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Addendum # 4 to “An All-American Murder”

This is the fourth Addendum to the ebook that can be found here:
http://books.google.com/books/about/An_All_American_Murder.html?id=HrQlAwAA
QBAJ, and here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/212910173/An-All-American-Murder.

The first Addendum can be found here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/218905173/Addendum-to-An-All-American-Murder.

The second Addendum can be found here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/222872377/Addendum-2-to-An-All-American-Murder.
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The third Addendum can be found here:

http://www.scribd.com/document/222940115/Addendum-3-to-An-All-American-
Murder

REOPENED INVESTIGATION

As noted in Addendum # 2, on May 7, 2014, the Columbus Police Department

(CPD) issued a press release stating that “Due to a renewed interest in the Christie
Mullins investigation,” the case was being reopened for investigation. Detective Steven
D. Eppert of the Homicide Cold Case Unit was assigned to conduct the review.

Over the course of the next eighteen months, Detective Eppert interviewed
approximately sixty individuals, many of whom overlapped with the 100-plus
individuals interviewed by myself. I supplied him information and documents from my
investigation and interviews. In addition, he was able to obtain interviews with some
important witnesses who declined to talk to me, including Carol Reeves, Lois Reeves
(her mother), Mary Winniestaffer (daughter of Pamela Newell), Robert Litzinger (CPD
detective), and others. Eppert tried, without success, to locate Penny Curry, for whom
Carol Reeves babysat on the evening of August 23, 1975.

CPD decided also to retest certain physical evidence for DNA profiles, including
items of Christie’s clothing that Henry Newell Jr. never admitted touching (not the
murder weapon—the 2 x 4 board—since he admitted touching that). If they could obtain
a good profile, then they planned to try to match it against DNA either from Newell’s
shirt, which they still had, or failing that, from one of his living nephews. But in the end,
the DNA samples were too degraded due to the passage of time. All that they could
confirm was that the assailant was an unknown male.
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The original evidence collected by CPD included fingernail scrapings, but these
were among some items that were lost. In all likelihood, they would have been just as
degraded.

While the renewed investigation was being conducted, on August 23, 2014, a
candlelight vigil was held in Christie’s honor, 39 years to the day from her murder.
Attended by more than 50 persons, it took place at Homedale Elementary School, which
she had attended. The event was covered by all three local television networks and is
believed to have helped keep focus on the reinvestigation. A video clip can be found
here:

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2014/08/23/columbus-vigil-honors-teen-
murdered-39-years-old.html.

CLOSING OF CASE: NEWELL GUILTY

On November 6, 2015, CPD held a press conference to announce the results of its
reinvestigation. Christie’s family and several friends were in attendance, as well as
Detective Eppert.

Cold Case Unit head Sgt. Eric Pilya stated that “The suspect responsible for her
death is Henry H. Newell Jr.” Although DNA evidence did not play a part in this
conclusion, Pilya said that there was sufficient evidence to charge and convict Newell for
the crime were he alive (he died in September 2013).

The principal evidence cited by CPD consisted of the statements by Newell family
members indicating that Newell had confessed to them or implicated himself in the
murder, e.g., the statements of Newell’s niece, Pamela Brown (see Addendum # 1); his
daughter Judonna Newell and sister-in-law Nellie Newell (see Addendum # 2); and the
1977 trial testimony of his stepson, Bobby Saultz (see original ebook). Pilya also referred
to the confession made by Newell to his co-inmate Alvin Caudill; Newell’s false
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statements about having allegedly “discovered” the body on a nature walk; his placing of
his shirt over the victim’s face; and other unspecified evidence gathered in the course of
the reinvestigation (see below).

Sgt. Rich Weiner, a CPD spokesperson, said the initial investigation was marred
by police work he characterized as “shoddy” even by the dated investigative standards in
place in 1975. Pilya called them “improper investigative techniques.”

In conclusion, Pilya stated that “The Columbus Division of Police wishes to

formally and publicly offer an apology to the family and close friends of Christie Mullins
for the lack of action taken in pursuit of Henry Newell as a suspect by investigators 40
years ago, and any hardships that may have resulted from those actions.” He also
apologized on CPD’s behalf to the original accused defendant, Jack Carmen, though not
by name.

