Dateline: Someone Was Waiting - A complete timeline of Anna Moses' homicide, revisited

Dateline has always revisited cases that leave audiences shaking, and "Someone Was Waiting" is one of those episodes that stays with you. And just like that, the story of Anna Moses, a Russian mother and a University of Texas at Dallas administrator, is not just another tragic headline.

Her death in 2015 opened up like a puzzle that the detectives slowly pieced together piece by piece. So, what really happened to Anna?

Let's revisit the full timeline of her homicide.

Dateline: Someone Was Waiting - A complete timeline of Anna Moses' homicide, revisited

A normal evening takes a deadly turn:

According to Dateline, on January 13, 2015, Anna Moses finished up her day like any other. She stopped for Taco Bell on her way home, a detail prosecutors later used to mark her final location.

The bullets found in the garage of Anna Moses. (Image Via. Dateline NBC, YouTube)

But when she didn't show up for a date with her boyfriend and failed to reach work the next morning, concerns about her whereabouts spread quickly. Friends described Anna as reliable, never the kind to vanish in thin air without a single word.

Police soon arrived at her home for a welfare check. What they found there was horrifying. Anna lay dead on the garage floor, coat still on, with her mail found beside her.

She had been shot six times: once in the throat, twice in the chest, and three times in the back. A seventh bullet was found on her clothing. The police then recovered 11 shell casings.

Forensics later revealed the shots suggested perfect shooting, not something that had been done out of randomness. This wasn't a robbery gone wrong; someone had indeed been waiting for her.

Uncovering the hidden struggles:

While her colleagues at the university remembered Anna as being dedicated, her private life had a darker story to tell. Her ex-husband, Robert Moses, was a constant presence she hadn't been able to leave behind.

A locked box found after her death contained a letter Anna had written to her attorney in Russian. According to Dateline, in it, she described Robert's threats and how he told her he would harm himself and hinted at bringing her screts out into the open.

This is what painted a chilling difference to the image many had of their relationship after the divorce. Robert, once in the U.S. Air Force, owned several firearms, a fact that immediately caught the attention of the detectives.

The investigation had now been shifted to focus from unknown shooters to someone who knew Anna.

The trail of evidence against Robert Moses:

The search for Anna's missing car provided a major breakthrough. Dateline mentions that the 2009 Hyundai was found standing a few blocks away from her home. Inside, investigators found blood on the driver's seat and a simple DNA test confirmed it belonged to Robert Moses.

A still from the Episode Trailer: Someone Was Waiting | (Image Via: Dateline NBC, YouTube)

When questioned the next day, Robert claimed he couldn't remember where he had been the night Anna was shot. Officers also noted a cut on his hand, bandaged, which matched the injury they believed happened during the killing.

The trail of eveidence didn't end there. A CCTV had also caught Robert loading boxes into his vehicle at his old residence. When officers pulled him over for a traffic violation, they found several gun magazines in his trunk.

According to an affidavit cited by Star Local Media, the magazines matched the caliber of bullets that ended Anna's life. The pieces were coming together, and Robert Moses was finally arrested.

The trial and conviction:

Opening arguments started off in October 2016, with prosecutors describing Anna's death as a planned and targeted killing. They pointed to Robert's increasing debts and history of controlling behavior as motive.

Evidence about domestic violence from 2013 was also brought up, showing a pattern of threats that prosecutors believed Anna had suffered for years.

The courtroom heard from Anna's colleagues and friends, but the most surprising testimony came from her son Igor, who had been adopted by Robert. His calmness and his decision to testify in defense of Robert caught many off guard.

Still, the physical evidence, from the blood in Anna's car to Robert's hand injury, to the letter Anna had written, all proved to be too strong. A Collin County jury found Robert Moses guilty of murder, sentencing him to life in prison.

Remembering Anna Moses:

Apart from the crime, Anna Moses was now remembered as someone who was more than just a murder victim. Born in Kazakhstan, she moved to the US in the late 1990s and she got herself a degree in economics and built a life for herself at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Anna Moses. (Image Via. Dateline NBC, YouTube)

Friends and colleagues talked about her as a warm and dedicated person, someone who always wore a smile and her obituary highlighted her love for her son Igor.

Dateline's "Someone Was Waiting" revisits the Anna Moses homicide with chilling clarity.

The episode lays the hidden fears, the carefully constructed mask of normalcy, and the violence that shattered Anna's life.

What started off as a mystery in a garage ended with a verdict that confirmed what investigators suspected all along: Anna Moses was the target of a planned attack.