Ep 1005 ｜ The Mysterious Death of Mica Miller
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Summary
Pastor's wife in South Carolina recently allegedly committed suicide, but her family and the media have been quick to highlight her husband's sordid past, as well as the problems with their relationship and their suspicions of his potential involvement in her demise.
Transcript
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A pastor's wife in South Carolina recently allegedly committed suicide, but her family
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and the media have been quick to highlight her husband's sordid past as well as the
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problems with their relationship and their suspicions of his potential involvement in
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This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
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The topic that we're going through today is pretty darn dark, and yet many, many of you
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have been asking me to cover this and to break this down to summarize it for you.
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A lot of research went into this episode because there are so many different details of the
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story I really think it is worth looking at and worth telling at least what the perspectives
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And there are some lessons that I think all of us can draw from this.
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But I will give you some good news to start out.
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And that is just the reminder of our awesome Share the Arrows event, which I am so excited
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It is a women's only event that is September 28th in Dallas, Texas.
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We've got Rosaria Butterfield, Elisa Childers, Abby Halberstadt, Francesca Battistelli, Grammy
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Award winning artist who is going to be leading worship with us.
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It's for Christian conservative women who just want to be armed with clarity and courage
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Let's go ahead and get into this absolute craziness.
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I don't know how many of you have been seeing the tweets about this, seeing a little bit of
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And it's really caught the attention of a lot of people just because of how bizarre and
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dark and how many twists and turns there are in this.
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I mean, if it's not already being made into some kind of Netflix series, I would be shocked.
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I don't know if it needs to be like glamorized, Hollywoodized and commercialized in that way.
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But it almost comes across like a movie because of how just crazy it is.
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So Micah Miller, wife of South Carolina pastor, died in apparent suicide, but her community
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I'm reading the summary that we've put together of this because I don't want to get this wrong
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There are a lot of different details that I want to make sure that we get right.
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And I am not inserting my opinion in any of this.
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I am reading you the analysis, the summary of the information that people have been able
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This is based on what we know from court documents, from testimony, from what friends
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have been able to say happened in this situation, in this relationship.
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So let me read you this summary and then we'll get into all of the twists and turns that this
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Micah Miller was the wife of John Paul Miller, the pastor of Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach,
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On April 27th, Micah, 30, was found dead at Lumber River State Park in North Carolina from
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The coroner ruled for death a suicide, but Micah's family questioned the conclusion and
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According to an affidavit filed by Sierra Francis, Micah's sister, it said,
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Micah stated to me on many occasions, if I end up with a bullet in my head, it was not by me.
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The sheriff's office confirmed that John Paul was in Charleston, South Carolina on the night
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The pastor initially, John Paul, he shocked his congregation a couple weeks ago when he
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was giving a sermon to his congregation and then casually at the end of the sermon announced
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I'm taking a little bit of a break and I don't want to have to worry about the church.
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It was, it was self-induced and it was up in North Carolina and we're going to have a
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And so it's all I can, yeah, I'm just kind of going on adrenaline right now.
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So y'all pray for me and my kids and everybody and she was, she wasn't, y'all knew that she
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wasn't well mentally and that she needed her medicine that was hard to get to her.
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So that would be maybe one thing if it was announced at the very beginning of his sermon.
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I think this is a very, very strange way personally to announce the death of your wife.
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Now I can't read into motivations or what that actually means, but just from my outsider
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The tone seems a little weird when you are announcing the death of your wife.
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He also referenced Micah's alleged history of mental illness.
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She said it was difficult for her to stay on her medication, but days prior to her apparent
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suicide, Micah had served her husband with divorce papers and sought a no contact order against
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She also had called the police numerous times in the weeks leading up to her death to make
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reports over her tires being slashed and tracking devices being found on her car.
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According to an affidavit filed by Micah's brother, Micah had forwarded emails from John Paul in
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which he apologizes for slashing her tires and damaging her vehicle.
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Micah had filed for divorce last October on the grounds of adultery, but the case was dismissed.
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It appears the couple had been separated since September 2023.
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At the funeral service that was later held at Solid Rock Church, John Paul gave an emotional
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speech about his wife, even claiming he tried to raise her from the dead when visiting her
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The service was posted on YouTube and footage of the eulogy sparked backlash as many were
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Micah's family boycotted the service and held their own on the beach instead.
