01x03 - k*ller in the Field

[bunniefuu]

Olney is a small, close
knit town, in north Texas.

And kids who've played
football here have

a lot of pride in playing
for the Olney Cubs.

But it's an interesting story there,
because I don't think they won a game.

We still loved them. We still supported
them every year, no matter what.

The city of Olney takes great
pride in our school system.

And in our football team we have our
school Cubs' paw right here on our badge.

So, it's important
that we protect

the reputation of the
school, and of the town.

The body of an Olney High School
teacher was found near Lake Cooper.

We drove down Main Street, and

we saw all this yellow tape
wrapped around the house.

So it was very very wrong.

All I know is, there
was blood all over.

And I was in a police cruiser.
That's about all I knew.

Every Friday, we
had pep rallies.

Our band would come
marching through the halls.

Everybody would be
clapping and cheering and

everything else.

The Olney Cubs had probably
a 10-12 year losing streak.

Everyone expected them to lose.

But they were kind of loveable
losers, I guess, you could say.

There was a lot of losses,
a lot of heartbreak.

But it didn't stop
everybody in town

from coming out and supporting the high
school football team on Friday nights.

The town, they loved us.

They would paint in the
windows on Main Street.

They would come to
games every day.

The support from the
town kept the team going.

Around 2007, Manuela
and I moved to Olney.

And we were both teaching
at the high school.

Manuela loved being
in the classroom.

And working with the kids

as much as I did.

We would usually go to
every football game.

Both my sons played on the team.

Darian and William. And Melanie also
played until she became a freshman.

She was one of the best
linebackers they had.

We have always been proud of our
children in everything they've done.

Darian and William,

and Kiara, and Melanie.

Manuela was just like any other
true Olney resident and Cub fan.

She would show up at the
games and cheer on her Cubs.

She had a very annoying cowbell.

That she would take with
her to football games,

and different pep rallies, and the
kids always knew she was there.

It would literally
blow my my ear out.

Almost made me go... I'm
already hard of hearing and

I don't need to go
completely deaf.

That Saturday, it was just a
normal day for Manuela and me.

We were sitting on
the couch watching TV.

My son and my daughter,
they were in their rooms.

It was just a quiet
evening at home.

Manuela, she slept in the bed.

And I fell asleep on the couch.

After I had woken up,

I heard her. A little
thump that was it.

Just a little. Like that, and
that was it. So I'm like...

I don't know just
a little noise.

Old house.

Some time early, early morning

my daughter, Kiara, came in.

She said, "Dad, where's Mom"?

I said, "Probably
the bedroom."

And she goes and she comes back
and said, "The door is locked".

My wife never locked that door.

I was like well, "Go
around through the garage".

Kiara goes, comes back in and goes,
"Dad, there's blood everywhere in there.

I'm like, "What the hell
are you talking about"?

There were bloody footprints
all over the kitchen.

There was blood going all
the way down this hallway.

When I walked through that bedroom, there
was so much blood all over the floor,

I actually stepped in one puddle of
blood right by the computer desk.

And I'm like,

looking around for... Has
she cut herself on something?

What could she possibly have cut herself
on, that she would bleed that much.

And there's nothing.

I went to the hospital
here, and said,

"Is my wife here, so and
so"? And they said, "No."

Then I came home and
called the police.

Um...

It was a Sunday.

I started my patrol
shift at 7:00 am.

Olney, it's not a
crime-ridden area.

On Sundays, I was the only one
working for the entire county.

About noon,

I was coming back through Olney,

and I noticed crime scene tape up all
around Mr. and Mrs. Allen's house.

And I thought that was
really just struck me as odd.

I was like, "What
could have happened?"

I knew the Allen
family through my kids.

My youngest daughter,
and my youngest son,

and Mr. and Mrs.
Allen's daughter, Kiara,

played sports together
since elementary school.

I knew of Mr. or Mrs. Allen as
being teachers in the school system.

My son, Wyatt,

he was really close
to Mrs. Allen.

