A new Netflix documentary has put fresh attention on John-Paul Miller as the Myrtle Beach pastor awaits a rescheduled federal trial.
JP Miller, a church leader in his mid-forties, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of cyberstalking and making false statements to investigators, with his trial now set for October after multiple delays. The case stems from the final months of his marriage to Mica Miller, 30, who was found dead at Lumber River State Park in North Carolina on April 27, 2024, two days after serving him with divorce papers. Her death was ruled a suicide, and JP has not been charged in connection with it.
Netflix’s three-part Death of the Pastor’s Wife, now streaming, revisits the marriage through Mica’s journals, messages and performance footage, alongside police reports, medical records, sermons and other material. The documentary traces a relationship that began after Mica joined Solid Rock Church as a teenager and later worked as JP’s assistant. According to accounts from relatives, friends and former church members featured in the series, JP was 15 years older and held a powerful position in her life as pastor and mentor.
Mica married her first husband, Jeremy, at 18, in a ceremony officiated by JP. Years later, JP confessed to a “moral failing” in his own marriage, while both marriages eventually ended. Mica and JP went on to marry, but filmmakers say the relationship became increasingly controlling.
The series describes allegations involving monitoring, unwanted calls and texts, damage to Mica’s car and a nude photograph allegedly posted without her consent. Those incidents now feature in the federal case against JP. A federal grand jury indicted him in December 2025 on two counts: cyberstalking and making false statements to federal investigators. The indictment concerns alleged harassment between November 2022 and Mica’s death, including claims involving tracking, messages, phone calls, interfering with her vehicle and sharing of intimate images.
Mica’s sister Anna says in the documentary that her family repeatedly saw the limits of existing protections.
“Because you’re married to someone, that’s not harassment in South Carolina,” she says, explaining why the family has backed proposed legislation known as Mica’s Law.
The family’s proposed Mica’s Law is another part of the story now drawing attention alongside the documentary. South Carolina SB 702 would criminalize coercive control and broaden the state’s domestic-violence definition to include psychological, emotional and financial abuse. It would also require law-enforcement training around coercive control. The bill stalled during the 2026 legislative session, although co-sponsor Sen. Stephen Goldfinch has said he plans to bring it back.
In the viral moment that first drew national attention, Mica Miller’s death in April 2024 prompted scrutiny of her husband’s conduct and the circumstances of their collapsing marriage. The documentary now amplifies those questions while JP remains free awaiting trial, his life significantly changed since Mica’s death. He married Suzie Skinner in June 2025, and the former Solid Rock Church property has been sold. According to people interviewed in the documentary, he continues preaching to a small congregation that gathers at temporary locations around Myrtle Beach.
JP’s federal trial is scheduled for October.