Law&Crime Sidebar - Family of Pastor’s Dead Wife Mica Miller Break Silence: 'What Else is He Hiding?'

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

A medical examiner ruled Mica Miller, 30, took her own life using a gun in a North Carolina national forest, but her family believes there is more to the story. They’re calling for a more thorough investigation, as more details about John-Paul Miller, her estranged husband, come to light. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber sits down with Mica’s father, Michael Miller, and sister, Sierra Francis, to discuss where the case goes from here.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’ve used Incognito mode in Google’s Chrome browser, find out if you have a claim in a few clicks by visiting https://incognitoclaims.com/sidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. She got the weapon for self-protection. She told me days beforehand, you know, dad, I really feel like I need a weapon for protection. And she knows how to use it. A South Carolina church pastor is facing serious scrutiny after his wife's sudden death in a nearby state park. and as new details come to life about her final days, her husband is getting more and more attention.

We're joined by Michael Francis, Micah's father, and her sister Sierra Frances, to talk about the young woman's passing and where legal action might take them in the future. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Hey, everybody, this is a law and crime legal alert. Google Incognito tracked users browsing data

without their knowledge. while Mass Tort Alliance, one of our legal sponsors, is helping users file for compensation due to Google misleading the privacy of their incognito browser. So if you've used Google Incognito any time since 2016, you can start your claim in less than 10 questions at incognito claims.com slash sidebar. What started out as this sudden and heartbreaking death announcement at the end of a church service has now taken all sorts of twists and turns, and it is morphed into a story that has captivated the nation. I'm talking about 30-year-old Micah Miller, who was found dead at Lumber River

State Park just across the state line in North Carolina in April 27. She had reportedly purchased a gun in the days before her apparent suicide from a pawn shop. That Sunday, her husband, 44-year-old John Paul Miller, announced his wife's death during a recent service at the church where he's a pastor, Solid Rock Church, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. And Miller announced, quote, I got a call late last night that my wife has passed away. It was self-induced and it was up in North Carolina. You all pray for me and my kids and everybody. You all knew she wasn't well mentally and she needed medicine that was hard to get to her.

I'm sure there will be more details to come, but keep her family in your prayers. And then Miller asked for people not to discuss his wife's death outside of the church, but as you can imagine, news spread like wildfire. And the woman's family has immediately become suspicious of this. Why? Well, John Paul Miller and his first wife, they divorced in 2015, and then he and Micah married in 2017. Micah's family says that John Paul, who's 14 years older than Micah, first met her when she was a member of his church youth group at age 14. Now, there have been accusations that he groomed her. Not totally clear what exactly that means, but we'll explore it. Now, Michael

was also reportedly married previously to John Paul's friend Jeremy. So you see these apparent connections. Okay, but now we fast forward, and it's our understanding based on reporting that Micah had filed for divorce from John Paul six months ago. That's also our understanding the divorce petition was withdrawn, but then a few days after that, John Paul filed for separate support and maintenance, financial support, because the couple were still legally married. Then Micah had also filed for separate support and maintenance. There was a scheduled hearing for next month, but of course Micah died, Micah's family claims that in the days before her death, she filed for a no contact order, and I believe that she was still pursuing divorce against John

Paul. Now, police and the medical examiner have ruled Micah's death a suicide, and one of the ways that they have ruled that is not only based on the forensic evidence at the scene, but a 911 phone call that was placed by Micah to law enforcement in North Carolina gives a lot of insight into her parent state of mind. So I warn you, this is really tough to hear. Robinson County 911. What's the address of your emergency? Hi. Are you able to trace the location of my phone? Let me see. You don't know where you're at? A national park. Tell me what's happened. I'm about to kill myself. And, And I just want my family to know where to find me.

Okay, ma'am. Just listen to what I'm seeing, okay? Let me make sure I got the exact location where you're at, okay? Just one minute. We've now learned that the Robeson County Sheriff's Office is requesting that the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI investigate Micah's death. Whether the FBI is actually involved yet kind of remains unclear. It may be more of a jurisdictional issue about why they could be involved because of where she

died on a state park out North Carolina. But as I mentioned, Micah's family appears to be suspicious of all of this. And one of the things to know is that John Paul does have a criminal record. Research indicates that in 1998, Miller entered a no-contest plea in Horry County, South Carolina to a charge of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, meaning that Miller did great bodily injury to someone or likely was going to injure someone. He was given 500 hours of community service, was put on probation for several. years and a four-year prison sentence was suspended.

