00:00:13
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00:00:18
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00:00:33
At 9 o’clock on the morning of Friday October
2 1987, police officers in the small Kentucky
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town of Central City received a call that they
needed to head out to a possible crime scene
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a few blocks away. An employee of the town’s
municipal department, located on Legion Drive,
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had noticed something strange upon arriving
at work. Parked haphazardly behind the
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department’s garage was a battered-looking 1977
Chevrolet Pontiac that looked very out of place.
00:01:07
The employee had gone up to the seemingly
abandoned car to get a closer look. What he discovered led him to contact the police.
00:01:18
Lieutenant Billy Fields rushed to the scene
and was the first responder to arrive.
00:01:24
He immediately recognised the Pontiac. With a
population of just 5000, Central City was small.
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Degrees of separation between residents were few. The vehicle hadn’t been reported stolen. Nor
had anyone filed a missing person’s report
00:01:44
for its owner. Fields peered through the
windows, but couldn’t see anyone inside.
00:01:52
While examining the vehicle’s exterior, Fields
sighted what prompted the municipality employee
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to summon authorities. Dripping from
the locked trunk towards the ground were several streaks of what appeared
to be blood. A locksmith was summoned,
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who was able to unlock the trunk and lift
the lid, revealing the grisly scene within.
00:02:44
Inside the Pontiac’s trunk was the naked body of
a woman, wrapped in a blanket and lying in the
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foetal position. Her body was so badly battered
and mutilated that she was unrecognisable. Blood
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caked her skin and hair in such excess,
officers couldn’t even determine her race.
00:03:05
Eventually, police identified that the victim
was the car’s owner, 20-year-old Corinna Mullen.
00:03:13
Corinna had been tortured before she died.
She’d been stabbed twice, cut in the neck,
00:03:19
and struck multiple times in the throat,
either with a weapon or the culprit’s fist.
00:03:25
There were so many abrasions that the medical
examiner couldn’t figure out where one injury
00:03:30
ended and another began. There were bruises on
her back and arms, and one of her nipples had
00:03:36
been sliced off. Defensive wounds on her hands
and wrists indicated that she’d put up a fight.
00:03:44
Although the examiner didn’t detect any
semen, it was obvious Corinna had endured
00:03:50
severe trauma to her genitals. A rape kit
was taken. Cause of death was asphyxiation.
00:04:00
Whoever had attacked Corinna had repeatedly hit
her in the head with a blunt instrument, which
00:04:05
had broken her nose. This in turn blocked her
airways and made it impossible for her to breathe.
00:04:13
Trace amounts of cannabis and a prescription
painkiller were found in Corinna’s system,
00:04:18
but she hadn’t been impaired by either
drugs or alcohol at the time of her death.
00:04:26
Central City was a town that saw its fair share
of crime, primarily in the form of illicit drug
00:04:32
dealings. But this was a murder of exceptional
brutality and it sent shockwaves through the
00:04:39
community. The town’s small size meant that
most of the population had learned of Corinna’s
00:04:46
murder within hours of her body being discovered.
Rumours and speculation as to who was responsible
00:04:53
ran rife. Tim Williams, a novelist who grew up in
the area and was then a teenager who knew Corinna,
00:05:02
later wrote that he and his acquaintances began
to fear a serial killer was on the loose in
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Central City. But others suspected Corinna
had been targeted by someone closer to home.
00:05:17
The investigation into Corinna Mullin’s
murder was jointly conducted by the Muhlenberg
00:05:22
County Sheriff’s Department, with
Sheriff Harold McElvain at the helm, and the Central City Police Department. Billy
Fields led Central City’s investigation.
00:05:35
This was a personal case for the Lieutenant.
Like other members of the local law enforcement,
00:05:42
he had come to know Corinna when she
performed clerical work at the station. Corinna had incurred a fine and the clerical
duties were a form of community service.
00:05:59
Investigators worked to piece together
Corinna’s last known movements. Six weeks earlier, Corinna had moved into an
apartment on the northern end of Central City.
00:06:11
But she’d suddenly decided she wanted
to resume living with her parents, Claude and Patricia Mullen. At the time of
her death, she was in the process of moving
00:06:22
back home to the more rural area where
they lived - 10 miles outside of town. Corinna was a single mother to a two-year-old
girl named Stephanie, who she completely adored.
00:06:36
Corinna’s parents were supportive
and helped her care for her daughter. Claude and Patricia told police that they’d last
seen Corinna the day before her body was found,
00:06:47
when she’d dropped Stephanie off at their home
so she could enjoy a night out with friends.
00:06:53
The plan was for her to return the next morning. Corinna resided at the Hillwood Village Apartments
with her roommate, 21-year-old Angela Smith.
00:07:05
Like Corinna, Angela was a single mother
with a toddler, and the two women bonded
00:07:11
over their shared experiences. Within a
few short weeks, they became good friends.
00:07:18
Investigators made their way to Hillwood
Village to search Corinna’s apartment.
00:07:24
The complex was spread out across six
separate two-storey, brick buildings, with green lawns and an outdoor parking lot in
the middle. The apartment itself was tiny, with
00:07:36
the two women’s bedrooms divided by a thin wall.
Corinna’s bedroom became a second crime scene.
