Watch the video on YouTube: The Corn Rake Witness | Full Episode — 48 Hours
48 Hours' Corn Rake Witness Video: Four Tines, Six Wounds, and a Son's First Interview
On November 10, 2018, 13-year-old Trysten Mullis found his mother, Amy, face down in a shed on the family's Iowa hog farm, a corn rake in her back. His father, Todd Mullis, was convicted of her murder in 2019. Now 21, Trysten tells 48 Hours in his first interview that investigators got it wrong — and that he was there.
Most 48 Hours episodes revisit a case from the outside. This one is built around someone who was inside it from the worst possible vantage point: the child who found his mother, whose account of that day placed his father with him in the hog barn, and who has grown up in a family split down the middle by the verdict. Erin Moriarty's reporting gives Trysten the hour, and then tests what he says against the forensic argument that convicted his father.
The episode aired October 17, 2026, as the season premiere of 48 Hours, paired that night with the chewing gum sting episode, and was published on YouTube on October 23, 2026, where it has passed one million views. Its new material is substantial: Trysten speaking publicly for the first time, a return to the farm, and the defense experts whose accident theory was heard — and rejected — at a post-conviction hearing in June 2026.
At a Glance
| Video | “The Corn Rake Witness | Full Episode” |
|---|---|
| Channel | 48 Hours |
| Published | October 23, 2026 |
| Length | ~42 minutes |
| Views | 1.0M+ |
| Subject | The 2018 death of Amy Mullis in Earlville, Iowa; Todd Mullis's conviction and his son Trysten's campaign to overturn it |
What the Video Covers
The episode opens on November 10, 2018, in Earlville, Iowa. Amy Mullis had been working on the family farm with Todd and Trysten; she went to a shed to fetch a pet carrier and did not return. Trysten found her face down with a corn rake in her back, and she was rushed to hospital, where she died. The autopsy found six puncture wounds — from a tool with only four tines — along with injuries to her knees, chin, cheekbone and knuckles. Her death was ruled a homicide.
The middle of the episode reconstructs the case against Todd Mullis: a marriage under strain, reports that Amy was considering leaving, and the prosecution's simple arithmetic — four tines cannot make six wounds in a fall. Trysten's account that he was with his father in the hog barn became central, and Todd was convicted of first-degree murder in 2019. The episode does not hide that the case has divided the family: Amy's mother Peggy Munson and brother Jeff Fuller stand on one side, Todd's siblings on the other, and the children went to live with Amy's family after the arrest.
The final act is the challenge. Now 21, Trysten says parts of his trial testimony did not tell the whole story and argues the timeline left his father no opportunity — a round trip across the farm he describes in detail for Moriarty. Defense experts Dr. Jennifer Hammers, a forensic pathologist, and Dr. Valentina Ngai, a biomechanical engineer, argue Amy could have fallen onto the rake and sustained the extra wounds struggling to free herself. The episode closes with the outcome viewers need to hold alongside the argument: in June 2026, after a multi-day hearing, Judge Laura Parrish denied post-conviction relief and upheld the conviction.
Strengths
A genuinely new voice, not a reheat. Trysten Mullis had never spoken publicly before. Whatever viewers make of his argument, hearing the case's central witness as an adult — returning to the shed, walking the route, describing raising his younger siblings — is new reporting, not a repackaged trial summary.
Both sides get their experts, and the result is stated plainly. The defense accident theory is presented by the specialists who made it in court, and the prosecution's four-tines argument is given its full force. Crucially, the episode also reports that the theory was tested at a hearing in June 2026 and did not persuade the judge — context advocacy edits often leave out.
The family cost stays visible. Amy Mullis is presented as a mother, nurse and partner in the farm operation, and the episode keeps returning to what the split verdict has done to her children and parents. The disagreement is treated as grief pulling in two directions, not as sport.
Weaknesses
The hour leans toward the challenger. A premiere built around a son's first interview naturally centers his perspective. Viewers should weigh that framing: the jury heard the full trial evidence in 2019, and the post-conviction court, hearing the new experts, still upheld the conviction.
The forensic dispute is hard to settle from a television edit. Whether a fall can produce six wounds from four tines turns on wound tracks, force and sequence — detail a 42-minute episode can outline but not reproduce. Anyone who wants to judge the science will need the hearing record itself.
Hard viewing for anyone close to a similar loss. The episode revisits a teenager finding his mother, in detail, and returns to the scene repeatedly. It is handled soberly, but viewers affected by family homicide should know the material is revisited throughout, not confined to an opening summary.
Who Should Watch
- 48 Hours regulars — a strong season premiere, anchored by a first interview the case has never had before.
- Wrongful-conviction and appeals viewers — a clear walkthrough of a post-conviction challenge, including the June 2026 ruling against it.
- Forensic-evidence followers — the four-tines, six-wounds dispute is a compact lesson in how wound evidence is argued both ways.
- Viewers who prefer resolved context — the episode presents a live challenge but is honest that, in law, the conviction currently stands.
8/10
A substantial, carefully balanced premiere — Trysten's first interview gives the case a voice it never had, the forensic dispute is argued fairly on both sides, and the episode is honest that the courts, so far, have not been moved. Amy Mullis stays at the center of a story her family is still living.
Source: 48 Hours on YouTube (“The Corn Rake Witness | Full Episode,” published October 23, 2026; episode first aired October 17, 2026); case background via CBS News / 48 Hours reporting, MemorableTV and The Cinemaholic coverage of the Todd Mullis case and the June 2026 post-conviction ruling.