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John Paul was temporarily relieved of his duties at the church, but the church clarified that
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According to an email, he has been released for a time of healing, counsel, and guidance.
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Amidst this, many people on social media are arguing that he somehow was involved in her
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death, and there are quite a few reasons that people say they have for believing that.
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All right, so this is according to the Christian Post and Daily Mail.
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Here's some of the background of what's going on.
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Daily Mail revealed that JP, John Paul, has a lengthy history with the police, including a
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conviction for assault and battery and at least a dozen traffic violations.
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His parents settled a lawsuit on his behalf for $6,200 in 1995, age 17, when he drove his
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car into the back of another vehicle causing injury.
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Miller was convicted in 1999 of driving his silver pickup truck into a woman twice as she
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was filling sandbags near her home because of extreme flooding.
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He, then 19 years old, accelerated into this woman after she gestured for him to slow down,
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We're not just talking about some minor traffic violations.
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We are talking about, according to these documents, a history of violence.
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Miller was also convicted in 1998 of driving while suspended.
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In 1998, he was also embroiled in a bitter custody battle with the mother of his first child,
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his father, Wayne Miller, and we'll come back to him in a minute, argue to the court that
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JP's son would be better off with his father in a beautiful home than with the child's mother,
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The child in question is now 28 years old and was recently charged with first-degree domestic
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violence in January of this year after hitting a woman over the head with a glass bottle and
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destroying her belongings, according to the Horry County Police Department.
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In 2000, JP Miller married his first wife, Allison.
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when it was revealed that JP was having an affair with Micah Miller.
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Micah Miller is the woman who just died by allegedly suicide.
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She was a member of their church, and Micah was also the babysitter of the couple's four
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So Micah and JP started having an affair when they were both working at the church, and so
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In the divorce documents, Allison also alleged that JP had confessed to her and other church
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staff that he had sexual encounters with underage girls he met at the church and an addiction
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It's just incredible that this person remained a pastor amidst all of these accusations.
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Allison wrote in the affidavit seeking alimony,
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Our marriage and my husband's career were less than stable at the time because at the time
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my husband's affair was discovered, he had previously admitted to both me and our congregation
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He had also confessed to me and other staff members of the church he had sexual encounters
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with young females from the church who were under the age of 16.
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Instead of removing Miller as a leader, Allison stated that church officials demanded he get
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counseling for his sex addiction, but he refused to get counseling, which caused many of the
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While Miller had been forthcoming about Micah's alleged mental health struggles, he was not
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The Christian Post reported on a video posted to Facebook by Ty Longerbeam, which showed Miller
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experiencing what some claim to be drug-induced psychosis.
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He explains in the video that his medication was changed and he felt like ants were crawling
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all over him, even though no ants were visible.
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When asked if he wanted his mother to come help, he said, I don't want my mom because she
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is always trying to get him on medication and this is what it does.
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So I am not judging him at all for any kind of psychosis or mental health issues that he
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I am not judging him at all for any of the medication.
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Just as an aside, I do think, as Dr. Roger McFillan would certainly argue, that there needs
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to be more conversations about what these drugs actually do and their side effects on people.
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And many times I think that they cause people to act in not only psychotic, but very violent
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ways, but that's another conversation for another day.
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So I am not judging him for that, but it is all important when we are looking at who
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this person is and why people think that this is a highly suspicious situation.
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None of these things automatically make him guilty.
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But again, there are many reasons why people believe I'm not so sure that this woman whose
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life matters and the truth matters and justice matters, not so sure that this was simply a
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JP's father, we mentioned him a couple minutes ago.
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In the letter to the court requesting that JP receive full custody of his oldest child,
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This is the first child that he had with another woman in the early 2000s.
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Or the early 2000s is when the custody battle was a JP's father has an impressive signature
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Arwayne Miller, senior pastor, Cathedral Baptist Church, president, Cathedral Bible
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College, headmaster, Grand Strand Academy, president, Myrtle Beach Ministerial Association.
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Miller was arrested and pleaded guilty to fraud and foreign labor contracting, visa fraud and
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The New York Daily News described him as turning his Bible college into a forced labor camp for
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Students reportedly told investigators that classes were not real and that the main focus
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of the school was to have them working full time at its campus and Miller's home.
