Latest / Kat Has Questions: True Crime and Unsolved Mysteries / Mica Miller: The Disturbing True Story Behind Netflix’s Death of the Pastor’s Wife

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Mica Miller: The Disturbing True Story Behind Netflix’s Death of the Pastor’s Wife · Kat Has Questions: True Crime and Unsolved Mysteries

0:07
Speaker 1: Welcome to Kat Has Questions. Curiosity, stories, and the strange
0:12
Speaker 1: corners of everyday life. Hello, hello. I'm Kat. Okay, guys.
0:21
Speaker 1: If you are in the true crime space and you
0:24
Speaker 1: don't live under a rock, you've probably watched Death of
0:27
Speaker 1: a Pastor's Wife on Netflix. I just binged this last night. Today,
0:32
Speaker 1: I'm giving you the full Micah Miller story. including what
0:36
Speaker 1: happened before her death, the records behind the allegations, and
0:41
Speaker 1: everything that has happened since. Before we get into today's episode,
0:46
Speaker 1: I want to give you a quick content warning. This
0:49
Speaker 1: story involves allegations of domestic abuse, coercive control, stalking, mental health, suicide,
0:57
Speaker 1: and sexual abuse. I'm not going to get unnecessarily graphic,
1:01
Speaker 1: but those topics are important parts of Micah Miller's story.
1:06
Speaker 1: And I also want to establish something right at the beginning,
1:09
Speaker 1: because this case has generated an enormous amount of speculation online.
1:14
Speaker 1: Micah Miller's death was officially ruled a suicide. Her husband,
1:19
Speaker 1: John Paul Miller, who you'll hear me call JP throughout
1:23
Speaker 1: the episode, has never been charged with causing Micah's death.
1:27
Speaker 1: He has, however, since been federally indicted on charges of
1:31
Speaker 1: cyber-stalking Micah and making false statements to federal investigators. He
1:36
Speaker 1: has pleaded not guilty to those charges. So throughout this episode,
1:41
Speaker 1: I'm going to be very clear about what has been
1:44
Speaker 1: documented by law enforcement or in court records, what federal
1:48
Speaker 1: prosecutors are alleging, and what comes from Micah's family and friends.
1:53
Speaker 1: Because we really don't need to blur those lines. There
1:56
Speaker 1: is already a remarkable amount of documented information on this case.
2:01
Speaker 1: And if you recently watched Netflix's Death of the Pastor's Wife,
2:04
Speaker 1: you probably already know the broad strokes of Micah's story.
2:08
Speaker 1: But today, I want to go deeper. If you haven't
2:10
Speaker 1: watched it, go do that now. Or keep listening, but
2:13
Speaker 1: know that there might be some spoilers if you've never
2:16
Speaker 1: heard the story before. So I want to look at
2:19
Speaker 1: who Micah was before she ever became the pastor's wife.
2:23
Speaker 1: How a 13-year-old girl who loved her church eventually married
2:27
Speaker 1: the pastor who was 15 years older than her. What
2:31
Speaker 1: Micah's friends and family say happened inside that marriage. The
2:34
Speaker 1: fight over her mental health treatment. Her attempts to leave.
2:38
Speaker 1: The police reports. The tracking devices. The problems with her car.
2:43
Speaker 1: The repeated unwanted communication. Exactly what investigators say happened on
2:48
Speaker 1: April 27, 2024. And what happened after Micah died. Because
2:53
Speaker 1: her death was not actually the end of the story.
2:57
Speaker 1: It eventually led to an FBI investigation. a federal indictment,
3:01
Speaker 1: and an attempt to change South Carolina law in Micah's name.
3:05
Speaker 1: This is the story of Micah Miller. It's Sunday morning,
3:11
Speaker 1: April 28, 2024. Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
3:18
Speaker 1: Pastor John Paul Miller is standing in front of his congregation.
3:21
Speaker 1: The service itself seems to proceed normally. There's music, there's preaching,
3:26
Speaker 1: and then, toward the end, JP tells everyone he has
3:30
Speaker 1: an announcement. He asks the congregation not to talk about
3:34
Speaker 1: what he's about to tell them. He asks them to
3:36
Speaker 1: leave the church after the service in quiet and not
3:39
Speaker 1: to discuss it. Then he tells them that the night
3:43
Speaker 1: before this service, his wife Micah had died. Micah was
3:48
Speaker 1: 30 years old. She had spent years in the church.
3:52
Speaker 1: She had sung here, led worship here, worked here, and
3:56
Speaker 1: eventually married the man now standing in front of the
3:58
Speaker 1: congregation announcing her death. JP tells the church that Micah's
4:03
Speaker 1: death was, in his words, quote, self-induced. Then he asks
4:07
Speaker 1: the congregation to pray for her family. Can we also
4:10
Speaker 1: pause and talk about how weird it is that he
4:13
Speaker 1: did an entire sermon acting completely normal and then announced
4:18
Speaker 1: at the very end that she had died? And like
4:23
Speaker 1: the footage they show in the documentary is just jarring.
4:25
Speaker 1: It's very weird. There was a lot, though, that the
4:28
Speaker 1: congregation did not know yet. They didn't know that Micah
4:31
Speaker 1: and J.P. had been living apart. They didn't know Micah
4:35
Speaker 1: had recently contacted police more than once. They didn't know
4:39
Speaker 1: she had reported being followed and harassed. That a tracking
4:43
Speaker 1: device had been discovered on her vehicle. That she had
4:46
Speaker 1: told police she was afraid for her life. They didn't
4:49
Speaker 1: know that just two days before Micah died, J.P. had
4:52
Speaker 1: been served with paperwork in their legal separation. And they
4:56
Speaker 1: definitely didn't know that less than two years later, federal
5:00
Speaker 1: prosecutors would accuse the pastor standing in front of them
5:03
Speaker 1: of carrying out a cyber-stalking campaign against his wife that
5:07
Speaker 1: allegedly continued from November 2022 until the day she died.
5:13
Speaker 1: According to the federal indictment, the alleged behavior included tracking
5:16
Speaker 1: Micah's vehicle, interfering with her finances and daily activities, damaging
5:21
Speaker 1: her tires. I'm pretty sure he had put like, or
5:25
Speaker 1: allegedly had put razor blades in her tires, repeatedly contacting
5:30
Speaker 1: her when she didn't want contact. And at one point,
5:34
Speaker 1: prosecutors say more than 50 times in one single day.
5:39
Speaker 1: And he also posted a nude photograph of Micah online
5:42
Speaker 1: without her consent. Again, none of that means JP caused
5:46
Speaker 1: Micah's death. Authorities have not accused him of doing that.
5:50
Speaker 1: But it does completely change the context surrounding the woman
5:55
Speaker 1: whose death he was announcing from the pulpit that morning.
5:59
Speaker 1: And to understand how Micah Miller ended up here, we
6:01
Speaker 1: have to go back much further. Because before she was J.P.
6:05
Speaker 1: Miller's wife, J.P. was her pastor, and Micah was 13
6:10
Speaker 1: years old. Micah Acacia Francis was born on March 7, 1994,
6:16
Speaker 1: in Wichita, Kansas. She grew up in a large family
6:19
Speaker 1: with five siblings. And when Micah's family talks about her now,
6:23
Speaker 1: one thing that comes up again and again, her faith.
6:27
Speaker 1: Religion wasn't something Micah casually participated in. It seemed to
6:31
Speaker 1: have been central to the way she understood herself and
6:34
Speaker 1: the world around her. Her sister Destiny would later say
6:39
Speaker 1: that out of all of the siblings, Micah was probably
6:41
Speaker 1: the strongest in her faith. Micah also had another gift.
6:45
Speaker 1: She could sing. Her family was musical, but Micah apparently
6:49
Speaker 1: had an especially beautiful voice. And in a lot of
6:52
Speaker 1: the videos you see in this documentary and other videos
6:55
Speaker 1: of her, obviously, she does have a great voice. When
6:59
Speaker 1: the family eventually moved from Kansas to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina,
7:02
Speaker 1: Micah was about 13 years old. It was a major transition.
