"Almost every day, there was pushing, shoving and being pinned against the wall for the past three months."
Those are some of the many haunting words of a mother of four who returned to her Northampton County, Pa., home Friday morning from dropping her kids off at school, only to find her estranged, live-in boyfriend and accused killer lying in wait with a shotgun in the garage.
Just that Monday, Lisa Menzo-Santoro, 47, finally received the protection from abuse order against her accused killer -- ex-boyfriend Leonard Moser, 45, who took his own life with a shotgun blast to the head after police pulled him over about six miles from the crime scene later the same day as her murder.
In a detailed story, our sister website, LehighValleyLive.com, details the heated arguments and instances of alleged abuse in the days and weeks leading up to the shooting, all drawn from transcripts Related to the protection from abuse filing:
Menzo-Santoro was successful in gaining an emergency protection-from-abuse order from District Judge James Narlesky after police were called twice to her address on Feb. 25. Up until that point, she was unable to get Moser to leave the house where she lived with her four children, and where Moser had been a resident for the last year of their two-year relationship.
But on Feb. 25, they fought and the PFA finally came through soon thereafter, according to LehighValleyLive.com and based on Menzo-Santoro's PFA filing:
The fight began with Moser telling her she was a bad mother, calling her names and refusing to leave the home they shared for about a year during their two-year relationship.
Moser took her car keys and phone during the dispute and when she tried to retrieve them, he pushed her into a bedroom window and broke the shades, she said. Menzo-Santoro said when police arrived at 1:16 p.m., Moser -- he called them the first time -- told officers he was afraid of her and everything that happened was because of her.
Menzo-Santoro called the police again at 3:30 p.m., stating the verbal abuse was getting worse and Moser was in a rage, pushing and shoving her. When she tried to leave, he blocked in the car and said he would call police and say she stole the car.
"I told police I was scared because I had no means to leave and I was being held hostage," Menzo-Santoro stated in PFA filing.
"I am very afraid of him. I am looking over my shoulder. I am afraid he will come back," she wrote of Moser, according to the filing. "He has controlled every aspect of my life. He has tried to cut me off of friends," she wrote.
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Unfortunately, it was just one of several instances she detailed in court records. In another from earlier in the month, he is alleged to have broken her wrist as she drove on Route 22:
On Feb. 10, the couple was headed to the airport for a Florida trip for her teen daughter's cheering competition. Menzo-Santoro said Moser from the passenger seat tried to grab the wheel and steer her into oncoming traffic. He eventually grabbed her wrist and twisted it, causing a fracture, she said.
During the fighting, her vehicle ran someone else off the road, she said.
"As I was trying to fight the wheel back, he grabbed (my) wrist and the steering wheel and my wrist got twisted," she said.
Menzo-Santoro said she feared going to the emergency room for treatment because Moser was with her, and she later told doctors she was hurt in a fall.
Police on Feb. 14 returned to the Saddle Drive home when she was thrown against the wall by Moser with her neck pinned and he was banging her arm against the wall, according to court records.
On Feb. 15, Moser texted her repeatedly and was irate when Menzo-Santoro was at the physician's office getting her wrist into a cast. He later showed up at the doctor's office, telling her to tell nurses that she fell and that's what caused her wrist to break, records said.
Fighting continued in the following days with Menzo-Santoro stating Moser threatened to "post photos and videos of us" on social media and send them to her four children and mother.
"Then, he sends me one of the photos like to prove he has them," she stated. "No words. Just photo -- as a reminder that this is what will happen."
She later alleged that she found a needle and a steroid bottle in the home, as well as two needles folded in his shirts as she was packing up his clothes the night before he ultimately left.
Alas, even the PFA that came on Monday couldn't protect her.
Menzo-Santoro was fatally shot multiple times as she sat in her car inside her home's garage on Friday morning, having just returned from dropping her kids at school.
Police say it was an ambush-style assassination by Moser, who laid in wait with a shotgun. She never had a chance.
Menzo-Santoro leaves behind four children -- one in college, one in high school and two in elementary grades. Thankfully, they were all in school at the time of the shooting.