In 2022, South Carolina court records indicate that Miller was pardoned. In 2000, out in Illinois, he apparently pled guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. In 2004, out in Illinois, it appears that Miller was charged with domestic battery, but the prosecutors seemed to decline to move forward with the case and were unable to find sentencing information for that case. Now, in one of her final posts on Facebook, Micah uploaded a selfie. And she uploaded the selfie with the caption, when terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible things happen to you.

You all know what I'm talking about. RPF, resting peace face. She included the hashtags, still blessed, and God is good. She also been posting videos on her social media talking about leaving abusive situations. It doesn't matter what gender you are, abuse is abuse. And you are the bride of Christ. And my Bible says that he took all the abuse you could think of for you so that you didn't have to live that life of slavery and bondage and pain. According to a friend, Micah had left for a different church other than Solid Rock, John Paul gave an interesting, perhaps the best word to describe it, is an arguably strange eulogy, different eulogy at the Solid Rock Church.

family members held a different memorial service at the beach. She'd get tourists to take our picture, and I say, okay, thank you. She said, oh, no, this isn't good. Give it back to them, and they do it again, you know. But she loves, she told me, she was so creative. Everything she did was so creative. What's the next picture? What's the next picture?

She'd start we'd be on the way to life. like a show or something. She said, stop. I got to get a picture. I said, we're going to be late. She said, I don't care. Was the next picture? Next picture. John Paul also said that he wanted so badly for her to be alive that he repeatedly tried to see her body and even tried to raise her from the dead. There were reports that Reverend Charles Randall fired Miller as Solid Rock's pastor, but Randall disputed that during a recent sermon saying, quote, I have released him from ministerial functions for a minute to get some healing and some counseling and some guidance. You can't go through these things like this and just step right back on the same day.

Family and friends have started using the hashtag justice for Micah. Now, it's our understanding, Micah's sister Sierra, who we're going to be speaking with in a minute, has filed a legal claim against both Miller and the church in connection with Micah's death. Court documents filed in Horry County Family Court. Accus Solid Rock Church of colluding and conspiring with John Paul to defraud and to depraud. Mikea? The Daily Mail also reported that Micah contacted the Myrtle Beach Police Department on April 8th just weeks before her death to report that she had seen a lewd photo of herself

and a Facebook group and believed her estranged husband John Paul Miller had posted it. Well, after her death, Miller admitted that he did post the photo. In a letter obtained by News Nation, seemingly addressed to Micah, it reads, quote, I'm sorry for putting a picture of you on the internet. It was for less than one hour and immediately taken down. I was hurt that you were telling everyone horrible intimate details of my past sin, and I just wanted to try and hurt you. Please forgive me. It was evil of me to do that. Micah had also reported back in March that she found a tracking device on her car at least twice and said that John Paul had her involuntarily committed to a hospital and stole her car while she was gone. Now, in a statement,

John Paul Miller's lawyer Russell Long said, quote, it has come to light that Micah Miller's struggle with mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder, which when not properly managed, led to paranoid episodes and self-destructive behavior. Some reports made by her in the recent past are nonsensical. He also added that a ruling of suicide by law enforcement completely exonerates Pastor Miller of any wrongdoing. Well, I am joined right now by Micah's father, Michael Francis. Thank you so much for coming on.