00:07:47
Officers snapped photographs
and took 23 items into evidence. Discarded on the floor by her bed
were a pair of men’s Lee brand jeans
00:07:58
and a pair of men’s underwear. The bed itself
was covered in blood, as was the floor.
00:08:07
Angela Smith was stunned to learn
what had happened to her roommate. She last saw Corinna on Thursday the 1st.
With their children in the care of others,
00:08:18
Angela and Corinna decided to make the
most of their night off from parenting and headed to a bar in the city of
Owensboro, 35 miles north of Central City.
00:08:30
The pair took a Valium each and after a
few drinks, returned home at around 11:30.
00:08:37
They watched television together for a
little while, then Angela went to bed. She’d slept soundly and hadn’t heard any unusual
noises during the night. But at some point,
00:08:51
Corinna was attacked, then either
left or was taken from the apartment. Other residents of the Hillwood
Village apartments were interviewed.
00:09:04
None said they’d heard anything untoward
on the night in question, even though the
00:09:09
building’s ceilings were thin and noise carried
easily. However, several Central City locals
00:09:17
came forward claiming they’d seen Corinna or
her car on the night of the murder. One had
00:09:23
spotted Corinna sitting in her Chevrolet outside
of a restaurant on South 2nd Street at 11:30PM.
00:09:31
Two women, Dana Morris and Tracy Vincent, had
been parked in a shopping centre parking lot two
00:09:37
hours later, when they saw Corinna’s car drive by.
But there was no sign of Corinna. The only person
00:09:46
inside the vehicle was a man behind the wheel.
When investigators asked the women if they could
00:09:53
identify the driver, they said that he looked a
lot like a local 19-year-old named Jimmy Springer.
00:10:04
Corinna Mullen had started dating Jimmy Springer
six months earlier. Although a year younger than
00:10:11
Corinna, Springer was 6 foot two and well-built,
making him look older than his 19-years.
00:10:19
He worked odd jobs, primarily physical
ones in construction or maintenance. Corinna’s family weren’t thrilled about
the relationship. On multiple occasions,
00:10:31
she had called her parents upset because the two
had argued. Once, she went over to their house
00:10:38
with her face scrubbed bright red. Corinna
explained that during a fight, Springer had
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taken a washcloth and vigorously rubbed her
face to remove the make up she was wearing.
00:10:52
Concerned, Claude Mullen told his daughter to end
the relationship and move back home. She agreed.
00:11:02
Corinna’s housemate Angela told police that when
she’d gone to bed on the night of October 1,
00:11:08
Corinna had asked her to leave the front
door unlocked in case Springer came by later.
00:11:15
Angela agreed with Corinna’s parents
that the relationship was a stormy one and that Springer was a jealous partner.
00:11:25
Being Corinna’s boyfriend,
Springer was an obvious suspect. He told investigators that he’d also been out
in Owensboro on the night of Thursday October 1,
00:11:37
but he hadn’t spent time with Corinna. Instead,
he’d smoked cannabis, then drank at a bar with two
00:11:45
friends, Jimmy Jones and Dale Duncan. At
around 11PM, they drove back to Dale’s house,
00:11:54
before Springer decided to head over to
Corinna’s apartment. He suspected that she
00:12:00
was upset with him for going out with his
friends and wanted to check in with her.
00:12:08
Springer approached the apartment. The front door
was unlocked. He walked in and made his way to
00:12:17
Corinna’s bedroom. The door was closed. Springer
turned the handle, but it was locked. He noticed
00:12:28
two small smudges of what looked like blood
on the door, but thought nothing of it.
00:12:35
Assuming Corinna must be out, Springer got
back in his car and drove around downtown
00:12:41
Central City looking for her. After searching
unsuccessfully for between 15 and 20 minutes,
00:12:48
he gave up. He went back to his friend
Dale’s house, where he stayed overnight.
00:12:56
Springer didn’t go home until the next
morning, when Corinna’s body was found. Investigators weren’t buying his story.
Springer’s tale about finding Corinna’s
00:13:10
bedroom door locked and smeared with blood seemed
especially suspicious. Why hadn’t he called the
00:13:17
police or been more concerned? They theorised that
something caused him to become jealous that night.
00:13:25
Then, fuelled by drugs and alcohol,
he killed Corinna in a violent rage. When the Mullens learned that
Corinna’s boyfriend was a suspect,
00:13:37
they pleaded with Springer and his
family not to attend her funeral. When Corinna was laid to rest three days after
her body was recovered, they stayed away.
00:13:51
Almost two weeks after their first conversation
with Springer, investigators asked to speak
00:13:58
with him again. They hadn’t recorded his
initial interview or taken any notes, so this time they aimed to obtain a signed
statement. While providing his version of events,
00:14:11
Springer made a number of remarks that officers
deemed suspicious. Their focus on him intensified.
00:14:24
In late October that year, Jimmy Springer
was put behind bars. He was held on charges
00:14:31
of grand larceny, accused of stealing a 3000
dollar computer monitor from his workplace.
00:14:38
When security guards questioned
Springer following the theft, he referenced the murder of Corinna
Mullen in a highly suspicious manner.
00:14:48
The guards then passed this intel onto the police.
While sitting in his jail cell in late November,
00:14:56
eight weeks after Corinna was found in the trunk
of her car, Springer was indicted for her murder.
