This article mentions suicide and domestic abuse. Please read with caution.
Former pastor John-Paul “JP” Miller‘s estranged wife, Mica Miller, died by suicide, at age 30, on April 27, 2024. But court documents revealed to the press and an email sent from JP to Mica, obtained by NewsNation, have now offered new details about their troubled relationship.
Mica’s suicide came to national attention when a video of JP announcing her death to his congregation went viral online. Mica worked at Solid Rock Church in Market Common in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and was well-known to those there that day. Mica was seen on surveillance footage buying the gun, and she made a 911 call before she died, telling dispatch what she planned to do and that she wanted her family to know where to find her body.
Not long after Mica died, however, her family alleged that Mica had been abused in her marriage to JP, and JP was “released” from his duties at Market Common. Among other evidence of their rocky marriage, Mica served JP divorce papers just two days before she died, and her siblings allege that she revealed to her family a history of abuse. Mica told them, “If I end up with a bullet in my head, it was JP,” Fox 8 reported.
JP Miller admitted he shared a topless photo
In an email sent to Mica Miller before she died, obtained by NewsNation, JP Miller apologized for sharing a topless photo of his wife online. “I’m sorry for putting a picture of you on the internet. It was for less than one hour and immediately taken down. I was hurt that you are telling everyone horrible intimate details of my past sin, and I just wanted to try and hurt you. Please forgive me. It was evil of me to do that,” JP’s email read.
It’s unclear when JP posted the picture, but less than two weeks before she died, Mica told her attorney in an affidavit, “Since the day we became husband and wife, I have been abused in every way I can think of. Emotionally, sexually, spiritually, financially, and physically. He has harassed me physically and electronically with letters, phone calls, emails, and texts, hacking my emails, hacking my personal Facebook, and impersonating me.”
JP stole Mica’s phone, she said
Also in her affidavit, Mica Miller alleged that JP stole her phone and sent emails “to church members pretending to be me, texting friends and family saying that I am sleeping with teenagers from our church, and showing up in person at places around town,” NewsNation reported. Mica had also alleged that JP groomed her while she was still a teenager. Not long before she died, a tracking device was found on her car, discovered after Mica’s tires were slashed, according to a police complaint.
In an interview with The Christian Post after Mica died, JP, who has not been charged with any crime and has denied allegations of abuse, said Mica had been diagnosed with “bipolar II, schizophrenic and dependent personality disorder,” was on medications, and had been hospitalized in the past. “I took care of her through every time she went to the mental institute. I took care of her every time she stopped taking her lithium. I would never expose this stuff of her if I didn’t have to now, but every time she tried to kill herself, I would be there,” JP said.
But in a Banfield NewsNation interview, Mica’s father Michael Francis said, ” … We just want more answers. As soon as they got married, her behavior went downhill fast. She seemed to be more sad, more under control. I believe he compressed her. He just sucked the life right out of her and caused her to go downhill.”
If you are experiencing domestic abuse, or if you believe someone you know is being abused, contact The National Domestic Violence Hotline. The hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-SAFE or spoken with online via the hotline’s website. Mobile phone owners can also text “START” to the number 88788.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. A list of international crisis resources can be found here.