Transcript of 10) What Led To Mica’s Family Reaching Settlement With JP Miller + Affair Accusations

There are no witnesses, no fingerprints, and no confession to the 1992 deaths of Tommy Griffin and his sister Connie Branham in East Tennessee. There are, however, 4 alleged and uninvestigated alternate suspects, 6 alibi witnesses, a disgraced medical examiner, a nearly impossible timeline, a bad search warrant, and a man named Gary Sutton sitting on death row. I'm Beth Braden, a writer and investigative journalist, and I'm going to tell you why I believe the death penalty does more harm than good in my new podcast, Time of Death. In February 1992, 28-year-old Gary Sutton, his uncle James Dellinger, and Gary's best friend, Tommy Griffin, went out drinking. The night ended with Tommy laying dead on the riverbank. Tommy's sister, Connie Branham, went looking for her missing brother the following day and was never seen alive again. Gary and James were convicted of murdering Tommy and Connie and sent to death row, where Dellinger died of natural causes in 2023, and Gary Sutton awaits his fate. Follow my investigation to explore this capital case and others as the clock ticks down towards Gary Sutton's December execution. Search for Time of Death wherever you like to get your podcasts.

You know me, I dig until I find the truth, and it turns out That same instinct that drives my investigative journalism? It makes for a different, but pretty amazing, new kind of travel show. Wherever It Leads is Luna Shark's brand new podcast, and it's nothing like the travel content that you've heard before. We go deeper. We talk to locals, reporters, and people who actually live where you want to visit, not just the ones who want your tourist dollars. We cover the food and landmarks, sure, but we also ask the harder questions. What is the real history here? The often sad and traumatic history? What new challenge is this place facing? And how can you show up as a visitor who actually makes things better? My co-host David Moses and I, along with a team of journalists, are hitting destinations around the world to expose the truth, give voice to victims throughout history, and get the story straight. With new destinations and episodes every other week. Wherever It Leads from Luna Shark. Find it wherever you listen to your podcasts or visit whereveritleadspod.com.

This is Coerced: The Devotion and Death of Micah Francis Miller. A Luna Shark drop feed. Journalists Mandy Matney, Liz Farrell, and Beth Braden have been reporting on Micah's story for more than 2 years now for the True Sunlight podcast. Coerced is a Luna Shark production made possible by producers Kate Thomas, David Moses, and me, Grace Hills. In our last episode, you heard how Micah went from victim to accused, how JP's church filed theft reports against her, twice and how even her notary stamp became a weapon. That's the pattern of this story. Every time Micah tried to build something of her own, it was turned against her. In July 2024, 3 months after Micah Frances Miller's death, Micah's family and their attorney Regina Ward announced that they reached a global settlement with JP Miller in their fight for control over Micah's estate. The majority of the details in the settlement were sealed, so it's impossible to determine who really won here. In any situation, there is so much more than money and estate rights to consider when a victim's family decides to settle. In this episode, Liz and Mandy will tell you everything we know about the settlement and most importantly, what JP did leading up to it.

Was he pressuring Micah's family to settle? Was he sending signals through his social media supporters? And JP still has social media supporters. He did back in July 2024 and he still does now. Here's the show.

It definitely does seem like JP regards this as a huge win and a huge vindication and perhaps even an I told you so to his enemies. But the thing is, he didn't win. There are 5 things happening here. One, the Francis family was trying to keep JP from having control over Micah's estate. But for practical purposes, let's just consider this as inherit her estate. They were trying to keep JP from getting Micah's assets, which obviously is a disgusting prospect if you believe that the reason for Micah's death is JP. At any rate, this was going to be a long fight because by law he was the executor because Micah didn't have a will. He was technically her next of kin. 2 months ago, the family was able to get items of Micah's that were important to them, like her phone. But ultimately, Micah's estate didn't have much because JP was the breadwinner. Which brings us to number 2. Why fight over an estate that has nothing in it? 2 months after Micah filed for divorce the first time, JP sold their house, which was in his name, to the church. The family believed that JP had fraudulently conveyed his and Micah's house to the church in an effort to deprive Micah of her marital property when the divorce ultimately went through.

