OH - Christie Mullins, 14, Columbus, 23 Aug 1975 *killer died*

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Dispatch Monday September 1, 1975

Witness Retells Story at Site of Christie’s Murder

In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Monday September 1, 1975, the male eyewitness and his wife took a newspaper reporter and photographer back to the crime scene showing them the exact spot where the body of Christie Lynn Mullins was found in the dense woods.

The male eyewitness claimed that the walk in the woods with his family was a nature walk to help his 10 year old son get ready to join the Boy Scouts.

Police previously did not disclose to the news media that the couple had a 10 year old son with them in the woods at the time of the murder.

The male eyewitness admitted that he had been besieged with phone calls since the murder. While some of the calls were threatening, most of the callers wanted to know why he didn’t chase the man he saw beating the victim.

The couple said they were twenty feet away from the crime scene when they came upon a man holding a piece of lumber with both hands in the woods. The male eyewitness said that foliage in the woods kept them from seeing Christie.

The male eyewitness said that he didn’t hear the victim scream in the woods and claimed that he would have chased the suspect if he did hear screams in the woods.

The male eyewitness and his wife told a reporter that they were convinced that they had identified the correct suspect in a police lineup after the murder.

The male eyewitness also said that since after the murder, relatives had come to his home to stay with him and he had sent his children out of town.

Here’s what I noticed after reading this news article. I noticed that the couple didn’t say what the exact time was when they found Christie’s body in the woods.

 

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Dispatch Wednesday September 3, 1975

Man May Plea Guilty To Murder

In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Wednesday September 3, 1975, the handicapped man charged with murdering Christie Lynn Mullins had agreed to plea guilty to aggravated murder if prosecutors didn’t ask for the death penalty in the murder case.

The prosecutor claimed that there were five or six facts about the murder that the killer would only know when the crime was committed.

 

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Dispatch Thursday September 4, 1975

He’s Getting Off Easy Bitter Father Says

In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Thursday September 4, 1975, the father of Christie Lynn Mullins asked if the reporter “had ever heard of anything going as fast as this, and it seemed that if the person who had pled guilty to the crime did it, he’s getting off easy.”

The judge spent over an hour going over the guilty plea in court before handing down a prison term of twenty years to life on the aggravated murder charge.

The assistant prosecutor gave the court a lengthy summary of the case, going over a number of points regarding key details of the murder that had not been made public.

The assistant prosecutor claimed that the suspect admitted to:

* Raping the victim when police didn’t publicly reveal the victim had been sexually assaulted.

* Picked out the exact spot where the victim had been sitting on the railing.

* Described the exact weapon used in the murder weapon.

* Drew a diagram showing exactly how the board was broken into three pieces.

* Told police that the victim had a length of telephone wire in her hand.

The article mentioned that police had not been able to find out who had made the telephone call claiming to be a radio station disc jockey.

While the police didn’t believe that the person who pled guilty to Christie’s murder had made the telephone call, police believed that he had a chance encounter with Christie that led to the murder.

 

[TrixieBel]

Iv'e wanted to see what the "witness's" looked like!

 

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Dispatch Tuesday September 9, 1975

Stormy Session, Citizens Doubt Guilt

In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Tuesday September 9, 1975, over 70 citizens jammed the Sharon Township Hall the previous evening in a stormy three hour session to hear how prosecutors know that the mentally handicapped man was guilty of murdering Christie Lynn Mullins.
The police were not present at the meeting.

The three hour meeting became heated and confrontational between prosecutors and citizens, and also between citizens and the male eyewitness and his wife who were also at that meeting.

The prosecutor told citizens at the meeting that they were satisfied the handicapped suspect was Christie’s killer on account that the suspect knew about the murder before being questioned about it, pointed out the guardrail where Christie was sitting, led detectives to the approximate spot of the murder, and drew a diagram showing how the board was broken during the murder.

The prosecutor drew jeers from the crowd at the meeting when he couldn’t say if anyone had seen Carol inside the Woolco department store on the day Christie was murdered.

One citizen at the meeting asked prosecutors if it was possible that the mentally handicapped man could have been an eyewitness to Christie’s murder.

One person at the meeting who knew the mentally handicapped man told citizens at the meeting that the mentally handicapped man did not wear cutoff shorts due to having a hang up with his skinny legs, could not provide such details about the crime without being led, and was seen by several people at the VOA at about 1:30 p.m. on the west side of Columbus.

