Death At Cottonwood Creek
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Generally to get in that kind of position, you have a pretty big ego. We had a camera, we started taking photos, she took a few of me, I took some of her. Leslie Muller took a fall and drowned. How that happened, no one knows except Fred Muller. You cannot fall that far without serious, serious injuries.

Fred had a great story. I mean, he had details and drama and action. I mean, there were so many inconsistencies in his story.

I don't know if they just thought that we were going to be a bunch of ignorant hicks. There's no proof. If someone's going to murder somebody, they're going to have a reason. We don't know these 12 people. They don't know us. They don't know my dad. He would have never hurt my mother in any way. During jury selection, we kind of heard that, oh, you know, he's got a new wife. And it's like, oh, aha.

She basically rescued me from the pits of despair after Leslie died. I will tell you why I fell in love with Fred. His honesty, his integrity, his trustworthiness. There are 12 people in a room somewhere deciding my husband's fate. It was incredibly stressful. It's tough. They were there, they stared at us, you know, day after day. I think it was a lie.

I think Fred Muller is a master of deception. When I saw that photograph of Fred's face moments before the accident, I told myself he didn't kill her. Just because you don't find something doesn't mean it's not there. Amid the majestic mountains of Colorado and the landscape surrounding the family vacation house, Leslie Muller found her sanctuary. It was a beautiful house with some beautiful land around it.

Bob Burton knew the Mollers. He's the former undersheriff here in Hinsdale County. The people in town would talk about her and how excited she was when she was up here and how exuberant. She loved to take advantage of everything that was up here. Leslie came here to the town of Lake City each summer to ride horses and at Christmas to ski.

with Fred, her husband of 27 years, and their three children, Alex, entering the Naval Academy, Ariel, working for a Dallas bank, and Amanda, who works in the oil and gas industry. Fred and Leslie had married young. He was 19 and she was 20.

A deeply religious woman, she became a pioneering doctor in their hometown of San Angelo, Texas, the first female OBGYN in the area. They were very, very affectionate to each other. They were the type of couple that you kind of feel uncomfortable because they're all over each other. Even on the rare occasions they didn't see eye to eye, the disagreements didn't last, says daughter Ariel. And that's why they had such a great marriage, because they never...

harbored any grudges against each other. The Mullers seem to have it all. Three successful children, a big home in San Angelo, Texas, filled with a lifetime of family memories. And Fred owns a thriving metals business in town. They are a proud family, going back generations in the community. But what happened here in the Deep Mountain Woods on May 3rd, 2008...

in this creek filled with rushing water changed their lives forever. That Saturday started out happily. It was a wonderful day. We basically spent the whole day, us three together. They went to church. Afterwards, Fred and Alex did some work around the house. And then Fred and Leslie decided to go for a hike.

They were urging me to come along with them. Your dad too? Yes, both. And they were even pressing me saying, "Well, come on, it'll be fine. We'll see the waterfall." And at that point I was pretty wore out because, I mean, I worked all morning and so they decided to just make it a date. That date would soon take a tragic turn. Burton was one of the first law enforcement officers on the scene, and Mueller described to him what had happened. You can hear the creek in the distance. We're getting closer and closer.

Fred led us right down to the edge of Cottonwood Creek. Beautiful waterfall down here. And said he was coming down here with his wife to start taking pictures, just to this ledge. Little treacherous here, isn't it? The waterfall in the background was really the point of interest they had in terms of the picture taking that day. And this particular area would have still had some snow on it and potentially ice.

This is one of the last photos taken of Leslie Muller before Fred says a bizarre turn of events was set in motion. He had her kneel just about where he was holding the dog. Now this is where Fred tells me that as he took the picture, a bird flew by. The blue bird appeared to startle the dog and that as she was getting up, she suddenly started going backwards.

Fred described it himself to police the next day when they interviewed him on audio tape. It's like it just happened in slow motion in front of me, where she falls just like she just dove and lands on the rocks right by the water. The one he pointed to was that one, there's a little bit of water coming over the top. Right, pretty big-sized rock. Pretty big-sized rock. She just did a swan dive.

