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In the final weeks of her life, Mica Miller was hopeful. Her closest friends recall a woman who was finally finding her voice – and planning a future without her allegedly abusive husband. None of them saw any indication that she was planning to end her life.
Certainly none of them had any idea her body would turn up miles away from home in a remote pond at the Lumber River State Park in North Carolina.
Yet, according to North Carolina investigators and medical examiners, that’s exactly what happened. On Monday (May 6, 2024), North Carolina medical examiner Dr. Richard Johnson officially released the cause and manner of death in connection with the high-profile alleged suicide of the beautiful pastor’s wife from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Saturday April 27, 2024.
According to Johnson’s findings, 30-year old Mica Miller died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The following day (Tuesday, May 7, 2024), the Robeson County, N.C. sheriff’s office officially ruled Miller’s death a suicide – and cleared her husband, pastor John-Paul “JP” Miller, as a suspect.
Those declarations shocked Mica’s friends and family – especially in light of everything she had shared with them about her separation from the embattled pastor (including the divorce papers served on him less than 48 hours before she died).
Our media outlet spoke with several close friends of Miller in an effort to gain insights into her final days, weeks and months among us …
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THE PASTOR’S WIFE
Mica Acacia Francis says she met her husband – known as ‘PJP’ to his growing congregation – when she was just ten years old. At the time, the 25-year-old father of multiple children was married to his first wife, Alison Williams, who bore a striking resemblance to Mica.
The divorce of Alison and John Paul Miller was finalized on October 29, 2015 and he married Mica in 2017 when she was 23 years old. Mica – who was raised in the church – immediately took on the role of pastor’s wife at Solid Rock at Market Common. The couple’s smiling faces featured prominently on the church’s now-defunct website, offering a warm welcome to its new members.
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According to the website, Mica became more active in the day-to-day activities of the church in 2020 – “joyfully” singing on the praise team and creating all the graphics for the church (and for her husband’s popular Sunday sermons). From the outside looking in, their marriage was perfect – but according to her friends, things were not as they appeared.
Mica’s close friends indicated the marriage began deteriorating about two years ago, but most of them were unaware of how bad things had gotten until the fall of 2023. Around this time, JP purportedly read an “apology” letter to church board members explaining that the couple had separated – and admitting that he had been exchanging text messages with the daughter of a couple who were members of the church. JP is also said to have informed the board that he and Mica had agreed they could “see other people” while they were separated – a claim more than a few of the board members questioned.
Several longtime friends of the couple who belonged to the church began feeling uncomfortable with the seemingly strange new messaging and tone of his weekly sermons. As a result, they opted to seek a new church to call home. When Mica realized her friends no longer belonged to the church, she began opening up to them.
According to multiple friends, what the young wife claimed she was experiencing at the hands of her husband was horrific. According to them, Mica was – as court documents supplied by her family attested to – a woman afraid for her life.
Mica was a devout Christian. She cherished the faith and the fellowship she found within her church. Friends say she endured years of abuse at the hands of her husband silently – afraid that if she spoke the truth to those closest to her, it would affect their relationships with God. While those who are not devout followers of Christ may struggle to understand her hesitancy, those who are say Mica was ultimately striving to protect the one thing which brought her the most peace during the times she struggled most … her faith.
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When she realized she now had fellowship outside of the church in which she was raised, she knew it was time to seek the guidance of those she trusted and loved the most.
Friends say Mica told them her husband – the same husband who preached regularly about the dangers of pornographic addictions – was himself addicted to sex. They say he required her to have sex with him 3-5 times a day. At night, when she refused to comply, they claim he kept her awake by blaring loud music in her ears and throwing water on her as she drifted off to sleep – a form of torture utilized in interrogation techniques.
When Mica couldn’t meet his demands, according to her friends, he allegedly began forcing her to take testosterone shots to increase her sex drive. He also allegedly began engaging in other methods of sexual gratification – methods which dehumanized Mica. Several of these methods – which can only be described as humiliating to his reserved wife – allegedly involved animals, homeless men and sex toys.
While Mica’s decision to privately share such awful details of her marriage shocked her friends – they also said in retrospect that it made sense given how he treated her.
“I mean, when we were there, and of course we were in the inner circle and we saw a lot and everything,” said Allicia Young, a friend of Mica’s and former member of the church. “I mean the way he would talk to her in front of people. I mean, he would talk down to her and the light would just go out of her face and everything – and we didn’t know exactly how deep the abuse ran because we only saw what was in front of us.”
