Women charged in Chad Mullen’s murder used a lasso to tie him up before burying him: Police

The two women charged in connection with the murder of Satsuma carpenter Chad Mullen tied him up with a lasso and straps before burying his body at a Federal Point farm in Hastings, according to new police documents.

Caylen Deller, 30, is charged with first-degree premeditated murder with a firearm and Tina Marie Lee-Ellis, 56, faces an accessory to first-degree murder rap, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.

Mullen’s remains were discovered on October 1 after employees at Byrnes Farm called police to report a suspicious pile of dirt on the property.

“The remains were tied up with various types of cordage and ratchet straps, including what appeared to be a lasso rope,” according to a probable cause affidavit.

Deller — who dated the father of two for roughly a year before he was reported missing — is an experienced equestrian, and told another former boyfriend that she and Lee-Ellis used a horse to drag him to a vehicle.

Data from Mullen’s phone showed that Deller called him at 8:33 p.m. on Sept. 9 while they were both in the area of his Satsuma home, and they spoke for 53 seconds.

Both phones then traveled back to Deller’s horse farm. At 9:30 p.m., Deller called Lee-Ellis and they spoke for roughly two and a half minutes.

Deller had no communication on the device for the next several hours, but later traveled to several locations that morning before returning back to her horse farm at 4:15 a.m., papers state.

Police recovered traffic camera footage of a white GMC SUV belonging to Lee-Ellis driving in an area consistent with the phone location data.

Byrnes employees told police that Lee-Ellis asked for use of a tractor in order to clear a parking spot for herself at the farm, a request that struck them as odd.

Police were also told that Lee-Ellis made cryptic comments to others about disposing of a corpse.

A search of Lee-Ellis’ car after the discovery of Mullen’s body revealed that all of the rear seats had been pushed down, and that the floors were covered in dirt.

Deller’s former boyfriend, Ken Wadell, told The Citizen that Deller admitted the crime to him, saying she shot Mullen twice and enlisted Lee-Ellis to help her dispose of his remains.

Both women have pleaded not guilty.