Just like head and shoulders, and just flies like mush into the channel. I'm screaming her name, I'm hollering, I don't know what I'm doing. And next thing I know, she's out of sight, man. I can't really see where I can get to her. She's just face down in the water, head first going downstream. Leslie's body was found wedged under that tree that you can see behind me that goes across the creek. It's just 50 yards downstream from where Fred said she fell in.

Fred says he ran down the mountain trail for help, and rescuers trekked up the river, eventually finding Leslie's body here. It appeared to be a terrible, tragic accident. I know she's in a better place, and I know that Jesus is with our family. And so I had to keep it together for my dad, for my mom still.

But the family has had a big problem putting it all behind them. Because as police scrutinized Fred's story of what happened, they weren't at all sure that it was true. Fred Muller says all that occurred here was one horrific accident. I say it was not an accident. I say it was a cold-blooded murder.

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When Leslie Muller's drowned body was found wedged beneath this log in Cottonwood Creek, investigators took Fred Muller at his word. Initially, we had every reason to believe it was an accident. But it wasn't long before Fred's eyewitness account of what happened raised some troubling questions. Each time...

We would talk to him. The red flags kept being waved. According to Fred, Leslie fell from that cliff about 20 feet, but somehow didn't land in this rocky area that's about six foot wide. Instead, she somehow landed out on this boulder and was swept away. He said, "I saw her hit with a sickening thud. She was motionless." Hitting head first, body first. Shoulder and head.

Based on Fred's description, investigators expected to see major injuries to Leslie's body, but her autopsy only added to the mystery. There was a significant absence of any visible injury to any part of the body. You would expect to see broken bones. Which begged the question, had Leslie really fallen from that cliff? Burden says the more Fred spoke...

I didn't do anything, and I'm not at all afraid of the truth. The more his story sounded rehearsed. He hit me as if he was reading from a recited script. He spontaneously said, you know, I don't have any reason to kill my wife. I don't have any motive. I don't have a girlfriend.

We love each other very much. In fact, he told me they even had sex that day. He was answering a question that hadn't even been asked. Hadn't been asked in advance of that. He just blurted that out. Burden says Fred could suddenly become defensive, like when he started talking about family insurance policies. We had a big insurance policy on the two of us.

There are moments, Burton says, when Fred did sound like a man coping with the death of his wife. I've already had the worst thing I can think of in the world happen to me, and I just want to go home.

But it was what Burden saw on Fred's face, these scratches, that added to his growing belief that a crime had taken place. His explanation was that there were some bushes that probably scratched him. First of all, there weren't a lot of bushes there. And the type of scratches you normally get from bushes are totally inconsistent with the marks on his face. Burden wondered, could Leslie have scratched Fred's face?

And then this clue. These glasses that turned out to be Fred's found just 15 feet from where Leslie had reportedly fallen. I, at this point, had no idea whose glasses they were. They were broken. And when an officer asked if he was missing his glasses, Fred turned defensive once again. You know, you're asking me.

It got so combative. At one point on the record, he said, if you didn't have a badge and gun, I'd beat the out of you. That kind of shocked me.

And he, at that point, raised maybe he should be getting an attorney. And what did that suggest to you? At that moment, I felt that we had a criminal homicide. Burden developed a theory of what happened on May 3rd, 2008. The scenario that I put together is that when the picture was being taken, what was allegedly the last picture before she fell in,

He had gone forward towards her and tried to push her in. According to Burden's theory, Lushley was fighting for her life. I'm thinking at that point, the scuffle continued in which the glasses were ripped off and left pretty much where that rock is.

This is when Burden believes Leslie scratched Fred. I believe at that moment she was able to break away, gain one, two seconds maybe. She fled down a path that paralleled the creek. Burden speculates that Fred chased after her. He was probably one to two seconds behind her, and she ended up jumping into here, and just right behind her was the husband. He jumps in too and drowns her in this pool area right below us.

