This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens)

Death of a Pastor's Wife Part 2: She Asked for Help. Was the Law Built to Hear Her?

September 10, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In April 2024, Micah Miller was found dead in a South Carolina river, a gunshot wound the apparent cause. She had done everything the legal system asks of a person in danger: she left her husband, John Paul Miller, a pastor at Solid Rock Church; she hired an attorney; she documented his threats, his trackers on her car, his incessant contact; she handwrote a multi-page affidavit describing him paying homeless people for sex acts, injecting her with testosterone, and threatening gun violence. She told a friend she believed he might kill her and make it look like suicide. Her attorney filed for a restraining order. The hearing was set for June 5th. Micah died on April 27th.

The Five-Week Gap

The documentary Death of a Pastor's Wife centers on a brutal irony: Micah followed every prescribed step for protection, and the system still could not move fast enough to help her. Her attorney, Regina Ward, explains that to get a restraining order, "We had to prove to the court that she needs it." So Micah proved it, in writing. Yet the hearing was scheduled five weeks out. As the podcast hosts note, "I don't need protection in five weeks. I need protection right now."

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What you'll learn

1 (01:35) **The Restraining Order That Came Too Late** - Micah did everything legally right—hired a lawyer, documented abuse, filed for a protective order—but the hearing was set five weeks out.
2 (04:27) **JP's Childhood Narrative and Micah's Fresh Start** - JP frames his own childhood as "the worst you can imagine" from religious trauma, while Micah begins building a life apart from him.
3 (07:16) **The Evidence Micah Compiled** - She documented extensive abuse, including gun violence threats and public harassment, all of which she wrote out by hand.
4 (13:22) **The Final Day: April 27th** - Micah's last morning unfolds with prayer, a drive, and a series of increasingly desperate actions.
5 (14:46) **The 911 Call and Discovery** - At 2:54 PM, Micah calls 911 asking dispatchers to track her GPS so her family can find her body.
6 (16:59) **JP's Suspicious Call and Immediate Blame Campaign** - JP calls Diana from Susie Skinner's phone, asking "what happened," then immediately texts family claiming Micah had been off her meds for three months.
7 (19:00) **JP Preaches the Next Day** - He delivers a Sunday sermon, opening with a parody song, then briefly announces his wife's death as "self-induced."

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Regina Ward

Show Notes

By 2024, Mica Miller was leaving her marriage. She was documenting what she said was happening to her, working with an attorney, seeking legal protection—and telling friends she was afraid.

Then, on April 27, Mica called 911 from a state park in North Carolina. Hours later, she was dead.

In Part 2 of our coverage of Death of a Pastor's Wife, we walk through Mica's final weeks, the day of her death, the investigation and extraordinary aftermath.

And the question from Part 1 follows her outside the church: What happens when someone finally recognizes coercive control and asks for help—but the systems around her aren't built to recognize the danger in time?

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