CPD did not identify the motive for the murder and did not indicate that anyone
other than Henry Newell was responsible for the crime. Nothing was said about why or
how Christie ended up in the woods at the murder site with Newell. With that, CPD
announced the case was formally closed.

CPD FILES

With the closing of the case, CPD was willing for the first time to make its files on
the case available to the public. The files contain much information not previously
available. I group it into four categories discussed below: (a) evidence supporting
Newell’s guilt; (b) evidence bearing upon police misconduct/incompetence; (c) lack of
evidence of rape; and (d) formal statements made over time by Carol Reeves. They are
summarized here in turn:
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(a) Newell’s guilt

1. Officer John Cherubini (since deceased), who was one of the first officers at the
scene, took Newell back to the body and began asking him questions. When Cherubini
began searching for the murder weapon (the 2 by 4 board), Newell became very nervous
and agitated. Cherubini told Newell he thought he was lying and that he’d better pull
himself together. Somehow this information was not passed up the chain, or if it was, it
was ignored.
2. After the Carmen trial, Newell (then in jail on the arson conviction) was asked to
give a blood sample and to take a polygraph test. He refused both requests. His wife,
Pam, did take (and passed) a polygraph, but only after taking a polygraph test in Kansas
from a private service, and only after CPD agreed to ask her the same questions in her
polygraph test in Columbus, which she knew in advance.
3. Both Pam Brown (Newell’s niece) and Nellie Newell (wife of Tommy Newell) took
and passed polygraphs concerning their statements incriminating Henry. Although Pam
Brown said her uncle confessed to her, Nellie’s statement is perhaps the more important
as it relates to observations made on the day of the murder. As detailed in Addendum #
2, Nellie said that when Henry came back to the house on Kanawha in early afternoon
that Saturday, he had blood all over him and said he had found a dead girl in the woods.
He then changed his clothes and gathered the family and told them to say they were
going on a nature walk.

This flatly contradicted Newell’s testimony (and his wife’s) that they discovered
the body only after taking the two children to the woods for a nature hike and seeing
Jack Carmen commit the murder. Nellie’s statement supports Bobby Saultz’s testimony
at trial that the “nature hike” was Newell’s second trip to the woods that day.
4. Mary Winniestaffer, the five-year old daughter of Pam Newell, told Detective
Eppert that when they went on the “nature hike” Newell said something to the effect
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that he “wanted to show them what he had found.” That indicates Newell had earlier
seen the victim’s body and was coming back a second time. (She subsequently called me
and related essentially the same thing).

5. Sly Edwards (a potential business colleague of Newell’s) also said that Newell told
him that he had seen the body in the woods but went back home to gather up his wife
and kids to return there because “no one would believe him” if he said he discovered the
body but was not involved in the murder.
6. Another acquaintance of Newell’s (Brenda McCallister, formerly Shannon) said
that Newell’s father “Alabama” once told her that “His son said he went to a party and
killed a little girl” because she “had something on him.”
7. Newell’s daughter Judonna also said he confessed to her that he had killed
Christie (see Addendum # 2).
8. Several people quoted Newell as saying he hated his wife’s two kids (Bobby and
Mary) and that he’d never taken them for walks previously or spent any time with them.

The bottom line is that there is multiple evidence that the nature walk was
Newell’s effort to return to the scene of the crime, and that the alleged sighting of Jack
Carmen committing the murder was a fabrication. And if Newell fabricated that story, it
was only because he was himself the killer. The conclusion by CPD that Newell was the
killer is fully supported.

Henry's brother Tommy had an alibi (he was home in bed at the time of the
murder). It’s possible that he was the mysterious disc jockey telephone caller on the day
of the murder (if there was one). He also may have known about and covered up his
brother Henry's involvement in the murder. Tommy twice declined to take polygraph
tests.
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As for Henry's drug activities, there is much evidence for that, as many people
said he was involved in using and selling drugs. Carol Reeves’s late father is one of the
people who said Newell sold drugs to kids in the neighborhood.

