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In keeping with a determination made earlier this week by North Carolina medical examiners, the law enforcement agency leading the investigation into the suspicious death of a South Carolina pastor’s wife has deemed it a suicide.
The Robeson County, N.C. sheriff’s office has also released an alibi for the embattled pastor, who was reportedly in Charleston, S.C. at the time his wife appears to have taken her own life.
Last Thursday, our media outlet exclusively reported on the shocking death of 30-year-old Mica Miller – wife of pastor John-Paul “JP” Miller of the Solid Rock at Market Common church in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
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Mica Miller’s body was discovered last weekend at North Carolina’s Lumber River State Park – a sprawling 14,000-acre wilderness straddling this scenic blackwater river. Her death has sparked a flood of speculation given the bizarre manner in which her husband announced it to their congregation – and given allegations of abuse raised by Mica Miller’s family and friends.
At the conclusion of his sermon last Sunday (April 28, 2024), JP Miller asked his congregation to stand for an announcement — giving his parishioners strict instructions not to discuss the forthcoming news amongst themselves.
“I got a call late last night my wife has passed away,” he said. “Yeah. It was self-induced and it was up in North Carolina and, um, we’re going to have a funeral for her next Sunday here at 3:00 p.m.”
Foul play was – and is – suspected given the alleged physical, sexual and psychological abuse Mica Miller reportedly sustained at the hands of her husband.
Miller made claims to friends and family that if she “ended up with a bullet in my head, it was not by me, it was JP.”
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“A death investigation that has tugged on the hearts of people across the nation has been ruled a suicide,” a statement issued by the Robeson sheriff’s office noted. “The decision was based on surveillance footage, interviews, physical evidence, and the examination of the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office.”
According to the statement, Robeson County dispatchers received a 9-1-1- call at approximately 2:54 p.m. EDT from a female later identified as Mica Miller.
“The caller asked the dispatcher if her phone could be located because she was going to kill herself and wanted her family to be able to find her body,” the release noted.
The 9-1-1- call was made just two hours and twenty minutes after Miller purchased a Sig Sauer handgun from a pawn shop in Myrtle Beach – a transaction which was captured on surveillance video.
(Click to view)
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THE 9-1-1 CALL …
The version of the 9-1-1 call released by Robeson County sheriff’s investigators runs for a little more than two-and-a-half minutes. The majority of the call — which may have contained redactions, omissions or other edits — featured a calm, dispassionate conversation between Mica Miller and the dispatcher.
“Hi, um, are you able to trace the location of my phone?” Miller inquired of the dispatcher when asked to provide the location of her emergency, according to the 9-1-1 recording.
“Let me see,” the dispatcher responded. “You don’t know where you’re at?”
“A national park,” Miller responded calmly.
“What’s the phone number you’re calling me from?” the dispatcher asked.
After providing the number, the dispatcher asked Miller where the park was located, to which she replied that she had enabled location sharing on her iPhone.
“Find my phone is ‘on,'” Miller told the dispatcher, adding that she was sharing her device’s location.
After a lengthy pause, the dispatcher informed Miller that she didn’t think she was in Robeson County.
“The Lumber River State Park?” she asked.
“Yes, that’s where I am,” Miller responded, matter of factly.
Finally, more than two minutes into the call, the dispatcher
“Tell me what’s happening,” she asked Miller.
“Um, I’m about to kill myself and … I just want my family to know where to find me,” Miller responded.
“Okay ma’am, just listen to what I’m saying, okay?” “Let me make sure I’ve got the exact location of where you’re at, okay? Just one minute.”
No further dialogue was released in connection with the 9-1-1 call, which is included below in its entirety …
(Click to view)
According to investigators, Robeson county deputies were assisted by North Carolina State Park rangers in their search of the area.
“During the investigation, a black Honda Accord with a South Carolina registration was located in the parking lot at the State Park,” police noted. “The investigators confirmed that the vehicle belonged to Mica Miller, 30, of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.”
“Investigators located a Sig Sauer gun case in the passenger seat of the vehicle and a box of ammunition in the center console of the vehicle,” the release added. “Investigators also found a receipt for the Sig Sauer handgun from a pawn shop and a receipt from a convenience store in the vehicle. Both receipts were dated for same day of Miller’s death (April 27, 2024).”
