Latest / History Dark / Her Mom never Approved of her Boyfriend - and she paid the price for it _ Murder of Barbara Mullenix
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: That this was a violent, brutal crime.
- 0:08Speaker 2: I know that she's somebody's sister, somebody's daughter.
- 0:11Speaker 3: In a case like this, the body told the story.
- 0:18Speaker 4: She was attacked so severely, the most severe and the
- 0:21Speaker 4: most aggressive attack that I think I've ever seen on
- 0:24Speaker 4: a human being.
- 0:27Speaker 5: In the external examination, I had seen that there were
- 0:29Speaker 5: 52 stab or slash type wounds.
- 0:34Speaker 6: There was a lot of rage involved here.
- 0:36Speaker 1: Do you know that I was kidnapped? Do you know that?
- 0:39Speaker 2: It had to be personal.
- 0:40Speaker 6: It wasn't a random attack.
- 0:47Speaker 7: Every murder is a mystery. But a victim's body is
- 0:54Speaker 7: a sea of evidence. Every fiber is a clue. Every wound,
- 1:01Speaker 7: a piece of the puzzle. The medical examiner holds the
- 1:06Speaker 7: key to unlock their stories and catch a killer.
- 1:11Speaker 8: This is Secrets of the Morgue.
- 1:23Speaker 3: Newport Beach is a very affluent area. Waterfront properties, great
- 1:28Speaker 3: shopping and restaurants, and just a beautiful place to enjoy
- 1:33Speaker 3: the outdoors.
- 1:35Speaker 2: It was about as glamorous as you can get. Lots
- 1:38Speaker 2: of yachts. I couldn't even afford an outhouse in Newport.
- 1:45Speaker 7: One summer's day, a beautiful afternoon on the Pacific Ocean
- 1:49Speaker 7: ends in horror.
- 1:53Speaker 4: The radio call came out as a dead body floating
- 1:58Speaker 4: in the Newport Harbor. I drove from the station directly
- 2:02Speaker 4: down to the yacht club. The body was still floating
- 2:07Speaker 4: on the water. It was obviously a female. She was nude,
- 2:11Speaker 4: but wrapped loosely in a sheet. When I saw this
- 2:18Speaker 4: poor woman, I know that she's somebody's sister, somebody's daughter.
- 2:24Speaker 4: This woman had numerous stab marks throughout her body. She
- 2:29Speaker 4: was attacked so severely, it was the most severe and
- 2:32Speaker 4: the most.
- 2:34Speaker 4: Aggressive attack that I think I've ever seen on a
- 2:36Speaker 4: human being.
- 2:38Speaker 7: The woman's body isn't the only thing tangled in the sheet.
- 2:43Speaker 2: There was actually a folded knife.
- 2:47Speaker 4: And on the knife was some blood and looks like
- 2:49Speaker 4: some human tissue still.
- 2:53Speaker 7: The mutilated body is sent to Orange County forensic pathologist Dr.
- 2:57Speaker 7: Sean Enloe, who has performed over 2,000 autopsies.
- 3:03Speaker 1: I like to solve puzzles.
- 3:05Speaker 5: And forensic pathology is rife with puzzles that need solving.
- 3:11Speaker 1: This was a violent, brutal crime.
- 3:15Speaker 5: On her upper chest and neck and on her upper back,
- 3:21Speaker 5: there were, I counted, I think, 52 stab or slash wounds.
- 3:26Speaker 8: Dr.
- 3:27Speaker 7: Enloe's first job is to help detectives identify the woman.
- 3:33Speaker 2: The coroner's investigator, it's their crime scene, so to speak.
- 3:37Speaker 4: The body is theirs, the crime scene is ours, and
- 3:39Speaker 4: we work in conjunction with each other to try to
- 3:42Speaker 4: determine what actually happened.
- 3:45Speaker 5: One of our first go-tos is their fingerprints. Her fingerprints
- 3:51Speaker 5: were obscured because of her being in the water. When
- 3:54Speaker 5: a body, living or dead, has been in the water,
- 3:57Speaker 5: the balance between the different substances within our bodies and
- 4:02Speaker 5: the water try to come to some equilibrium.
- 4:06Speaker 1: So sometimes your hands or toes will turn.
- 4:08Speaker 5: Kind of pruney and get kind of wrinkled. That can
- 4:11Speaker 5: obscure to get a good fingerprint match. In this case,
- 4:18Speaker 5: the fingertips were distorted to a point where we did
- 4:21Speaker 5: not get a good match.
- 4:24Speaker 7: Without fingerprints, Dr. Enloe needs to find another way to
- 4:28Speaker 7: reveal the woman's identity.
- 4:30Speaker 5: Dental records are often used, but we don't have a dental... database,
- 4:34Speaker 5: that's confirmatory. All of the ways that we traditionally use
- 4:39Speaker 5: for trying to determine someone's identity have not been productive.
- 4:43Speaker 1: We do not know who this person is.
- 4:47Speaker 7: For detectives, it's bad news. Investigating a Jane Doe case
- 4:52Speaker 7: can be an uphill battle.
- 4:55Speaker 4: Identifying the female was primary to us, but also trying
- 4:59Speaker 4: to find out if there were additional victims and who
- 5:00Speaker 4: the suspects were.
- 5:03Speaker 10: Jane Doe cases can be so difficult to solve because
- 5:07Speaker 10: you don't have the starting point of all investigations, which
- 5:10Speaker 10: is who is this person? Then you don't know who
- 5:13Speaker 10: their enemies are. You don't know where she was last.
- 5:17Speaker 10: You don't know who might have a motivation to kill her.
- 5:21Speaker 4: When you have to investigate a Jane Doe or a
- 5:24Speaker 4: John Doe, the medical examiner's office is an integral part
- 5:28Speaker 4: of a team. Without them, it just makes our job
- 5:30Speaker 4: way more difficult.
- 5:33Speaker 8: Dr.
- 5:33Speaker 7: Enloe continues his examination and uncovers another clue.
