MURDERED: Christie Mullins
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Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today is one that has left me so frustrated on so many levels and for so many people. It's another prime example of how the ripple effect of a murder can engulf the lives of everyone around it and cause irreparable damage. This is the story of Christy Mullins.

Clintonville, Ohio is one of those quintessential suburbs that seems perfect for raising a family. It's an everybody knows everybody type of place. And back in the 70s, that feeling of neighbors looking out for neighbors is apparent.

But at about 2.30 in the afternoon on Saturday, August 23rd, 1975, that veneer of safety is shattered when police get a call from a man who wants to report that he's found a body in a wooded area behind a local shopping center. When investigators get there, they meet the caller, 25-year-old Henry Newell.

And Henry's able to lead them about three quarters of a mile into the woods. And back there, laying in the brush, is the brutally beaten body of a girl. And Britt, when I say brutal, I mean this girl is unrecognizable because there is just so much damage to her face. Her hands have been tied in front of her with a plastic coated wire. Her top has been pulled down around her waist. And they notice that she is barefoot.

Now, even though they don't or can't recognize her, they can tell that she's young, likely in her teens. So they're hopeful that IDing her isn't going to take long, like someone has to be looking for this girl. So as some officers and techs begin processing the scene, other investigators speak to Henry to find out what he was doing back there in the first place.

And he says that he and his wife Pam and his stepson had decided to go to the shopping center that day for a few reasons. Pam wanted to pick up a hand puppet for their daughter and his stepson wanted to go for a walk in the woods. Is there like a trail back behind the shopping center? Yeah, there is. So they're basically like killing two birds with one stone on this trip.

Okay. So he says that they drove over, parked at about 155, and they decided that they're going to do the walk first. So they started walking for about 25 minutes. And when they rounded a corner, they saw something that at first sounds like they really couldn't comprehend. Well, and it's behind a mall. I honestly would believe it's a mannequin. If it were just that, then I would totally agree with you. But it is not just a girl laying there that they saw.

He says what they saw is a man beating something on the ground with what looked like a broken 2x4.

Now, they say this guy was about 20 to 30 feet down the path when they saw him. And when this guy looks up and sees the family, he dropped the board and just ran. So Henry says he walked up to where the man had been standing because he couldn't really see what was on the ground. But when he approached, that is when he found the girl with the board laying across her face. So he says he picks up the board, like chucks it further into the woods. And then he goes... Seems weird. Why? Why is he chucking the board? Yeah, it seems like...

A bizarre thing to do right then. Yeah, so the Columbus dispatch, it just says that he got, like, emotional. I mean, I don't know. Like, I don't think investigators find it to be that. In the rush of things, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah. And plus, they find the board. So it's not like he is saying that like he chucked it and now no one can find it. It's like, I mean, it is a big piece of evidence. Whatever. Okay, got it. Anyways, after he throws the board, Henry says that he thought the girl might still be alive. So his wife checked for a pulse. She couldn't find one. So he says he took his shirt off, placed it over her face, and then ran to the shopping center to call the police. And his wife, Pam, backs up the story. The whole thing. Yep. And did the son see any of it?

So I know they talk to the son, but they don't ask him much, maybe like two or three questions. I mean, he's only 10 at a time, so I don't think they're really counting on him to provide a detailed statement or anything like that. Yeah, and they're probably trying not to traumatize him even more. Right, yeah, if he already saw what he saw. But even without the kids, like, retelling of events, they saw this guy, right? Yeah.

They did. They did. And they provide a description. They say this guy looked young, maybe his late teens, but he was tall. He was thin, had scraggly black hair that fell to his shoulders, his bare shoulders, because the other thing they tell detectives is that this guy wasn't wearing a shirt. He only had cut off jeans on.

So this is a decent amount to work with. And they obviously get a sketch artist to put together a composite, which, Britt, I'll send to you right now. And, I mean, again, it's kind of generic. I mean, it just shows his long hair. It shows, like, his scruffy face. Again, like, I think I could have drawn this if I needed to. So it's not super, super detailed, like, if you're trying to compare. Whatever. Yeah.

Now, meanwhile, while they're getting all of this, the processing of the scene isn't yielding many results. Like I said, they find the board, which they collect. But if there is other evidence that they find that day, it's never reported on. So at this point, the question of who this girl is is still unanswered. But they get their answer around 7 o'clock that evening. Because that's when police get a call from a woman named Phyllis Mullins, who says that she wants to report her 14-year-old daughter, Christy, missing.

Phyllis says Christy had gone to the pool that afternoon with her little sister, but she had left around 12.30 with a friend and just hadn't been seen since.

Her sister came home alone, and as the afternoon ticked by, she had gotten more and more worried. I mean, so worried, in fact, that she had decided to go out and look for Christy herself. But before she even got very far, she ran into a neighbor who told her that the body of a girl had been found behind the shopping center. So Phyllis, she's making this call to find out if that girl is her girl.

So two officers are sent over to the Mullins' house to get Phyllis and her husband, Norman. And they're taken to the morgue to see if they can identify this young girl. And at first, Phyllis doesn't think it's her daughter. Again, her face is so badly damaged, she can't tell anything. But when she sees a birthmark on the girl's leg, that's her daughter's birthmark. It's her daughter's leg.

