Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #53 - The Ominous Legal Document Filed Before Mica Miller’s Death + The Dark Past of JP Miller’s Father

Starting point is 00:00:00 The justice system can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. We all want a drink from the same cup of justice, and it starts with learning about our legal system. My name is Mandy Matney, and together with journalist Liz Farrell and world-renowned attorney Eric Bland, we create the perfect trifecta of legal expertise, journalistic integrity and a fire lit to expose the truth wherever it leads. We all encounter a part of our justice systems at one point, so why not get prepared while being entertained with tales from the newsroom and the courtroom? Cup of Justice has amazing special guests like Sheryl Crow, Benny Politan, Emily D.

Starting point is 00:00:39 Baker and other experts to share their take on the bright side of the truth. Lunashark Media invites you to gain knowledge, insight, and tools to hold your own or hold public agencies accountable. Search for Cup of Justice wherever you get your podcast or visit cupofjusticepod.com. I don't know what exactly led Micah Miller to her death on April 27, 2024. But one month later, we are still untangling a paper trail of tips she left behind, pointing to those who should be exposed and held to account. My name is Mandi Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption

Starting point is 00:01:31 previously known as the Murdoch Murders Podcast. True Sunlight is a Luna Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. Hello, my pesky people. First of all, this is the 53rd episode of True Sunlight Podcast, which means we are celebrating one year of True Sunlight, our relaunched slash rebranded version of MMP. I wanted to say thank you to the fans who have stuck with us for all 154 weeks of this podcast journey. It is an honor and a privilege to be doing this work with supportive fans who believe in our mission to expose the truth wherever it leads, give a voice to the victims, and

Starting point is 00:02:35 get the story straight. I talked about this on my Instagram the other day, but I am incredibly proud of the fact that I have never compromised my morals or values to keep this show going. As y'all know, I've received a steady stream of negative comments telling me to change my ways since this show began in 2021. But I never budged. This show has always and will always be an authentic reflection of our reporting and

Starting point is 00:03:04 our beliefs. This show is special because we never once changed when people told us to. We might have lost a few followers along the way, but I consider that more of an alignment than a loss. I love our loyal audience and I am grateful for those who continue to listen to what we have to say week after week, especially the Lunashark Premium fans, whose continued monthly support has fueled our momentum on True Sunlight Podcast. We are constantly making the Premium membership cooler and better.

Starting point is 00:03:41 Like today, there is a whole section of this podcast for premium members only. Where Liz will give y'all a much needed update in the shocking knife fighter Mallory Beach family lawsuit situation. It is unreal. Go to lunashark.supercast.com to sign up today. Also, I've noticed a few of y'all who followed us during the Murdoch story are back listening again to our coverage of the Micah Miller case. To y'all, I want to say welcome back and thank you for listening. True Sunlight is

Starting point is 00:04:16 the antithesis of true crime. True Sunlight values accuracy over access journalism. True Sunlight is shed with empathy, not exploitation. True sunlight was created as a matter of public service, not just entertainment. We are proud to be celebrating a whole year of true sunlight, and we are grateful to be shining the light this week again on the Micah Miller case. But before we do,

Starting point is 00:04:45 real quick, I just need to tell you that we do not have an update on the Michael Colucci trial date. We are frustrated because Sarah Lynn Colucci's family has waited nine years for justice. Her daughter is getting married in June. Her family just wants this incredibly hard part of their lives to be over. And yet, the court still can't get it together and decide on a date.

Starting point is 00:05:11 It is yet another example of our justice system that puts victims at the bottom of its priority list. Okay, let's talk about the Micah Miller case, yet another South Carolina case that shows you how much good old boys rely on bullying and harassment in the hopes of weakening the resolve of someone seeking justice against them. In this case, justice would have been a divorce for Micah. Instead, it ended with her alleged suicide. And the big question on everyone's mind is what led Micah to kill herself that day on April 27th when she got ready for her job as a waitress at J. Peter's, left her apartment in her uniform

Starting point is 00:06:00 with a bagged lunch packed for later. Just two days after serving her pastor husband with divorce papers, a move that friends say strengthened her outlook on things. If she did kill herself, and yes we are still asking that question, what made her decide not to go to J. Peters that afternoon and instead go to a pawn shop to buy a gun then drive to a random and remote spot in the next state over to shoot herself. So far we have told you about what her marriage looked like starting in the fall of 2022 when she sought refuge from JP at her sister's house. We have told you about the events surrounding

Starting point is 00:06:46 her hospitalization at a mental health facility in Myrtle Beach in late 2022. We have told you about the harassment that she was experiencing and the accusations of abuse that she made against JP in the months leading up to her death. And you've heard from one of her best friends, Charlotte Korn, who gave us all really great insight

Starting point is 00:07:10 on just how toxic an influence JP was in Micah's life. The next thing we wanna talk to you about is Micah's healthcare power of attorney document and what we think it is telling us. Let's start with what a healthcare power of attorney document and what we think it is telling us. Let's start with what a healthcare power of attorney is for. Generally speaking, this type of POA comes into play when you've been diagnosed with a terminal illness or you have a surgery scheduled or anything that incapacitates you mentally that makes it so that you are mentally unable to make decisions for yourself.

