NOTE: The following article contains content about suicide that some might find disturbing. Please read at your own discretion.
Advocates are calling for South Carolina to enact tougher laws to protect victims of stalking and harassment as the investigation into Mica Miller’s death continues.
Mica, 30, was found dead on April 27, two days after serving divorce papers to her estranged husband, pastor John Paul Miller, 44. Claims from Mica’s family members, including police reports that the pastor’s wife filed herself in the lead-up to her death, paint a picture of a woman being relentlessly stalked by her former husband.
But police and medical examiners ruled last week that Mica died by suicide, and said her estranged husband wasn’t even in the same state when it happened. John has denied allegations of abuse in statements through his lawyer.
Despite her death being ruled a suicide, police have reached out to the FBI for assistance in the case, according to reports from NBC News and Myrtle Beach’s Sun News newspaper.
The lawyer who represented Mica in her divorce proceedings told NBC News that she unsure why local police reached out for federal assistance, but she has doubts that Mica died by suicide.
“I’m concerned the scene was investigated for the purposes of looking for evidence to support a finding of suicide, as opposed to investigating the scene,” Regina Ward said.
Mica Miller’s death
Mica was found dead in Lumber River State Park in North Carolina, roughly 100 kilometres north of her home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where she used to live with her husband.
The local Robeson County Sheriff’s Office released a 911 call that Mica made just before she died, during which she asked the 911 dispatcher to track her phone location.
“I’m about to kill myself and I just want my family to know where to find me,” Mica said before hanging up.
Robeson deputies were dispatched to the state park where they began looking for Mica. A parkgoer approached police and said he found a bag near the water’s edge with an ID belonging to her, and noted that “he heard someone crying and a gunshot while he was fishing,” police wrote in a May 7 release.
Authorities were unable to locate Mica until another witness called 911 and stated they found a body in the water. Police went to the location and found the 30-year-old dead.
A search of Mica’s car turned up a Sig Sauer gun case and a box of ammunition, along with a receipt for the gun from a pawn shop dated that same day. While searching the area around where Mica’s body was found, police discovered a Sig Sauer handgun with a serial number matching the gun case found in Mica’s car.
Investigators learned that Mica and her estranged husband were going through a divorce, but they discovered “through interviews” that John was at “an athletic event in Charleston on the day of Mica Miller’s death.”
“John Miller’s vehicle was observed travelling on Hwy 17 Bypass, in Horry County at 2:22 pm on April 27,” which is about 30 minutes before Mica called 911 and talked about suicide. It would have taken John about an hour-and-a-half to reach Mica’s location if he was the one driving the vehicle at the time, according to Google Maps directions. It’s unclear if John was driving the car.
Police say they confirmed that John and “a female that he is allegedly romantically involved with” were not in North Carolina on the day of Mica’s death. Surveillance footage showed Mica unaccompanied while purchasing a gun from a Myrtle Beach pawn shop hours before her death.
Mica’s lawyer says she has concerns about how the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office conducted its investigation. Ward told NBC News that police did not corroborate John’s whereabouts with other witnesses, and that Mica’s remains did not undergo an autopsy, toxicology analysis or gunshot residue test.
Ward also questioned why Mica did not leave behind a note, and described her as someone who “wrote journal after journal after journal.” Ward last spoke to Mica on April 25, two days before her death, and she seemed “very engaged” in building a life “where she would be free from John Paul.”
As for Mica’s 911 call, Ward said the 30-year-old’s voice sounded different than normal and she speculates that she “could have been under the influence of something.”
Allegations of abuse
Mica’s death sparked a protest outside her former husband’s church in Myrtle Beach last week, but her story has captured attention far beyond her South Carolina community.
The outrage stems from allegations that Mica was abused and stalked by John Paul, bolstered by police reports that Mica filed after she found location trackers planted on her car. No suspects were named, nor arrests made, following the reports.
Police records obtained and shared online by Fox News Digital show that Mica made three separate reports about finding trackers on her car, within a month-and-a-half of her death.
On March 14, Mica reported “a tracker was discovered underneath the back bumper” of her blue Volkswagen Jetta. The tracker was attached “by magnets, to the under (chassis) of the vehicle.”
On March 26, Mica reported finding another tracker, this time on her black Honda Civic, which she had spotted two days prior.
“She believes it was her soon to be ex husband (sic) that planted it,” the police report reads.
On April 15, Mica found another “heavy duty tracker” on her black Honda Civic. She urged police to take the tracker “as evidence” because she believed “her husband placed (it) on her car.”
“This is the not first time (she) has found a tracker on her vehicle,” the report acknowledges. The responding officer did not take the tracker as evidence and told Mica that her complaint was a civil issue between her and her husband.
“(The) officer advised that the tracker is her property, since the two are still legally married,” the report reads.
After Mica’s death, her sister Sierra Francis filed an affidavit in which she alleged that “Mica stated to me on many occasions ‘if I end up with a bullet in my head, it was not by me, it was JP.'”
She also claimed that Mica had been compiling evidence for her divorce proceedings, but those files disappeared after Mica was hospitalized at a mental health facility in February.
Mica claimed that the hospitalization was “involuntary” in a police report she filed for a stolen vehicle. She said she left her car in the parking lot of a local Walmart on Feb. 2, and when she was released from the hospital the vehicle was gone.
When police contacted John Paul, he told them that his wife “suffers from mental health disorders” and that he took possession of the vehicle to prevent Mica from selling it “during this episode.”
So far, there is no public evidence or mention of Mica’s supposed mental illness, aside from her ex-husband’s statement.
Beyond the allegations of stalking, questions of grooming have also been raised.
An online obituary for Mica notes that she and her husband “have been friends since 2009” before they married in 2017. In 2009, Mica would have been 15, while John Paul was 30.
‘Justice for Mica’
On May 5, members of the Myrtle Beach community demonstrated in front of the church where John Paul works, the Solid Rock Baptist Church, to “demand justice.”
“Those who knew Mica well know that she had been open about her journey of leaving her abusive husband and starting anew. She wanted to spread awareness about the dangers of abuse and how it is never acceptable. It is heartbreaking to think that she may have suffered for a long time before making such a drastic decision,” reads the description of the Facebook event for the “Justice for Mica” rally.
On Wednesday, a Change.org petition was started to call for “stronger laws that protect women and others against persistent stalking, harassment, and threats.”
“(Mica) was ready to finally live a free life away from her soon to be ex husband. She has lost her life due to no one helping her from being harassed and excessively stalked,” the petition reads. “She made report after report… and received no help, not even from law enforcement. This has to change, to prevent others from being hurt or losing their life.”
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If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse or is involved in an abusive situation, please visit the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime for help. They are also reachable toll-free at 1-877-232-2610.
If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, resources are available. In case of an emergency, please call 911 for immediate help.
For a directory of support services in your area, visit the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention.
Learn more about how to help someone in crisis.