North Carolina investigators asked the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office to assist their probe into the suicide of a South Carolina woman who had previously claimed her pastor husband was abusive and manipulative.
In a statement released Monday, the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office said it had been in contact with both agencies from “the early stages of the Mica Miller investigation,” WPDE reported.
“Based on the information gathered during the investigation and jurisdiction reasons, the Sheriff’s Office has requested the assistance of both agencies,” the sheriff’s office said. “No other information will be released at this time.”
Mica Miller, 30, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Lumber River State Park on April 27, but multiple reports to local police in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina — where she lived — and information she gave friends and family about her husband led to widespread speculation that John Paul Miller, 44, was involved in her death.
Among the allegations was one, made earlier this year, that John Paul Miller “groomed” his future wife at his Solid Rock Church from the time she was 10 until they married 14 years later, as CrimeOnline reported. Through his attorney, the pastor denied the allegations and threatened legal actions against media outlets that repeated them.
The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office investigated Mica Miller’s death and found video of her buying the gun she used to kill herself before driving from Myrtle Beach to Lumber River. She also called 911 and told a dispatcher she was “about to kill myself” and wanted to make sure her family could find her body. Deputies were unable to reach her location in time to stop her.
Investigators released video and still images of Miller buying the gun and stopping for gas on her way to North Carolina and the audio of the 911 call.
The North Carolina investigators found that John Paul Miller and a woman he was “romantically involved” with were in Charleston, South Carolina, the night before and the day of his estranged wife’s suicide.
Mica Miller filed for divorce from her husband last October and had recently filed for a no contact order against him. The grooming allegation came in a stolen vehicle report she filed after she was released from the hospital earlier this year and found that her husband had taken her purse, keys, and car. Police who investigated the report closed the investigation without charges after determining the couple was not legally separated and the car in question was “marital property.”
Police also used a similar excuse not to investigate a tire-slashing incident and four reports of tracking devices attached to Mica Miller’s car, all this year.
John Paul Miller claimed his wife suffered from mental health issues, and his attorney, in his threatening letter, said that the accusations “made by her in the recent past are nonsensical.”
The pastor also delivered a 20 minute “eulogy” for his wife over the weekend at a “celebration of life” for Mica Miller at his church in which he cried and said he tried to raise her from the dead. The church has since made the video of the service private on its YouTube channel after dozens of comments called it “fake,” blasphemous,” and “hard to watch,” among other disbelieving comments.
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[Featured image: Mica Miller/Burroughs Funeral Home and Cremation Services]