7:07
Speaker 1: Her mother had divorced and remarried, and the move brought
7:10
Speaker 1: the family into a completely new community. Like a lot
7:14
Speaker 1: of families trying to establish roots somewhere, they found a church.
7:18
Speaker 1: And that church was Solid Rock. And the pastor was
7:21
Speaker 1: John Paul Miller. J.P. was roughly 15 years older than Micah.
7:26
Speaker 1: So when they moved there, he was married, he had children.
7:29
Speaker 1: And he wasn't simply some random adult Micah happened to know.
7:33
Speaker 1: This was her pastor. An authority figure inside a community
7:37
Speaker 1: that was extremely important to her. According to Micah's family,
7:41
Speaker 1: the church became even more significant after her mother and
7:44
Speaker 1: stepfather later divorced. her sister Anne described it by saying
7:48
Speaker 1: that Micah essentially made church her lifestyle. And she wasn't
7:52
Speaker 1: just sitting in a pew on Sunday mornings. Micah became
7:55
Speaker 1: deeply involved. She sang. She participated in the music ministry.
8:01
Speaker 1: And by the time she was only 16 years old,
8:04
Speaker 1: she was helping lead worship and the choir. Significant responsibilities
8:08
Speaker 1: for somebody that young. Solid Rock wasn't just where Micah
8:12
Speaker 1: went to church. It became her community and social circle,
8:16
Speaker 1: her spiritual life, and then eventually her workplace. And it
8:20
Speaker 1: was also where she met the man she would marry.
8:23
Speaker 1: The man she would first marry. His name was Jeremy Diaz.
8:28
Speaker 1: Jeremy was connected to the church, and J.P. was involved
8:32
Speaker 1: in his life also as a mentor. Micah and Jeremy
8:35
Speaker 1: were young when they got together. And then, when Micah
8:38
Speaker 1: was 18, they married. And the person who officiated their wedding?
8:43
Speaker 1: You guessed it, J.P. Miller. Just think about that dynamic
8:47
Speaker 1: for a second. The man who would eventually become her
8:50
Speaker 1: second husband stood in front of her when she was
8:52
Speaker 1: 18 years old and officiated her marriage to somebody else.
8:57
Speaker 1: I'd also like to point out too that Jeremy was
9:00
Speaker 1: the same age as Micah, so he wasn't like much
9:02
Speaker 1: older like JP. He was like also in high school
9:04
Speaker 1: and all that stuff at the same time. At the
9:07
Speaker 1: point when JP officiated their marriage, he was still married too.
9:12
Speaker 1: He and his first wife had children together, Micah would
9:15
Speaker 1: also become increasingly connected to JP and his family. She
9:19
Speaker 1: worked as JP's assistant, and some accounts describe her as
9:23
Speaker 1: also helping the family with childcare. So now JP wasn't
9:27
Speaker 1: only Micah's pastor. He wasn't only somebody who she knew
9:32
Speaker 1: since she was a young teenager. He was also her boss,
9:35
Speaker 1: her mentor, and somebody deeply embedded in virtually every important
9:39
Speaker 1: area of her life. Religion, work, friendships, marriage, church... Then,
9:44
Speaker 1: according to Micah's sister Ciara, a few years into Micah's marriage,
9:49
Speaker 1: the communication between Micah and JP began changing. Ciara says
9:55
Speaker 1: JP started texting Micah affectionately, then increasingly romantic. and eventually
10:01
Speaker 1: the relationship crossed a line. In 2015, Micah and JP
10:06
Speaker 1: began an affair. Micah was around 21, and JP was
10:11
Speaker 1: in his mid-30s at this point. Once again, both of
10:15
Speaker 1: them were married to other people. And then when the
10:18
Speaker 1: affair became known, it didn't only destroy two marriages. It
10:22
Speaker 1: caused a crisis inside Solid Rock Church. JP eventually stood
10:28
Speaker 1: before the congregation in July of 2015 and acknowledged what
10:32
Speaker 1: he called a moral failing in his marriage. His first
10:36
Speaker 1: marriage ended shortly after that, and then Micah's marriage to
10:39
Speaker 1: Jeremy ended. In the church community that Micah had been
10:43
Speaker 1: part of since she was 13 was suddenly being forced
10:46
Speaker 1: to reckon with the fact that its married pastor, had
10:49
Speaker 1: begun a relationship with a much younger woman who had
10:52
Speaker 1: grown up inside the church. That history matters. Because there
10:56
Speaker 1: are two completely different ways this relationship has since been described. J.P.
11:02
Speaker 1: has strongly pushed back against the idea that he groomed Micah.
11:05
Speaker 1: In an interview after her death, he said there had
11:08
Speaker 1: been essentially no meaningful relationship between them while Micah was
11:12
Speaker 1: a minor beyond the kinds of interactions he had with
11:14
Speaker 1: other people at the church. He also said the romantic
11:17
Speaker 1: relationship began when Micah was already an adult. Micah's family, however,
11:22
Speaker 1: sees the power dynamic very differently. To them, you cannot
11:26
Speaker 1: separate their adult relationship from the fact that Micah met
11:29
Speaker 1: JP when she was 13, that he was like her
11:32
Speaker 1: spiritual authority, and eventually her employer, and that by the
11:37
Speaker 1: time their relationship became romantic, Micah's entire world was already
11:42
Speaker 1: deeply connected to the church that JP led. Regardless of
11:46
Speaker 1: how you interpret that history, the basic timeline is not disputed.
11:50
Speaker 1: Micah met J.P. as a young teenager. J.P. officiated her
11:53
Speaker 1: first wedding when she was 18. Micah worked for him.
11:58
Speaker 1: Their affair began when they were both married. And then
12:00
Speaker 1: after those marriages ended, Micah and J.P. eventually married each other.
12:06
Speaker 1: They legally married in November of 2017. So this was
12:10
Speaker 1: about two years after that affair came about. Micah was 23.
12:15
Speaker 1: and JP was 38. From the outside, there were reasons
12:20
Speaker 1: this could have looked like a new beginning. The scandal
12:22
Speaker 1: was behind them. They were married. Micah remained heavily involved
12:26
Speaker 1: in the church. She participated in worship, youth ministry, and
12:30
Speaker 1: women's ministry. They could present themselves as a couple who
12:34
Speaker 1: had survived something messy and made it through to the
12:36
Speaker 1: other side. But according to the people closest to Micah,
12:40
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, the marriage looked very different. And one
12:44
Speaker 1: of the things that would eventually make this story incredibly
12:46
Speaker 1: complicated was Micah's mental health. There is no question that
12:51
Speaker 1: Micah struggled with her mental health. What is disputed is
12:54
Speaker 1: the role JP played in managing it. Micah's family says
12:59
Speaker 1: her diagnoses, medications, and psychiatric hospitalizations eventually became intertwined with
13:05
Speaker 1: the control JP had over her life. But JP says
13:09
Speaker 1: the exact opposite. He says trying to make sure Micah
13:12
Speaker 1: received treatment was an act of care, and that people
13:15
Speaker 1: around her later convinced her that those attempts to help
13:18
Speaker 1: her were abuse. Because by 2023, Micah was trying to leave,
13:23
Speaker 1: and once she did, the amount of documentation surrounding the
13:27
Speaker 1: marriage exploded. Divorce filings, police reports, harassment complaints, the tracking devices.
13:34
Speaker 1: But before we get to the paper trail... we need
13:37
Speaker 1: to understand what Micah's friends say was happening inside the
13:40
Speaker 1: marriage itself. From the outside, Micah and J.P. Miller had
13:45
Speaker 1: all the pieces of the life they were supposed to want.
13:48
Speaker 1: The perfect little life. J.P. was the pastor. Micah was
13:52
Speaker 1: his wife. She sang on stage. She was involved in
13:55
Speaker 1: the church. And if you only saw them together on
13:58
Speaker 1: Sunday morning, you might have assumed the scandal that started
14:01
Speaker 1: their relationship had eventually settled into something stable. But, Micah's
14:06
Speaker 1: friends and family describe it very differently, and the allegations
14:10
Speaker 1: aren't limited to one type of abuse. The people closest
14:13
Speaker 1: to Micah describe a pattern involving her religion, her friendships,
14:17
Speaker 1: her movements, money, sex, and eventually her mental health treatment.
