Desperate to escape

She wanted to flee farm life – but wouldn’t make it out alive

- ANNA MATHESON

Amy Mullis, 39, had been married to pig farmer Todd for 14 years.

She loved hunting, fishing and spending time outdoors with their 13-year-old son.

She’d even left her job as a registered nurse so that she could spend more time on the family farm.

But things weren’t as perfect as they appeared.

Because the reality was that Amy was desperate to leave her husband.

For five months, Amy and Todd had been sleeping in separate beds and Amy had engaged in a secret affair.

She had confided in her close friends that she felt ‘trapped’ by her husband Todd, 43.

They even jokingly called her POT Wife – short for ‘prisoner of Todd’. Sadly, Amy was never to make her escape from the farm...

Freak accident?

On 10 November 2018, Amy’s son found her crouched, unresponsive, in a shed at the farm. A pitchfork-like corn rake was sticking from her back.

Todd called the emergency services and Amy was taken to a nearby medical centre, where she was pronounced dead. Todd insisted to the police his wife had died in a freak accident.

He claimed the family was going about daily chores on the farm when Amy had felt dizzy. She’d had surgery a few days earlier and was still suffering after-effects.

Todd told the investigators he’d suggested she go for a lie-down, but her body was found soon after.

At first, Todd was seen as a grieving husband. But soon, investigators found out about Amy’s affair.

In October 2018, a friend of Amy’s claimed that she had phoned her crying, after Todd had discovered her infidelity.

In February 2019, Todd Mullis was arrested and charged with the first-degree murder of his wife.