Manatee County man's death remains a mystery

Lakewood Ranch High School media specialist Jill Mullins stood at the State Road 64 Boat Ramp with a stapler in one hand and flyers in the other.

After school on a Tuesday, a homeless man named Christopher Burton showed her where someone had crumpled up one of the flyers she had posted there three days earlier.

Its headline read: “Help find the truth.”

The story on the poster followed: Mullins’ husband, Patrick, went missing Jan. 27, 2013, after going out on the Braden River on his 16-foot boat. A fisherman found his body nine days later, Feb. 5. He had been shot in the head with a shotgun.

Burton didn’t have any information for Mullins, but offered his condolences and his encouragement she would find answers.

“I’m going to keep my eyes open for you,” he said.

Mullins thanked him and said she hoped the crumpled paper had meaning.

“I hope it’s irritating (someone’s) conscience,” she said.

Five years after his death, Jill Mullins remains convinced someone murdered her husband.

On weekends, weeknights and her summers off, she visits boat ramps and other places to put her flyers on car windshields or wooden posts.

“It’s hard to talk about, but it’s a relief, too,” Mullins said. “It’s kind of crushing the world goes on — and it has to.”

“It’s hard to talk about, but it’s a relief, too. It’s kind of crushing the world goes on — and it has to.”

Manatee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Dave Bristow said the investigation on Patrick Mullins’ death remains open.

“We really haven’t received any new information recently,” he said. “We certainly encourage any one at any time (to come forward with information).”

With each anniversary, Mullins hopes there will be a renewed interest in the case and maybe someone will come forward.

She remembered the days following his disappearance vividly. She had been in Sarasota handling family affairs. When she returned to her East County home, he was gone.

“It was strange he wasn’t home,” she said.

She wasn’t worried, though. He liked to tinker and often would help neighbors with cars or boats. But as the hours crept by, the worry set in. She called friends and relatives for information and began to canvass the neighborhood more carefully. There was no sign of Patrick Mullins.

She checked the side yard, where they kept their lawn mower. He wasn’t there either.

But their boat was missing.

Jill Mullins didn’t know what to do about a missing adult and began researching it. At 9 p.m., she called Patrick’s brother, Bert Mullins, who guessed Patrick had gone out to test his boat motor — a trip that should have only taken 30 minutes.

Soon, Bert Mullins began searching the river and later was joined by the Mullins’ son, Miles, who drove from the University of South Florida to help his uncle search.

By 11 a.m., detectives came.

Then, the U.S. Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife aided the search. They found the boat but not Patrick’s body.

Authorities told Jill Mullins to secure doctor and dentist records.

“It was pretty frightening,” she said.

The call that confirmed Patrick’s death came. He had been shot in the head and had been tangled in rope, authorities said.

Jill Mullins didn’t believe it was a suicide, and became convinced of foul play. 

She still searches for answers.

“He was such a good man,” Jill Mullins said. “We do have a lot of criminal deaths in our county — drugs or other things. Pat doesn’t fit into that profile.”

A $20,000 reward is offered for information leading to an arrest.

Jill Mullins raised half that amount with a fundraiser in 2013, and the other half is funded through Crime Stoppers and Gold Star Club of Manatee.

If you have information, contact Crime Stoppers at 866-634-8477.