It takes her body and just lodges it under that tree where the body was found. What motive would Fred possibly have had to kill his wife? In many cases, the motive is not as clear as one would hope. What I believe in this case is that he was tired of her. I don't think he hated her. I just believe he was tired of her.

Not a very strong motive for murder. And that was one big problem for police trying to prove their suspicions. Fred's family says there's no motive because there's no murder. There's not a doubt in my mind that he did not kill my mother. It was an accident. And police didn't have enough evidence to charge him with a crime, so they let Fred resume his life for a while.

I always tell him that I love him and that things are going to be okay and that we're going to be here for him no matter what. Fred Muller returned to his Texas home to be with his three children just days after his wife Leslie drowned in this Colorado creek. He may be a big guy, but he's very emotional and very soft-hearted. Fred's daughter, Ariel. He's a big teddy bear. He would have never hurt my mom. He would do anything to make her happy. He would do anything to make us happy.

A year passed. Then Fred reconnected with a long-time family friend, Wendy Walker. The two began dating and were married in 2010. There are a number of photographs of Leslie and the kids as they're growing up. She was a lovely person. He loved her very much. He lost her too soon.

And that's very, very sad. And it was very hard on him. I saw him in the middle of all of that grief. This is Fred and Wendy's San Angelo home. Nearly four years had passed since Leslie's death.

Then, on February 6, 2012, family members started getting phone calls. I was still in high school at the time, and I was pulled out of class from our principal. I'm not going to say it was the worst phone call I'd ever had, because the worst was on May 4, 2008. It was the second worst phone call I've ever had. The children were stunned to learn Colorado authorities had arrested their father for the murder of their mom.

Fred Moeller was to spend the next year of his life in a Colorado jail awaiting trial. Have any of you ever had a moment of doubt? No. Never? Never. Not for a moment? No. If you knew my dad, you wouldn't doubt either? You wouldn't lie for him, in other words, in a situation like this? My dad wouldn't lie for himself. He's an honest man, and he...

If something else had happened that day, he would have said so. Also, you have to understand that as much as he's nonviolent, he's also...

You know, I mean, his probably second biggest trait is the fact that he doesn't have a nefarious bone in his body. Like, he's not the type to spin plots and cover things up. In January 2013, Fred's murder trial got underway in Gunnison, Colorado, best known for having the lowest average temperature in the continental U.S. Prosecutor Matthew Durkin. Injuries are going to tell you a story that Leslie Moeller was drowned.

by her husband. Fred's lead defense attorney, Mike DeGaran. Don't be tricked into a situation where the prosecution says we really don't know how it happened. You can't guess somebody into the penitentiary in the United States. You can't speculate. You're not to come up with a theory. Guard against that.

For four weeks, the family, including Leslie's parents, who support Fred, sat and listened to prosecution witnesses. As did jurors Betty Haggart, an interior designer, Janine McElveen, a Park Service supervisor, Brian Turner, another Park Service employee, and Drew Zimmerman, an electrical engineer. It was one of the toughest things I've ever been involved in.

Prosecutors call experts who present a series of video recreations. I've dragged the mannequin back up and we're going to drop it again in that downrushing water.

to test whether it was possible for Leslie's body to have traveled down this winding creek to where she was found underneath this fallen tree. I'm going to test how far we can advance that mannequin or if the mannequin will flush. We obtained the mannequin in the summer of '09. Investigator Jack Haynes used a mannequin that was the exact height and weight

of Leslie Mueller. Each time he would drop it, the mannequins would sink. It didn't go anywhere. The mannequin never flowed downstream? Never floated, never flushed anywhere. It just would stay at the bottom. Then a woman investigator attempted the same journey.

Water rescue expert Andrea Zafaris testified to the result. It's not possible for the water to have gotten the body there or to have kept the body in that position. A human being had to physically put a body in that position. You can observe the water elevation... But the defense presents an expert who says the tests are meaningless because the water levels had changed between the time of the tests and when Leslie died in May.