00:15:06
Springer pled guilty to grand larceny
and served a sentence in Nashville, then authorities handed him over to Muhlenberg
County in March 1988. Corinna’s family were
00:15:19
relieved that her killer was behind bars
and would have to answer for his crimes.
00:15:25
Meanwhile, investigators were
steadily building their case. Some forensic evidence existed in the form of
blood and hair samples taken from Corinna’s body,
00:15:38
but these were assumed to have come from Corinna
and were never compared to Jimmy Springer.
00:15:46
Although a rape kit had been collected, it was
never tested. And there wasn’t much available
00:15:53
in terms of eyewitness reports. No
one had seen any blood on Springer around the time of Corinna’s murder.
Nor had they seen him with her body.
00:16:06
Detectives primarily focused
on circumstantial evidence. Springer had a history of drug
abuse and criminal behaviour.
00:16:15
As Corinna’s boyfriend, he was the most likely
suspect. Two people were almost certain they’d
00:16:22
seen him driving her car at 1:30AM on the night
in question. And his story about leaving her
00:16:30
apartment after finding her bedroom door locked
smeared with blood sounded too absurd to be true.
00:16:41
Jimmy Springer’s trial began in July 1988.
He pleaded not guilty. The prosecution called
00:16:50
multiple law enforcement officers to testify, as
well as witnesses Dana Morris and Tracy Vincent,
00:16:56
who were sure they’d seen Springer
behind the wheel of Corinna’s car. Springer took the stand in his own defence,
telling the court that he’d been extremely
00:17:08
disturbed by Corinna’s murder and was in no way
responsible. He’d maintained his innocence from
00:17:15
the beginning, even though he’d felt pressured to
confess during his second interview with police.
00:17:22
The interviewing officers had reassured him that
they understood why he’d killed Corinna, that he’d
00:17:28
done it “out of love”. Springer vehemently
denied making certain incriminating remarks,
00:17:36
which police had attributed to him. When
the prosecutor responded by asking if he
00:17:42
was alleging a police officer had “made a false
statement”, Springer retorted: “I believe he has.
00:17:51
He’s not the first person that’s
said something false in this case.” Jimmy Springer’s friends Dale Duncan and
Jimmy Jones also testified, backing up the
00:18:03
alibi that he provided for the night of October
1 1987. He was with them for the entire night,
00:18:11
except for a period of 15 to 20 minutes
when he went looking for Corrinna. Dale said Springer returned straight
back to his home and stayed overnight.
00:18:25
The trial lasted just three
days. During his closing address, the prosecutor instructed the jury to ignore how
clean cut Springer looked as he sat in court.
00:18:38
Instead, he asked them to picture Springer as the
violent, drug-fuelled individual that he would
00:18:44
have been on the night of the murder. In contrast,
Springer's attorney argued that the prosecution
00:18:52
did not meet their burden of proving Springer
was guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt”, stating:
00:19:00
“I say to you again that Jim Springer is
not guilty of murdering Corinna Mullen.”
00:19:08
It took one hour for the jury to reach a
verdict. Jimmy Springer was found not guilty.
00:19:21
Corinna’s family was devastated. Following the trial, Muhlenberg County authorities
declared the case effectively closed. Unless
00:19:32
evidence emerged implicating another person in
the crime, they would not be investigating it.
00:19:39
As far as they were concerned, the person
responsible had been tried and got away with it.
00:19:47
In December 1988, police returned
Corinna’s 1977 Chevrolet to her parents. Upon receiving the car, Claude and Patricia Mullen
decided to look inside. A number of innocuous
00:20:04
items were scattered around the vehicle.
Then they checked under the driver’s seat.
00:20:11
Wedged beneath the seat was a knife,
caked in dried blood and human hairs. Discovering the weapon used against
their daughter was not only traumatising;
00:20:25
it affirmed Claude and Patricia’s growing
belief that detectives had botched the
00:20:30
investigation into her murder. The Central
City police chief defended the oversight,
00:20:37
noting: “It’s possible that [the knife]
could’ve been overlooked. With it being lodged
00:20:44
down in the seat, it’s possible
that we could have missed that.” The knife was sent to state
authorities for testing.
00:20:54
Entirely dubious of the Central City Police
Department’s ability to do their job, the Mullens
00:21:00
requested that the case also be transferred to
Kentucky State Police. Their request was granted.
00:21:10
Neither the discovery of the blood-stained
knife nor the transfer of the case led to
00:21:16
the breakthrough that the Mullens were hoping for.
By the beginning of 1989, they were still awaiting
00:21:23
lab results. Eventually, they found out that
nothing significant was uncovered from the knife.
00:21:32
They continued to petition for Corinna’s
case to be solved, while also raising her now
00:21:38
four-year-old daughter Stephanie. Claude Mullen
told Kentucky newspaper the Messenger-Inquirer:
00:21:46
“It’s so hard. Truthfully, we’re not doing too
good. We’re just trying to make it day to day.”
00:21:56
Patricia Mullen spoke of the family’s ongoing
grief, stating: “As far as missing her,
00:22:03
I can’t put it into words how much we do. I just
don’t have any answers. I don’t understand how
00:22:12
someone can die like that and still no
one has been held responsible for it.” Meanwhile, Jimmy Springer had moved on
with his life. He stayed in Central City,
00:22:25
but no one really bothered him about the murder.
