A Husband Tries Murder, Insurance Fraud, and a Little Forgery
(‘Hunter or Hunted?’ Forensic Files)
Forensic Files has introduced us to many a dimwitted killer.
There was Ron Gillette, who sent out invitations to his second wedding while still married to his first wife.
Creative effort. And let’s not forget Ronnie Joe Neal, who told police he just happened to find his victim’s Cadillac with all her valuables inside and the keys in the ignition.
Well, Bruce Moilanen was none-too-bright either, but he went even bigger than stupid: He was a buffoon.
Maybe he deserved a little credit because his ploy to win the affections of his late wife’s friend was original, but it was laughable just the same and investigators saw through it immediately.
That one, really? Bruce also did some more-typical dumb criminal stuff, like trying to make a premeditated murder look like a hunting accident (Janice Dodson).
And like Forensic Files killers Brenda Andrew and George Hansen, Bruce never imagined investigators would look into previous near-deadly “accidents” that befell the victim.
For this week, I searched for some background on Judy and Bruce Moilanen and checked on where he is today.
So let’s get going on the recap of Forensic Files episode “Hunter or Hunted?” along with extra intelligence from internet research:
Minutiae machine. Judy Diane Blake was born to a conservative, outdoorsy family in Hancock, Michigan, on Oct. 16, 1957. She had two brothers, Jerry and David. The Blakes belonged to the Redeemer Free Lutheran Church, and Judy’s parents, Mary Ann and Dale, operated a business called Dale’s Service, according to FindaGrave.
In 1976, Judy met Bruce Moilanen, who came into the world on March 29, 1954, the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Moilanen.
Thanks to the Iron Daily Globe, a newspaper that pretty much documented every time a local changed his or her vacuum-cleaner bag, some anecdotal intelligence about Bruce popped up.
Finn folk. He received an appendectomy in 1959, his confirmation in the Apostolic Lutheran Church in 1969, and a number of traffic citations, including two for speeding and one for improper overtaking, in the early 1970s. He sustained minor injuries both as a passenger in an accident in 1974 and as a driver when he lost control of his own vehicle in 1976.
Like many residents of Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, the 6-foot-tall Bruce had Finnish ancestry. At some point, he worked as a support staff person at General Hospital in Marquette, Michigan. Forensic Files gives his job title as insurance adjustor.
As for Judy’s occupation, a Battle Creek Enquirer item identified her as a nurse at the same hospital.
The couple married in 1978. According to American Justice, Judy’s parents didn’t entirely approve of the union. Perhaps the loudmouthed Bruce seemed too different from their quiet daughter. Or maybe they read about the speeding tickets in the IDG.
Chasing big bucks. Judy and Bruce stayed in the Upper Peninsula. In 1989, they had a daughter named Elise. By this time, the Blakes had taken more of a liking to their son-in-law.
Everything seemed fine until November 29, 1992, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when Judy, Bruce, and Elise were visiting the Blakes.
It was the last day of hunting season and a large party, including Bruce and some of the Blakes, went out looking for deer.
Separately, Judy Moilanen took a group of her own Springer spaniels plus her parents’ dog, Streak, for a walk in the woods behind the property the Blakes owned on Highway 38 in Ontonagon.
Worst case scenario. Although Forensic Files says that all the dogs returned home without Judy, the book The Sweater Letter by Dave and Lynn Distel maintains that only Streak came home alone.
When two and half hours passed with no sign of Judy, family members got worried that she was on a fool’s errand searching for Streak.
Mary Ann and a family friend found the dogs by themselves in the woods. Farther out, they saw Judy lying motionless on her side.
When they turned her on her back, they saw a bloody chest wound, and Mary Ann screamed, according to the The Sweater Letter.
Part of a trend? The bullet had traveled through Judy’s heart, exited her body, and landed somewhere in the woods. Investigators couldn’t find it at first.
In the meantime, the authorities took the scene at face value as an accident, believing that an unknown hunter’s errant bullet killed Judy.
In fact, an Associated Press article titled “Carelessness, hunters equal a deadly season” pointed to Judy’s death as one of many accidental deer season tragedies around the country in 1992:
“Judy Moilanen, 35, was walking her dogs last weekend in a wooded area frequented by hunters when she was struck by a bullet. She was the fourth hunting-related fatality in Michigan this season.“
Local color. But detective Bob Ball didn’t buy it. He felt uneasy about the way Bruce Moilanen behaved, according to both Forensic Files and American Justice.
Bruce seemed to blame Judy for her own death because she didn’t wear an orange jacket.
And Bruce didn’t observe much of a mourning period. Within a couple of weeks of Judy’s death, he was gallivanting around on ski trips, and he tried to pick up Judy’s longtime friend Lee Anne Wysocki Jessop, according to her Forensic Files interview.
But Bruce seemed to have even more interest in another woman, the happily married Gayle Lampinen, 35. He had started hitting on her before Judy died. According to American Justice, Gayle considered him irritating and “kept ignoring him” and “hoped he’d go away.”
