COLUMBUS – More than a year after Columbus police agreed to take another look at the 40-year-old murder case of a Clintonville teenager, investigators are ready to close the case of Christie Lynn Mullins’ death.
Christie Lynn Mullins was 14 on Aug. 23, 1975, when she was murdered and her body found behind Graceland Shopping Center. -Columbus Div. of Police
Sgt. Eric Pilya of the homicide cold-case unit apologized to Mullins’ family, saying the initial investigation into her slaying was marred by “shoddy” police work that was substandard even by the dated investigative standards that were in place in 1975, the newspaper reported.
Mullins was 14 on Aug. 23, 1975, when she was 14 murdered and her body discovered behind the Woolco department store at Graceland Shopping Center.
Henry Newell Jr., then 25, was suspected by many of killing Christie after he said he had been hiking behind the shopping center and came upon a man, whom he later identified as Jack Carmen, swinging a board, and then the body of Mullins, who was already dead.
Newell died in 2013 and was never charged with Christie’s slaying.
Carmen was charged and later acquitted of the crime and the case remained open until recently when police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner says new information was uncovered after being reviewed by Cold Case Unit investigators.
Police renewed their investigation in 2014 after the Clintonville Area Commission sent a letter to city, county and state leaders, asking for the case to be reopened.
Immediately after the crime, Carmen, a man with severe developmental disabilities was accused, and he confessed, but his guilty plea was withdrawn amid concerns about his mental capacity and he was acquitted by a jury in 1977.