Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime fighter Tim Miller suspected in teen daughter's murder

Episode Date: June 3, 2020

16-year-old Laura Miller's body was found in what is considered the “The Texas Killing Fields.” Four bodies were found in the same remote area. Her murder 30 years ago remains unsolved, and now her father Tim Miller says he has learned he may be considered a suspect.Miller is suing the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office, after being notified that human remains were found in a file box bearing the case number for Laura’s murder. Miller has already buried his daughter twice.Joining Nancy Grace to discuss: Tim Miller - Father and Founder Texas EquuSearch Ashley Willcott - Judge and trial attorney, Anchor on Court TV  Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, Beverly Hills Cloyd Steiger - 36 years with Seattle Police Department, 22-years Homicide Detective & Author of "Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer: Gary Gene Grant"  Joseph Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics Jacksonville State University, Author of "Blood Beneath My Feet" Robert Arnold - KPRC 2 News Reporter Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. How does a longtime champion of missing people, a crime victim himself, turn into a murder suspect? How does that happen? I'm talking about our friend, long-time colleague, you know him well, Tim Miller, the founder of Texas EquiSearch. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. crime stories with nancy grace remember tim miller's daughter goes missing her remains found in something called a Texas killing field. He's devoted his life to finding missing people.

Then he finds out some of his daughter's remains are allegedly still at the medical examiner's office. What, in a jar? And now somehow it's alluded that he is a murder suspect? It's a lot to take in, right? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Let's just try and start at the beginning. The so-called Texas killing fields? Take a listen to Skip Hollingsworth. Through the years, in this strange corridor between Houston and Galveston,

there have been these places where bodies have been found. If you come out of Houston, going south on the main interstate, I-45, the city begins to drift away. And you're left with old oil fields, little towns. Of all the dumping grounds around this country that there have been, this is about for a serial killer, as good a place as they come. This story begins in the early 70s when girls begin to disappear around Galveston, year after year, girls have been murdered. And sometimes their bodies would be found in the bottom of a retention pond. Sometimes their body would be found in a place called the Killing Fields.

Can you imagine your daughter goes missing. Years pass. And their remains are found in this lonely stretch of road called the Texas Killing Fields. And it happens over and over and over again. With me, an all-star panel, Ashley Wilcott, judge and trial lawyer, court TV anchor at AshleyWilcott.com. Renowned psychoanalyst joining me out of Beverly Hills. You can find her at drbethanymarshall.com. 36-year Seattle PD, 22 of that, homicide author, Seattle's Forgotten, serial killer, Gary Jean Grant. Cloyd Steiger at cloydsteiger.com. Professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State University and author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, Joseph Scott Morgan. Very special guest and longtime friend and colleague, Tim Miller, the founder of Texas EquiSearch.

He just got the surprise news that he's considered a murder suspect. All of this while he's fighting to get a hold of his daughter's remains that he says authorities still have. But right now to Robert Arnold, KPRC2 news reporter. Robert, it's great to be talking to you. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, but what can you tell me about Texas killing fields and what does that have to do with a lawsuit to get Tim Miller's

daughter's remains back? Well, this goes back to, as Tim will tell you himself, he is facing the possibility of having to bury his daughter's remains for the third time. Laura Miller was one

of four young women who were in this spot that come to be known as the Killing Fields. The other women are Audrey Cook, Donna Prudeholm, and Heidi Marie Fly. And in 1997, after Tim had buried his daughter, he found out, well, he didn't get all her remains back from the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office. So he had her exhumed. When he had her exhumed, he found out shehumed he found out she had extra rib bones well those rib bones were then placed in a separate area under a separate case number and he okay wait wait wait wait wait yes robert arnold yes i know your business is to just race

through the facts and give me the banner give me the. But I've just got to take that in for a moment. I mean, I remember when my fiance was murdered and the funeral. I couldn't even, Tim Miller, you and I have talked about this before. I couldn't even look at him in the casket. And then when my dad recently passed away, the thought that parts of their body are missing and that somehow somebody else's body is in my dad's casket. Tim, how did you find out somebody else's ribs were in your daughter's casket. Well, Nancy, we actually buried Laura in 1989 and thought that was behind the spine. In 1997, we had to go get the medical examiner's report.