(b) Original CPD Investigation

There is much evidence in the files suggested that Jack Carmen was “railroaded”
and that CPD ignored or downplayed evidence implicating Henry Newell.
1. As noted in the summary of evidence pertaining to Newell’s guilt, Officer John
Cherubini’s suspicion that Newell was lying at the crime scene was not passed up the
chain, or if it was, it was ignored.
2. An extremely close friend of CPD officer of Ron Price (one of the leads in the
original investigation, since deceased) said that one night during the investigation Price
came to his house and said, “I can’t do this anymore. This kid (Jack Carmen) they’re
blaming . . . I know he didn’t do it.” Price’s wife confirmed that if Price told this to this
particular friend, it was probably true because they were so close. (It should be noted
that Price obtained the taped “confession” of Carmen).
3. The first two hours of the questioning of Carmen at CPD headquarters were not
summarized in any memo, which was contrary to CPD practice.

4. One of the lead detectives on the case who questioned Jack Carmen was Robert
Litzinger. Litzinger said he spent the first several hours with Carmen and was convinced
that Carmen did not kill Christie. After Carmen confessed, Litzinger told his boss, Ralph
Arnett, that he was concerned whether it was enough to support an indictment, and
Arnett told him not to worry about it. Litzinger also said that he made a couple attempts
to re-interview Pam Newell, but that Arnett told him to “stand down” and leave the
Newells alone. Litzinger said Arnett (since deceased) only cared about solve rates and
wanted to get the case off the front page. Litzinger said that Arnett and Price
“railroaded” Carmen.
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Litzinger also said that while he initially regarded Henry Newell as a good,
cooperating witness, he later concluded he was a bad witness and likely involved in the
murder. Litzinger did sign an affidavit at the time saying that Carmen was guilty. He
explained that if CPD had a confession and two eyewitnesses, it was practice to charge
the suspect so he was basically forced to sign the affidavit even though he didn’t believe
it.
[Note: There is nothing in the files from the time that indicate Litzinger ever raised any
of these doubts about Carmen’s guilt or his suspicion of Newell’s guilt back then. If there
were any such memos, they were not retained in the files.]
5. Another retired CPD detective, James Carr, said that he wanted to follow up on
additional leads after Carmen confessed but was told by a superior (Richard Hartman)
to “stand down.” According to Carr, Hartman said that additional followup might
provide a defense attorney with ammunition to attack the case against Carmen.

6. Information from the files indicates that Henry Newell was a confidential
informant, or “snitch,” for at least two Columbus police officers on a regular basis. There
are many statements attributed to Newell to the effect that he could do anything he
wanted and was “protected” and “no one would touch him.” There is no evidence in
these files, though, that CPD went easy on Newell in the Carmen case because of his
value to them as an informant.
7. At the police lineup, Henry and Pam Newell were allowed to sit near each other in
the same room. That was contrary to CPD standard procedure, which required
separation of lineup witnesses.
8. After Carmen was acquitted, two officers were assigned to re-review everything
and spent several months doing so. One was Gene Brush, who had a good reputation.
The other (and the boss of the two) was Richard Hartman, the same officer who had told
Carr to “stand down.” By placing an officer involved in the original investigation to head
the reinvestigation, objectivity was compromised. And although Brush appears to have
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done a fairly thorough job working under Hartman, it is apparent that one of the objects
of the reinvestigation was to exonerate Henry Newell if at all possible. The memos of the
reinvestigation reflect a desire to believe the Newells and to discredit others (such as
Carmen’s defense team, Norman Mullins, etc.) who were pointing the finger at Newell.
9. Ultimately Newell was “cleared” by the reinvestigation, mainly on the basis of
blood typing evidence, but the investigation by Detective Eppert concluded that this
evidence was basically worthless, writing in a summary of evidence that “Today’s
technology also indicated that the blood type grouping tests were susceptible to error.
The end result is that none of the results from the tests in 1975-1977 are considered
verifiable today. Hence, the lab examinations neither incriminate, nor exonerate, Henry
Newell Jr.”

