Forensic Files (HD) - Season 13, Episode 44 - Runaway Love - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] up next an exclusive yacht club gets an unwelcome guest this was a jane doe floating in the
water i saw a female adult with stab wounds throughout her torso her face or neck the victim's
ex-husband and daughter are both missing it doesn't take a brain surgeon you have
a couple that's divorced you've got the rage killing but the victim had enemies too
it was i'll get in your face i'm not afraid i will mess with your life could a killer be brought to justice
with a sponge and a wet cardboard box well in this business we call that a clue newport beach california is one of the
wealthiest communities in america the beach communities south of la are absolutely
beautiful it's prime real estate costs a lot of money to live right on the water newport beach very
low crime rate overall mostly property crimes but anything with homicides very rare but one september morning
at the newport harbor yacht club a yacht owner saw a bed sheet covering what he thought
was a body in the water when i arrived on the dock i saw a semi-clad female adult with
numerous stab wounds throughout her torso her face or neck or back of the 52 stab wounds two of the
injuries on her right neck transected the jugular vein and the carotid artery she would have
bled to death and have been dead within minutes without prompt medical attention the
victim hadn't only been stabbed multiple times but there were weapons still with the
body a knife in an eye tells me that this is someone who absolutely hated this woman i've had
numerous stabbing victims but nothing with the stabbing instruments still inside the body
wrapped in the sheet investigators found a second weapon a knife that was caught
in the folds of one of the beddings and still had some blood and some skin tissue on it
but the victim had no identification and it was difficult to tell how long she'd been in the water
in this case the effects of the water on her fingers obscured them to the point that a
positive identification was not initially established by that method investigators found a
potential piece of evidence about a hundred yards away there was a cardboard box near the body
and we thought that it might have some connection to the decedent so we ceased it
the box once held a 27-inch television and detectives thought it might have been used to transport the body
[Music] during the autopsy the medical examiner discovered the victim had breast
implants with medical devices be they breast implants hip implants other medical devices we can sometimes
track it down and get a identification of an individual by that implant on each implant
was a separate lot and serial number embossed into the clear covering this is done to
identify where and when it was manufactured for research purposes and to notify the patient in the unlikely event of a
product recall this serial number indicated the implants were made in france the operation was performed in oklahoma
city and the patient now resided in california we knew exactly who she was she was
barbara mullinix who lived in huntington beach california barbara who was 56 years old
had an unusual living arrangement she and her 17-year-old daughter had recently moved to california
and were living with her ex-husband bruce mullinex until they could get back on their feet
they decided to reunite as roommates only to see their daughter go through high school so
it was a temporary situation based on finances and information on the television box found in the water near
barbara's body indicated the murder might have happened in bruce mullinex's home started doing
an investigation on the sku number and the address packing label finds out that it's
was sold in a commercial store in huntington beach that television was purchased by bruce mullin x the
ex-husband of barbara mullinax police went to interview bruce mullinex and his 17-year-old daughter rachel
but couldn't find them [Music] when investigators arrived at the condominium barbara mullanek shared with her
ex-husband bruce they got a surprise visitor my sergeant came in and said that mr mullen x had
arrived at the scene i got to be honest i was shocked i thought that that was some bravado
he genuinely appeared to be amazed and surprised by the police were at his house
just to have a homicide detective look you in the eye and say you're my prime suspect
you know it's just it just doesn't feel good the medical examiner estimated barbara was murdered sometime
late tuesday night or wednesday morning bruce claimed he left town on tuesday morning for a business trip
and was in fresno california 260 miles away as a reporter of course it was interesting that he was conveniently
out of town on the night that this murder was said to have occurred bruce denied any involvement in
barbara's murder and admitted that they had their share of disagreements both of us were at fault for the divorce
from my perspective the largest catalyst was the fact that barbara was beginning to
drink more and more and her personality was changing radically when she became drunk
a search of bruce's condo showed no signs of forced entry but the mattress and the
box spring and barbara's bedroom were gone well in this business we call that a clue crime scene technicians
sprayed the room with leucocrystal violet a chemical that turns purple in the presence of blood
i could tell by the amount of blood spatter that was in there and the blood staining that was
in there that someone had bled a lot in that room and it was clear the killer tried to
clean up the blood in the kitchen was a box of latex gloves and on the bedroom nightstand was a
yellow sponge blood was observed on a sponge a red stain which later turned out to be blood so