- 5:39Speaker 5: It was evident that she had had breast augmentation. Some
- 5:44Speaker 5: silicone implants have a serial number and a lot number.
- 5:48Speaker 5: These can be tracked back to the manufacturer. In this case,
- 5:53Speaker 5: when I had the breast implants, we had at least
- 5:55Speaker 5: another avenue to pursue as far as who the decedent is.
- 6:01Speaker 7: He sends the information about the serial numbers to detectives
- 6:05Speaker 7: who are still scouring the harbor for evidence before it's lost.
- 6:10Speaker 4: In my mind, the clock's always ticking from the discovery
- 6:13Speaker 4: of the victim. First 48 hours, very important. From that point,
- 6:17Speaker 4: you're running and gunning.
- 6:20Speaker 10: It's crucial that they collect anything that could potentially be
- 6:23Speaker 10: evidence down the line.
- 6:26Speaker 1: They need to.
- 6:27Speaker 10: Just assume that whatever's in the area of the crime
- 6:30Speaker 10: scene could be a part of the puzzle that will
- 6:32Speaker 10: help them solve it.
- 6:35Speaker 4: It was a massive undertaking, and we had hundreds and
- 6:38Speaker 4: hundreds of yachts that I wanted to go out there
- 6:40Speaker 4: to find out who was living on them. If maybe
- 6:42Speaker 4: they saw something or they're potential witness suspects, we don't know.
- 6:47Speaker 8: Within hours, Byington may have a clue.
- 6:50Speaker 4: We had a detective said that he had located a
- 6:53Speaker 4: broken down cardboard box that was floating in the harbor.
- 6:57Speaker 4: There was some that we could still tell it belonged
- 7:00Speaker 4: to a television set.
- 7:02Speaker 2: And there was the barcode that was on there. We
- 7:05Speaker 2: really didn't know what we were going to be able
- 7:06Speaker 2: to retrieve from it.
- 7:10Speaker 8: At the morgue, Dr.
- 7:11Speaker 7: Enloe examines the stab wounds covering Jane Doe's body.
- 7:16Speaker 5: In the external examination, I had seen that there were
- 7:19Speaker 5: 52 stab or slash-type wounds. What I don't know until
- 7:23Speaker 5: I'm able to look more closely at the wounds is,
- 7:27Speaker 5: Are any of these potentially life-threatening? Or is there another
- 7:32Speaker 5: cause of death that is equally or more compelling?
- 7:35Speaker 9: It's truly critical for a medical examiner to keep an
- 7:38Speaker 9: open mind in working out the case. You have to
- 7:41Speaker 9: consider a number of possibilities because if you don't, you
- 7:44Speaker 9: shut the door.
- 7:48Speaker 5: I start making a diagram of the external examination. In
- 7:52Speaker 5: this procedure, I am putting down the features of the
- 7:55Speaker 5: individual stab wound and that includes the length, the depth,
- 8:01Speaker 5: its orientation, and its location on the body. The vast
- 8:06Speaker 5: majority of the 52 wounds were not immediately life-threatening. These
- 8:11Speaker 5: were ones on the hands, the arms, and the ones
- 8:15Speaker 5: on the upper back. They ranged in their depth quite
- 8:18Speaker 5: a bit, but none of them were hitting a major
- 8:22Speaker 5: artery or vein.
- 8:24Speaker 7: But the wounds do tell Dr. Enloe something about how
- 8:27Speaker 7: Jane Doe died.
- 8:30Speaker 5: Wounds on the hands and forearms are consistent with defensive wounds. Typically,
- 8:35Speaker 5: if somebody is attacking you, part of the defense is
- 8:38Speaker 5: trying to push them away and to keep them from
- 8:41Speaker 5: getting where the weapon is going to do more damage.
- 8:46Speaker 3: What that tells us is that this is a fight.
- 8:49Speaker 3: This was not a woman who was killed while she
- 8:51Speaker 3: was sedated. or in any other state of unconsciousness. This
- 8:55Speaker 3: was a woman who fought back.
- 8:58Speaker 5: There were injuries on the front and back of the head, neck,
- 9:01Speaker 5: and the upper chest, and on the front and back
- 9:04Speaker 5: of the right thigh, but from below the breast to
- 9:08Speaker 5: the pelvis, there weren't significant injuries.
- 9:12Speaker 11: This is a vicious attack done by a person or
- 9:16Speaker 11: persons with the intent to kill. The fact that she
- 9:20Speaker 11: was stabbed 52 times suggests that this was not a
- 9:24Speaker 11: kill in self-defense, that this was something that was planned.
- 9:29Speaker 11: It was something motivated by a deep hatred of the person.
- 9:33Speaker 7: But two of the 52 wounds Dr. Enloe identifies are unique.
- 9:39Speaker 5: There were two slash-type wounds on the throat. One got
- 9:46Speaker 5: the carotid artery, one got the jugular vein. Either of
- 9:50Speaker 5: those could be lethal within minutes. So the most immediate
- 9:57Speaker 5: cause of death would be these two wounds.
- 10:02Speaker 7: The autopsy has determined how Jane Doe died, but the
- 10:07Speaker 7: central mystery remains.
- 10:09Speaker 4: What we know right now is we have a woman
- 10:10Speaker 4: that's been severely and aggressively attacked and killed, and so
- 10:14Speaker 4: now we need to identify her and hopefully find out
- 10:16Speaker 4: who was responsible for it.
- 10:19Speaker 7: The serial numbers from the breast implants give detectives their
- 10:22Speaker 7: first solid lead in the case.
- 10:25Speaker 2: We were able to identify the manufacturer.
- 10:30Speaker 4: They were able to identify that they belonged to a
- 10:32Speaker 4: Barbara Monex who was 56 years old.
- 10:39Speaker 7: Then they get a second lead that launches the case
- 10:42Speaker 7: in a new direction.