Odd present. After his wife’s death, Bruce reportedly bragged to Gayle that he’d soon have a financial windfall thanks to Judy’s life insurance policies, which would total $330,000 because of double indemnity clauses.
Gayle and Judy had met each other, but they weren’t close friends. So it seemed strange when Bruce presented her with boxes of Judy’s old clothes as a keepsake gift.
Mixed in with some second-hand sweaters, Gayle found a letter — supposedly written to her by Judy — that said her marriage to Bruce wasn’t working.
“After 14 years, we don’t see things the same anymore,” the note explained. “You are the only woman he trusts.”
Ya’ gotta be kidding. It also said that Bruce needed a new girlfriend.
And in an attempt to entice Gayle that redefined the word “buffoon,” the writer ended the letter by noting that Bruce “is incredible in the sack.”
Oh, for goodness sake.
Handwriting analysis showed that the writing was slow and deliberate like that of a forger, and ultimately determined that Bruce, not Judy, had written the letter.
Meanwhile, investigators found out that in 1991, an 85-pound chimney block “accidentally” slid off a roof where Bruce was working and hit Judy’s head. She got medical treatment and survived.
Hunting buddies. After the brick incident, the Moilanens’ house caught on fire. Judy escaped unharmed.
As for the completed murder of Judy in the woods, Bruce immediately named more than two dozen people as alibi witnesses. But they couldn’t say exactly where he was during a window of time around Judy’s death.
Police found one witness who saw Bruce hunting alone near the scene of the shooting.
Investigators believed that Bruce hid in the woods and shot Judy.
When a diligent investigator finally located the fatal bullet on the forest floor, Bruce said he didn’t own a .30 caliber rifle that could fire it, but detectives found some of Bruce’s paperwork listing such a gun as collateral on a bank loan.
Suspect cracks wide open. By this time, detectives had ascertained that Gayle Lampinen had no romantic interest in Bruce whatsoever regardless of how great his sexual prowess was or wasn’t.
When the police broke the news to Bruce that his silly device had failed and Gayle considered him little more than a nuisance, it crushed his ego and he confessed.
Judy was a tyrant at work and at home and a bad cook, Bruce claimed.
He said that on the fatal day in the woods, the first two times he spotted Judy through the trees, he aimed his gun but couldn’t bring himself to shoot. The third time, he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, delivering the deadly wound.
Police pressure. Bruce also said Judy had threatened to divorce him and he didn’t want to split everything.
“That was Bruce’s downfall — he was cheap,” Bob Ball said.
Bruce was arrested and charged with premeditated murder. He pleaded not guilty and said cops coerced the confession from him. He tried to hide his face behind some papers on his way into the Ontonagon courthouse.
To prepare for the trial, investigators had re-created the chimney block incident. Bruce had said that he accidentally moved it with his foot, but they determined it was too heavy and needed a deliberate push in order to fall off the roof.
Weepy woe. Fortunately, prosecutor Beth Paczesny, just 26 years old and new to criminal trials, had plenty of other witnesses to help sway the jury, too.
During Gayle Lampinen’s testimony, Bruce reportedly began crying.
The defense didn’t have a single person to put on the stand. Bruce’s lawyer, the seasoned Thomas Casselman, claimed that all of his witnesses canceled because of fear. He portrayed the investigation as a witch hunt.
Casselman pressed the false-confession claim. “Those of you who are combat veterans or prisoners of war might understand,” he offered.
Foreman not fooled. When the jury came back with a guilty verdict on Dec. 15, 1993, Judy’s parents — who initially supported Bruce — hugged. Some in attendance cried.
Jury foreman Jeff Vlahos, who later appeared on American Justice, seemed just as amused as everyone else by the “incredible in the sack” aside. He said he couldn’t imagine a grown woman writing something like that.
On Jan. 21, 1994, Bruce received a sentence of life without parole.
Judy’s brother and sister-in-law, David and Yvonne Blake, adopted 5-year-old Elise.
Too many roomies. Bruce went off to prison, but has made some attempts to get out on two feet, including an unsuccessful 1996 appeal claiming police shouldn’t have interrogated him without counsel.
Some disagreeable experiences have allegedly befallen Bruce while behind razor wire.
During his time at E.C. Brooks Correctional Facility, he claimed an employee retaliated against him for filing a grievance by moving him from a two-prisoner cell to a seven-man open dorm area, which caused mental stress and sleep deprivation. He also implied that staff members damaged his word processor and cassette player.
If I understand the court papers correctly, Bruce actually got some of these employees dismissed in 2011.
But he didn’t win freedom for himself.
‘Volumes’ of info. Today, Bruce is better known as inmate #235252 in Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan, at security level II. He has no chance at parole.
Gayle Lampinen, the woman he found so captivating, appears to still live in the Upper Peninsula and participate in equestrian events.
If you’d like to know more about the case, you can find the book The Sweater Letter, later retitled Hunt to Kill, on Amazon.
It’ll cost you. “The Deer Hunting Murder,” the American Justice episode about the homicide, is available online but tricky to access. I ended up having to pay $4.99 for an A&E Crime Central subscription to watch it on Amazon, even though I have Prime.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
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