(c) Lack of rape evidence

The autopsy report indicated no evidence of rape or sexual assault and no

presence of semen. The original chemists’ report also stated no semen stains were
found. Then a later chemists’ report (before the Carmen trial) said semen stains were
found indicating blood type “A.” (Newell was type “A.” Carmen is type “O.”). Then in the
reinvestigation after Carmen was acquitted, another chemists’ report said semen was
present and was type “O.”

Christie’s bathing suit she wore that day was her own—a floral-patterned suit and
not the borrowed suit that was discussed as a possibility in the ebook. In 2001, DNA
testing was done on the bathing suit and found no semen. The most recent DNA testing
in 2015 also found none. In Detective Eppert’s summary of evidence, he wrote, “Without
the presence of sperm it was more than likely that the positive hit for semen was in fact
the victim’s vaginal secretions.” He also, as stated above, wrote that the blood grouping
evidence was unreliable.
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The upshot is that there is no credible evidence, then or now, that Christie was
raped or even that there was an attempted rape.

(d) Carol’s statements

The CPD files contained several formal statements by Carol Reeves

(pseudonymously identified as “Lisa Sprague” in the ebook) that were not previously
public. They include her witness statements recorded by the police at the time, including
her initial statement; a deposition she gave in 1977, just before the Carmen trial, in a
civil lawsuit brought by Norman Mullins against Carmen and “John Does” (it was not
pursued after Carmen’s acquittal); her 2014 interview with Detective Eppert; and two
polygraph tests, one in 1975 and another in 2014 (see below). Her 1977 trial testimony
was previously made public.

In her initial statement of August 23 (the night of the murder) Carol relayed the
now familiar story that she and Christie went to Woolco for a cheerleading contest based
on a phone call Carol received from a disc jockey at 1 p.m. telling her to be there at 1:45.
She said that she and Christie got to Woolco around 1:30 and when nobody was there,
she went inside to check the time, leaving Christie sitting on the guardrail. When she
came back a few minutes later Christie was gone. Carol then waited a few minutes and
when Christie didn’t appear she headed back down the path and sat on a rock in the
creek for about 15 minutes then decided to go home because she was mad at Christie for
leaving her.

Carol has maintained that same story from the very beginning, including in her
2014 interview with Detective Eppert. For the most part, the basic elements of her story
have been unchanged over time, and some of those elements have been corroborated by
others. However, she has added to or subtracted from the story at times, and others
have attributed statements to her that cast doubt on that story, including that “two were
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involved” and “it wasn’t supposed to go that far.” (She denies ever making any such
statements).

In her original statement of August 23, Carol said that after leaving Woolco she
went home and then returned to the pool at Broadmeadows and spoke to Jimmy
Bateson, a boy she was interested in (twenty-one at the time, since deceased). This
would have been in the 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. range according to other witnesses. She said
“several people at the pool talked of a girl who had been found in the rear of Woolco’s
murdered but at this time she did not hear any description of this girl.”

In all later statements, Carol maintained that the first she heard about any
murder, and the first time she associated it with Christie, was around 7 p.m. based on a
radio report. If there was in fact chatter around 2:30-3:30 p.m. at the pool about a girl
murdered behind Woolco, which Carol heard, it is hard to see how she would not
associate that with Christie, given Christie’s “disappearance” from the guardrail as Carol
claimed.

In addition, in her initial statement on August 23, Carol said she went from the
pool directly to her babysitting job at 465 Broadmeadows Apt 212 (which was the
apartment of Penny Curry). That statement changes in later statements, as discussed
below.

On August 24, a memo by Detective Litzinger of CPD stated that he and another
detective “had talked with Carol Reeves, and they feel there are discrepancies in her
story.” No specifics were given.

On August 25, 1975, Carol gave a second statement to police. It added some new
details about the alleged phone call from the disc jockey. She said the phone call was not
just about a cheerleading contest, but also a “leaves” contest and had something to do
with the “Girl Scouts.”
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In the ebook, there were several discussions about a “maple leaves” reference by
Carol in a Jim Yavorcik 1975 memo and what that meant. In her August 25 statement
(not available at the time of the ebook), Carol said she was told by the disc jockey that
“she should pick a couple of tree leaves” on her way to Woolco “and if she could identify
the tree leaves when she got there that she may be eligible to win anywhere from $50 to
$1,000 in another contest were also having at the time of the cheerleading tryouts.” She
said that on their way to Woolco she and Christie picked a couple of tree leaves for that
contest. Of course, it’s not much of a “contest” if you are allowed to select the tree from
which you are then asked to identify the leaves.