that was a very significant piece of evidence in the case investigators found something else in
the kitchen too the knives in the kitchen drawer match the knife that was found in the eye socket of barbara molinax it
was very distinctive it was a cross cut similar to a pineapple design entire sections of the wall were removed
for examination one very clear print survived the cleanup when criminals are in the midst of
committing their crime they definitely sweat more producing more residue and actually
sometimes making a clearer print in this case it was easy to determine what i was
looking at it was actually in the shape of a full palm print it had all four fingers it had the
side of the palm investigators compared the bloody prince to those of bruce mullinix the prince
weren't his every crime show i've ever seen the ex-spouse is always the first person you have to eliminate
so i wasn't shocked or surprised but where was the mullanex's daughter rachel bruce didn't know and neither did
investigators prior to crucible and x returning home my concern was that rachel had been harmed also had been
murdered we did not know rachel's whereabouts or her condition we tried calling her cell phone there was
no answer we go directly into voicemail the last time anyone saw her she was with her
boyfriend a day before the murder they went to see a movie ironically enough titled lady in the water but
despite her disappearance bruce was convinced his daughter had nothing to do with barbara's murder i don't believe
she participated at all i don't believe rachel participated at all in the murder
police weren't so sure investigators questioned the neighbors living near bruce malanex's condominium
asking if anyone saw or heard anything suspicious around the time of barbara's murder one
of the neighbors that lived immediately next door said that he was awakened at about two
in the morning by yelling and thumping they went on for 30 to 45 minutes he said he wouldn't be surprised if
somebody had been murdered over there at the time he made that statement he was unaware that a murder had occurred
since bruce mullinex was out of town the only other person who would have been at
the condo was their 17 year old daughter rachel who was now missing because she was so young 17 i
think the authorities might have been concerned at least very early on that something might have happened to
her as well rachel's father told investigators rachel had a boyfriend 21 year old ian allen and that barbara
wasn't happy about it when ian allen came into the picture and rachel not only fell in love with
him but talked about getting married to this young man i think barbara saw herself alone
when barbara realized that ian was having sex with her 17-year-old daughter she threatened him
with the statutory rape charge later when cooler heads prevailed rachel asked her parents for a signed
statement a guarantee barbara wouldn't threaten this statutory rape charge again barbara and bruce agreed
my thoughts on this were we would probably stand a better chance of of in embracing it and having them spend
more time with us or at least as much as we can encourage as opposed to making it a clandestine
type of relationship it ultimately told me who was in control of that house but a week before barbara's murder
there'd been a major confrontation when rachel wasn't home at her one o'clock curfew barbara dove
down to ian's house and made a scene by screaming and banging on the door to wake everybody up
she embarrassed her absolutely she deserved it and when they got home she grounded her
and said you're not going to see this boy ian had never met anyone like this that
was i'll get in your face i'm not afraid i will mess with your life i'm going to threaten you i'll go to
your parents i'll go to your little brother's school i'll go to your job i mean this is the way that barbara was
but rachel made it clear she had no plans to end the relationship no one says no to rachel malnix then
a background check revealed a startling piece of information police in tampa florida had once
investigated a physical confrontation between rachel and her mother two years exactly two years before barbara malnix
was murdered in florida she was attacked with a knife by her daughter rachel her arms had been
slashed but barbara refused to press charges barbara would say the cruelest things that anyone can say
to anyone let alone a mother to a daughter she would say those things to rachel 99
of the time it was only when she was drunk now after barbara's murder rachel and her
boyfriend ian were missing investigators visited ian's parents who said they hadn't seen him for the last
two days they also said the family's 38 caliber pistol was gone since ian lived at home the allen family
consented to have their homes searched including their computers we found out through forensic
examination of the computers that the day of the murder somebody used a computer
in ian allen's home to look up directions to tampa florida law enforcement nationwide was on the
lookout for ian allen's truck when ian used an atm card to get cash in sulphur louisiana
police converged on the area and both rachel and ian were arrested shockingly rachel told police she had nothing to do
with her mother's murder she claimed ian had kidnapped her against her will i was asleep it was the night i heard my
mom scream my name i ran in her room and i saw he is sitting there on over stabbing her
i tried to push him off and he pushed me home and knocked me out [Music] but would the forensic evidence prove
her story true or false once in custody ian allen confessed to the murder of barbara mullanex
he insisted he acted alone did you go there intending to kill her mother i was going there intending to threaten