While the prosecutor didn’t give out the exact time of Christie’s death, he did say that the murder occurred sometime between 1:45 p.m. and 2:20 p.m. that afternoon.

Several citizens asked if the male eyewitness and his wife had taken polygraph test and were told that they had not.

The couple suddenly left the meeting after the wife of the male eyewitness had exchanged angry words with several persons during the meeting.

After the stormy three hour meeting ended, citizens had left the meeting with the same doubts that they had brought with them prior to the meeting.

 

[TrixieBel]

Wonder if we could find the official autopsy report.

 

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Dispatch Wednesday September 10, 1975

Citizens Get Response, Major Answers Murder Queries

In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Tuesday September 10, 1975, public skepticism into the Christie Lynn Mullins murder case prompted police into discussing evidence they previously insisted be keep secret.

A Columbus Police Major in charge of the police investigative units responded to questions from the stormy meeting that citizens had with prosecutors.

The police major explained that any concerns the citizens had regarding statements Carol made to police when she last saw Christie had been clarified when she took a polygraph test and the substance of her story were true.

The police major also explained that the male eyewitness and his wife weren’t subject to polygraph tests due to the fact they didn’t give conflicting statements, and the couple’s 10 year old son also had corroborated his parent’s story.

An anonymous police source told reporters that homicide detectives involved in the murder case were divided over the issue of whether the couple should be subjected to polygraph tests.

 

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Dispatch Wednesday September 24, 1975

Lawyer Takes It Slow

In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Wednesday September 24, 1975, the new attorney appointed to defend the mentally handicapped man in the Christie Lynn Mullins murder case intended to let all the shouting die down and proceed slowly in the case.

The new attorney was appointed after the original attorney defending the mentally handicapped man withdrew and the ACLU agreed to stay out of the murder case.

 

[nerosleuth]

Wonder if we could find the official autopsy report.

Since this is still an open homicide case, any autopsy reports from the coroner won't be made available to the public.

 

[December]

Nerosleuth, thank you for letting us know about the apartment complex swimming pool used by both Christie and Carol. That is VERY interesting.

 

[December]

A 'nature hike'? Behind a shopping center? SERIOUSLY?

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

It is 431am Sunday morning. I just woke up from a 5 hour nap:banghead:
I would have signed out if I knew i was going to be idle for that long.

nerosleuth I have read all of your latest archives which are just outstanding.
The way you presented them has been outstanding. Certainly has kept some of us on track about the developments early on in the investigation.

This is where i stand after reading everything. And Ill respond to your latest archives here instead of one by one.

around 1 pm or so carol was at the pool, her younger sister came to tell her the man is calling again, carol went home and waited and the man called again, or maybe was holding on line. After talking with the man whom had called several times that week, including that day of the murder, which was Saturday if i remember correctly. Carol left to go to the Graceland area by taking the shortcut through the path. The killer also left not long after chatting with carol in order to get to the woods before she did. Her sister was going with her, but they ran into Christie and Christie decided she would go with her, carol sent her little sister home, and carol and Christie took the walk through the woods and reached the guardrail area where the caller wanted her to. The killer was in the woods waiting on carol to come through. But when she did he seen there were two, and carol was not by herself. So he waited and watched the two girls on the guardrail decided on what to do. When Carol left the area to go inside the wool-co to check the time he made his move on Christie and took her into the woods and the results we all know.

I made have made an error somewhere above since it is so early in the morning. If so i will correct it later if able.

The above all just speculation and assumptions based on what i read in the archives. I will discuss the suspect/suspects in my next post following this one to keep each one short.

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

It is 431am Sunday morning. I just woke up from a 5 hour nap:banghead:
I would have signed out if I knew i was going to be idle for that long.

nerosleuth I have read all of your latest archives which are just outstanding.
The way you presented them has been outstanding. Certainly has kept some of us on track about the developments early on in the investigation.

This is where i stand after reading everything. And Ill respond to your latest archives here instead of one by one.

around 1 pm or so carol was at the pool, her younger sister came to tell her the man is calling again, carol went home and waited and the man called again, or maybe was holding on line. After talking with the man whom had called several times that week, including that day of the murder, which was Saturday if i remember correctly. Carol left to go to the Graceland area by taking the shortcut through the path. The killer also left not long after chatting with carol in order to get to the woods before she did. Her sister was going with her, but they ran into Christie and Christie decided she would go with her, carol sent her little sister home, and carol and Christie took the walk through the woods and reached the guardrail area where the caller wanted her to. The killer was in the woods waiting on carol to come through. But when she did he seen there were two, and carol was not by herself. So he waited and watched the two girls on the guardrail decided on what to do. When Carol left the area to go inside the wool-co to check the time he made his move on Christie and took her into the woods and the results we all know.