As the park was being searched, investigators were approached by an individual who had retrieved a bag near the edge of a pond within the park which contained an identification card reportedly belonging to Miller.
“The individual stated that he heard someone crying and a gunshot while he was fishing,” the release noted.
A subsequent 9-1-1 call from another park-goer reported the discovery of a body in the river. The body was thereafter identified as Mica Miller. A Sig Sauer handgun was retrieved from the water near the body and was confirmed to have been the gun purchased hours earlier by Miller.
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THE TIMELINE …
In addition to releasing the 9-1-1 call from Mica Miller, investigators also provided a timeline of her movements on the day of her death …
- 11:00 a.m. EST – Miller was observed on her Ring camera arriving at her residence on Margarita Dr., Myrtle Beach, S.C.
- 11:38 a.m. EST – Miller was observed on her Ring camera leaving her residence.
- 12:12 p.m. EST – Miller is observed on store surveillance walking into Dick’s Pawn Shop which is located at 1852 Mr. Joe White Ave. Myrtle Beach, S.C.
- 12:13 p.m. EST – Miller is observed at the register and initiates the purchase of a weapon.
- 12:34 p.m. EST – Miller is observed leaving Dick’s Pawn shop after purchasing a weapon and ammunition.
- 1:06 p.m. EST – Miller’s black Honda Accord is observed traveling on Highway 501 near Four Mile Rd., Conway, South Carolina
- 1:27 p.m. EST – Miller’s black Honda Accord is observed arriving at 41 Grocery and Grill which is located at 41 SC-41, Mullins SC
- 1:35 p.m. EST – Miller is observed leaving the store after purchasing a drink and gas
- 2:54 p.m. EST – Miller called Robeson County from Lumber River State Park. The Lumber River State Park is 32.7 miles (41 minutes) from 41 Grocery and Grill in Mullins via SC-9 North
In addition to releasing a timeline of Mica Miller’s movements, Robeson County investigators also discussed the alibi of her husband.
“The investigation revealed that Miller and her estranged husband (John-Paul Miller) had been separated and were involved in the legal system,” the release noted. “This information led to the investigators confirming the whereabouts of Miller and a female that he is allegedly romantically involved with. Investigators were able to confirm that both individuals were not in North Carolina on the night before and the day of Miller’s death.”
According to the release, investigators determined JP Miller “was at an athletic event in Charleston on the day of Mica Miller’s death.”
According to the release, Miller’s vehicle was “observed traveling on the Highway 17 bypass in Horry County” at 2:22 p.m. EDT on April 27, 2024 – making it impossible for him to have been at the Lumber River State Park at the time of his wife’s death.
A photo of Miller’s truck was included with the release …
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“The investigation confirmed that John Miller was accompanied while traveling to and from the event in Charleston, S.C.,” the release added.
“First, let me say on behalf of the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office that our sincere condolences are being sent to the family and friends of Mica Miller,” Robeson Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said. “This incident has garnered much attention from across the Carolinas and beyond. I want to assure everyone that a very methodical investigation was conducted by our criminal investigations team and crime scene investigative team.”
Wilkins noted in his statement that “rumors and conspiracy theories” related to Mica Miller’s death spread quickly, “and assumptions were being made.”
“IN the end, we must make decisions based on the facts, and evidence that has been gathered,” Wilkins added. “While I know it’s not what many people wanted to hear, the evidence is quite clear and compelling, and we are as saddened as anyone that this occurred. There are many factors that we have reviewed that occurred over an extended period of time that are probably related to the reason for this investigation, but in the end, sadly, a tragic decision was made by Mica that ended her life.”
Wilkins’ statement did not elaborate on those “factors,” but this media outlet has been investigating a wide range of allegations involving JP Miller, his family and Solid Rock church.
Stay tuned for much more on this story as it continues to unfold …
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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10 comments
I hope and pray this ends the accusations of a man, though unpleasant in the sight of many, innocent of the murder of his wife.
Sadly, however, experience shows that some people will obstinately ignore the objective facts and rabidly form a lynch mob around a man who could not physically been there to cause his wide death.