her to scare her and it got out of control very quickly meanwhile rachel mullanex insisted she
was an innocent victim her story was that she had been kidnapped and that she had been knocked
out by her attacker she woke up hours later in a hotel room and had no doing whatsoever with her mother's death
or the disposal of her mother's body no one will tell me anything what's going on
you are under arrest for the murder of your mother do you know that i was kidnapped do you
know that i know that's what you're saying what do you mean that's what i'm saying
we have physical evidence to the contrary [Music] what rachel didn't know was that
investigators had forensic evidence that tied her to her mother's murder rachel's dna was found on the yellow
sponge in barbara's bedroom [Music] the sponge used to clean up barbara's blood rachel had said that she had no
involvement in the homicide so to find her dna on a sponge that was used to clean up
the crime scene put her in that crime scene the television box found floating near barbara's body was closed
using duct tape the same brand duct tape found in ian allen's truck super glue fuming on that tape revealed
rachel's fingerprints i was able to identify three fingerprints to rachel moleneck's
it was her left middle fingerprint and her left ring fingerprint to have rachel's prints on that duct
tape i'm sure you know police felt as though they'd hit the jackpot there on the handle of ian's 38-caliber pistol
investigators found his dna and they also found rachel's dna why she didn't use it to get away from
the kidnapper i don't know seems a little strange to me the almost full handprint found in blood
on the wall of barbara mullanex's bedroom was ian's the forensic evidence confirmed
what the medical examiner had theorized from the beginning that at least two people were involved
in the murder the totality of the wounds and the evidence it is more consistent with
more than one individual than with one and text messages provided final proof of rachel's involvement rachel
told police she went to bed around 10 p.m on the night of the murder and the noise of ian attacking her
mother woke her up going through the text messages she is sending ian text messages up
until 1 45 in the morning and we know the attack began at approximately two in the morning
one message read she's taking a xanax another read she woke up so you see that they're alerting one
another about what's going on with barbara prosecutors believe with bruce mullinex
away on a business trip rachel and ian waited until barbara was asleep before rachel let ian into the condominium
[Music] ian grabbed several knives from the kitchen drawer and went upstairs [Music]
the evidence suggests they both went into barbara's bedroom she was stabbed over 50 times
blood spattered the walls and ceiling and soaked into the mattress at some point
one of them plunged the butter knife into her eye while she was still alive in an evil act of spite
and content rachel used a sponge to clean the blood leaving her dna ian left his finger and palm prince on the
wall [Music] the couple bundled the body into an empty television box which rachel then
sealed with duct tape leaving her prince [Music] later that night they dumped barbara's
body into the pacific ocean investigators found remnants of a burnt mattress on the railroad tracks near
ian's workplace prosecutors think this was where rachel and ian burned what they thought
was the last remaining piece of evidence at her trial rachel testified in her own
defense claiming she was no killer i did not do that to my mother i'm not saying i'm completely innocent
i made bad choices afterwards and i'll admit that but planning and killing my mom i did
not do the jury didn't believe it rachel mullinex was convicted of her mother's murder
neither jury in the above entitled action find the defendant rachel spartak mullenex guilty of the crime of felony
she was sentenced to 25 years to life in a separate trial ian allen was also convicted of barbara mullanex's murder
and he too was sentenced to 25 years to life after his trial ian admitted to police
what the forensic evidence already proved that rachel was involved from the beginning once he realized his
life was over and she was laying all the blame on him the loyalty stopped she killed her mother
and ian helped her kill her mother said that that's an absolute that's not a question
the juries expect to hear forensic evidence if you don't have forensic evidence i think you have a really hard
time proving your case the forensics were very important especially in the case against rachel
the forensics being able to prove that what she was saying was not true it spoke louder than anything else in
that courtroom you

Rachael Mullenix, 19, was convicted of stabbing her mother, Barbara Mullenix, on Sept. 13, 2006, and then packing her bloodied corpse in a cardboard box before dumping it in Newport Bay on the California coast.

Brief Summary

Barbara Mullinex was murdered; her daughter Rachel and boyfriend Ian were convicted based on forensic evidence linking them to the crime.

Key points

Murder at Newport Beach. A woman's body is discovered in a yacht club, leading to a shocking investigation.
Mother-Daughter Conflict. Rachel's relationship with her mother was tumultuous, leading to tragic consequences.
Forensic Breakthrough. Investigators find DNA evidence linking Rachel to her mother's murder.
The Trial. Rachel is convicted of her mother's murder, despite her claims of innocence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I will mess with your life.

A chilling declaration from the victim, Barbara.

0:26WatchMar 5, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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