It was too many. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I can't understand you. Wait, I can't understand you. You buried Laura, okay, and then what happened? In 1997, I went to the medical examiner's office and we got laura's autopsy reports finally we had the courage to do that and we was reading through them and now remember 1989 we buried her in 1992 there's a chain of custody where

lake city police department sent off all of her remains basically from her shoulders through her hips to a college to get research done. 1994 they sent off some more of her remains. So I go to the police department and I said where in the hell is my daughter? They said to

make a long story short I got an attorney over there. We exhumed Laura's body. Now remember, there's 212 bones in a human body, Nancy. Wait, did I hear you say they took part of her bones? They said for research? We buried her. Oh yeah, yeah. Did you know that was happening? No, we thought we, in the chain of custody from the medical examiner's office to the funeral home in 1989, said her complete body. So when we buried her, yes, we thought we buried all of Laura.

When we exhumed her, now remember, there's 212 bones in a human body. There was 28 bones, Nancy. At that time, I did not even believe it was Laura because all the advice I got from Lake City Police Department took my own daughter's skull to a dentist to go ahead and get dental x-rays.

Then we filed a lawsuit. Wait, wait, wait, Tim. I'm sorry. I can't understand everything you're saying. You said you took your own daughter's skull to the dentist. To a dentist to get dental x-rays, because now I didn't even believe it was Laura. Tim, I know you have been through so much already, losing your daughter, knowing that she was murdered, finding her body. I just can't imagine having to take her skull to a dentist to try to find out

is this really my daughter? I didn't believe a word they were saying. So we filed a lawsuit. We went to mediation first. I told my attorney, I don't want their money. I want Laura's remains. So, of course, they jumped on that. So all the remains that they had and we had were sent to the University of North Texas. My attorney calls me back the next week and says, Tim, we have a new problem.

Laura has 31 ribs. Now her human body only has 24. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. How does the whole thing start? I'll tell you how it starts. It starts with something called the Texas Killing Fields. And Tim Miller, who's a normal guy like everybody else, loses his daughter. She turns up to be one of the women in the Texas killing fields. That's what we're

talking about. Take a listen to CBS correspondent Erin Moriarty. Become a symbol for all those girls that have gone missing up and down the I-45 corridor. What happened to them is basically unspeakable. I was a federal agent working out of Houston, and the first detective I bumped into was Brian Getchis. I've never been able to describe the devil, but I felt him. He had in his office a chart that showed the girls who were missing. I was shocked. I mean, you look at it,

it's like this could have been one of your kids. It just kind of haunted me. And it's just, you know, it's just a perfect place. Perfect place for what? Killing somebody and getting away with it. And someone has. Since the 1970s, over 30 young women and girls have disappeared or been found murdered in the 50-mile desolate area between Houston and Galveston, a stretch of land that some call a highway of hell. That was Erin Moriarty at CBS 48 Hours, but I want you to take a listen to how Tim Miller is drawn into the killing fields. Here's KHOU 11, Jessica Borg. Since the early 1970s, 30 young women have disappeared along the Gulf Freeway.

Four bodies were discovered here in the so-called Texas killing fields about one mile from Interstate 45. I've been out here hundreds of times and cried gallons of tears. Tim Miller's 16-year-old daughter Laura was discovered right here in February of 1986,

17 months after disappearing. I think I've searched every square inch of this property trying to find Laura's little necklace or her clothes. Laura's body was found just feet away from where League City Police had found the body of 23-year-old Heidi Villarreal Frye, who had vanished six months earlier. In the same area at the end of Calder Road, two other sets of remains never identified. The body of Jane Doe, found on the same area at the end of Calder Road, two other sets of remains never identified. The body of Jane Doe, found on the same day in 1986 as Laura's by children riding dirt bikes. And the skeletal remains of Janet Doe, found in September, five years later, by horseback riders.

