SPOKANE — The family of the Bonners Ferry chiropractor who was shot and killed nearly three years ago is offering a $10,000 reward for information on the circumstances surrounding his death.
The reward comes as the family of Brian Drake, 45, continues a wrongful death lawsuit against Daniel L. Moore, the man previously accused of killing Drake.
Drake was shot and killed on March 12, 2020 at his Bonners Ferry office. Fellow chiropractor Moore was arrested in August of that year and charged with second-degree murder. Police alleged Moore killed Drake for poaching his clients, according to court documents.
Moore was charged after giving an apparent confession to investigators during an hours-long interview. A district court judge, however, threw out the confession and then dismissed the criminal charges. The judge ruled the confession had been coerced after Moore requested an attorney multiple times.
The Idaho Attorney General’s Office appealed the judge’s decision all the way to the Idaho State Supreme Court, which overturned and upheld various parts of the dismissal, ruling in an opinion last summer.
The decision, handed down in September, upheld that Moore’s Miranda rights had been violated and that the confession was inadmissible. Prosecutors had relied heavily on the tainted confession in the preliminary hearing to prove probable cause.
However, the Idaho Supreme Court disagreed that the confession was coerced and involuntary. If prosecutors refiled the case, and Moore’s testimony at trial contradicted what he said in the confession, he would perjure himself.
As of Wednesday afternoon, charges had not been refiled against Moore.
Still, Jennifer Drake is “100%” certain that Moore killed her husband. Drake filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Moore, which is set to go to trial this fall.
She hopes the reward, provided by a family friend, will encourage people to come forward with more information about the night her husband was killed that could bolster her case.
“I believe that somebody knows something, and I am hoping they will come forward,” Drake said in an interview. “This is just prompting a good person to do the right thing.”
