The Tragic Death of Mica Miller: Abuse, Control, and a Pastor's Secret Life

Kendall Rae (0:00)

On April 27th, 2024, a 911 call operator in Robinson County, North Carolina, received an emergency call from a woman. Her tone was quiet, breathless, perhaps even resigned. The woman asked the operator if she could trace her call, and the operator asked the woman where she was, and she didn't know, simply responding that she was in a state park somewhere in North Carolina. She was standing on the banks of the Lumber River State Park, where the imposing mossy green of overgrown willows reflected in the glassy, still creek below. The area would be described as eerie by others, and more importantly, it was hidden deep within the foliage from the outside world. The woman said that she had her location turned on, and the officer offered the park's name, to which she simply responded, yes. Finally, the operator asked her, what's happened? And almost deflated, the woman responded, I'm about to kill myself, and I just want my family to know where to find me.

The call ended shortly thereafter, and it would be followed by another call hours later from a man who discovered a woman's body floating in the creek. She appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot. Now, this woman was Mica Miller, the 30-year-old wife of Pastor John Paul Miller, who ministered to Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and while it may have appeared to be a straightforward absolute tragedy on the outside, in reality, Mica's death followed years of physical abuse, financial control, and spiritual imprisonment. Her husband had so entrapped Mica that she began to tell those close to her, if I end up dead, it was JP. So what exactly happened to Mica Miller that fateful day in April 2024? Well, to understand that, we have to go all the way back to her childhood and her early beginnings in the church with her adult pastor, mentor, and future husband, John Paul Miller.

Welcome back to Mile Higher Podcast, Episode 412

I'm your host Kendall.

Josh Thomas (2:30)

I'm your host Josh.

Kendall Rae (2:31)

And we are joined by our production team. Today, we have Tom.

Tom (2:36)

It's me.

Kendall Rae (2:37)

Hi, Tom.

Alex (2:38)

Hello.

Kendall Rae (2:39)

And of course, we have Ian.

Ian (2:40)

Hi, guys. Hello.

Alex (2:42)

And Alex.

Kendall Rae (2:43)

Yeah, no Janelle today. Janelle is at a concert.

Josh Thomas (2:47)

Yeah, great place to be. We'll miss her. But today, we're getting into a case that has been on our minds for quite a while.

Kendall Rae (2:57)

Yes, a very long time.

Josh Thomas (2:59)

Yeah, we were talking about this the other night, that we remembered, like, conversating about it when it initially broke. And it was so early on that there was just so many questions still about what was going on, what happened, who's involved. And so we just put it on pause for the time being until some more information came out, because it didn't seem like there was enough concrete factual stuff that had come out.

Kendall Rae (3:28)

There was a lot of just gossip at the time that wasn't confirmed. And Ian and I talked a lot about covering it at the time and looked into it right when this was happening. And it was really starting to blow up on social media, especially TikTok. I believe that's how I first came across it. And we just decided that at this point in time, or at that point in time, it was just too early and we didn't want to, you know, report on anything that ended up being untrue. But it turns out that a lot of the rumors and gossip we were hearing back then allegedly is quite true.

And recently, a documentary came out on this case. It's called...

Tom (4:09)

Death of a Pastor's Wife.

Kendall Rae (4:10)

Death of the Pastor's Wife. And it was, in my opinion, pretty well done. It was very interesting and we learned so much information from that.

Although, there is quite a bit that was left out by Netflix. And that's when we were like, okay, we have got to do an episode on this. People need to know the full story behind JP. Miller, especially, and his various...

Josh Thomas (4:37)

It's Pastor JP. Miller.

Kendall Rae (4:38)

Okay. Whatever, dude. Yeah.

Josh Thomas (4:40)

Whenever I hear...

Kendall Rae (4:41)

I hate this man.

Josh Thomas (4:42)

Whenever I hear of a case involving a pastor, it obviously peaks my interest because it's always such a wild sort of dynamic when a pastor is sort of thrown into this very, very serious case that involves a lot of very serious acts and allegations. And it was far, far worse than I ever imagined it to be.