We're hearing about so many young women found in that same area. Out to Robert Arnold, KPRC2 news reporter, it seems to me that after the first body would be found, that the whole place would be swarmed to look for other remains. No, it was a different time back then. No, it's not the way it happened. And not all the girls were found immediately after, like you heard in that one story. It took quite a while to find Tim's daughter after she disappeared. And that's the whole reason he'll tell you this, why he founded Texas EquiSearch, because when

people would first disappear back during the late 70s, early 80s, even in the 90s, police departments really didn't have the capability to launch these massive search efforts like they do now. And we certainly didn't have something like Texas EquiSearch back then either. With me, the founder of Texas EquiSearch, Tim Miller, who is now, after burying his daughter, his beloved daughter, multiple times, is having to sue the government. And in the midst of it all, he is told that he is a murder suspect. Tim Miller, tell me what led you to found, to create Texas EquiSearch. Well, Nancy, I remember every minute of that 17 months when Lauren disappeared.

I remember going to the police department. I remember asking them in the very beginning to search that area. Lake City was a small town. The reason I was interested in Calder's, all right, where Laura's body was found, the killing field, is because three months before Laura disappeared, Laura's mother went to a garage sale, and she came home, and she was crying, and she said, Tim, I just left a garage sale at this family's house and their daughter is the one that was found out there. So when I went to Lake City Police, I said, you know what? We have a small town. This doesn't happen. Would you please search that area? And they answered, they lied to

me then. And they said, that's an isolated incident. It's private property. It's all fenced in. Go home. Wait by your phone. Laura's going to be calling. 17 months later, we read the newspaper, and it said remains of two females found. We take the newspaper to Lake City Police Department and said, is there any chance one of these girls could be our daughter? Believe it or not, Nancy,

they did not even have a missing person report because they knew Laura disappeared. And I told them, Ben, you have blood on your hands. If you would have listened to me, you would have found Laura. Yes, you would have been dead. But you could have determined cause of death. And there probably would have been evidence. And Jane and Janet, though, would be alive today. That's the first lie they gave me.

It was private property. And you know why they named me as a suspect? Because, oh, why did you choose call to drive? They weren't listening. Last year when Janet Doe was identified as Donna Perdomo, I said, oh, my God, I knew her. A guy worked for me, Larry Nesbitt, dated her in 1988. I met her one time. Oh, now that I asked him to search the killing fields, now that I know Donna, I'm the suspect.

Straight out to Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University. The police making, in their mind, the connection between our friend Tim Miller and the victims. Because one of these women dated a guy he worked with. Hold on. Joe Scott Morgan, speaking of the victims, we know some of their identities. Of course, Tim Miller's daughter, but take a listen to ABC 13 Courtney Fisher. Audrey Lee vanished. Her mother in Tennessee thought her free-spirited 30-year-old daughter on a motorcycle just wanted to do her own thing, but Audrey would never abandon the family, Aunt Shirley Love says. I began to search, you know, after about a year thinking this is just not like her, you know, and I began to search

and when the internet came along, you know, I could search better. Shirley tracked down old landlords in Channelview and Houston. Audrey's old boss at a balloon party store. The roommate Audrey moved to Texas with nine years earlier. Dead end after dead end. Ten years went by and 20. My personality is not one to give up. What Shirley didn't know is that Audrey Lee had been found dead, murdered, two months after sending her last letter. Audrey's family never got a call because police didn't know it was Audrey. Wow. So Audrey Lee Cook, one of the women found in the so-called Texas killing fields. And now here's Courtney Fisher once more.

February 2nd, 1986, two children playing in the woods near a dirt bike trail found a body of a 16-year-old girl not far from Calder Road. That teen was identified as Laura Miller, who had been missing for 17 months. The story had been big news in League City. What many people didn't know is that the very same day, laying a few feet from Laura Miller, detectives found Audrey Lee's decomposed body. Police called her Jane Doe.

She had no ID. She had been shot in the back, a few of her ribs broken. I think she just kind of got pushed aside, and that's not right. It's not fair. These these are just a good idea of what was found out on Calder Road. Detectives collected items nearby hoping something could help them figure out who this woman was. Everything photographed business cards, keys, shoes, hair but it was hard to tell what was evidence and what was just trash. To Joe Scott Morgan, so the cops are now intimating that Tim Miller is a murder suspect

because his daughter was killed and he had cops or asked them, begged them to go look in this location. They assured him they should not. And one of the other victims dated a guy that worked with him. So that's why they're making the connection that Tim Miller must be the killer? Yeah, that sounds far-fetched on the part of the police, that they would be able to kind of extrapolate that simply based upon a man's desire to track down his daughter. And I think my bigger question is when this term police is being thrown around, are we simply talking about the League City Police Department in Texas? Are we talking about the Texas Department of Public Safety? And are the Rangers involved in this sort of thing?