Odd as that may seem, it does somewhat coincide with something Bobby Saultz
told me when I interviewed him. He said that his stepfather Henry Newell occasionally
made prank phone calls, posing as a radio station disc jockey and offering very easy
contests to win money. One “contest” was to “guess who’s on the dollar bill.” After the
caller correctly answered “George Washington,” Newell responded that the prize was a
bucket of cow manure.

Carol’s August 25 statement said that after leaving Woolco, she went to the
apartment of Kathy Kennedy (465 Broadmeadows, Apt. 109), a friend of hers and
Christie’s who was a few years older. Carol said she then “continued about her daily
routine and that she did not think any more about Christie until she had heard the news
later on and associated the murder victim with her girlfriend Christie Mullins.” In this
statement, she did not mention stopping at the pool to talk to Jimmy Bateson after
returning from Woolco, or hearing any talk about a girl found in the woods.

In December 1977, in her deposition on the eve of the Carmen trial, there are
some new details. Carol was asked, apparently for the first time in any detail, about the
events of the morning of August 23 (prior statements had focused on what happened in
the afternoon). She said that late morning she went to the pool to look for Jimmy
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Bateson, who was supposed to meet her there. He wasn’t there, but she did see Christie
and her younger sister Kim. (N.B.: Kim says that Carol had called Christie earlier that
morning to try to convince her to go somewhere, not the pool, but that Kim persuaded
Christie to take her to the pool. Carol does not mention any phone call with Christie
earlier that morning. Kim also recalls Carol going over to the parking lot to talk to four
boys in a four-door white car. Carol said she did not remember any such thing). Carol
was a bit back and both as to whether she was wearing a bathing suit and whether she
and/or Christie went into the pool.

In any event, she and Christie left the pool together a few minutes later. From
there, she said (for the first time), that the two of them went to the Broadmeadows
apartment of twenty-five-year-old Jackie Rozman (who had been Carol’s girl scout
supervisor) and Jackie’s nephew, Steve Neal (seventeen). They lived at 440
Broadmeadows, Apt. 106. This detour to Jackie’s was omitted from previous accounts.
Because neither Jackie nor Steve was home, Carol said, they left and went to Kathy
Kennedy’s.

In her deposition, Carol said she spent most of the summer with Steve Neal, and
that she and Christie had gone to the woods (though not the area behind Woolco) on
plenty of occasions to smoke pot. This is consistent with what Steve Neal told me. Steve
Neal (since deceased) was never interviewed by CPD. Steve Neal is the person referred
to in a memo discussed in the ebook in which Carol is quoted as having said, she “lied
about Steve.” The meaning of that, if she was accurately quoted, has never been
determined. Carol denied in her deposition that when she and Christie went to Jackie’s
apartment they were really looking for Steve, not Jackie.

Carol testified that after she and Christie left Jackie’s, they went to Kathy’s
apartment. This would have been sometime shortly after noon on August 23, that
Saturday. A memo written by radio reporter Bob Singleton on September 9, 1975,
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apparently based on his conversation with Jackie Rozman during a visit to her with
Norman Mullins, has this notation: “C and CH together at 12:30 at friend’s house,”
which is consistent with them being at Kathy Kennedy’s around that time.

In her deposition, Carol said she often had gone to Kathy Kennedy’s
Broadmeadows apartment that summer to smoke pot. She denied, however, that she
smoked pot on the murder day, or at any time after being busted by the police, in July
1975, along with Christie and several other kids, for smoking pot behind the School for
the Blind.

