A Teen’s Murder, Lying Eyewitnesses and the Wrong Man Arrested — But Killer's Niece Knew the Truth for Decades

Nearly 50 years ago, terror ripped through the Clintonville neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, when 14-year-old Christie Mullins was beaten, raped and bludgeoned to death in a wooded area behind a strip mall.

On the afternoon of Aug. 23, 1975, Christie and her friend Carol Reeves headed to a cheerleading contest Reeves said she heard was taking place behind the Graceland shopping center at 1:45 p.m.

No one was there, so Reeves went to the nearby Woolco store to see what time it was.

When she returned, Christie was no longer sitting on the guardrail behind the store where she had last seen her, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

Less than an hour later, Henry Newell Jr., 25, told police he and his wife were walking in the woods behind the shopping center when they saw a tall, unshaven man with long hair "swinging a long two-by-four in a wood-chopping motion," Columbus Monthly reports.

According to Newell, the man ran off as soon as he saw the couple.

Newell and his wife notified police and helped put together a composite sketch of the person they said was the killer, according to The National Registry of Exonerations. 

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Three days later, police located a man who fit their exact description: Jack Carmen, 26, a man with developmental disabilities who confessed to the murder because the detectives were “being nice to him,” according to the Registry.

Just 11 days later, on Sept. 3, 1975, Carmen pleaded guilty to kidnapping, raping and murdering Christie and was sentenced to life in prison.

Skeptical of Carmen’s confession, the ACLU took up his case, saying he had an IQ of about 50 and didn’t understand his Constitutional rights when he was interviewed, according to the Registry. He was granted a new trial in January 1976 and acquitted in 1977.

During his trial, a witness came forward saying Newell himself had confessed to killing Christie. Despite that, Newell was not charged in connection with her death and the case went cold.

Shocking Confession

In 2014, a woman named Pam Brown told 10 TV that when she was 16, Newell, her uncle, confessed to murdering Christie, sharing gruesome details of how he killed her.

She said that before his confession, he said that what he was about to tell her "might shock her."

Then, according to Brown, “He said that he did kill her.”

He proceeded to tell her that he happened to spot Christie, a neighbor of his, on the guardrail at the shopping center. He stopped to talk to her and then “made a move” on her, Brown told the outlet. 

When she fought back, he said he tied her up. "He said she wouldn't stop screaming, so he picked up a two-by-four and just started bashing her in the head with it,” Brown said.

She said she was afraid to come forward about the confession until after Newell died in 2013.

"I just want the Mullins family to know I held it in for many years and I regret that by all means,” she told 10TV. “I would like to see them get closure, more than anything."

In 2015, Columbus Police announced that Newell was responsible for Christie's death.