Because you've got this one centralized area where these bodies are being found, and it's a tiny jurisdiction. You know, they don't have the resources to handle these cases. So people literally get blown off. These remains are being sent to these far away places. You think about the Galveston Medical Examiner's Office, which is down the road from League City, but they've got other cases coming in. And then they're sending off anthropological, for anthropological examination, up to the University of North Texas. They have a fine anthropology program. Crime stories with Nancy Grace.

Guys, we're talking about the so-called Texas killing fields, but it relates to our friend, our colleague, Tim Miller, who is now having to sue the government for his daughter's remains after three burials that I know of, having her exhumed, having to carry her skull himself to the dentist to find out, is this really even his daughter? After it turns up, half her body is missing in the casket. Ribs are attributed to her that do not belong to her. It is a nightmare on top of losing your daughter and having to search for her for so long. Take a listen to ABC 13 news reporter

Steve Campion. Jane Doe has been identified as Audrey Lee Cook. For the first time ever, we heard their names. We saw their faces. Janet Doe has been identified as Donna Prudhomme. League City Police did what many thought impossible. Detectives cracked open one of the city's biggest mysteries today, saying they're now on the hunt for Audrey Lee Cook and Dada Perdom's killer. Officers discovered their bodies in 1986 and 1991 in an area off Calder Road. Investigators found the bodies of Heidi Fye in 1984 and Laura Miller in 1986 in the same area now notoriously known as the killing

fields what a milestone I never thought I'd be here saying we got these girls identified just knowing what these girls must have gone through to get to where they were found it's very unnerving always so League City police say if you worked with Audrey or Donna back in the 1980s if you know them they want to hear from you they say no information is too little as they search for justice 30 year old audrey lee cook named 34 16-year-old Laura Miller named as victims there in the Texas killing fields. But it doesn't end there. Here's KHOU 11, Jessica Borg.

Police announcing they now know who Jane and Janet Doe really are, identifying them through DNA, using the Houston-based genetic genealogy company Family Tree DNA. Miller says getting to have a proper burial will help bring the family's peace. I've had that opportunity to say goodbye and go through that long, painful, grieving process. Miller turned his pain into creating Texas EquiSearch, which helps track down missing people. Right. He thought he was finding peace. He thought he'd never find his daughter. Then her remains were found.

In his grief, he starts Texas EquiSearch to help other people avoid the pain he went through. But the suffering didn't end there. Listen to KPRC 2, Robert Arnold. Their murders have not been solved. Part of this mystery has now been solved more than three decades later. The short answer is part of remains from one victim, Audrey Cook, got mixed up with another victim, Laura Miller. To help sort through all this, we spoke with the Galveston County Medical Examiner

who's inherited this issue. We never want to magnify a family's grief, but our policy is always that honesty is the best policy. Dr. Erin Barnhart is talking about Audrey Cook's family being told seven of her ribs were found in storage. That call came after the family was told Cook's remains were returned to the family intact and after she was cremated. We did not have those remains here, but we did have documentation that those remains had been sent to Sam Houston State University for storage. Cook is one of the so-called Killingfield's victims, along with Laura Miller. Some of Cook's ribs got mixed in with Miller's remains. That mix-up was discovered when Miller's body was exhumed in 1997, except at the time, no one knew who the

extra bones belonged to because Cook had not yet been identified. Maybe I just don't understand. I'm just a JD. The medical examiners are MDs. But how do you mess it up that badly? True, you may not know who Jane Doe is at the time, but why would her remains get mixed in with Laura Miller's? I mean, Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst joining me out of Beverly Hills, you think that your daughter goes missing. You go 17 months without answers. You feel the police aren't trying to help you. She's found. She's dead.