And it has to feel impossible because they were just five days away from celebrating Christy's 15th birthday. I mean, they'd probably been thinking about what present they were going to get her, what cake she wanted. And now what? I mean, they're supposed to plan a funeral. I mean, it isn't the kind of news that you can ever prepare yourself for ever, especially because her family doesn't have any idea why this would happen or who would want to hurt Christy.

But investigators at least now have a good place to start. That friend who Christy left the pool with. Her name was Carol. So they track her down and she tells them that earlier that day she had gotten a call from a man who said that he was a DJ for a radio station. He had said that there was going to be this cheerleading competition behind the shopping center that day at like 145 and the winner would get a free pass to the state fair.

Hold up. Did she know this guy? No, not at all. And did Carol even do cheer? No, not at all. And was this a red flag for her? Apparently not, because she says that she and her own little sister started walking toward the shopping center. But on the way, they ran into Christy and her little sister, who were walking in the same direction. Like on their way to the pool or after? Yeah.

Well, in Carol's version, the pool doesn't really play any part, so it is a little different than what Christy's mom said. But either way, Carol asked Christy if she would go to the contest with her instead, to which she says yes, so both girls went together, leaving their little sisters behind.

Now, Carol goes on to say that she and Christy walked over to the shopping center and looked for whoever was having this contest, but they couldn't find anyone. Because there was no contest. Well, yeah. Now, they waited by a guardrail behind the shopping center for a bit, and at about 1.45, Carol got tired of waiting. So she tells Christy, you know what, I'm going to run inside. I'm going to look for somebody to find out what's going on.

Now, she's only in there for about three minutes because she's not able to find anyone who can actually help, and then she comes back out. But when she comes back out, Christy wasn't by the guardrail anymore.

She says that she waited for her for a little while, but she just never came back. Eventually, Carol says she walked by a nearby creek bed where I guess they would hang out sometimes. I'm not really super clear, but when Christy didn't show up there either, she just left. Okay, so did Carol tell anyone that Christy kind of just up and vanished?

No. Again, I don't think she, like, thought at the time she vanished. I think she thought, like, she just was, like, tired of waiting, too, and, like, peaced out. So just real quick, was Christy ever even at the pool? Or is that just where her mom thought she was going? Like, that's where she said she was going? Or what? Well, I don't think Christy was, like, lying to her mom or anything. I think that's where her and her little sister were headed. Or they had already been, like, at some point during that day. Because I think other people saw her there at some point.

And based on what some other people told police, Carol was at the pool that Christy had been at too later in the afternoon at about like 2.30. So, I mean, after all this happens, we know for sure Carol is back at the pool. And again, I know that Christy was at the pool at some time. So,

It's a little muddy, and honestly, it's going to get even messier in a bit, but I don't want to jump ahead in the story too much. I know. So did anyone else in town get any strange calls from so-called radio DJs about a non-existent contest? I mean, to me, this feels like Amy Mihaljevic all over again. So that's actually what I thought when I first heard about this mysterious call, like find the caller, find the killer. Yeah. But this is where things start to go a little sideways. Yeah.

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So for some reason, the police just don't think the call has anything to do with the homicide. What? Are you kidding me? Yeah. No, they say that it was probably just a prank. And they, as far as I can tell, don't even try to trace the call or check phone records, if that was even an option in this area back then. Okay, I'm sorry. There's no way it's not connected. It's not just a coincidence that some mystery person, Laura's Carol,

to this woods behind the shopping center for, I'm sorry, not a real reason. And then her friend is murdered in those same woods. I also don't think it's a coincidence that Christy was attacked when Carol went inside. Whoever this is could only overpower one of them. He originally called just one of them. Christy was a complete surprise.

But if Carol is the target, why is Christy the one who ends up killed? I mean, why is Carol the target at all? Like, does he know Carol? Was it just about any young girl, not a specific one? Did he know Carol well enough to know it was Carol or wasn't Carol? I mean, the thing is, if they never put a news release out asking if anyone else got calls like this... They wouldn't know. We don't know. Maybe a bunch of people did. But as far as we know, Carol is the only one who seemed interested. Yeah.

I think this guy thought she was going to show up alone and then she didn't. I don't know. But then he got someone alone. Right. Listen, I could spiral on the call for a long time. You'll see why. But I do think the fact that they— I'm already spiraling. Thanks. I know. I can tell. The fact that they don't seem to see the significance of this call, to me, at any point, for any reason, it's bizarre. I mean, but the case itself is bizarre.

And it only gets more strange when an autopsy is completed on Christy. So her cause of death was blunt force trauma to her head and face, with most of the lethal damage being to the left side of her skull, which is somewhat expected. What's surprising is the lack of physical evidence pointing to any kind of sexual assault, because the coroner says that he did not find any evidence of semen on her body.

I mean, that doesn't mean it wasn't the motive, though. I mean, her top was pulled down to, like, her waist. And knowing that this guy was interrupted by Henry and his family... Yeah. Yes, I agree. Any number of things could have happened out there. And even though the investigators don't seem too keen on following up on leads that seem a little obvious to me, they are going full steam ahead, canvassing the area around where Christy's body was found and speaking more extensively with her family.