So they were asking the family court to rule on whether the property or other house-related assets were still considered marital. If the court agreed with them, then that would mean that half of the value of those marital assets would become a part of Micah's estate, which means inheritable. Now, JP made this out to be a cash grab by the family, but there's a what's fair is fair aspect here, right? The family believes JP is ultimately responsible for Micah's death, so why should he get to benefit from it? Especially when Micah spent much of the last 7 months of her life trying to leave him. So one way to look at this is to consider that the family wasn't just looking for money. They were also, in a way, trying to deprive JP of reaping any reward from Micah's death. The final takeaway on these 2 things— this wasn't really a lawsuit. As we have seen JP's defenders and others referring to it, he didn't win a lawsuit. Sierra Francis dropped her petition to be Micah's executor, and she dropped her petition for the family court to decide what was considered marital property. Once there was a decision on that, the next battle would have been on whether they could remove JP as executor.

But now none of that has to happen.

Okay.

The third thing happening here is the potential for a wrongful death lawsuit loomed on the horizon. It was something that the family apparently was considering, but a wrongful death claim against JP would have almost certainly resulted in a counterclaim from JP since he has been singing from every rooftop that he believes the family was responsible for Micah's death. Both sides agreed to not pursue wrongful death claims against each other, which really frustrated people because obviously this kind of lawsuit would have further exposed what was happening in Micah's marriage in the 18 months leading up to her death. It would have been a clear inroad to finding if JP's claims about Micah's medications and mental health Were fully versions of the truth. But also, this absolutely would have resulted in a prolonged legal battle, and it would have gotten very ugly. I mean, think about how ugly it has been so far without a double lawsuit. The family would have basically had to deal with JP every single day. They would be forced to see his face on the news all of the time. They would be forced to hear his words, and that would likely be a very traumatic prospect for them.

Think about JP's recent media tour and how distressful that was for them, and think about them enduring that for years. So for anyone out there upset about there not being a wrongful death suit, Remember that the family had to consider what their next 3 to 6 years would look like as plaintiffs and potentially defendants in a case like this. The 4th thing happening here is the protests. JP is clearly very affected by them. Recently, he quite comically tried to block the protesters from calling for justice for Micah by purchasing a couple of panels of a privacy fence. Not a whole fence, just a few panels. Enough that made it look about as ridiculous as you are picturing it right now. JP's position lately on the protesters is that they are trying to keep quote-unquote good Christians from practicing Christianity, which is immediately dumb. They aren't protesting Christianity or churches. They are protesting JP. And they are reminding JP's congregants that they are continuing to attend and support a church run by JP despite everything that has come out about him over the past 3 months. Apparently, part of this settlement deal was a call for the protests to end, which they did.

But joke's on JP, the protesters were not controlled by the Francis family. Many of the protesters are out there because they genuinely don't like what they see, and they are challenging the people who continue to support JP despite the horrifying details that have come out about him, including that he allegedly admitted to the elders that he had sexually abused teenagers at the church, and including an allegation that he's used church funds before to pay off women. who were threatening to expose his alleged bad acts. There are police reports galore, and let's not forget about everything contained in Micah's list. So yeah, it is understandably offensive to people that JP continues to present himself as a man of God when the allegations against him don't seem to support that image. And it is understandably offensive that there is a certain number of people who continue to stand by him. Again, JP denies every allegation that has been made against him, and he's never been charged with molestation or any sort of domestic abuse with either of his wives. But the 5th thing that is happening here is that this was a settlement. The details of that settlement have been sealed, so we don't know if the Francis family received money or how much they received.

But I think it's a good assumption that they received some sort of money in exchange of dropping everything. This is money that they likely would not have gotten otherwise. I say this because, again, JP was Micah's legal heir. So if we're going to talk about who won, it would seem that that title goes to the Francis family. JP's smirk and smile Could have been because he believes that he was the victor, or it could have been out of relief because he doesn't want to worry about a wrongful death case. So let's say that JP did pay the Francis family some money. Where would that money have come from? I think that that is a very important question for those still attending Solid Rock, and they are entitled to answers on that. JP has said on the record before that Russell B. Long is the church's attorney. So who is paying Russell for JP's personal representation? The lines are really blurred between JP and the church. As JP's first wife, Allison Williams, said in her affidavit, JP is the church and the church is JP. Does that mean that JP can just spend the church's money however he wants?

We don't know the answer to that, but it is a question that we would be asking if we attended that church. And it is a question that the FBI should be investigating right now. In addition, would a settlement on JP's behalf paid by the church be considered taxable income for him? Our other question here, is this really what the Francis family wanted, or was this something that they were pressured into? Is this something that they did because JP was making things harder on them?

5 moving pieces, a sealed agreement, and a family choosing peace over facing years of JP in court. But a settlement doesn't happen in a vacuum. In the weeks before that Monday in July, Mandy and Liz noticed something. JP was suddenly everywhere. Videos, interviews, accounts that seemed to appear out of nowhere to tell his side. Here is where they started following that thread. From True Sunlight Podcast, episode 61.