Opinions that the streamflow of Cottonwood Creek on September 9th, 08, were strikingly smaller by quite a bit than they were on May 3rd, 2008. Another question raised by prosecutors, Fred's motive. They brought in Amy Hiawski. Give me a moment because I'm nervous. Hiawski, a former friend, testifies that the subject of divorce came up once in conversation with Fred.

He said he wouldn't go through it of course. He wouldn't allow a woman to dictate when he could or could not see his children. What you want to do is you want to be able to say, well, that's not true. You want to be able to defend him. And you basically have to just sit there and watch him be attacked. He wished he'd met Leslie later in life so that he had got to sow his oats.

Jurors weren't sure what to make of that. She was very, very Catholic and probably would not grant a divorce or not even agree to it.

So there could have been some type of motive in that. I wasn't presented a motive other than, "Oh, he was tired of being married," when he had neighbors saying they'd see him walk hand in hand. No motive was huge for me. Dr. Jeff Kalina. In their case, the defense brings in Dr. Jeff Kalina, a veteran emergency room physician. Ready? His task: to explain why, after a 20-foot fall, Leslie's body had no major injuries.

Kalina testified that he treated even more serious accident victims. But they got propelled out of the car window and yet may not have any significant injury based on how they landed or whatnot. That's very rare. I've seen it. The defense also calls Werner Spitz, a nationally known coroner who has studied Leslie's autopsy report. What's your opinion as to the manner of death

Janine, what do you think of Fred's story? As soon as the trial ended, I was pretty firmly convinced that he had some involvement in her death.

As the case goes to the jury, the Mullers are struggling to grasp that it's all come to this. After one tragedy with their mother, they could face a second one with their father. Five years ago, it was a tragedy. Leslie passed away. The tragedy now, the tragedy today, is ruthlessly coming after an innocent man. And what that's doing not only to him, but to the rest of the family. This has become a second tragedy.

It was 1989 in Titusville, Florida. Kim Halleck said she and her ex-boyfriend Chip Flynn were kidnapped and attacked at gunpoint. Kim fled the scene, but Chip didn't make it out alive. Did you kill Chip Flynn?

No, ma'am. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most, involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testified against a brother. They always say lies, you can't remember lies. A

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As the jury deliberates, the Muller family retreats into the snowy countryside to the house where they have lived for the past five weeks. We drove out to see them in the midst of a storm. It's been very hard to wait. The minutes go by very slow.

Is this like a gilded cave in some ways? This is not where you want to be. It's in this house, no matter how nice it is, no matter how beautiful the setting. Yes, we're all anxious to have a decision made and to be able to go home with Fred. As the first day turns into the second, and then a third, with no word, tensions are high.

It's hard not to start thinking about the worst. It was more difficult than I had ever anticipated it would be. The jurors were struggling, too. I wavered back and forth, knowing that there was somebody's life in the balance, but yet there was a victim and wanting to make sure that if we felt the evidence...

supported it, making sure that she got justice. Obviously there is a debate going on with this jury because we're into day four and there must be factions on either side and one faction must be trying to convince the other. Are you thinking the same thing? It's not very productive to speculate and it kind of just drives you crazy but it seems like that.

I think that we have some very strong people that see that Fred is innocent. I don't think they're going to let an innocent man go to jail for something that he didn't do. Hello? Suddenly, Judge Steven Patrick calls everyone back to court. I have another note from the jury.

You could feel the tension. They used both the words impasse and adamant. The jury has hit a wall in its deliberations. There was a great deal of arguing and frustration. And there were a couple of times when tempers did flare. Please rise for the jury. The judge calls them into the courtroom, urging they give it one more try.

Ladies and gentlemen, I understand what you are saying. I'm going to give you one more instruction. Reflect on that and then let us know whether you want to further deliberate or not. It's a weighty decision. We were all over the place. It went from being a stressful situation to an extremely stressful situation. And just a few minutes later... We are deadlocked. I will formally declare a mistrial.

It's over. A hung jury. I was a guilty vote up until about the last hour. And I changed my vote basically in the last 15 minutes. I want to thank you for your very hard work. What hung up the jury? The lack of a clear explanation of how Fred might have killed Leslie. I would rather let a guilty man go free than sentence an innocent man.