And before we even get started, I just have to say, I am so sorry for your loss, your family's loss. And as I mentioned to you before we started recording, I know this can't be easy talking about this and having this amplified and everybody speaking about it. So I know this must be a very difficult time. So my heart goes out to you and your family and really appreciate you taking the time to come here and talk a little bit more about it. Thank you for having me. I'm going to start off. How are you and the family doing right now? We're struggling. You know, we're more united than ever as a family. You know, this is something that has really caused us to drop any little petty arguments

or something and focus on what's it important at right at this moment. So, you know, we're, we have grieved off and on, but we've also been in, in fight mode off and on as far as legally and, you know, and speaking out for Micah. Let's talk about that because, and I want to be very clear here, despite, the findings from law enforcement that Micah had died by her own hand, that the sheriff's office saying John Paul was not

in Robinson County when Micah died, do you believe there is more to the story, correct? Yes. There's a lot of details that they did not cover and because it was equivalent

in their eyes to previous self-inflicted wounds I believe the law allows them to do less work. It does not prevent them from doing more work. And since there were multiple shell casings found and a live round found, it already didn't make much sense. So it would seem that they would automatically do a complete toxicology, not just blood alcohol, and a complete autopsy, which they did not do. And we're just devastated that they didn't because John Paul rushed the cremation process.

So, and like, well, during the briefing, we pressed pretty hard for more information and such. And the sheriff's office was trying to compress the briefing for us, and then they gave us a flash drive. It doesn't sound like Micah during the 911 call. She's so slow and so, you know, but then later there are, I haven't even heard them myself, honestly. I have someone who's going through all that for me and filtering the information because otherwise, the more information I get that sounds off, the more furious I get, and I need to be able to focus and control my emotions. But there is screaming going on and such, and that's not something indicative of a self-inflicted. You know, that sounds like a, you know, a fight.

And with the bruising on her hands and on her arm, scratches on her hands, indicating defensive wounds, so very frustrating. When you say defensive wounds, is that something that was told he, you by a medical professional, when you talked about multiple casings there, where did you get this information? And when you brought this information to law enforcement or mentioned to them, what did they say? Okay, as far as finding out, the park ranger took us back to the scene and pointed out, here's where she would have been standing, here's where the shell casings and the live round

were, which also doesn't make sense. She knew how to use a weapon. She got the weapon for self-protection. She told me days beforehand, you know, dad, I really feel like I need a weapon for protection. And she knows how to use it. She's qualified. She's been through training. She's not going to charge the weapon and eject a live round.

She already knows. The first rule of gun, you know, use is knowing the condition of the gun. So we got the information about the shells. I mean, I did it directly from the gun. park ranger and then when we brought that up to law enforcement they just said well they had no answer they really just had no answer why you know any any kind of not even the speculation they didn't even say well she probably did this probably did that they just said this is what we have and I mean

there's there is what would it be an apparent bullet hole in a tree which I have a picture of and they just didn't seem to put the effort forth. So we were very disappointed in that. And the defensive wounds, was that from the park ranger, too? Okay. Yeah. I just, we looked at her hands during the viewing.

We took pictures of her from the viewing. It was the worst day of my life. And she had scratches on her arms and, I mean, on her, on her hand. And the coroner in training had the chief coroner with her. But she spoke out and said, well, maybe that's from when they retreated her. from the water. And I said, okay, of course, maybe. So, you know, was there blood in those scratches and such? They had no answer. Very disappointing. So I basically said the scratches indicate some type of scuffle or something, because the area where she was, there was no

trees or anything anyway. There was no trees in the water. There was nothing there that would scratched her hands the way they were. I mean, like, like this. So, you know, it showed, it, it indicated that there was, you know, some type of pressure. You know, that's where the bruise was. And just, you know. Well, Michael, here's the thing. And I hate to ask you this.

I mean, no one must be difficult to revisit it. But when the, you mentioned the 911 phone call. When that came out, I think a lot of people who were suspecting there might be something something there, they were convinced that that was the end of the story. When you mentioned that 911 phone call, you said there's something about the way that Micah sounded on the phone that sounded odd to you. What do you mean by that? Absolutely. Very slow speech. She's a very happy, go lucky, excitable person. And she, it was too slow. It was very slow. It was metered. It could have been done with an AI type of previous recordings where somebody would

have had those words from her previously or, you know, whatever. And so it just doesn't make sense that he wouldn't go up there. Do you have a theory as to what happened? Because authorities are saying, you know, they crossed out his alibi of where he was. Do you have a theory as to what happened? And again, I know this is sensitive. So if you don't want to share it, I understand. But do you have a theory as to what you believe happened to your daughter? Okay. Well, I'll share what we spoke to about with the authority, the sheriff in North Carolina. Also, as far as with his location, we've seen pictures of his truck. It had dark windows. Was it even him in there? Where's pictures of him physically there? We haven't seen those. They have not been produced.