- 10:45Speaker 4: The detective that was researching the cardboard box was able
- 10:48Speaker 4: to identify through credit card records the purchaser of this TV,
- 10:51Speaker 4: and his name was Bruce Mullinex. We had just heard
- 10:55Speaker 4: Barbara Mullinex's name, so right away we started gearing up
- 10:59Speaker 4: again to go track down where they lived.
- 11:01Speaker 7: Records reveal the victim isn't from Newport, but from nearby
- 11:06Speaker 7: Huntington Beach.
- 11:08Speaker 4: We notify the Huntington Beach Police Department that we have
- 11:10Speaker 4: a homicide victim and that that person's last known address
- 11:13Speaker 4: was in their city. They would start running record checks
- 11:18Speaker 4: on that address and identified both Barbara and her husband
- 11:22Speaker 4: as living together. However, they were divorced and they had
- 11:24Speaker 4: a 17-year-old daughter, Rachel, living with them also.
- 11:30Speaker 2: We call that a clue.
- 11:34Speaker 7: A brutally murdered woman found in Newport Harbor has been
- 11:38Speaker 7: identified as Barbara Mullenix of Huntington Beach, California. Local detective
- 11:44Speaker 7: Steve Mack joins the investigation.
- 11:47Speaker 6: The best way I could describe myself as a detective
- 11:52Speaker 6: was tenacious. If you committed a murder, I was going
- 11:56Speaker 6: to do everything that I could to find you. I
- 12:02Speaker 6: received a call from Sergeant Dave Byington of the Newport
- 12:04Speaker 6: Beach Police Department. He told me about the body that
- 12:07Speaker 6: they recovered from the harbor the day before and that
- 12:11Speaker 6: they'd identified the victim as Barbara Mullinex. and he asked
- 12:17Speaker 6: that we go to the residence until they could arrive
- 12:19Speaker 6: with a search warrant.
- 12:24Speaker 7: Police are worried that something has happened to Barbara's ex-husband, Bruce,
- 12:29Speaker 7: and their daughter, Rachel, inside the home.
- 12:33Speaker 4: We had a judge assign a search warrant for the location,
- 12:36Speaker 4: and my detectives, along with Detective Mack, processed the interior.
- 12:40Speaker 8: Of the house.
- 12:43Speaker 6: It was a two-story condominium, Downstairs was unremarkable. It looked
- 12:47Speaker 6: like it was well-lived in, but there was no evidence
- 12:50Speaker 6: of a crime that could be seen. No bodies, no
- 12:58Speaker 6: other suspects hiding there, no sign of forced entry. We
- 13:03Speaker 6: checked upstairs at that point, and on the landing, outside
- 13:08Speaker 6: of a bedroom was trash that was consistent with packing
- 13:13Speaker 6: of a television set.
- 13:16Speaker 2: We checked that bedroom, and it was.
- 13:19Speaker 6: Obvious the television that was once in the box that
- 13:22Speaker 6: was found was on the wall. The room had an
- 13:27Speaker 6: appearance of belonging to a teenage girl. Her dresser drawers
- 13:33Speaker 6: were empty. Her clothing was gone. It led me to
- 13:39Speaker 6: believe that perhaps Rachel wasn't harmed. but had run away.
- 13:55Speaker 6: We entered into the second bedroom. I wasn't really 100%
- 14:00Speaker 6: expecting that we'd find the crime scene there. But once
- 14:06Speaker 6: we walked in, there was no doubt. We were able
- 14:11Speaker 6: to see blood spatter on the wall, around the window.
- 14:16Speaker 6: at the headboard, on the nightstand adjacent to the bed,
- 14:20Speaker 6: and on the floor. On the wall leading from the
- 14:26Speaker 6: master bedroom back into the bathroom, we could see what
- 14:29Speaker 6: was obviously to me a blood transfer on the wall.
- 14:34Speaker 6: First assumption was it was transfer from somebody's hand touching
- 14:39Speaker 6: the wall. There was no doubt at this point, based
- 14:45Speaker 6: on the blood evidence, blood spatter, the blood transfer. It's
- 14:49Speaker 6: clear someone was murdered in this room. And I had
- 14:55Speaker 6: every reason to believe that it was Barbara.
- 15:01Speaker 7: While forensics collects evidence in the bedroom, detectives are surprised
- 15:06Speaker 7: by an unexpected visitor.
- 15:10Speaker 4: While I was on the perimeter of the crime scene,
- 15:13Speaker 4: Bruce Mullenix walked right up to me. and identified himself
- 15:16Speaker 4: and wanted to know what was going on. I told
- 15:20Speaker 4: him that we'd explain everything in a minute, and then
- 15:22Speaker 4: I went and got detective back.
- 15:27Speaker 6: He didn't seem shocked that his condominium was surrounded by
- 15:30Speaker 6: crime scene tape and uniformed police officers. I told him
- 15:35Speaker 6: that we're conducting a homicide investigation. And he paused for
- 15:42Speaker 6: a moment, And then he said, is it Barbara or Rachel?
- 15:51Speaker 6: I told him that it was Barbara and that we
- 15:53Speaker 6: can't find Rachel.
- 15:56Speaker 4: My fear and Detective Mack's fear was the same, that
- 15:59Speaker 4: she was also the victim of foul play or homicide
- 16:01Speaker 4: or injured somewhere.
- 16:03Speaker 6: Bruce then tells me that he hasn't been able to
- 16:07Speaker 6: make contact with Barbara or Rachel for two days. and
- 16:10Speaker 6: that's highly unusual with Rachel because she is constantly in
- 16:13Speaker 6: contact with him via text messaging or cell phone calls.
- 16:21Speaker 6: I asked Bruce how it is that he came to
- 16:23Speaker 6: live with his ex-wife. He told me that they'd originally
- 16:27Speaker 6: divorced in Oklahoma City and he moved to California.
- 16:34Speaker 7: Barbara takes custody of Rachel and moves to Florida. but
- 16:38Speaker 7: their new life is short-lived.
