadership qualities.  Lori served as the articles editor for the Energy Law Journal and was president of the TU Women’s Law Caucus.  She earned her Juris Doctorate degree in 1992, and graduated with honors in the top 10 percent of her class, receiving the Order of the Curule Chair, the highest honor conferred on a member of the graduating class by the TU law school.”  For the next three years, Lori was employed in various law firms in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Then, in November of 1995, she became an Assistant Appellate Court Justice in the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals.  She held that position until 2005 when she became the Judicial Assistant to Justice Tom Colbert of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

During this time, Lori and her husband John had two children, and John was a teacher and coach at Daniel Webster High School in Tulsa.  In early 2007, they had adopted another child.  By early 2008, Lori had left her position with the Oklahoma Supreme Court because the entire family was going to relocate to Israel.  She had told fellow employees that John had previously been a part of the Israeli Special Forces and now was to administer a charitable group in Israel known as the 713 Corporation.  She and the children had all acquired passports and had packed all their belongings to take with them.  They were due to leave on a private jet on June 25, 2008.

At about 4:00 a.m. on June 25, 2008 John Robert Kastner called 911 to tell them that an intruder had broken in to the Kastner home and shot his wife twice in the head, and then shot him in the hand while they struggled for the gun.  He told them the gun was his and had been on a table in a front room.  By the time John Kastner was having his hand treated at the hospital, his story had morphed into something else.  Each subsequent telling was a different variation.  On June 27, 2008, Kastner was arrested and charged with first degree murder.

It was not until September of 2010 that John Robert Kastner was tried for the charge of First Degree Murder, but what came out in court was a horrific story of the collapse of a kaleidoscope of lies.  The lies had begun with his stories to his wife and co-workers about having served with the Israeli Special Forces, and had been amplified over time to the point of specifics.  Then, he had convinced everyone of the reality of an Israeli charitable organization that he was to administer and his wife was to be employed by at a large salary.  Eight days before the departure date, Kastner had bought a .22 pistol and was planning the murder as his only solution to save face, because his story was imploding.  His loving wife had believed his lies and her death was viewed as his only way out of the incredible mess he had made of things.  On September 21, 2010, the case was turned over to the jury.  It took the assembled jury only a few short minutes to find John Robert Kastner guilty of First Degree Murder.  He was then sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Because of the fabricated world of a pathological liar, three children have lost a mother and a father.  A family has lost a daughter and a sister.  The world will never know what this intelligent, dedicated, lovingly devoted woman could have accomplished had she not been murdered in a most horrible manner.

The research for this little biography fell into place so easily that it should have been very easy to write.  However, it was one of the hardest things I have ever written.  I backed away from it several times, and then decided her story needed to be told.  May this help people to remember Lori Kim Moon.  And if I remember John Robert Kastner it will be the same way I remember Luis Arroyo, who murdered a close family friend.  I just check periodically to see that he is still confined to prison.

I’ll see you on down the road, and I hope future ramblings are not so disturbing.

Uncle Thereisno Justice