Third LCSO employee dies from COVID in less than a month

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office has announced the death of a third employee from COVID-19.

Corrections deputy William Diaz died on Tuesday. Steven Mazzotta, also a corrections deputy died, on Aug. 16.

On Wednesday, Sheriff Carmine Marceno announced the death of Wyvett Moore, a civil process server, who joined the agency in 2014.

Moore began her career with LCSO as a civilian corrections clerk and was promoted to training officer in 2018. She became a civil process server a few months ago, Marceno said.

“I am told by her coworkers and supervisors that Moore truly loved her job and everyone she worked with,” Marceno said. “She was incredibly family-oriented and always had a smile on her face.”

Moore’s daughter Gerriahya also works at LCSO in the warrants division.

Marceno asked the community to keep Moore’s family in their thoughts.

“My heart goes out to Moore’s family and all the agency members who are mourning her passing,” Marceno said. “Memorial services are currently being planned with the family. They will be announced at a later date”

Marceno said he has employees who are in quarantine and employees in the hospital as well.

“To sit here and say we have three employees in the past week and a half, it’s devastating,” Marceno said. “It really is.”

“We see people recovering and then out of nowhere the decline is immediate and that’s what’s happened here,” Marceno said. “So, again 29 years old, 41 years old, 53 years old. These family members have their whole lives ahead of them and they’ve paid the ultimate sacrifice. They are heroes.”

After Diaz’s death on Tuesday, Marceno, who is vaccinated, urged his employees to get vaccinated.

Marceno said he will not institute a mandate to get vaccinated.

WINK News asked Marceno if having people in the hospital and in quarantine affects his office’s ability to serve. He said it is challenging but his deputies can handle it.