Starting point is 00:07:44 It gives an assigned person the power to unable to make decisions for yourself. It gives an assigned person the power to make those healthcare decisions for you. And these are serious healthcare decisions, by the way, like whether you should be intubated and how hard doctors should work to save your life and whether your organs should be donated when you die. Now, what happens if you become incapacitated, meaning you're not able to make decisions for yourself and you don't have a healthcare POA? The decisions on your healthcare would then fall to a family member, but if your family isn't on the same page, things can get sticky. That said, let's take you back to November 2022. Remember last week when

Starting point is 00:08:24 we told you about what went down outside the Waccamaw Center for Mental Health when hospital employees called police because of a patient who was locked in the bathroom. When police got there, they found a woozy seeming Micah Miller who had already passed out in the lobby of the hospital and in the bathroom. At this point, she was sitting in the passenger seat the hospital and in the bathroom. At this point she was sitting in the

Starting point is 00:08:45 passenger seat of her husband's truck. JP was trying to take her away from the hospital. Remember how we told you that this didn't really track with everything else we've been learning about JP? Friends of Micah and family members say that from the second they got married JP was very much on the Micah is mentally ill train that he believed her to be bipolar, was potentially dosing her with unknown medications and had had her involuntarily hospitalized. But for some reason, this time in late November, 2022, after their big blow up,

Starting point is 00:09:19 after Micah fled to her sister's house, after JP spent an evening threatening to come there, armed and ready to take her back, after the police visited his home because he was threatening to take his life, JP did not want Micah to be admitted to the mental hospital. Meaning, in the aftermath of this fight, when JP wanted his narrative to be that Micah was a bad wife and that he was the victim here, it would seem that JP would have welcomed the opportunity to play into the idea that Micah had mental problems, which he eventually did. He

Starting point is 00:09:54 eventually played into that idea after police basically forced him to allow Micah to be hospitalized. But until that moment, he was fighting it. Why? We're not sure. But like we said last week, among the long list of potential reasons are A. JP didn't like that Micah's sister Anna was the one who brought Micah to the hospital. B. JP didn't like not having control over Micah. C. Hospital staff suspected that Micah was quote on something and acting like she was drugged so maybe JP didn't want them testing her blood. Or T. JP didn't want those particular medical experts weighing in on Micah's medication regimen. Okay so hold that thought for a second. Let's go back 12 days to the November 16th, 2022 fight. And keep in mind that three weeks later,

Starting point is 00:10:46 Micah would be handing over her power of attorney to this version of her husband. According to the police report from Cherokee County Sheriff's Office during that epic fight before Micah's hospitalization, police went to JP's home to see if he was there because he had been telling Micah and her sister that he was armed and ready and that he was almost at Micah's sister's house to take Micah back. He wasn't. He was telling them he was driving there but he wasn't. He was telling them that he was sitting outside their gate but he wasn't. It was the middle of the night and this had to be terrifying to Micah and her sister. Again, Micah's sister lived more than four hours away from Myrtle Beach and again

Starting point is 00:11:30 JP was telling Micah that he was going to kill himself if she didn't return. At this time JP owned at least six firearms according to a 911 call from that night. Six months earlier South Carolina had granted JP a pardon for his June 1999 conviction for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. Meaning, after 23 years of not being able to legally own a gun, JP had quickly amassed a small armory. Real quick, we have a little more information about that incident so we want to share it with you. Also, I want to tell you a quick story about what it's like to be a journalist in South Carolina sometimes. When you've read as many public documents as we have, you start to see a trend and we know this

Starting point is 00:12:18 trend isn't a fluke or just random acts of carelessness because Mandy and I have both heard of public servants out there who admit to doing this kind of thing on purpose because they think it's funny. But my god, the number of times we've received police reports or warrants or any sort of document connected to a criminal investigation where the agency has stamped to their filing date and other information over the most critical parts of the document is unreal and it's perverse. It's like they delight in keeping the public, the community they're ostensibly a part of, in the dark without

Starting point is 00:12:57 information. Anyway, this was the case with JP's arrest warrant from back in the day. Some bureaucrats put their big, fat, liquidy filing stamp on top of the most horrifying part of what JP was accused of doing back then, making it hard to read. According to this warrant, at around 3.30pm February 8, 1998, JP was driving at a high rate of speed. At that time, the road was flooded with water. People were out walking to their cars and they yelled at JP to slow down. JP then went around a curve and hit a woman named Jennifer Garland with the bumper of

Starting point is 00:13:38 his truck. She lost her balance and before she could stand up straight, he hit her again. Then, according to the warrant, he drove with her on the hood of his truck for a quarter of a mile before slamming on his brakes and throwing her off. So this wasn't a matter of a reckless and youthful accident. JP Miller literally drove around with another human being on the hood of his truck and then made it so that she would further hurt herself. J.P. made reference to this incident about a year ago on the Elsa Kurtz show on YouTube. Here's what J.P. said. Did you find that with people in your past? You said you kind of shied away from your

Starting point is 00:14:22 faith for a long period of time. When you came back to it or came to it. What was the reaction from people? Um, well, you know, Christians, I say we because I'm a Christian, but we kind of have bad publicity a lot of times and and I realized that but you know, just because there's a few, you know, you talked about evangelizing and telling people about Jesus, you know, some people want to shove Jesus down your throat. And they think that you should do that and walk around and, you know, start preaching everybody on the street. And there's a lot of little things like that, the Christians kind of have a people have a bad taste in their mouth

