Mary Beth Harshbarger

Mary Beth Harshbarger (born February 19, 1965) is an American woman who rose to media attention when she shot her husband, Mark Harshbarger, during a hunting trip in Newfoundland, Canada, thinking he was a bear. She was charged with "criminal negligence causing death" and found not guilty.

Background Harshbarger lived in Meshoppen, Pennsylvania with her husband Mark (married on June 23, 2001) and their two children.

Shooting incident On September 14, 2006, Mary Beth, her husband Mark and their two young children, and Mark's brother Barry Harshbarger, were on a hunting trip outside of Buchans Junction, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The facts of the case state that Mary Beth was sitting in the back of a Chevy pickup truck with her children, armed with a rifle, on a logging road late in the day. In recounting the incident to Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers at the lodge where they were staying immediately after the shooting, Mary Beth said she had looked through the scope twice to make sure what she was seeing really was a bear. She insisted that she had not seen the blue of Mark Harshbarger's pants, but instead seen the black of a bear. She was then extradited to Canada to stand trial for criminal negligence in the case of her husband's shooting in 2006.

Mary Beth Harshbarger was tried in the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in Grand Falls-Windsor Mary Beth collected on life insurance policies worth $550,000 (US). However, when Mary Beth Harshbarger left the home to stand trial in Canada in May 2011, Barry Harshbarger engaged in a relationship with another woman. In the order Barry Harshbarger claimed that Mary Beth had threatened him by pointing a loaded rifle at him at some point prior to October 18, 2011.

Media coverage The shooting incident and the subsequent trial garnered significant media interest. The story was televised by Dateline NBC under the title "As Darkness Fell", The Fifth Estate in a special entitled "Til Death Do Us Part" and Snapped titled "Mary Beth Harshbarger" on the Oxygen Network.

Outdoor Canada magazine conducted an in-depth investigative report into the story in their Winter 2010 issue entitled "Another Fine Day Afield".