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The final day in the life of South Carolina pastor’s wife Mica Miller was laid out in meticulous detail via a press release sent out by the Robeson County sheriff’s office on May 7, 2024 – ten days after her lifeless body was discovered at the Lumber River State Park near Orrum, North Carolina. Since the release of that report, the timeline established by investigators has been a critical point of contention for those convinced the death of the 30-year old was anything but a suicide.
Robbie Harvey is among those scrutinizing the hours leading up to Mica’s death – with a focus on the activities of her estranged husband, pastor John-Paul Miller. A content creator who has been on this case from the very beginning, Harvey has been reviewing all of the data provided by authorities – as well as interviewing friends and family members and collecting information provided to him by a wide network of sources.
This week, Harvey announced he would be dropping a “major video” on his YouTube channel that would “end the debate as to what happened to Mica on April 27th.”
The video – which dropped early Wednesday morning (September 4, 2024) – raised fresh scrutiny related to the embattled pastor’s alibi.
(Click to view)
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To recap: Mica was found dead a stone’s throw from the Lumber River – a scenic blackwater river that flows into the Yadkin-Pee Dee watershed – on Saturday (April 27, 2024). Her death was officially ruled a suicide by investigators and medical examiners. On April 28, 2024 – less than twelve hours after being notified of her death – Miller delivered a sermon at Solid Rock which closed with a bizarre announcement of her passing (and instructions to his congregants not to discuss it as they left the church).
Mica died less than 48 hours after serving her husband with divorce papers.
Miller’s sermon invited a cloud of suspicion that still hovers over him as online sleuths have attempted to decipher details from Mica’s final day – specifically, what could have compelled her to purchase a gun and drive to a remote location she had no apparent connection to for the purpose of taking her own life. As we have consistently pointed out, the worship singer and aspiring missionary seemed intent on looking to the future – and her behavior in the days and hours leading up to her death gave no indication she was planning to end her life.
For example, she had just paid taxes on her car – and paid fees to an attorney to handle her divorce from Miller. Also, doorbell footage from the apartment where she was staying showed her dressed for work when she left on the morning of her death.
What happened to cause such a sudden – and drastic – change of plans?
For many following this case – from mainstream media to online content creators to true crime sleuths – Mica’s final hours have never made sense. Given that her estranged husband had what appeared to be a rock solid alibi, the determination her death was a suicide made by RCSO was difficult to debate.
But just how solid is that alibi?
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PICK-UP TRUCK? OR TRANSFORMER?
In his latest offering, Harvey said he was reviewing a recent video he produced on the final hours of Mica’s life when he and his wife noticed something they had never picked up on before – a black truck that appears momentarily in the surveillance video of the parking lot of Dick’s Pawn Shop in Myrtle Beach.
This is the pawn shop where Mica purchase a gun shortly after leaving her apartment dressed for work.
(Click to view)
According to Harvey, when he first saw this truck he immediately discounted it.
“I knew that was not the truck of John Paul Miller’s because take a look at the truck from later that day, captured by traffic cameras,” he said.
The truck in a flock camera image released by RCSO had a chrome tailgate and a dark colored bumper, things according to Harvey are “all important to identifying John Paul Miller’s vehicle.”
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In the months following Mica’s death, Harvey has been provided with numerous images, videos and other materials from people close to the case seeking answers. Among the files he obtained was a picture of Miller arriving at the office of his attorney, Tom Winslow.
This time, however, his truck didn’t have the dark rear bumper cover he’d grown accustomed to seeing – but a chrome bumper similar to the one on the truck seen in the pawn shop surveillance clip.
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Harvey continued to review everything sent to him containing images or videos of Miller’s truck and noticed in an image sent to him of Miller’s truck on August 21, 2024, the bumper was again black. Then in another image taken on August 26, 2024, the truck once again had chrome bumper.
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After realizing that identifying features of John-Paul Miller’s truck were potentially being altered, Harvey said he “spent hours going over dozens of photos” of the truck.
“I was stunned at the different combinations that he is creating by covering and uncovering certain parts of his vehicle,” Harvey said. “He’s even changing the colors of his wheels.”
Harvey said another thing that threw him in surveillance footage was the presence of a chrome running board, although in several images of the truck no running boards were visible.