- 16:41Speaker 6: Some time later, Rachel called Bruce and said, Mom has
- 16:47Speaker 6: no money. We need to come live with you. Bruce
- 16:51Speaker 6: wasn't real excited about moving in with Barbara again, but
- 16:56Speaker 6: Rachel pleaded with him.
- 16:58Speaker 3: The Mullinexes have an unconventional way of living in a home,
- 17:02Speaker 3: that's for sure. So now they're living as a divorced couple.
- 17:09Speaker 3: and they each have their own rooms.
- 17:13Speaker 4: I thought that was extremely odd, the fact that this
- 17:16Speaker 4: gentleman was living with his ex-wife in the same house
- 17:18Speaker 4: and their daughter.
- 17:21Speaker 2: Usually, if you're exes, you don't live together.
- 17:26Speaker 4: And that was just another kind of the hair on
- 17:27Speaker 4: the back of my neck, thinking that somehow he was responsible.
- 17:32Speaker 7: Detective Mack asks Bruce where he's been for the past
- 17:36Speaker 7: seven days.
- 17:38Speaker 6: Bruce told me that he had been up in the
- 17:40Speaker 6: city of Fresno at a meeting regarding his employment.
- 17:46Speaker 7: He may have an alibi, but investigators are suspicious of
- 17:50Speaker 7: his attitude about Barbara's murder.
- 17:54Speaker 6: Most people demand to know what's going on. It's their house.
- 17:57Speaker 6: Why can't I go into my house? Where's my ex-wife?
- 18:01Speaker 6: Where's my daughter? None of that came out of Bruce.
- 18:09Speaker 6: It made me suspicious that perhaps he already knew what
- 18:11Speaker 6: was going on and just wanted to find.
- 18:16Speaker 8: Out what we knew.
- 18:18Speaker 7: Detectives continue to press Bruce for answers while Dr. Enloe
- 18:23Speaker 7: works to identify the murder weapon and the killer.
- 18:28Speaker 5: Sometimes the body can tell us things about the weapons
- 18:31Speaker 5: involved in the death. In this case, We had 52
- 18:37Speaker 5: stab or slash type injuries. A folding knife was in
- 18:42Speaker 5: the bedding that was wrapped with the body. There were
- 18:46Speaker 5: injuries that were wider than the blade of the knife
- 18:50Speaker 5: and some that were deeper than the length of the knife.
- 18:55Speaker 5: This folding knife could not have caused all of the
- 18:58Speaker 5: injuries that I saw on the body.
- 19:01Speaker 8: Dr.
- 19:02Speaker 7: Enloe looks closer at Barbara's wounds and makes a disturbing discovery.
- 19:07Speaker 5: There is a gray object that is located between the
- 19:12Speaker 5: eye and the eyelid. An x-ray was done, and the
- 19:18Speaker 5: x-ray shows that there is a knife. It's been driven
- 19:22Speaker 5: into the head for its full length. I have never
- 19:25Speaker 5: seen anything like this before or since.
- 19:30Speaker 7: The location of the knife reveals a gruesome new detail
- 19:34Speaker 7: about the violence of Barbara's death.
- 19:37Speaker 1: It does not cut the eyelid. It does not burst
- 19:40Speaker 1: the eye.
- 19:41Speaker 5: That's telling me that this blade was hammered in either
- 19:47Speaker 5: while the decedent is dying or is already dead.
- 19:52Speaker 8: Dr.
- 19:52Speaker 7: Enloe removes the knife from the skull and sends it
- 19:55Speaker 7: to detectives.
- 19:58Speaker 6: The handle of that particular knife matched the handles of
- 20:01Speaker 6: the utensils that were in the drawer of.
- 20:03Speaker 8: The Mullinex kitchen.
- 20:06Speaker 3: We could tell that there was one particular knife that
- 20:08Speaker 3: was missing out of the set. and it matched the
- 20:12Speaker 3: same one that we found in Barbara's body.
- 20:16Speaker 6: If somebody grabs a knife from within the residence and
- 20:19Speaker 6: commits a crime with it, you would think that it's
- 20:21Speaker 6: somebody that lives there. That further added suspicion that Bruce,
- 20:27Speaker 6: the ex-husband, could be involved in this homicide.
- 20:35Speaker 7: Detective Steve Mack has confirmed that Barbara Mullenix was murdered
- 20:40Speaker 7: in her bedroom And her ex-husband, Bruce, is the prime suspect.
- 20:45Speaker 6: Usually the ex-husband or ex-wife in these types of cases
- 20:48Speaker 6: are the first suspect because they're the ones that have
- 20:51Speaker 6: the close contact with the victim. They're the ones most
- 20:53Speaker 6: likely to have animosity towards the victim and they snap.
- 20:57Speaker 7: Bruce claims that he couldn't have killed Barbara because he's
- 21:01Speaker 7: been out of town on business.
- 21:04Speaker 11: Many criminals have a sense of hubris. They believe that
- 21:07Speaker 11: they can get away with a perfect crime. and that
- 21:10Speaker 11: they can elude and outsmart detectives.
- 21:14Speaker 7: To confirm Bruce's alibi, Detective Mack needs to know when
- 21:18Speaker 7: Barbara died.
- 21:20Speaker 6: Getting the time of death or approximate time of death
- 21:23Speaker 6: from the pathologist is extremely important.
- 21:27Speaker 5: One of the ways that we determine time of death
- 21:30Speaker 5: is algor mortis, which is the characteristics of the body
- 21:35Speaker 5: to cool after death. But it is different in air
- 21:38Speaker 5: than it is in water. In this particular case, the
- 21:44Speaker 5: body was put into a body of water, Newport Harbor.
- 21:49Speaker 8: Dr.
- 21:50Speaker 7: Enloe can use the fact that the body was in
- 21:52Speaker 7: water to his advantage.
- 21:55Speaker 5: Even though someone is in a body of water, that
- 21:59Speaker 5: doesn't prohibit decomposition from occurring. But she was relatively identifiable.