14:23
Speaker 1: Taken one at a time, some of these things might
14:26
Speaker 1: sound explainable. Together, Micah's family believes they formed a system
14:30
Speaker 1: of control. Her close friend, Charlotte Korn, remembers Micah telling
14:35
Speaker 1: her not to call before 11 in the morning unless
14:38
Speaker 1: Micah called first. Why? Because according to Charlotte, Micah told
14:44
Speaker 1: her that JP did not like her getting out of
14:46
Speaker 1: bed before he did. Charlotte also says Micah couldn't simply
14:50
Speaker 1: go out with a friend for an afternoon without watching
14:53
Speaker 1: the clock. According to her account in the Netflix documentary,
14:57
Speaker 1: Micah told her that she wasn't supposed to be gone
15:00
Speaker 1: from the house for more than around three hours. And
15:03
Speaker 1: even before those three hours were up, the calls from
15:06
Speaker 1: JP would begin. At two hours, and then again and again.
15:11
Speaker 1: As the time got closer to when JP expected Micah home,
15:15
Speaker 1: Charlotte says the calls would get closer together. And if
15:18
Speaker 1: Micah didn't come home when JP wanted, Charlotte said he
15:21
Speaker 1: might just simply show up. And again, JP has denied
15:25
Speaker 1: abusing Micah. But Micah's friends say they did not experience
15:29
Speaker 1: this as a husband just casually wondering where his wife
15:31
Speaker 1: was or when she'd be home. They saw this as surveillance.
15:34
Speaker 1: They saw control. They absolutely saw these as red flags.
15:39
Speaker 1: And they say Micah understood that if she didn't follow
15:42
Speaker 1: the rules, there could be consequences. There was also the
15:46
Speaker 1: church itself. JP wasn't simply Micah's husband. He was still
15:49
Speaker 1: a pastor and one of the most influential spiritual voices
15:53
Speaker 1: in her life. That distinction becomes especially important when you
15:57
Speaker 1: listen to some of JP's sermons. In some of those
16:00
Speaker 1: sermons included in the documentary, J.P. preaches publicly about what
16:05
Speaker 1: he believed a wife owed her husband sexually. He described
16:10
Speaker 1: a wife as her husband's, quote, helpmate. In one sermon,
16:14
Speaker 1: he warned women that if they did not meet their
16:15
Speaker 1: husband's sexual needs, Satan would make sure other options appeared
16:19
Speaker 1: in front of him. So, basically, if your husband cheats
16:22
Speaker 1: because you aren't having enough sex with him, the temptation
16:25
Speaker 1: is at least partly your fault. According to Micah's friends,
16:30
Speaker 1: that theology did not stay behind the pulpit. It followed
16:33
Speaker 1: Micah home. Bruna Pepon, one of Micah's close friends, says
16:38
Speaker 1: Micah told her JP expected sex multiple times a day.
16:43
Speaker 1: She says Micah told her he would wake her up
16:46
Speaker 1: or keep her awake at night when she did not
16:49
Speaker 1: want to participate. I remember in the documentary them explaining, like,
16:54
Speaker 1: as she was falling asleep, he would literally, like, turn
16:57
Speaker 1: on all the lights in the room and so that
16:59
Speaker 1: she would wake up and would just do this all night.
17:02
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of a form of torture, but
17:04
Speaker 1: if she didn't basically give in to him. Bruna also
17:08
Speaker 1: said that Micah began using testosterone at JP's encouragement in
17:12
Speaker 1: an effort to increase her sex drive. And for Micah,
17:16
Speaker 1: who had spent so much of her life singing, her
17:18
Speaker 1: friends said it came with another consequence. The testosterone affected
17:22
Speaker 1: her voice. Remember how important Micah's voice was to her?
17:26
Speaker 1: Music wasn't just like some random hobby. It was her
17:29
Speaker 1: identity since she was a teenager. It was her job.
17:33
Speaker 1: It was her community or her faith. So her friends
17:37
Speaker 1: said that this testosterone was making her voice deeper. I mean,
17:41
Speaker 1: obviously it would affect the sound quality of her voice
17:43
Speaker 1: a little bit. There are also more disturbing sexual allegations
17:48
Speaker 1: described by Micah's friends in the Netflix documentary. I'm not
17:51
Speaker 1: going to go into all the explicit details because I
17:54
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think we need to, but... Bruna says Micah
17:58
Speaker 1: described being pressured into sexual situations involving other people that
18:02
Speaker 1: she did not want, like him finding other people on
18:06
Speaker 1: the street, like unhoused individuals that she would have to
18:12
Speaker 1: have sexual relations with. Those allegations have not resulted in
18:16
Speaker 1: criminal charges against JP, and JP has denied abusing Micah.
18:21
Speaker 1: But they matter because they give us context for something
18:24
Speaker 1: Micah would later begin discussing publicly. Whether God actually expected
18:29
Speaker 1: someone to remain in a marriage that was hurting them.
18:32
Speaker 1: Because for Micah, leaving wasn't simply a relationship decision. It
18:35
Speaker 1: was a religious decision. She had grown up believing divorce
18:38
Speaker 1: was wrong. And JP wasn't simply her husband telling her that.
18:42
Speaker 1: He was a pastor. The man whose sermons had helped
18:46
Speaker 1: define what marriage supposedly required of her. And I feel
18:50
Speaker 1: like also the sermons they show snippets of, like, might
18:55
Speaker 1: seem like a little... weirdly offhanded you might be like
18:59
Speaker 1: oh that's kind of weird especially if it's like sandwiched
19:01
Speaker 1: with normal stuff in like a normal religious sermon but
19:05
Speaker 1: then when they show them all to like throughout this
19:07
Speaker 1: entire documentary you're like oh my gosh how much is
19:09
Speaker 1: he talking about that at one point according to messages
19:12
Speaker 1: included in the documentary jp told micah she needed to
19:16
Speaker 1: act like a quote godly wife and prioritize her marriage
19:21
Speaker 1: over her family friends and feelings think about that wording
19:26
Speaker 1: Your family, your friends, and your feelings all have to
19:29
Speaker 1: come second. The marriage comes first. And according to Micah's family,
19:34
Speaker 1: beliefs like that kept her there long after she wanted
19:36
Speaker 1: to leave. That's also very much a form of manipulation
19:40
Speaker 1: and isolating her from people who care about her or
19:44
Speaker 1: people who could kind of help her realize there are
19:46
Speaker 1: a lot of red flags in that relationship. So I
19:49
Speaker 1: think we need to talk more specifically about Micah's mental
19:52
Speaker 1: health because there are two things that can be true
19:55
Speaker 1: at exactly the same time. Micah had documented mental health
19:59
Speaker 1: struggles and somebody with serious mental health struggles can still
20:03
Speaker 1: be experiencing abuse. One does not erase the other. J.P.
20:08
Speaker 1: has spoken extensively about Micah's psychiatric history. After her death,
20:14
Speaker 1: he provided reporters with medical documents and prescription information that
20:18
Speaker 1: he said showed Micah had been diagnosed at various points
20:22
Speaker 1: with conditions including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and dependent personality disorder.
20:29
Speaker 1: The North Carolina Medical Examiner's information also listed Micah as
20:32
Speaker 1: having bipolar disorder and a history of previous suicide attempts.
20:37
Speaker 1: JP has said Micah struggled when she wasn't taking her medication.
20:41
Speaker 1: He specifically said lithium helped her. He described periods when
20:46
Speaker 1: he believed Micah was experiencing delusions or behaving in ways
20:49
Speaker 1: that showed she was seriously ill. And according to JP,
20:54
Speaker 1: one of the biggest conflicts in their marriage came from
20:56
Speaker 1: his efforts to make sure Micah stayed on her medication.
