CBS's 48 Hours opens its 39th season with a two-hour premiere that puts an Iowa murder case back in the national spotlight, tracing a son's fight to clear his father and a cold case cracked by a piece of chewing gum.
The first hour, titled The Corn Rake Witness, follows Trysten Mullis, the Iowa son who spent years trying to overturn his father Todd Mullis's murder conviction in the 2018 death of his mother, Amy Mullis. According to Aol, the episode covers both Trysten's campaign and the court fight that ended in March 2025, when a judge rejected Todd's bid for post-conviction relief.
The Iowa farm case at the center of the premiere
Todd Mullis is serving a life sentence after a jury convicted him in 2019 of killing his wife at their rural Iowa farmhouse. Prosecutors argued he drove a corn rake into her back during an argument, and jurors agreed.
The physical evidence drove the state's theory. The medical examiner ruled Amy's death a homicide after noting the corn rake had four tines while her back showed six puncture wounds, meaning she could not have fallen on it once. She also had injuries to her chin, cheekbone, knees, and knuckles.
Assistant state medical examiner Dr. Kelly Kruse testified that the wound patterns matched Amy being struck with the corn rake at least twice, and possibly three times.
Trysten never accepted that version. He maintained his mother's death was a farming accident, that she fell onto the heavy-duty four-tine rake, and that his father was wrongly convicted.
More than 100 claims of ineffective counsel rejected
In March 2025, Todd Mullis returned to court for a multi-day post-conviction relief hearing. His appellate lawyers called 11 witnesses to testify in person and submitted deposition testimony from 28 additional people, according to Aol. The appeal raised more than 100 claims that his original trial lawyers were ineffective.
The defense brought in forensic pathologist Dr. Jennifer Hammers, who agreed Amy died from corn rake injuries but argued the death was accidental. Trysten's own written testimony and an earlier deposition were part of the legal application package assembled by the appellate team.
Judge Laura Parrish was not persuaded. She ruled that Todd's original trial counsel acted appropriately and denied the motion, upholding the conviction. After more than a year of review across dozens of witnesses and three figures' worth of claims, the life sentence stands.
Chewing gum ruse breaks open 40-year-old double murder
The second hour of the premiere, Everett Cold Case Murders, moves from Iowa to Washington state with a detective story that reads like fiction.
According to