I made have made an error somewhere above since it is so early in the morning. If so i will correct it later if able.

The above all just speculation and assumptions based on what i read in the archives. I will discuss the suspect/suspects in my next post following this one to keep each one short.

I am interested in that private pool information. I assume this had something to do with the housing division? Tell us more about the private pool. Whom owned it? Was it own by the housing division? Apartment complex there what?

Private pool, makes me thing you had to be a member. And members would have to be known and a record keep of there name, address phone number etc, to be allowed to swim in this private pool.
Two girls that nerosleuth mentioned belonged to this private pool. The other being Christie. If we had just another one, that said she also received phone calls.

quickly.
Carman didn't kill the girl. Carman was a homosexual mild retarded man that never wore shorts. And I don't ever recall reading about a man such as this killing a girl, young girl for possible sex or what ever reason. He didnt call carol that day of the murder either, so we can speculate he didn't call her several times that week.

This is the big one.
The newells.
The archive nerosleuth posted of the newells at the crime scene is priceless. I also wondered what they looked like. I must admit, when I looked at them i thought to myself that the man looked like a warlock, and the woman appeared to look like a witch to me. Could be the black and white photo with the lighting makes them look as such, but putting them together side by side as they appear in the photo makes them look sinsiter as hell and I would want them to take a ldt just from the way they look.............And I believe others at the time wanted the same thing.

Finding out there 10 year old was with them that day adds credibility to there story of what they seen. I cant see how he would kill the girl and then get the wife and son to go along with a story after the killing to cover it up. In this case its my speculation that the witnesses are not involved in the killing. And I wish today, if any way possible to perform a ldt on one or three would be carried out.

Carol was giving a ldt back then at 14. So I take what she stated as being true with mild descriptiveness as the LEOs reported at a town meeting.

I may have left something out. If so Ill post it later when i remember.

But I believe for now the killer was the person whom made the phone-calls. And went to the woods soon after talking with carol that Saturday to kill her, but Christie was with her and so Christie became the victim and not carol. Poor Christie. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time and got killed for it.

 

[TrixieBel]

Is it allowed to post mug shots? Newbie here!

 

[nerosleuth]

Now we're going forward to December 1977, almost two and a half years after the murder of Christie Lynn Mullins.

The Columbus Dispatch was an evening newspaper back in 1977. During the Christie Lynn Mullins murder trial, it either reported the court room drama that happened on the morning before the newspaper was published that day, or the next day it reported the court room drama from the previous day.

Columbus Dispatch Monday December 12, 1977

What Really Happened On Aug. 23, 1975?
Second Trial In Rape-Murder Case Begins

In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Monday December 12, 1977, jury selection began in the second trial of the Christie Lynn Mullins murder that morning in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

The article gave a recap of events that transpired since the day Christie Lynn Mullins was murdered.

The article told of the doubts and skepticism that the public had about the person who was charged in this murder case.

Among the doubts expressed were the improbability of the suspect being at the crime scene due to time factors and transportation issues, unexplained tracks in the woods at the time of the murder, and investigators not looking into other leads and suspects.

They also cited a jail chaplain’s doubts of the suspect’s confession and the jail chaplain’s own observation that the suspect was eager to please and highly susceptible to suggestions.

The article also mentioned that some folks who knew the mentally handicapped man asserted that he was gay and lacked the physical or mental capacity to commit the crime which he once pleaded guilty.

Christie’s father expressed doubts about the ability of the person charged in his daughter’s murder of being able to carry off his daughter by force from the store parking lot for nearly a mile into the woods where her body was found.

Christie’s father wasn’t satisfied with the police investigation and was troubled by the rumors he had heard in his neighborhood about his daughter’s murder.

The article noted that the male eyewitness was currently in prison on a 1976 arson conviction for burning his house to defraud insurance. The male eyewitness also had served time in prison for a similar arson conviction in 1969. And according to a prison spokesperson, he also had three assaultive records.

The article also explained the legal wrangling that took over two years to resolve before the second trial in the Christie Lynn Mullins murder case could take place.

The article noted that after the guilty plea from the first trial was withdrawn, if the mentally handicapped man had been found incompetent and denied a second trial, he likely would have spent the rest of his life locked in a mental institution with his guilt or innocence undetermined.