Occasionally he saw the case’s lead investigator,
00:22:33
Lieutenant Billy Fields around town
and the officer would wave at him. Springer just ignored him. He began working
for a local courier service and got married.
00:22:47
In an interview with the
Messenger-Inquirer, Springer stated: “It’s hard, yes, but I have to go on. I still have
nightmares, I still think of the way she died.
00:23:01
But I try to push it out of my mind. I ask
myself why it was so brutal. I hate to think
00:23:08
about what she went through. As bad as it is
for us, we know it’s worse for her parents.”
00:23:23
The second anniversary of Corinna’s death came
and went. Then, in January 1990, an election
00:23:31
was held in Muhlenberg County for the position
of sheriff. The incumbent was Harold McElvain,
00:23:38
who had helped lead the investigation into
Corinna’s murder. Running against him was Wayne
00:23:44
Moore, who ran on the platform that he would
reopen the notorious unsolved case if he won.
00:23:52
Moore was publicly critical of the way both
agencies had coordinated their investigation,
00:23:59
saying: “If it had been handled
properly in the first place, this thing would've been closed and
there would’ve been a conviction by now.”
00:24:09
Wayne Moore defeated Sheriff McElvain. True to
his word, he reopened the Corinna Mullen case
00:24:17
and appointed one of his deputies,
Terry Arnett, to lead the investigation. Moore and Arnett reached out to the Central
City police department to request access
00:24:29
to their evidence. They admitted that
everything they had relating to the case had somehow been lost during the
past two years. Frustrated, Moore issued
00:24:43
public appeals for anyone with information
about Corinna’s murder to come forward.
00:24:51
One day, the phone rang at the Muhlenberg County
Sheriff’s Office. Moore answered. An unidentified
00:25:00
male caller demanded to know why he was
“meddling” in the Corinna Mullen case. Moore explained that he wanted it
solved. The anonymous caller threatened:
00:25:15
“Take my advice and stay out of it, or you’ll
find your ass in the Green River”, referring
00:25:21
to a tributary that passed right by town. Moore
retorted: “I can swim”, then hung up the phone.
00:25:33
Over the next few days, more calls followed.
During one, the caller warned Moore to
00:25:41
“leave things alone or somebody is
fixing to tear your ass up”. In another, a menacing voice asked him to consider how
much he cared about his wife and children.
00:25:56
Moore was undeterred. Precautions were
put in place to protect his family, but he remained determined to see the case solved.
00:26:06
He was convinced that the threatening calls meant
the killer or killers were rattled by his digging.
00:26:15
Moore issued a public statement
via the Messenger-Inquirer, stating: “Hell or high water won't
stop me. People are starting to sweat.
00:26:26
I think some people are really getting scared.
We’ve got some good leads, but that's all they are
00:26:34
right now. It’s circumstantial stuff.
But we’re in too deep to back out now." Requiring further assistance, Moore requested
help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
00:26:54
in 1992. Their cutting-edge technology
was far superior to anything possessed by the Muhlenberg County’s Sheriff’s
Department. Using sophisticated lasers,
00:27:07
F.B.I. agents spent 10 hours meticulously
examining Corinna’s car. They were able to
00:27:14
identify some bloody prints on the boot’s exterior
that had gone undetected by earlier investigators.
00:27:23
Moore was excited. Only the killer could
have left bloodied hand prints in that spot.
00:27:30
If he was able to find a matching print,
either already in the database or some time
00:27:36
down the track, he’d be well
on his way to making an arrest. Moore and Deputy Arnett shared
the good news with the Mullens,
00:27:46
while cautioning them that they still
had a long way to go. But Claude was thrilled. For the first time in four years, he
finally had something to feel positive about.
00:28:01
The Mullens’ hope dissipated when
the investigation slowed again. From the outside, it appeared as though
nothing was happening. Months, then years,
00:28:14
passed until two decades had gone by since
Corinna’s murder. For that entire time, a woman
00:28:23
was holding onto a secret that could break the
case wide open. All she needed to do was speak up.
00:28:43
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00:33:19
16-year-old Sarah (not her real name) walked alone
down the Central City streets leading towards
00:33:26
her home. It was night time on Thursday October 1
1987, and Sarah had spent the evening at a friends
00:33:33
house. Central City had its murky underworld and
ongoing drug-related crimes, but it was still
00:33:41
a small town where teenagers felt safe being out
alone after dark. Sarah just reached her family’s
00:33:49
home when a police cruiser pulled up. Two men got
out of the vehicle and walked straight up to her.
00:33:56
They suddenly grabbed her and dragged
her into the backseat of the car. Sarah was terrified. One of the men was
huge. He looked to be in his early 20s
00:34:08
and was six foot five inches tall
with a heavyset build and a round, pudgy face. Sarah had never seen him before.
But she recognised her other abductor.
00:34:21
Very well known around town, he was an
imposing man, standing six foot three and weighing 265 pounds. It was 44-year-old
Central City Police Lieutenant, Billy Fields.
00:34:37
The two men drove Sarah a short
distance, then parked the car. As she was forced outside, she saw they
were at the Hillwood Village Apartments
00:34:48
complex. She was marched up
to one of the residences. It was the apartment Corinna Mullen shared
with her flatmate, Angela Smith, both of whom
00:34:59
were home. Several other men were also present,
including Corinna’s boyfriend Jimmy Springer,
00:35:07
a short 18-year-old Sarah knew named Jimmy Cramer,
and another individual whom she didn’t know.
