Columbus police investigators said today they have closed the investigation into the 1975 murder of a Clintonville girl.
Police say shoddy investigatory work at the time is partly to blame for allowing the original suspect to escape prosecution. Jim Letizia reports.
25-year-old Henry Newell Junior was the main suspect in the August, 1975 death of 14-year-old Christie Mullins. Newell died in 2013, and claimed before his death from cancer that he saw the man who dumped Mullins' body behind Graceland Shopping Center. That man, who had developmental disabilities, confessed. But a jury acquitted him in 1977 after questions were raised about his competency. Last year, Newell's niece, Pam Brown, said to police he told her he killed Mullins. Police could not find evidence to substantiate the claim. The Columbus police cold case squad reopened the investigation last year, re-examining the evidence, looking for any undiscovered witnesses and reviewing data about prior suspects.