For now, we want to start at the beginning of JP's apparent public relations tour that led up to Monday. Let's talk about this TikTok and now YouTube account that began publishing videos of JP on June 9th, the account that then deleted those videos right before JP's apparent PR campaign began. True Crime Re. We've cited this mysterious and suspicious account so many times over the past several weeks without knowing who they are or what their connection to JP may or may not be. Over the past week, we've looked at the account from all different angles, and we've read hundreds of comments and watched videos from internet sleuths who believe this account is either managed by JP or someone else in his circle. Speaking of his circle, photos and videos circulated this past week of JP at a pizza restaurant with his right-hand woman, Tricia Ross, his alleged paramour, Susie Skinner, and a woman whom a source of ours identified as being the mother of Mark Kaufman, the woman who allegedly helped JP get the church a private plane so he could spread his word across the state and elsewhere. What was the actual plan for that plane, by the way?

For JP to fly places and preach? Or is there something else going on with that? We don't know. We'll talk more about the church and its finances at some point, but it is worth mentioning again that churches are tax-exempt, and there are some instances across the country of wealthy individuals using churches as a place to park their assets. We are not saying that this is what's happening here. We're saying it's why we think it's important to get a clearer picture of Solid Rock's financial position, especially because before Micah died, she had told her friend Charlotte that she thought something nefarious was happening there. At any rate, True Crime Re— This account popped up on June 6th, possibly earlier. I say June 6th because this is when the account posted videos related to the Noah Pressgrove case out of Oklahoma. Interestingly, Noah Pressgrove was on the COVID of People magazine. So Noah was found dead on a road in rural Oklahoma in September 2023, about a mile from a party he had attended that night. He wasn't wearing any clothes, and according to People magazine, his skull was split in 2 and his spine was fractured.

His cause of death was blunt force trauma. Now, what was True Crime Reads' interest in this case? Unclear, but it seems fleeting at best. The first video posted is a compilation of videos taken from the party Noah was at that night. True Crime Reese's caption is, working on the Noah Presgrove case with Attorney General of Oklahoma, which is not how that typically works. True crime content creators on TikTok aren't usually side-by-siding it with state attorneys general to help solve cases. Nor are journalists. So, to us, this felt like someone playing make-believe and misunderstanding how true crime journalism works. At the end of the video, there is text stating, spent time with the Oklahoma AG today discussing your case. RIP Noah. We will get answers for you. Again, no idea if this part is true, but okay. The second video was posted 2 days later, on June 8th. Again, it appears to be original content to True Crime Re: and like in the first video, True Crime Re: is responding to comments with enthusiasm over a shared interest and promising more content about Noah. The next day, JP's first video appears on True Crime Re: page.

The story JP gives is this: True Crime Re: reached out to him for his side of things, and because she was interested in hearing his side, He began speaking with her and now trusts her to post his content. Intriguing, right? This video has since been taken down. Now, many of you might remember that in mid-May, JP appeared to have created his own TikTok account called jp.miller28. This account was predictably short-lived, but in the time it was live, several photos of JP and Micah were posted along with a Bible quote from Proverbs 14:15. A naive person is easily misled and believes every word he hears. I should note that whoever posted this, JP or otherwise, they misspelled misled. Then there was a poem purportedly written by Micah titled Crush Forever. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but here's a few notable verses. Passing notes in school just isn't enough, and keeping our hands off each other is tough. You see mine and I see yours. Then we blush and quickly pull up our drawers. The poem then goes on to mention that it's time for the classmates in this poem to go to college, but why would they do that when they're having so much fun?

Quote, I look up in the sky so happy with my life and a plane flies by. Micah, will you be my wife? A moment of destiny I couldn't have planned better, that I got to marry my crush forever. So was that written about JP, who was a grown man at the time? Micah was around 22 or 23 when he proposed. Or was it written about her first husband whom she married when she was 18, the age when people typically go off to college as she mentions in the poem? An age that could make both her and her first husband classmates. Whoever posted it obviously believes it's about JP. There are photos of JP and Micah posing as a couple. In one shot, he is in a Spider-Man costume and she's wearing a Wonder Woman costume. There's a photo of Micah in bed wearing silk pajamas and looking like she had bedhead that says, maybe my favorite picture of Micah, written over it. There are photos of Micah wearing a Mrs. Miller sweatshirt, of Micah holding a pig, of JP and Micah comparing tattoos, of Micah getting ready to paraglide, of Micah sitting next to JP with text written over it that says, Micah's homescreen pic, and there's no apostrophe denoting a possessive, which is a punctuation quirk Also used by True Crime Re in the Noah Presgrove videos, by the way.