00:35:15
The group seemed to be just sitting
around and drinking after a night out. All of a sudden, Fields began picking a fight
with Corinna. Sarah couldn’t understand what
00:35:28
was going on, but it sounded as though they
were arguing about Corinna being pregnant.
00:35:34
Fields suddenly grabbed Corinna
and pulled her into her bedroom. The large man who had helped abduct Sarah got
up pushed Sarah into the room behind them.
00:35:46
They were also followed by
Jimmy Springer and Jimmy Cramer. Sarah heard Fields snarl at Corinna that she was
going to get what she deserved. He viciously beat
00:35:59
Corinna with a metal bar, before throwing her
on the bed and raping her in front of everyone.
00:36:06
He punched her repeatedly while
telling her to keep her mouth shut. Cramer and the other abductor joined in on the
beating and threats, then also raped Corinna.
00:36:19
Corinna’s boyfriend Jimmy Springer
didn’t seem to be a willing participant. He never hit Corinna and at times tried to help
her, but was stopped by the other men. The three
00:36:32
of them eventually insisted that Springer rape
Corinna as well. Throughout the vicious attack,
00:36:39
Corinna’s housemate Angela sobbed hysterically
from the next room but didn’t intervene.
00:36:47
Sarah watched on in terror. She couldn’t help
Corinna because she was being forcefully held down
00:36:54
by one of the men. Fields eventually
turned his attention to Sarah, pushing her on the bed on top of
Corinna and sexually assaulting her.
00:37:05
Then Fields raped Corinna again, while using a
knife to stab and cut her. Corinna had initially
00:37:13
screamed and tried to fight back, but Fields
choked her until she could no longer make a sound.
00:37:25
Naked and soaked in blood, Corinna was
unrecognisable. Sarah couldn’t tell if she
00:37:32
was dead or just unconscious. Fields and his main
accomplice picked up Corinna’s body and placed her
00:37:40
in the boot of her own car. Fields then climbed
into the passenger seat and ordered Sarah to
00:37:46
drive the Pontiac to a garage used by a municipal
department downtown. Sarah did as she was told.
00:37:56
Fields provided directions as she
drove, interspersed with threats as to what would happen to her if
she ever told anyone what she’d seen.
00:38:07
Dawn was breaking as Sarah pulled
up at the garage on Legion Drive. The other man who had abducted her earlier in
the night headed to the garage in his own car,
00:38:18
and was already there, waiting for them. Sarah
put Pontiac into park and got out. While the
00:38:27
two men headed to the boot where Corinna’s body
lay, Sarah spotted her opportunity to escape.
00:38:34
She raced as quickly as she could
in the direction of her home. The following morning, a call came through to
Central City police regarding the discovery of
00:38:46
Corinna Mullen’s car. Billy Fields responded to
the call and was the first to arrive at the scene.
00:38:54
He was later placed in charge of the
investigation into Corinna’s murder. Sarah confided in her mother but didn’t tell
anyone else what had happened. They stayed
00:39:07
silent about the matter from then on, terrified
of the repercussions if they spoke out against
00:39:13
the well known local police officer. Even
when Sarah’s sister later started dating
00:39:20
Jimmy Cramer and her father began working
alongside him, Sarah kept her secret.
00:39:29
In the years that followed, Sarah worked with
Kentucky State Police as an informant in several
00:39:34
drugs cases. Billy Fields called Sarah from
time to time, muttering threats down the phone
00:39:42
and warning her against speaking out. She
never said a word to anyone, until mid-2006.
00:39:51
Sarah, who was now 35-years-old, was talking with
Kentucky State Police detective Steve Silfies
00:39:58
about an unrelated crime. It was during this
conversation, when she finally confessed that
00:40:06
she had witnessed the murder of Corinna Mullen.
Silfies gave her details to a colleague named
00:40:13
Detective Damon Fleming, who’d recently been
assigned the almost-20-year-old cold case.
00:40:21
Fleming inherited a wealth of information
regarding Corinna’s murder from Muhlenberg
00:40:25
County Sheriff’s Deputy Terry Arnett,
who doggedly pursued the case for years. Arnett had been getting close to the truth
and was certain he knew who the killers were.
00:40:38
He felt so confident that they would
one day have enough to make an arrest that he reassured Claude Mullen on multiple
occasions: “Don’t give up, we know who did it.”
00:40:51
Then, in 2004 Arnett was diagnosed with
cancer. He died the following year, without having solved Corinna’s murder.
But his casefile contained many leads.
00:41:07
Detective Fleming met with Sarah and interviewed
her at length. He found her very credible. Her
00:41:15
allegations against Lieutenant Billy Fields didn’t
come as a total shock to those who knew him.
00:41:27
Billy Fields was renowned in Central City
for being involved in, and seemingly leading,
00:41:33
a drug ring. Rumours that he was involved in the
Mullen case had been whispered throughout the town
00:41:40
for years. In 1992 when the FBI became involved
in the case, Fields abruptly retired from the
00:41:49
Central City police department at the age of 49.
This only fuelled local gossip about the case,
00:41:57
though all he would say was: “I knew the girl, I
knew who she was, but that was the extent of it.”
00:42:07
There were two individuals Sarah had seen
assist Fields that she couldn’t name.
