A man who went viral as ‘America’s Kindest Husband’ has fallen under suspicion of killing his wife after he was convicted of a shocking child sex crime.
Timothy Murphy-Johnson, 40, was praised online in 2015 when his wife, Molly, shared a sweet message he had left for her on their bedroom mirror, titled: Reasons I love my wife.
His list included Molly being his ‘best friend’ and ‘never quitting on herself or me’, alongside less orthodox compliments such as ‘she’s gone to the strip club with me’.
Kindest husband to a ‘killer’? Timothy Murphy-Johnson is suspected of having a hand in his wife’s death
List: Molly shared a sweet message her husband left her on their mirror online in 2015, titled Reasons I love my wife
Molly passed away two years later from an apparent suicide caused by an overdose, but her friends and family told The Times they now suspect Murphy-Johnson killed his wife.
They have drawn parallels between how she died and the sickening way he kidnapped a 16-year-old girl last year.
Prosecutors said Murphy-Johnson, alongside his girlfriend Olivia Ashford Henn, 21, kidnapped a 16-year-old girl in early June 2023 and held her captive for over six weeks.
Throughout her ordeal, Murphy-Johnson tied her to a bed naked, cut her with a knife, and forced her to take drug overdoses, all of which he filmed.
After he received a life sentence this year, his ex-wife’s loved ones said they questioned whether Molly had actually committed suicide.
They told The Times that despite the sweet message he had left Molly on their mirror, she was known to be trapped in an abusive marriage and would often say her husband beat, raped, and threatened to kill her.
Sentenced: Murphy-Johnson was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year after kidnapping a 16-year-old girl and holding her captive for over six weeks, subjecting her to sickening abuse
Jailed: Olivia Ashford Henn, 21, (pictured) was sentenced to 23 years in prison for the crime
She had confided in friends that her husband had forced her into prostitution and raped her, and even claimed in a court filing that he threatened to kill her with a drug overdose and make it look like a suicide.
One of Molly’s childhood friends, Anna-Marie Anderson, told the outlet: ‘I believe Tim either provided her with drugs or forced her to take them.
‘She was brilliant, extremely educated on medication and drugs, and in my opinion, she would not go out that way.’
In messages sent to friends, uncovered in the investigation, Molly said she was planning to divorce her husband but was ‘scared’ of him, and often sent pictures of her bruises to her friends.
In one of the messages, she said: ‘He [Murphy-Johnson] just offered me some drug that will kill me, so I can get it over with already… guess I’ll just make it easier for us both.’
Divorce: In messages sent to friends, Molly said she was planning to divorce her husband but was ‘scared’ of him
Abuse: Molly’s loved ones said she was ‘brilliant’ and highly intelligent, but became trapped in an allegedly abusive marriage
The couple had met on dating website OK Cupid in 2012, and Molly abandoned plans to study for a master’s degree to join Murphy-Johnson in San Francisco soon after when he got a new job.
Molly’s father, Bob Gelman, said his daughter called him twice to ‘rescue her’ after the move, but said ‘it was about that time that Tim proposed to Molly’.
He said: ‘Molly had to pay for her own ring, which Tim kept. I suggested that they wait at least a full year before they married, given their relationship’s history. They eloped a few months later.’
When they moved to LA, Bob said he found out Molly had ‘checked herself into a mental hospital to get away’ from her husband, but his hopes that she would leave her marriage were short-lived.
He said: ‘Sadly, Tim managed to sweet talk her into returning to him.’
Bob said soon after, ‘Molly had to quit her job because of the visible cuts and bruises on her body’, and said he ‘was pimping her out’.
In their investigation into her death, Molly’s friends said they discovered explicit images of her on adult websites such as Pornhub, where she was advertised as an ‘escort’ and described as a ‘naughty nerd’.
Scrutiny: Her loved ones are not convinced she committed suicide
During their troubled marriage, Molly told her friends that her husband developed a crippling addiction to opioids that caused him to ‘lose his s***’.
Just seven months after Molly’s mirror picture went viral, she applied for a restraining order against her husband, claiming he ‘threatened to kill me and make it look like a suicide’.
In the filing, she claimed: ‘[Murphy-Johnson] physically assaulted me by kicking my back/stomach, punching my head/arms, pushing me down and stealing my purse, money and phone to prevent me getting away.’
Bob said his daughter soon ‘begged me’ to rescue her, but withdrew her application in August 2017.
By that November, he had her last conversation with her.
He said: ‘I got a call from her a few days later. She was back with Tim. He had her in psych hospitals in LA. She said she needed me to send her $20,000 for hospital bills. I never got to see or speak to Molly again.’
Chaos: Murphy-Johnson’s relatives said his marriage to Molly was ‘chaos’, but denied that they believe he killed her
Molly was found dead in her bed on the morning of December 16, 2017, however, Bob said his son-in-law didn’t tell him his daughter passed away, and he only later found out from Molly’s former boyfriend.
‘Tim tried to have her cremated immediately. I insisted on there being an autopsy,’ Bob told The Times.
‘Eventually, she was cremated, and Tim took all of her remains. I never received anything of her to bury.’
Murphy-Johnson told friends his wife left a suicide note, however the coroner’s report made no mention of a note, and the level of fentanyl in Molly’s system was less than half of that normally found in a suicide victim.
Despite the issue of forced drug use raised in Molly’s marriage, the coroner said: ‘Concern of emotional abuse and manipulation are outside the scope of what the coroner’s department can evaluate.’
In response to Molly’s loved ones casting doubt over her ‘suicide’, Murphy-Johnson’s relatives said the claims were ‘baseless’ and said their marriage was ‘chaos’.
An anonymous relative said: ‘Molly had a serious drug addiction to fentanyl, as well as depression and a history of suicide attempts. Tim saved her life on more than one occasion… so I don’t believe he killed her.
‘To be frank, they both thought the other was trying to kill them. It was chaos.
‘It was a sad, toxic, mess, two people with deadly drug addictions and mental illness for one terrible relationship.
‘He did love her very much, and her death is what led to him descending into madness.
‘I can’t make excuses for anything Tim has done. I believe he suffers from serious mental health issues.’
They added that ‘if there is any evidence’ to back up Murphy-Johnson’s alleged role in his wife’s death, ‘then it should obviously be sent to the authorities’.