He adored her as a teacher.

I pulled over and talked
to one of the officers,

and the officer asked me if
I would go out to Lake Cooper

to see if I could
find this white SUV,

that was involved
with a missing person.

Because that's where people would
go here in town, out to Lake Cooper.

It takes me about five
minutes to get out there.

When I got by the boat ramp,
I could see a white SUV

on the other side of
the lake by the dam.

I'm like, okay, I'm a
little bit more relieved.

Okay, now I've
found the vehicle.

Now if there's somebody that needs some type
of help, I can get them the help they need.

I look at the vehicle.
There's nobody around there.

I verify the tag first.

Twenty-eight. It's going
to be Texas, Lincoln,

And I called dispatch to tell Young
County that I've located the vehicle.

I put my rubber gloves
on. I get my camera.

I take a bunch of pictures of
the vehicle from all angles.

Inside, outside, the
ground around it.

Then I noticed some type of light brownish
smears on the side of this white vehicle.

And I've been in law
enforcement long enough.

I knew this looks like
dried blood to me.

This vehicle is going
to be unoccupied.

And it looks like
it's been left here...

I walk around the vehicle.

There's nobody in the vehicle. Nobody
on the ground near the vehicle,

or in the ravines by there.

I started walking up
towards a fence line.

I see what looks like material,
clothing, whatever, in a pile.

As you got closer, you could tell
something was wrapped up in it.

You could see the skin, flesh.

I could see that it was a human.

Say your command or say help.

Call work one.

Calling work one at work.

Are you trying to reach
the Sheriff's Office?

Hi. This is going to be
the one he's looking for.

- What?
- Yeah.

Why Mrs. Allen? Why would
anybody wanna hurt Mrs. Allen?

When I first met Mrs.
Allen, it was in her class.

And she had just went
above and beyond to

make sure I
understood everything.

She really got through to
me, and touched my heart.

Mrs. Allen and her
husband, Mr. Allen,

was my two favorite teachers.

Manuela was a special
teacher because

she was able to really
connect with her students.

She cared about what happened to
her students after they left school.

She would check on them, and
would follow up with them.

And she would often have
students come back and visit.

And let her know
how they were doing.

Mrs. Allen in the
hallways, she would

have the biggest smile.

She would greet everybody.
She knew everybody's name.

Everyone loved her.

If you had a bad day,
and you saw Mrs. Allen,

your day was made.
Was already better.

Manuela was my soul
mate from day one.

I was a very closed off person.

And when I fell
in love with her,

which was instant,

I started to open up.

She showed me how good life
could be when you love somebody.

She changed who I
was as a person.

Whenever you show
up at a crime scene,

and you start trying to put pieces
together, and try to make sense of

how logically they would have
come to be where they're at...

When we saw the Allen family
after arriving, they were

not necessarily... they didn't
display a whole lot of emotion.

That was a cause for concern. Knowing
that they were inside the house when

whatever happened to
Mrs. Allen happened.

As we made our way back through the
house, and entered into the kitchen,

we started noticing signs
that there was a struggle.

Blood was left on the
walls, handprints.

And as we walked through
the hallway area,

we could see blood
on the carpet,

and around on the walls.

And then we entered the bedroom.

There's a pooling of
blood in the carpet.

And then there was a tremendous
amount of blood splatter,

on the walls and the dresser.

That came from that area.

It's still as vivid in my mind
today as it was the day it happened.

Based on the marks on the wall,

and where the blood was
pooled at the end of the bed,

it appeared to me that she had tried
to get up and get out of there.

I think there was an attempt

where Mrs. Allen
tried to escape,

and she was dragged
back into the bedroom.

As we moved through the bedroom,

there's a connecting
laundry room

that goes into the garage,
and you could tell that

somebody had gone
through there and

that there were drag
marks through that area.

I think that's at the point when
we put two and two together,

that the vehicle
was pulled around

to move Mrs. Allen's body from
the location of the incident.