21:00
Speaker 1: From his perspective, he was trying to keep his wife
21:03
Speaker 1: alive and stable. He has accused members of Micah's family
21:07
Speaker 1: of doing the opposite. He says they encouraged her to
21:10
Speaker 1: stop taking medication and favored more holistic approaches instead. And
21:16
Speaker 1: he said that once Micah left him and stopped consistently
21:19
Speaker 1: taking medication, her mental health deteriorated. But Micah's family strongly
21:25
Speaker 1: disputes that version of events. Their attorney, Regina Ward, who
21:30
Speaker 1: is just like a boss-ass lady... In the documentary, She's
21:35
Speaker 1: the Best, she publicly raised questions about the circumstances surrounding
21:40
Speaker 1: Micah's diagnosis and medications. She said Micah's family had questions
21:45
Speaker 1: about who diagnosed her with certain conditions and who prescribed
21:49
Speaker 1: specific medications. Ward also alleged that at times, J.P. hid
21:55
Speaker 1: medication in Micah's food or forced her to take pills. J.P.
21:59
Speaker 1: denies that his efforts surrounding Micah's medication were abusive. And
22:04
Speaker 1: this is where I want to be careful. I cannot
22:06
Speaker 1: tell you whether every diagnosis Micah received was accurate. I
22:10
Speaker 1: can't tell you whether every medication was appropriate. And I
22:13
Speaker 1: definitely can't tell you whether Micah did or did not
22:17
Speaker 1: struggle with serious mental illness. But there is evidence that
22:20
Speaker 1: she did. What matters to this story is that Micah's
22:24
Speaker 1: psychiatric treatment became another area where Micah and JP, and
22:29
Speaker 1: eventually Micah's family, completely disagreed over who had the right
22:33
Speaker 1: to make decisions for her. This brings us to the hospitalizations.
22:38
Speaker 1: Several of them. JP says Micah was hospitalized multiple times
22:43
Speaker 1: during their marriage. The final psychiatric hospitalization before her death
22:48
Speaker 1: occurred in February of 2024. By that point, their marriage
22:52
Speaker 1: was already collapsing. And according to Micah's family and friends,
22:56
Speaker 1: they became increasingly worried about Micah's mental health history and
23:00
Speaker 1: That would make it harder for people to believe when
23:03
Speaker 1: she described what was happening at home. So think about
23:07
Speaker 1: how complicated that becomes. If she becomes upset, they could
23:11
Speaker 1: say she's unstable. If she says she's being controlled, they
23:14
Speaker 1: could just say she's paranoid. If she says she wants
23:17
Speaker 1: to leave, she's just having an episode. If she becomes
23:21
Speaker 1: frightened of the person making those claims about her, that
23:24
Speaker 1: fear can potentially be portrayed as another symptom. That does
23:28
Speaker 1: not mean Micah's mental illness wasn't real, but it means
23:31
Speaker 1: that the mental illness and alleged abuse are not mutually exclusive.
23:36
Speaker 1: And by the end of 2023, those two competing narratives
23:40
Speaker 1: were colliding as Micah openly started trying to get out
23:42
Speaker 1: of the marriage. On October 8th, 2023, Micah filed for divorce.
23:49
Speaker 1: But divorce was complicated for Micah in ways that went
23:51
Speaker 1: far beyond the paperwork. Like we talked about with the
23:54
Speaker 1: church and her faith... in the belief that marriage is
23:57
Speaker 1: supposed to be permanent. Micah wasn't simply asking, do I
24:01
Speaker 1: want to stay married to this man? She also seems
24:04
Speaker 1: to have been asking, does leaving this marriage make me
24:07
Speaker 1: a bad Christian? Eventually, she started answering that question publicly.
24:12
Speaker 1: In early 2024, Micah began posting videos online talking about
24:16
Speaker 1: abuse and what it means to leave a dangerous relationship.
24:20
Speaker 1: In one March video, she addressed people who believed God
24:23
Speaker 1: might be angry with them for leaving. Micah said, quote,
24:27
Speaker 1: God hates divorce because it hurts people. Then she says,
24:32
Speaker 1: does abuse hurt people? And how do you think God
24:35
Speaker 1: feels about that? And this is such an important moment
24:37
Speaker 1: in Micah's story because it doesn't sound like somebody who
24:41
Speaker 1: is indifferent toward her marriage. It sounds like somebody trying
24:44
Speaker 1: to untangle years of religious teaching from her own survival.
24:49
Speaker 1: She was telling other people that God did not expect
24:51
Speaker 1: them to remain somewhere they were being harmed because simply
24:54
Speaker 1: because they feared divorce would disappoint him. And knowing what
24:58
Speaker 1: was happening in Micah's own life at that exact time,
25:01
Speaker 1: it is difficult not to hear her as also talking
25:04
Speaker 1: to herself, trying to give herself permission to leave. The
25:09
Speaker 1: divorce case she filed in October did not immediately accomplish that.
25:13
Speaker 1: That filing was eventually dismissed in February 2024 after both
25:18
Speaker 1: parties indicated that they might be able to resolve their issues.
25:22
Speaker 1: There was also already a post-nuptial agreement between them, and
25:25
Speaker 1: that agreement had been filed in February 2023. Under it,
25:30
Speaker 1: Micah and JP both waived the right to seek alimony
25:33
Speaker 1: or separate support. The home they shared was owned by
25:38
Speaker 1: the church, meaning it was not considered their marital property. Okay,
25:42
Speaker 1: but also, to be fair... JP and, like, his dad,
25:47
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure, they, like, owned this church. So if
25:49
Speaker 1: the church owns the house, it's like, that's kind of his,
25:52
Speaker 1: isn't it? The agreement also included provisions saying that they
25:55
Speaker 1: would keep aspects of their personal lives confidential and not
25:58
Speaker 1: disparage Solid Rock Ministries. So think about Micah trying to
26:02
Speaker 1: separate her life from JP. Her husband was the church, essentially.
26:07
Speaker 1: It's also her job, her home, her social life, her
26:10
Speaker 1: financial life. Leaving one person potentially meant almost losing everything
26:16
Speaker 1: connected to him and her, so basically she'd be losing
26:19
Speaker 1: her whole life. But by February of 2024, Micah and
26:23
Speaker 1: JP were living apart. On February 22nd, JP filed for
26:28
Speaker 1: legal separation from Micah. According to him, this was also
26:32
Speaker 1: around the time Micah was psychiatrically hospitalized. But that separation
26:37
Speaker 1: case didn't last either. JP dismissed it on March 11th.
26:41
Speaker 1: He later said he dismissed the case because he believed
26:44
Speaker 1: Micah was having a mental health crisis and was not herself.
26:48
Speaker 1: And March 11th is a day you're going to want
26:50
Speaker 1: to remember because while JP was dismissing his separation case,
26:55
Speaker 1: Micah was calling the police twice. On March 11th, 2024,
26:59
Speaker 1: at around 1.30 in the morning, Micah contacted Horry County Police.
27:05
Speaker 1: There had been a problem with the tires on her
27:07
Speaker 1: vehicle while she was near Spring Maid Pier. Police took
27:10
Speaker 1: the report. Then, later that morning at around 11.30 a.m.,
27:15
Speaker 1: Micah contacted police again. This time she was reporting harassment.
27:19
Speaker 1: According to police report, a man Micah had been trying
27:22
Speaker 1: to avoid had approached her at a gas station and
27:25
Speaker 1: attempted to speak with her. She said he also continued
27:28
Speaker 1: calling and texting her despite being blocked. That man's identity
27:33
Speaker 1: was redacted in early publicly released versions of this report.
27:37
Speaker 1: But federal prosecutors would later allege that on this exact date,
27:42
Speaker 1: JP contacted Micah repeatedly, and that law enforcement told him
27:46
Speaker 1: to stop. So it's thought that he's the one she
27:50
Speaker 1: was calling about. During this conversation with police, Micah said
27:54
Speaker 1: something very direct. She was afraid for her life. She
27:58
Speaker 1: also told officers she had previously tried to obtain a
28:01
Speaker 1: restraining order. And while her car was being repaired after
28:04
Speaker 1: the tire incident, a mechanic found something attached to it.
28:08
Speaker 1: A GPS tracking device. And then there were more trackers.
28:12
Speaker 1: so she would take one off and then he'd find
28:14
Speaker 1: another way to put one on there. Micah ultimately reported
28:17
Speaker 1: discovering multiple trackers associated with her vehicle. JP did later
28:23
Speaker 1: acknowledge that he hired a private investigator to follow Micah.
