Just more than one year after Anastasia's murder (early January 1999), Byron Case was committed to the Western Missouri Mental Health Center for observation following Kelly Moffet's emergency call that he was suicidal. He was held for 24 hours and then released.

In Byron Case's description of the incident,¹ he stated that he believed it was merely retaliation by Kelly, and that he was only held because Kelly would not give permission to release him. Case opined that her call was possibly in response to his refusal to get back together after a breakup, and was at the least a bogus charge designed to hurt him.

In Kelly Moffett's telling of the same situation,² she asserted that Case was crying, acting very depressed, and talking in detail how he planned to kill himself. She said that he demanded that she come over, and she refused, saying she was going to call 911 instead. He hung up on her and she called 911 to report the possible suicide attempt. She also stated that she later spoke with his mother, Evelyn Case, who accepted Moffett's explanation of his threats.

A spokesman from Western Missouri Mental Health confirmed that an individual cannot be committed for observation solely upon the word of another individual; they will respond to such calls only if the reporting individual identifies themselves, and only if the individual being reported actually displays bizarre, threatening, or otherwise dangerous behavior. They cannot hold an individual without a court order for longer than 48 hours, but that does not depend upon "permission" from anyone else if the patient is 18 or older. Moreover, any fraudulent call to 911, causing an unnecessary emergency response, could be treated as a criminal offense, subject both to prosecution and private litigation.

It is interesting to note the timing of this event. Case had appeared in Clay County, Missouri Court December 30, 1998, and had been sentenced to five years probation in lieu of a six-month prison sentence on a charge of Felony Stealing.³ As he wrote in his online diary a number of times how miserable probation was, it is possible that this was the trigger event for his suicidal depression. It is also noteworthy that Kelly Moffett broke up with Byron Case at this same time period, yet another possible trigger for such threats of suicide.⁴

Byron Case was held for 24 hours by Western Missouri, indicating a real concern on the part of resident psychologists, and he did not charge Kelly Moffett with making any sort of fraudulent emergency call, so it must be assumed that his suicide threat was considered real, contrary to his testimony in court.