Now, her little sister, Kim, Kim contradicts Carol's statement that she had run into them on their way to the shopping center. Because Kim states something closer in line with Christy's mom, that she and her sister Christy were already at the pool when Carol showed up. And apparently, Carol asked Christy to go with her to this contest.

And Kim says that this was a little surprising for a few reasons. One, Christy didn't do cheerleading. I mean, same as Carol. Neither did Carol. Exactly. And again, she could have just like agreed to go support her friend or whatever. But that's the other thing. She and Carol weren't really friends. Like they were classmates, but that was basically the extent of their relationship. So Kim thinks it's strange that Christy would agree to leave her at the pool to go to some contest with someone she wasn't super close with.

And speaking of Carol, Phyllis, so Christy's mom, she had a strange interaction with her the day that Christy was killed. She tells police that she met up with Carol that night outside the apartment complex where the Mullins lived. And Carol was absolutely inconsolable. She says that Carol apologized, saying, quote, it was never supposed to go this far.

And she said that she thought she was intended to be the target. But then she also said that two people were involved in Christy's murder. Well, Ashley, you should have led with this. I kind of take back everything I said about the police ignoring the call. It probably never happened. That's why they ignored it.

Maybe, but you're saying that, I think, because now you're assuming that Carol is involved, right? Yeah, it sounds like she clearly knows more. It was never supposed to go this far. I mean, that implies that there was something that was supposed to go to begin with, something that she knew about, not some mystery DJ caller. Right.

I agree. There's a problem with that, though, because you can't say police wrote off the call because they like zero in on Carol and like, oh, well, Carol's lying. The call doesn't exist. That wouldn't make sense to me. But the problem is they don't at all. Like they don't. What do you mean?

I mean, they talked to Carol. I know they talked to Carol again on like the 25th. This is now two days after the murder. And she's sticking to her story about getting the call from the DJ. This time she tells them something she remembered about their conversation. She says that he told her to pick up some tree leaves on her way there because they're having some kind of other contest at the same time as the cheerleading contest where if you like

could name the trees that the leaves are from. You can win something like anywhere from like $50 to $1,000. Sorry, what? I know it makes no sense, but she keeps going. She's like, you know, Christy, we picked up some leaves on the way there. She elaborates more on what she did after Christy vanished. She says that after they left the area, she went to hang out with a friend at their apartment. They just went on with their day until she heard about the murder. Okay, but didn't she go to the pool afterwards? I mean, people saw her there, didn't they?

They did, but even in this statement, she doesn't mention going to the pool. And I mean, look, without her full statement or the transcript of that conversation with investigators, I can't be sure why she didn't mention going to the pool or why there isn't more effort pressing her about the statement she made to Christy's mom. But they just don't. And I know this can seem really sketchy. I mean, we've seen some strange things together in the last six years. So,

Smoke doesn't always mean fire. Sometimes it's Halloween. There's a smoke machine. I don't know. So I don't know what to think about this. But what I do know is that she's given a polygraph. And according to an article published in Columbus Monthly, she doesn't show deceit on the quote unquote important parts of her story. But she did show deceit on other parts of her story. Yeah.

That's what it implies, but I don't know the specifics, right? Like, again, is the question just, were you at the pool? And she says no. But like, do you know what happened to Christy? And she says no. And that's, I don't know. So take it or leave it. Yeah, like who's determining what the important parts are? Okay. Yeah. Continue. It's a polygraph, right? Like, who knows how accurate it is? Who knows who's reading it? Who knows anything? But again, police aren't a

accusing her of anything. And again, back in this day, like, polygraphs were gold. So I think if they got this, they probably would have just kind of like written everything else off to just her being traumatized or feeling guilty that she brought her there. So that may be how police are feeling, but her sketchy stories just add to this growing feeling in the community that something's not right with this situation. Everyone is terrified and no one knows who to trust.

Parents are worried that there's a killer on the loose looking for another victim. The local teens aren't buying Carol's story, even if police are. But if they have any idea of what really could have happened, they don't come forward. And Christy's family is living in a waking nightmare. For them, answers can't come fast enough. And on August 26th, police get a break that they've actually been waiting for.

At about 5 p.m., a police officer on patrol in downtown Columbus is standing by a Greyhound bus station when he spots this man who looks a lot like the sketch of the man that Henry and Pam said that they saw in the woods.

And Britt, again, I know I said it was kind of a generic sketch, but when I say a lot, I do mean a lot. I'll show you them side by side. Oh, yeah. This is super, super close. I mean, they have the same hair, the same sort of like scruffy facial hair, same long, thin face. Yeah. Again, I still feel like I could draw this sketch, but I feel like I would be drawing this guy. You know what I mean? This man. Yeah. Right. Right.

So the officer is, like, stunned to see this person right in front of him just walking around. So he calls the homicide investigators who come down to the bus station and they ask this man if he would, you know, come and go with them and talk to them. And this man agrees, so they all head to the station.

They learn this guy's name is Jack Harmon. He's 25. And right off the bat, it's obvious that communicating with him in the way they're used to isn't going to be easy because they learn that Jack is an outpatient of the Apple Creek State Institute, which is a state-sponsored behavioral health hospital that houses and treats people with developmental disabilities.