Prosecution did nothing but poke holes in his story. They didn't give us an alternate story. That's where I came up with my not guilty vote. I was pretty firmly convinced that he had some involvement in her death, but I didn't feel I had the evidence in the trial to vote guilty. In the end, the vote was 11 to 1 for acquittal. Drew Zimmerman was the lone holdout for guilty.

I think it was a lie. Like it was all a big lie. Because none of the evidence supported his statement. And that's why I voted the way I did.

An outsider looking at this would go, wait a second, Drew, 11 people were wrong and you were right? I guess I'm not easily swayed. My mind was made up. You know, in my heart, my mind, and my soul, I felt that he was guilty. Bond will be set at $150,000 cash assurity. For the Mueller family, it's not a victory, but it is a big sigh of relief. I wish that they could have

come to an unanimous decision, it would have been more satisfying. I haven't been able to talk to him in person. I've gotten to talk to him through a glass these last three days and that was the closest I've been to him, being able to talk to him, but while being recorded and knowing that I'm always watched. So it'll be overwhelming. It's overwhelming to think about it. I can't wait to be able to finally give him a hug after over a year. I have a friend's wedding ring.

that I've been wearing around my neck and I'm waiting for him to come out so we can put it back on his finger. Soon, Fred Muller will be set free for the first time in a year. I love you guys. A joyous reunion for the Mullers, but the case is not closed.

I asked Mueller's lawyer, Mike DeGaran, about the possibility of another trial. Should there be a second trial? I'm going to give the prosecutor room to decide that on his own. Fred returns to San Angelo, finally. It's very difficult. I've never been in captivity before. But we'll survive. It's going to make us stronger.

I think it already has. The Mullers will need every bit of that strength. Ten days after the first trial ended, prosecutors decide they will retry Fred Muller. And eight months after the first trial in a new venue, the Denver suburb of Broomfield... Prosecution to call our first witness. The second trial of Fred Muller begins. Just a minute.

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Eight months after a jury could not reach a verdict, Fred Muller is back in court once again, accused of drowning his wife Leslie five and a half years ago. The man in court, the defendant, put her head under the water, under a log, and left her there to die. The prosecution will not bring to you any evidence of why he would do such a thing

or how such a thing would be accomplished. Fred's new attorney, Pamela Mackey, is best known for successfully defending NBA star Kobe Bryant in his 2003 sexual assault trial. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. But the prosecution comes out swinging with witness Justin Sparks.

After Fred had unsuccessfully tried to find Leslie in the creek, he ran to Sparks' house for help. Sparks discovered Leslie's lifeless body under this log. He would act kind of frantic one second, and then the next second he was talking to me very nonchalant and normal. It almost felt like he was acting more than being normal.

sincere. I just started getting a kind of a bad feeling about the whole situation. Mr. Burden, I'm handing you what's been marked. But then for the defense, Mackey cross-examines other prosecution witnesses vigorously. Did you take a GPS measurement of where it was? No. Including former undersheriff Bob Burden.

Mackey attacks Burden's investigation, portraying it as a shoddy, mistake-filled mess. Mr. Burden, would you please answer my question? Did anyone take a yardstick...

and place it in the river to measure the level. If you're asking me, then I can say no. As to what other people did that I did or did not observe, I cannot testify to that. In an attempt to suggest a motive that Fred had a wandering eye, the prosecution calls up Jeannie Barnes, Fred's former assistant.

She testifies that Fred was coming on to her. Do you remember these texts from the defendant and phone calls from the defendant caused a strain in your marriage? Yes. But under pointed cross-examination, Barnes takes on a very reluctant tone. Did you ever have an affair with Fred Muller? No, I did not.

Did he ever ask you for any sexual favors? No, he did not. Did he ever approach you in a sexual way at any time? No, he did not. Fair to say, Ms. Barnes, the investigators that you've talked to have tried to make you into the other woman in Fred's life. I feel that. But you weren't the other woman in his life, were you? No.