00:42:12
One played a smaller role and was already
at Corinna’s apartment when Fields and
00:42:17
his accomplice took her there. Fleming
had a theory about who this might be. While going through the casefile that Arnett
had put together, Fleming discovered a recorded
00:42:31
police interview with a local man named Crandall
Gibson. Apparently discussing Corinna’s murder,
00:42:39
Gibson had told the officers: “You
can’t get me without the other two”. Fleming wondered whether Gibson was the one of
the people at Corinna’s apartment that night.
00:42:52
As the recording wasn’t
authenticated and had been made prior to Fleming being assigned the
case, he couldn’t use it as evidence.
00:43:01
Both Arnett and Gibson had since passed
away, and couldn’t be questioned about it.
00:43:09
The second unknown man had played a much
larger role in helping Fields abduct Sarah,
00:43:14
assault Corinna, and dispose of her body.
Sarah didn’t recall hearing his name,
00:43:21
but his face and imposing physical presence
were still crystal clear in her mind. Detective
00:43:29
Fleming showed her a mug shot of a man who was
a known accomplice of Fields’. Now 43-years-old,
00:43:37
he had the same round, pudgy face, but framed
by a full head of grey hair and a wiry goatee.
00:43:46
Stephanie recognised him right away as one of
the main perpetrators. His name was Jeffrey Boyd.
00:43:57
Boyd was already incarcerated at the Kentucky
State Penitentiary for a variety of crimes,
00:44:03
ranging from drug trafficking to tampering with
evidence. One of the other alleged attackers,
00:44:10
Jimmy Cramer had two prior convictions -
one for sexual assault in 1984 and another
00:44:17
for rape in 1988 - but was now freely
living his life, as was Billy Fields. It turned out that some Central City
residents had known Fields had a connection
00:44:32
with Corinna Mullen for years. Although
Corinna had been dating Jimmy Springer,
00:44:39
she was also romantically involved with Fields. Edna McGee Eaves was a single mother who lived
in the same apartment complex as Corinna.
00:44:49
Occasionally, the two women chatted when they
crossed paths. Edna noticed Fields’ police cruiser
00:44:56
parked directly outside Corinna’s apartment on
several occasions and was under the impression
00:45:03
that they were dating. She had also seen Jeffrey
Boyd and Jimmy Cramer at the apartment before.
00:45:12
At least two other witnesses came forward to
say they saw Fields and Corinna together on
00:45:17
multiple occasions, including the site
manager for the Hillwood Apartments. One day, Fields approached him to
request that he keep Corinna as a tenant,
00:45:29
even though it was her housemate
Angela Smith who was on the lease. Very quickly though, things seemed
to sour between Fields and Corinna.
00:45:41
Edna McGee Eaves noticed that Corinna had
started to look increasingly upset. One day,
00:45:48
she stopped to chat with Corinna, who confessed
that she thought she might be pregnant.
00:45:54
She’d told Fields that he was the
father. He wasn’t happy about it. On the night of Corinna’s murder, Edna
noticed Corinna’s car backed right up to
00:46:07
the curb with its boot open. Scanning her
eyes around the parking lot, Edna realised
00:46:14
Fields’ police cruiser was there as well. When
news broke of Corinna’s murder the following day,
00:46:22
Edna realised she might have seen something
significant. Too scared to come forward given
00:46:30
Fields himself was leading the investigation, she
kept the knowledge to herself for years to come,
00:46:37
later stating: “My concern was, who do I
talk to, who do I go to, what do I do?”
00:46:50
Fields had never disclosed just how close he was
to Corinna. During the original investigation,
00:46:57
it was his job to doorknock all of her neighbours
and take statements from everyone in the building.
00:47:04
Investigators theorised that
he might have threatened them into keeping quiet about anything
they might have seen or heard.
00:47:12
Digging through official police documentation,
detectives discovered a receipt from
00:47:17
August 8 1988. It showed that Fields
signed out 18 items of evidence from the Kentucky State Police lab that related
to Corinna’s murder, including her rape kit.
00:47:32
None of the evidence had ever been examined
because Central City police hadn’t requested
00:47:37
testing, despite the fact that Jimmy
Springer had already been trialled. Moreover, Fields asked that the items be returned
to him untested. Asking for evidence that had
00:47:51
not been examined by forensic technicians was
highly unusual behaviour from an investigator.
00:47:59
The receipt was the final record in the chain
of custody. Detectives weren’t sure where the
00:48:06
evidence ended up after being signed out to
Fields, but they suspected he destroyed it.
00:48:14
Despite multiple witnesses telling police
Corinna believed she was pregnant at the
00:48:19
time of her death, nothing in her
autopsy indicated this was the case. Investigators wondered if she merely suspected
she was pregnant and never confirmed it.
00:48:32
Whether Fields believed she was carrying his
child or not, another motive soon emerged.
00:48:41
While Corinna was completing her community service
by doing clerical work at Central City police
00:48:46
station, she became friendly with an officer
there named John Scott. The pair already knew
00:48:53
each other through Scott’s sisters, but working in
close proximity brought them even closer together.
00:49:01
Eventually, Corinna felt comfortable
enough to confide in Scott. Two days before her death, she told him
that her boyfriend, Jimmy Springer, was
00:49:12
involved in a drug ring and was also trafficking
stolen property interstate. He was undertaking
00:49:20
these criminal activities alongside Jeffrey
Boyd and his longtime friend, Dale Duncan.
