No, Halyna Hutchins wasn’t working on a Hollywood pedophile rings doc

Conspiracy theories about the death of Halyna Hutchins, the director of photography killed on the set of the movie "Rust" after actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun, are emerging online and raising the specter that she was murdered for political reasons.

We’ve already debunked a claim that she was killed after tweeting that she had information that would lead to the arrest of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

Now, what looks like a news headline draws the cinematographer into the QAnon conspiracy theory, which maintains that powerful Democratic politicians and celebrities run a child-sex trafficking cabal. 

"Halyna Hutchins’ next project was documentary on pedophile rings," the headline says. Below a date of Oct. 24, the post says: "The director of photography killed by Alec Baldwin was attached to the controversial upcoming documentary about alleged pedophile rings in the entertainment industry." 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Featured Fact-check

Threads posts

stated on October 26, 2024 in a Threads post

Four Florida counties had “zero results” Oct. 26, and “something underhanded might be happening.”

Craig Mizrahi, Hutchins’ feature and television agent, told us this post is wrong. 

"Halyna was not working on, associated with or contacted by any upcoming documentaries," Mizrahi said. "Her only proposed projects were traditional narrative films." 

We searched the headline in the post and found it originated on a website called worldgreynews.com. There is no more information there than what appears in the post until you click on the site’s "About" page. 

"Prank news website," it says. "Purpose of this website is fun. It should be used for joking with your friends." 

We rate this claim Pants on Fire.