Local woman speaks out after suffering sexual abuse as a child for years

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following contains retellings and descriptions of child sexual abuse that may trigger some who have survived similar situations. Discretion is advised.

A Tampa woman said as a kid, she was sexually molested by her stepfather for several years.

Brenna Crippen sat down with ABC Action News anchor Wendy Ryan to share her story.

“There were days I didn't want to live, let alone come home,” said Crippen.

WATCH Local woman speaks out after suffering sexual abuse as a child for years

Crippen first met Alexander Thomas Mullins in 1997 when she was just seven years old. Mullins was her mom’s boyfriend and, within months, moved in.

“As an adult, you can look back and think about how focused he was on me. He was focused on making sure that I was very comfortable with sitting close to him,” said Crippen.

Soon after, Mullins married Crippen's mom and became very involved in the children's lives with her blessing.

“She trusted him from the beginning. And really trusted him to be a caretaker and babysitter,” explained Crippen.

Due to that trust, her mom often left early for work and relied on Mullins to take Crippen and her brother to school.

“That is when a lot of the abuse started to occur, is those early mornings,” said Crippen.

When her mom began to travel for a new job, the sexual abuse escalated. Crippen said Mullins pulled her out of all social activities and isolated her.

“I think he was absolutely afraid that somebody who got too close would notice, who would notice the hand on my thigh. The too-close-for-comfort interactions that he would regularly have with me,” explained Crippen.

But now Crippen fears she may not have been Mullins's only victim.

ABC Action News requested a copy of Mullins’s personnel file from Hillsborough County Public Schools. We received a copy, and according to Mullin’s file, he worked as a substitute English teacher at Wharton High School from 1998 to 2000. He also worked as a substitute at Middleton High in 1999. One job reference for Mullins in that file even said, ''He would be a good influence on younger and older children."

Crippen said he also helped coach her all-girls soccer team in Tampa.

“I have always wondered if there was anybody else on my teams who had inappropriate interactions with this person,” said Crippen.

A few years later, Mullins relocated the family from Florida to a small town in Pennsylvania.

“We lived in a farmhouse that was pretty isolated. There were no neighbors that I could run to. Every pawn that he put in place, every tactic that he used was isolation and desolation,” said Crippen.

Crippen said once in Pennsylvania, the sexual abuse continued, especially after school.

“I put my books down, and he would bring me to a bedroom. He would lock the front door behind me. And my brother wouldn't be allowed to come in the house,” explained Crippen.

She said Mullins even tried to convince her the sexual behavior was “Good for their relationship.”

“From the start, he told me that this was something normal that occurred between father and daughter. That this made us family. That this made our bond closer, and we were inseparable because of this,” explained Crippen.

She even began to believe it.

“It was complete mental manipulation to where I thought what was happening to me was normal, and this was what happened in every family,” said Crippen.

She didn’t realize how horrific Mullins's behavior was until middle school, when she’d talk to her friends about boys.

“The things that I knew were not the same as the things that they knew. And they would ask me, ‘How do you know all of this? How have you done that?’ And that's when the red flags really started to come up that, 'Wait, you know this because your stepdad was doing this? That's not okay,'” explained Crippen.

Soon after that, she resisted his sexual advances one morning, and he got so angry. Once she arrived at school that day, Crippen ran to a school counselor and finally reported the abuse. Officers were immediately called to arrest him.

“From the reports that I have been privy to, he had a knife to his throat and attempted suicide before the police arrived. He also attempted to destroy his computer,” said Crippen.

“Why did he do that?” asked Wendy Ryan.

“He had child pornography on his computer that he would make me watch,” explained Crippen.

Mullins was charged with the sexual abuse of a child and agreed to plead guilty in a plea deal. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Pennsylvania and required to register as a sex offender.

Since the sexual abuse started in Tampa, Crippen filed an additional case of sexual battery in Hillsborough County. Mullins was supposed to be extradited to Florida immediately after serving time in Pennsylvania.

After being released, Mullins became a fugitive for years, hiding in Connecticut and Vermont. Then, in May of 2023, Vermont State Police tracked him down and arrested him. He was immediately extradited to Hillsborough County and remained in the Falkenburg Road Jail to face new charges.

This time, he pled not guilty for sexual battery on a victim under 12 years old and lewd and lascivious molestation. Mullins finally went to trial in January and was found guilty on both counts and sentenced to life in prison.

Crippen is now grateful Mullins will never get out, but the years of abuse took its toll as she even tried to end her life.

“I actually attempted suicide when I was 13 after telling them. I thought that there was something wrong with me. That this was my fault,” said Crippen.

And for years, her mental wellbeing struggled.

“Through my later teens, I made a lot of really destructive decisions that could have been only construed as I don't care if I live or die,” said Crippen.

But she’s now healing with therapy and sharing her story so other victims don’t feel alone.

“Nobody will ever know the scale of this problem if we don't talk about it," said Crippen.

April is sexual assault awareness month, and there’s help available for survivors.

The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay has several resources, and they offer help for victims and say it’s never too late to ask for assistance. You can call their 24-hour helpline at 2-1-1 if you’re in Hillsborough County. If you’re outside of the county, you can call 813-234-1234.