Woman Gives Testimony from Hospital Bed After Being Set on Fire by Boyfriend, Dies Months Later

Warning: Some pictures are extremely graphic in the following article. Please read with caution.

Judy Malinowski’s promising life was cut short on August 2, 2015, when her volatile, on-again, off-again boyfriend poured gasoline on her and set the 31-year-old on fire.

The gruesome attack left 90 percent of Malinowski’s body covered in third or fourth degree burns. Unfortunately, the mother of two eventually succumbed to her injuries and passed away.

Although doctors were not optimistic about her chances of survival after the attack, she lived for two more years.

This was long enough for her to give a disposition from her hospital bed against her ex-fiance, Michael Slager, who was accused of causing the life-threatening injuries to her.

Malinowski’s ordeal, strength, and fight for justice is the subject of a new documentary, The Fire That Took Her. Directed by Patricia E. Gillespie, the movie premieres in theaters Oct. 21.

Malinowski underwent 60 surgeries, was in a coma for seven months and could barely speak or breathe, but in January 2017, not expecting to live much longer, she gave her testimony, anticipating that Slager would be charged with murder after she died.

“I don’t think words can describe what it feels like to have your whole body set on fire,” Malinowski said during her testimony. “I can remember fire on my face and eyes. I can remember screaming for help.”

She described the details of how she felt on that day, before saying the pain was like “a thousand hot needles.”

Less than five months after Malinowski’s testimony, she died, but video of her deposition was used in court after Slager was charged with aggravated murder.

Malinowski was 33 years old when she died from her injuries, and when her testimony was admitted as evidence at trial, it was the first time in Ohio history that a murder victim was able to testify against her killer.

Before the life-altering tragedy that Malinowski suffered, Judy revealed to her mom, with whom she was very close, that Mike was controlling. He put a tracking device on her phone. Although mom Bonnie called the police, they could not do anything without evidence.

Judy told her mother how Mike refused to let her leave the house just two weeks after the tracking device incident. Bonnie visited the home and met Mike. She described him as arrogant. Bonnie ordered him to leave but she called the police when he refused.

In April 2006, Judy was told the ovarian cancer she had beat 15 months earlier had returned. She underwent a full hysterectomy and became hooked on her pain medication. She entered rehab and successfully overcame the addiction and cancer. 

Judy told her mom how Mike had been giving her painkillers. She found herself becoming addicted again and didn’t want to go back down that path a second time.

She decided to go back to rehab. On the day she was scheduled to go back to rehab, Bonnie received a call from Ohio State University Hospital informing her that Judy had been in an accident and was on life support.

Judy was in a coma, unrecognizable, and doctors did not expect her to live. In fact, they told Bonnie she would likely die within hours. 

The next day, Bonnie learned that Mike followed Judy to a gas station where the two got into an argument. Judy threw a drink at Mike and he hit her before pouring gasoline over her. He then lit her on fire with a cigarette lighter, then walked away.

Prior to Malinowski’s death, Slager had been convicted of aggravated arson, possession of criminal tools and assault and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

In 2018, he pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life without parole. If he was convicted by a jury, he would have faced the death penalty.

However, according to Malinowski’s mother, Bonnie Bowes, that is not what her daughter wanted.

“Judy wanted Michael to not face the death penalty and her hope was that he would find God somewhere between now and when he meets her again,” her mother, Bonnie Bowes, said at the hearing. “And that was her hope, and that’s pretty generous of her.”

“The doctors say she defied all the odds,” Bowes said. “They said the fact that she lived as long as she did with all that pain is a medical miracle. The miracle is that God gave me two more years with her.”