Death of the Pastor’s Wife, now streaming on Netflix, tells the story of Mica Miller, a 30-year-old woman whose body was found in a North Carolina state park in April 2024 and whose death was ruled a suicide. The three-part documentary has arrived with a lot of questions still unanswered, and one man at the centre of them: John-Paul Miller, the pastor she married and later tried to leave.
It is not comfortable viewing. But it has drawn considerable attention, not least because the legal story is still very much unfolding.
Who was Mica Miller, and what happened to her?
Mica Francis grew up attending Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, having moved there as a teenager with her family. John-Paul Miller, known as JP, was the church’s pastor. He was, at the time, married with five children. Mica began working as his assistant, and at 18 married her first husband, whose family were also churchgoers. JP officiated the ceremony.
An affair between Mica and JP began in 2015, when she was 20. They both divorced their partners and married each other in 2017, when JP was 38. According to friends and family interviewed in the documentary, problems were apparent from the start. He was allegedly possessive, used the Bible to control her behaviour, refused to let her sleep unless they had sex, and engaged in multiple affairs.
Executive producer Alana Goldstein described JP’s conduct to Tudum: ‘The broad thing that JP was doing was trying to strip away her freedom, her independence, her self-esteem. Not through one single event, but through years and years of continuous micro-events that trapped her in a state of dependence on him.’
As Mica began trying to leave the marriage, the alleged harassment escalated. She accused him of slashing her tires, posting a nude photo of her on social media, planting tracking devices on her car, and leaving her inundated with calls and messages. She contacted police more than ten times, with one report stating she felt ‘groomed’ by him. In April 2024, she filed for divorce alongside a handwritten 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.’
Two days after filing, she left for a lunchtime shift at a café and did not return. Her body was found in Lumber River State Park. She had made a call to police before her death, telling a dispatcher: ‘I’m about to kill myself and I just want my family to know where to find me.’ Robeson County medical examiner Dr. Richard Johnson told WPDE the gunshot wound was ‘self-inflicted’ and ruled her death a suicide on 7 May 2024.
Friends and family disputed that conclusion. They launched an online petition arguing that Mica ‘lost her life due to no one helping her from being harassed and excessively stalked’ and that she ‘was ready to finally live a free life away from her soon-to-be ex-husband.’
Where is JP Miller now, and what does Death of the Pastor’s Wife Netflix documentary reveal about his case?
JP’s attorney Russell B. Long issued a statement in May 2024 rejecting all allegations: ‘Our client refutes any report that suggests he ever abused his wife.’ JP himself declined to comment when approached by Netflix for the documentary.
In December 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office indicted JP on two federal counts: a cyberstalking charge covering an alleged pattern of harassment from November 2022 until Mica’s death, including calling her up to 50 times in a single day, and a charge of making a false statement to federal investigators about deflating her tires. He pleaded not guilty and has not been charged in connection with her death itself.
According to Court TV, JP is 47 years old. He remains out on bond while awaiting trial, which the documentary’s director Michael Gasparro notes has been pushed back several times: ‘It was supposed to happen back in the spring. It got pushed in June, to August, and now it’s October.’ The trial is currently scheduled for October 2026.
Since Mica’s death, JP remarried. In June 2025, he wed Suzie Skinner, a member of Solid Rock Church. The church building and grounds have since been sold. Those interviewed in the documentary say he continues to preach to people who gather at pop-up locations around Myrtle Beach.
Death of the Pastor’s Wife is streaming now on Netflix. The federal trial of John-Paul Miller is scheduled for October 2026.