And then there's a photo of JP kneeling in front of Micah on the beach, appearing to propose to her. Micah with her hair in a side ponytail and both hands in the air. Then there's a video of them both with a plane flying above and the message, Micah, will you marry me? Love, JP, trailing behind it. Yes, like from the poem. It's a chicken and an egg scenario though. We don't know which one came first, the poem or the plane. Also posted on this account before it was abruptly removed was a post that said, the actual truth is about to come out, get ready. So as soon as mid-May, JP appears to have been trying to reroute the narrative away from any notion of abusive husband. And again, I say appears. We do not know if he posted the photos on this page, but It does seem to be him given the nature of the photos and the motivation of the person posting them. Now, at this time, JP was turning down requests for interviews with reporters, and less than a week earlier, JP was mocked online for a poorly written cease and desist letter sent out by Russell B.

Long, Solid Rock's lawyer, on JP's behalf. You might remember that letter was incredibly aggressive and seemingly designed to shut creators down from speaking about JP online. One was sent to Micah's best friend Charlotte Korn after she first appeared on True Sunlight. Additionally, the letter sloppily corrected the record on a police report in which the officer erroneously wrote that Micah said she had been groomed by JP since she was 10 years old, rather than what she likely told the officer, which was that she believed he'd been grooming her since 2010 when she was around 15, which The letter points out basically saying that this couldn't be farther from the truth, while in the next breath noting that Micah was 15, not 10, when JP knew her. Which, as we said back then, is not the argument they seemed to think it was. Regardless, the letter doesn't appear to have worked on very many, if any, creators. In fact, after the letter came out, it seemed like there was an even bigger number of people covering this. This is all just to say that now, with hindsight, We can pretty much see what looks to us to be a genesis of sorts.

JP tried to silence the media and creators through a lawyer. When that didn't work, he posted photos of him and his wife with an insult to those questioning his narrative and a promise— or maybe it was a threat— to reveal more soon. When that didn't quiet people down, he then turned to this True Crime Re person.

So, is True Crime Marie actually JP? It's odd that this person jumped so quickly from Noah Presgrove to being JP Miller's platform. I mean, 2 days into their quote-unquote project, as they refer to it, they were now fully focused on JP, seemingly. It is not clear what videos have been taken down of Noah Presgrove. between the creation of this account and JP's first appearance on it 3 days later. But shortly after JP's videos began appearing, True Crime Re shared a video of a private detective in Florida talking about what constitutes harassment online, one of JP and Solid Rock's chief concerns at the time, and he mentions the Micah Francis case. Additionally, Without even perhaps realizing his own irony here, the private detective notes that criminal harassment isn't just a person feeling bad about an opinion that's posted about them. The person doing the harassment is doing it specifically to upset the recipient of the harassment. Now, obviously, people's suspicions were raised. Is this True Crime Re:Person someone interested in the case or is something else happening here? As people were sharing theories that this account was closely connected to JP, the account returned to non-JP content.

On June 24th, they posted a video about Taylor Casey, the American missing from a yoga retreat in the Bahamas. The next non-JP content seems to have come a few weeks later on July 13th when True Crime Re returned to the Noah Presgrove case With a video on a reward notice. The next day, all of JP's videos were taken down from the account. When asked why all the videos of JP were taken down, True Crime Re told their followers that they made them private because they were diving back into the Noah Presgrove case, and they said that they didn't want Noah's family or loved ones to see all the hateful comments about JP on those videos. And they said that JP's videos are now only available to law enforcement, which initially seemed like True Crime Ree was trying to separate from JP. But no. A day later, a commenter on True Crime Ree's next video, a 20-second clip of a guy singing about the joy of making haters mad, asked them why they are not posting about JP anymore. The answer was, I'm focusing on the Noah Presgrove case. After that, one video got posted about Noah Presgrove, and just like the one that was posted on July 13th, it was a very short video of an award notice, meaning it was something that anyone with a Canva account could have whipped up in minutes.