If someone else has them, we would like to see them to prove that he was there. Because otherwise, it could be anybody in that truck. So the theory would be that, because, because she had multiple tracking devices put on our car previously, that she was followed out to the park or, or forced to go out to the park, and they either follow her out there or she, which is, there's no reason for her to go out there. That's the main point as well. She's never been out there. We don't go up there. It's not a family spot. And she was off the trail enough into a park ranger only area that nobody knows about. And so the theory would be that she was either tracked, and then they said, well, we didn't find a tracking device. Well, they could have removed it at the park. When the car was at the park, and then it was collected by the authorities, they didn't check for a tracker, which blew my mind. They said, oh, we have all the evidence and everything. We asked them, was there a tracker on her car?

And they said, well, we didn't check. And we were flabbergasted. said, this happened over and over during that interview. Why didn't you check that? We know that there was three or four trackers put on her vehicles. Why didn't you check to see if she was followed? They said, oh, there's no cameras, but we know if she wasn't followed. Her car is just out here.

And I said, well, there's no trackers. They said, no tracker. I said, well, they could have removed it after they did the deed. So then the, Micah's mother, Angelita, she said, you know, she said, pretend this is, this is, my. like his hand and this is and she asked me grab this hand and then she pulled it up you know and said it looks like someone squeezed her hand and raised it up and shot and their defensive wounds from it and such and that's the general idea of our theory that that somebody crushed her hand

to hold a gun up to her head while she's fighting either them or someone else held her other hand or her other arm back because there's bruising on it from squeezing and they forced it to look like that was self-inflicted and a couple of rounds went off during the scuffle one ejected was live and then it finally happened the way they would want it to happen and then dumped her in the water probably 40 meters away from where the shell casings in the gun was found the water doesn't flow there it's a slew it's still it just sinks and it actually flows when it sinks when it recesses it goes the other direction from where she was found.

So her body, even if it was put in the water right there, would not have flowed the direction where she was found. It would flowed the other way. So it would be possible that the incident occurred right there and the shell casings and then the gun was dumped in the water right there. And then she was carried farther 40 meters back into a little bit more secluded area where she was found. So Sierra Francis now joins the conversation.

This is Micah's sister. Sierra, thank you so much for coming on. And as I told your father, I just want to say, again, I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm so sorry for what you and your family are going through. Our hearts go out to you guys. And again, really appreciate you taking the time and being so generous with your time to come on and talk a little bit more about this. So I've already spoken to your father a lot about what you guys believe might have happened here. I want to talk to you about this legal claim that you have filed against Mr. Miller and the church.

Walk us through what that claim is and what you're hoping to get from that. Um, as far as the, you know, the legal side of things, I don't have, you know, perfect details of everything. Um, I'm just trying to pick up where Micah left off and make sure that justice is served and that we are able to, you know, remain, um, over her estate and make sure that it is used or allotted in the way that she would have wanted it to. Do you know anything about the FBI being a part of this investigation now? Were you told anything about that what they might be looking into? So we are aware that Robeson County did come out and say that the FBI is involved. but as far as, you know, what they're investigating and the extent of their involvement, the family's not sure. Okay. Okay. I wanted to ask you this, both of you this. So look, the main argument, and it's being put forward by Mr. Miller and what we've seen is Micah, they say, had suffered for mental illness. Do you know anything about that? Do you, anything you could tell us about that? Because one of the things that Mr. Miller has said is he had this power of attorney set up for that reason. What can you tell us about mental illness? what Micah might have been going through.

