June 6, 2009
Lady In The Harbor
A Woman With Dreams Of Becoming A Star Finds A Gruesome Hollywood Ending
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Play CBS Video Video Lady In The Harbor A CSI actress becomes a real-life murder victim and the search for justice is pure Hollywood.
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Video Rachael Mullenix Interrogation Watch excerpts of Rachael Mullenix being questioned by Huntington Beach, Calif., Det. Steve Mack about the murder of her mother, Barbara.
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Video Ian Allen Confession Watch excerpts of Ian Allen's taped confession to Huntington Beach, Calif. investigators.
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Barnara Mullenix, right, and her daughter, Rachael. (CBS)
On Sept. 13, 2006, police in the upscale community of Newport Beach, Calif., were called to the Newport Harbor Yacht Club after a report of a body in the water. The victim, a woman, had been brutally murdered, stabbed 52 times.
Identifying the victim was no easy task - investigators had to resort to using serial numbers found on her breast implants to come up with a name: Barbara Mullenix, age 56.
Why would somebody want Barbara dead?
Nineteen-year-old Rachael Mullenix lights up when she recalls her childhood. "I had a lot of fun with my mom. She had a wild and free spirit, fun to be around," she tells 48 Hours Mystery correspondent Erin Moriarty. "I was spoiled. I was. It was like Disneyland. My life was really, really, really good."
The only child of Bruce and Barbara Mullenix, Rachael says she always felt a special connection to her mom. "We were closer than most mothers and daughters."
It was Barbara's outgoing personality that had caught the attention of Bruce back in the mid 1980s. "She was very opinionated. She wasn't afraid to tell somebody what she thought. To me, that was attractive. It was different. You know, I kind of liked it," he remembers. "I was taken by her."
The couple married in November 1987. Bruce was nearly 28 at the time. Barbara was nine-and-a-half years older. It was her third marriage; her first two had failed. The couple were living in Oklahoma City, Okla., and within a short time they had Rachael.
Bruce says the marriage began to crumble when Barbara began drinking more heavily. "Barbara had a problem," he says. "When she got more and more into the drinking, things started to get bad."
The couple divorced in 2002. Bruce moved to California, free of Barbara - or so he thought. "The alimony and the child support my dad was giving her was not enough to support herself," Rachael says.
So in 2005, three years after the divorce and against his better judgment, Bruce helped his ex-wife and daughter move cross-country and into his small apartment.
Bruce acknowledges it was a bad living situation. But it wasn't all bad: they were living near Hollywood, and Barbara was star struck. She soon found part-time work as an extra in Hollywood movies and TV shows. She landed small roles in shows like "CSI."
Whoever murdered Barbara not only stabbed her dozens of times, they also dumped her body in a taped-up cardboard box, which had fallen apart in Newport Harbor.
Once the victim was identified, Detectives Steve Mack and Joe Cartwright were wondering why no one had reported her missing. They were eager to get over to Bruce and Barbara's Huntington Beach apartment.
"She was wrapped in bedding. It appeared to me that she had been killed on a bed and simply wrapped up in those sheets," Cartwright remembers.
No one was home when police arrived, but detectives got a search warrant and went in. "There was nothing immediately noticed when you walked in," Mack remembers.
But they did find something strange in an upstairs bedroom: a collapsed bed frame with no bed, and on closer inspection, some blood spatter on a wall that Mack says was ultimately discovered by the forensic lab.
Detectives realized that someone had tried hard to clean up the scene in that room. "I think that the reason that the mattress and the box spring were missing is because they were saturated in blood," Mack says.
Police were now convinced that the apartment is where Barbara was murdered. That fact, and the ferociousness of the attack, helped confirm for detectives that this was no random killing and that Barbara knew her assailant.
Attention immediately focused on Bruce. "No, I understand. I'm the ex-husband. We're living in the same condo," he tells Moriarty. "I have watched crime shows. I've watched '48 Hours.' …The ex is usually the first person you go to."
The detectives urgently wanted to speak with Bruce, but as far as they knew, he was missing, which made them even more suspicious.
But one day after Barbara's body was discovered, Bruce did show up at the condo, telling detectives that he'd been out of town on business and that he became worried when he couldn't reach Barbara or Rachael.
And so he says he rushed home, only to be horrified at what he discovered.
But Steve Mack, the lead detective, says Bruce reacted calmly when told his ex-wife had been murdered. Too calmly.
Produced by Ira Sutow and Allen Alter
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved
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See all 49 CommentsPosted by renra78 at 12:48 AM : Jan 25, 2009
I don't recall her mentioning that "Run or Tuesday", intending to be on instead of or, meant she was a jogger? I completely agree that she was correctly found guilty, but you obiviously didn't pay very much attention to what she said this was supposed to mean. She says that Run on Tuesday meant run away, as in leave because she was underage.
Anyways the pathlogist said there was more than 1 type of knife used. If thats the case, one would surmise that 2 people were stabbing her. How awful. I don't care how mean or socalled my parents could have been theres no way, I would choose that recourse to remedy the situation. NO WAY. This girl was the puppet master. Looking at her she looked like a fully develped woman. She had a quick mind and a very pronounced s*e*x*u*a*l air about her as well. So she easily flipped Ian. It all falls on the father though, he never should have let them come stay with him. That had to be a miserable living arrangement. Your roomate is your ex wife. That means you can't have a social life at all. Regardless of how Barbara was, she didn't deserve to that like that. Leaving that butter knife in her right eye socket was a statement being made. That was up close and personal. I copuldn't imagine me watching some woman kill my mother that way and I don't try and stop it, If i have to get cut so be it, I'm not letting it go down like that. And than 4 hours later you call your boyfriend and tell him "I love You" In other words you helped me rid me of this evil. Whats so sad, she'll probably get paroled way before 25 years is up.
On a technical side to the show, I get tired of these crime shows twisting and moving the photos around for dramatic effect. It tends to make the viewer seasick.
Why didn''t Rachel call 911 or take some kind of action. She sat in the townhouse for 4 hours without doing anything. 25 years to life? It should be life without parole. She should never have the chance to do this again. College, a family? What if her child angered her, would she kill him or her? Thoughts to ponder.
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Posted by mrs_bun at 09:00 AM : Jan 26, 2009
You must not remember all of the crazy people who claim "Jesus told me to do it".
Imagine you walk in and see someone killing your mother...would you not jump on them, fight with them to get them to stop? and then call the police or run or be hysterical...not text I love you....get real
More understanding of this illness is needed. News shows should devote at least one show to this horrible illness, and not wait until a murder occurs to do one
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