Kelly Sutliff’s doctors struggled to find the cause of her constant nausea, headaches, lethargy and the bright red hives that had appeared on her body.

She was desperate to know why she was feeling so sick, but in the meantime she could at least rely on her devoted husband, Chris Mackie, to take care of her – or so she thought.

She had no idea Mackie was far from the dream partner he appeared and that she was about to live a nightmare that would leave their home soaked in blood.

According to police, it was one of the worst crime scenes they had ever come across.

Sutliff — whose story is featured in the season premiere of the ID Discovery series Toxic — met Mackie through the dating app Bumble in August 2018. ‘He was very attractive and described himself as an empath,’ she tells The Daily Mail.

‘He seemed like a guy who was really in touch with his feelings and could understand other people’s emotions as well.’

Pictured: Kelly Sutliff and Christopher Mackie celebrate their marriage on the island of Maui. The couple met on-line in August 2018 and had a whirlwind romance before getting wed five months later

Pictured: Kelly Sutliff and Christopher Mackie celebrate their marriage on the island of Maui. The couple met on-line in August 2018 and had a whirlwind romance before getting wed five months later

Now 43, Sutliff, a psychotherapist, had her first date with Mackie, who was three her junior, in Morristown, New Jersey a week after they matched online.

He said that he was a US Army veteran and had since worked as a government contractor. The couple soon embarked on a whirlwind romance.

Still, Sutliff had her reservations. She wondered if it was too much, too soon.

Mackie said he loved her within a few weeks of meeting. ‘My gut was saying, “maybe something isn’t right here, “’ she says. ‘But I rationalized it because I really wanted this man to be who I thought he was.’

In November 2018, Mackie moved into her home and the pair got engaged just a month later. She was won over by his charm and, she says, got ‘swept up’ in plans for their intimate wedding in Maui in January 2019.

He had an eight-year-old son from a previous relationship, and they discussed having kids but decided against it because they wanted to travel the world together as a twosome. Sutliff says: ‘I truly thought like he was going to be my husband for the rest of my life.’

But soon after their honeymoon, Sutliff’s skin broke out in hives and her general health deteriorated.

At first, she blamed the vestiges of a virus she’d picked up the previous summer on vacation in Croatia but her symptoms got worse — she felt nauseous, headachy and exhausted.

At one point, her legs gave way and she collapsed on the stairs. She was rushed to the hospital to check for a blood clot but didn’t have one.

The tiredness got worse and soon she had to spend multiple days in bed. Mackie couldn’t do enough to help his wife, going food shopping, cooking meals and constantly fetching her glasses of water.

‘In taking care of me, he acted like the best husband ever,’ she recalls. ‘He kept saying he would make sure I was going to get better.’

However, in the early hours of December 16, 2019, Sutliff made a shocking discovery. She thought something was off because Mackie had fallen asleep on their bed, clutching his phone in his hands.

She couldn’t resist checking his Instagram messages and was appalled at what she found. She said they were full of explicit pictures and texts from another woman. Worse, Sutliff said Mackie had told her that his wife was a drug addict and alcoholic who he no longer loved. 

‘He was demeaning and lied about me,’ she tells the Daily Mail. ‘I thought, “I don’t know who this man is, because my husband would never do something like that. I don’t know who I’m married to.”’

Sutliff struggled to keep calm and confronted Mackie when he awoke. She said she showed him screenshots of the texts.

Despite her asking him to go to his mother’s house, Mackie refused to go, pleadingly asking if she was going to leave him.

But it wasn’t until 6pm that he became violent. Sutliff returned from her sister’s house to find him standing in the foyer, naked, covered in blood and brandishing a military knife.

Sutliff had an unexplained health condition that resulted in red hives, nausea, headaches and constant lethargy. Doctors were baffled as to its cause

Sutliff had an unexplained health condition that resulted in red hives, nausea, headaches and constant lethargy. Doctors were baffled as to its cause

Sutliff and Mackie exchange vows. Sutliff became sick soon after. ¿In taking care of me, he acted like the best husband ever,¿ she recalls of her new husband. ¿He kept saying he would make sure I was going to get better¿

Sutliff and Mackie exchange vows. Sutliff became sick soon after. ‘In taking care of me, he acted like the best husband ever,’ she recalls of her new husband. ‘He kept saying he would make sure I was going to get better’

He had cut himself with the knife and yelled into her face. ‘His eyes were black,’ Sutliff says. ‘It was the scariest thing I’ve seen in my life.’

Horrifyingly, Sutliff said Mackie then said he was going to make it look like she was trying to murder him.

Over the next 45 minutes, he physically assaulted her and wrecked the inside of the house. He put his forearm over his wife’s neck and pinned down her legs. ‘He said, “You’re going to watch me destroy your home, and then I’m going to kill you,”’ Sutliff remembers.

She tried to call 911 several times but, at each attempt, Mackie wrestled the phone from her grasp.

Once, he told the operator that everything was fine. Thankfully, the operator traced the address and the police were dispatched. A neighbor had also heard the noise and contacted emergency services.

The cops pulled up to see Sutliff fleeing the house. She had seized the opportunity to escape when Mackie ran into the kitchen and threw furniture.

