A man has been charged in connection with the murder of an 80-year-old woman who was found dead in a suitcase in Oregon.
Michael Darwin Moody was arrested and charged with murder in the second degree and additional offenses on Feb. 20, after authorities “gathered evidence establishing probable cause” in the case, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office (MSCO) said in a press release.
His arrest and subsequent charging were tied to a homicide investigation that kicked off after the body of Judy Hurley was found in a suitcase on the west bank of the Willamette River in Sauvie Island days earlier on Feb. 17, per police.
Moody was also charged with abuse of a corpse, local news outlet KPTV reported.
MSCO deputies responded to reports of “a body found inside a suitcase” by the Willamette River on Feb 17. The victim was later identified as Hurley, 80, by couple Leslie Ortiz and Justin Misner, according to KPTV.
The pair told the outlet they met Hurley last spring to discuss their interest in purchasing her home on North Syracuse Street in Portland. They claimed that Hurley was “bedridden” at the time and alleged that people were living in her home “without her permission and stealing from her.”
“Judy was in a pretty bad spot. People would come to the house and essentially use it as a base of operations to commit crimes. She didn’t even know who was living there,” Misner told KPTV.
According to the man, he and Ortiz “grew really attached” to Hurley and “helped her move out of this home and into a retirement home.”
“She would tell us that she loved us and told us that she thought we were family,” Misner told KPTV. “She told us we were the only ones that, like, actually helped her the last couple of years.”
The couple said that Hurley eventually moved out of the retirement home “for medical reasons” and they lost contact with her after that, per the outlet.
It is not immediately clear what happened to Hurley following her departure from the retirement home, or her ties to Moody. The investigation is ongoing, as detectives continue to gather evidence in the murder investigation, including a cause of death.
Moody is set to appear back in court on March 3, KPTV reported.
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The MCSO is asking anyone with information tied to the case to contact investigators at (503) 988-0560 and reference case number 25-6042.
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