28:27
Speaker 1: His explanation was that he was worried about her mental
28:29
Speaker 1: health and wanted to prevent her from obtaining a firearm.
28:33
Speaker 1: Federal prosecutors now allege a different motive for that surveillance.
28:38
Speaker 1: According to the government's case, the investigator was hired because
28:41
Speaker 1: JP suspected Micah of adultery. And prosecutors allege the surveillance
28:46
Speaker 1: was part of a broader cyber-stalking campaign. And we will
28:49
Speaker 1: come back to that. But in March 2024, Micah did
28:53
Speaker 1: not have a federal indictment explaining any of this. She
28:56
Speaker 1: had a damaged vehicle, a tracking device, repeated unwanted contact,
29:01
Speaker 1: and a police report documenting that she had said she
29:03
Speaker 1: was afraid for her life. So that was all March 11th.
29:08
Speaker 1: Then on March 22nd, So about two weeks later, Micah
29:13
Speaker 1: posted another video. The wording is difficult to ignore in hindsight.
29:19
Speaker 1: She encouraged people who were struggling with leaving a dangerous
29:22
Speaker 1: situation to share it with somebody. She talked about forgiveness, bitterness, resentment,
29:27
Speaker 1: her faith, and the idea that leaving abuse did not
29:30
Speaker 1: mean abandoning God. At the same time, she was slowly
29:34
Speaker 1: beginning to build a life outside Solid Rock. She was
29:37
Speaker 1: staying somewhere else. Friends were helping her. She found work
29:40
Speaker 1: outside of the church, and she actually began attending another church.
29:45
Speaker 1: People close to Micah said she seemed hopeful about starting over.
29:49
Speaker 1: But that does not mean she was suddenly okay. It
29:53
Speaker 1: absolutely does not erase all the documented mental health struggles,
29:56
Speaker 1: but it does make the picture of Micah in the
29:57
Speaker 1: final weeks before her death more complicated than simply saying
30:01
Speaker 1: she was depressed and suicidal. She was making plans, trying
30:05
Speaker 1: to become financially independent, reconnecting with her family and talking
30:09
Speaker 1: about divorce more seriously, and continuing to document what she
30:13
Speaker 1: believed was happening to her. Then, on April 15th, Micah
30:19
Speaker 1: filed for legal separation again. This time she was the
30:22
Speaker 1: one initiating it. So I think the first time she
30:24
Speaker 1: was the one initiating it, then it got dropped, then
30:27
Speaker 1: he did, and then now this is her. Ten days later,
30:31
Speaker 1: on April 25th, J.P. was served with the paperwork. Micah
30:35
Speaker 1: was 30 years old. She had spent nearly half of
30:38
Speaker 1: her life connected to J.P. Miller. And now she was
30:41
Speaker 1: once again trying to legally separate from him. The papers
30:44
Speaker 1: were served on a Thursday. Two days later, Saturday, April 27th,
30:49
Speaker 1: Micah got up and prepared to go to work. And
30:52
Speaker 1: somewhere between leaving her apartment that morning and the end
30:55
Speaker 1: of that afternoon, Micah Miller drove more than an hour
30:59
Speaker 1: away from the life she was trying to rebuild, she
31:02
Speaker 1: bought a gun, she drove to an isolated state park
31:05
Speaker 1: in North Carolina, and she made a call to 911.
31:09
Speaker 1: And by that evening, she was dead. Because so much
31:13
Speaker 1: of April 27th was documented through surveillance footage, receipts, cell
31:17
Speaker 1: phone information, and physical evidence, investigators were eventually able to
31:21
Speaker 1: reconstruct much of Micah's final day. At approximately 11 a.m.
31:26
Speaker 1: that morning, Micah's ring camera at the apartment she was
31:29
Speaker 1: staying in captured her arriving back at her residence on
31:33
Speaker 1: Margarita Drive in Myrtle Beach. 38 minutes later, at 11.38,
31:37
Speaker 1: the camera recorded her leaving again. From there, she drove
31:42
Speaker 1: to Dick's Pawn Shop on Mr. Joe White Avenue, and
31:45
Speaker 1: at 12.12 p.m., surveillance footage shows Micah walking inside. One
31:50
Speaker 1: minute later, she began purchasing a firearm. Micah bought a
31:54
Speaker 1: 9mm handgun along with ammunition. The transaction took a little
31:59
Speaker 1: over 20 minutes. At approximately 12.34, surveillance shows her leaving
32:04
Speaker 1: the pawn shop. Investigators have not released evidence showing anyone
32:08
Speaker 1: else purchasing the gun for her or accompanying her inside.
32:11
Speaker 1: There's actual footage of her doing this and you can
32:13
Speaker 1: tell it's her. From Myrtle Beach, Micah headed northwest. At 1.06 p.m.,
32:20
Speaker 1: Her black Honda was captured traveling along Highway 501 near Conway,
32:24
Speaker 1: South Carolina. At 1.27, she stopped at a convenience store
32:30
Speaker 1: called 41 Grocery and Grill in Mullins. Surveillance captures her vehicle.
32:37
Speaker 1: She gets gas, she gets a drink. At approximately 1.35,
32:40
Speaker 1: she left and she kept driving. One of the questions
32:44
Speaker 1: that came up almost immediately after her death was, why
32:47
Speaker 1: Lumber River State Park? It wasn't near her home. It
32:51
Speaker 1: was in North Carolina, more than an hour from Myrtle Beach.
32:54
Speaker 1: But when investigators later examined Micah's phone, they found a
32:58
Speaker 1: recent Google search. Micah had searched for parks near her.
33:03
Speaker 1: The search results led her toward Lumber River State Park.
33:07
Speaker 1: So although the location initially seemed strange to people following
33:11
Speaker 1: this case online, investigators found digital evidence showing how Micah
33:15
Speaker 1: apparently selected it. Sometime before 3 p.m. that afternoon, Micah arrived.
33:21
Speaker 1: At 2.54 p.m., the Robeson County Emergency Communication Center received
33:25
Speaker 1: a 911 call. The caller was Micah. And this call
33:30
Speaker 1: is probably the single most significant piece of evidence in
33:33
Speaker 1: the official determination of what happened to her. Micah asked
33:38
Speaker 1: the dispatcher whether they would be able to locate her
33:40
Speaker 1: cell phone. She explained that she wanted her family to
33:43
Speaker 1: be able to find her, Then she told the dispatcher
33:46
Speaker 1: she was planning to take her own life. The dispatcher
33:49
Speaker 1: attempted to establish Micah's exact location. Micah indicated that she
33:54
Speaker 1: was at Lumber River State Park, and eventually the call disconnected.
33:59
Speaker 1: The dispatcher attempted to call her back but could not
34:01
Speaker 1: reach her. Law enforcement began trying to locate her. And
34:06
Speaker 1: I want to stop here for a second because Micah's
34:09
Speaker 1: demeanor during that call has been analyzed endlessly online. Some
34:13
Speaker 1: people say she sounds unusually calm. Others have questioned why
34:17
Speaker 1: someone planning to take her own life would care about
34:20
Speaker 1: whether her family could find her afterward. Those observations have
34:24
Speaker 1: fueled theories that maybe something else was happening. But demeanor
34:29
Speaker 1: is not evidence that someone is or is not suicidal.
34:33
Speaker 1: There is no single way a person in a suicidal
34:35
Speaker 1: crisis is supposed to sound or act. From an investigative standpoint,
34:40
Speaker 1: what mattered was Micah actually communicated. She said she intended
34:44
Speaker 1: to harm herself. She asked whether authorities would be able
34:48
Speaker 1: to locate her. And cell phone data placed that call
34:51
Speaker 1: at the park where her body would later be found.