Starting point is 00:14:55 toward Christians. But you know, we still live in America, even though there's some Americans that are not very patriotic, not very good Americans, we still go to work, even though there are people that work there that just aren't doing right. And so I never want people to walk away from church or their belief in Jesus just because of a few bad vibes they get from people kind of taking it the wrong way. Because the truth is none of us do it right 100% of the time. None of us, you know, not any of our doctrine is 100% of the time. None of us, you know, not any of our doctorate is 100% right all the time. You know, when I came back to church, I did have, when I started pastoring, I did have a lot of people from my past who were Christians who condemned me. And they were like, no, you couldn't

Starting point is 00:15:38 be a pastor and everything you've done. And I mean, I had a bad record even with the police. I've been arrested twice, a bunch of stuff. I just got an expunge, thank God. But I have a bad past in every area. And you know, when you read the Bible, every single man and woman of God in the Bible, not only do they have a bad past, but even after they came to God, they were not perfect. I mean, Abraham was going to let someone sleep with his wife to save him from getting hurt. You know, Peter cussed and denied Jesus. I mean, just on and on it goes.

Starting point is 00:16:11 And so the goal is not perfection. In fact, the goal is the opposite. The goal is to keep recognizing you're not perfect. One of the key mottoes of JP's church is no perfect people allowed, which is great. That is a great message for a church to have. No one is perfect. Everyone is worthy, right? But it is hard not to listen to his words on that show and see them as self-serving. It sounds like he's conditioning people to accept his dark side by

Starting point is 00:16:40 making it about them too. As in, I'm not perfect, but neither are you, pal. The thing that's absent from JP's words, there isn't any expression of remorse for that past. Instead, he laughs about how he got his charges expunged. Except to be technical, his assault and battery charge isn't actually expunged. He was pardoned for it. He got back his ability to buy a gun and a vote, but it's still on his record. Interestingly, three people wrote letters of

Starting point is 00:17:14 support for JP getting his assault and battery charge pardoned. You know, the charge when he drove with a woman on the hood of his car. Not one of those letters indicates that they knew and understand the severity of the incident. Not one notes JP's remorse for it. Jason Potter wrote, quote, It is to my understanding that Pastor John Paul Miller made many mistakes early on in his life, as most of us all have. Unfortunately, a few of those mistakes have continued to haunt him and restrict him in areas of his life that keep him from continuing to further serve our area, our state, our country, our world, as well as, most importantly, the kingdom of God." How exactly was he being restricted? Was it his right to vote?

Starting point is 00:18:11 He had missed several historic elections over the years, but no, in his pardon application, it seems he just wants to be able to legally own guns. Also, I wanna note that Jason Potter said the thing, JP made mistakes as most of us have. That is the message. We can't judge him because we're just as bad. Linda Phillips wrote, quote, I have had the pleasure of knowing Pastor Miller for about seven years. He has been my pastor and close friend since we joined the church. I have witnessed him growing as a spiritual, compassionate, and responsible person.

Starting point is 00:18:51 Pastor Miller has always displayed a high degree of integrity, responsibility, and concern for others. Concern for others is the sentiment that comes closest to remorse in these documents. Finally, Trisha Ross, JP's right-hand person and someone not very highly regarded when it comes to her treatment of Micah, wrote the following, Since I have known him, I have not witnessed any behavior that would be considered abusive or criminal in nature. In fact, I have witnessed the opposite. He would give the shirt off his back for anyone. Since knowing him, I have only seen him as a caring, hard-working, good father, great pastor, and sensitive man. Again, we get no notion that JP was

Starting point is 00:19:43 sorry for his offense. And I'm not sure why Governor McMaster needed to know that JP is a sensitive man. What's going on there, Trisha? We just know from public records that JP told McMaster that he wanted his rights restored so he could protect his wife and family in his congregation. Which brings us back to the guns. So, according to a police report from November 2022, officials were sent to JP's home to verify that he was there and not on his way to Gafney,

Starting point is 00:20:17 quote unquote, armed and ready to take back Micah. According to sources, JP would later characterize this interaction as quote the bitch got me arrested. Really what happened is that police conducted a welfare check on JP. They literally pulled up to his house to be like y'all good and he over-dramatized that. Police noted that they found him packing his pickup truck with Micah's belongings, meaning his threats to Micah about taking all of her stuff to Goodwill appear to have been something that he intended to act upon. JP told police he was fine and that he did not intend to hurt himself. When police relayed this information to Micah, she told them that JP was continuing to threaten her over text. No charges were filed in that case.

Starting point is 00:21:14 And we will be right back. Okay, so back to November 28th, 2022, just 12 days after their huge fight that involved police. Micah's sister, Anna, took Micah to the mental hospital and for whatever reason, JP did not like that. Once Micah was admitted to the hospital, JP took on the role of worried husband and he updated her friends, instructing them not to update her family on the matter and letting them know he was relieved to find out that caught off Micah's family from receiving any information about her health. Micah's sister Sierra had to get information secondhand from Micah's friends. In the meantime her family was blocked from even visiting Micah at the hospital and JP was telling people including Micah's brother Nate that Micah was likely going to be in the hospital for a long time

Starting point is 00:22:22 possibly permanently. But Micah was released December 5th, 2022. That is a week later at nine 10 that morning, JP texted Charlotte and others quote, she gets out in a few hours with a smiley face emoji. Please wait and text her tomorrow as I'm a try to let her rest and relax before dealing with all her cell phone stuff. Thanks. So did JP let Micah rest and relax? It doesn't look like it because on the fifth day of December, 2022,

Starting point is 00:22:56 Micah Miller was signing paperwork to grant JP the power to make healthcare decisions for her moving forward. Now, there's a bunch of weird things happening here, but first let's talk about what Micah was signing over. In December, 2022, Micah was 28 years old. And other than the mental illness that JP told people she had, she was otherwise a healthy person.

