When the body of Mica Miller was found at a North Carolina state park on April 27, 2024, her death was promptly ruled a suicide. But the case drew national attention after evidence surfaced that Mica had claimed to be the victim in a stalking plot — even telling police officers she was “afraid for her life” a month before her death. The source of her fear? Her own husband, John-Paul Miller, who was also the pastor of her family’s church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Now, a new three-part documentary series chronicles the events leading up to Mica’s sudden and mysterious death and the fight for answers that continues today. Death of the Pastor’s Wife, now streaming, features never-before-seen footage and direct accounts from friends and family speaking out for the first time.
“What stayed with us about Mica’s story was how hard she seemed to be fighting to be heard,” directors Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro (Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, American Murder: Gabby Petito) say. “We felt it was important to look closely at what she was experiencing and give the people who loved her the space to tell the story of the woman they knew. We made this series to ask difficult questions, listen closely to Mica’s own voice, and make sure that what she was trying to say is not forgotten.”
“Although we never met Mica, the time we spent with her family and friends allowed us to feel her warmth and heart as a human who endured unspeakable pain,” executive producer Alana Goldstein says. “Our goal at Crazy Legs is to tell a deeply personal portrait of Mica — honoring her voice, uncovering the realities of emotional abuse and coercive control, and remembering her for the light she shared with the world through her faith.”
In addition to Goldstein, the series’ executive producers are Tom Cappello and Keely Walker Muse (Crazy Legs Productions); Nason and Gasparro (The Cinemart); and Yotam Guendelman (Silvio Productions).
Here’s everything to know about Death of the Pastor’s Wife.
The docuseries follows the life of Mica Miller, a charismatic worship leader who grew up singing in the church, and the marriage that shaped her adult life and final years. One of six siblings, Mica found her calling in music and ministry after her family settled in Myrtle Beach. When she was 13, she met John-Paul Miller, the pastor of Solid Rock Church, where her family began attending services. Across three episodes, the series traces the arc of their relationship through text messages, home video, church footage, and Mica’s own journals, alongside firsthand accounts from the siblings and friends who witnessed it unfold. When Mica was found dead in 2024 at age 30 — in a case officially ruled a suicide — those closest to her were left with many unanswered questions, and the series follows their search for clarity into the present day.
Long before her tragic death, Mica was known among her family for her voice. “My whole family is very musically talented, but Mica has the best voice,” her brother, Nate Francis, says in the series. “She loved singing.” Originally from Wichita, Kansas, Mica moved with her family to Myrtle Beach, where she threw herself into her church community and became a worship leader while she was still a teenager. Those who knew her remember her confidence, her faith, and the light she brought to the people around her.
John-Paul Miller — known as JP — was the pastor of Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach. A gifted musician with a frank, unconventional preaching style, he drew a devoted congregation to the church attended by Mica and her family. 15 years her senior, JP eventually married Mica in 2017. Their marriage had its origins in an affair that began years earlier, while JP was still married and Mica worked as his assistant — a relationship that became a scandal within the church when it surfaced. In the years that followed, the marriage deteriorated; Mica resolved to leave JP but struggled to get away, ultimately serving him divorce papers in April 2024, just two days before her death. In December 2025, a federal grand jury indicted Miller on charges of cyberstalking and making false statements to investigators. He has pleaded not guilty and has not been charged in connection with Mica’s death. (As of August, his trial is scheduled for October 2026.) Miller declined to comment for the series.
The filmmakers built the series around the archive Mica left behind, which they accessed with her family’s permission. “We had archival of Mica, video of her spanning years, so we could really see how she was growing up in the church, her talent with music, and worship and her faith,” Nason says. “We leaned into the archival to speak for itself.”
Central to that effort were Mica’s own journals. These diaries, Nason says, “really showed the most private and interior part of her, which her family was open to us working with to bring her to life.”
To let those private writings be heard in as close an approximation to Mica’s own intonation as possible, the filmmakers used voice recreation technology — the same approach they took on American Murder: Gabby Petito. “The idea is really just to try to make it all about Mica,” Gasparro says, “to hear what reflects as close to her voice as possible.”
The docuseries draws its account from the people who were closest to Mica. At its center are her siblings and sister-in-law — the Francis family — who lived the story as it unfolded. They’re joined by close friends of Mica’s and former members of Solid Rock Church who knew both her and JP well, along with those who tried to offer help over the years, including a biblical counselor and the attorney Mica retained for her divorce. Also weighing in is an investigative journalist who took a closer look at the questions surrounding her death.
Narrowing down the interviews and centering Mica’s immediate family was a deliberate choice by the filmmakers — and, they say, a necessity, given how many people wanted to speak for her. “So many people actually sat that didn’t make the final cut,” Goldstein says. “Ultimately, we collectively decided that the siblings were the right vehicle to tell her story. … A lot of people wanted to speak on Mica’s behalf, which speaks to what a big community she had and what a bright light she was to so many people.”
“This was a story about Mica and her siblings, who were really the ones that had to go through this with her,” Gasparro says. “There are also church family and friends that went on this journey with her.”
As it retraces Mica’s story, the docuseries digs into coercive control — a form of domestic abuse in which an abuser gradually strips away a victim’s freedom, independence, and self-worth through a sustained pattern of psychological, emotional, and financial manipulation. Hear from the filmmakers on coercive control and learn about the family’s fight for legal reform in our companion story here.
Death of the Pastor’s Wife is now streaming.
An inquisitive, emotional, intimate, and — at times — provocative portrait, Death of the Pastor’s Wife pieces together the life of a gifted worship leader whose faith, marriage, and identity became dangerously entangled, and follows the family and friends still fighting for the truth about her death.
