DUBUQUE, IA. (THECOUNT) — UPDATE: The 43-year-old Iowa hog farmer on trial for murdering his wife with a pitchfork, was found guilty on Monday, according to local reports.
In Aug. 2018, Todd Mullis reported the death of his wife 39-year-old Amy Mullis, as an accident saying she was impaled by a pitchfork-type of corn rake at their farm, but it didn’t take long for authorities to doubt his story and place him on trial for first-degree murder.
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The trial for Todd Mullis, also 39, is currently ongoing, according to WJCL, and recent testimony is starting to paint a picture of what happened to Amy Mullis that doesn’t perfectly align with her husband’s account.
When Amy Mullis’ 13-year-old son found his mother dead, Todd Mullis said it was a freak accident. Authorities said the story started to crumble after the autopsy. For instance, if Amy was accidentally impaled – it didn’t explain the six punctures on her back when the rake had only four prongs.
Not long before her death, Amy Mullis’ friends said she confided in them that she was prepared to leave her husband. While Todd Mullis painted a picture of their relationship as having little to no fights, according to authorities, Amy Mullis’ friends said the two had a complex dynamic.
During testimony on Tuesday, Amy Mullis’ brother said her friends called her “POT,” which was short for “prisoner of Todd” because Amy Mullis described her relationship as controlling. Detectives said they found evidence that the pair hadn’t shared a bed for five months and that once Amy Mullis told a friend that things were “still very tense around here.”
The two were married for 14 years and owned land and a farm together. During the trial, State Prosecutor Marie Hughes pointed out how far Todd Mullis would go to keep his lifestyle and farm. A friend said Amy Mullis believed she would stand to gain $2 million from the farm trust, as well as half of the couple’s land holdings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AEZ-S28Y7Y
“Being a farmer means everything to him. He has put his life into that farm,” Hughes said. “The defendant had to find a way to keep his farm.”
Hughes suggested that Todd Mullis was not pleased with the prospect of losing Amy Mullis and possibly half of his land in a divorce. It wasn’t the first time that Todd Mullis felt threatened to lose everything either, according to Amy Mullis’ friends. Amy Mullis had previously had an affair that Todd Mullis discovered and when he found out about the second alleged affair, Amy Mullis reportedly told friends she feared for her safety.
The man she was seeing told authorities that she said, “If he [Todd] catches me, he might make me disappear.” Court records obtained by WOI-DT revealed that Amy Mullis voiced similar concerns to her friends.
On the day she was discovered, Nov. 10, 2018, Amy Mullis’ 13-year-old son was told to go check on her. The teen told the court Tuesday that his father left the barn for a brief period before instructing him to find his mother but that he wasn’t sure for how long.
After Amy Mullis’ body was discovered a coroner declared her death a homicide. Not long after police said an affidavit clued them in to some odd internet search topics on Todd Mullis’ iPad, including “organs in the body,” “killing unfaithful women” and “what happens to cheaters in history,” to name a few.
Later in court, Amy Mullis’ stepmother said when Todd Mullis learned of his wife’s first infidelity, he didn’t want it to end his marriage.
The stepmother told the court that Todd Mullis said, “I’m not going to lose my farm and what I worked for.”
DEVELOPING::
Geo quick facts: Dubuque is an Iowa city on the Mississippi River. The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium explores life in and around the river. Northwest, the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens include rose, herb and Japanese gardens. Mathias Ham House is a 19th-century mansion with opulent furnishings, with an 1833 log cabin on its grounds. South, the Mines of Spain State Recreation Area has trails and wildlife – wikipedia.