So before Micah married, John Paul, she had no signs, no history, no indications of mental illness at all. And why did he, why did she presumably agree to a power of attorney? Usually the person who sets up would have to agree to it and sign to it. He had every way to control her, and he was very good at manipulating the situation. And she, so she, and she thought that he would be doing the right thing. and she wanted to trust that Mr. Miller Jr. was actually doing the right thing for them until she got away from him and had more time when she spent more time with us to peel off some of those layers and realize what was going on. And then she started becoming herself again and got a job and everything else and was doing fine and was happy go lucky self again, excited about the future, which is something he did not like, just, you know, just very terrible. these allegations that he groomed her. What do we mean by that? He had his sights set on her from a

very young age, I would guess probably 14 years old, 14 or 15 when we first came to the church. And he, you know, he made sure that he kept her exactly where he wanted her to the point of who she married, what job she picked up after she was, you know, 18. He got her married. And then he made her his secretary and his babysitter and his, let's go to lunch person. And And then, oh, you're so beautiful. And then when she was married, same thing. Best friends with her husband, her previous husband, and manipulated the situation where he could have him doing something

because he was his right-hand man and then spend time with Micah alone, which is very inappropriate. And to be clear about that, are you alleging that he engaged in criminal contact with Micah? And if so, again, my understanding is there's, no time bar in South Carolina to bring charges. Is this something that you're speaking with about authorities with? I don't think he physically had a relationship with her until after she had already been married to Jeremy. I wanted to ask you about something else. And this goes back to that idea of why he says, and correct me wrong, why he says he had to set up the

power of attorney. It was concerned about whether Michael would be taking money because there was this allegation that Micah was a suspect in the theft of $1,200 in donations for the Solid Rock, this minute missionary efforts. I understand you want to clear the record up on that. That was investigated. I have seen, you know, police excerpts on that. And from what I've seen, to my, to best of my knowledge, it said that that was just a domestic dispute and there was no criminal charges to be filed. Okay. And also, as far as the amount that was mentioned, Micah was having trouble with the websites releasing the money to her from the donations.

Such as Ben Mo or stuff like that. Right. They were holding on to those funds as they do for like the three-day period or whatever, gaining interest. And so during that period where the money didn't show up yet, he was accusing her of stealing that money. And then after the fact, after she's passed, all the money showed back in except one penny. Not to mention that money wasn't money that was donated and she was stealing it. This money was, hey, I've put $600 out of my pocket with the intention of, hey, you know, I will be reimbursed from this because that's what she was told. Hey, spend your $600 to purchase, you know, all the donuts that you're using for fundraising. It's a charity. We'll make sure we reimburse you. So it's not even stealing. It's reimbursement for what she's already put into.

And before I let you go, I have to ask you about this letter that came out that he has. had seemingly apologized to Micah for what he said was releasing a nude photograph of her on the internet. What was your reaction to that letter? He's a faker. He reflects the bandaid everything so he can still control and manipulate people. I told him straight up because of his behavior before. Okay, now go ahead and go cry in front of your church and apologize like you always do. And he didn't during the sermon and his bombshell dropped at the last point. He didn't do his fake sniveling, crying, fake stuff. He just, you know, until later, but he, he would numerous times, he would go in front of

the church and say, I'm sorry, I did this and I did that. I'm sorry. If you don't want me to be the pastor, I'll leave. And they would say, oh, no, you do such a great job. And then it would happen again and again. Right. And if it did stand up against him, he would threaten them with removing them from the church. Or he would just straight out remove them in front of everybody.

and then later in sermons said oh well they just left for no reason I don't know why they left Michael Sierra anything that comes out of his mouth it's all backwards well Michael Sierra here's what I wanted to ask you this is going to be an ongoing

discussion and I was hoping and first of all thank you for being so forthcoming to come on to explain this give your perspective on what's happening as this progresses can we keep an open line and can you come back on and let us know any updates that are happening on your end we would really appreciate it because

I think a lot of people have questions about this. Sure. As long as our attorneys are in agreement and such, and we will keep it open, and most likely that would be us. Okay. So listen, again, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate this. And again, my heart goes out to you and your family about this loss.

And I'm so sorry for what you're going through. But again, really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you so much. Thank you. And that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. always please subscribe on apple podcast spotify youtube wherever you get your podcasts i'm jesse weber speak to you next time you can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on

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