A pastor’s wife’s questionable suicide sparks suspicion and highlights the fruit of abusive theologies
This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on May 12, 2024.
Mica Miller’s body was found at 3:03 p.m. April 27 in Robeson County, N.C., with a gunshot wound to the head, an hour and a half drive away from her home in Myrtle Beach, S.C., two days after serving her husband divorce papers.
Her husband, John-Paul Miller, known as JP, is pastor of a nondenominational church, Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach.
According to police, 9 minutes before the gunshot was heard, she called 911 and said, “I’m about to kill myself and I just want my family to know where to find me.” This was after purchasing a gun earlier in the day.
Fisherman Johnnie Jacobs told WBTW he had been fishing that night when he heard the gunshot.
“As I decided that I was going to stop fishing, I came back through, stopped where they call it a slew or a lake off of the river,” he recalled. “So, I pulled in there with my little boat and, maybe 5 minutes after, and maybe 5 minutes into the slew, I heard a cry. I heard it for about 2 or 3 minutes. Then I stopped, heard a gunshot. Then, the crying stopped.”
Jacobs reflected, “If it had been a person that was crying in the open, I would have checked on them all day long. I just wish I would have gone in there and checked on her.”
Her death is a tragedy we should have seen coming. In an affidavit, Mica’s sister Sierra Francis said, “Mica stated to me on many occasions, ‘If I end up with a bullet in my head, it was JP,” referring to her husband John Paul Miller.
“I know my sister to have expressed the abuse and violence against her by her husband to others, including family members and members of the church congregation,” the affidavit said. “My sister also expressed to me that she was fearful that she would not make it to the divorce and that her life would be taken from her.”
Mica’s story has ignited a firestorm of responses online, especially from Christian women, calling for an investigation into Miller’s husband, despite the fact the coroner ruled her death a suicide.
While it’s important during news events like this to give space for grieving and to do our due diligence without jumping to conclusions, the reality is that there are far too many fingerprints of narcissism and patriarchy on Mica’s death for us to move on and blame her death on mental illness.
There is much we do not know yet. But sifting through the details that led to her death, it is clear people were hearing her crying but were not checking on her enough to save her life. And while Mica’s crying stopped, there are many tears from many women in abusive marriages who are continuing to call out for help.
Mica’s story is part of a larger conversation Christians need to have regarding how to respond to mental health crises and abusive marriages.
Thank you for tracing the theological underpinnings connected with this horrible story of abuse and tragic loss of life. Ideas have consequences and bad theology hurts people.