According to reporting by Rick Kelly for The Lantern, he has an IQ of 56. And at the moment, he is living slash working at the Volunteers of America or VOA, which provides health and housing services to vulnerable individuals. And although he's agreed to be questioned, it doesn't seem like he fully grasps why he's there or what he's even being asked about.

But rather than, I don't know, bringing someone in to help facilitate the interview or ensuring that Jack does fully understand the situation, they just press on for six hours. Oh, my God. And it is a long six hours because Jack mostly gives one-word answers, if he even answers their questions at all. But over those six hours, investigators become convinced that Jack was the one who killed Christy.

And eventually, he confesses. The story investigators put together is this. On the day Christy was killed, Jack left the VOA and rode the bus an hour up to Clintonville. He got there at the perfect time, spotting Christy alone behind the shopping center. And that's when he tied her wrists, threatened to kill her if she didn't cooperate, and dragged her into the woods.

Then once they were a good distance into the woods, he hit her and sexually assaulted her. And then after, he told her his name and Christy started to run, saying she was going to tell her mom what happened. So he picked up a nearby 2x4, chased her down, and beat her with it. I spot like eight holes in this story already. Right? I know. I mean, first off, the coroner hadn't found any physical signs of sexual assault.

You are correct, but that detail doesn't seem to bother investigators. Okay, then, I mean, let me go down the rest of the list. Did he bring things to tie her with? Did he just have that on him? And he just found this random two-by-four. How perfectly convenient. A lot's perfectly convenient. And also, someone show me a bus schedule, because, I mean, what are the freaking odds that this is all timing out perfectly? What? Listen, I...

I get it, but still, investigators aren't hung up on the same details that you and I might be because to them, this is it. They say that Jack seems to know things that only the killer would know, like how the two-by-four broke when Christy was beaten with it. They even go so far as to take him to the scene and they say that he can point out where everything happened. I'm sorry, he knows things that only the killer would know and they know this from his one-word answers? I mean... Mm-hmm.

Crime Junkies, everyone listening gets how this is happening, right? Yeah. I mean, I think Crime Junkies, if you're this far in, unless it's your first episode, like you understand how false confessions happen by this point. But, you know, if there is any doubt, have no fear. I will get into some of this in a minute.

Now, the police do conduct like one safety measure to feel good about having the right guy. They put together a lineup for Henry and Pam Newell to take a look, and they both point to Jack as being the one they saw in the woods. So the next day, Jack is charged with aggravated murder, rape, kidnapping, felony murder during a rape, and felony murder during a kidnapping. And those murder and felony murder charges all carry the death penalty. Now,

Now, how you're charged with rape when there was no rape, I don't know, but here we are. And we're here really fast. We are, and things don't slow down from there because Jack is given a court-appointed attorney who on his behalf accepts a plea deal in exchange for dropping the rape, kidnapping, and felony murder charges and for the death penalty to be taken off the table.

So on September 3rd, he's sentenced to life in prison. Wait, September 3rd? Then this is, what, like 11 days after Christy was murdered? From the crime to sentencing, we are talking less than two weeks. I get the right to a speedy trial, but I don't think I like this. It's like the speed of light. And it makes everyone uneasy.

Because even though there was this initial relief in the community and for the Mullins family when Jack was arrested, after they learned the details for the basis of that arrest, that relief like turns to concern because there is just something about the confession and the details of it, the ones that you pointed out, that don't exactly hold water.

The biggest problem with Jack's confession is, first and foremost, simply his competency. Members of the community, especially those who know Jack, are concerned that he only confessed to the crime because he was afraid of the death penalty. In fact, a woman named Jennifer Gross, who used to be one of Jack's vocational instructors, tells a writer for Columbus Monthly that he just wasn't the type of person to stand up for himself.

In fact, she believes that all they had to do was say the words electric chair and he would have confessed to anything they accused him of. And when it comes to the details that Jack got right, other people are also concerned that he may have been fed those answers. And that doesn't always happen even purposefully or maliciously. Right. I remember hearing an episode you did on the deck where an investigator even admitted that he looked back at one of his own cases and realized he kind of led that action.

Accidentally. Lawrence O'Connell. Yeah, but in the moment, he was just so deep in it, he couldn't really see what he was doing. Right. Now, as for the lineup part of all of this... Which, like, eyewitnesses are notoriously bad. You and I actually just talked about this in person a couple days ago.

Yes, but it's actually more than that. So Jack's supporters learn that Jack wasn't the only person who was taken to the scene that day that he confessed and like showed them where everything happened or whatever. Police apparently also took Henry and Pam. Henry and Pam, who identified him later. So they saw him at the scene before the lineup.

Well, technically, all they say is like both groups were there and that they could have seen him. Okay. Yeah, because investigators obviously later, they're like, oh, we were super careful. We didn't let them cross paths. But considering how sloppy or like downright negligent they've been so far, like, okay. Yeah, yeah, sure, Jan. Now, there's another detail that everyone kind of clings on to. It's small, but it's important to them.