Carol said she went outside Kathy’s apartment after a while to the grass lawn
near the parking lot outside the apartment, in view of the swimming pool, to see if
Jimmy Bateson had arrived at the pool. (He had not.) A friend of hers, Patty Geer,
confirmed to CPD that from her window at 500 Broadmeadows, above the pool, she saw
Carol near the pool/parking lot around this same time. Patty said she and Carol talked
about a “boyfriend” they both knew and liked, presumably Jimmy Bateson.

Carol testified that about 12:40 p.m., her younger sister found her on the grass
outside Kathy’s apartment and told her that “that man” was calling again (the disc
jockey) and was going to call again at 1 p.m. Carol then ran home to take the call.

In the meantime, Christie remained with Kathy Kennedy in Kathy’s apartment

until approximately 1:15 p.m. According to Carol, after she finished her call with the disc
jockey around 1:15, she left for Woolco with her younger sister and ran into Christie on
the way, at which point Carol told her sister to go back home. Carol and Christie then
went together to Woolco for the cheerleading contest, again according to Carol.

Carol testified that she left Christie sitting on the guardrail outside Woolco when
she (Carol) went inside the store to check on the time. In her initial August 23, 1975
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statement, she had likewise said that she left Christie “sitting on a white steel railing,” so
that is consistent.

It should be noted, however, that no witness ever recalled seeing Carol and
Christie near Woolco that day, whether inside or at the guardrail outside.

Carol’s testimony about going to Kathy Kennedy’s is also consistent with her
August 25, 1975 statement to CPD, in which she mentioned going to Kathy’s on the
murder day. Although omitted from her very first statement on August 23, it seems
unlikely that she made this part up. If she never went to Kathy’s on the murder day, it
would have been easily disprovable by Kathy herself. On August 25, just two days after
the murder, Carol had to assume CPD would interview Kathy to confirm her account.
Had Kathy said Carol and Christie were never at her apartment that day, it would have
undermined the rest of Carol’s story.

CPD did not interview Kathy in 1975, however, because Jack Carmen was
arrested on August 26 and the investigation ceased. Carol could not have predicted that
on August 25, when the police had few clues as to the killer.

In Carol’s deposition, she also testified that after leaving Woolco when she
couldn’t find Christie, she went back through the woods along the path and sat on a rock
in the middle of the creek for a while. She said she pulled her pants legs up (she was
wearing blue hip-huggers). She recalled the creek being “down” and others have
described it as “dry” at the time.

She was barefoot, although still in possession of the saddle shoes she said she had
left at the guardrail with Christie because she feared being accused of shoplifting if she
wore those shoes inside Woolco. When she came back out of the store, the shoes were
still at the guardrail even though Christie had left. Christie had also borrowed Carol’s
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blue comb and, according to Carol, was combing her hair when Carol went inside the
store. The comb was later found near Christie’s body and was identified by Carol as hers.

In her deposition, Carol said she was interested in Jimmy Bateson and he had
recently given her a friendship ring. However, she also knew that Christie had been out
with Jimmy and another person recently and that Jimmy had somehow obtained
Christie’s necklace, which was broken. Carol denied that this bothered her or that she
was jealous of Christie over Jimmy.

On January 2, 1978, after the Carmen trial, Carol gave another statement. At the
time, she was asked about information given to the police department that kids in the
neighborhood used the saying “going to a cheerleading contest” and called each other to
tell them this, as a signal to go to a certain area to have a drinking or marijuana party.
She denied this was true.

A few days later, CPD interviewed Jimmy Bateson for the first time (he was not
interviewed in 1975). He backed up Carol’s story about Woolco, cheerleading, leaves,
etc., based on what Carol’s sister had told him that day in Carol’s absence. He said he
was supposed to have met Carol at the pool earlier in the day but did not. But he said he
could not recall what he was doing the afternoon of August 23. He also did not mention
seeing Carol at the pool after the murder.

The next statement by Carol is the one she gave to Detective Eppert in 2014. It
does not have much new in it, as she stuck to the main elements of her prior story.

