Sunday Favorites: Local Unsolved Mystery Featured by Netflix

For almost a decade, the family of 52-year-old Patrick Mullins has sought answers about his death, which was originally deemed a suicide, but later investigated as a possible homicide. His wife Jill has never given up hope that the cold case will be solved, posting ads and offering a $20,000 reward for any information surrounding his death.

The case will garner a national audience on November 1, 2022, when it will be featured on Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries. The second season of the true-crime series, which premiered earlier this month, features all types of perplexing disappearances, shocking murders, and paranormal encounters.

So what exactly happened to Pat Mullins?

The day 52-year-old Patrick Mullins went missing, was a Sunday like any other. The date was January 27, 2013, and Pat’s wife Jill Mullins was headed to her aunt’s home in Sarasota to sort through family memorabilia. Jill had lost her mother just three months earlier and her aunt had some things she thought Jill might want. She wouldn’t be long, that afternoon she was giving some of her old furniture to a co-worker.

Before she left, Pat kissed her goodbye and said he’d be there to help her load the furniture, according to a 2017 Bradenton Herald article ”Mystery Remains in Disappearance and Death of Local Teacher“ by Hannah Morse.

After Jill had gone, Pat told his brothers he was going to test out a new motor he’d recently purchased for his Stumpknocker boat. The Mullins lived on a tributary of the Braden River, and Pat regularly went boating.

When Jill returned that evening at 6:00 p.m., Pat was nowhere to be found. She noticed the boat missing and thought nothing of it. But as the hours passed she began to get worried. At 10:00 p.m. she began making calls.

The sheriff’s marine unit, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission coordinated a search that evening. They found Pat’s boat 9 miles west of Egmont Key. The motor was still running, but Pat was nowhere to be found.

Eight days later Pat’s body was found at Emerson Point, the westernmost part of Snead Island. His body had been spotted from the shore, floating in three feet of water. According to the police report, he’d been shot in the head with a shotgun. His body was weighed down by an anchor that was tied horizontally and vertically around his waist. No weapon was ever found, neither in the boat nor in the water. Detectives pointed out that it may have been swept away in the current.

It was hard for the medical examiner to determine if the gunshot wound was self-inflicted or a homicide, adding to the mystery of the case. The skull was sent to a forensic anthropologist at the University of Florida who made another shocking determination – there might have been another gunshot, from another gun, but because of the condition of the skull, it was hard to tell.

Because Pat’s body was in the water, there wasn’t much evidence to go on. Despite being a busy day on the water, no one witnessed any foul play.

Were Pat’s wounds self-inflicted, or were they a sinister act by someone else? And who exactly would want to harm a school librarian?

The Netflix episode is sure to shine some more light on the case. Let’s hope that the resurrection of the case will bring forth some more clues as to what happened and result in justice for Pat and his family.