Justice denied: The Christie Mullins murder

I think it’s fair to say that whenever we see stories about unsolved homicides; it makes us angry. Although we didn’t’ know the victim, we just hope to never experience having a family member go missing or die under unusual circumstances. Imagine someone taking the life of a sibling, significant other or parent and going years without finding out who killed this person and why.

Unfortunately, it’s a reality. If you look at crime statistics, then you understand that if a case isn’t solved quickly, there is a high probability it will never get solved. Think about this. This means there are killers walking the streets right now who never paid for their evil deeds. And with improvements to genetic testing, criminals are getting arrested years after their crimes.

In many cases, the perpetrator started a family and continued living as if nothing happened. So it’s not unusual to see elderly killers in their 70s and 80s. It’s almost as if they got away with murder because they lived a regular life and managed to maintain a lifestyle that didn’t draw any unusual attention.

It’s also not surprising to learn that some killers died many years after committing their crimes. Although they escaped earthly justice, we can only hope they pay for their crimes in the afterlife.

For instance, take the story of teenager Christie Mullins, 14, who was murdered in Clintonville, Ohio back in 1975. A man named Henry Newell Jr. had found the body of Christie behind the Graceland Shopping Center in Columbus, Ohio. An unknown assailant had tied Christie up and beat her to death. The Columbus, Ohio police investigated the homicide. They eventually charged a man named Jack Carmen with the homicide. He was a mentally challenged man who was tried and acquitted of killing Christie.

After releasing Carmen, the police charged no one else with killing Christie. The murder would go unsolved until 2014, when a woman named Pamela Brown told authorities that her uncle had confessed to her that he killed Christie Mullins.

Who was this uncle? Turns out, her uncle was Henry Newell Jr., the same man who found Christie’s body all those years ago. He had told his niece when she was a teenager that he had killed Mullins and provided the details.

Newell and Christie were neighbors. He had seen her sitting on a guard rail behind the Graceland Shopping Center. They began a conversation. Afterward, Newell tried to make an advance on her. She rejected him and began screaming. He then tied her up and beat her to death with a two-by-four.

Brown said Christie’s death was her family’s worst kept secret. And since they feared getting into trouble, they never reported the crime to law enforcement. It’s also possible they didn’t believe Newell either. He died in 2013 without ever being charged with killing Christie Mullins. Hopefully, the afterlife offers some hard justice for people who spent their earthly time committing evil acts.

Brown apologized to Christie’s family for not identifying her uncle as the killer. She said she loved her uncle, but he wasn’t a good person. There are many other cases just like this one. Although I am glad the family finally got answers, it still doesn’t bring relief. Their daughter is still deceased and wasn’t able to live out her life.

I have had friends and co-workers who were murdered. However, I knew what happened to them. Still, that doesn’t provide much comfort. But I am always glad to see that law enforcement can improve upon their processes and can access new DNA techniques to capture killers. I am glad that killers from years ago will spend their last days looking over their shoulders, waiting for that knock on the door from law enforcement.