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The DOJ press release said that Miller knowingly recruited and enticed foreign students to attend
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Cathedral Bible College, where he was president, by means of false representations and promises
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regarding the employment, which is just really sad.
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He was also arrested in 2006, allegedly detained on charges of lewdness and prostitution for exposing
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Again, that doesn't mean that JP is necessarily guilty of anything, but these are all relevant
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details to try to try to understand who this person is and why people are so skeptical.
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There's a greater history here to the specific relationship as well between JP and between Micah.
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Yes, they met each other during an affair, but or they engaged in an affair rather while they
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And actually, there is a picture going around of JP officiating Micah's wedding when she got
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In her teens, Micah's family moved to Myrtle Beach in an affidavit filed shortly after her
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Micah claimed that Miller, who was a pastor of her church at the time and 14 years older than
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her, groomed her while she worked for him at the church.
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She claimed that JP groomed her since she was 10.
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JP's lawyer used this, though, this is another side of it, to discredit Micah because she did
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Micah's sister believes that Micah meant to say that JP groomed her since 2010.
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In 2012, Micah then, age 18, got married to a man in the church.
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And as I said, JP was the officiant at their wedding.
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As mentioned earlier, Micah was the babysitter for JP and his wife's children.
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Then in 2015, Micah and JP admitted to having an affair.
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Both Micah's husband and JP's wife filed for divorce.
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Miller told The Christian Post that shortly after he and Micah got married in 2017, she was
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diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenic disorder, dependent personality disorder.
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Since then, he says they've been trying to manage her mental illness with lithium and
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As long as she took her medication, Miller said his wife would be fine.
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So, as we summarized earlier in October 2023, Micah filed for divorce on the grounds of
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The filing state plaintiff, Micah, is informed and believes that the defendant, John Paul,
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has and is currently engaging in acts of adultery with women whose names are well known to the
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Defendant has threatened to throw plaintiff's belongings into the yard, locked plaintiff out
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of her own home and has defamed and demeaned the plaintiff before a congregation of people.
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Now, we don't really know why, but in February of this year, so a few months after she filed for
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divorce, her application for divorce was dismissed.
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And then a few days later, JP filed for separate support and maintenance seeking financial support.
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February 8th, according to Micah, she is involuntarily hospitalized in a mental facility.
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According to affidavits from Micah's family, John Paul Miller takes this opportunity to go
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through Micah's electronic devices and delete evidence.
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Micah accuses John Paul of stealing her car while admitted in the hospital.
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He claimed that the car was marital property because they were still legally married and
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he was only taking it to prevent her from selling it and using the money unwisely during
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Who is the one who is really reporting all of this on X and there, he is reporting that
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there are various women who have come forward saying that I've got a text messages with John
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They are very salacious text messages, romantic text messages while he, while he was married
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on March 10th, Pastor John Paul preaches a sermon and reveals he went through two years
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He found that 18 people reached out to her saying, if you ever want to talk about your
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husband, you can talk to me and I'll keep it confidential.
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The pastor followed up with, that's a demon talking.
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You know, I looked at her phone and I counted over the past two years, 18 people who had
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texted her and said, if you ever want to talk about your husband, you can talk to me and
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Why the heck does somebody want to hear what somebody else says about their spouse?
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If someone wants to call you and say bad things about somebody else, that's a demon talking
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And the only way to respond is with the word of God.
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Should we be asking the question why there were so many people over the past two years
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who felt the need to reach out and say, if you ever want to talk to me about what's going
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Obviously, there was something going on within the marriage or people thought so.
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People thought that there was something going on within the marriage to the point to where
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they felt like, hey, if you need to confide in me, I will be a refuge for you.
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So instead of him seeing those texts, according to him, he saw those texts and saying, oh, maybe
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Why do people feel that she is unsafe and needs a safe place to go?
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He says, no, she needs to be in isolation, shuts it down and actually says it's a demon
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So convinces people that, what, you should not reach out to a friend that you fear is
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He also tells the congregation in the sermon about his wife getting out of the hospital
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She gets out and she just leaves, just completely leaves me, leaves everything, drains the
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While you're talking bad about me out there, I'm building a school in Africa for over 100
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Then he goes on to say, one thing I'm going to preach about is getting rich, strong, healthy,
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OK, he's wearing his wedding ring still during that.