Detective David Littman was among the first responders. He describes in the ID documentary how he encountered the naked Mackie inside the front door.

The man was covered in blood and muttering incoherently. ‘He was on some kind of rant, how he was in the war, how he killed people,’ Littman says in the film. He refused to follow the police’s demands but was eventually handcuffed.

‘I saw every room was destroyed,’ the detective goes on. ‘There was blood on the walls, TVs pulled off the wall, tables overturned, the master bedroom was destroyed. It was probably one of the worst scenes I had ever seen.’

He couldn’t believe Sutliff had survived the brutal attack.

Sutliff, who appears in the season premiere of Investigation Discovery's Toxic, says she feared for life during the December 2019 attack that Mackie launched on her. Her husband wrecked her house which, police say, was one of the worst crimes scenes they'd come across

Sutliff, who appears in the season premiere of Investigation Discovery’s Toxic, says she feared for life during the December 2019 attack that Mackie launched on her. Her husband wrecked her house which, police say, was one of the worst crimes scenes they’d come across

Sutliff with her beloved late dog, Chester. A police officer says he was surprised that she survived Mackie's assault. ‘There was blood on the walls, TVs pulled off the wall, tables overturned, the master bedroom was destroyed, the detective says in the documentary

Sutliff with her beloved late dog, Chester. A police officer says he was surprised that she survived Mackie’s assault. ‘There was blood on the walls, TVs pulled off the wall, tables overturned, the master bedroom was destroyed, the detective says in the documentary

Mackie was taken to a Veterans’ Association hospital and treated for his wounds before being charged with aggravated assault by strangulation, criminal mischief and possession of a deadly weapon.

Incredibly, he was able to walk out of jail the same day due to a law in New Jersey that eliminates bail for first time offenders.

That night, when Sutliff went back home to pick up some clothes, she found Mackie’s phone on the floor.

She said it contained chilling pictures of him masturbating next to her while she was sleeping. In others, he was smiling ominously as she slept soundly with her head on the pillow. One video showed him putting something under her nose while she is sprawled on the bed, incapacitated, Sutliff recalled.

‘I didn’t look like I was sleeping naturally at all,’ she says. ‘It was as if I was drugged.’

The cleaning crew confirmed her worst fears when they found a stash of pills Sutliff had never seen before in a cupboard. According to Sutliff, the medications — tamoxifen and mammoth, normally used to treat people with breast cancer — caused the exact symptoms she’d experiences when she was sick, including causing people’s legs to give way.

She was horrified by the thought that Mackie might have sexually assaulted her while she was allegedly drugged.

She told police about a time during their honeymoon when she suddenly woke to find Mackie in the midst of having intercourse with her.

Sutliff said she asked her husband what on earth he was doing. He said he thought she was awake. She told him to never do that to her again. After she heard about the pills, which she suspects he had slipped into her food and drink, she thinks that she was drugged that night.

‘It’s so painful to discover that someone who supposed to love you and protect you has violated and betrayed you in in such a horrific way?’ she says.

There was a year-long investigation into the alleged sexual assaults. However, soon after he was arrested, Hanover Township PD handed back Mackie’s phone, and the suspected images were deleted before Littman was granted a search warrant.

There was no evidence of either the photos or Sutliff being drugged because, since any medication would no longer show up in her system.

‘Every doctor that I spoke to said that whatever Kelly experienced and described, those drugs would have put an effect on her like that,’ Littman tells the documentary. ‘But trying to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt is extremely hard, because I don’t have a blood test to prove that she was given those drugs.’

Littman says he was disappointed that the prosecutor’s office hadn’t pursued charges for sexual assault, but at least he knew Mackie had other serious charges against him. He says he was told that the strangulation charge would likely end up with him in jail.

But his hopes that Mackie would get time were dashed. In October 2023, Macie accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to just three years’ probation on aggravated assault by strangulation charges. 

‘I felt abused by the criminal justice system,’ Sutliff says.

She says it makes her ‘sick to my stomach’ that Mackie could have done what she says he did and still keep his freedom.

When she delivered her impact statement, she told the court that she could have died that night. ‘He was going to kill me, but I survived,’ she tells The Mail. ‘There is going to come a day where he does kill someone, and the blood will be on the system’s hands.’ 

As for the future, Sutliff is determined to live her life as a survivor, not a victim – though she admits, ‘there’s always going to be a part of me that will look over my shoulder.’

Last October, she founded a non-profit, Kelly’s K9s, which provides protection dogs to women who have been abused like her. ‘I want to make a difference, because the odds are stacked against us,’ she says.

Sutliff founded a non-profit, Kelly¿s K9s ,which provides protection dogs to women who have been abused like her. ¿I want to make a difference, because the odds are stacked against us,¿ she says.

Sutliff founded a non-profit, Kelly’s K9s ,which provides protection dogs to women who have been abused like her. ‘I want to make a difference, because the odds are stacked against us,’ she says.

Meanwhile, she is telling her story to raise awareness about domestic violence as well as to show that there is light on the other side.

She says, ‘I hope people will understand that you can experience the worst thing in the world and still be okay.’

The season premiere of TOXIC is now available to stream on Max. New episodes of TOXIC air weekly on ID.

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