You have a funeral. And that's kind of just the beginning of your nightmare. You never get a chance to move on with your life or at least even try to because then you find out all of this. I mean, what does that do to a person? Nancy, the unknown is agonizing for families whose daughters and loved ones go missing. As Tim Miller said, he knew probably that she was gone, that she was dead, but he didn't know where her body was or what had happened to it. He didn't have people around him cooperating with him. And in the face of the unknown, we read our worst possible fears of the loved one being brutalized in some particular way or not knowing what happened with

the body. Nancy, I want to say for a second here, I want your audience to really know who Tim Miller is. I sat on your show night after night for 12 years on the Nancy Grace Show, and Tim Miller, founder of EquiSearch, volunteered his time, his energy, his personal resources. I would imagine hundreds of thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of hours, equipment, time, energy to help families find their missing loved ones. Countless cases. In my mind he's a hero and what you're talking about, about what does it do to a family to not know where their loved one is, well Tim Miller is the poster child for the best response possible.

He's helping other victims. He made meaning out of Laura Miller's death. And he went up against the police department who sadly are now accusing him of being murderous after having this long and illustrious history. On my arms to say, to suggest Tim Miller is the killer. Robert Arnold, KPRC, I just don't understand. What did, how is this happening to him?

According to League City Police, when I asked them that question directly, they said, no, he is not a suspect. And they're sorry. They understand that his frustration, but they say it is a misunderstanding that when new detectives reopened these cases after they got Donna and Audrey's IDs, that they were simply going over everything again to make sure no detail had been missed, but that they told me directly, he is not considered a suspect. It was a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding. See, I don't even understand what you're saying, but I know you're telling me what the cops told you. Why would you say this is a misunderstanding? This is what happened.

That new detectives were on the case, and they didn't want to leave any stone unturned. Something happened. Something was said to Tim Miller. Tim Miller, you're with me. You're Laura's dad. You're the founder of Texas Equus Search. You devoted your whole life to helping other people after what you and your family went through. How did you first learn that they were discussing you as a suspect? Well, the talk was around Lake City Police Department.

And of course, there was leaks and I was hearing it and I was hearing it and I was hearing it. And then last year, when Jane and Janet were identified, I said, listen, I'm tired of these rumors around this police department. I want a polygraph test and I want my DNA. They refused. Well, you're jumping ahead. My question is, and did everybody hear that? Everybody in the studio? He said, give me a polygraph. No qualms, no, I want this polygrapher, I want these questions,

or I won't take a polygraph, or maybe I will, maybe I won't. Take my DNA, take my polygraph. Tim, you say rumors were leaked and got back to you from within the police department. What were the rumors? Well, one of the rumors were the existing detective, who's now probably going to be assistant chief, told people that M.F. and Tim Miller murdered his daughter. Now, if they didn't think I was a suspect,

literally then about six weeks ago, they contacted me and they said, we need you to take the polygraph. And I said, yes, I will. And last Wednesday, I did take my polygraph. So yes, they had me as a suspect. And let me guess, I bet you passed. Well, you know, the polygrapher said you passed.

He went and talked to Tisdale, the lead investigator and everything, and he told him how they score them. A plus four, you pass. A minus two, you fail. He said the highest passing score he's ever got was a plus eight. He looked at Tisdale and he said Tim Miller just did a plus 12. I had the highest passing score in the history of this polygrapher

that has been doing it for 23 years. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking to Tim Miller, crime victim. His daughter, Laura, was murdered. He begged police to search a certain stretch. It's now known as the Texas Killing Fields. His daughter's remains were ultimately found there, along with remains of many other young women.

Now we learn that Laura's remains have been mixed up. He had to have her exhumed. Part of her body's missing. Then it turns out somebody else's ribs are in with her. He's buried his daughter now, I think, three times. He had to carry her skull to the dentist to see, is this really my daughter? Just hold that thought for a moment. And then to top it off, Tim Miller hears that someone within the police department says the MF Tim Miller murdered his daughter.