According to Harvey, the reason is Miller’s truck has retractable running boards…
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Even if the appearance of Miller’s truck were to have been frequently altered, many believe his reported alibi – i.e. attending a children’s soccer game in Charleston on April 27, 2024 – makes it virtually impossible for him to have been involved in the death of his wife.
“The investigation confirmed that John Miller was accompanied while traveling to and from the event in Charleston, S.C.,” the Robeson County release of May 7, 2024 noted.
According to Harvey, however, John-Paul Miller’s alibi isn’t nearly as rock-solid as many believe it to be…
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WITNESSES DISPUTE ALIBI…
A 911 call made on May 1, 2024 – as the story of Mica’s death was blowing up in the mainstream press – seems to put John-Paul Miller’s whereabouts on April 27, 2024 in question. Placed by one of Miller’ neighbors, the caller reportedly witnessed his vehicle speeding down their neighborhood street on Saturday morning – around the same time Miller claimed to have been in Charleston.
Harvey called the individual who made the 911 call to confirm its authenticity and gather additional details. In the conversation, the man told Harvey that between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. EDT on the day Mica died, he witnessed Miller pull out of his driveway at a fast rate of speed – so fast he almost hit him. He further claimed Miller proceeded to speed out of the neighborhood so quickly that he “kind of ran a stop sign.”
“He was in a hurry,” the witness said. “He was going somewhere quick.”
Realizing this information could potentially put Miller’s alibi in question, Harvey reexamined Mica’s final day. Around the same time the neighbor claims he saw Miller speeding out of the neighborhood, Mica was getting breakfast at Chick-Fil-A.
According to the Ring camera on her apartment, she returned to her apartment at 11:00 a.m EDT with her meal to get ready for work leaving her apartment in her work uniform at 11:38 a.m. EDT
Instead of going to work, though, Mica drove to Dick’s Pawn Shop arriving at 12:12 p.m. The truck pulls into the parking lot at the pawn shop at 12:33 p.m. Harvey also noted that as the truck left the frame of the surveillance camera, two stickers are seen in the back window – located in the same place as stickers on the back of Miller’s truck.
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Recalling that many of Mica’s friends had shared her belief that she would be murdered by John-Paul, Harvey reached out to her closest friend, Charlotte Korn, to discuss her final day. Korn told Harvey about a conversation she had with John-Paul Miller the day after Mica’s death that had always bothered her.
According to Korn, John-Paul Miller called her to provide additional details about Mica’s last day.
“She was supposed to go to work, but instead, she went and bought a gun and headed and then drove up to Lumberton,” he said. “I thought she was on her way to see you…”
Korn lives in Virginia, which could have been Mica Miller’s original destination when she left Myrtle Beach.
Korn also recalled one of the final conversations she had with her friend in which Mica told her she was leaving her husband. Feeling free to finally discuss her honest opinion of her friend’s husband, Korn says she told Mica she needed to leave him, otherwise he was going to kill her.
“Yeah, I can’t say I haven’t thought that too,” Mica responded.
Like most of Mica’s friends and family when asked if she they believed she took her own life, Korn responded, “not one bit of me does.”
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Miller’s alibi as reported by RCSO was verified by “a female that he is allegedly romantically involved with.” The identity of this female has not been revealed, but many believe it to be his longtime paramour, Suzie Skinner. Nonetheless, RCSO confirmed through “interviews that John Paul Miller was at an athletic event in Charleston on the day of Mica Miller’s death.”
Harvey stated that despite spending the past three months contacting dozens of individuals in an attempt to verify Miller’s claim that he was at a soccer tournament in Charleston with around 100 other people, he has yet to find one person who saw him that day in Charleston.
While admitting the timeline is extremely tight to place Miller at the gas station at which she stopped shortly before her death, Harvey says he doesn’t believe Mica pulled the trigger that Saturday afternoon. But to him, it doesn’t seem to matter anymore who pulled the trigger because “there is no doubt that John Paul Miller was torturing Mica in the final days and months of her life.”
Harvey says all information he has uncovered has been sent to the appropriate authorities for review.
FITSNews continues to delve into the many aspects of this case that have come to light since Mica’s death. Anyone with information – including information about John-Paul Miller’s whereabouts on April 27th – is encouraged to reach out to research@fitsnews.com.
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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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