COLUMBUS, Ohio — The documentary is an intimate look at Judy Malinowski’s last days of life and the impact her death made on her family and Ohio state laws.
Back in August 2015, Malinowski’s ex-boyfriend doused her in gasoline and set her on fire. Malinowski survived for 700 days in the hospital before succumbing to her injuries, but not before she recorded testimony that would later be played in her murder trial. Her killer is now serving life in prison.
During the past several years, a documentary film crew has been following Malinowski’s family, and the film called “The Fire That Took Her” recently premiered at the Heartland Film Festival in Indiana.
Malinowski’s daughter, Kaylynn, was there for the premiere.
“It was really nice to see it from a different point of view,” she said. “It was really nice to like watch it with a group of people and know that like they just saw everything that you just saw.”
Still, having her life constantly in the news during some of her most formative years has been sometimes tough on the now 18-year-old.
“It definitely adds a little salt on the wound of like having to like, okay, I was in the media for a really long time, and then it died down for a really long time, and now it’s like all back again, and it’s coming full circle, so that’s like kind of stressful, but also it’s like so exciting because it adds like a new light on everything,” she said.
Kaylynn is now focused on the non-profit named after her late mother, Judy’s Foundation. The mission is to help women and children who are feeling domestic violence situations. The goal is to eventually open a shelter.
In the meantime, she is focused on an upcoming fundraiser at the Columbus Athletic Club. It’s happening Tuesday evening and will feature the so-called Woody’s Boys, some of the famous former Buckeye football players.
And Kaylynn’s mission doesn’t end there. She’s currently studying criminal justice in college with plans to go to law school. She gets the information to keep up the fight from her mother.
“My mom’s confidence through all of it feeds into that,” she said. “I just really want to be able to like spread awareness the way that she did. Like she laid in a hospital bed and was able to like share everything and make such a huge impact, and I just like want to be able to do the same thing and like hopefully go a little bit further because she’s not here to go that extra step further, so I want to do that extra step for her.”
The documentary will premiere on Paramount+ in May.