You could come to
the conclusion that

it was a crime of
either passion or anger.

So, my instincts told me that
the victim knew the k*ller.

It's just a devastating
loss for the

four children she has,

for students she had,
for her colleagues.

The body of Manuela Allen,

an Olney High School
teacher from Germany,

was found near Lake
Cooper on July 7th.

You have an educator that is
so connected to the community

and such a big part of
her students' lives.

You know that this is
going to have a big impact.

I believe...

my first initial reaction

was just complete disbelief.

Like this can't be
happening. This...

Not here.

You know, this isn't real.

But then it started to
become more and more real.

We were keeping up with

whatever news channel it was, that had
posted that they had identified a body.

And that the body
was Mrs. Allen.

And that's when our
just... our hearts broke.

I couldn't take it. I was...

I've had a lot of family
members pass away.

And this was one of the hardest.

Because I would just consider
her as a family member.

Why would you

hurt a teacher

who helped so much with
every student out there?

To make sure you graduated.

She cared for.

It was just... why?
What would... Why?

It was just devastating.

It hit hard.

It just changed my
outlook on everything.

Some things will stick with you.

Some things will leave.

This one will stick.

After we received a call from
the Deputy that he had located

the vehicle and Mrs. Allen,

you know you're going to have
to notify the Allen family.

And nobody wants to do that.

That's probably one of the
worst things in this job.

He says, "Well,

we found your wife's car,

and we have a woman's body."

I said, "You have a body?"

He said, "Yes."

"So you're telling
me my wife is dead."

I just... The only thing I can
tell you, I felt at that point was

empty.

Just empty.

Especially since I knew
I had to tell my kids.

The m*rder of Manuela Allen
really shook the town of Olney.

It had been a decade

since the last m*rder
had occurred here.

The problem with a small town, you
know, they'll support the football team,

but also in a small town,
you'll have a rumor mill.

If there's anything that happens
in the sweet little town of Olney,

it's all on Olney Rants & Raves.

If someone sneezes in Olney,

you're going to see
it on Rants & Raves.

A couple of weeks before this
had happened with Mrs. Allen,

there was a lot of
robbery going on, so...

We figured it was just a robbery. Or
somebody tried to rob their house.

But there was a lot of rumors

just going around,
back and forth.

People were saying it was
the husband who was involved.

Or the kids.

People were saying that it was
Mr. Allen that did something.

It's got to be Mr. Allen.
You know that's...

He was in the house when
all this was happening.

There was a lot of people
who are actually scared.

"What's going on? We
need information".

There was fear in town that
there was a m*rder*r loose.

It's pretty common for small cities
in the state of Texas to rely on

the Texas Rangers to come in and
aid us in these investigations.

The Texas Rangers, that were looking at Lake
Cooper, had noticed there was a shoe print

in the mud at the scene.

And they also noticed that
there was a bicycle imprint.

And it just so happened,

that the way the
moisture in the dirt was

is that it made a perfect
imprint of that tire track.

At that point, they
began to put together

a scenario where perhaps

whoever did this,

had somehow left the
scene on a bicycle.

And so that's one of the first,

I would call it an
"ah hah" moments,

where you say "Okay, maybe we're
getting somewhere with this case".

And so, you know, there
is an all-points bulletin

for a bicycle at
that point in time.

We went to the autopsy.

What we learned was
Manuela Allen had

sustained many stab wounds.

The majority of the stab
wounds were to the skull.

And it appeared that she
had been putting her hands

to her head in order to
prevent the stabbing.

And, as a result she sustained

roughly 47 stab wounds.

Further, it appeared that, uh,

she had suffered
some strangulation,

and there was a post mortem
g*n shot to her facial area.

There was no sexual as*ault.

It was just a violent
attack that involved

you know, strangulation
and stabbing.

Everything that they
were able to pull,

showed Ms. Allen
fought and fought hard.

Ms. Allen had died
a horrible death.