Starting point is 00:23:19 Again, healthcare POAs are typically employed by people expecting to be mentally incapacitated in some way. This POA uses standardized language established by South Carolina law. In it, Micah made John Paul Miller her agent, meaning the chief person who could make decisions for her should she become mentally incapacitated. Her first alternate agent was written in by hand with the initials M.M. written next to it and it's her brother Nate. According to sources, Nate

Starting point is 00:23:51 is the sibling who remained with the church at that time. Where she's to list a second agent that's been left blank. In the POA, Micah granted JP full authority to make decisions for her regarding her health healthcare. The document requires him to attempt to discuss the proposed decisions with her if she's able to communicate in any way. This means JP would now have the authority to consent to treatment for Micah or refuse and withdraw treatment for Micah.

Starting point is 00:24:20 He could decide on medications and procedures to relieve pain and decide on when she gets admitted and discharged even against medical advice from a hospital. In the POA, the initials MM are handwritten, granting JP the ability to consent to donating any or all of Micah's tissues and organs. And the initials MM are handwritten next to the option that grants JP the discretion to not allow Micah to get life sustaining treatment, as well as next to the option where JP can decide on whether Micah gets a feeding tube to prolong her life. This is what Micah was signing on December 5th, 2022, the day she was released from the mental hospital that JP tried to prevent her from being admitted to. Now for the odd stuff. Two people witnessed

Starting point is 00:25:13 Micah sign this form. An attorney named Tom Winslow, who we told you about in True Sunlight episode 52. He is an attorney friend of JP's and owns property near the park where Micah's body was found. Again, we are not making any suggestion that him owning that property means anything. We're merely noting it as a coincidence. He signed the document saying Micah signed it in his presence. Also, Tiffany Marsh signed the form attesting to that same thing. According to Tom's law firm's website, Tiffany is the new client coordinator there. It isn't at all weird that a lawyer and his employee would sign a power of attorney form attesting to a principal's signature. What's weird is that they say they witnessed

Starting point is 00:25:56 the signature of Micah's on November 28, 2022, the same day Micah was admitted to the hospital. According to the update text from JP, he was telling people that even he wasn't allowed to visit Micah at the hospital at that time. So, how were Tom Winslow and Tiffany Marsh able to do that? Additionally, and probably more importantly, how did they witness the signature that didn't get made until December 5, 2022? This isn't likely a typo because there's a big difference between writing November 28 and December 5. So, did JP have these papers drawn up on the day Micah was admitted to the hospital?

Starting point is 00:26:35 If so, that gives us an even bigger indication of just how much he did not want her in that mental facility at that time. Like I said, it's very odd. The form is then notarized on a separate sheet of paper. Every sheet of paper has the initials MM, TW, and TM on it. Then there's the strangest part. The last page is a handwritten so-called test with five questions. The first question is the date, December 5, 2022. The second question is the day, Monday. The third question is the President, Joe Biden. The fourth is the next holiday, Christmas. The fifth is why present? And the answer written was select power of attorney. At the bottom is Micah's signature, which we checked against her restraining order from

Starting point is 00:27:23 March 20, 2024 and it matches. Micah's signature is interesting because it's very plain and very clean and nondescript. It looks like she would have gotten an A plus in cursive because it's so easy to reproduce. A friend of ours who is a probate attorney told us that this test is not the normal remedy to proving that a principal was of sound mind when they signed their power of attorney and that a more typical and far more effective way to prove this would be to get a letter from the principal's attending physician to attest to their ability to sign legal documents at that time. Regardless, this is what it looks like. After their epic fight in mid-November and JP's aggressive and scary response to it. Micah went to her sisters and at some point returned home to JP. According to the text we read you last week, JP was livid that

Starting point is 00:28:12 she had left him after this ridiculous and manufactured fight on his part. According to Micah's friend Charlotte, JP outed Micah for the awkward reason they had been fighting that night. That reason being that JP had asked Micah to name a girl that she would kiss and Micah hesitated because she didn't have a girl that she wanted to kiss. But he forced the issue and then became irate when she finally said Charlotte, her best friend. And she selected Charlotte in this hypothetical non-existent scenario because Charlotte was the friend who would never tell anyone that this happened. At this same time, JP was also threatening to donate all of Micah's belongings to Goodwill. This is what Micah was

Starting point is 00:28:59 returning to and what was happening in her life leading up to her hospitalization. to and what was happening in her life leading up to her hospitalization. Sometime between when she returned home on November 28, 2022 with her family worried about her health, JPs started telling them that her demise was on them. So her sister found a way to separate Micah from JP and used the opportunity to take Micah to the hospital to get checked out. JP showed up at the hospital and tried to leave with Micah, but police intervened. They separated JP from Micah to ask Micah her wishes and she told them that she wanted to be admitted. In response to that, JP called his friend, Lieutenant Heather Wilson at the Ory County Police Department twice and told the officers

Starting point is 00:29:45 at the scene that they'd be getting a call. Officers noted that JP was not happy and that he had stormed off from them. And then on that very same day, we either have JP's attorney and JP's attorney's staffer signing a healthcare power of attorney form saying they witnessed Mike's signature of it, which didn't occur until eight days later. Or JP had the attorney immediately draw up forms in a hotheaded effort to rust power back from Micah, from Anna, and from the police over Micah's hospitalization. Then, and here is where it gets creepy guys, nothing happens with the form.

