A woman has come forward, telling Columbus police her uncle is responsible for the 1975 murder of a 14-year-old girl.
She says, until now, she was too scared to come forward with information about the murder of Christine Mullins.
Police reopened her murder case this week due to renewed attention.
Pam Brown holds up a picture drawn by her Uncle J.R., known to others as Junior, legally as Henry Newell. She talks about their close relationship.
"He bought me a car," said Brown.
Then she describes the other side of Junior.
"I love him dearly, but he was a mean person," Brown said.
A story Uncle JR told her at 16 cemented that.
"You remember when you was little and you always heard about the Christie Mullins girl," Brown said she was told.
Junior told police he found Mullins' beaten body.
"What I'm going to tell you might shock you, he said that he did kill her," said Brown.
Brown says Junior laid out the horrific details. They were neighbors, Mullins was sitting on the guard rail behind the Graceland Shopping Center, they talked and went back in the woods. Junior said he made a move and Mullins fought back.
"At that point he said he tied her up," said Brown. "He said she wouldn't stop screaming so he picked up a two by four and just started bashing her in the head with it."
He claimed he ran back to the house where his wife and Brown's parents were.
"He got my Aunt Pam and my dad who was asleep with my mom at the time for them to go down with him and tell them that they found the body while they were hiking," said Brown.
Brown's mother would not go on camera but told 10TV she saw blood on Junior's shirt and, like most family members, believes Junior did it.
"He proceeded to tell me that he had blamed it on one of his drinking buddies because he was an easy target," said Brown.
That man, Jack Carmen, was mentally challenged. He was charged but later acquitted.
Brown says the murder was an open secret in the family. No one came forward for fear of the repercussions, herself included.
"He wasn't somebody to cross," said Brown.
But she never doubted her Uncle J.R.'s account of what happened that day in the woods.
"Do I believe that he killed that girl? 100 percent," Brown said.
Brown regrets keeping her silence so long.
"I just want the Mullins family to know I held it in for many years and I regret that by all means," said Brown. "I would like to see them get closure, more than anything."
Henry Newell died a year and a half ago. Brown said she finally got the nerve to call Crimestoppers recently and detectives came to her house Thursday to hear her story.
With a new book out on the crime and recent media attention, police have decided to take another look at the case.
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