A new Netflix documentary reconstructs the final hours of Mica Miller before her death by suicide in April 2024.
Mica, 30, was found dead in a North Carolina state park on April 27, 2024, two days after her estranged husband John-Paul ‘JP’ Miller, 45, a South Carolina pastor, was served divorce papers. The case drew national attention when John-Paul announced her death as suicide from his pulpit during a sermon before the coroner had officially ruled it as such.
The documentary, titled Death of the Pastor’s Wife, was directed by Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro, who previously made Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal and American Murder: Gabby Petito for the streamer. It traces Mica’s movements on her last day through surveillance footage and phone records.
At 11:38 am on April 27, Mica left her residence, as captured on her ring camera. By 12:12 pm, she was seen purchasing a firearm and ammunition at Dick’s Pawn Shop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She departed the store at 12:34 pm and drove to a North Carolina state park. At 2:54 pm, Mica called 911 to announce that she was going to take her own life and asked operators to trace her call so her family would be able to find her body.
The film examines the marriage that preceded these final hours. Mica had filed for divorce in mid-April 2024, with a hearing scheduled for June. She had moved out of the couple’s home and started working at a café. The affidavit accompanying her filing, submitted on April 15, 2024, detailed years of alleged abuse.
“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,” the affidavit noted.
The relationship had begun as an affair when Mica was 18 and both she and John-Paul were married to other people. John-Paul was served the divorce papers on April 25, 2024, according to the affidavit. Mica was found dead two days later.
While her death was ruled a suicide, her family has campaigned to change South Carolina’s law concerning coercive abuse. Her sister Anna appears in the series to make the case for new legislation.
“The police weren’t able to do a single thing for Mica,” Anna says in the series. “Because you’re married to someone, that’s not harassment in South Carolina. That’s why ‘Mica’s Law’ is so important to us as a family.”
Dubbed ‘Mica’s Law’, South Carolina’s SB 702 aims to criminalise coercive control and add psychological, emotional, and financial abuse to the state’s definition of domestic violence. The legislation would also mandate training for law enforcement so officers can recognise these forms of abuse.
In the viral moment that brought the case to national attention, John-Paul announced his wife’s death as suicide from his pulpit during a sermon at Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach, doing so before the coroner had officially ruled on the cause of death. The announcement to the shocked congregation came as Mica’s family was already urging authorities to look into her death, raising questions about the circumstances surrounding her final days and the public handling of the tragedy by her husband.
Death of the Pastor’s Wife is now streaming on Netflix.