On 29 November 1992, 35-year-old Judy Blake Moilanen was walking through the woods behind her parents' Ontonagon home with her five Springer spaniels. Deer hunting season was winding down and Judy, a hunter herself, had stepped out to enjoy the outdoors at the end of a busy Thanksgiving weekend.

When one of her dogs returned to her parent's house without her, her mother went looking for her. To her horror, she found Judy's body in a lonely path in the woods, shot to death by a single bullet through the heart.

It looked like a hunting accident and that is what investigators initially concluded. However, to Michigan State Police detective sergeant Bob Ball, something didn't seem quite right.