34:54
Speaker 1: Deputies and state park rangers began searching Lumber River. A
34:58
Speaker 1: drone was also used. During the search, officers found Micah's
35:02
Speaker 1: Honda in the parking lot. Inside the vehicle, investigators found
35:07
Speaker 1: the gun case, ammunition, the receipt from the pawn shop,
35:12
Speaker 1: and the receipt from the convenience store where she had
35:14
Speaker 1: stopped earlier that afternoon. The pieces of Micah's route were
35:18
Speaker 1: beginning to connect, but they still had not found Micah. Then,
35:22
Speaker 1: a fisherman named Johnny Jacobs approached investigators. Jacobs had been
35:28
Speaker 1: fishing in the area and had found a black bag
35:30
Speaker 1: near the water. Inside the bag was identification belonging to Micah.
35:36
Speaker 1: Jacobs also told investigators that he had heard someone crying.
35:39
Speaker 1: Then he heard a gunshot. Jacobs later said he had
35:43
Speaker 1: been fishing from a kayak when he heard it. Eventually,
35:46
Speaker 1: he located Micah's belongings near the bank, and at approximately 4.23
35:50
Speaker 1: that afternoon, another 911 call came in. A body had
35:55
Speaker 1: been found in the water. Law enforcement responded, and the
35:59
Speaker 1: woman was identified as Micah Miller. She was 30 years old.
36:04
Speaker 1: Investigators treated the area as a death scene. The North
36:07
Speaker 1: Carolina Medical Examiner's Office was contacted. Crime scene investigators photographed
36:12
Speaker 1: the location, Micah's vehicle, and the surrounding area. A handgun
36:16
Speaker 1: was eventually recovered from the water. It was the same
36:20
Speaker 1: gun or the same type of exact gun that she
36:22
Speaker 1: bought at that store. The serial number matched the gun
36:26
Speaker 1: case found in Micah's car. And the medical examiner concluded
36:31
Speaker 1: that Micah died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators reported
36:36
Speaker 1: no evidence of a physical struggle in the area where
36:39
Speaker 1: ballistic evidence was located. Authorities ultimately classified her manner of
36:44
Speaker 1: death as suicide. And when you put together the official case,
36:48
Speaker 1: there's a lot of evidence supporting that conclusion. Micah was
36:52
Speaker 1: captured leaving her home alone. She was captured entering the
36:55
Speaker 1: pawn shop and purchasing that firearm by herself. Her vehicle
36:59
Speaker 1: was captured along the route to get to where she was.
37:03
Speaker 1: And her phone was pinging in that area. She also
37:06
Speaker 1: called 911 and stated her intention to die. That is
37:09
Speaker 1: why authorities described the evidence supporting suicide as clear and compelling.
37:14
Speaker 1: But considering everything happening in Micah's marriage, there was another
37:18
Speaker 1: obvious question investigators needed to answer. Where was J.P.? Because
37:23
Speaker 1: Micah and J.P. were separated, because she had recently gone
37:26
Speaker 1: to the police and reported being afraid for her life,
37:30
Speaker 1: and because J.P. had been served with separation papers only
37:33
Speaker 1: two days earlier, investigators specifically looked into his whereabouts personally.
37:38
Speaker 1: pretty much immediately. They determined JP was in South Carolina.
37:44
Speaker 1: Investigators learned that he had attended an athletic event in
37:46
Speaker 1: Charleston that day. His vehicle was captured traveling on Highway
37:51
Speaker 1: 17 Bypass in Horry County at approximately 2.22 p.m. Authorities
37:57
Speaker 1: also determined another person was with him while traveling to
38:01
Speaker 1: and from Charleston. That matters because one of the theories
38:05
Speaker 1: that immediately began circulating online was was that J.P. had
38:09
Speaker 1: physically gone to Lumber River State Park and killed Micah himself.
38:14
Speaker 1: The evidence released by investigators does not support that theory. J.P.
38:19
Speaker 1: has never been charged with killing Micah. He's never been
38:22
Speaker 1: identified by law enforcement as a suspect in her death.
38:25
Speaker 1: But that did not mean authorities were saying everything surrounding
38:29
Speaker 1: Micah's marriage were irrelevant. It meant that there were two
38:33
Speaker 1: separate questions. How did Micah physically die? And authorities said
38:38
Speaker 1: concluded she died by suicide. And then, what had been
38:41
Speaker 1: happening to Micah before she died? And that question was
38:44
Speaker 1: far from settled. Also, I think it's fair to say,
38:48
Speaker 1: no matter how she actually physically died, if all that
38:52
Speaker 1: abuse was going on, that could have definitely played a
38:56
Speaker 1: big role in why it happened, what led her to that.
39:00
Speaker 1: When news of Micah's death first began spreading, the public
39:03
Speaker 1: did not have the full investigative timeline that we just
39:06
Speaker 1: went through. What people had were pieces. Micah had been
39:10
Speaker 1: trying to leave her husband. She had been posting kind
39:13
Speaker 1: of cryptic videos about escaping abuse. She had gone to
39:16
Speaker 1: the police. There were tracking devices and damage done to
39:20
Speaker 1: her car. And then people watched the video of JP
39:24
Speaker 1: standing in church the following morning announcing that Micah was dead.
39:28
Speaker 1: Without that entire evidence, picture, those pieces created an enormous
39:33
Speaker 1: storm of suspicion. Social media accounts began dissecting virtually every detail.
39:39
Speaker 1: True crime creators traveled to Myrtle Beach. The phrase justice
39:43
Speaker 1: for Micah spread online and theories multiplied. Some were based
39:48
Speaker 1: on legitimate questions about Micah and about what Micah had
39:52
Speaker 1: been experiencing before her death. Others went far beyond the
39:56
Speaker 1: available evidence. People questioned the fishermen, the location, the gun,
40:01
Speaker 1: the trajectory, why Micah might have gone to North Carolina.
40:05
Speaker 1: Some witnesses were even harassed by strangers who accused them
40:07
Speaker 1: of being involved. And this is one of those moments
40:10
Speaker 1: in a true crime case where legitimate concerns and internet
40:14
Speaker 1: speculation become very difficult to separate. because Micah's concerns before
40:18
Speaker 1: her death were real in the sense that she had
40:21
Speaker 1: actually reported them. And later, federal prosecutors would indict JP
40:25
Speaker 1: for conduct involving alleged cyberstalking. So it absolutely made sense
40:30
Speaker 1: to look closely at what had been happening to her.
40:34
Speaker 1: But that does not make every theory surrounding her death true.
40:38
Speaker 1: Micah's friends and family also had another reason they were
40:41
Speaker 1: deeply unsettled. Friends featured in the Netflix documentary say Micah
40:47
Speaker 1: had made statements before her death expressing fear about what
40:50
Speaker 1: might happen to her. So not just her saying that
40:52
Speaker 1: to the police. One friend says Micah told her that
40:57
Speaker 1: if she ever ended up dead from a gunshot wound,
40:59
Speaker 1: she believed JP would be responsible and it could be
41:02
Speaker 1: made to look like suicide. Given how Micah ultimately died,
41:07
Speaker 1: that statement is obviously haunting. but it still has to
41:11
Speaker 1: be weighed alongside the physical evidence from April 27th. A
41:16
Speaker 1: prior statement expressing fear tells us something important about what
41:20
Speaker 1: she believed and how frightened she was, but it's not
41:24
Speaker 1: proof that she was murdered. Micah genuinely could have feared JP,
41:29
Speaker 1: and authorities could still have correctly concluded that JP was
41:31
Speaker 1: not physically responsible for her death. Within days, the bigger
41:35
Speaker 1: question began shifting away from who pulled the trigger and
41:40
Speaker 1: and toward what was happening to her before she died.
41:43
Speaker 1: On Sunday, May 5th, 2024, just over a week after
41:47
Speaker 1: Micah died, people gathered outside Solid Rock Church. They carried signs,
41:53
Speaker 1: many wore purple, and they repeated a phrase that would
41:56
Speaker 1: become closely associated with the case. Justice for Micah. Some
42:01
Speaker 1: of the people protesting knew her, others had never met her,
42:04
Speaker 1: some were domestic violence advocates. Others had simply learned about
42:09
Speaker 1: the case and believed Micah's allegations deserved further investigation. And
42:14
Speaker 1: many of the people in this weren't necessarily saying they
42:18
Speaker 1: believed JP had physically killed her, but it became something broader.
