Loved ones of a pastor’s wife who was found dead in a North Carolina state park with a bullet wound to her head are not convinced she died by suicide, as her husband claims.
Instead, they’re pressing authorities to probe Mica Miller’s death as something potentially more sinister—especially after her husband’s announcement of her death a day after her body was found did little to quell rumors about the tragedy.
“This has to be at least looked into deeply,” Kenn Young, Mica Miller’s friend, told WPDE. “There’s got to be some accountability here, because yeah, a tragic life was lost, and it’s not just as simple as mental health issues.”
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Miller’s body was found Saturday in Lumber River State Park, about 70 miles north of the Solid Rock Church at Market Common in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where an obituary said she was a worship leader, graphic designer, youth leader, women’s ministry leader, and an assistant to her husband, John-Paul Miller.
On Sunday, the pastor delivered an entire sermon as usual before revealing the shock news of his wife’s passing. He told his congregation Sunday that her death was “self-induced” and that she “wasn’t well mentally” and was in need of medicine that was “hard to get to her.” He never mentioned Mica Miller by name.
“I got a call late last night, my wife has passed away,” he said. “It was self-induced and it was up in North Carolina.”
The pastor asked his congregation not to talk about his wife’s death inside the church, adding that he was just “kind of going on adrenaline.”
“She had struggled with suicide before,” John-Paul Miller said. “Each time we would help her through it and take her to the doctor, and we got through it and everything was fine. She even gave a few testimonies here at church that we have on video. She battled suicide, but God took care of her and got her through it.”
Court filings showed that Mica Miller had filed for divorce from her husband just weeks before her death.
Still, a glowing obituary for Miller described a loving relationship between the two, writing that the Kansas native was a “great stepmother” to five children and an “amazing wife.”
“Mica was energetic, affirming, adventurous, faithful, loving, giving, forgiving, talented, joyous, creative, assertive, bold, determined, authoritative, passionate, hardworking, a risk taker, and so much more,” the obituary says. “She and JP have been friends since 2009, married in 2017, and spent almost every single day and night together.”
The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday it was opening a probe into Miller’s death, with Maj. Damien McLean telling WPDE its officers were still “in the process of gathering information from people in South and North Carolina as part of their investigation into how Miller died.”
Miller posted a final photo to her public Facebook profile on April 9, a selfie with the eerie caption, “When terrible terrible TERRIBLE things happen to you… (y’all know what I’m talking about) RPF: resting peace face.”
She had posted photos of herself being baptized in the ocean a little over a week earlier, tagging a South Carolina church that was not the one where her husband preached. And on March 22, posted a video in which she discussed “leaving a dangerous situation.”
McLean told WPDE there is no indication the public is in danger. A GoFundMe for Mica Miller had raised approximately $4,000 by Friday morning.
The Facebook page Voices in the Wilderness, said to be run by Miller’s mother, has posted frequently since her death. Her mom noted that a “no contact order and a divorce was filed just days before this tragedy,” adding that “we are devastated.”
Miller’s sister Sierra Francis urged people in a Facebook post not to “listen to false stories being shared about” her sibling, adding that she had suffered from abuse.
“Mica was a God-fearing, joyful, loving woman who did not deserve the abuse she endured,” Francis wrote. “If you hear anything about this from anyone other than her family please question it, reach out to her siblings or parents.”