Starting point is 00:30:26 See, what's supposed to happen is that it gets filed with the county registered deeds off as South Carolina law began requiring that in 2017. Ostensibly, if someone is signing a healthcare power of attorney, it's because they needed for something. But that didn't happen. And Micah was hospitalized at least one other time between December 5, 2022 and her death. But the POA doesn't appear to have come into play. It did, however, suddenly get filed on March 20, 2024. Someone went down to the Register of Deeds

Starting point is 00:30:59 office to pay the $25 filing fee and finally put the POA for Micah's healthcare on the official record. We had reporter Beth Braden call over to the office to see if a POA needs to be filed by the principal, which would be Micah in this case, or if anyone could file it. According to the answer she got, anyone with a document could file it. So who filed it? We don't know yet. What we do know is that if you look at the timeline we gave you last week, here is where the filing falls in it. On February 8th of this year, JP had Micah involuntarily hospitalized at a mental facility. She was released two days later. Three days after that, the motion for divorce she had filed for back in October 23 was dismissed by consent order, meaning both parties would have had to sign for that dismissal. Texts from Micah's sister around that time, though, indicate that Micah left the hospital and was serious about leaving JP.

Starting point is 00:31:57 We don't know what to make of that timing. Around the same time, JP's church also appears to be reporting Micah for stealing from their mission and youth group funds. A month later, police investigate and a judge determines that no crime has been committed. In late February, Micah tells police that she's been separated from JP since January and that he had her hospitalized so that he could take her car. She also tells them that he's been harassing her and that she was groomed by him since she was a teenager. JP tells police that he took her harassing her and that she was groomed by him since she was a teenager.

Starting point is 00:32:26 JP tells police that he took her car to prevent her from selling it because she was having one of her mental episodes. The next day, he files a motion for relief with family court, the same court that just dismissed their divorce case nine days earlier. In March, Micah tells police and the court that JP has been threatening her, harassing her, and putting trackers on the car she was driving. She also finds razor blades and deflator devices in the tires of her cars. On March 26, Micah found another tracker on her car, and on the same day, her motion for restraining order was heard in Magistrate Court. We still don't know the outcome of that hearing. A hearing had also been scheduled to hear JP's motion for relief, but he had dropped his motion 11 days earlier. Around this time,

Starting point is 00:33:12 Micah posts a video on Facebook talking about her abuse. The next day, JP contacts police to tell them Micah and her family are harassing him. He mentions this video as evidence, police watch it and say they found no evidence of him being harassed. On March 29th, even though she already appears to have been cleared of the thefts at the church, a church administrator again appears to report Micah's alleged theft to police. And amid all of that in March, amid Micah living separately from JP and trying to get the money to hire an attorney to divorce him and amid her getting relentlessly harassed, someone files Micah's healthcare power of attorney from 2022.

Starting point is 00:33:58 And then a month after that, she's found dead in a North Carolina swamp wearing the clothes she put on to go to work that afternoon. So, why did the POA get filed? In order for it to be used, it had to be filed. It's the only reason to officially file it, to use it. But what was it going to be used for? Well the thing that makes it necessary, the only reason for it to be used, would be in the event of Micah being mentally

Starting point is 00:34:25 incapacitated. Without knowing who filed it, we can only speculate as to the reasons. But one thing we can say for sure is that it would seem to be highly unlikely that a woman who was in the middle of getting a restraining order against her estranged husband would then go and file old paperwork that granted that same man power over whether she lived or died. And yet that appears to be exactly what happened. According to a receipt that we obtained from the Horry County Register of Deeds office late Wednesday, just after 3 p.m. on March 20th, which is two days before Micah posted a video about abuse and six days before her hearing to get a restraining order. It appears that Micah walked into that

Starting point is 00:35:09 office and paid the $25 fee with a check to file the paperwork that put JP Miller in charge of her health care should she become mentally incapacitated. I know, you need a second to process that. Believe me, we get it. It's yet another strange detail that seems to make no sense whatsoever with this case. And there's so much more to learn here. We're on it. We'll let you know what else we find out in our next episode. In the meantime, if anyone has thoughts on this or information about it, please feel

Starting point is 00:35:45 free to reach out to us through lunasharkmedia.com. Now, let's talk about JP's family history and the role that it plays in all of this. John Paul Miller was born a pastor's son to Susan and Reginald Wayne Miller on May 20, 1979 in Florence, South Carolina. By the time JP came around, his father's religious star was rising. In 1972, Wayne Miller founded his own church, Florence Tabernacle, and by the mid-1970s he established Gloryland, a 500-acre property home of Tabernacle Bible Institute. In the 70s he also began hosting Good Morning Jesus, a TV show that reached five states and Canada,

Starting point is 00:36:40 which was apparently a big deal at the time. Before JP was born, Miller had big plans for Gloryland. In a 1978 full page ad or feature, it's hard to tell from the newspapers in the 1970s, Gloryland announced big plans for its feature to include a Christian academy, recreational facilities, camping facilities, an orphanage, a home for the aged, horses, fishing, a petting zoo, a life-size replica of the Old Testament Tabernacle, Gloryland Bible Institute, oh, and Good Morning Jesus Studios.