But of course, Ree didn't stop posting about JP Miller, and the next several videos focused on him. And that Robbie Stinky Harvey, who JP apparently can't stand but also can't stop talking about. Now, I want to also mention that a number of creators and commenters have said that the True Crime Re-Account was using an AI photo of a woman as a profile picture. We are not particularly well-versed in the TikTok universe that popped up after Micah's death. We don't know the politics between creators, and I'm for sure not going to give the right people credit here, and I might be oversimplifying things. Feel free to reach out to us if there's anything you think that we aren't understanding. Once you dive into the TikToks, it becomes a hot mess, and it is hard to keep track of all these fake names and the drama. But a TikToker named @aplagenborg says that this AI photo came back attached to a LinkedIn account that has since been deleted. This account belonged to someone purportedly named Sharon Walsh. Someone apparently called the place that Sharon had listed as a workplace and they purportedly told that person that there was no Sharon Walsh there and never had been.

So could True Crime Ree be coincidentally using the same photo as whoever was behind this fake LinkedIn account? Of course. The issue here, though, is that the LinkedIn account That is allegedly attached to the profile picture being used by True Crime Ree was apparently created on or around March 7th of this year, which is Micah's birthday and a day after the probate court disagreed with JP's assessment of Micah's mental health and refused to commit her to a hospital. It is also when things started heating up with the alleged harassment that Micah was reporting to the police. And it is when, according to Micah's list and other sources, that JP was allegedly posting as Micah online and over text messages and email. So that's weird, right? Even more strange is that when people started questioning this person's account, the account got deleted. You all know we don't believe in coincidences when it comes to cases like this. And we will be right back with more on that. You know me, I dig until I find the truth. And it turns out, that same instinct that drives my investigative journalism, it makes for a different but pretty amazing new kind of travel show.

Wherever It Leads is Luna Shark's brand new podcast, and it's nothing like the travel content that you've heard before. We go deeper. We talk to locals, reporters, and people who actually live where you want to visit, not just the ones who want your tourist dollars. We cover the food and landmarks, sure, but we also ask the harder questions. What is the real history here? The often sad and traumatic history? What new challenge is this place facing? And how can you show up as a visitor who actually makes things better? My co-host David Moses and I, along with a team of journalists, are hitting destinations around the world to expose the truth, give voice to victims throughout history, and get the story straight. With new destinations and episodes every other week. Wherever It Leads from Luna Shark. Find it wherever you listen to your podcasts or visit whereveritleadspod.com.

Okay, I want to share one more coincidence. We all know that according to Micah's friends and family and multiple sources, including JP himself, JP is very big into the Marvel Universe. Hence the life-size Spider-Man statue that appeared in one of his videos and him purportedly dressing up as Spider-Man to avoid cameras. since all of this came out. Spider-Man is from a comic book, and according to sources, JP is into comic books. Like, very into them, apparently. Specifically from the Marvel Universe. So, True Crime Ri, or True Crime R.I. We know R.I. can stand for Rhode Island, so that's a possibility, right? We know it could be a shortened version of someone's first name, right? Rianne, or even Ryan. Or R.I. could even be from the middle of someone's name, like Adriana. What we just learned is that RI is also an initialism used by comic book fans. It means retailer incentive. See, comic book collectors know that there are different variations of covers. An RI cover would be a rare one. It's a cover that was created as an incentive to get retailers to order more editions of a given comic book for their store.

If they ordered a lot, they would get to have one with a different cover. Again, it's a cover. A rare, sought-after comic book cover. Now, I hear how I sound right now. Very comment section, very conspiracy theory. But I'm just adding a new piece of information to the table as we explore this. I would also like to add that after Monday's settlement, one of the first accounts to celebrate JP's so-called victory Was an account on TikTok called Justice for JP, with the username Loki. Loki is yet another Marvel comic book character, the god of mischief. On Tuesday evening, Loki's account posted an AI-generated video of JP dancing in front of Solid Rock with the headline, POV, no Sunday protest, and Loki hashtagged #JusticeForMicah in their post. So literally right after this settlement, we have another account named Loki weighing in in JP's favor in the most childish of ways.

So in summary, we have True Crime Re, an account seemingly run by a younger woman, at least according to one TikToker who posted a supposed interview with True Crime Re. She sounds like a woman in her 20s or 30s. This True Crime Re claimed to be created to explore the Noah Presgrove case. But in reality, they barely did that. So this person is obviously connected to JP because they ran videos for JP, ones that were derogatory of Micah and her family. On top of that, there's a potential comic book connection when it comes to the name True Crimeery. Then when JP was making arrangements behind the scenes and sitting for interviews with NewsNation, The Myrtle Beach Sun News and other online creators, True Crime Marie suddenly deleted JP's old videos. They claimed that they pulled the videos to avoid exposing Noah's family to the negative comments on JP's videos. But was there another reason? Did they do it because maybe some of what JP said in those videos could have gotten him into trouble with the FBI? Were they pulled so they wouldn't conflict with anything that he said in the longer, more official videos?