Other people who know Jack say that he would never have been wearing cut-off jeans, which is what Henry Newell says he saw her killer wearing. And they say this because Jack reportedly didn't like showing his legs. So he always, even in the August heat, always wore jeans. And then to top this all off,

Several people working at the VOA said that they saw Jack right before Christy was murdered at around 1.30. So physically, he could not have been the one to do it because remember, the bus ride between downtown Columbus to Clintonville is like an hour. And Henry is calling 911 about finding Christy at like 2.30. So it is just not stinking possible.

Concern in the community is so great at that point that on September 8th, over 70 people go to a township meeting to make their worries known and to question police and prosecutors about what's going on. After that committee meeting, they form the Justice for Jack Committee with the goal of pushing for the truth, whatever that may be. And this community concern and involvement makes a real difference.

One of Jack's friends visits him in jail and helps him write a letter to dismiss his current lawyer, the one who represented him when he pled guilty.

And he specifically requests representation from the American Civil Liberties Union. And while the ACLU doesn't end up representing him in the long run, he does get a new attorney who starts working on a motion to set aside the conviction and withdraw the guilty plea. And in this, they're basically questioning Jack's competency and if he was even fully able to consent to the questioning to begin with. Which all of this I agree with and it needs to be done, but why?

What does Christy's family think of all this? I have to imagine that's kind of a conflicted place. Well, they're actually not convinced of Jack's guilt either. So much so that as this is all going on, Christy's father, Norman, starts his own investigation. And the thing that he's really focused on is he's not convinced that Carol's telling the truth. Same, Dad.

Yeah, at least not the whole truth. From what I can tell, it seems like he believed Carol and Christy did go to the shopping center together that day, but not for a cheerleading competition.

You see, here's another little fact we learn. A little over a month before her murder, Christy was actually caught with a few other teens, including Carol, smoking marijuana. Now, it wasn't the end of the world. None of them were charged with anything, but her parents think that the girls may have gone to the shopping center to purchase marijuana. So they were kind of friends then? Kind of. I mean, again, I don't think they're super close. That's why her younger sister is not, she saw her like coming over for sleepovers, but they did know each other. They're in the same class. They might have hung out.

Right. So who exactly were you going to meet, Carol? Well, that's what he wants to know. And listen, even if he finds out that Carol was telling the truth, Norman is extremely unhappy with the way investigators have handled the whole investigation. Not just for all the reasons I've already mentioned, either. According to that same Columbus Monthly article I mentioned earlier,

Norman says that he went out to search the woods where Christy was killed and he found a pair of men's cut off jeans and a few neighbors found bloody men's underwear. Now, both of these items are turned over to police, but by the new year, they haven't even heard anything about them.

And spoiler alert, I couldn't find anything about what happened to those items. And in the long run, it doesn't seem like they had anything to do with Christy's murder. I'm sorry. Bullshit. Did anyone have Henry look at those cutoffs?

I can't answer a single question. I mean, literally, there's like nothing about this after that. Okay, if I were Norman, I'd be pissed. Well, he is pissed. And he also just straight up doubts that Jack could have forced Christy into the woods. Like, Jack's tall, but dude's real skinny. Whereas Christy's like 5'7", she's super athletic. So unless he had a deadly weapon, which by the way,

By the way, he didn't because in his confession, if you want to believe that, he says he like found this two by four to kill her. So her dad's like he could not have forcibly drug her away. Now, as Norman's own investigation is going on, Jack's guilty plea is officially set aside in January and a competency hearing is ordered. And in May, a judge agrees that his confession was not obtained correctly, therefore violating his civil rights. So

So his initial confession is thrown out, as is the original guilty plea, which means he gets a new trial. And this is a big win for everyone who believes in Jack's innocence. And his defense team is ready not only to use this next trial to prove his innocence, but to also point to who they believe is really responsible for Christy's murder. And that is Henry Newell. Witness called 911.

That's the guy. That's the one. Where did this come from? Well, for one, Henry has a long rap sheet. He's been in jail three separate times. He's tried to escape twice. And in fact, as all this competency stuff is going down, he's in jail for arson. Dude burned down his own home to try and claim the insurance money. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. So just seeing that was enough for the defense to be like, huh.

Guy who found her is in jail. Wonder what his deal is.

And here's what his deal is. For one, they hear from a clerk who worked at one of the stores in the shopping center who says that it was her store Henry came into right after he supposedly found Christy's body. And she tells them that Henry was shirtless, wearing cut-off jeans, and had a mark on his face that looked like someone hit him. Wait, shirtless, cut-off jeans, that's who he called in. He described himself as...

I mean, kind of. Yeah. I mean, granted, he said that he was shirtless because he put his shirt over Christy's face when he found her. Okay, but I don't care why he's shirtless. He's still describing himself. That's weird. It's so weird. Now, this clerk isn't the only one who says that she noticed Henry looked like he'd been in a fight either. One of Henry and Pam's neighbors says that on the night of the murder, he'd seen Henry.

and said that he noticed scratches on his hands and that he had seen wire that looked an awful lot like the wire that was found wrapped around Christy's hands in Henry's garage. But this neighbor also says that Henry had admitted to him that he knew Carol and that they had gone swimming together, naked, in the same pool that Carol got Christy from on the day she was killed. What?!