At 10:30 am, the Texas Rangers

put me in a police car,

in the front, uncuffed,
no, not like that...

and drove me down to the
Young County Sheriff's Office

and put me in an
interrogation room.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

You learn a great deal
about the Allen family.

Mainly, through the interviews

that sort of a picture, of where
everyone was, what was going on

the early morning hours of Sunday,
the 7th, when this occurred.

The older daughter,
Melanie Allen,

she had gone with a friend

to Arlington to go to Six
Flags, so she was not in town.

And then the oldest son,
he was in Stephenville,

attending school at the time.

Mr. Allen was home. He
was in the living room.

His younger daughter,
Kiara Allen, had come home,

at roughly 11:30 pm.

Shortly thereafter, the
18-year old son, Darian Allen,

had come home.

So there were three individuals
in the home when this occurred

at approximately 2 or 3 am.

There was a huge question as to

how could this woman been
stabbed this number of times,

and there be three
people in the home

that did not really

hear exactly what was going on.

The son said that
he had earphones on,

and he was up all night.

The daughter was also home,
and she also had earphones on.

And she reported not
hearing anything.

But, of course,
anyone in the home

could have been a suspect.

And that's when you
begin the process

of looking into these people,

and their association
with the crime,

and if they could be ruled out.

It was violent and you could
tell there was a very hard

struggle inside that room.

It's an obvious question,
"Why didn't you hear this"?

Yeah.

This is an old house,

and the way this
house was built,

all the walls are solid wood,
on the inside and the outside.

And the house is pretty soundproof
from the front to the back.

There's nothing I heard but
like one little thump one time,

and I was just like,

Oh well it's just a
little thump. No big deal.

And then the only other thing I
heard was, I heard the car start.

I went and opened
the door, and looked,

but by the time I got up and
opened the door, the car was gone.

So I was like... I don't
tell my wife what to do.

If she wants to go
get a cup of coffee,

or go somewhere, I didn't know.

I wasn't going to
try to stop her.

When we were talking
to Mr. Allen,

he had indicated that
he was a heavy sleeper,

and that he had not heard that
was going on two rooms away.

So obviously that
raises a suspicion

uh, about his
involvement in the case.

Because the crime
scene is so horrific,

I felt that we
needed to be careful

in how we spoke to Mr. Allen.

The questions that we asked him.

And we needed to look at him as
possibly being involved in this.

There was a whole lot of
people that you could tell

they thought I did it.

As a school teacher, when
they found out it was my wife,

the school district put me
on administrative leave.

And I understand because...

You wouldn't want somebody
who might be a suspect

in a m*rder teaching your kids.

I understand.

Ms. Allen's family

flew in from Germany during the
course of this investigation.

Law enforcement wanted
to talk to them and say,

"Hey, what's their
relationship like?

Were they fighting?

Was there anything going on that
would have given y'all cause

to believe that Mr. Allen
had issues with Ms. Allen"?

It was learned through
the investigation

that it's pretty common for Mr. Allen
to sleep out on the living room couch.

And for Ms. Allen to
sleep in the bedroom.

They also were asked
about his sleep.

How deep of a sleeper he was.

Every one of them, to a "t",

agreed that he was
a very hard sleeper.

And he could sleep
through a lot of noise.

So initially whenever we
did go into the house,

we did see footprints in blood.

And obviously those become
an important factor.

They were able to compare
Peter Allen's footprints

to the footprints in the house.

The footprints...

that's about a size ten.

Nine half, ten.

My foot's an 11 wide.

No way it matches.

There were actually able to rule
out Peter Allen's footprint.

They were ultimately able to
rule him out as a suspect.

And they also were able to
rule out their children.

Because of all the
DNA and footprints.

I don't feel angry
about the interrogation.

That didn't bother me.

Because I know they're just
trying to do their job.

And trying to find the
person who did this.

But I had no idea
who k*lled my wife.

A couple of days after we
had been at Lake Cooper,

where the body
had been disposed,

we learned that there
was an oilfield worker

who had been out
on the job site,

very early in the morning,

and observed a male on a bicycle

riding back towards Olney.