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“SHE WAS MOVING FORWARD…”
Mica had been preparing to leave her husband, but given the alleged abuse she had endured – and a failed previous attempt in September of 2023 – she was carefully documenting evidence for her attorney. Friends say the evidence included proof of misuse of church funds, affairs involving JP and other women and other illicit activities. Given a recently uncovered incident report (.pdf) filed on March 13, 2024 with the Myrtle Beach Police Department (MBPD) – which alleged the illegal transfer of funds from the church’s “Dare2Care Mission” to Miller’s personal account – it is possible she had ample ammunition.
But something happened before Mica Miller could do anything with the information she told friends she had gathered. On February 8, 2024, her husband had her admitted involuntarily to the Waccamaw Center for Mental Health. Upon her release on February 10, 2024, staff at the facility informed her that her husband had taken her purse and her car keys. When Mica returned to where she had last left her car, it was gone, she told friends.
According to Mica’s friends, JP left her at the facility with no identification, no wallet and no car.
In a police report filed a little over a week later, Mica told a responding officer that JP had “fraudulently initiated her involuntary hospitalization” – and stolen her vehicle.
She added that JP had known her since she was ten years old and “groomed” her while she worked for him prior to their marriage.
John Paul had an entirely different narrative for the officer. According to him, his wife suffered “from mental health disorders” which caused her to become reckless and spend large amounts of money. He claimed he had taken possession of the vehicle to ensure she didn’t sell it during her most recent episode. He also told the officer they were not legally separated.
As the couple was still legally married and the vehicle was considered marital property, the officer found no way to establish that a criminal offense had been committed. Accordingly, no charges were filed.
(Click to view)
Shortly thereafter, Mica moved in with a friend and her father helped her get a new car so she was able to drive herself to work. Eventually she managed to get her identification back from her estranged husband, but the problems didn’t end there.
A trail of incident reports documented an ongoing campaign of harassment and stalking — corroborating what Mica’s closest friends say they witnessed in her final months.
One of her closest friends recalled a haunting conversation with Mica in the midst of her final attempt to escape her marriage.
“My husband’s gonna try to find me,” Mica said during the late-night call, according to her friend. “He’s gonna say I killed myself – telling the whole church, every sermon, every opportunity he gets, to tell the church that I have a mental illness.”
“You know, he’s threatened me with the gun before … and he told me I will never leave him,” Mica continued, according to her friend. “He’s never gonna let me go. There’s no way he said it to me. He said there’s nowhere you can go that I can’t find you.”
At this point, her heartbroken friend choked up as she recalled their conversation …
“She said ‘I’m scared,'” the friend recalled. “She said, ‘I’m genuinely scared.'”
“I think I know too much,” Mica told her friend. “And that’s why he wants to keep me quiet. That’s why he wants to shut me up.”
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THE FINAL MONTHS
The multiple police reports Mica filed in the final months of her life lend credence to her growing fear of her estranged husband – which, in addition to being discussed in our interviews with her friends, was documented in a court filing by her family members days after her death.
According to a report from WPDE TV-15 (ABC – Florence/ Myrtle Beach), on March 11, 2024 Mica got a flat tire on her Honda Accord not long after leaving Springmaid Pier just off of South Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach. As she pulled out of the parking lot, she heard a pop and noticed metal protruding from her tire. It was the second time she had found a razor blade in her tire that week. A Myrtle Beach police officer helping her change the tire told her the metal was a tire deflation device that could be purchased online.
As Mica headed to a Honda dealership to get it repaired, she stopped at a gas station – at which point friends say John Paul pulled into the pump next to her and attempted to speak with her. Mica recalled asking her husband to leave – stating she did not wish to speak with him.
(Click to View)
(FITSTube)
While mechanics were repairing her tire, they found something even more concerning – a tracking device hidden on the vehicle. The Horry County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) responded to the dealership to file a report and while the officer was there, Mica received a call from an unknown number.
It was John Paul …
The officer filing the report told JP his wife did not want any further contact with him and that if he proceeded then warrants might be written up. The pastor acknowledged the warning – but did not appear to heed it.
Mica filed another report (.pdf) with police after discovering another tracking device on her car on March 26, 2024.
According to her friends, after taking all of Mica’s electronics during her involuntary commitment in February, her husband had secured the logins to all of her emails and social media accounts. On April 8, 2024, she filed an incident report (.pdf) with Myrtle Beach Police alleging he had used her Facebook login to post a nude photo of her using an anonymous account – tagging her old profile which she no longer had access to.
According to Mica, the nude photo was one she had sent him six months earlier. When the responding officer reviewed the image, he concluded that since the nipple was blurred it did not meet the standard for nudity.