Starting point is 00:37:24 I'm telling you, big plans for Gloryland. If you are picturing the compound from the righteous gemstones, you aren't far off according to these newspaper renderings. Just two months after JP was born in 1979, the Associated Press ran a profile on Wayne Miller with the headline, Evangelist Wayne Miller on the way up. I want to have David read a clip from this Associated Press story that ran in July 1979. The 30-year-old Hemingway native might be the future tar of the evangelical broadcast circuit. He's got the looks, he's got the charm, and heaven knows he's got the ambition.

Starting point is 00:38:08 Host of a daily religious talk show carried on 24 stations throughout the United States, Miller also founded the seven-year-old Florence Tabernacle Inc. and heads the Gloryland Bible College. But it is the television show that is Miller's Baby. The program, Good Morning Jesus, is typical of a new kind of television evangelism. Like Jim Baker and Pat Robertson, hosts of the better known PTL Club and 700 Club programs, Miller follows a

Starting point is 00:38:40 Johnny Carson-style talk show format. Most of the funds for Miller's program come from viewers responding to requests for donations. Total production costs for the first quarter of 1979 were $104,000, Miller said. Although the show is now produced by a local station, Miller has plans to build his own studio within the next few years. He describes the program as, quote, an outreach of our church. In Florence alone, he claims several thousand viewers.

Starting point is 00:39:14 The program is also aired by other stations in South Carolina and in Florida, Georgia, Texas, Vermont, and Eastern Canada. Quote, you can reach thousands of people at one time, end quote. Miller says while adding that he would like to see every church have a television ministry, end quote. Miller says, however, he prefers to see evangelical broadcasters maintain a direct affiliation with a local church. With local church, youths volunteers to help with production, he says.

Starting point is 00:39:47 Quote, without a local church, you have to pay salaries, end quote. Wow, what a pedestal that guy was on. And of course, his career didn't slow down after his firstborn son. It only got better because well, men. Wayne Miller received an honorary doctorate degree from Indiana Christian University and he immediately began putting doctor in

Starting point is 00:40:17 front of his name. He expanded Gloryland College to international locations and places like Jamaica and Costa Rica. But it's hard to tell if the plans for the actual Glory Land in Florence, like the orphanage and petting zoo, ever came to fruition. In the 1980s, Wayne Miller was named to the Executive Committee of Washington for Jesus, joining the ranks of Oral Roberts and other religious superstars around the country. Oh, and he also had a little side gig in the 1980s when he led the Florence Citizens Against Pornography group.

Starting point is 00:40:55 And I just have to have David read a few paragraphs from this Florence Morning News story because wow. A leader of the Citizens Against Pornography wonders if the anti-censorship group, which has grown in opposition to the anti-obscenity drive, knows what it is protesting. Wayne Miller, pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church, said the Citizens Against Censorship would have a legitimate protest if the anti-obscenity group had proposed a city ordinance stronger than the state ordinance. Miller is also discouraged by the amount of newspaper and television coverage given to

Starting point is 00:41:36 the anti-censorship group. When he spoke before the city council on first and second reading approval of the ordinance, Miller said his descriptions of video tapes showing, quote, sperm dripping from the mouths of young men, end quote, was not reported. When people think about obscenity, they think about Playboy. But I walked into a minimart the other day and saw a hustler magazine where any six-year-old could see sex acts." Miller said in his counseling sessions he has seen a five-year-old boy sodomized by a seven-year-old who said, quote, daddy brings home these videos, end quote. Ew. And not just ew for now, but ew back then too. Subsequent records noted how overly descriptive Wayne Miller had been in his testimony to

Starting point is 00:42:30 counsel. How is that example he gave not a red flag to anyone? Because just wait until you hear what happens later in his career, it puts all of that in perspective. Anyway, he dabbled a lot in the 1980s as his career rose. He wrote two books. He hosted seminars like this one Mandy found an ad for called, You Aren't a Failure, in 1985. In small print at the bottom, the ad said that Miller had polio that paralyzed him from the waist down as a child and that he had been healed by the ministries of Oral

Starting point is 00:43:01 Roberts. Fun fact. Papers across the state viewed Wayne Miller as a leading voice for evangelicals. In 1987, he was quoted in a plethora of newspapers calling on 17,000 preachers to unseat Jerry Falwell on the board of Pentecostal Charismatic Leaders. J.P.'s father wasn't just a simple preacher. He was a somebody in the church world. But something happened in 1987 that seemed to change everything for Wayne Miller and his legacy. But that incident would be kept quiet, at least until it was outed in 1989. That year, WPDE broadcast a five-part series on Wayne Miller with, quote, blurred faces and disguised voices recounting inappropriate advances Miller allegedly made on students

Starting point is 00:43:51 at his Bible college. This, according to JP's own mother, Susan, and divorce filings would be the first domino to fall in the Miller dynasty. According to the Sun News, in 1987, the wives of two Bible college students accused Wayne Miller of quote, making sexual advances on their husbands. After WPD made these allegations public in 1989, Miller defended himself immediately and said he was already cleared of sexual

Starting point is 00:44:18 immorality. By who you ask? Well, an obscure group of three clergymen from the National Leadership Conference got together in 1987. One of those men was the Reverend Jamie Buckingham of Florida. We're going to have David read this part of the Florence Morning News article about it. Buckingham said his group, interested in keeping the controversy, quote, in house, agreed to mediate and that Miller agreed to participate. Late in December Miller and the three other individuals met in Spartanburg with the subcommittee to air the situation. The recommendation by the committee that Miller undergo at least six months