Or were they pulled to create a market for JP's videos, which another user was charging people to view? AKA to make them more exclusive. Another question: was all of this a part of some crisis PR effort? Were the True Crime Re videos pulled because JP had just met with the FBI? Were they pulled because they knew a settlement was coming soon? Another giveaway, True Crime Re appears to have beef with Robbie Harvey, even adopting JP's nickname for him. And though True Crime Re said that they are focused on the Noah Presgrove case, there continues to be no evidence of that. If JP is behind True Crime Ree, we don't believe that he is the only one. When True Crime Ree comments, they don't use the same grammar and syntax that JP does in his texts. So who is True Crime Ree? Is it someone related to JP, or is it someone related to a friend of his, perhaps? We don't want to falsely accuse anyone of being behind this account, But we do want to raise the question given the evidence before us. If JP is connected to this account as it appears, then that is even more evidence of how far he is willing to go to manipulate reality and even more evidence of how intense he can be about it, and it would give us even more insight into what Micah would have been going through in the last few months of her life.

Now, to the fun part. True Crime Re has hopped over to YouTube. They joined on July 15th. That's right, the day after JP's videos were taken down from the TikTok page so that True Crime Re could focus on Noah Presgrove. This is also when the first part of JP's 2-part interview with FloDaddy went live. So there are 3 videos on YouTube. One is a recording of JP's phone call on March 11th to accuse a church employee of having an affair with Micah. We will talk about that next. The second video is the full 2-hour video that JP did with NewsNation. We will talk about that later, but the inclusion of both of these videos shows a close connection between True Crime Ree and JP because it appears that JP Took both of those recordings. The 3rd video is about whether the protests outside of Solid Rock are peaceful or an infringement on JP Miller and other church members. According to sources, the supposed reporter in that video, a woman named Destiny Dutton, misrepresented her identity to protesters when she interviewed them. And I'm not just talking about giving them the wrong name. It appears like she went to some lengths for this antic.

Destiny appears to be connected to Dominion TV, which is owned by her family and is a religious TV network in Myrtle Beach. Dominion TV was started by her father, who got his 2 doctorates from Cathedral Bible College. Does that sound familiar? because it should. It's the unaccredited college that JP Miller's father started. And oh look, he started it with this other fellow, J.L. Dutton, Destiny's grandpa. Talk about close ties. Anyways, people were sharing videos of Destiny's press badge, which purportedly identified her as Adrian Fisher. Coincidentally, Destiny's middle name is Adrian, According to records, and Fisher appears to be her mother's maiden name. The video does not include her using this fake name, but the hilarious thing is that her press pass literally says press and media badge on it in those words. It's straight up like someone playing make-believe, just like True Crime Re with the Noah Presgrove video and working on the Attorney General in that case. Though we might call them badges when referring to them, neither of us have ever seen one that calls itself badge on the badge. Usually they say media or press on them with the publication or broadcast company on it.

Hers said Coastal Life Media on it. Reporter Beth Braden found a particularly terribly designed website for Coastal Life Media. Guess when the domain was purchased? On July 21st at 9:52 AM. Not only the same day that Destiny Dutton showed up to interview protesters pretending to be Adrian Fisher, but around that same time. The domain was purchased by a third-party company used to keep the true registrant's identity private. On that same Sunday morning, As those accusations came flying into our inboxes, Beth checked to see if this Coastal Life Media had any online presence, and it did not at the time, meaning this site didn't go live until later. So why buy it at that moment? Was it to make it look like it wouldn't technically be a lie? Because remember, we're talking about Christians here. Both Liz and I were raised Catholic, and this kind of thing would have you saying a whole lot of Hail Marys. There would be no technically I wasn't lying, and more than that, this would have brought shame onto our families. If any of y'all went to Catholic school growing up, you know exactly what we're talking about. That said, the site must have been put up pretty quickly after that because they spelled coastal their own media name, COSTAL.

