The death of Adrian Monk’s (Tony Shalhoub) beloved wife, Trudy, was a major anchor point of the 2002 crime dramedy 15 years after Monk ended, viewers may be struggling to recall what happened to Trudy. In December of 1997, well before the events of the first episode, Trudy Monk (Melora Hardin) was tragically murdered in a parking garage when a bomb was planted in her car. The perpetrators were a mystery, and one that even the brilliant former detective Adrian Monk struggled to solve.

Throughout the show, Monk’s primary motivation was to find his wife’s killer, and he gradually unveiled several compelling pieces of evidence to help him do so, many of which were revealed to him by corrupt wealthy financier, Dale J. “the Whale” Biederbeck III (Tim Curry). After eight seasons, it seemed Monk series finale twist regarding Trudy made a surprising reveal about the circumstances of her murder.

Ethan Rickover Ordered Trudy Monk To Be Killed

It Was A Cover Up Of A "Sex Love Affair"

Before the truth is revealed to him by Dale “the Whale” Biederbeck, Monk spends years believing that the car bomb that killed his wife was actually intended for him. Discovering that it was, indeed, meant for Trudy only complicated matters, as there was no apparent motivation for anyone to want her dead. However, the series finale reveals that this was not actually the case: the truth was that Trudy had an affair before meeting Monk, and was later killed to cover this up.

15 years after an illicit affair with her law school professor, Trudy was targeted by her former lover. The then newly-appointed appellate court judge, Ethan Rickover, ordered her death in order to hide their involvement. To protect his reputation and desirable new position in the appellate courts, Judge Rickover hired hitman Frank Nunn (Courtney Gains) to have Trudy killed. This tied into the note found in Nunn’s belongings, which indicated some connection between “the Judge” and Trudy’s death. Ironically, on the day of Trudy’s death, Monk had been investigating a case that placed him in Judge Rickover’s backyard.

Everyone Who Was Involved In Trudy Monk’s Death

The Hitman And The Bomb Man

Earlier in the show, Dale Biederbeck’s information had once again helped to point Adrian in the right direction, leading him to explosives expert Warrick Tennyson (Frank Collison), who was dying of kidney and heart failure. After Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) pulled some strings to obtain a meeting with Tennyson, the man gave a deathbed confession of his involvement as the one who built the 10-pound plastic explosive, which he delivered to an unknown man in the very same parking garage in which Trudy was murdered. Tennyson made a paltry $2,000 for his involvement in the hit.

Unfortunately, the only detail Tennyson could recall about the man who hired him was that he had six fingers on his right hand (and if The Princess Bride is any indication, this is never a good sign). This man was later discovered to be Frank Nunn, the very same hitman hired by Judge Ethan Rickover to kill Trudy Monk. Although Adrian confronted Nunn in season 6 episode 15, “Mr. Monk Is on the Run,” he was unable to obtain any useful information before one of Biederbeck’s henchmen (Sheriff John Rollins) murdered the hitman and framed Mr. Monk for his death.

How Monk Solved Trudy’s Case After 8 Seasons

The Tape Was There The Whole Time

“Mr. Monk and the End: Part 1” opens 12 years after Trudy’s murder, and during the course of the finale it is revealed that Joe Kazarinsky (John Edward Lee) has been sent to kill Adrian by poisoning him with an unknown synthetic toxin. Doctors warn Monk that it is unlikely he will survive. In what he believes to be his final days, Monk opens a Christmas present that Trudy had placed under the tree the same day she died. She had made Adrian promise not to open it until Christmas, and after her death, he couldn’t bring himself to.

Inside the gift was a videotape of Trudy explaining her death. She confessed to having an affair and becoming pregnant by her law professor 15 years before meeting Monk, and tells Adrian that the baby died a mere 9 minutes after its birth. The midwife at the delivery, Wendy Straud, had gone mysteriously missing before Trudy’s death. After receiving an unexpected phone call from Rickover, Trudy began to suspect the judge had killed Straud to cover up their affair – and that she was next. Though on his deathbed, this tape was all Monk needed to spring into action.

What Happened To Trudy’s Daughter & How Monk Finds Her

Rickover Was Covering Up The Baby, Not The Affair

Although the tape was insufficient evidence to charge Rickover, Monk is convinced of his involvement and has a dramatic gunpoint confrontation with him in the judge’s backyard, throwing him a shovel and telling him to start digging – presumably his own grave. As Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher (Jason Gray-Sanford) arrive with news of an antidote and attempt to talk Monk down, Rickover strikes a human skull in the ground, which turns out to be the remains of murdered midwife Wendy Straud. Monk realized Rickover buried her in his backyard due to the suspicious placement of a sundial beneath a shady tree.

While packing away the case files, Monk discovers an article that states Straud had found an abandoned baby the same day Trudy’s daughter supposedly died. Moments after uncovering Straud’s skull, Rickover unexpectedly grabbed Monk’s gun and shot himself, with his final words, “You take care of her,” implying the baby had lived. Stottlemeyer then managed to track down this estranged daughter, Molly Evans (Alona Tal), with whom Monk enjoys a touching first meeting. Adrian and Molly bond immediately in the final scenes of Monk, and their relationship receives a reprisal in Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie (2023).