On August 26, 1975 (three days after the murder) Carol was given a polygraph
test and was reported to have passed, with no “material” discrepancies. The test is
reflected in a document in the files. Here are the questions and answers:

1. Do you live in the United States (Yes)

2. Did you tell Ralph Balo (sp.) that you knew who killed Christie? (No)
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3. Do you know for sure who killed Christie? (No)

4. Do you know the name of Male Subject who called you Saturday afternoon?
(No), but “possibly sounded like Jimmy Bateson.”
5. Did you tell Christie the name of the Male Subject that you were going to
meet? (No)
6. Did you see Christie leave with the Male Subject at Woolco? (No)
7. Besides what you told me today, can you remember telling even one other
important lie? (No)
8. Have you now told me the entire truth as to what you know about Christie
being killed? (Yes)

Carol also took and passed a polygraph test in 2014 after her interview with
Detective Eppert. Here are the questions and answers:

1. Did you hit Christie Mullins with a 2 x 4? (No)

2. Did you go with Christie Mullins to check out a cheerleading contest behind
the Woolco store? (Yes)
3. Do you know who hurt Christie Mullins? (No)
4. Did you lie to the police regarding the information you provided regarding the
Christie Mullins homicide? (No)
5. Other than what you have told me were you in any way involved in the murder
of Christie Mullins? (No)
6. Have you now told the police everything you know about the Christie Mullins
homicide? (Yes)
7. Did you tell Mrs. Mullins you were sorry, there were two of them, it wasn’t
supposed to go that way? (No)

 An odd statement, since Carol has consistently described the disc jockey as
having an Appalachian or “hillbilly” accent, and Jim Bateson did not.
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Experts disagree on the reliability of polygraph tests.

OTHER WITNESSES

There are three people not interviewed by CPD in 2014-2015 who seem to have
pertinent information. One of them I interviewed by phone; the other two would not
talk to me.

Donny Schlichter (phone interview)

Donny, then around 19, owned a green Dodge charger which used to hang around
Carol and the area. Donny said he was the boyfriend of Delenda ("Dee Dee") Harrison,
who lived near the Mullinses on Rosslyn. He met Dee Dee through Carol Reeves, her
friend. In the 1975 Jim Yavorcik memo about “maple leaves” (discussed in ebook) the
following statement appears: “Reeves’ best friend until recently was Dalinda [Delenda]
Harrison, of Rosslyn Ave. But Carol took her boyfriend away from Dalinda, so now Carol
has been hanging around with Cheryl Laing.”

I asked Donny about that statement. He said the boyfriend Carol “took away” was
not him, since he never dated Carol. But he did say his friend Bobby Starner dated her,
so maybe Bobby is the person Carol “took away.” He did say that Carol and Dee Dee had
a huge fight around the time of the murder and after that went their separate ways. He
does not know what the fight was over. [N.B. Delenda Harrison was interviewed by CPD
in 2014 and had no memory of any of this, though she said she was memory-impaired
from a prior incident].

Donny said he remembered Christie, although he did not know her well. She was
quiet whereas the crowd Donny hung out with were "rebels and outlaws." He did recall
that Christie hung around with Carol, which is how he met Christie.
 19

Donny said that Christie's father was very protective of her and almost stalked
her. He described him as a “loud obnoxious guy” and “very verbal” who always insisted
that “he's the man and what he says goes.” He said that her father worked in a carryout
at the corner of High Street near Kanawha and could get booze or drugs (sopors and
ludes) for anyone who wanted them.

He said the guy who ran the carryout used to change his temperament whenever
girls entered, he would always flirt with them. He said he saw Carol and Christie in the
carryout interacting with her “loudmouth” father on a number of occasions.

It was then I realized that Donny had confused Norman Mullins with Henry
Newell and that in fact he was describing Newell. Newell worked at the Stop and Go at
Kanawha and High and others have said he offered to sell them drugs from there.
Newell was loud and aggressive, Norman was not. I sent Donny a picture of Newell and
he said he thought that was the guy he remembered from the carryout, especially based
on the 1950s greaser hairdo.

Donny was not interviewed by CPD.