And they, police, ask him to take a polygraph. Now, I don't know about you, Cloyd Steiger, 36 years Seattle PD, 22 in homicide, author at cloydsteiger.com. But when cops ask you to take a polygraph, you're a suspect. I don't care what they want to call it. But you're a suspect when you are asked to go in and take a polygraph. Agree or disagree? Yeah, I agree most of the time. But, you know, the whole thing is ridiculous.

The problem is, and Joe Scott was right on this, this department is not equipped to handle a case like this. And there's nothing wrong with that, but they have to know to ask for help and ask for people that do know how to do that. Well, I don't know about you, Chloe, but there's a H-E-L-L lot wrong with going to the victim's father this way. And they know Tim Miller. Can't take my way tim miller asking him to take a polygraph yes jump in this is not incompetency or being overwhelmed as a police department i don't know about the law in this area but i know human psychology this is pointing a finger at tim miller

because he's holding them responsible this This is shooting the victim, shooting the messenger. This is Tim Miller never resting because there are numerous bodies in this field, the killing field. They have not been identified. The bones have been messed up. There's been gross incompetency. And Tim Miller is shining a light on this. That is all he is doing. That's what this entire discussion is about. He is providing sunshine and they are resenting it. And the easiest, the most low level thing a person can do is to accuse the person that's shining a spotlight on them. And that's what this is about. He wants the truth. They want to malign him. It's that simple. You know, Ashley Wilcott with me, judge and trial lawyer, anchor Court TV at AshleyWilcott.com.

I don't care what they are saying. I don't care what they told Robert Arnold. Not accusing you, Robert Arnold. You're just the messenger, KPRC, that Tim is not a suspect. But when you, the police, call you on the phone and say, we need you to go take a polygraph, I call that a suspect. Absolutely a suspect. No doubt in my mind. You do not request that if there's not some reason that you want to further your belief that they are a suspect. They are, in my mind, accusing him of having committed some of these murders.

And one way to do it is say, I want a polygraph. And as soon as they can allege you didn't pass a polygraph, then in their minds, I believe they're finding someone and they're going to make the evidence match that person versus doing what they should do and follow the evidence to identify the person. So, Robert Arnold. Nancy. Yeah, jump in. Yeah, listen, I got to tell you, going back to. Yeah, I'm mad at you, Joe Scott, because you work with the medical examiners and the medical examiners got all of the remains. Yeah, exactly. I know you had nothing to do with it, but I can assure you, I've not worked in Texas, but let me tell you how it normally works. When you have skeletal remains,

the skeletal remains are treated very delicately because they're fragile by their nature. That means they've been out and they've been decomposed they've been exposed to the elements and so by virtue of that just from a scientific standpoint you have to keep very close watch over these and they are assigned what are referred to as a session numbers that means it's kind of like a case number and that a session number literally represents a human individual human life. Just grab onto that just for a second. Now, out at cases lots of times, you get multiple skeletal remains. We call it co-mingling, where you have a couple of bodies that are together. But how do you co-mingle remains at a medical examiner's office? And now you're shipping them off. This has only been mentioned very briefly, but how are you shipping

them off all the way from Galveston to the north part of Dallas, which is where the University of North Texas is, where the anthropology lab is, and you're getting these remains mixed up. And lots of times these remains are not transported by the medical examiner, they're literally mailed sometimes, Nancy. And so, how are these remains getting so, how are they so unaccounted for? How can you be so, how can you hold human life in such disregard? Because, you know, to the medical examiner, it's going to be another case, but to somebody like Tim, this is his precious baby. This is his daughter. OK. And so it's a real slap in the face.

And now you're talking about the cops that are accusing him or at least saying he's potentially a suspect. And to me, it just kind of goes to this kind of theme that's running through this whole thing. And it can be kind of summed up in this term, gross incompetence. You know, don't look at us and what we've done to screw this man's life up and all these other families. You know, don't look at that. Let's look at him. And so that's a real insult and it's a real slap in the face. Yeah. When you said these other families, the reality is Robert Arnold, KPRC2 investigative reporter, Tim Miller, finds out another young lady's bones are mixed in with his daughter's. He's not the only victim. There's the other family.