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Since the post was anonymous, there was no way to prove JP was the one who posted the photo – although Mica affirmed he was the only person to whom she sent this specific nude photo.
On April 15, 2024, Mica discovered another tracker on her vehicle and filed yet another incident report (.pdf). In response to this complaint, an officer advised her that because the couple were still married the vehicle was considered community property – and no crime had been committed.
Mica filed for legal separation the next day (.pdf). As previously reported, John Paul Miller was served with these divorce papers on April 25, 2024 — just two days before Mica’s death.
Mica’s calls for help went unanswered – over and over again. On repeated occasions, police officers found no cause for charges, cited civil laws relating to marital property, or indicated there was no way to prove her husband had committed any crimes. No investigations appear to have been conducted – leaving her with no option but to file for separation.
Count on this media outlet to continue its investigation into the allegations against JP Miller – and to continue our deep dive into the circumstances which led to Mica Miller’s death.
In fact, next week I will join our Andy Fancher in retracing Mica Miller’s steps as she made her way from Myrtle Beach to the Lumber River State Park on that fateful Saturday afternoon.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Jenn Wood is FITSNews’ incomparable research director. She’s also the producer of the FITSFiles and Cheer Incorporated podcasts and leading expert on all things Murdaugh/ South Carolina justice. A former private investigator with a criminal justice degree, evildoers beware, Jenn Wood is far from your average journalist! A deep dive researcher with a passion for truth and a heart for victims, this mom of two is pretty much a superhero in FITSNews country. Did we mention she’s married to a rocket scientist? (Lucky guy!) Got a story idea or a tip for Jenn? Email her at jenn@fitsnews.com.
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38 comments
I’ll bet my bottom dollar the “pastor” voted for Trump.
You are ignorant!!
I’ll bet my bottom dollar your bottom is constantly “sore” ….
Bless your heart, Tom.
I bet she did too. So what now?
That is just a stupid and unnecessary comment, Dianne. You should be ashamed of yourself.
People are mad at you because you told the truth.
Yes—the truth hurts. As I always say, Trump’s supporters are not a reflection of him; he’s a reflection of THEM.
You are lopsided
WTH…..What does this article have to do with Trump????
Diane Lopsided…you mean he most likely voted for the sexual deviant named Slick Willy and for sure the pedophile Sleepy Joe…I’m not surprised by your comment at all..in fact, I imagine you being so deviant yourself…heck, you support gender dysphoria and most likely refer to pedophiles as ‘MAP’…get some help
What an ignorant statement. A young woman was groomed and targeted by a predator, pretending to be a preacher. He was a sick perverted disturbing person and he will go on to ruin another womans life. And you want to make it about politics. So since you took it there, beastiality, drug use, targeting young girls, that all sounds more in tune with the crooked Biden family. Who I am sure YOU voted for. Dumbass!!!!
Noted that you are engaged in harassment. Subpoenas to be executed.
Do you have a criminal defense attorney for what comeths?
SO – the church is kaput???? Need to talk to the elders and see about the $$$$….in re Mica’s allegations. Maybe since the leader (can’t bring myself to call him ‘pastor’) has gone underground, some members might loosen up ….??? Wonder where he and his kids are???
Oh yes, you support a man who’ cakes his face in more makeup than Tammy Faye Bakker (to continue with the evangelical theme) on her best day–I bet you think Trump’s a he man wearing that mess–and I’m tilted? Bless your heart.
SHE.KILLED.HERSELF. Continue to remind yourself self of that fact. “JP” appears to be a giant sphincter but that doesn’t change the facts. The fact that she had sought multiple support agreements doesn’t change that fact. The fact that he may (or may nor) have physically or mentally abused her doesn’t change that fact.
All the salacious details are now just so much click bait. How about leaving this alone for a while and revisit it when all of the hyperbolic bovine excreta has interfaced with the ventilation device and come to a rest. Then pick through the mess to garner the facts and then publish a piece on the lessons learned.
Good reply. Yes, he was a dooosh – big wup, the world is full of them.
Agreed- good reply. And also, a person within the range of normal mental health doesn’t go off and shoot themselves in the head based on what we are reading here. The cult leader was a two-faced douchebag, yes, but people get away from folks like that all the time – get divorced, move away and start a new life. Flat tires, tracking devices, and some stalky-yet- legal conduct does not equal a psychopathic murderer in development. And I also don’t see how someone can just take their spouse to a mental facility, spew some vapid lies, and then be able to check them into the facility against their will without there being some kind of objective, material evidence of mental instability that is more than just a “he said so” situation. But on the other hand, maybe his actions kinda drove her a bit crazy. There is alot more to this story than we know, it seems. It might be that she, he and most of the church body were a bunch of nutballs. Sometimes the story is not clean – no pure white hats and black shats, but a bunch of shades of grey running around.
