Body Might Be Lancaster Resident Who Disappeared

A woman’s body found in the California Aqueduct on Wednesday is about the same height and dressed similarly to that of a Lancaster woman missing since Sunday, authorities said, but they added that the corpse was too badly decomposed to be identified without closer examination.

An autopsy was planned, and Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said they hope to determine whether the body is that of Renee Elizabeth Mullins, 34, who has not shown up for work this week and had been planning to leave her husband of 14 years, according to co-workers.

Sheriff’s Det. R. David Dietrich said that the corpse found was about 5 feet, 5 inches tall, dressed in black pants and had “something black wrapped around its neck.” Mullins, said to be the same height, was wearing dark jeans and a dark blouse the night she disappeared, according to sheriff’s investigators.

“The body has been in the water and sun for four or five days,” Dietrich said. “We really can’t tell even her race right now or the color of her hair. It will take an autopsy to positively identify her.”

The investigation began about 3 a.m. Sunday when Mullins’ neighbors reported hearing a scuffle inside the Lancaster apartment where she had recently moved. Sheriff’s deputies found the apartment unoccupied and evidence that a struggle had occurred.

Since then, investigators have checked one other body for the possibility that it was Mullins. But they have determined that a woman’s corpse discovered Tuesday in a Palmdale wash was not her, Dietrich said. A third body discovered in the Antelope Valley this week was that of a man, in Palmdale, and an arrest has been made in that case, authorities said.

The corpse discovered Wednesday was found by an aqueduct worker during a routine check of the property.

The worker, with the California Department of Water Resources, found the body about noon, caught in one of the control gates. Divers from the Sheriff’s Department were called in, and they retrieved it about 4 p.m.

Mullins had separated from her husband, Scott, three weeks ago and moved into an apartment in the 43340 block of 16th Street about a week and a half ago, co-workers at Snow Orthodontics said Wednesday. They added that Mullins, who worked in public relations and left a 5-year-old daughter with her husband at their home in Rosamond, had been in the process of seeking a restraining order against Scott Mullins. Detectives, however, were unable to confirm that.

Kimberly Hollis, 37, a lab technician at Snow, said that she was one of three people who went dancing with Mullins Saturday night. She said that Mullins told her last Wednesday that she had picked up the appropriate paperwork to obtain a restraining order.

“She and her husband were having problems for a long time,” Hollis said. “She didn’t feel safe the last few weeks.”

Hollis said that Mullins told her over the weekend, as they visited two Antelope Valley discos, that she had not yet obtained the protective order.

Scott Mullins, a public works employee for the city of Lancaster, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Dietrich said sheriff’s deputies were interviewing him about his wife’s disappearance and had not yet ruled him out as a suspect in possible foul play.

Dr. Gilbert Snow, Mullins’ employer, said that she had also told him about obtaining the restraining order. He said that co-workers were “walking around like zombies since they found out she was missing.”

“She was happy all the time,” Snow said. “She is a real team player, vivacious, the office cheerleader. She always had bright ideas.”