I know. I had like 45 follow-up questions that I couldn't find answers to. Same. Like, how did this neighbor know what kind of wire she was tied with? Weird. Did the police not talk to him in person that day? Like, they did, right? He led them to where her body was found. How are they not seeing the s*** on him? Yeah. It is unbelievable.

Now, this him swimming naked with young underage girls thing was apparently a rumor that had made its way around town before. I can't find any evidence of that actually happening. And I don't think Carol herself or Henry, for that matter, ever commented on it. But the core of this statement is that Carol and Henry knew each other. But Britt...

That's not even the half of the stuff they plan on presenting at trial. They plan on going hard on the investigators who got tunnel vision and using the confession tape to prove Jack's innocence. Now, one thing happens before the trial that I think is important to mention, because even though the Mullins family have seemed pretty convinced that Jack didn't kill Christy,

In August of 1977, it seems like they might have had a change of heart or changed their minds because they file a civil suit seeking $500,000 in actual damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages against Jack.

Basically, the suit states that Jack was involved but lied to protect other people who are named in the suit as John and Jane Doe's. I don't understand this. I know it sounds like it makes no sense, but Norman says in an article for the Pequod Daily Call by the Associated Press that he's really just hoping that the trial that would come out of the lawsuit would bring the truth forward.

especially because he keeps hitting a wall, both in his own investigation and in the communication or lack thereof from law enforcement. And it's grating on him.

So the only thing I can think is, like, he knows he's not going to win. Maybe he doesn't even want to win because he doesn't think Jack did it or does or I don't know. But this trial gives him the power to subpoena things from police that he can't normally get. And again, it's a little bit of speculation on my part. Like, I might be kind of off. But like, I mean, the statement that he made kind of lines up.

But ultimately, it's hard to tell too much based on the outcome of all of that because there was no outcome. I wasn't able to find what happens with that lawsuit. I'm pretty sure it got dropped, but there just isn't much out there about it. But there is plenty out there about that next trial, though, which begins in December of 1977. And this is like the trial of the century for people of Clintonville and the wider Columbus area.

The courtroom is packed every single day with people who have been following this case from the beginning. And the Mullins family waits with bated breath for whatever the outcome will be. Now, one of the first witnesses that the prosecution calls is Pam, who sticks to the story that she's been telling investigators pretty much this whole time. She says her son Bobby wanted to walk in the woods, her daughter wanted a puppet, so the family decided to go to the shopping center. And that's when they found Jack Carman beating Christy.

But she adds that Henry had been home pretty much all day before that. He'd only stepped out once because some neighbor's kids were throwing firecrackers. He goes outside to stop them, but she says he's gone for like minutes at most and was home with her the rest of the day. Carol, when she gets on the stand, she sticks to her story too, denies even knowing Henry.

And when the defense asks her about strange comments that she made to Phyllis, the whole, like, it was never meant to go this far thing, she says that she doesn't remember making that statement. Mm-hmm.

And then there's Henry, who is led into the courtroom in handcuffs because he is serving time for that whole arson situation. He tells basically the same story too. But what everyone's really waiting for for this trial is the confession tape. All 90 minutes of the confession portion of the interview is played. And it is glaringly obvious that Jack just did not comprehend what he was confessing to. And that...

Investigators were leading him through his confession, a confession that is full of inaccuracies and holes. One of the investigators is even heard saying, quote, I don't want to put words in your mouth, which is like obviously exactly what he's doing. So all in all, it is pretty damning to the prosecution. And when it comes time for the defense, they come out so winging.

The clerk testifies to seeing that mark on Henry's face, which takes the prosecution off guard. Like, they didn't see it coming. And when they ask her on cross-examination why she'd never given police that much information before, her response is, you never asked. Because, Britt, no one, not investigators, not the prosecuting team, no one had ever asked this woman about what she saw that day or even tried to get her to corroborate Henry's story. No.

No. Are we surprised, though? No one is surprised. Look where we are. Now, the neighbor testifies to, as does Kim, Christy's sister, and Phyllis, her mom. But not her dad, Norman? No, and I haven't gotten into this too much, but the relationship between Norman and the investigators, and honestly, even the defense team, is contentious. Like I said, I mean, he'd been pretty outwardly critical of the investigation. He's done a lot to try and find answers for himself.

But in doing that, I mean, it's come at a cost. And the cost has been a lot of the relationships of these people. So I think when it came time to deciding who they were going to put on the stand, the defense team felt like Phyllis was just the better choice. And while I'm sure Norman would have loved to have his time on the stand, there was actually a better witness that comes forward on the fifth day of trial and says that he wants to testify. Someone that neither the defense nor the prosecution expected.

And that's Bobby, Henry's stepson. Bobby's 12 by the time this trial takes place, and his testimony of what happened that day is wildly different than his parents'. For one, he says Henry knew Christy, although in what capacity is a little unclear. And he says on the day of the murder...

Henry did step out to yell at some kids who were using firecrackers, like Pam had said. But Bobby says he wasn't gone for just a few minutes, like his mom said. Henry was gone for more like 30 to 45 minutes. And when he came back, his shirt and sandals were missing and he had scratches on both his face and his body.