Did he drive her to do it? Because if he did that is a crime
You are ignorant!!
I’m not sure what to think of the church board members who were okay with the fact that their pastor admitted that he was “texting” with the daughter of church members WHILE he was still married. By the way, how old is this “daughter of church members”? And they were obviously okay that he and his estranged wife were going to “see other people” WHILE THEY WERE STILL MARRIED. And what happened to the first wife with whom he shared “multiple children”? Good Lord – the whole damn church must be drunk sheep!
Cult of personality. At extremes, you get David Koresh, this guy is more of a Jim Bakker.
Drink the Kool-Aid, Baby!
“this guy is more of a Jim Bakker.”
JP Survival Buckets should be hitting the shelf soon.
And Donald Trump, Colonel–Trumpsters compare their Orange idol, an adulterer and a constant liar, favorably to Jesus Christ and think he’s God’s messenger—I bet this congregation bought the sixty dollar Bibles and passed out Maga hats with the collection plate.
You need help. Seriously.
Well if you’re against Trump who talks about God’s love all the time as well as the “ONLY” US President in history that actually participated in The Walk For Life Event while being our President to fight for and save the precious lives of unborn babies and has all these bogus investigations that aren’t even actually crimes that he committed, then he was fake impeached twice for things that the so-called now president actually did do like in reference the the first fake impeachment. Then the fact that the Democrats had the audacity to impeach a man who was already out of office when for the 2nd fake impeachment of President Trump is for the president sitting in the White House not for somebody who is no longer sitting in the White House such a bull crap. But plus I have issues with anybody who says things have been proven to me false without Merit no proof against former president Donald Trump and not even care about the in your face things that then now so-called embarrassment of a president Joe Biden between his horrifically racial remarks throughout his time in a government position between how very touchy feely he is with women and teenage girls and young children, the fact that his daughter Ashley Biden admitted that that was her diary that was taken in that those were her words admitted it and talk about sharing with her and that those showers are also with Ashley Biden referred to as inappropriate and she said she’s over sexualized as a kid and pretty sure it’s because her dad molested her. I don’t think any president or any person for that fact in this world is without fault or without sin nobody’s done everything right and nobody’s perfect however none of us are the judge as much as I can say I don’t like things that President Joe Biden has been in the past or is doing currently he’s still not somebody I’m able to judge because I’m not God just like former president Donald Trump when he was first running the first time before meeting with Billy Graham and stuff he talked in ways that I really didn’t like he didn’t talk like a man who cherished my loving savior but after meeting with Reverend Billy Graham and Franklin Graham and being prayed over by them he got closer and closer with God where you could actually see and hear it and all I can say is for how so many people on the left are demonizing this man over such false bull crap and stuff that aren’t even a crime and they’re only doing it cuz they don’t want him to run cuz the idea of another Trump presidency for some reason scares these crazy people when before the pandemic happened America was driving the best it ever has in my whole lifetime Joe Biden is the worst and most embarrassing president in the history of the United States presidents I used to hold that title for former President Obama and then a long time holding that title for former President Jimmy Carter but by then without a doubt be everybody hands down on being the most embarrassing and most horrible president in US history I’m just saying.
Ol JP needs to be fully investigated, man behind it all no doubt, don’t take a genius to read and figure that out!
I’ve been through most of what Mica went through with her husband – so I can vouch for the complete believability of what sounds bizarre and just not believable. I can vouch for the unspeakable humiliation, shame, confusion due to the element of faith, desiring to be “in line with scripture as a wife” and obedient to the husband in all ways, etc. It’s endless how the process of humiliation, defilement breaks down a human spirit. And, keep silence. These men are flawed, but they have a power, a charisma that most others, not all, believe. A husband who defiles his wife in these ways – crushes her spiriit, crushes her hope – but what saved me, and what saved Mica – was faith in the one, true, God, Savior – of the Bible. Perhaps it didn’t save Mica in the temporal body, but, it saved her for eternity. I had something Mica didn’t have – these men will not allow you to live when you know too much – too much about their secrets. But – if you can pay them off with enough money and give them their prestige and ensure that they can play the victim – you might be able to slip out and get far enough away to escape. I had more than a little bit of money in a trust fund, and, I gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He got to play the victim and he got enough money to carry him for the rest of his life. Mica didn’t have those options available. He most definitely killed her. Not sure how he pulled it off – but, he most certainly did. The mentality of obedience runs very deep – it is possible Mica obeyed, hoping for an intervention by the Hand of God so she would mysteriously live or the trigger wouldn’t be pulled. But, she also knew if her temporal life ended, she would still live. She had a valid and true knowing, believing, assurance of Who had savied her soul. Yes – I know most people who hear about Mica will believe the rhetoric of her husband. They and the church don’t know about these men. Maybe that’s a good thing? They are depraved, ill, sick. I’m sure Mica tried every resource, every way of prayer, and there simply is no rationale for understanding the type of depravity that these men crave.