42:22
Speaker 1: They wanted to know whether the system she had turned
42:24
Speaker 1: to before her death had actually been capable of protecting
42:28
Speaker 1: somebody who was describing a pattern rather than one single
42:31
Speaker 1: violent incident. That same day, JP was temporarily removed from
42:36
Speaker 1: his normal ministerial duties. Church overseer Charles Randall later made
42:42
Speaker 1: it clear that JP was not technically fired, but he
42:46
Speaker 1: had been released from those functions for a period for counseling, healing,
42:51
Speaker 1: and guidance. JP continued denying that he had abused Micah.
42:56
Speaker 1: He maintains the central problem in their marriage had been
42:59
Speaker 1: her mental illness. He said he tried to help her
43:02
Speaker 1: stay on medication, and he blamed Micah's family for encouraging
43:07
Speaker 1: her away from treatment that he believed she needed. And
43:10
Speaker 1: Micah's family maintains the opposite. And almost immediately, the conflict
43:14
Speaker 1: moved to court. When Micah died, she and J.P. were
43:19
Speaker 1: still legally married. She had filed for legal separation, J.P.
43:23
Speaker 1: had been served, but no divorce had been finalized. That
43:28
Speaker 1: meant J.P. still had significant legal rights as her surviving spouse.
43:33
Speaker 1: Micah's sister, Sierra Francis, sought control of Micah's estate. The
43:38
Speaker 1: family wanted access to records and the ability to preserve
43:41
Speaker 1: information they believed might be relevant to what Micah experienced
43:44
Speaker 1: before her death. But J.P. also sought control. What followed
43:49
Speaker 1: was months of legal fighting involving the estate, Micah's belongings,
43:53
Speaker 1: and disputes involving J.P., her family, and Solid Rock. Then,
43:59
Speaker 1: at the end of July 2024, the parties reached a
44:02
Speaker 1: confidential settlement. Sierra withdrew her request to control the estate,
44:07
Speaker 1: and JP became the personal representative. But the family's advocacy
44:11
Speaker 1: did not stop, and neither did the broader investigation, because
44:15
Speaker 1: while that civil case was ending, the FBI was already involved.
44:19
Speaker 1: Less than three weeks after Micah's death, the FBI confirmed
44:23
Speaker 1: that it was assisting investigators. The involvement of federal agents
44:27
Speaker 1: did not mean authorities had suddenly concluded that Michael was murdered.
44:30
Speaker 1: Robeson County's determination about how she died remained unchanged. But
44:35
Speaker 1: there were other potential issues investigators could look at. Electronic communications,
44:40
Speaker 1: the tracking devices, the financial activity, allegations of stalking and harassment.
44:47
Speaker 1: For months, very little was publicly known about exactly what
44:51
Speaker 1: federal investigators were doing. Then came November 1st, 2024. So
44:58
Speaker 1: this would have been, what, seven months after she died?
45:01
Speaker 1: November 1st, 2024, that morning, federal agents arrived at J.P.
45:05
Speaker 1: Miller's home in Myrtle Beach. The FBI confirmed that agents
45:09
Speaker 1: were conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity. Reporters watched members of
45:15
Speaker 1: an FBI evidence response team entering and leaving the house.
45:20
Speaker 1: They were seen carrying bags and other items, and the
45:22
Speaker 1: search lasted for hours. But the search warrant was sealed.
45:27
Speaker 1: The FBI did not publicly explain what agents were looking for,
45:30
Speaker 1: and JP was not arrested. So the investigation essentially disappeared
45:36
Speaker 1: from public view. Weeks passed, then months. 2024 became 2025,
45:42
Speaker 1: and there were still no federal charges. Solid Rock itself
45:46
Speaker 1: eventually shut down. the church moved out of the building
45:49
Speaker 1: where Micah had once sung and led worship, and JP
45:53
Speaker 1: began preaching again under a new church name. And I'm
45:56
Speaker 1: pretty sure it was a lot less people. It was
45:58
Speaker 1: like 12 people. And if you were casually following the case,
46:02
Speaker 1: it might have looked like that was where things ended.
46:05
Speaker 1: Micah's death had been ruled suicide. The family litigation settled.
46:09
Speaker 1: The church closed. There were no charges. And the FBI
46:13
Speaker 1: went quiet. But it wasn't over. So then... December 18th, 2025.
46:20
Speaker 1: More than a year and a half after Micah died,
46:22
Speaker 1: the United States Attorney's Office made an announcement. A federal
46:27
Speaker 1: grand jury had indicted John Paul Miller. Two counts. The first, cyber-stalking.
46:33
Speaker 1: The second, making false statements to federal investigators. And when
46:37
Speaker 1: prosecutors laid out what they were accusing JP of doing,
46:40
Speaker 1: several incidents that had seemed disconnected while Micah was alive
46:44
Speaker 1: suddenly appeared as pieces of the same alleged pattern. According
46:48
Speaker 1: to the indictment, the alleged conduct did not begin during
46:51
Speaker 1: the final weeks before Micah's death. The FBI says it
46:54
Speaker 1: began in November of 2022, a year and a half
46:58
Speaker 1: before she died. So the government claims from November 2022
47:02
Speaker 1: till April 2024, JP engaged in an ongoing campaign of
47:07
Speaker 1: unwanted and harassing conduct directed toward her. They allege that
47:12
Speaker 1: he repeatedly contacted her when she didn't want contact. On
47:15
Speaker 1: one particular day, As I mentioned before, he had contacted
47:19
Speaker 1: her 50 times. They accuse him of interfering with her finances,
47:24
Speaker 1: daily activities, posting a nude photograph of her without her
47:28
Speaker 1: consent online. And remember the trackers Micah had reported? Those
47:32
Speaker 1: were now included in the federal criminal indictment. And remember
47:36
Speaker 1: the problems with her tires? That incident appears too. And
47:40
Speaker 1: the allegation surrounding the tires is also directly connected to
47:43
Speaker 1: the second federal charge. So... the tires is a big
47:48
Speaker 1: thing with JP lying to investigators. So they asked him
47:52
Speaker 1: if he had damaged her tires and he denied doing it.
47:56
Speaker 1: But they alleged that the statement was false because according
47:59
Speaker 1: to the Department of Justice, they uncovered evidence showing that
48:02
Speaker 1: JP had purchased a tire deflation device online. And they
48:07
Speaker 1: also say they found messages he sent to other people
48:09
Speaker 1: concerning her vehicle. The government therefore alleges JP lied to
48:14
Speaker 1: investigators when he denied damaging her tires. Think back to
48:17
Speaker 1: Micah on March 11th, 2024, the early morning report about
48:21
Speaker 1: her tires and the second call to the police about
48:24
Speaker 1: the harassment and the tracking devices. Now, federal prosecutors allege
48:29
Speaker 1: that at least some of what she was reporting was
48:31
Speaker 1: part of a deliberate cyber-stalking campaign. To be clear, JP
48:35
Speaker 1: has not pleaded guilty, and he is entitled to the
48:37
Speaker 1: presumption of innocence, and the prosecutors will have to prove
48:41
Speaker 1: their case. I think another thing about this kind of
48:45
Speaker 1: circling back to how he was using her mental illness
48:49
Speaker 1: against her, or I guess how there are two very
48:51
Speaker 1: different sides of the story. The tracking devices are a
48:53
Speaker 1: perfect example of this because JP acknowledged that he hired
48:57
Speaker 1: a private investigator, but his explanation is that it was
49:01
Speaker 1: because he was worried about her mental health and that
49:04
Speaker 1: it was to protect her and make sure she didn't
49:06
Speaker 1: buy a gun. But the federal prosecutors see it as
49:10
Speaker 1: something very different. They're saying that you were stalking her,
49:13
Speaker 1: following her, and you hired him so that you could,
49:16
Speaker 1: you know, know about her whereabouts, and... use it against
49:20
Speaker 1: her and i think this brings up a broader question
49:23
Speaker 1: that her family is also bringing up is why is
49:26
Speaker 1: so much of this behavior apparently difficult to address while
49:29
Speaker 1: she's alive it shouldn't have to result in suicide or
49:34
Speaker 1: somebody dying we should be able to take steps before
49:37
Speaker 1: that basically So I think another very important thing that
49:42
Speaker 1: came out of Micah's case is that when most people
49:44
Speaker 1: hear the word domestic violence, we picture something physical, a bruise,
49:48
Speaker 1: a black eye, something a police officer can photograph. But
49:52
Speaker 1: Micah's family argues that her case shows what can happen
49:55
Speaker 1: when abuse does not fit neatly into that model. Because
50:00
Speaker 1: Micah wasn't only describing one incident. It was a pattern.