The guy had a backpack,

and I believe he had
shorts and dark shoes.

Also, a woman had reported that she
was coming back through that area,

and she also saw a
man on a bicycle,

um, somewhat matching
the same description,

headed towards town very
early in the morning.

The investigators
sought search warrants

for the video surveillance
from the bank over there.

And lo and behold,

they had a video of a guy
with a backpack, on a bicycle,

matching the description that
they had been previously given.

One suspect that they were
looking at was a Cory Taylor,

a young man that had committed
a burglar of habitation

and during that, he stole some firearms
and g*ns from a home of a gentleman.

There was some concern that,
that could have been the purpose

for the burglary
into the Allen home.

Mr. Allen had described many
firearms which he had in the home.

I was called and asked
if I would come to Olney,

and pick up a juvenile that they
were interested in talking to.

It's a two-story
apartment complex,

with a stairwell that takes a turn
and goes up at different direction.

And there's a cubby
hole down there.

I just happened to
see a dirt bike.

There was a bicycle track that was found
in the dirt out there at the crime scene.

The tread looked like it matched
the tread that I had seen.

That had been taken from
the crime scene at the lake.

I wasn't sure,
but it felt right.

Deputy Birbeck

asked Mr. Taylor
whose bike it was,

and he said it was
Julius Mullins.

Julius was actually a student at Olney
High School where my wife taught.

Julius Mullins was a running
back for the Olney Cubs.

What I remember him
as, is a good kid.

He played football.

And just like any
other normal kid.

Julius Mullins was a strong kid.

Fast, hit hard,
everything we needed.

He was funny.

Hot-headed sometimes.

Everyone knew who Julius was.

And all the teachers
knew who Julius was.

I got along with him.

I don't know of a kid who
didn't get along with Julius.

I first learned about Julius
Mullins being a suspect

as a rumor on Rants & Raves.

That they were seeking him as
active interest in the case.

I was kinda shocked, you know,

because I had talked to him,
quite a few times, at games,

and he seemed like
a nice, normal kid.

What I saw on Rants & Raves,

about Julius, a lot of
people were questioning

why would somebody like
him do this to Mrs. Allen,

his own teacher.

Julius had been known

to have an unstable home life.

To the point where
the athletic director,

and the coaches had
allowed Julius Mullins

to sleep, on occasion,
to shower, on occasion,

in the high school gym.

Oh, I met him several times.

My daughter, Melanie, dated
Julius for about a year or so.

Honestly, we didn't really want them
staying together, me or my wife,

Because one time, my
daughter had walked in,

and she had bruises on her arm.

And I'm like, "What's going on"?

And she finally admitted that he had
punched her in the arm a couple of times.

And that's when I told him,
"You wanna... You wanna fight?

You can do it with a real man
in the front yard. Let's go.

Just don't ever touch
my daughter again."

Uh... and he didn't.

And, uh, she finally broke up
with him in December or January.

Julius really liked her,

and I think Melanie was like
"All right, that's enough."

And I don't think Julius
really liked that.

The week or month they broke up,

that's when Julius
started being more quiet.

Doing his own thing.

He wouldn't show up to school.

He would start hanging
out with rough kids.

And I remember he sat in
the class, and he's just

leaning back, arms
crossed, just real quiet.

I was just...
hmm... that's weird.

When the investigators
spoke with Cory Taylor,

he said that he knew that

Julius Mullins had dated one
of the Allen's daughters.

And he felt that it was
possible that Julius Mullins

could have been involved in
the m*rder of Manuela Allen.

I was thinking, "No
way. Not Julius".

I thought it was somebody's
making something up.

I didn't see any evil in him.

What bothers me about it is...

There was no way physically that
he could have picked up my wife.

My wife weighed in probably
about 195-200 pounds.

He was 165 pounds.

I don't see him doing
that on his own.