Other than stating that I am so terribly distressed to read what you wrote and to learn what you endured and how you gave up your money to get rid of this insect of a man as you have described him, I don’t know what to say. Likewise for Mica and I hope she is getting justice now in the life which follows this one. It certainly must be true that the NT mandate for wives to obey their husbands has qualifications.
Yes and the world is full of the dead wives of these
JP is a sleazeball. He needs to be investigated. While I am not convinced her killer Mica, I do believe that he either 1) drover her to kill herself or 2) hired someone to do it and make it look like a suicide. There are alot of instances from him that just do not pass the smell test.
*he killed
Did you not read the write-up at all? She was literally captured on the gun shop’s video camera – alone- buying the gun that was found in her possession along with the receipt for the purchase of said gun,with a time stamp on it matching the time of her gun purchase. You have ZERO evidentiary basis to believe the husband hired someone to do it and a huge mountain of hard evidence that shows otherwise. Please don’t ever go into police detective work…you’ll end up framing an innocent man.
She definitely killed herself, but I can understand why people have a hard time believing that, even with all of the evidence. I don’t think you have to be so hostile towards someone who is sharing their opinion. Buying a gun, driving to a state park, calling 911 to ask if they can trace her phone because she’s preparing to kill herself & she wants her family to know where her body is, with a flat affect & eerily calm demeanor….and then shooting herself at the edge of a lake so that the gun & her body disappear into the water seems incredibly unnecessarily complex, especially because she wanted her body to be found. Given this set of circumstances, of course people are trying to make sense of it….it doesn’t make sense. Mica found 3 different tracking devices on her personal vehicle, she’d been threatened by her husband, and she flat out told people that she wouldn’t kill herself & she feared JP would kill her. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to wonder if maybe she bought that gun for protection after receiving a barrage of threats, and that whoever was putting trackers on her car, &/or was following her, knew she bought a gun. The cops hadn’t done anything to protect her, maybe she felt like she needed to protect herself. Maybe she made that 911 call with someone holding her gun to her head. And maybe she tried to make a run for it, and was chased…maybe she ended up at the water, with no place to hide, was shot, and the gun tossed in the water with her body. It’s a good way of destroying evidence. And if she really did find multiple trackers on her car, and JP really did gain access to her electronics & her passwords after he had her 5150’d, and he was serious about his threats, then he had the tools to do it. It would be super elaborate & it would depend on a bunch of variables that HAD to go his way, but it’s not impossible. We know for sure that the 911 call came from her phone, but do we know for sure if that really was her voice? She could have been dead & in the water before that call was made.
Like you said, there’s ZERO evidence (you said “evidentiary basis” but “zero evidentiary basis” sounds weird) that her husband was physically involved in her death. The evidence overwhelmingly supports suicide. But we’re not cops. We’re just people trying to make sense of a death that is beyond tragic, and hard to understand. We’re all just sharing our opinions. No one is going to be framed in the comments section of this article. And you don’t have to worry, because you don’t just fill out an application to be a detective….you start with the academy and you build from there. There are tests and everything. By the time Fitscommentator95 becomes a detective they’ll definitely have learned the rules surrounding “evidentiary basis” and not framing “an innocent man.” For now though, we’re just chatting so relax.
theory—the 911 call was spoofed, HE was NOT with his alibi, but instead, his alibi was in the truck making sure it was seen, his phone pinging in these locations, while HE spoofed the 911 call, DROVE his possibly already dead wife to the park, fired the shot and placed her body in the water. got out of there to meet up with his alibi and wait to be notified her body had been found.
Agree, and, it makes sense. The Miller family has a long standing prestigious presence in both SC and NC areas, and southern LE protocol favors man’s autonomy over his household. I know a good bit more than I ever wanted to know about the far reaching strings of control inherent in the umbrella of authority. Mica had broken not only JP’s rules, but the church rules. I know outsiders simply cannot comprehend how a group of people could possibly justify helping a “pastor” discipline his wife in such a way, but, to them, it’s the “right” thing to do. They have their own rules. And, it does appear that law enforcement might have members who agree with these doctrines as well.