I hope and pray that the few left with an open mind can also now re-evaluate the death of Stephen Smith as most likely a suicide by intentionally walking into on-coming traffic and lay off the already-victimized and harassed Buster Murdaugh once and for all.
Let’s see if FITS lets this through.
Meanwhile, in the boardosphere, the imaginations are running wild. He did it, assassins, multiple holes in body, shot in the back of the head… And the crowd goes wild. Despite a relatively clear timeline and irrefutable facts, all kinds of assertions of misdeeds are out there.
This is simple, a troubled woman killed herself.
Why is “Southport” in her search? She was looking for a pleasant place to kill herself, Southport is (or was, until the yankees started showing up) a very pleasant place to spend a day., an hour or so NE of MB.
Her husband shot her! Would have been a long shot – witnesses place him in Charleston 2+ hours away. Oh, we know she bought the weapon just before she headed to the site of the deed – there are time/date stamped photos of the transaction.
Her husband hired it out! You read the comment about her buying the weapon right?
He drove her too it! Maybe – no laws against being an asshole, even that kind of asshole.
Why did she call 911 to ask about finding a body? who knows, there is no making sense of a suicide, I once found one in a training area at Fort Lewis, WA. He had driven his beloved jeep as far into the woods as he could, set up camo nets, put on a Lynard Skynard tape on repeat and did the deed with a view of Mount Ranier. The tape played until the battery died and we found him a week or so later.
Sadly, she killed herself. Is the estranged husband guilty of something? Yes but again, there’s no law against being an asshole. This is not a “Murdawk situation”, there are plenty of salacious details to come from the sound of things but they won’t change the facts.
Suicide is a permanent solution to what is almost always a temporary problem
I concur that based on the facts, she did plan and carry out her plan of ending her life. The facts are indisputable.
However, for any legal eagles out there… could he still be culpable for her death based on the alleged history of physical/psychological/sexual abuse she endured? Was she left in such a state that mentally she opined the only avenue to obtaining unentaglement and peace from him was to unalive herself? From a very impressionable and formidable age, it appears that she was heavily under his influence.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but one can assume that if she’s tech savy enough to activate ‘share location’, that she may have been able to see and know that HE was out of town with his paramour and clearly not concerned about her state of mind or well-being. Just saying…
My heart goes out to her family, friends and all of us who’ve been touched by this twisting and sad story.
Ps. Please don’t make comparisons of her demise to another. Her life and struggles and devotion are just that, HERS. And her actions do not negate any alleged abuse she sustained that clearly brought her to her breaking point. Respectfully.
She probably did commit suicide, but this doesn’t absolve this horrid man who pretends to be a pastor and the abuse he perpetrated on this woman! If anything positive comes from this, it is the attention regarding domestic violence.
I would still like for Robeson county to get his and his girlfriend’s phone records and download the geolocation data. Still some holes in the investigation that could stop speculation.
I was reading this and the professional side of my brain was kicking in as I did so. I am a retired state licensed counselor (of more than 17 years) and hold a Ph.D.
Now if she did commit suicide, which it looks like she did from what is presented here, and from the statements she made to friends and family concerning a bullet in the head, it sounds like she had this planned for a while and wanted to implicate her husband for her death. Before anyone sounds off and starts yelling for the husband’s blood, they need to read what is here and look at the facts. Her friends and family claim there was abuse, among other things, are there any police reports or official complaints that were made, or was this just what she was telling people? I have seen too many yelling and claiming abuse, when there is none, just to get attention and make people feel sorry for them. I personally believe, based on the facts listed here, that he is innocent of any wrongdoing against her.
Nothing she did seems to indicate that at all she made no attempt to hide the fact she bought the gun or her where abouts. if she were trying to make it seem like it was him she could have done it much easier just by staying at home and poisoning herself. He is defintely not innocent of any wrong doing against her, there is defintely in fact alot he is guilty of against her probably, but indeed murder may not be one of those things.
RevBradley,
Thank the Lord above that you have retired.
Totally agree. Wow… Just wow.
The truth will prevail. What you do in this world, you will account for in eternity.