What does Costal Life Media purport to do? Well, they, quote, develop the capabilities of freelance journalism. Yep. And, quote unquote, produce investigation reports. That's right, investigation reports. By the way, despite what Drew Barrymore did in Never Been Kissed, We don't do this. Reporters don't go undercover for basement stories like this. She wasn't Nellie Bly trying to expose the horrible conditions of insane asylums. She was trying to deceive people who were calling justice for Micah, a woman who just died. Who goes to those lengths? All of them should be mortified. We have secondhand embarrassment for them. Anyways, the protesters were on to Destiny Dutton's game almost immediately. They knew she was not Adriane Fisher. But again, here we have yet another example of a pro-JP Miller PR push. Though True Crime Re: tries to act like they are neutral or even anti-JP, it really looks like they are working in sync. And they clearly found value in Destiny's video. And here it appears that Destiny Dutton and JP are also working in sync, kind of, at least in the same way that he is working with True Crime Ree, right? Because why lie? Why hide your identity?

Why create a fake media badge? Why create a fake website? Why use a cover? There's that word again, right? Cover. And why go to those lengths if you are planning to settle? Why would he try to bolster his media reach before heading into negotiations with Micah's family? Unless that was the point all along.

That was the machinery Working on JP's behalf in the summer of 2024. You'll hear Suzy Skinner mentioned in that segment as JP's alleged paramour, a woman JP has since married, and Mandy and Liz will shed a lot of sunlight on her late husband, Chris Skinner, in later episodes. But the centerpiece of that campaign was a single audio recording, one JP apparently believed would prove Micah was the villain of the story. It's a phone call he made in the early hours of March 11th, 2024. And do you remember that date from episode 7? That's the same night Micah found a razor blade in her tire at Springmaid Pier. Federal prosecutors would later allege JP bought that tire deflation device online and lied to the FBI about it. Here's what JP was doing that night, continuing from True Sunlight Podcast episode 61.

Okay, let's talk about this recording of a young man named DJ that got posted on True Crime Reads' YouTube page over the past week. DJ is the church member and employee we've talked about in earlier episodes, the one Micah was with in the early hours of March 11th. Sources have told us that when JP's private investigator discovered that Micah was with a man that night, that JP went berserk. And that in the wee hours of March 11th, he was calling around trying to find out what kind of car does DJ drive. The video of this phone call that he apparently made to DJ later, as in the middle of the night, it's just the audio playing over a photo of a young guy in a blue car. The photo has a timestamp and location on it, as if maybe it came from the private investigator. March 11th at 1:58 AM on Farrell Parkway in Myrtle Beach. The video, again posted on True Crime Reads' new YouTube page, is stylized with a gaudy gold border, kind of like the gold touches on Dominion TV's website. As we told you many a times, March 11th isn't just a pivotal date in Micah's timeline from Micah's perspective.

JP has even said this date was when everything changed for him. On March 11th, JP's PI caught Micah hanging out with DJ on the beach near Springmaid Pier, which should sound familiar to you. That's where Micah found the deflation device in her tire. It's important to note that JP obviously views this incident as changing everything for different reasons than Micah did, and for different reasons than the rest of us likely do. He seems to believe that everyone was going to listen to this and conclude that Micah was having an affair and that this is going to be the mic drop to end all mic drops for him, meaning that this would absolve him of Everything he's been accused of in their relationship, and it would make Micah look terrible. But she wasn't having an affair, not only by what we hear in this phone call, but also JP and Micah were separated again. Also, anyone who is this deep into Micah's story at this point and is now hearing about this makeout session is likely thinking to themselves, you go, girl. Now, we know South Carolina divorce law is bad. It puts women in abusive situations in harm's way.

For all practical purposes, Micah's marriage seemed to have ended in some form anyway on November 2022. For most of 2023, it appears that JP and Micah were in some form of separation or working on things. That is until October, when Micah filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery on JP's part. Not only did JP's ex-wife outline JP's apparent affair with church member Susie Skinner, whose husband died tragically in September 2021 when his wheelchair was found with him in it at the bottom of a pool, we know that church members were starting to suspect JP of having multiple affairs. And according to reports, the elders were made aware of these issues. So again, South Carolina divorce law in a no-fault divorce Forces the broken couple to live separately for a year without any sexual relations with each other before a judge will grant a divorce. During that time, the couple is technically still married. But JP accusing Micah of having an affair at a time when she has left him yet again after he had her involuntarily hospitalized and tried to do it again, and at a time when she was seeking money to refile for divorce, Because he allegedly persuaded her to drop her already filed case, and at a time when JP himself has filed for divorce and has been allegedly having affairs for a prolonged period, is sick.

More on all of that in a minute.

