“48 Hours Mystery” profiled the case of Barbara Mullinex this past Saturday night. Barbara ended up dead in the harbor not far from where she lived in Southern California. She was stabbed over 50 times, and found with a butter knife in her eye. Clearly, it was a vicious murder, but the big question was, who did it?

There were three potential suspects: Bruce Mullenix, her ex-husband with whom she currently lived, her 17-year-old daughter Rachael, and Rachael’s fiance, Ian Allen.

Read more“48 Hours” presented the story in a way to keep the mystery going as long as they could, but when you heard about the behavior and lies of Rachael Mullinex, it didn’t take much for the average person to see who was guilty. Allen confessed, and tried to protect Rachael, but Rachael wanted us to believe she was abused by Allen, and that he knocked her out, kidnapped her and she was just a victim in this case.

But when you hear that Allen left Rachael alone at the house for an hour, and she could have easily called 911 to get help, or left the house to escape, her story clearly falls apart. Also, when she was on the run with Allen, she was left alone in the gas station, and could have cried out for help, but she didn’t. Instead, she walks around the gas station, as seen on security video, without a worry. But the worst part was when Rachael text messaged Allen shortly after her mother’s murder, during that hour that he left her alone. She didn’t call for help. Instead, she typed the words “I love you” to Allen. That is what sealed her fate, or should have sealed her fate, for any doubters. It didn’t take Eyes for Lies to see this.

I personally suspect that “48 Hours” did the interviews after Rachael’s conviction, which should be taken into account, because, if this is true, it meant that the “high stakes” of Rachael’s lies dissipated, and many of her clues would have dissipated as well. But even with that, Rachael’s emotions were way off kilter. She was happy and smiling through the entire interview, which was very inconsistent with what she was saying. She smiled until the point where she talked about being convicted. Then her emotions changed, and changed notably. Suddenly that “I’m-innocent-girlish-smile” that she had on her face the entire interview dissipated when she finally felt pain. She tries to tell us the only mistake she made was dating Allen. Give me a break!

Rachael told us how much she loved her mother, but never shed a tear for her. She didn’t even have a hard time talking about her mother being murdered. And when she told us Allen was abusive to her, she had absolutely no emotional connection to that, either. Rachael talks about highly emotional subjects, but never gets emotional. That’s a big tip-off.

I did notice a few spots in the interview with Erin Moriarty where Rachael had a hard time concealing her deceptive ways. She ever-so-slightly indicated two or three times that she felt joy in being deceptive. Her face got a glow about it as she’d recalled a memory (her eyes looked upwards), and she’d grin ever so slightly. It was muted and very, very subtle, but it was there. Rachael also shows an expression of anger at the prosecutor when she talks about the fact that Rachael didn’t call 911. Rachael purses her lips and licks them, very briefly. She is clearly mad, but manages to hide it very well. If Rachael was innocent, or cared about her mother, that memory would have caused her pain. Instead, she is angry because, I suspect, she knew she messed up.

I personally believed that Rachael was crying a true cry of desperation in the police interview at times, specifically when she was told she was going to be arrested for her mother’s murder. She was distraught that she was caught. That devastates Rachael, but of course, I don’t think her cry is consistent throughout that interview. It ebbs and flows from real to fake, depending on what they talk about. At one point, she cries out and then suddenly stops and talks normally (which is very abnormal). It might be an edit in the tape, or bad acting on Rachael’s part. Either way, I do not trust Rachael and I believe the jury got this right. Rachael’s dad is an innocent man.

I don’t disagree with the prosecutor here when she says that she believes Rachael Mullinex is a psychopath.

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FYI: I made comments about last week’s “48 Hours” audio segment of Bob Eckhart in the comment section, if you have interest.