Kathy Kennedy

If Carol’s testimony about Kathy Kennedy is true, then Kathy was the last person,
besides Carol and the killer, to see Christie alive. She would have been with Christie as
late as about 1:15 p.m. Assuming Newell was the killer, the murder could not have taken
place any later than about 1:45, for Newell to have had time to get back home, change,
come back to the woods with his family, and discover the body around 2:15-2:20, as has
been established. Therefore, there is a strong possibility that Kathy Kennedy was with
Christie a half an hour or so before the murder.
 20

It is hard to imagine any murder investigation in which a friend of the victim who
was with her less than an hour before the murder is not interviewed by the investigating
police. Yet Kathy Kennedy was never interviewed in 1975.

CPD did interview Kathy Kennedy in 1977. She claimed no knowledge of anything
important relating to the murder. She said she was horseback riding that day with Tom
Bateson (Jimmy’s younger brother) and another couple. She did not mention Carol and
Christie having been to her apartment earlier that day.

If it is true that Carol and Christie were at Kathy’s apartment—and if Christie was
there until 1:15, barely half an hour before the probable time of the murder—then it
seems likely that Kathy may have some significant knowledge. She may have had at least
some awareness of what Carol and Christie were planning to do the remainder of that
day after leaving her (e.g., going to Woolco or not, planning to meet someone, etc.). It
would also raise a question as to why she did not volunteer to CPD in 1977 that she was
with the victim in her apartment less than an hour before the murder.

Kathy (Kennedy) Mesich has steadfastly refused to discuss this matter, citing her
privacy. She would not talk to me, she would not talk to a close friend from the time, she
would not even talk to her brother about it. She did not respond to a letter from the
producers of the Investigation Discovery documentary about the case that premiered in
November 2017.

She has been told the reason people want to talk to her is that she is presumed to
have been with Christie shortly before the murder. If she was not, it would seemingly be
a simple enough thing to say so rather than refusing to say anything.

She was not interviewed by CPD in the 2014-15 reinvestigation.

 21

Tim Myers

Shortly after the documentary aired in November 2017, I received an email from
a former co-worker of Tim Myers. It read as follows:

“I used to work with him. We went to a lot of concerts back then. I remember
when that happened. I didn't know any of the people involved but Tim used to
talk about it. He told me that Junior Newell killed that poor girl. And she was set
up by Carol Reeves. He told me he had a pretty heated argument with Carol about
it. Had something to do with buying pot from Junior. I haven't seen or heard
from Myers I guess it’s been around 1980. That's all I know. Hope this helps.
Good luck and I'm sorry for the family and for Christie.”

Based on this information I contacted Tim Myers several times, and left a note at
his house. He refused to talk to me. He was not interviewed by CPD, although his name
never surfaced as a person with potential information until November 2017 after the
case was closed.

OTHER SUSPECTS?

As with the JFK assassination, there is a strong temptation to believe that the
killer did not act alone, that there must be someone else who was involved. I have often
shared that suspicion.

And yet, to date, there is no credible, concrete evidence tying anyone to the
murder other than Henry Newell Jr. Many other names have been floated down the
years, either as alternative killers or accomplices. Most are no longer alive. I’ve checked
all of them out; Detective Eppert checked out several of the same ones, as well. And in
every case, there ends up being nothing there.
 22

It doesn’t mean there wasn’t anybody else involved, it just means that there is no
actual evidence anyone has come up with to implicate anyone else.

The motive remains a mystery, as well. Was it sex? The evidence doesn’t indicate,
in fact contradicts, rape or sexual assault. Drugs? Plenty of evidence of drug use in that
neighborhood at that time, but still nothing specifically linking any of it to the murder.
Something else—what? There are theories, speculation, but precious few facts other
than the near certainty that Henry Newell was the murderer.

The Justice for Christie group remains active and will ever be alert to further
developments and evidence. Perhaps someday someone with knowledge who has
declined to talk to date, or has not told everything they know, will come forward.
Stranger things have happened; old cases get solved all the time. Depending on how one
looks at it, this one has been either largely or partially solved—cathartic for some,
frustrating for others. But we certainly don’t know everything. Hopefully someday we
will.

As always, anyone is free to contact me with pertinent information, at

mullinscase@gmail.com.

DATED: New York, New York, March 1, 2020

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© 2020 by John Oller. All Rights Reserved.