- 22:07Speaker 5: She didn't have decomposition. So my estimate of the time
- 22:11Speaker 5: of death was... least a few hours and probably not
- 22:15Speaker 5: more than.
- 22:16Speaker 1: A few days.
- 22:18Speaker 7: Armed with the new information, Detective Mack drills deeper into
- 22:22Speaker 7: Bruce Mullenix's alibi.
- 22:25Speaker 6: Bruce told me that he went to a conference in
- 22:27Speaker 6: the city of Fresno on September 12th and was away
- 22:30Speaker 6: from the residence until he returned late in the afternoon
- 22:34Speaker 6: on September 14th. Barbara's body was discovered on September 13th,
- 22:40Speaker 6: which is in the middle of the days that Bruce
- 22:43Speaker 6: said he was gone.
- 22:45Speaker 7: Detective Mack needs to narrow the time of death further
- 22:49Speaker 7: if he wants to eliminate Bruce as a suspect.
- 22:53Speaker 6: We began door-to-door canvassing of neighbors to see if anybody
- 22:57Speaker 6: could give us any information. A resident that lived next
- 23:00Speaker 6: door to Barbara Mullinex said he was awakened around 2
- 23:03Speaker 6: o'clock in the morning on September 13th to the sound.
- 23:07Speaker 8: Of a struggle.
- 23:10Speaker 6: Speaking with another neighbor, he said sometime around 2.30 he
- 23:14Speaker 6: heard the sounds of a box being dragged along the concrete.
- 23:19Speaker 6: He looked out the window and he saw two people
- 23:21Speaker 6: putting a box in the back of Barbara Mullinex's station wagon.
- 23:26Speaker 6: What that says to me is that this occurred on
- 23:28Speaker 6: the early morning hours of September 13th when Rachel was
- 23:31Speaker 6: supposed to be home with her mother.
- 23:33Speaker 7: With a clear time frame, Detective Mack needs to determine
- 23:36Speaker 7: if Bruce's alibi holds up.
- 23:40Speaker 6: Based on interviews with the hotel staff and other witnesses
- 23:44Speaker 6: at the conference, it would have been extremely difficult, if
- 23:47Speaker 6: not impossible, for him to drive from Fresno, four to
- 23:50Speaker 6: four and a half hour drive each way, commit the murder,
- 23:53Speaker 6: clean up and dispose of evidence and the body, and
- 23:56Speaker 6: return to Fresno by the time conference started the next morning.
- 24:02Speaker 6: In my opinion, at this point, Bruce is no longer
- 24:05Speaker 6: a suspect.
- 24:08Speaker 7: With Bruce in the clear and Rachel still missing, detectives
- 24:12Speaker 7: worry she's been abducted by the real killer.
- 24:17Speaker 6: Nobody's been able to contact her for two days.
- 24:23Speaker 7: To find her, they need Bruce to reveal everything he
- 24:26Speaker 7: knows about his family and their broken lives.
- 24:32Speaker 10: Investigators always want to know everything they possibly can about
- 24:36Speaker 10: the victim.
- 24:36Speaker 1: So who knows?
- 24:38Speaker 10: Is out there who might be an enemy. Who were
- 24:40Speaker 10: they with in the days leading up to their death?
- 24:44Speaker 10: Were they dating anyone? They need to understand what was
- 24:47Speaker 10: going on in the victim's life.
- 24:53Speaker 6: During the investigation, Bruce also told me that Barbara had
- 24:56Speaker 6: a difficult past. That at one point, she had been raped.
- 25:03Speaker 6: So all she had in her life to keep her
- 25:05Speaker 6: going was Rachel.
- 25:10Speaker 3: The relationship with Rachel and her mother was very codependent.
- 25:16Speaker 3: Rachel decided that she didn't want to go to school anymore,
- 25:20Speaker 3: and she convinced her parents that she didn't need to
- 25:22Speaker 3: go to school. So she was home with Barbara most
- 25:27Speaker 3: of the day. I think the interesting part about Barbara
- 25:32Speaker 3: Mullenix was that, by all accounts, she was the life
- 25:35Speaker 3: of the party. She was social. I think she would
- 25:40Speaker 3: be described as a fun woman, except when she drank
- 25:46Speaker 3: too much.
- 25:50Speaker 6: Barbara was an alcoholic. She got verbally and physically abusive
- 25:54Speaker 6: when she drank.
- 25:56Speaker 7: Barbara's drinking may have played a role in her death,
- 26:00Speaker 7: and Rachel may be the only one who knows, but
- 26:04Speaker 7: she's vanished.
- 26:05Speaker 3: We didn't know if she had been kidnapped if she
- 26:09Speaker 3: had been murdered.
- 26:11Speaker 2: We had no idea where this young woman was.
- 26:15Speaker 6: I asked Bruce if he could tell me any further
- 26:18Speaker 6: about Rachel. He really didn't have an idea of who
- 26:21Speaker 6: her friends were, except her new boyfriend that she was
- 26:25Speaker 6: spending all of her time with. Bruce told me that
- 26:29Speaker 6: the new boyfriend was named Ian Allen and that he
- 26:32Speaker 6: was 21, four years older than Rachel.
- 26:37Speaker 7: Ian and Rachel appeared deeply in love, but Barbara wasn't
- 26:42Speaker 7: so supportive.
- 26:44Speaker 6: As time went on, Barbara became extremely jealous of Ian
- 26:47Speaker 6: spending all his time with Rachel, and that's when she
- 26:50Speaker 6: started making threats against Ian. Threats to tell his employer
- 26:56Speaker 6: that he was a drug dealer. Threats to go to
- 26:59Speaker 6: the district attorney's office and report him for statutory....
- 27:03Speaker 7: Barbara's determined to break them up. while Rachel tries to
- 27:07Speaker 7: protect Ian and their relationship.
- 27:10Speaker 3: Rachel had her parents sign this document granting permission for
- 27:14Speaker 3: Ian to have sex with her and avoid the statutory laws.
- 27:19Speaker 3: In California, statutory laws prohibit a 21-year-old to have sex
- 27:23Speaker 3: with a 16-year-old because that's not the age of consent.
