DC sniper’s ex-wife reveals his chilling threat before killing spree

Dr. Mildred Muhammad was marked for death by her ex-husband, a former Army soldier who would later be identified as the “D.C. Sniper.”

For much of their 12-year marriage, the mother of three endured emotional and psychological abuse in silence. Even after the couple split in 1999, John Allen Muhammad continued to stalk and terrorize her. When she changed her phone number, he still found it — and then showed up at her home uninvited.

“He said to me, ‘You have become my enemy, and as my enemy, I will kill you,’” she told Fox News Digital.

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In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Muhammad is now speaking out in a new Investigation Discovery true-crime documentary, “Hunted by My Husband,” which explores John’s relentless desire to murder her so he could gain custody of their children.

John, an expert rifle marksman, and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, shot and killed 10 people and wounded three others over a three-week span in October 2002 that terrorized the Washington, D.C. area, The Associated Press reported. Multiple other victims were shot and killed across the country in the prior months as the duo made their way to the area around the nation’s capital from Washington state, the outlet shared.

During the investigation, authorities theorized that John believed killing Mildred would help him regain custody of their children by making her appear to be the victim of a random gunman.

Muhammad met John in 1985 while he was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington. She was shopping with a friend when he approached with “a beautiful smile.” They went out that same evening and later married in 1988.

She described her husband as deeply invested in their relationship, and they quickly built a family together. But after serving in Operation Desert Storm in 1990, he returned a changed man. John suffered a shoulder injury and was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. When Muhammad and their eldest child, John Jr., visited him in the hospital, she recalled that “the lights were on, but no one was home.”

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“He would just sit in the corner, rocking back and forth,” she recalled. “He no longer wanted to have conversations. Even if I tried to engage, he felt threatened. He was full of rage — but it was a different rage.

“John was quiet. He was trained in psychological warfare, so he would do things that made me question everything I did. I would look at him and say, ‘Why are you angry?’ He would respond, ‘Why are you saying I’m angry?’ Then he went to the mirror, wiped his hand across his face — and whatever emotion was there was gone.”

Once warm and attentive, John became quick to anger and consumed by paranoia. He grew cold and calculating, making Muhammad’s belongings vanish if he disapproved of them. He nitpicked over small things, punishing her with days of silence whenever she dared to act independently. To avoid his quiet fury, Muhammad learned to stay silent. He chipped away at her self-worth, repeatedly telling her she didn’t matter.

“I tried to reach out for help, but I didn’t have physical scars,” she said. “I tried to go to my place of religion, and all you’re talking about is that I’m supposed to honor my husband. But how do I honor a man who emotionally hurts me?”

“Abusive relationships don’t begin harshly,” she reflected. “They begin with a dream they sell you because they’re trying to control your life without you knowing. Once you submit to that dream, they breadcrumb affection toward you. Then you begin to wonder, ‘What did I do?’ You don’t understand that none of it is your fault. … If you try to reach out, you’ll get in trouble.”

The conflict deepened after Muhammad filed for divorce. When John threatened to kill her, she went into hiding with her family. A judge granted a lifetime restraining order — but there was one loophole.

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“The restraining order was against me, not the children,” she explained. “Even though it was for life, visitation was still required every other weekend. We were preparing for court to decide on custody. That’s when he took them.”

In 2000, John kidnapped their three children, taking them on an 18-month odyssey to Antigua, the Washingtonian reported. Muhammad told Fox News Digital that because there was no parenting plan in place by the court, she was told, “He has just as much of a right to the children as you do.”

“There are no words to describe the level of pain I was in,” she said.

“In my prayer, I said, ‘Lord, I have to give You back my children. I can’t focus on what I need to do and worry about them. I’m placing them back in Your hands so I can prepare myself to stand before a judge to prove I can care for them.’ At the end of that prayer, I cried for two hours. Then I felt a presence — like someone covering me with a blanket up to my neck. I stopped crying.”

“I didn’t cry much after that,” she continued. “That’s when I began taking paralegal courses to learn how to get my children back. I had my writ of habeas corpus, which meant wherever they found my children, they had to return them to me.”

Muhammad was reunited with her children in 2001 after an emergency custody hearing in Tacoma, Washington, the Washingtonian reported. Then, in 2002, investigators knocked on her door in Maryland, where she was residing.

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“They told me, ‘Have you heard about any shootings in the area?’ I said, ‘No, I have not,’” she recalled. “An agent stopped and said, ‘We’re going to have to tell you — we’re naming your ex-husband as the D.C. sniper.’ My head hit the table. They asked, ‘Do you think he would do something like that?’ I looked up and said, ‘Yes.’”

Muhammad remembered once watching a movie with John when he turned to her and said, “I could take a small city and terrorize it. They would think it’s a group of people. It would only be me.” When she tried to ask why, he quickly changed the subject.

The investigator told Muhammad, “Didn’t you know you were the target? There was a man shot two miles from you at a convenience store. There was another man shot right down the street from you six times. He took $3,000 and his laptop. Ms. Muhammad, you were the target.”

Muhammad and her family were quickly taken to a hotel for safety.

“I saw the TV — there he was,” she said. “I put my hand on the screen and said, ‘What happened to you?’ My children cried themselves to sleep. I went to the bathroom, turned on the water, sat on the floor and screamed into a pillow.”

“The next day, he was caught,” she added.

In Antigua, John met Malvo, a Jamaican teenager with whom he formed a father-son bond. John was accused of manipulating Malvo to serve as his partner in the shootings.

With the help of a tip, police arrested John and the 17-year-old while they slept in their car at a Maryland rest stop, ending a three-week reign of terror that gripped Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, according to the BBC.

John was executed in 2009 at age 48. Malvo, now 40, is serving a life sentence without parole.

Today, Muhammad advocates for survivors of domestic violence and hopes her story encourages others to seek help before it’s too late.

“My help was slow in coming,” she said. “But I knew I had to make it through for my children.”

“Hunted by My Husband: The Untold Story of the DC Sniper” premieres Oct. 28 at 9 p.m.