Trial underway for Todd Mullis, pig farmer accused of killing his wife with a corn rake because she was having an affair after he claimed she fell on it – Prosecutors say Amy Mullis had six puncture wounds and the tool only had four tines
Amy Mullis, 39, died on the large Eastern Iowa farm she operated with her husband on Nov 10, 2018, the couple’s 13-year-old son was the one to find her with a corn rake impaled in her back
Her husband Todd Mullis is accused of the ‘murder of his wife with a corn rake’ after discovering she was having yet another affair
Todd Mullis, 43, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Amy, at their Earlville, Iowa farm in fuzzy circumstances
He was angry after discovering she was having yet another affair, prosecutors say
Todd was also allegedly fearful that he’d lose their farm if Amy divorced him, which he suspected she was planning
Amy had six puncture wounds and the tool only had four tines – Prosecutors say evidence shows she had been stabbed in the back with the fork,
They told police Amy was scared Todd would kill her and throw her to the pigs If I disappeared, “You’ll know Todd did something to me”‘ – Amy Mullis allegedly told a friend in August 2018
He did find out that his wife was having an affair
While Amy confided in a friend that she believed she’d get $2 million from a trust fund as well as half of the farm if she were to leave Todd.
However Todd who feared the financial repercussions if Amy were to divorce him, told Amy’s step-mother that he ‘wasn’t going to lose the farm over [Amy’s infidelity]’ – police
On Nov 6, four days before Amy’s death, Todd searched the internet for ‘organs of the body’ and looked at several anatomical diagrams of the human body
Todd Mullis, 43, was irate after discovering 39-year-old Amy Mullis was having an affair and fearful that he’d lose their farm if she divorced him, prosecutors say.
He is charged with first-degree murder after the couple’s 13-year-old son found his mother dead, impaled on a rake in a barn, on November 10 last year at the farm north of Earlville where the couple lived with their three children.
Todd was in court Tuesday Sept 17 at the start of his murder trial in the death of his wife Amy
Prosecutors say Todd Mullis [left] was irate over his wife Amy’s serial cheating. He allegedly also fearful that he’d lose their farm if they divorced, as she was planning
Amy Mullis, [photo, circa 2014], told her lover that she feared Todd would kill her and feed her to the pigs if he discovered her secret love affair
Todd Mullis had said that Amy had accidentally fallen on a corn rake, but prosecutors say medical evidence showed she had been stabbed in the back with it.
State Prosecutor Marie Hughes said Tuesday: ‘He hoped people would feel sorry for him and not ask any more questions.’
Todd Mullis’ attorneys do not dispute that Amy Mullis was killed but say there is reasonable doubt about who killed her, The Telegraph Herald reports.
Prosecutor Maureen Hughes said Tuesday that being a farmer meant everything to Todd Mullis, and he ‘had to find a way to keep that farm’.
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Defense attorney Gerald Feuerhelm agreed the farm was important to Todd Mullis, ‘but not so important that he would murder the mother of his children.’
But Amy’s friends are said to have called Todd ‘POT,’ short for ‘Prisoner of Todd’.
She is said to have told her brother she was fearful her husband of 14 years would ‘flip out’ when she filed for divorce.
And the coroner determined that while the corn rake had four tines, Amy had at least six puncture wounds, indicating she had been stabbed repeatedly.
Her death was ruled a homicide.
Todd Mullis, center, attends his first-degree murder trial at Dubuque County Courthouse in Iowa Tuesday. He is accused of killing his wife by stabbing her with a corn rake last year
Delaware County’s county attorney John Bernau, right, questions witness officer Eric Holub as he hands back a corn rake during the first-degree murder trial for Todd Mullis
Prosecutor Hughes told the court: ‘Being a farmer means everything to him. He has put his life into that farm. The defendant had to find a way to keep his farm.’
Family photos from Facebook show what appears to be a happy family, doting over their
children as they showed off hunting trophies and awards for gymnastics and 4-H club.
