A Bright CIA Light, Snuffed Out Too Soon

Zoë Moulton, a beloved CIA case officer afflicted by ‘Havana Syndrome,’ died at age 50

Zoë Moulton (Facebook, 2017)

She “lit up a room,” a close friend says. “She had the biggest smile. And she had this cute little giggle. And when she would come into any room, all the children would flock to her.”

Zoë Moulton did not, in other words, fit the cinematic stereotype of a glamorous, cynical CIA action figure, but her real job was to recruit foreigners to spy for the United States, among them terrorist financiers and other tough customers.  True, she was movie-worthy blond and pretty, with startling blue eyes, friends said, and excelled at her job, but she was also unusually warm hearted and generous, going out of her way to help others through their emergencies even when she was suffering herself from a rare cancer that cut short her life on April 25, age 50.

On Saturday, July 20, over a hundred friends, family and colleagues gathered at the Northern Virginia home of Moulton’s close friend and former agency colleague, Betsy Woudenberg, to celebrate her life and honor her memory. A steady rain fell outside as four friends delivered eulogies.