00:49:27
Corinna agreed to file an official report about
these allegations, which Scott recorded for her.
00:49:35
After receiving the report, Officer Scott told
his colleague Lieutenant Billy Fields about it.
00:49:43
What neither Scott nor Corinna knew was
that Fields was commonly understood to be
00:49:49
the mastermind behind the drug and theft ring.
Detectives believed that he murdered Corinna
00:49:56
out of revenge and to keep her from
speaking further about the matter. Investigators tracked down more witnesses
with incriminating stories to tell.
00:50:09
A local man named Jimmy Gunn saw Jeffrey Boyd
approach Corinna at a diner the day before she
00:50:15
was killed. Boyd threatened Corinna with a
gun and stated: “Bitch, you’ll die tonight.”
00:50:24
Jimmy immediately phoned the police station. Billy Fields took his call and said he’d attend
to the matter. As the police station was just a
00:50:35
couple of hundred yards from the diner, Jimmy
expected the officer would arrive quickly.
00:50:41
But minutes passed and there was no sign of him. Meanwhile, Boyd moved his car and then his mother
turned up at the restaurant. Jimmy saw Boyd pass
00:50:53
something over to her, which Jimmy believed to be
his firearm. When Fields finally arrived at the
00:51:01
scene almost 20 minutes later, Boyd held up his
hands, as though to prove that he was unarmed.
00:51:10
Another witness came forward to say
he saw Fields and Boyd in the early hours of October 2 1987. The pair
were walking along Legion Drive,
00:51:21
the same street near where Corinna Mullen’s
car was dumped with her corpse inside.
00:51:28
Mike Phillips, who had been a Central City police
officer back in 1987, also reportedly saw Boyd
00:51:35
walking near Legion Drive at 3AM that same day
– six hours before Corinna’s body was found.
00:51:48
Armed with this new evidence, Detective
Damon Fleming of Kentucky State Police began making arrests on November 2 2006. Retired
Central City police officer Billy Fields, now
00:52:03
63-years-old, was charged with first degree rape,
kidnapping, murder, and tampering with evidence.
00:52:11
He was also charged with one count of
sodomy for his assault of eyewitness Sarah.
00:52:18
His accomplice Jimmy Cramer, aged 37, was also
arrested and charged with first degree rape,
00:52:25
kidnapping, and murder. He spoke out against the
arrest, telling reporters: "That's one thing I'm
00:52:33
not. I ain't no murderer, rapist or kidnapper, no
way. I would take a DNA test, a lie detector test
00:52:42
whatever, to prove my innocence... I hope they
do get whoever did this because they do need to
00:52:48
be put away, but I know I didn't have anything
to do with it and don't know nothing about it."
00:52:56
The third individual arrested was 40-year-old
Angela Smith, Corinna’s former housemate.
00:53:03
Because she had been present during
the rape and murder of Corinna, yet never tried to intervene, she was charged
with complicity to rape, kidnapping, and murder.
00:53:15
Jeffrey Boyd was already serving time for
drug trafficking and evidence tampering.
00:53:20
He was charged the following day
with rape, kidnapping, and murder. As Jimmy Springer had already been tried
and acquitted of Corinna’s murder in 1988,
00:53:32
he couldn’t be charged with killing her again. Instead, he was charged with complicity
to rape, kidnapping, and sodomy.
00:53:43
Corinna’s family were aware
that arrests were imminent. The apprehending of Fields, Cramer, and Smith
coincided with Patricia Mullen’s birthday,
00:53:54
but she had passed away one month prior. The
Mullens were devastated to learn that the man
00:54:01
they’d believed was helping to find their
daughter’s killer was actually the culprit.
00:54:09
During the initial investigation, Fields visited
the family home and sat at the kitchen table,
00:54:15
offering comfort and commiserations. Once, he even
took Claude Mullen out to look for clues together.
00:54:25
Still, they were also relieved
that arrests had finally been made. Claude told the Messenger-Inquirer: “We waited
a lot of years. My wife passed away five weeks
00:54:39
ago. That’s what hurts. It was five weeks too
early. I wish she could have waited a bit longer.”
00:54:50
Corinna’s daughter Stephanie, who was just
a toddler when her mother died, was now
00:54:55
21-years-old. She had just learned that she was
pregnant when the news of the arrests broke.
00:55:03
Corinna’s sister Heather told the
Messenger-Inquirer how difficult Stephanie’s childhood had been, stating: “It’s bad enough to
grow up without knowing your parents, but to get
00:55:16
to know your parents in this way. It distorts the
person she knows that her mom was. Watching [her]
00:55:23
grow up and having to hear all these things about
her mother, that was one of the worst things.”
00:55:36
The following month, a Grand Jury indicted all
defendants on the charges that had been laid.
00:55:43
The trial was initially slated
to commence in November 2007, but was postponed so it could be moved
to a court in another part of the state.
00:55:54
Corinna’s murder and the individuals charged
for it were so notorious in Muhlenberg County
00:56:00
that there were fears the defendants
wouldn’t receive a fair trial there. Before the case finally began, the three
charges against Angela Smith were dropped
00:56:12
in exchange for testifying against Fields,
Boyd, and Cramer. She would instead face
00:56:19
a single count of perjury for the false
testimony she gave at Jimmy Springer’s trial
00:56:24
in 1988. She would be tried solo. Springer
would also face court separate from the others.
