Columbus Dispatch Saturday December 17, 1977
Surprise Witnesses Cast Doubts
In a Columbus Dispatch newspaper article published on Saturday December 17, 1977, the article reported that in court testimony during the previous day, a nationally known psychiatrist, a 12 year old boy, and his grandmother, dealt damaging blows to the prosecutors case in the murder trail.
The psychiatrist testified that the mentally handicapped man told police just what they wanted to hear in his tape recorded confession.
Prosecutors were jarred by the surprise testimony of the 12 year old stepson and the mother-in-law of the male eyewitness. Neither one of them had a great deal of affection for the male eyewitness.
The 12 year old boy testified that he had met Christie at the home of his mother and stepfather, and that Christie had once had rode with Christie on a minibike and a tractor in the woods.
The boy told the jury that shortly before noon; his stepfather was wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and sandals when he took off in pursuit of some boys for throwing firecrackers in their yard. The stepfather had been gone for almost an hour when he returned home wearing only his shorts.
The boy testified that he and his 5 year old sister were sent to another room where he couldnt overhear their parent's conversation. Then a short time later, they all went to the Woolco store parking lot and walked through the woods behind Woolco.
The jury was told by the boy that during the walk in the woods, his stepfathers shoes were found laying in front of a tree. At one point as they walked into the woods, his stepfather said it isnt there. The group walked on before the stepfather told the children to stop. The parents went around a tree and found a body. Then five minutes, his boys mother came out crying and told the children what it was.
The boy testified that he was told by his stepfather to put his sandals which had been in the weeds twenty feet from where the body was found into the trunk of their parked car. The boy told jurors that his stepfather also found a comb lying in the path and threw it so it wouldnt be found there. The boy did not mention seeing anyone else in the woods.
The grandmother testified that she had not seen her daughter and son-in-law since Easter of 1975 when they telephoned her and insisted that she accompany them to the funeral home to view Christies body, although she didnt know the murdered girl.
As they were returning from the funeral home visit, the grandmother commented that the girls death was a tragedy for the Mullins family, and out of the blue, her son-in-law replied thatll teach her to keep her damn mouth shut.