After Julius Mullins' name

came to the attention
of the investigators,

there was a witness that came
forward, that said that the day

when all of the investigators
were at Lake Cooper,

that this gentleman had
taken his family swimming,

and invited Julius Mullins
to go swimming with them.

Someone asked, "What's
going on over there"?

And Julius Mullins, before
anyone had said anything about

whose body that was,

said, "Oh, they found
Manuela Allen over there'.

I was like, "Darn. That's it."

Now you started having
more confirmation

that Julius Mullins
may very well be

the person of interest that
we need to be investigating.

Shortly after the m*rder,

Julius Mullins had been texting

with his ex-girlfriend,
Melanie Allen,

Mrs. Allen's daughter.

And he was telling her how sorry he
was about everything that had occurred.

And Melanie asked
Mr. Mullins, she said,

"Could you have been the
one who had done this.

Because the footprints in the kitchen
showed him going straight for the keys.

And you knew where the
keys to the car were."

He said, "I wasn't involved".

But I thought that was
very sharp of Melanie

to make that observation.

He knew the whole house layout.

He knew that we always left the
door to the garage unlocked.

That she gave him the
code to the garage,

and told him to just come
in through the back door.

Because it's always unlocked.

And then the DNA
results returned

showing that the DNA all
belonged to Julius Mullins.

It just all kind of started... The
pieces started getting put together.

So Julius was taken down
to the Sheriff's Office.

And he eventually took us
through what happened that night.

During that interview,

he gave very specific
details about

how Ms. Allen was attacked.

It is mind boggling to me

that this child committed
such a heinous crime.

I do not know what happened.

He said that he had been to this
party where there were a lot of drugs

before the offence.

Then he changed his story
during the same confession.

He's not a truthful individual.

I could speculate forever as to why
Julius Mullins did this to Manuela Allen.

But it just... it
defies humanity.

I don't know if you're ever going
to have a "why" with Mr. Mullins.

You can't say he had
a bad family life.

I don't agree with the proposition
"lack of money" or anything like that.

At the end of the day, he
chose to turn into a m*rder*r.

Mr. Mullins just chose
to throw humanity away.

Knowing I went to school
with a kid who took a life,

and then knowing that I
played football with him,

that's hard to take in.

And like, me and him got along.

Like, we would high
five, handshake.

Knowing that he was
arrested for that.

Of all the people... Julius.

It was just crazy news.

There was some thought

that it would be quite
difficult for this young man

to be able to move her body

from the bedroom

to the vehicle,

and then from the vehicle
to the final resting spot.

But this young man
was a football player,

uh, lifted weights,

and I'm sure he was under a
great deal of adrenalin rush.

Who knows?

But I also ultimately believe that
he m*rder*d Manuela Allen on his own.

As did the investigators.

She was a great teacher.

A wonderful person.

Kind, loving, sweet, supportive.

And she is what
teachers should be like.

She loved the kids and she
would do anything to help 'em.

She was a wonderful person.

I miss my wife.

I miss laughing with her, joking with her,
holding her, kissing her, touching her.

I miss taking walks around
the block, holding hands.

I feel empty inside
half the time.

Dead.

He didn't just m*rder my
wife, he m*rder*d my family.

My kids are still
struggling with healing.

I'll never get over it.

I'll never move on.

I'll move forward,

but I can't move on.

The memorial that
was held at the

Olney High School
auditorium for Ms. Allen,

was just huge.

The town came out and just
showed their love and affection

for this glorious teacher that

just touched so many
people in the community.

I think a lot of people
were still reeling from it,

and still wanting closure.

It was a traumatic
event for Olney.

After Mullins was sentenced,

what really helped
the town move on is

the Cubs actually
started doing better.

And the culture of
Olney changed into

that typical Friday night
football town you would see.

With us actually winning
games, and going to playoffs,

and breaking school records,

I really think it
boosts everyone's pride.

I still like to go out and
support them and be there.

And uh, cheer 'em on. And so, yeah,
we're glad that they're doing good.