Starting point is 00:44:58 rehabilitation which would involve counseling in Bradententon, Florida, which the Florida ministers said Miller agreed to. However, he reportedly left before the six months had elapsed. Wayne Miller claimed that in 1988, the Credentials Committee of the Apostolic Christian Church, Inc., ruled that there had been no findings of sexual immorality in his case. However, the paper does not show any proof of this Beyond Miller statement. I wanna point this out because men in religion, unfortunately, have a history

Starting point is 00:45:38 of handling sexual allegations internally. See, for example, the Catholic Church. And it's hard to trust the outcome of any investigation conducted by parties who are more interested in the protection of the institution than they are in actually holding church leaders to account. I have no idea what happened in 1987, but it is important to note that Wayne Miller sued WPDE for $5 million in February 1989, just weeks after the series ran. That appeared to be a scare tactic, perhaps maybe like the cease and desist letter JP Miller's lawyer sent the media a few weeks ago.

Starting point is 00:46:22 like the cease and desist letter J.P. Miller's lawyer sent the media a few weeks ago. Because just a few months after filing the lawsuit, Wayne Miller withdrew his libel lawsuit, and the station called it a victory for responsible journalists. The station stood by its reporting and said that they fact-checked everything for weeks. Despite what Wayne Miller said,

Starting point is 00:46:44 the series inevitably cast a cloud over Glory Land that Miller could not ever shake, apparently. His wife Susan Miller later claimed the series forced them to sell their home in Florence and move to Myrtle Beach. And they did that in 1993, according to an ad that ran in the Sun-Times announcing Cathedral Bible College and Grand Strand Cathedral Church moving to a temporary location in Myrtle Beach. The ad boasted 30 churches and several Bible colleges had been started, and it claimed to have a grant from Wayne Miller's former church, Tabernacle Baptist Church, to purchase and develop property in Myrtle Beach.

Starting point is 00:47:30 A grant from his own church? Hmm. Over the next few years, Wayne Miller and his supporters would fight for the land and chapel building at the old Myrtle Beach Air Force Base. The land where solid rock at market common sits on to this day. Miller won the bid for two buildings in 1996 at a discount rate. And when he was denied getting more land, he was quoted in the paper saying that the Air Force Base Authority is doing the devil's work.

Starting point is 00:48:04 He claimed that the land that he wanted was the Lord's. But what about Gloryland and all its glory? Well, according to everything I can find, it sat vacant throughout the 90s while Miller waited for the quote unquote right buyers. Then on March 30th, 1999, the 20,000 square foot cross-shaped building that held Tabernacle Baptist and Gloryland Bible College burnt to the ground in one of the largest fires in the area at the time. Officials immediately called the fire suspicious, and the chief of police was quoted in the

Starting point is 00:48:45 Florence Morning News saying that they had eliminated all accidental ignition as the cause. In that same Florence Morning News article, Wayne Miller was quoted saying that the property was just as valuable without the building, and that specifically, insurance would not cover the building because and that specifically, insurance would not cover the building because it was abandoned. Huh, isn't that something? Florence County Sheriff's Office and Fire Department

Starting point is 00:49:12 opened an investigation into the Gloryland Fire, but it doesn't appear like it was ever followed up on. We are going to look more into that and file more foias about that fire, because I have questions. However, the Gloryland Fire would not be the last time that Wayne Miller's name would be mentioned in the newspaper, followed by a story that makes you go, hmm. We'll be right back.

Starting point is 00:49:50 In 2006, Miller pleaded guilty to indecent exposure when he was accused of following an undercover officer into a bathhouse and taking off his pants a la Donald Duck before asking the male officer what he was into. The reverend was allowed to complete pre-trial intervention and the charge was later expunged. Now, a reverend with a history of sex abuse allegations who already moved once because of that scandal gets arrested in a homosexual bathhouse encounter. What do you think that does to a church? Think of it as a business losing customers, but never fear. Daddy's boy was there.

Starting point is 00:50:29 That same year, the Reverend Miller was arrested. J.P. Miller started solid rock ministries in a library, according to his website, where his congregation was made up of his family, friends, and quote, several drug acquaintances. The next year, Susan Miller, who's JP's mother, filed for divorce against Wayne Miller, and she spilled some family tea in her divorce filings, the kind of tea that I'm sure made JP, the young pastor, fearful of what divorce could do to a man

Starting point is 00:50:58 who has skeletons in his closet. That divorce seemed to be the next big domino to fall on Wayne Miller's legacy. In 2012, he sold the Air Force property to JP's church, Solid Rock, and moved his ministries to Marion, South Carolina. And then in 2014, Miller pleaded guilty to four federal felony charges and two misdemeanors, having 16 foreign students who came to South Carolina to attend his Bible college work for him for little to no money while holding their visas over their heads and threatening to go into the system to mess with their immigration status as we told you in episode 50. But don't worry, that wasn't rock bottom for him because of course the feds let him off easy on those charges that he could have gotten 41 years behind bars for.

Starting point is 00:51:48 He spent nearly four months in prison, 14 months waiting sentencing, 12 months of house arrest, gave 500 hours of community service and check out the wording on this next part, quote, arranged for $70,000 to be paid according to the court decree. This is all according to a letter that Wayne Miller wrote to the judge trying to get his sentence shortened. He also got one year of probation and one year of supervised release and the judge said, no, I'm not shortening anything. After that whole ordeal, Wayne Miller's mission work continued under the All Nations Bible College Faith First Academy under the name Reg W. Miller, which is not surprising considering he is a convicted felon.