 

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Dispatch Tuesday December 13, 1977

Officer Takes Stand In Retrial


In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Tuesday December 13, 1977, after the prosecution and the defense had made their opening statements in court, the jury was taken on a bus tour of the places that would be discussed during the trial.

The defense attorney told jurors during his opening statement that his client was not in the area of the Woolco store on the afternoon the murder was committed. He explained that his client was seen between 1:45 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. at the Volunteers of America on West Broad Street on the west side of Columbus.

The defense attorney told jurors his client had never left the VOA during the time the murder was committed, and pointed out that the distance from the VOA and Woolco made it impossible for his client to be in the area of the Woolco store at the time of the murder.

The news article stated that according to police accounts, Christie was last seen alive at 1:40 p.m. outside the store and police were called in about 2:20 p.m. that afternoon.

The prosecutor told jurors during his opening statement that Christie and Carol went to the Woolco store before the crime. Christie was sitting on a guard rail when Carol went into the store. Then Christie was gone when Carol came back outside from the store. The prosecutor told jurors that they a couple who had witnessed the crime, and that they had identified the accused from a police lineup. The prosecutor also told jurors that the accused knew details about the crime that only the person who had committed the crime would know.

Among the stops during the bus tour were the residence where the suspect lived when he was charged with Christie’s murder, and the crime scene in the woods behind the Woolco store. The bus passed by former home of the male eyewitness.

The article had a picture of the jurors looking at the path where Christie and Carol took going through an apartment complex on their way to Graceland Shopping Center on the day Christie was murdered. The apartments were shells at the time of Christie’s murder and had been completed since then.

The article also had a picture of sheriff deputies escorting the man accused of murdering Christie Lynn Mullins from the courthouse to go along with the juror’s bus trip in a separate vehicle. Christie’s father is also seen in the background of that photo.

The first prosecution witness to testify in the trial was the police officer who was dispatched to the rear of the Woolco store. The police officer told the jury that the male eyewitness met him at his cruiser when he arrived. The officer broadcasted the suspect’s description that was provided to him before leaving his cruiser to secure the crime scene until detectives arrived.

Under cross examination by defense attorneys, the officer testified that the male eyewitness had been wearing blue jeans and a shirt, and that he also didn’t see any scratches or facial marks on the male eyewitness.

 

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Dispatch Wednesday December 14, 1977

Inmate Identifies Girl’s Killer

In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Wednesday December 14, 1977, the article had a picture of Christie’s friend Carol as she testified in court during the Christie Lynn Mullins murder trial. Carol had long hair that was parted in the middle and she also looked similar to Christie.

Carol told the jury about being at the neighborhood pool and visiting her friends on the morning of the murder. Then she told the jury about the telephone call she received from an unknown man who claimed to be a radio station DJ regarding tryouts for a cheerleading contest behind the Woolco store that was to take place on that afternoon.

While she couldn’t recall what radio station the man called from, she did remember the man had an Appalachian accent. The male caller asked Carol if she knew the shortcut which was a path through a ravine that separating Graceland from Fenway Road, Westview, Kanawha, and Rosslyn Avenues.

Carol then told the jury that she changed her clothes and went to Graceland. She met Christie along the way and they went to the parking lot outside of Woolco. When they found no sign of the contest, Carol left her shoes and Christie by the railing as she went inside the Woolco store on check on the time. When she returned to the railing, Carol’s shoes were still there but Christie was gone.

Carol testified that afterwards she went to a stream in the ravine and sat on a rock in the middle of the water for 15 minutes waiting for Christie. While waiting on Christie, Carol testified that she did not hear any screams nor did she see the male eyewitness and his family during that time.

The male eyewitness and his wife also gave their testimony as well.

The male eyewitness gave a sensational testimony before the jury about what he had seen that day at the crime scene.

The male eyewitness testified that he seen a guy in the woods swinging a board like he was digging for fish bait. He described the suspect as tall, with dark hair, slender, his jaws sunk in, and his eyes looked like he was on dope. He also said the suspect was wearing only a pair of cut off shorts, and had foam around his mouth.

His wife also gave her testimony before the jury. While admitting that she had lied in 1973 to get a marriage license, she maintained that she was truthful about her positive identification of Christie’s killer.

The trial took on a legal twist when two of the prosecution’s expert witnesses gave conflicting testimonies on the witness stand over the issue of whether Christie Lynn Mullins had been raped.

A chemist from the police crime lab testified that the tests he conducted had indicated that Christie was a victim of a rape, attempted or completed.