Now, little Bobby at the time didn't know what had happened, but his mom and Henry went into another room to talk for a bit. And when they came out, they said they were going to be going to the shopping center.

When they got there, they parked, they started walking on the trails, and that's where they found Henry's sandals with one of the straps broken. And then a little further up, they found Christy's body. He says that his mom told him not to talk about what happened to anyone, which is why he hadn't come forward all those years. I mean, he's only 12 now. I can imagine he didn't really know what to do or what to think or how to come forward. Right. It's his mom. Like, who do you talk to? Right.

Honestly, the only reason he did eventually come forward is because he told his biological father. And he, like, showed him, like, or, like, you know, ushered him through the right path of, like, bringing, coming forward and, like, bringing his testimony to trial. Now, Pam's mom also comes forward to the defense. And on the stand, she says that she had a concerning interaction with Henry right after Christy was murdered. She said that she, Pam, and Henry went to the funeral home the night before Christy's funeral, I think for visitation. Mm-hmm.

And while they're driving back, she said something about how much of a tragedy this was. And Henry, rather than being like, yeah, period, and just like stopping, he said that it would, quote, teach her to keep her damn mouth shut. Her as in Christy? Yeah.

That's how Pam's mom interpreted it. And why didn't she come forward with this earlier? She's not 12. Yeah, I know. She says it's because she's afraid of Henry. And not just Henry either, but also his brother Tommy, because they, I guess, had this like reign of terror over the whole family. Now, there's one more person who comes forward to the defense wanting to testify.

He's a friend of Henry's, and he ends up testifying that Henry had actually admitted to him that he had killed Christy, though he says it was accidentally, not on purpose, but still. Still killed Christy. That sounds like a confession, yeah. Now, all in all, the case they make is strong enough that Jack is acquitted.

But then Henry's not charged after that. In fact, the prosecutor basically says he won't take the case any further because he thinks the case was investigated to the best of their ability. What does that even mean? That's not an answer.

Yeah, were you there? Because they basically showed you how you failed to investigate to the best of your ability. Yeah, honestly, I was about to say, what investigation? Yeah, that's the response of like everyone who hears that. And the public is so enraged that the prosecutor has to like walk back that statement two days after the trial. And he says, OK, yeah, we're going to reopen Christie's case.

And this time, investigators say they're focusing on sex offenders who looked like Jack. Which...

Okay, I have a lot of thoughts. It's bananas, right? Bonkers. Sex offenders for a case that has no implications of being a sex crime. Yeah. And it implies that they're still taking Henry's version of events as fact. Henry, who described himself. I know, again, I asked. Henry, who, okay, what's going on?

That's what I'm saying. Again, I ask, were you at the same trial as everyone else? Because why don't you start with looking at the person where there are all of these holes? Why don't you close that door first before you start looking for some random boogeyman? Here's what's wild, Britt, to your point of like, you're still, not only are you not looking at Henry, you're still going to base whatever new investigation you have on his story. Yeah.

They're doubling down because even when they find someone who fits, like, the description of looking like Jack, what they do is they show the photo to Henry to see if, like, is this— Again, who described himself as the person they saw, whatever. Yeah. Is this the guy? And Henry remains steadfast in his accusation of Jack, which, I mean, does nothing. Jack can't be tried again.

And after about five or six months, the case goes cold, which, as you can imagine, is devastating to the Mullins family, especially Norman, who continues to forge ahead. But even he doesn't get much further either. And for a long, long time, that's it. Norman eventually dies of cancer in 2006, never knowing what happened to his daughter.

And without him, Christie's case just sits collecting dust. That is until 2013, when a retired lawyer named John Aller takes an interest in Christie's case. He'd been a student at The Ohio State University when Christie was killed, so it had never been far from his mind. And he decides to take his own deep dive into the case and investigate it for himself.

And he does this by contacting the Mullins family. They send him all of Norman's notes. He goes through all of it. And between those notes and talking to people in the area who hadn't been too keen on talking before, he starts making some connections. And all the connections lead back to one man.

Henry Newell. You can't see, but I'm shocked, Ashley. I know. I feel like I should have been like, everyone listening, say it with me. Exactly. Now, one of the things that really catches his interest is the story about Christy, Carol, and a few other teens getting caught smoking pot. And it's not just that incident. It's more about where the local teens like Christy would go to smoke. And one of those places was in the woods behind the shopping center where she ends up being killed.

And what's even more interesting is who all the local teens would get their pot from. All together now. Say it with me. Henry Newell. Yep. So much like Norman, John wonders if Carol and Christy went to the shopping center to buy pot from Henry and some...

I want to say things deteriorated, but that doesn't even feel like the right word. That seems passive, yeah. Yeah. And so he's thinking that it was really Henry's relationship with not just Christy or Carol, but a lot of the local teens that was like this big red flag. Now, he also learns that Henry hasn't kept out of trouble since Christy's murder either.

His long rap sheet just kept growing with charges including making aggravated menacing threats, more arson, domestic violence, sexual assault, and harassment. And one more death that he is connected to but never charged with committing.