Starting point is 00:52:31 Wayne's quote mission work focuses a lot on Pakistan and I cannot wait to find out more about that. There appeared to be blurry lines between Wayne and JP's churches and their mission work, but make no mistake, Daddy Miller has never wavered in his support of his son and his son's church, especially lately. He has made that crystal clear on his public Facebook group, Wayne Miller and Friends, and on other social media. When Solid Rock Church was named by the Myrtle Beach Business Hall of Fame as a top place to worship in March 2024, Wayne Miller wrote a comment in all caps. Here's David.

Starting point is 00:53:12 David Miller, The Greatest Church in Beach because of the greatest team of leadership and a great congregation of workers and loving people. If you are lonely, head for Solid Rock and you will never be lonely again. Jesus is there. Main reason it is attacked by some is because he is there. So what exactly was Solid Rock Church getting attacked for in March, 2024? A question for us to unpack later,

Starting point is 00:53:44 but it is important to note that Wayne Miller for in March 2024, a question for us to unpack later. But it is important to note that Wayne Miller has maintained his support of his son and of Solid Rock all this time. And in case anyone had any questions about that, he wrote a 900-word essay in the Daily Mail. In his statement, Wayne Miller, you know, the man who was charged with prostitution

Starting point is 00:54:06 and lewdness in 2006 and convicted of federal fraud charges in 2014, he calls Micah Miller the sick one. In his Daily Mail statement, he pointed the press to an odd video of Micah Miller that has been circulating online recently. The video is from her time in Kenya in October 2023 when she spoke to the missionary about a time when she held a gun to her head and tried to kill herself, but the gun jammed. Sources close to Micah said that she was not in her right mind in Kenya, as she was surrounded by some of JP's biggest supporters. And they say that she would have never said that unless she was on some serious medication. I keep thinking about that video, as police have referenced it too recently. How convenient is it that in October 2023, right after Micah filed for divorce from JP for the first

Starting point is 00:55:06 time, JP's people managed to record a video that would later be used as evidence to support her death being ruled a suicide. Wayne Miller also managed to leave out in his little essay that there is a video of his own son on the church's website preaching about how he was taking 800 milligrams of lithium per day not too long ago. But of course, he doesn't mention that because he wants us to think that Micah is the sick one. Wayne Miller went on and on in this letter.

Starting point is 00:55:43 He made wild accusations about Micah Miller that should be easily proven by police reports. And yet, we have filed dozens of FOIA requests searching for Micah Miller reports around Myrtle Beach, and we have found nothing that claims anything close to what Wayne Miller is accusing Micah Miller of doing. Wayne Miller's letter Micah Miller of doing. Wayne Miller's letter ultimately pointed the finger at Micah's family for not getting her the

Starting point is 00:56:10 right mental help that she needed. I wonder if he knows about the time that his son tried to prevent Micah's family from getting her help while at the very same time telling them that her downward spiral was on them if they didn't help. Oh, and old Wayne explained his side of the story for his federal convictions, essentially blaming the students for not knowing English. And yet, he didn't mention anything about threatening to revoke visas or about paying those students next to nothing for their labor.

Starting point is 00:56:50 We have talked a lot about Wayne Miller today because I see a pattern here. In the Murdoch story, it was so essential to learn Ehrlich's family history in order to understand his crimes. To quote the Bible, the sins of the father are visited on his children. Like his father, JP has a criminal history that never canceled him. Like his father, JP had a wife who knew his secrets.

Starting point is 00:57:21 Like his father, JP continues to deny any wrongdoing. Like his father, JP continues to deny any wrongdoing. Like his father, JP instead lashes out at anyone who refers to the widely available public documentation of his downfalls. And like his father, JP knows what it's like to lose church members. In 2016 and 2017, JP got caught having an extramarital affair on his wife, who was the mother of four of his children. The affair was with their babysitter, Micah, who was 22 or 23 at the time, and also married. The church did not take kindly to that and JP lost a significant number of members according to sources. In one of the letters of support for JP's pardon in 2021,

Starting point is 00:58:16 Jason Potter mentioned the size of Solid Rock Ministries. In 2017, he said that there were just 50 members. Then that became 100, and then 200, and then 400, and then 500, which he said it was at the time of writing his letter in 2021. In late 2023, the Myrtle Beach Sun News reported that Solid Rock's membership had grown to 700. They mentioned that number in a story about how the fast-growing church was set to build a new facility to accommodate its size after raising over a million dollars for the expansion. The church, according to reports, has assets of $5.9 million dollars.

Starting point is 00:59:02 Including its own private plank, by the way. And it seems like money was pouring in recently. But also, like his father, JP has found himself entangled with matters related to an alleged FBI investigation. Although some have questioned the existence of an FBI investigation, saying that the FBI has only confirmed that they were asked to conduct one, we have confirmation that people are being questioned by federal agents about Micah and JP Miller and that those questions are not related to church finances. Again, like his father, JP knew that a scandal could ruin him and ruin the church.

Starting point is 00:59:50 JP knew from his own experience just how bad it could get. The only problem standing between him and his church's future was Micah. So what really happened to Micah Miller? We're still digging. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. I'm sorry. True sunlight is a Luna shark production created by me, Mandy Matney and co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky.

Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #53 - The Ominous Legal Document Filed Before Mica Miller’s Death + The Dark Past of JP Miller’s Father

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