- 27:27Speaker 1: It's 18.
- 27:29Speaker 6: Well, there are three things on my mind at this point. One,
- 27:33Speaker 6: Rachel herself is a victim of a homicide case. Two,
- 27:37Speaker 6: Rachel's been kidnapped by whoever the killer is. Or three,
- 27:43Speaker 6: she was physically involved in the homicide.
- 27:47Speaker 7: Ian Allen is now Detective Mack's number one priority.
- 27:51Speaker 8: But there's a problem. Ian has also disappeared.
- 27:56Speaker 6: We went to Ian's residence and spoke with his parents.
- 28:00Speaker 6: The last time Ian's parents saw him or Rachel were
- 28:03Speaker 6: about six hours before the body was found. The parents
- 28:07Speaker 6: said that Ian was a good kid growing up, and
- 28:10Speaker 6: the worst thing that we were able to find about
- 28:13Speaker 6: Ian is he got a speeding ticket.
- 28:16Speaker 7: Ian's parents also tell detectives that they know all about
- 28:19Speaker 7: the fighting between Rachel, Ian, and Barbara.
- 28:24Speaker 6: About a week prior to this, Rachel had been at
- 28:26Speaker 6: their house and had fallen asleep while watching television with Ian.
- 28:31Speaker 6: Rachel had a curfew that she apparently missed, and that
- 28:35Speaker 6: made Barbara angry. Barbara came to their residence at 1
- 28:38Speaker 6: o'clock in the morning and was banging on the door
- 28:41Speaker 6: and yelling for Rachel to come out. Rachel went downstairs
- 28:45Speaker 6: and Barbara grabbed her and dragged her off to their
- 28:48Speaker 6: car and they left, leaving the Allens somewhat dumbfounded by
- 28:51Speaker 6: what just occurred.
- 28:53Speaker 7: Then Ian's parents give Detective Mack some alarming information.
- 28:58Speaker 6: It was discovered that they were missing a. 38 caliber
- 29:02Speaker 6: revolver and now our fear was that Ian was in
- 29:06Speaker 6: possession of a handgun. We contacted friends of Ian and
- 29:09Speaker 6: Alan and asked if they knew the whereabouts of Ian
- 29:12Speaker 6: and Rachel. One of the friends said that a few
- 29:15Speaker 6: days prior, they had been at a beach party. Ian
- 29:19Speaker 6: was there, Rachel wasn't, because she was at home and
- 29:21Speaker 6: forbidden from seeing Ian. Ian had a couple of drinks
- 29:26Speaker 6: and said that he was going to kill his girlfriend's mother,
- 29:30Speaker 6: and he was going to drive her to the desert
- 29:32Speaker 6: in her car and blow the car up, His friends
- 29:38Speaker 6: didn't take him seriously so one of them said, I
- 29:41Speaker 6: wouldn't drive out to the desert, I'd just throw her
- 29:43Speaker 6: in the ocean.
- 29:48Speaker 7: Detective Steve Mack now considers Ian Allen the prime suspect
- 29:52Speaker 7: in the murder of Barbara Mullenix and the disappearance of
- 29:56Speaker 7: her daughter, Rachel.
- 29:58Speaker 6: It's clear to me that the animosity that Ian has
- 30:01Speaker 6: for Barbara is insurmountable.
- 30:05Speaker 7: Ian's anger toward Barbara could explain why her death was
- 30:09Speaker 7: so violent.
- 30:10Speaker 5: There was a cluster of superficial injuries on the upper back.
- 30:15Speaker 5: The fact that they're all together and so shallow makes
- 30:18Speaker 5: me think that the intent was more injury or expressing
- 30:22Speaker 5: their anger than it was of trying to kill.
- 30:25Speaker 9: The fact that The stab wounds on Barbara's face were
- 30:30Speaker 9: done after she was already dead indicates that the person
- 30:34Speaker 9: who committed this had a great deal of rage towards Barbara.
- 30:42Speaker 5: The term overkill is often used in forensic cases in
- 30:46Speaker 5: which there are injuries that are produced that are not
- 30:50Speaker 5: needed to cause the death.
- 30:53Speaker 7: Just 24 hours have passed since Barbara's body was found
- 30:57Speaker 7: floating in the harbor.
- 30:59Speaker 6: At this point in the investigation, time is still the essence.
- 31:01Speaker 6: We still have to worry about Rachel's safety and make
- 31:04Speaker 6: sure that she's not a kidnap victim or a homicide victim.
- 31:08Speaker 7: Detective Mack presses Ian's parents for more details about their
- 31:12Speaker 7: son and Rachel.
- 31:13Speaker 6: Approximately 10 o'clock in the morning on the 13th, Ian
- 31:18Speaker 6: and Rachel came to the Allen residence. Ian went to
- 31:23Speaker 6: his bedroom and packed a duffel bag, and Rachel used
- 31:26Speaker 6: the computer. The Allens agreed to let us search the computer,
- 31:32Speaker 6: and that's when he found MapQuest directions on how to
- 31:36Speaker 6: get to Florida from Huntington Beach.
- 31:39Speaker 3: Well, we knew that Barbara and Rachel had lived in.
- 31:45Speaker 2: Tampa, Florida.
- 31:46Speaker 6: We obtained Rachel's phone records as well as Ian's, and
- 31:49Speaker 6: we did find phone calls to someone in Tampa and
- 31:53Speaker 6: ultimately learned that she had called an ex-boyfriend and said
- 31:57Speaker 6: that she and Ian needed a place to stay for
- 31:59Speaker 6: a few days.
- 32:03Speaker 3: According to Rachel's friend, Rachel sounded happy and elated to
- 32:07Speaker 3: be coming to Tampa. Nothing about kidnappings or being in
- 32:11Speaker 3: danger or code words or anything like that was uttered.
