As Mica Miller’s family continues to advocate for a more robust investigation into her death, her sisters have zeroed in on her pastor husband John-Paul Miller, 44, who’s been seen wearing her diamond necklace in public.
John-Paul, also known as JP, told NewsNation’s Rich McHugh over text that the necklace was in fact Mica’s and that ‘the hospital gave it to me when I saw her body,’ adding, ‘I immediately put it on, to feel close to her. She loved that necklace.’
A pastor at the at Solid Rock Ministries in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, John-Paul also confirmed that the necklace he was wearing in a recent ABC15 interview was Mica’s.
In an interview with NewsNation, Mica’s sister Destinee Barrientos didn’t buy John-Paul’s reasoning for donning the pendant.
‘In our opinion, it’s not something that is to feel close to her, it’s more of a trophy. It is more of essentially almost something to still hang over her. She was trying to get away, and so I think it’s a final piece of her not being able to get away,’ Barrientos said.
Mica’s sister Destinee Barrientos, left, says her John-Paul is wearing her favorite diamond necklace now as ‘a trophy’ and not ‘to feel close to her.’
Mica Miller, left, and John-Paul Miller, right, are pictured wearing the same necklace. Mica is seen in Ring doorbell footage the day of her death wearing what John-Paul said was her favorite necklace
Mica, 30, had filed for separation from John-Paul days before she was found dead of what the medical examiner said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound at North Carolina’s Lumber River State Park on April 27.
And that wasn’t the only time Mica had filed for divorce from her husband, whom she met when she was just 14 years old as a member of his youth church group. She also filed in October 2023 citing adultery but withdrew it in February 2024.
This evidence of Mica wanting to split up, plus John-Paul’s cavalier attitude following her death – including going out on a date with a new woman four days after Mica’s suicide – has led the family and passionate followers of the case to reject the official story and push for answers.
The latest troubling clue was pointed out by Mica’s other sister Anna Francis, who said Mica’s body had unexplained bruising on her hands.
‘There were definitely bruises on Mica’s hands that the medical examiner had no recollection of, and I did ask him personally is there any chance that a body would have bruises on it from [being] collected from the water or someone touching her after examining her?’ Francis asked.
The medical examiner told her no, Francis said to NewsNation, explaining that a body cannot bruise after the heart stops beating.
Mica (right) died by suicide on April 27, after citing alleged adulterous behavior on the part of her pastor husband
Mica’s sister Anna Francis said she saw bruises on Mica’s hands after her death. The medical examiner told her that bruises cannot appear after someone’s heart stops beating
‘So our family, instead of grieving her at the funeral home, we had to go into fight mode, investigation mode, and do the job ourselves because Robeson County was neglecting to do a proper investigation,’ Francis said.
‘They made a pretty PowerPoint that lined up perfectly every reason why she would have done this herself, and they didn’t investigate the other side at all.’
The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office, which has been in charge of the investigation of Mica’s death, has been coordinating with the FBI and federal attorneys.
While the FBI hasn’t commented, it is understood that Mica kept a daily journal detailing her struggle and abusive marriage prior to her death.
One instance of potentially abusive behavior came to light via disturbing texts John-Paul sent threatening Mica’s family 18 months before his and Mica’s marriage broke down.
At the time, he texted his sister-in-law Sierra that he was coming to her home ‘armed’ and ‘ready,’ DailyMail.com reported.
Mica Miller’s sister Sierra (left) shared a series of disturbing texts from her estranged husband during an altercation between the couple in 2022
Messages show Miller sent a text to Sierra saying he was on her way to her house, where Mica was staying in November 2022
The uncertainty around Mica’s death has prompted dozens of friends and residents to go protest outside Solid Rock church this Sunday.
One protester told NewsNation that the group would be demonstrating outside the church every Sunday ‘until we find justice for Mica.’
Recently released surveillance footage of Mica making a routine stop in to a gas station mere hours before she was found dead only raises more questions for the family.
Mica’s father, Michael Francis, commented on the video, saying his daughter’s behavior didn’t reflect that of someone who would want to harm themselves.
‘I believe that it was all staged. I believe that the whole thing was premeditated,’ Mica’s father, Michael Francis told NewsNation in late May when the footage was publicized.
The uncertainty around Mica’s death has prompted dozens of friends and residents to go protest outside Solid Rock church this Sunday, where John-Paul still preaches
One protester told NewsNation that the group will be staging marches outside the church every Sunday ‘until we find justice for Mica’
In the video of her outside of the gas station, Mica is seen pulling her black sedan up to a pump before she steps out of the car, opens up her gas tank and walks inside.
Inside the shop, she is seen walking across the store before she stands near a row of refrigerators, looks around, buys an energy drink and heads back outside.
Mica, dressed in all black, then waits around for her tank to fill up, and at some point she opens the driver side door, grabs her drink and takes a sip, before closing it and watching the nozzle.
Once her tank is full, Mica removes the gas handle from her car and drives away.
The owner of the remote gas station told NewsNation that when he saw Mica that day, he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
‘Nothing, nothing special. Nothing, you know, like, just regular, regular day, regular thing,’ the manager said.
Not only that, Angela Clark, a friend of Mica’s who was one of the last to talk to her, showed her texts with Mica the night before she died.
Mica Miller was seen in surveillance footage at a remote gas station just before she was found dead in a lake in Lumber River State Park on April 27
She pulled her car up to a gas pump, walked in the store, bought an energy drink and walked out before filling up her tank and driving away
Clark said that Mica had texted her about the plans for that weekend’s Sunday service and asked for help with car payments.
‘This is not somebody that’s ready to end their life, this is somebody who was making plans for the weekend, you know and getting her car payment made,’ Clark said.
Mica did however post a video to Facebook several weeks before her death speaking about abuse within marriage and offering support to ‘ANYONE struggling with leaving a dangerous situation because they think God will be ‘mad’ at them.’
‘God hates divorce, but why? According to everybody that I’ve asked and the scriptures I’ve seen it’s because it hurts people. But does abuse hurt people. How do you think God feels about that?’ Mica added.
In the wake of accusations of abuse and grooming young girls including Mica, Solid Rock church hasn’t been able to attract as many parishioners, with one recent service only having 30 attendees.
John-Paul was released from his ministerial duties at the church in early May.
Despite all that, Solid Rock Ministries is sitting on $5.59 million worth of real estate and a $430,000 four-seater plane that’s supposedly used for missionary work.
The extreme scrutiny on John-Paul began when he stunned his congregants during a service the day after Mica died, announcing her ‘self-induced’ death and adding that she was ‘mentally unwell.’