Tiffany Michelle Hatton, a 23-year-old White female, died in the early hours of January 7, 2017, in Deane, Kentucky, where a quiet home on Apple Tree Branch became the center of a sudden and devastating investigation. Online obituary and memorial sources identify her as being from Little Colley and say she left behind her young daughter, Emma Jane Mullins, along with her mother, siblings, extended family, and friends.
Authorities said Tiffany and Mark Anthony Mullins were found dead at
the home they shared in Deane at about 1:00 a.m. Letcher County Coroner Renee Campbell pronounced both dead, and local reporting described the case as a suspected murder-suicide. Gun violence memorial records also list Tiffany as having been lost to gun violence on that date in Deane.
Publicly available online sources do not report that anyone was arrested after Tiffany's death. The reported suspect in the case was Mark Anthony Mullins, who was also found dead at the scene. Because investigators treated the deaths as a suspected murder-suicide and Mullins died during the incident, the available sources do not describe later criminal charges, a trial, or a conviction.
In the days after the deaths, the focus shifted from an active criminal case to mourning. Funeral services for Tiffany were scheduled at Blackey Missionary Baptist Church, with burial to follow in Dixon Cemetery at Elk Creek, Kentucky. The public record that remains is brief but painful: Tiffany's life ended violently in the home she shared with Mullins, leaving her family to grieve and her daughter to grow up with the loss.