- 32:18Speaker 6: It was my belief, though, that she was on the
- 32:20Speaker 6: run with Ian. I no longer have concerns for Rachel's
- 32:26Speaker 6: safety and well-being. I now have concerns about getting her
- 32:29Speaker 6: in custody for murder.
- 32:31Speaker 7: To track the fugitives down, detectives accessed their credit card records.
- 32:37Speaker 6: In the afternoon of the 14th, Ian Allen's gas card
- 32:40Speaker 6: was used at a Chevron station in Sulphur, Louisiana. While
- 32:45Speaker 6: other detectives were trying to use the computers to find
- 32:47Speaker 6: out what the next big city was, one of the
- 32:49Speaker 6: old-time detectives grabbed a big old Rand McNally road atlas,
- 32:53Speaker 6: opened it up to Louisiana and found sulfur and went Lafayette.
- 33:00Speaker 6: So he called the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office and said, hey,
- 33:04Speaker 6: can you look for him?
- 33:06Speaker 3: The police had set up on I-10 and blocked off
- 33:09Speaker 3: the freeway so that no traffic could get through. They
- 33:14Speaker 3: stopped the truck. Ian yielded to the police and they
- 33:19Speaker 3: were both taken out of the car.
- 33:25Speaker 7: Rachel Mullenix and Ian Allen are arrested and held in
- 33:29Speaker 7: custody while Steve Mack flies to Louisiana to confront them
- 33:33Speaker 7: in person.
- 33:35Speaker 6: In attempting to talk to Rachel, She kept claiming that
- 33:39Speaker 6: she was kidnapped and held against her will and didn't
- 33:41Speaker 6: know what was going on. You understand what you're under
- 33:44Speaker 6: arrest for?
- 33:45Speaker 1: No, no one will.
- 33:46Speaker 6: Tell me anything what's going on. You are under arrest
- 33:52Speaker 6: for the murder of your mother.
- 33:54Speaker 1: Do you know that I was kidnapped? Do you know that?
- 33:57Speaker 6: I know that's what you're saying.
- 33:59Speaker 1: What do you mean that's what I'm saying?
- 34:01Speaker 6: We have physical evidence to the contrary.
- 34:05Speaker 2: What do you believe we mean?
- 34:07Speaker 6: We have physical evidence that you're an active participant, and
- 34:10Speaker 6: that's what I want to talk to you about.
- 34:12Speaker 10: Please let me talk to you, please. I want my
- 34:15Speaker 10: mom back.
- 34:18Speaker 6: She was trying to cry. She's a terrible actress. I
- 34:21Speaker 6: told her I didn't believe her. I watched you cry
- 34:24Speaker 6: and stuff for 20 minutes, and not one tear has
- 34:26Speaker 6: fallen from your eye. landed on your jumpsuit.
- 34:29Speaker 1: Or anything else?
- 34:29Speaker 5: Yeah, I've been crying.
- 34:30Speaker 2: Have you not asked these people?
- 34:31Speaker 6: Your eyes aren't red at all.
- 34:33Speaker 2: Have you not asked these people?
- 34:34Speaker 8: I have to be crying.
- 34:36Speaker 2: I have to be crying.
- 34:42Speaker 7: Rachel refuses to confess. Instead, she tells Detective Mack a
- 34:47Speaker 7: graphic story of how Ian killed her mother.
- 34:50Speaker 1: I was asleep. It was the middle of the night.
- 34:55Speaker 10: I heard my mom scream my name.
- 34:58Speaker 1: I ran in her room.
- 35:00Speaker 10: And I saw Ian standing there on top of her,
- 35:03Speaker 10: stabbing her.
- 35:06Speaker 6: She tried to deny everything and that she tried to
- 35:09Speaker 6: push Ian off. And Ian pushed her against the wall
- 35:12Speaker 6: and knocked her out. I explained to her that I
- 35:16Speaker 6: knew she was lying. I knew she wasn't kidnapped. I
- 35:19Speaker 6: knew he wasn't holding her against her will. And she
- 35:22Speaker 6: just kept denying and denying and denying. Your mother was
- 35:25Speaker 6: brutally murdered.
- 35:26Speaker 2: No, I didn't know. I didn't tell my mom.
- 35:30Speaker 3: I didn't.
- 35:32Speaker 2: Do that.
- 35:34Speaker 6: I concluded my interview with Rachel and went over to
- 35:39Speaker 6: speak to Ian.
- 35:41Speaker 12: What I'm asking is, is there any way, though, to
- 35:47Speaker 12: get her off the hook or.
- 35:49Speaker 8: No.
- 35:50Speaker 2: None at all?
- 35:50Speaker 9: No.
- 35:52Speaker 6: He tried to deny that Rachel was involved, said that
- 35:55Speaker 6: she had been kidnapped and she should be sent home
- 35:57Speaker 6: to her father. He was accepting all the blame and
- 36:03Speaker 6: saying that Rachel had nothing to do with the stabbing
- 36:05Speaker 6: of her mother. I knew he was lying.
- 36:15Speaker 7: Ian Allen has confessed to the brutal murder of Barbara Mullenix.
- 36:19Speaker 2: Let's go back to.
- 36:22Speaker 8: The stabbing incident.
- 36:23Speaker 2: Start over.
- 36:26Speaker 7: But Rachel Mullenix, Barbara's daughter, refuses to admit guilt in
- 36:32Speaker 7: the crime.
- 36:33Speaker 1: I didn't kill anybody. I didn't kill my mom.
- 36:37Speaker 7: Investigators believe there's a lot more to their story.
- 36:41Speaker 3: We're shocked that Ian Allen is insisting on taking the.
- 36:47Speaker 2: Blame for this murder.
- 36:49Speaker 3: And he wants, in his mind, to do the honorable thing.
- 36:55Speaker 6: He was saying that she was kidnapped and we could
- 36:58Speaker 6: let her go. She had no involvement. And I said,
- 37:01Speaker 6: I'm not going to let you sit here and lie
- 37:02Speaker 6: to me.
- 37:03Speaker 8: I know better.