But a deputy Franklin County coroner testified that he found no such evidence of a rape and also said that the murder victim was a virgin.

 

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Dispatch Thursday December 15, 1977

Defense Calls Witnesses

In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Thursday December 15, 1977, the article reported court testimonies of the prosecution witnesses from the previous day.

The male eyewitness testified in court the day before that he frequently swam in the same neighborhood pool where Carol and Christie had been swimming a few hours before the murder.

The male eyewitness claimed that he didn’t know Christie at all and she had never ever been in his house or automobile.

The male eyewitness also denied that ever swam nude with Christie or that he ever represented himself as a radio station disc jockey.

The male eyewitness admitted that he had construction materials and a gray wire in his garage, but claimed the wire was an electrical cable that wasn’t comparable to the telephone wire that he and his wife found binding on Christie’s wrists.

The prosecutors also played to the jury a two hour long tape recording of the murder confession that the mentally handicapped man had made before finally resting their case.

The first defense witness to testify in the trial was the Volunteers of America director who testified that the mentally handicapped man worked with a work crew at the VOA warehouse on the morning the murder took place.

The article reported that the defense attorney had witnesses that would testify in court that their client was in a pay line about 15 miles from the crime scene on the afternoon that Christie Lynn Mullins was murdered.

 

[December]

I wonder where male eye witness is today.

 

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Dispatch Friday December 16, 1977

Psychiatrist Has Little Faith In Confession

In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Friday December 16, 1977, a psychiatrist placed little credence in the validity in the confession that the mentally handicapped man made to police.

The psychiatrist felt that the mentally handicapped man told his confession story to please the police and wouldn’t count on it being too much of the truth.

A Woolco store clerk testified that the male eyewitness who came into Woolco about 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. to report a dead girl behind their store.

The clerk said the male eyewitness was only wearing a pair of cutoff jeans and wasn’t wearing any shirt or shoes when he came into the store.

The clerk also noticed that the male eyewitness had a big red mark under one eye as if someone had hit him, and had superficial scratches on his hands.

The store clerk was cross examined angrily by the prosecutor who demanded to know why she hadn’t told her story earlier. The store clerk told the prosecutor that she had never been interviewed by the police or by the prosecutor’s staff.

A Volunteers of America director testified that the mentally handicapped man was wearing a red short sleeve shirt and blue trousers when he worked during the morning of the day Christie was murdered.

A Volunteers of America caseworker testified that she saw the mentally handicapped man in a pay line at the VOA center between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m. that Saturday afternoon.

A superintendent of public transit schedules testified that there was one North High Street bus every half hour which goes by Graceland during the time Christie was murdered.

The superintendent testified that the bus trip from Broad & High Streets in Downtown Columbus to Graceland Shopping Center along North High Street would take about 40 minutes.

A group home supervisor testified that the mentally handicapped man was reluctant to wear short pants and had preferred men when he lived in the group home from 1973 to mid 1975.

A caretaker from the group home also testified that the mentally handicapped man reacted to any kind of crisis by attempting to withdraw, and if someone on the street with an air of authority told him to do something, he would do it.

A neighbor living on the same street that the male eyewitness and his wife lived on testified that several hours after the body of Christie had been found, he noticed scratches on the back of both the male eyewitness hands when they discussed the murder.

The neighbor also told testified about the male eyewitness telling him that earlier in the summer of 1975, he had swam naked with Carol at midnight in a neighborhood pool.

The news article also revealed one interesting detail about Carol and Christie that wasn’t reported after they had arrived at Woolco on that Saturday afternoon.

A few fays earlier, Carol testified in court that she had gone into the parking lot with Christie searching for a cheerleading contest. Carol said she went inside Woolco to make a phone call and when she came back out, Christie was gone.

The news article also reported that Christie’s mother and sister testified in the murder trial. The article only reported the court testimony of Christie’s mother.

The mother of Christie Lynn Mullins testified that when Christie had not returned home by 7:00 p.m. that night, she became alarmed and went to the pool looking for her daughter.

Mrs. Mullins met Carol along the way who asked her if she had heard about the discovery of a body behind the Woolco store, but neither one of them connected the body with Christie being missing.

Mrs. Mullins went to a neighbor’s house and contacted police about her missing daughter. The police linked her missing daughter to the murder victim.

Mrs. Mullins also testified that the following day she met Carol as she was walking. Carol told Mrs. Mullins that she didn’t think they’d meant to get Christie; they’d meant to get her.