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On March 11th, Micah Miller files a police report that her tire was slashed.
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The possible suspect's name was redacted from the support from the report.
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But then, as we said, the brother also also said in an affidavit that he apologized, that
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John Paul had apologized in an email for slashing the tires.
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So while we don't know for sure, it does seem like he admitted to this.
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He also said, JP also said in this email, when someone hurts me, I try to hurt them back
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Instead of me forgiving you, I just attack and try to cause pain.
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So he's still kind of blaming her, though, for his actions by saying that.
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Police reports obtained by News 13 from around this time, around this time frame, show four
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different instances in which GPS tracking devices were reported to have been found on vehicles
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He did this to know if she was going to a gun store.
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OK, John Paul also admitted in an email exclusively obtained by News Nation to posting
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This is stuff that is being established in police reports.
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It's been admitted by him in some cases to these news outlets.
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In an affidavit to her attorney said roughly nine days prior to her death, Micah wrote,
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Since the day we became husband and wife, I've been abused in every way I can think of emotionally,
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sexually, spiritually, financially, and physically.
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He has harassed me physically and electronically with letters, phone calls, emails, and texts,
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hacking my emails, hacking my personal Facebook, and impersonating me, using my stolen phone
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to send texts and emails out to church members pretending to be me,
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texting friends and family saying that I am sleeping with teenagers from our church
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and showing up in person at places around town,
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to having installed three different tracking devices on my vehicle.
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Two days prior to her death, Micah served JP with divorce papers.
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And again, those are just allegations that she made.
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But of course, they are simply just allegations at this point.
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On April 27th, Micah Miller was found dead with a gunshot wound to her head at Lumber River State Park.
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At 12.12 p.m., Miller was seen on store surveillance walking into Dick's Pawn Shop.
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And a minute later, she is seen trying to buy a weapon or buying a weapon.
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At 2.54 p.m., Micah Miller called 911 and asked if her phone could be located and then threatened suicide.
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Micah hung up the phone before further information could be gathered by dispatch.
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The telecommunicator tried to call Micah back multiple times and was able to make contact.
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Investigators also found a receipt for the handgun from a pawn shop in her vehicle.
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The investigation also revealed that Miller and her estranged husband, John Paul Miller,
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had been separated and were involved in the legal system.
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Deputies said this information led investigators to confirm his whereabouts and a woman, John Paul,
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Investigators confirmed both were not in South Carolina on the night before or the day of Micah's death.
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Multiple memorials, as we mentioned earlier, were held on Sunday, May 5th, to honor Micah Miller.
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There were a lot of people that stood out front of Solid Rock Church Sunday morning holding signs and wearing shirts that read Justice for Micah.
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Those who rallied in front of Solid Rock Church Sunday said they did so to raise awareness for domestic violence,
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and some advocated that the area needs more resources for victims.
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And so the concern here, the suspicion here, is not that he was holding the gun and killing her.
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It seems to be confirmed that he was not there.
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But at the very least, the belief by many people is that there was so much aggression
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and so much intimidation and so much violence and so much torment by him that she was pushed to suicide.
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And people are wanting to hold him accountable.
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He gave his weird announcement at church where he gave this whole sermon,
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and he was joking about being charming and handsome and awesome.
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That's the sermon that was preceding his announcement that his wife died.
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I got a call last night that my wife passed away.
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And then he also delivered the eulogy at one of the memorial services, said weird things.
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He said he visited her body in the morgue four times and even tried to raise her arm or raise her from the dead.
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And I guess tried to raise her arm or something.
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He said he went to the mall later that day and saw a woman who looked just like Micah,
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with similar clothes and a tattoo on her arm, and he instinctively yelled out her name.
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When she turned around, it turned out to be one of her sisters.
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I can't wait to see her again one day, he said, wiping tears from his eyes.
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He then goes on to tell the elaborate story about how he proposed to her
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along with other stories from their life together.
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And then also, Micah has an obituary that was apparently written by JP.
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It also confirms that she was a minor when they became friends.
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Also seems to be asking for donations to an organization that is under FBI investigation.
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So it says in the obituary, Micah Acacia Miller, 30, of Myrtle Beach, passed away Saturday, April 27, 2024.