- 37:04Speaker 2: What I knew is the absolute truth.
- 37:06Speaker 6: Trying to protect Rachel is not necessarily in your best interest.
- 37:12Speaker 6: He's telling me how he and Rachel were in love.
- 37:15Speaker 6: Barbara was interfering with the relationship and trying to control
- 37:18Speaker 6: and dominate the situation. And that on the night of
- 37:23Speaker 6: the occurrence.
- 37:25Speaker 6: He went over to Rachel's house at about one in
- 37:28Speaker 6: the morning. He had a knife with him, but it
- 37:32Speaker 6: was a small pocket knife with a locking blade. And
- 37:36Speaker 6: he didn't think that was going to be enough to
- 37:37Speaker 6: scare Barbara. So he went into the kitchen and grabbed
- 37:40Speaker 6: two other knives.
- 37:42Speaker 12: I held the knife right to her throat and she
- 37:43Speaker 12: just started screaming, Rachel, Rachel, help me, he's trying to
- 37:47Speaker 12: kill me. I tried to move her head over to
- 37:53Speaker 12: the pillow to Ian.
- 38:04Speaker 7: Confesses to the murder, but he still maintains Rachel is innocent.
- 38:09Speaker 10: Well, if I didn't sit there and stab her, how can.
- 38:12Speaker 1: I be charged with murder?
- 38:14Speaker 3: Ian says it was all me.
- 38:17Speaker 1: I took her.
- 38:18Speaker 2: I did all the killing.
- 38:21Speaker 7: Their story falls apart when investigators analyze security video of
- 38:25Speaker 7: the couple's road trip.
- 38:30Speaker 3: Footage at a gas station in Louisiana shows Rachel Mullenix
- 38:34Speaker 3: walking freely throughout the mini-mart that's in the gas station.
- 38:39Speaker 3: At some point, she comes over to Ian in a
- 38:42Speaker 3: very loving way as he's using the ATM. She goes
- 38:46Speaker 3: and gets a drink. of something by herself. She goes
- 38:49Speaker 3: to the cash register and pays for it. And then
- 38:52Speaker 3: they both get in the truck and drive away. Rachel
- 38:57Speaker 3: Mullenix looks very much at ease. No evidence of any
- 39:00Speaker 3: woman who's ever been through anything traumatic, much less kidnapping.
- 39:05Speaker 7: To prove beyond a doubt that Rachel is an accomplice
- 39:09Speaker 7: and not a victim, investigators seek Dr.
- 39:12Speaker 8: Enloe's expertise.
- 39:14Speaker 3: Out of the two knives that were recovered, They do
- 39:17Speaker 3: not account.
- 39:18Speaker 2: For all of the wounds.
- 39:20Speaker 5: Looking at the wounds, looking at the body, looking at
- 39:23Speaker 5: what are likely or unlikely scenarios. The table knife is
- 39:29Speaker 5: not sharpened to have produced the injuries on the body.
- 39:33Speaker 5: The folding knife was not possible to cause at least
- 39:36Speaker 5: some of the.
- 39:37Speaker 1: Injuries on the body. So there had to be at
- 39:40Speaker 1: least one more knife.
- 39:43Speaker 3: The body is telling us the story. Barbara is telling
- 39:47Speaker 3: us the story. She's telling us unequivocally that there's another
- 39:52Speaker 3: knife out there.
- 39:55Speaker 5: Given that there are at least three knives, it is
- 39:58Speaker 5: more likely to be multiple assailants.
- 40:03Speaker 3: We know that all of the wounds were inflicted at
- 40:06Speaker 3: approximately the same time, one after another, until the victim
- 40:11Speaker 3: was dead. So either Barbara Mullenix was killed by a
- 40:15Speaker 3: ninja who can swing three knives, or There were two perpetrators.
- 40:23Speaker 1: It makes more sense. It's more probable that more than
- 40:29Speaker 1: one person was involved.
- 40:31Speaker 7: In August 2008, Rachel Mullenix is found guilty of first-degree murder.
- 40:37Speaker 7: Two months later, Ian Allen is also convicted. Both are
- 40:42Speaker 7: sentenced to 25 years to life.
- 40:46Speaker 4: There were numerous points where Rachel could have stopped this
- 40:48Speaker 4: from happening. If she was truly not on board or
- 40:51Speaker 4: maybe this got out of hand. But I was present
- 40:54Speaker 4: when they read both verdicts on both Ian and Rachel.
- 40:58Speaker 2: And Rachel, to me, they were dry tears. Nothing rang
- 41:01Speaker 2: true with her.
- 41:02Speaker 4: There was no doubt in my mind that she was
- 41:04Speaker 4: responsible for killing her mom.
- 41:07Speaker 6: I believe that Rachel was the mastermind and put this
- 41:10Speaker 6: whole thing in motion. And she kept prodding it along
- 41:13Speaker 6: by sending him constant texts. In the two or three
- 41:16Speaker 6: days leading up to the murder, there were 464 text
- 41:20Speaker 6: messages between the two of them, with the final ones
- 41:23Speaker 6: being after her mother's murdered, it says, I love you.
- 41:28Speaker 6: In my 16 years of homicide investigation, this is among
- 41:31Speaker 6: the most unique and the most horrific that I was
- 41:34Speaker 6: involved with.
- 41:36Speaker 5: I don't take any personal sort of glee in somebody
- 41:40Speaker 5: being sentenced, but I do take the satisfaction of, trying
- 41:44Speaker 5: to speak for the decedent and to contribute to.
- 41:48Speaker 1: The justice for them.
- 41:50Speaker 5: I do take satisfaction in trying to do that to
- 41:52Speaker 5: the best of my ability.
- 41:55Speaker 3: Those hands of Barbara told us the kind of woman
- 41:59Speaker 3: she was. She had a fighting spirit, and she fought
- 42:02Speaker 3: all the way to the end. And I'm sure that
- 42:05Speaker 3: the greatest heartache was the betrayal of her own daughters.
- 42:39Speaker 8: Thank you.