And the Lord only knows who else. But right now, Tim Miller, founder of Texas EquiSearch, longtime friend and colleague of ours, sues Galveston County over his daughter's remains. Robert Arnold, explain the lawsuit to me. Essentially, they mishandled her remains, and it's also a violation of the settlement from the first time he sued the county over the handling of her remains. He was told that his daughter was returned intact the second time around. And he comes to find out now that that is potentially not accurate, that there are more remains that were found in the office that have yet to be tested. Found in the office? Wait, what do you

mean found in the office? Her bones? Marked, marked, marked. No, it's not bones. It's, it's remains the way it was explained to me in a Ziploc bag in a box that had Laura's case number on it was found in the medical examiner's office. And that's what triggered all of this. And Nancy, can I butt in right now? Yes, please. All right. So anyhow, I'll never forget getting that call on a Monday morning from the FBI. I asked if I could come down there on Wednesday. So I go to the FBI office, and Jack, the DA, Kevin Petrov, the assistant DA is there, and this was in October. And they said, we don't know how to tell you this,

except just tell you. Some remains are found. They were sent off. They're Laura's. And I remember saying, you know what? In the perfect world, a child buries their parent. Unfortunately, once in a while, we child buries their parent. Unfortunately, once while we have to bury our child, is it fair that we have to bury the same child three times because

of y'all's mistake? Then I called Dr. Gilking. Now, let me go back to League City Police Department again one more time. So I called Dr. Gilking. I said, Dr. Gilking, what do we need to do now? Dr. Gilking says, Tim, we work on science, not speculation. He said, I'm sure there are flaws remains. He said that I called Lake City Police Department and told them, again, we work on science and I need DNA to compare them to before I positively sign off. Lake City Police Department told Dr. Gil King's office at University of North Texas, well, we asked Mr. Miller to submit his DNA and he refused. So it was another lie. Now, what parent would refuse to submit their DNA to get their child's remains positively identified?

I knew nothing about them remains. And again, Lake City Police Department said they asked for my DNA and I refused and there's no truth in it. We could have had Laura's, this time Laura's remains buried again. So I asked Dr. Gilking, I said, well, I'll submit my DNA now, Dr. Gilking. He said, well, two days ago, I sent them back to Gale's county medical examiner's office. So, Lauren, those remains are still there. Now that we filed the suit, now I got to submit my DNA. Now we have to find a private lab to go ahead and send my DNA or these remains off to, which before there wouldn't have been no expense. Now Tim Miller has to come up with the money to get the private lab to compare my DNA to these other DNA, up to these other remains that we know are Laura's, but we can't sign

off until they positively match the DNA. No. There's another lie by damn Lake City Police Department. Nancy, could I make a comment about this? Yes. There seems to be this powerful social psychology, group psychology going on in the police department. The true story is that Laura Miller was dropped off at a phone booth to talk to her boyfriend. She ended up in the killing fields. Tim Miller has

devoted his entire life to seeking the truth not only for her but for other victims. This is the truth. The bones were mingled. This is the truth, co-mingled. The police department, there's some powerful disturbed personality in that police department that's creating what we call an alter reality, a reality that's not the true reality, a story. We can call it a lie. We can call it a false narrative. Whatever language we want to use, there's a powerful false narrative that's taking place that Tim Miller is a murder suspect, that he could, after all these years devoted to helping families whose loved ones have gone missing, now he's the murderous one.

And hopefully the story that we're telling today, covering the story, is to put the correct narrative out there, which is that he's had to bury his daughter three times. That is the correct story. And the false, whoever is putting this false narrative out, if it's one powerful person in this police department, and then other people are following suit, hopefully they're listening to this show and to this story, and that they will correct this false narrative at some point. But group psychology is so powerful. Once a false narrative gets going, it develops a life and energy of its own. And it just, it has to stop. It has to stop here.

It has to stop. Guys, I understand what police go through. I've been in the system since my fiance was martyred side by side, shoulder to shoulder with police. But if I have to go up against the police, I will. Who would heap this abuse onto a grieving father. If you have any information, please call 281-338-8220. Tim Miller, as always, our friend, our colleague, our prayers are with you and your family that somehow you will find peace if we even know what that is anymore. And we are here beside you, supporting you and believing you regardless of what the police are saying. We wait as justice unfolds, and we pray that it does.

Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.