On June 1, rumors of an alleged homicide in Ashley Falls, Massachusetts, spread across Berkshire County social media. More information emerged the next day when the Berkshire County district attorney’s office confirmed that local contractor Cole Bushnell had been arraigned on a murder charge, and detailed a grisly crime scene at his home where a body had been recovered. The victim, Michael Moore of Winstead, Connecticut, was his longtime friend and occasional business partner. On June 17, Christian Murray of The Lakeville Journal published a deep dive into the situation aimed at dispelling misinformation and expanding beyond official press releases. As he told WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes, the investigation into what happened in Ashley Falls that June day faced opposition from the very start.
Transcript:
Josh Landes: So Christian, can we start with sort of the, the aerial view here? What went down in Ashley Falls?
Christian Murray: So what went down was there were two gentlemen that were, that both worked, uh, in the construction industry as, or as painters for many years. They were both from Connecticut, from a small area in northwest Connecticut called North Canaan.
Two miles north of North Canaan across the border in Massachusetts is a place called Ashley Falls. There was a dispute between the two. They were both painters, worked on projects together, and the body of one of them was found in, uh, a little greenhouse out the back of the alleged perpetrator's property.
Josh Landes: Can you walk us through how this all started for you? When, when you saw, like, you know, the press releases go out from the Berkshire District Attorney's office and community chatter about what had happened, what was your first step in doing this kind of survey to, to put together this sort of report?
Christian Murray: So obviously the day the murder went down, you know, we, we called up the district's attorney's office, the police, et cetera.
We got the ABCs like probably every news outlet got. However, given the fact that we are in towns where these gentlemen grew up and went to school, et cetera, um, you know, two miles across the border in Connecticut is where sort of they're known, et cetera. So what w- what I was finding out was there were all sorts of rumors out there. Rumors saying, oh, the j- the, the, the killing happened three days before the actual murder itself. Uh, or there were other less, um, favorable causes for this thing. And so given the fact that they were so much a part of the fabric of the community even though it took place in Massachusetts, you know, I sort of felt that we needed to dispel these, uh, rumors, and we really needed to know what was going on.
Not that much was really released by the DA to satisfy the public So the first thing I did was, well, shit, I don't know anyone here, and everyone's quite tight-lipped. So, you know, I went on Facebook and people were commenting about the, the death of the gentleman Michael Moore who was killed, and were saying all sorts of things on Facebook.
So I reached out and I said, "Listen, you know, I'm looking to find out a bit more details about, you know, what went on, et cetera." And bang, I've never got so much awful feedback all my life. Calls are made to the publisher here calling me for me to be fired. I got people saying, you know, "Piss off back to New Zealand." Um, you know, "You don't belong here." I've never really received such aggressive pushback on any story in my entire career.
Josh Landes: You know, it strikes me that as large corporate conglomerates have pulled out of smaller communities, a lot of that conversation has moved to social media, where, as you say, rumors run rampant, people have the ability to, you know, very quick trigger between these events happening in real time that are very emotional, and what it means to have attention from a news source like what you're doing with the Lakeville Journal.
Can you give me your thoughts on that? Like, what is it that environment like for you as a local journalist when, when you're facing kind of being the only person on the scene, so to speak, digitally for such a high pressure story?
Christian Murray: I was really surprised at sort of the pushback that I got from the community.
Um, uh, but I kind of learned that, you know, this is small rural towns, et cetera. Yes, there's obviously sophisticated people in town, but they're not used to seeing murder, murders like, like we had here. So therefore, it was a big shock to them and, you know, um In a small community, people circle the wagons.
They look out for each other, et cetera. And so therefore, when sort of someone's writing about something that may make them look bad or their friends look bad, they get angry. And you know, I understand that. And, and, uh, so, so I sort of had to navigate my way around that. And the other thing too was that no one would talk.
It was so hard to get people to talk. So the people that I was able to talk to were painters that were from outside of the area. So, so I sort of navigated it that way. I want to turn to the account that you secured from Fernando, uh, one of these painters involved in this situation with these, these gentlemen.
He tells a pretty fascinating account of, of actually seeing Bushnell on the day of the alleged homicide. Take me through that. I mean, that, that clearly is sort of a pivotal moment in your story. The, the painters were in a site in Massachusetts and a- and around noon he got a call from Bushnell saying, "Come to my property.
I need your help. We've got some issues here, uh, et cetera. And bring the crew." And I think there were two others. And, um, Fernando, he was wondering, "Well, what's going on here? You know, why are you calling me? It's lunchtime. You know, all the guys go out for lunch. Why are you calling me now?" And he goes, "Oh listen, I really need you.
Come over." And so Fernando drove around, drove over in his van, and he was a bit confused. He arrived and then sort of, uh, was told, "Well listen, there's a gate that's come down and a fence that's come down. Can you guys fix it?" Supposedly, um, Cole Bushnell, when he greeted him, you know, had blood on his face and was sort of acting a little strangely, and then said to him, you know, "Fix the fence."
And then his fellow workers fixed the fence, and then he said to Fernando, "Look, come back. I want to show you something." And so he went back, took him to a greenhouse in the back of his house or property, and then he peeled back a mattress in the greenhouse and lo and behold, it was the body of Michael Moore.
And then he, then he thought, well, he said to, um, Cole Bushnell supposedly, "What's going on? What's this? Who's this?" And he goes, "It's Mike," supposedly Cole Bushnell said. Fernando was kind of freaking out. He came out of the greenhouse. He sort of like gingerly worked on the fence with the other guys and then fled, fled out of there as quickly as he could with the workers.
They fled two miles south as Troop B, uh, Connecticut State Police barracks, and they drove there. But what happened was supposedly Cole Bushnell actually followed them in his car, and they had to stop one time because to, to sort of get him off his trail. And one, and then they got him off his trail, and then they went to the police Now, this I think is the, is the crux of this conversation, Christian, about the role that, that journalism like you did, you know, shoe leather on the ground reporting, bridging that gap between rumors on social media from the community and official accounts, which as you say were somewhat threadbare from law enforcement.
Josh Landes: At the end of this investigative process, what do you think you filled in or really cleared up about the situation that people otherwise would not have gotten simply relying, again, on social media or press releases?
Christian Murray: Yeah, sure. I mean, I think the first thing was that people, which people... You know, his body was found by Fernando under the mattress in the greenhouse.
So that's all people really knew the day of the press release. "Hey, body found under this mattress on, uh, Cole Bushnell's property, and Cole Bushnell is now under arrest." And so by piecing it together, I was able to say, well, it was a regular day for the victim, Mike Moore. He went to a job site in Lakeville, Connecticut.
His two or three workers came with him. They were there, they were there, and they are working on, you know, the first day of a job painting a house. You know, so therefore he was alive that day. Second of all, we have Cole Bushnell coming and meeting Mike on the property, on the job site where he was working in Lakeville. Supposedly they were then going to drive up and look at a job in Massachusetts together. Th- they didn't make it there. They went to, uh, Cole Bushnell's house, a- and that's where it all went down supposedly.
Josh Landes: That's Christian Murray of the Lakeville Journal joining us here on WAMC, speaking with me, Josh Landes. Christian, thank you so much for your time today and your excellent reporting. It's a credit to the community.
Christian Murray: Thank you very much, Josh.
