‘Accident, Suicide or Murder’: Was a Woman’s Death a Hunting Mishap, or Murder? [Exclusive Clip] 

A Michigan woman heads out to walk her dogs, but she never returns home alive. At first, it looks like she’s the victim of a tragic hunting accident. But as police examine the case, details emerge that suggest something more sinister is going on, as seen in this clip from the Nov. 30 episode of Oxygen True Crime’s Accident, Suicide or Murder. 

Was Judy Moilanen’s death the result of a hunting accident, or was it murder?

One day in November 1992, Judy Moilanen took her dogs for a walk. It was deer hunting season in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. So when Judy was found dead later, it seemed that she might have found herself on the wrong end of a confused hunter’s rifle.

“Judy had a habit, like when she was at her parents’ house, she would walk the dogs in the area behind their house,” explains Beth Lacrosse, a former prosecutor for Ontonagon County in the clip. “But it was the last few days of hunting season.”

Because it was open season on deer, Judy likely wouldn’t have been the only person wandering in the woods. 

“Hunting season is a big thing up here,” explains one man. “There was tons of hunting camps throughout our county, mainly just for deer hunting.”

Judy’s death didn’t look like a typical hunting accident 

Judy’s death occurred at the tail end of hunting season. 

“The rifle season starts on the 15th of November and it goes to the 30th of November,” another official shares. “And there’s a lot of hunters in the field toward the end of the hunting season, trying to cash in on shooting a deer before the season ends on the 30th of the month. Judy was shot on the 29th of November.”

But to those in the know, there were reasons to suspect that Judy’s death was not what it initially seemed. 

“There are accidents, but the accidents typically are not fatal and they’re usually easily explained,” says George Trick, a retired news anchor with WLUC-TV. “Murders are extremely rare in that part of the UP.”      

If Judy wasn’t killed in an accident, was it possible that someone deliberately pulled the trigger? As police investigate, they discover a “a shocking truth that shakes the peaceful existence of a small, tight-knit village.” In the end, the truth about Judy’s death will leave everyone involved stunned. 

Accident, Suicide or Murder airs Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Oxygen True Crime. 

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