50:02
Speaker 1: She was being monitored. Her life was being interfered with.
50:06
Speaker 1: He was isolating her from everybody. He had rules controlling
50:09
Speaker 1: her daily life. And according to her family and friends,
50:12
Speaker 1: years of emotional and spiritual manipulation. And that broader pattern
50:17
Speaker 1: is often described as coercive control. After Micah died, her
50:21
Speaker 1: family and advocates began pushing South Carolina lawmakers to recognize it.
50:25
Speaker 1: And that effort became known as Micah's Law. In April 2025,
50:30
Speaker 1: South Carolina State Senator Stephen Goldfinch introduced Senate Bill 588.
50:36
Speaker 1: And this bill proposed creating a specific criminal offense for
50:40
Speaker 1: coercive control. It's supposed to address issues involving divorce, stalking, harassment,
50:46
Speaker 1: and custody. As of September 2026, Micah's Law has not
50:50
Speaker 1: yet become law in South Carolina, but supporters have said
50:54
Speaker 1: they intend to keep pursuing coercive control legislation. And I
50:59
Speaker 1: think this is where we have to resist the temptation
51:01
Speaker 1: to look backward and say, if Micah's Law existed, Micah
51:05
Speaker 1: would still be alive. Because we can't know that. We
51:08
Speaker 1: can think it, though. So, where do things stand now?
51:13
Speaker 1: There's one part of JP's life and story that I
51:17
Speaker 1: think we need to talk about a little bit. Kind
51:20
Speaker 1: of another wrench in things that definitely gets talked about
51:23
Speaker 1: in the documentary. But, JP has... Since remarried, his current
51:30
Speaker 1: wife is Susie Skinner, and Susie was not someone who
51:34
Speaker 1: entered the story after Micah died. Susie and her husband,
51:38
Speaker 1: Chris Skinner, had also been members of Solid Rock Church.
51:42
Speaker 1: Chris was an Army veteran who had been paralyzed from
51:45
Speaker 1: the neck down after a car accident and used a
51:49
Speaker 1: motorized wheelchair. According to Micah's friends and family in the
51:53
Speaker 1: Netflix documentary, Micah believed JP and Susie were having an
51:57
Speaker 1: affair while Micah and JP were still married. But there's
52:01
Speaker 1: another layer even to that. So on September 6th, 2021,
52:07
Speaker 1: Chris Skinner was found in a neighborhood swimming pool after
52:10
Speaker 1: his motorized wheelchair had entered the water. He died from
52:14
Speaker 1: asphyxiation due to drowning, and his death was originally ruled
52:18
Speaker 1: an accident. I should also say the first people to
52:21
Speaker 1: the scene after he had died was... JP and Micah.
52:27
Speaker 1: Years later, after Micah's death brought renewed attention to everyone
52:30
Speaker 1: connected to JP, Chris's death was looked at again. His
52:34
Speaker 1: family has publicly questioned what happened, although no one has
52:37
Speaker 1: been charged in connection with his death. And I want
52:41
Speaker 1: to be really careful here because there has been a
52:43
Speaker 1: lot of speculation about Chris online. His death being unusual
52:47
Speaker 1: does not mean someone killed him, but the connection is
52:50
Speaker 1: certainly worth noting. Because, according to Micah's loved ones, she
52:54
Speaker 1: believed there had been a relationship between JP and Susie.
52:57
Speaker 1: So even before she died, Micah was convinced of this relationship.
53:01
Speaker 1: Then Susie's husband died in 2021. Micah died in April
53:05
Speaker 1: of 2024. And then a little more than a year
53:09
Speaker 1: after Micah's death, so June 1st, 2025, JP Miller and
53:14
Speaker 1: Susie Skinner got married. And they remain together today. And
53:19
Speaker 1: Susie now reportedly leads worship alongside JP as he continues
53:24
Speaker 1: preaching to a smaller congregation in the Myrtle Beach area.
53:28
Speaker 1: So when I said earlier that there is something strikingly
53:30
Speaker 1: familiar about JP's life today, this is what I meant.
53:34
Speaker 1: Once again, there's JP, the pastor, and beside him, a
53:39
Speaker 1: woman from Solid Rock Church who is now his wife,
53:42
Speaker 1: leading worship. So where do things stand now? As of
53:46
Speaker 1: September 2026, JP remains free on bond while awaiting federal trial.
53:51
Speaker 1: which he has pleaded not guilty to for cyber-stalking and
53:54
Speaker 1: the false statements. Micah's death is still classified as suicide,
53:59
Speaker 1: and as I just talked about, JP is remarried. Micah's
54:03
Speaker 1: family is still continuing to advocate in her name, and
54:06
Speaker 1: they have supported Micah's law. They also participated in this
54:09
Speaker 1: Netflix documentary. It's very interesting to hear from them and
54:13
Speaker 1: kind of firsthand, even from Micah, because there's videos of
54:16
Speaker 1: her too in there, but members of the family have
54:19
Speaker 1: helped establish Waymakers, which is an organization intended to continue
54:23
Speaker 1: advocacy and support surrounding the kinds of issues highlighted by
54:27
Speaker 1: Micah's story. More than two years after Micah's death, her
54:32
Speaker 1: family is still trying to make sure she is remembered
54:34
Speaker 1: as more than the final hours of her life. And honestly,
54:37
Speaker 1: I think that's important for us too, because after spending
54:40
Speaker 1: an entire episode talking about JP, the church, the police,
54:43
Speaker 1: the divorce, and the controversy surrounding her death, it becomes
54:47
Speaker 1: really easy for J.P. Miller to become the main character
54:50
Speaker 1: in Micah Miller's story, and he isn't. Micah was 30
54:55
Speaker 1: years old when she died. She was a daughter, a
54:58
Speaker 1: sister to five siblings, a friend, a singer, someone whose
55:01
Speaker 1: faith had been incredibly important to her from the time
55:04
Speaker 1: she was young. And everyone in the video talks about
55:09
Speaker 1: how beloved she was and how it was like even
55:13
Speaker 1: worse I forget who it was, but someone in the
55:15
Speaker 1: documentary saying like, I really wanted to dislike her. I
55:18
Speaker 1: think it was after the initial affair when JP was
55:21
Speaker 1: married to someone else and had an affair with Micah.
55:24
Speaker 1: She was like, I really wanted to dislike her and
55:26
Speaker 1: I couldn't. Micah spent her final months beginning to reclaim
55:29
Speaker 1: pieces of herself. And I think if we're going to
55:32
Speaker 1: remember her, that's where I want to leave her. Not
55:35
Speaker 1: simply as the pastor's wife, not a Netflix documentary, but
55:38
Speaker 1: as Micah, 30 year old, finding her voice again, trying
55:42
Speaker 1: to leave. and trying to make sure that if somebody
55:45
Speaker 1: else found themselves where she had been, they knew they
55:48
Speaker 1: were allowed to get out. If you or someone you
55:52
Speaker 1: know is experiencing domestic abuse, you can contact the National
55:55
Speaker 1: Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or text START to 88788.
56:04
Speaker 1: And if you or someone you know is struggling with
56:05
Speaker 1: suicidal thoughts or is in crisis, call or text 988
56:10
Speaker 1: to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. And that is
56:14
Speaker 1: the story of Micah Miller. I have a feeling this
56:17
Speaker 1: is one we're going to come back to as the
56:19
Speaker 1: federal case moves forward. Until then, stay curious. Thanks for
56:29
Speaker 1: listening to Cat Has Questions. If you liked this episode,
56:32
Speaker 1: follow the show and share it with someone who loves
56:34
Speaker 1: a good spiral. See you next week. Thank you.