An Oregon woman awaiting trial for allegedly killing her uncle portrayed a murderer in a yet-to-be released low-budget horror movie.
Aisling Tucker Moore-Reed, 30, remained in jail Saturday in Jackson County, Oregon, after a grand jury charged her last year with murder in the 2016 death of her uncle, Shane Patrick Moore, 63. She has pleaded not guilty.
Producers of "From the Dark" say Moore-Reed's notoriety is unwelcome because it sparked rumors they cast her in the role of a killer knowing she was a murder suspect. The talk "really is part of the nightmare" filmmaker Matthew Spickard told NBC News affiliate KOBI in Medford, Oregon.
"None of of us wanted this," he said.
The movie, described in a blurb as "a thriller about a young woman's last day of work at a lodge in the isolated mountains of Oregon," was shot while the investigation was ongoing and before Moore-Reed was charged.
"Our lead actress is currently facing a legal battle that we were not made aware of until after filming had wrapped," Siskiyou Productions said last month in a statement.
The movie was initially scheduled to be released around Halloween but was postponed, and the filmmakers have not scheduled another date, KOBI reported.
Moore-Reed opened fire on Moore on July 26, 2016, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office said in a statement at the time.
She was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, but after a grand jury reviewed cellphone video previously unknown to authorities, she was charged with murder.
The video obtained by KOBI contains audio in which a woman complains about Moore, saying, "The other day he, um, assaulted me," and, "He’s not supposed to be within any range of me."
Video shows an older man pacing outside and then the same woman's voice says urgently, "He's coming into the house," before a gunshot is heard.
The woman then says, "I didn't mean to shoot him in the chest."
Kelly Moore, Moore-Reed's mother, said in a pre-trial hearing that family members feared the uncle.
"I was concerned that he might kill us all," she said.
Kelly Moore was described by the Washington Post as "a New York Times best-selling author and former California lawyer who represented model Anna Nicole Smith."
KOBI reported that Moore-Reed is a journalist who has written under the name Tucker Reed. The Huffington Post describes Tucker Reed as a contributor who is "a critically-acclaimed, internationally-published author and award-winning civil rights activist."
"As chairwoman of the non-profit Student Coalition Against Rape (SCAR)," the Post wrote, "Reed has helped organize college students nationwide regarding the issue of gendered violence, and contributed to the filing of several Title IX complaints."
Moore-Reed's trial will begin next year, according to prosecutors.