However, Todd is said to have revealed a darker side to the marriage in interviews with police, admitting that he had caught his wife in an affair with another man in 2013.
At first, Todd insisted that he had never had a reason to suspect his wife of another affair, and that they had patched things up and had a strong relationship at the time of her death. But investigators said that was not the case.
Amy had been engaged in a second affair with another man that the couple both knew since May 2018, according to investigators.
The man reportedly told police that Amy had confided that she wanted to leave Todd, but
was ‘scared to death’ of what her husband might do.
‘If he catches me, he might make me disappear,’ Amy told her secret lover in the summer of 2018, according to the affidavit.
In August of 2018, police say Amy told another friend that if she disappeared, ‘You’ll know Todd did something to me.’
Another friend stated that Amy said that Todd would kill her and throw her to the pigs if he ever discovered the affair.
Amy [left], told a friend she would get $2 million from a trust fund and half the farm if she divorced her husband while Todd[right] confided in family that he feared he’d lose the farm in case of a breakup, according to police reports
Amy Mullis was stabbed by corn rake ‘at least twice, possibly 3 times,’ Forensic pathologist Dr Kelly Kruse [photo], testified on Wednesday
Amy told a friend she thought she’d get $2 million and half the farm if she divorced Todd, while he told family he feared he’d lose the farm in if it came to that, police say
On the week of October 22, a friend told investigators that Amy had called crying and screaming, saying that Todd had discovered her affair. Amy said that one of her children was refusing to get on the school bus, for fear that she wouldn’t be there when the child returned.
Todd may have had his suspicions from the very start of the affair.
A police review of his internet search history revealed that in May of 2018, he had googled the terms ‘killing unfaithful women’ and ‘what happens to cheaters in history’ as well as ‘what happened to cheating spouses in historic Aztec tribes’, authorities say.
Amy’s brother Jeff Fuller is also said to have told investigators that she was planning on moving out imminently at the time of her death. Fuller said that he had been storing furniture for her to use when she moved into a new home.
Amy confided in a friend that she believed she’d get $2 million from a trust fund as well as half of the farm if she were to leave Todd.
Police say that Todd feared the financial repercussions if Amy were to divorce him.
The husband told Amy’s step-mother that he ‘wasn’t going to lose the farm over this,’ according to the affidavit.
On November 6, four days before Amy’s death, Todd searched the internet for ‘organs of the body’ and looked at several anatomical diagrams of the human body, records show.
At 8.11am on the morning of her death, Amy is said to have texted a friend: ‘Still very tense around here. Just not sure of anything anymore.’
Hours later Todd called 911, frantically reporting that his wife was unresponsive.
Todd claimed that he had been working in the north hog building with Amy and their 13-year-old son that morning when he noticed that Amy appeared to be having dizzy spells.
The husband said he told his wife to go lie down in the house until she felt better, but asked her to grab an animal carrier for a litter of kittens from another outbuilding before she went inside.
When the father and son left the hog barn to get a drink, the animal carrier wasn’t where Amy was supposed to leave it, Todd said.
Todd told police that he asked his son to look for Amy. The boy made a grisly discovery in a nearby shed, finding his mother lying on the ground with a corn rake impaled in her back.
Todd said he pulled the rake out and rushed Amy to the nearest hospital, calling 911 on the way.
About halfway to the hospital, which is 13 miles from the farm, emergency services met Todd on the road and transferred Amy to an ambulance, taking her the rest of the way. She was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
An autopsy found six puncture wounds in Amy’s back. Two were at an upward angle, and four downward. The corn rake only has four tines, police said.
After Amy’s death, a friend of Todd’s told police that he had confided some disturbing statements.
‘You really have to watch what you text on your phone because it could come back to bite you,’ Todd said, according to the friend. ‘You know if you write something like ‘I wish you were dead’ or ‘It would be so easy to have you killed or have you dead.”
On January 8, two months after Amy’s death, police say that Todd searched the internet for the phrases ‘thrill of the kill’ and ‘once you hunt man you will always feel the thirst.’
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