EXCLUSIVE: Wilmington Shooting Victim's First Husband, Neighbors Speak Out
By Robin Rieger and Elizabeth Hur
NEWARK, Del. (CBS) -- Christine Belford's girls were her life. She lived everyday to provide for them and make sure they were safe and comfortable.
William Moffa says his ex-wife, Belford, of Newark, is one of the women killed in the New Castle County Courthouse shooting in Wilmington on Monday morning. The two have a 17-year-old daughter together and a granddaughter.
"She was the best mother anybody could ask for," says Moffa.
And despite a divorce in the mid 90s, he says they were friends. But he also says that wasn't the case with Belford's second ex-husband, who he says had a long standing dispute over their three daughters that was expected to be discussed in court Monday.
"It was a custody hearing, but I'm not sure, because they had taken his rights away from him," Moffa explains.
He adds Belford was fearful of going to court this morning.
"She was terrified, that's all she's been talking about the last couple days, you know, was that he was back in Delaware and he was going to be there, and she did not want to see him," Moffa says.
Moffa, Belford's first husband, also says his daughter was worried about her mother's court appearance as well, and when word of the shooting broke, her worst fears came true.
"She called me this morning and said, 'I think something happened to Mom.' And I hadn't heard anything yet and said, 'Why?' and she said there was a shooting at the courthouse and it said the man shot his estranged wife and her friend, and he was killed himself," Moffa says.
Meanwhile, Belford's neighbors also reacted to the news of the shooting.
"I feel so sorry for them," says Lois Dawson, a neighbor and friend who knows how afraid Belford was of her second ex-husband.
"I'm telling you, she was very concerned. She's had all the windows changed, she's got special locks, she's got cameras around the house…" Dawson says.
And, back in March of 2009, I interviewed a relieved Christine Belford, who had just been reunited with her three girls after her ex-husband had taken them out of the country.
"I felt terrible; I was afraid I'd never see them again," Belford says in a clip from that interview.