00:56:35
On April 21 2009, Billy Fields, Jimmy Cramer,
and Jeffrey Boyd all filed into court,
00:56:43
handcuffed and dressed in orange prison jumpsuits. Now bespectacled and balding
with a white ring of hair,
00:56:51
Fields struck a very different figure than the
imposing lawman he’d been back in the late 80s.
00:56:59
Eyewitness Sarah took the stand and told the
court about what she and Corinna endured at
00:57:05
the hands of the defendants more than 20-years
earlier. The defendants’ attorneys subjected her
00:57:12
to a fierce cross-examination. They demanded
to know why she hadn’t spoken up earlier,
00:57:19
especially when her own family members
became involved with Jimmy Cramer. One cast doubt on her recollections by suggesting
that if she really witnessed Corinna’s murder,
00:57:31
then those responsible wouldn’t
have let her live to tell the tale. He theorised Sarah cobbled her story together
from town gossip. But Sarah stood firm.
00:57:46
Angela Smith had turned state’s
witness for the prosecution and explained how she’d lied during the
original murder trial. She confirmed
00:57:57
that she and Corinna had gone out to a bar
with Jeffrey Boyd on the night in question,
00:58:02
prior to heading back to their apartment
and the assault on Corinna beginning. Billy Fields took the stand to testify in his
own defence. He’d only worked two or three murder
00:58:18
cases in his entire policing career, but still
claimed his memory of the Corinna Mullen case was
00:58:25
vague. He detailed how he scoured Corinna’s
bedroom for evidence and collected her hair
00:58:32
for testing, though he couldn’t recall finding any
men’s jeans or underwear in the room. Fields was
00:58:40
shown crime scene photos of these items at the
scene, with his legs visible in the background.
00:58:48
He insisted he only vaguely knew Corinna through
her community service work. He was never involved
00:58:55
with her and certainly hadn’t been to her home.
Eyewitnesses who saw Fields’ police cruiser
00:59:03
parked outside Corinna’s residence multiple
times gave evidence contradicting his claims.
00:59:11
None of the other defendants testified. A former
inmate who’d been incarcerated alongside Jimmy
00:59:18
Cramer while he was awaiting trial gave
evidence that Cramer showed him photos of
00:59:23
Corinna. Cramer obtained the photographs
during the discovery phase of the trial,
00:59:30
and they depicted her naked corpse in the
car boot, as well as during her autopsy.
00:59:37
Cramer seemed proud of the images and bragged to
his fellow inmate: “Look what we done to her.”
00:59:49
After a day’s deliberation, the jury found
the three defendants guilty on all counts.
00:59:57
Jimmy Cramer received three 20 year sentences to
be served consecutively, for a total of 60 years.
01:00:07
Billy Fields and Jeffrey Boyd were sentenced to
life in prison with no possibility of parole.
01:00:15
Corinna’s daughter Stephanie shared her
relief, as well as her sorrow, saying: “We never thought this day would come. I
didn’t have a normal life because of them.
01:00:29
My life was watching the two people I cared
most about, my grandparents, cry every day.”
01:00:39
In 2011, Fields, Boyd, and Cramer
all appealed their convictions but were denied. The details of what happened to
Corinna’s boyfriend, Jimmy Springer, are unclear.
01:00:53
Although he was to be trialled separated
for complicity to rape and kidnapping,
01:00:58
Casefile was unable to find any record of relevant
court cases. Springer has since served sentences
01:01:06
for drug related charges, and was incarcerated
for trafficking methamphetamine in 2020.
01:01:14
Angela Smith pled guilty to perjury and
was given a five-year suspended sentence.
01:01:21
-- In the years since Corinna was murdered, those
who knew and loved her have endeavoured to keep
01:01:28
her memory alive. They remember Corinna by her
nickname “Reny”, her long, wavy, dark-blonde hair,
01:01:37
blue eyes, and wide smile. Happy and
strong-willed, she loved unicorns, teddy bears, and the 1984 film Footloose.
She had since become a grandmother.
01:01:55
At the time of his daughter’s
murder trial, Claude Mullen stated: “We'll stick with it until it is
done no matter how long it takes,
01:02:06
that's what I told them 20 years ago
- I mean it then and I mean it now." In the years following the guilty
verdict, Claude Mullen found it
01:02:18
easier to visit Corinna’s gravesite,
knowing justice had finally been served. He was initially heartbroken that his wife
Patricia wasn’t there to see it, remarking:
01:02:32
“I wish she were here. She probably wouldn’t
have believed it after all this hard work.”
01:02:40
Patricia was buried alongside her daughter, in
the open, grassy fields of Sunnyside Cemetery
01:02:46
just outside of Central City. In 2011, Claude
was laid to rest alongside his wife and daughter.
01:02:56
He would remain forever close to
Corinna, just as he had been in life. Corinna had loved her family, especially
her father. On special occasions,
01:03:09
Corinna would give her father a single red
rose and he would give her one in return.
01:03:18
Corinna’s sister Heather, quote: “The
biggest thing I remember was that [Corinna]
01:03:24
had the brightest personality of any person
we’ll ever meet. She had a lot of energy.
01:03:31
She loved to laugh, and she loved to be around
her family. It was the best thing about her.”