Water weighs the same whether it's in your body or out of the body. And as she did in the first trial, water rescue expert Andrea Zafarias testifies that Leslie Muller's drowning was no accident. Dr. Muller could not have gotten from the alleged fall site to the log site.

So Mackie aggressively rebukes her. I can't imagine how she got in the water in the first place from that cliff. Well, there you go again. Volunteering information to help the prosecution. Ms. Zafaris, excuse me. Excuse me. Please answer my question. I do not know where she drowned. Mr. Durkin will be happy to get up here and let you talk all you want. But for right now, the rules are I ask the questions, you give me the answers. Okay.

You know that what the defendant said happened on May 3rd is unreliable. After a seven-day trial, testimony from more than 30 witnesses, closing arguments begin. You know what he said is impossible. Prosecutor Matt Durkin says the proof of Fred's lies can be found on Leslie Mueller's body.

And he can't sell to you that she went through a gauntlet of 130 feet of cottonwood creek and was found in what has been described as a pristine condition. And as for those scratches on Fred's face? The defendant can't tell you what happened to his face. He gives you three different explanations. He says he wrestled with a bush. He then says that it was perhaps when he was climbing out of the creek. And then...

guesses in March of 2009. Well, maybe, just maybe, I self-mutilated myself. Again, impossible. And finally, Durkin argues, Fred's behavior that day points to guilt. As everyone ran to save Dr. Mueller's life, as everyone ran to save a woman they had never even met or known, the defendant

was running away because he knew she was dead. The defendant didn't run away from an accident. The defendant ran away from a murder. We ask you to find the defendant guilty. Then it's Pamela Mackey's turn. What the prosecution has done is to take the statement of a man who has just experienced the most horrific event of his life, seeing his wife fall and being swept downstream,

And for the next five years, they have put that statement under a microscope and picked it apart. Mackey suggests it's the prosecution's story that shouldn't be believed. What evidence, hard physical evidence, do they bring to you of how Fred Muller supposedly caused the death of his wife? What evidence have they brought to you that he drowned her? Not theory.

Not speculation, but hard evidence. Certainly no evidence that he went from this to a homicidal maniac.

What's the story? They haven't told you one. And if Leslie had fought for her life, wouldn't her body have shown evidence of a struggle? There are no injuries consistent with the murder caused by drowning. There's no injuries to her neck, her shoulders, her back, indicating that she was held down. Now, what the prosecution relies on is a dissection of Mr. Mueller's description of the events. Is that fair?

Is that the quantum of proof upon which to convict a man of murder? Mackey says there is a reason why some of Fred's story is confusing. The human brain, the human memory doesn't work like a video camera, particularly in situations that are traumatic and stressful. And so I ask you, at long last, after five long years, to lift the pain and anguish from Fred Muller, from his family.

I ask you to return the only just verdict in this case, a verdict of not guilty. After the jury deliberates 12 hours over two days, the judge comes back with a stunning announcement. Ladies and gentlemen, you have sent me what I will consider to be a final note indicating that you are essentially hopelessly deadlocked.

and do not believe that you can reach a verdict. Mr. Foreperson, is that correct? That is correct, Your Honor. Okay. Fred can't believe what he just heard. Okay, I'll declare the jury deadlocked. We'll declare a mistrial in the case. It's happened again. A hung jury. He tries to control his emotions, but is overwhelmed. No, we'll do that. We're going to set a date fairly quickly. The news seems to knock the wind out of Wendy.

The jury split. Eight guilty, four not guilty. But Fred Muller's recurring nightmare wasn't over. Now he could face a third trial for the murder of his wife, Leslie. Just two months later, a stunning announcement from the prosecution.

With no new evidence to present, they felt that a unanimous verdict was unlikely. So there would be no third trial. No chance for a conviction, but no chance for vindication either. The Mullers told us they were sorely disappointed Fred didn't get the full acquittal they say he deserves. But they're grateful the case has been dismissed. So they can resume their lives.

If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harbored a deep,

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I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction.

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As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts.