Though no criminal cases were set down in scanty Island County records for 1853, Whidbey settlers were stirred early in May that year by the murder of 60-year-old Judah Church at Crescent Harbor.
The first recorded death was noted on May 22, 1853, when settlers discovered the body of Judah Church in the woods of his claim near Oak Harbor. A coroner’s inquest was hastily convened at the site—official verdict, “unknown”—and the sixty-three-year-old native of Michigan was buried where he was found.