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She and JP have been friends since 2009, married in 2007, and spent almost every single day and night together.
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So that means they were friends when he was 29 and she was 15, which is very inappropriate.
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So it does seem that she was correct in saying that she was groomed.
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It's not possible for a 15-year-old girl and a 29-year-old man to be friends in any kind of healthy or helpful way.
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She helped Pastor JP with the church in every way.
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Micah was the worship leader, the graphics designer, the youth leader, women's ministry leader, and pastor's assistant.
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He also spoke negatively about her, referenced her mental health in sermons in front of the congregation.
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And it's just weird because she was a prominent figure in the church, like on a March 10th sermon.
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He talks about her mental health problems in a February 25th sermon.
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He also talked about her mental health problems.
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And yet here in the obituary, he says she truly served Jesus and her husband with all of her heart.
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She would praise her husband after every church service, telling him he was the best preacher in the world, even if it wasn't true.
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She also told him he was the funniest preacher in the world, even though that wasn't true either.
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The family has requested that memorial donations be made to dare2caremissions.com to sponsor a child in Africa.
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This mission is currently under FBI investigation related to money issues.
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And then, as I said, her parents held their own memorial service because they believe that he was somehow involved in her demise and has spoken out about him and the abuse that they say he endured.
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Her sister, Micah's sister especially, has spoken out publicly, fearing for her sister's safety when she was alive.
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There are other notable moments in the timeline post-death that I think are worth looking at, too.
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As I said, the sister was very concerned about all of this.
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April 28th, Micah's sister, Sierra Francis, posts on Facebook saying,
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Don't listen to the false stories being told about Micah.
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April 30th, three days after her death, John Paul Miller attempts to get into Micah's apartment.
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He's stopped by the building manager and police are called.
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May 2nd, in an interview with ABC 15, Pastor John Paul Miller says he was the best wife that anyone could ask for, but points to her being mentally ill yet again.
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May 2nd, affidavits are filed by the siblings of Micah.
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According to those, Micah told her sister, If a bullet ends up in my head, it wasn't me.
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May 4th, in an interview with the Christian Post, Pastor John Paul Miller says his wife was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
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He says he begged friends and family to help him with her, but nobody took his word.
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May 4th, photos of John Paul Miller with Susie Skinner surface.
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Allegedly, he's seen in public multiple times with her after Micah's death.
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Now, the interesting thing about Susie Skinner is that apparently, allegedly, he was having an affair with her for a couple years.
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Susie Skinner's husband was apparently found dead at the bottom of a pool.
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He was in a wheelchair after the affair between her and John Paul Miller allegedly started.
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So, I have no idea what happened there, but that is being pointed out as another really disturbing part of this whole story.
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So, again, May 4th, photos of John Paul Miller with Susie Skinner surface.
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Allegedly, he is seen in public multiple times with her after Micah's death.
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As I said, there were protests outside of Solid Rock Church.
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May 10th, John Paul Miller's attorney, Russell B. Long, releases a statement exonerating his client of any wrongdoing.
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Of course, attempting to exonerate his client of any wrongdoing.
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He reminds the world of Micah's mental issues, and they threaten to sue anyone who talks negatively about John Paul Miller.
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May 10th, in a video released by a man named Ty Longerbeam,
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John Paul Miller is seen laying on the lawn of what is believed to be his ex-wife's yard.
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May 11th, in an interview, Micah's sister says that John Paul Miller tried getting Micah to live with another family when she was a teenager.
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According to her, he did his best to get her away from them, her own family.
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And, of course, if that is true, that is a pattern that we see with men who try to befriend minors.
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May 12th, filling in for John Paul Miller, Reverend Charles Randall said in his sermon at Solid Rock Church,
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I've released him from ministerial functions for a minute to get some healing.
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You can't go through things like this and just step back, step right back to same day.
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Pastor John Paul Miller threatens to sue entire county.
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He is saying, of course, that none of this stuff is true, even though many articles have been shared.
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Attorney Long's defense of him seems to be that Miller's wife was 15 when she moved to Myrtle Beach,
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But, again, her sister has clarified that she probably meant 2010.
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And so I don't think that that's defensible at all.
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That is literally what it is, that he befriended, started talking to this girl when he was 29,
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How much is true about her mental illness, how he was abusing her?
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We don't know everything, all of the evidence in either direction for that.
