From Oct. 3 to 22, 2002, Maryland, Virginia, and DC lived in a state of fear because of the man known only as the DC Sniper. When the case was finally cracked, thanks to a tip from a Washington man whose friend was referred to as "The Sniper" and a connected shooting in Alabama producing a fingerprint, the DC Sniper was revealed to be two people: John Muhammad and his teen accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo.
While most of the coverage focuses on John, Malvo, and their victims, nothing is mentioned about the one who suffered silently for years and who, some investigators believe, was the original target: John’s ex-wife, Mildred Muhammad.
On Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 9/8c, Investigation Discovery changed this, releasing the documentary Hunted by my Husband: the Untold Story of the DC Sniper. Here, Mildred was front and center, finally getting to share her side, voice, and story.
Meeting John
Mildred met John in Louisiana in 1985. At the time, she and her cousin said he could be described as "charming," "the life of the party," and "a gentleman." An Army man as well, he seemed to be the perfect man.
Three years after meeting, Mildred and John got married on March 10, 1988. One year later, they learned they were expecting their first child. Upon learning this news, they agreed that if the child were a girl, Mildred would name them, and if they’re a boy, John would name them. The one condition Mildred made was that the child won’t be named "John."
Flash forward, the baby boy is born and John names the baby after himself. While upset, Mildred didn’t argue about it. As John Jr. grew, however, John Sr. continued to act weirder: becoming jealous of the baby and getting upset whenever Mildred would pick the baby up. Specifically, Mildred remembers John Sr. saying “here we go again,” whenever she went to pick up their crying son.
When John’s job forced the family to move to Germany in 1990, things only got worse. Living off base, Mildred had difficulty making friends and became isolated. To add to this, John got into the sick habit of destroying any clothes Mildred cared about.
In 1991, John again had to move base, going to Saudi Arabia for Desert Storm. There, he served three months as a combat engineer until a shoulder injury got him pulled from Saudi. After his recovery, John Sr. was diagnosed with PTSD and was quiet on the drive home, with Mildred referring to the man that came back as a "stranger."
Post Saudi Arabia
Back in Germany in 1991, John Sr. received no help or follow-up regarding his PTSD. Considering this was the late '90s, less was known about PTSD and how to treat it. When Mildred attempted to get John Sr. help, her husband shut it down, saying that if PTSD went on his record, he wouldn’t get a promotion.
In 1992, things seemed to be getting better, with John and Mildred having a daughter in February and the family moving back to the US in May. Once in the US, they settled on a base in Fort Ord, California, and, after their third and final child was born, John left the military and the family moved to Washington.
Once settled in Washington, John and Mildred set up an auto repair service that they ran together. According to one of their frequent clients, China Fortson Washington, “John never came across as a family man.” The business started showing red flags in 1998, with John not bringing back the full amount of cash a job made and not showing up to appointments.
At some point in August of 1999, John came to Mildred saying he wanted a divorce, only to be furious when she agreed, claiming that he was “playing”. Despite promises to “be better”, nothing improved and Mildred brought up the divorce again two days later. Angered, John left, telling Mildred, “You’ve become my enemy; I don’t know what to do with you.”
Despite moving out, John continued to psychologically abuse Mildred: using the pair of keys he kept to sneak into the house. Because the two were not yet divorced, there was nothing the police could do.
Restraining order and custody
Following further assaults after changing the locks, Mildred filed for a restraining order. With a hearing scheduled for March 3, 2000, John was a no-show, resulting in a lifetime restraining order. However, John was still allowed visitation, with one of John’s friends picking them up and dropping them off.
Three weeks later, when Mildred requested the kids be returned at 2 p.m. on Sunday, they never returned. As John was the kids' biological parent, the police couldn’t consider it a kidnapping and wouldn’t help.
Terrified for her children, Mildred could hardly take care herself, starving herself, as she said she couldn’t eat because she didn’t know if her kids were eating. This got to the point that she had to be hospitalized. After her hospital stay, Mildred was forced into her hiding after her mother called the hospital, warning them that John had called her and threatened to kill her daughter.
During her 8 months in hiding, Mildred began studying the ins and outs of paralegal, obtaining a habeas corpus for her kids and filing for divorce. Meanwhile, one of Mildred’s daughters is also in the documentary, and reveals to viewers that her father had taken her and her siblings to Antigua, forcing them to change their names and lying to that their mom would be there soon. While there, John Sr. took in teenager John Lee Malvo. During their time in Antigua, Malvo would help care for the children.
In October of the same year, John Sr. used false identities, his side hustle in Antigua, to get him, his children, and Malvo to the US, eventually settling in Washington under fake names. However, this would turn out to be John’s undoing: with police being notified when he filed for food stamps under the kids’ real names. Once the police got the kids from school and placed them in CPS, an emergency custody hearing was held in which Mildred was granted full custody. After over a year, she was finally reunited with her children.
DC Sniper
Like everyone in the area affected by the DC Sniper, Mildred and her children lived in fear during October 2002. Amidst the DC Sniper manhunt, a suspicious dark car, a 1990 blue Chevrolet Caprice was spotted by Mildred’s co-worker, who had come to pick her up for work. Though Mildred called the police, they never showed as they were overwhelmed with calls regarding white vans, which, at the time, they believed was what the DC Sniper was driving.
On Oct. 23, 2002, the FBI came to Mildred’s door, telling her that John was the Sniper and that, for their own safety, the family would be placed in protective custody. Further investigation into the shootings showed that one that occurred a month before the shootings was at a restaurant suspiciously close to Mildred’s house. Connecting the October shootings, all in the vicinity of Mildred’s house, with several other shootings earlier in the year, police deduced that this was all a plot to kill Mildred. By shooting several other people, John wouldn’t be connected to the case, and Mildred would be just another target.
This angle, however, was not allowed to be presented in Virginia. As a result, John Muhammad was charged with capital murder, terrorism, conspiracy to commit murder, and illegal use of a firearm.
During her testimony against her ex-husband, Mildred requested extra security, which she received. After John was convicted and sentenced to death, Mildred was asked to testify on Malvo’s behalf. During this testimony, she emphasized how he helped care for her children while they were in Antigua. It’s strongly believed that her testimony helped with Malvo avoiding the death penalty and, rather, getting sentenced to life in prison.
Legacy
Despite the abuse she endured at the hands of John, the emotional duress of the DC Sniper drama, and public backlash directed at her and her children, Mildred Muhammad persevered and turned tragedy into triumph. Becoming a domestic violence advocate and author, she has held many speaking events in which she spread awareness about all the abuse that doesn’t leave physical scars: emotional, psychological, and financial. A truly remarkable woman, she received several awards as well as an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities in 2025.
While the events surrounding the DC Sniper and his victims have been discussed thouroughly, Mildred’s side of the story has not. Given all that she has endured, and how she was able to fight back, her story deserves to be known.
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