And that's the death of his wife, Pam. She ended up filing for divorce in January of 1982. And no joke, one month later, she is found deceased in her bed in the apartment she and Henry still shared. How did she die? Her official cause of death was an overdose of Cicobarbital, which is a sedative primarily used to treat insomnia.

And her manner of death was ruled as suicide because investigators found this note.

But her family was convinced that Henry had drugged her and wrote the note himself, especially because no one could find a bottle that this Cicobarbital would have come in. Okay. But like I said, he was never charged with anything having to do with her death. And Henry died in September 2013. So he now can't answer for either case.

Now, with all this new information, John takes everything he knows and he wrote a book titled An All-American Murder, which has been a primary source for this episode. We'll link out to it if you guys want to read it yourself. And this book is what changes the course of Christy's case. It gains traction on social media and Christy's friends and family rallied together to push for a review of her case by a cold case team.

They actually even bring a petition to the Clintonville Area Commission who unanimously vote to send a letter to investigators asking for them to reexamine the case. But before it's even reopened, it is almost like the floodgates open. Because with John's book gaining popularity, he's contacted by several members of the Newell family who basically all say that it was staged.

some kind of open secret in the family that Henry had been the one to kill Christy. One family member in particular says that a few months after her 16th birthday, Henry bought her a car and when they went out driving together, he like tells her to pull over. And in the car right there, he told her that he had been the one to kill Christy.

Now, the story he tells has some inconsistencies in it. Like, he told her that he had tied Christy's hands behind her when they'd actually been tied in front of her. And he also claimed to have sexually assaulted her and that he had hit her on the right side of her head when most of the damage we know had been to the left side. And yes, those are inconsistencies. But like...

Those are ones that I can kind of understand making, right? Like, you're hitting on your right side. You know what I mean? Like, those are so little. It's not like Jack's where, like, huge facts were just wrong. Right, right. Now, this woman says that Henry was known to drink a lot and he would often conflate his stories, which is why she didn't come forward at the time. But then when John's book was gaining so much traction, she felt like it was time to tell her story.

So finally, in May of 2014, detectives in Columbus officially reopened Christie's case. And this time, with a whole new generation of detectives, they do a full investigation. They review all of the evidence and they interview about 60 people over the next 18 months.

They also retest some of the evidence, like some of Christy's clothing, like looking for DNA. And they do actually end up finding some DNA on her clothing, but it's way too degraded to figure out who it belongs to. All they can tell is that it was from a male, but they can't actually test it against anything.

Now, it takes a long time. But finally, on November 6th, 2015, the cold case unit calls a press conference. And that's where they announce that they are convinced that Henry Newell was the man who killed Christy.

They say that if he were alive today, they would have enough to file charges. But since he's passed away, the best they can do is offer a public apology to the Mullins family for the shoddy work that caused Christie's case to remain unsolved for so long. But an apology won't bring Christie back. It won't bring Norman back, who spent the rest of his years looking for the man who took his baby girl away.

And it won't undo the decades of hurt that the Mullins family had to endure, not knowing what really happened to Christy. Right. I mean, I'm glad we're all kind of on the same page with Henry now, but I guess the missing piece for me is why. I mean, he goes outside to stop these kids from lighting firecrackers, and like 30 to 45 minutes, he goes out, beats Christy to death, comes home,

What, like, kicked this off? What started this? Why is this happening? And was Carol involved? Like, did she lure Christy out there? Was all of this planned? I don't know. I don't think we'll ever have full, complete answers to those questions. Carol may have...

have been involved in luring her. She may know something or brought her along not even knowing, you know what I mean? But like, I don't know. Does Carol ever come forward and tell the real story, more of her story, anything? No, she's always stuck to her version of events.

And I mean, to some extent, I get it because like, I mean, my God, even after it was clear to everyone that Henry did it, the police wouldn't even take it seriously. You know what I mean? But I do think like, what about after he died? I mean, I think there's a lot of families potentially out there holding on to stuff like this, holding on to these generational secrets and not in this case, but like.

I might be talking about one of you listening, and it's not something that, like, I'm just saying to sound deep. We were recently contacted after an episode we did by someone who had information on a murder that they believed someone in their family committed. I mean, and the way they described it is the way the people in Henry's family described it, where they're like, it's almost this, like, known family secret, but it starts to become more like lore than fact.

And you're like, well, surely, you know, police must know everything. You know, if we know this, if we're talking about this, whatever. And it wasn't until they heard our episode that they were like, we have to come forward. So don't wait for the episode. I mean, if there is something like this, some secret in your family, some lore in your family, I mean, there is another family on the other end.

There is a Phyllis, there is a Norman, there is a Kim, and they are living in terrible grief. So even if it feels like you couldn't ever really be living in your own family's Crime Junkie episode, remember that these stories are happening all around us, to us, and we owe the truth to one another.

And I also think an important thing to take from this episode is how much the community engagement helped this case. Jack could still have lived out his whole life in prison if nobody would have cared. If nobody would have— But I think it was amazing how quickly they worked. I mean, he was, what, charged and convicted in early September, and they got together in early September and said, this isn't right. We as a community will not stand for this injustice. Right.

And that is what being a crime junkie is all about. Take the action, you guys. It is never too late to right wrongs. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, CrimeJunkiePodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crime Junkie is an Audiochuck production. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?