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FBI had already been investigating J.P. Miller, his attorney, and his Dare to Care African mission
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prior to Micah Miller's death, as we mentioned earlier.
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She was apparently being investigated in this same case for embezzlement
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when it comes to the Dare to Care mission, which is really unfortunate.
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The FBI has now announced that they are getting involved in this investigation.
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The sheriff's office announced on Monday that it had requested the assistance
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of the United States Attorney's Office and the FBI in the investigation of Miller's death.
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the Robeson County Sheriff's Office has been in contact with the United States Attorney's Office
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and Federal Bureau of Investigation in South Carolina
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since the early stages of the Micah Miller investigation.
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Based on the information gathered during the investigation and jurisdiction reasons,
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the sheriff's office has requested the assistance of both agencies.
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No other information will be released at this time.
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A spokesperson for the FBI office in Columbia, South Carolina, told Newsweek,
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I can confirm that we have been in communication with the sheriff's office,
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So we don't actually know if the FBI is investigating.
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And there are a lot of troubling details about this.
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There are a lot of disturbing parts of this that I think make this worth investigation,
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At the very least, I think that we can absolutely agree on the fact that he should not have been a pastor.
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He should not have been in leadership of the church.
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And I do think it is worse when someone takes on a spiritual office and they betray that spiritual office.
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But teachers should be held to a higher standard.
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The book of James says that they will be judged more harshly because they are teachers.
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And that level of hypocrisy, it makes a mockery of the gospel.
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Of course, it can't actually do anything to affect who God is and who he represents himself to be in his word.
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But people's perception of the church and of Christians and using leadership within a church to try to make yourself immune to accountability and justice and living in a way that is not in alignment with integrity.
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Maybe it is absolutely true that she struggled with mental health and that was it.
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She committed suicide, which is an absolute tragedy, and that there is nothing else that happened that directly led to her death.
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There is a reason why people are speaking up about this.
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There are reasons that people are saying, wait, her voice and her concerns really did matter.
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And we need to do a much better job of holding people accountable.
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And I'm thankful, by the way, for all of those people who apparently had reached out to her over the years and said, do you need to talk?
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Maybe we all need to be doing that even more and even better with people we know in our lives, in our churches.
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The people that you think are immune to that, are perfect, who are projecting this, like, perfect reputation that they've had it all together, which I guess that they were projecting in some way.
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Like, we should be reaching out and helping when we can, when we suspect that someone needs it.
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And I really want her family to get the answers that they need.
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And so I think amplifying just the allegations that are being made and the questions and concerns that are being lodged, I don't think that every single suspicion and every single question about every single case and every single marriage needs to make national news.
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I'm not saying that, but I have a feeling that this one does, that this really matters and that accountability and honesty really matters, especially when lives are on the line.
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And unfortunately, children are involved in all of this too.
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Whether the involvement in the death is there or not, none of this should be tolerated in a church that proclaims the name of Jesus.
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I just wanted to end on this very happy note because that was a very sad episode, a dark episode.
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But I just wanted to remind you that there are beautiful, wonderful people in the world doing beautiful, wonderful things.
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There is this couple I asked, Brie, I said, OK, we got to talk about this happy story.
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And she had sent me this a couple in their 80s that has fostered more than 150 children.
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And they have no plans to stop, even though they're in their 80s.
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This is an English couple, Margaret Isdale and her husband, Robert.
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They decided to welcome a teenage girl into their home for foster care back in 1978.
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Now, almost 40 years later, they're receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award because the octogenarians have fostered an incredible 150 children and teenagers.
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They received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Lincolnshire Foster Services, whose administrator, Michelle, was in awe of the pair, saying that over their 46 years of raising other people's children, lots of them have either gone back to their birth families or gone to be adopted.
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They had two children of their own, and even in their older age, they're still going strong, fostering an eight-month-old baby.
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They're the important ones, said Margaret on the occasion of the award.
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And there are so many unseen, unsung heroes just like that who are just doing the things that believers have always been called to do.
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We'll never know them, but the honor, the reward they will receive in heaven is great, and that is who they are living for, and that is what matters.
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So just remember that there is a lot of goodness by the grace of God in this world, and in the midst of the darkness, Christians have a great opportunity to shine.
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All right, that's all we've got time for today.