And it's twisted, but that is exactly what he did. And though it would seem JP thinks that this recorded call looks bad for Micah, it absolutely does not. It looks bad for him from every single angle. First off, let's talk about DJ. He's around 20 years old. In 2021, he was a freshman in college according to online reports. He works, or worked, for Solid Rock up until at least March 11th, and he seemed to be highly valued there. Sources have said that he used to be JP's understudy. His mother is Heather Wilson. The high-ranking police officer JP has referenced several times in reports as having helped him with Micah. From what sources have told us, Heather Wilson is no longer an ally of JP's. It is not clear when this changed. In November 2022, Micah's family appears to have believed that Heather, whose husband worked security for the church, was using her position to help JP. But since then, the family has spoken out in favor of Heather, calling her a friend to Micah in the end. We believe that she has been cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation into Micah's death and what led up to it.

So JP's private investigator, let's talk about him real quick. According to JP, he hired an investigator to make sure that Micah didn't go to Dick's Pawn Shop to buy a gun. JP claims that Micah had tried to kill herself at least 6 or 7 times before and that she had gone to Dick's before to try to buy a gun. In the extended version of his interview with Rich McHugh of NewsNation, you know, the recording that True Crime reposted, JP claimed that the private investigator was like, no, man, I cannot tail her for that reason. That would be illegal. It has to be a reason like adultery. And JP claims he was like, what? Okay, well, she wasn't having an affair on me. But there was this one kid who worked with the church who was harassing her. So JP reluctantly gave DJ's name to the PI. And then look at that, the PI found DJ with Micah. What a coincidence. And by a coincidence, I mean a coincidence that does not exist. So initially in this recording, right off the bat, JP demands to know whether or not DJ touched Micah. I have to point this out because it is 2024 and men like JP are still talking about women like they are nothing more than a piece of property without any agency of her own.

Throughout the conversation, JP never once mentions Micah's mental health. He never once mentions the alleged medication that he allegedly begged everyone in her life to make her take. He never once shows a shred of concern for Micah, you know, his estranged wife, who he described to NewsNation as being vulnerable like an autistic child. But the conversation is not focused at all on Micah as a person. JP is focused on Micah, the property that he owns, and how another man simply touching that property is disparaging to him. It is sick and twisted to hear this 45-year-old man berating this young man who he used to mentor about how and where exactly he touched Micah, and to hear this man's terrified answers describing what sounds like very modest interactions. DJ is clearly nervous and repentant And views JP as an authority figure who he has let down. And it is clear that JP knows this. He capitalizes on it. He devours it. He relishes it. In this moment, JP seems to be incredibly aware of his power over DJ, both literally as his boss and spiritually because he is his pastor. His conduit to God. He goes between being the disappointed deity and a victim of DJ's sins.

It is equally as sick knowing that this video was posted by someone on JP's side who actually thought that this video that was recorded in the middle of the night— JP tells DJ that his PI will have the photos and videos of him allegedly touching Micah By morning time. Again, it is incredibly telling that JP is doing all of this in the middle of the night. In the video, JP comes at DJ again and accuses him of doing more than just kissing Micah. Again, in a pleading voice, DJ denies it. Then JP comes back at him, saying that the PI said both of y'all touched each other inappropriately. DJ again says no, that was normal kissing. They go back and forth about how long the kissing was, and then JP snaps.

And you know this is adultery, right? This is straight up adultery.

I do, and I'm repenting to you.

Because we're not— we're not legally separated. Even if we were legally separated, it's still adultery.

And I am incredibly, incredibly sorry.

Again, this isn't adultery, never mind straight-up adultery, and there's no such thing as a legal separation in South Carolina. Allegedly, JP knows that he has been cheating on Micah, and Micah left him several times over the past 18 months and had just left him again. And it's got to be noted, JP had filed for divorce more than 2 weeks earlier than this. Asking for temporary relief from the court. The audacity.

For JP to sit there and shame this guy and lie to him knowing all this, it's just so hard to listen to. DJ offers his repentance, and I'm telling you, without seeing how DJ looked in that moment, you can hear it. You can hear his head hanging. You can hear the guilt he was feeling. As DJ continues to apologize, JP cuts him off again and asks him why he thinks Micah called him that night. And he tells DJ that he has zero discernment.

Do you not see that a married woman called you and asked to meet you at the beach?

DJ starts to apologize again and his voice cracks and JP cuts him off again.

JP is like, I thought you had discernment. You said you had discernment better than a 70-year-old man.

DJ corrects him and he says miserably, I was saying better than some 70-year-old men. Which— what is that? What is this discernment measuring contest that's happening? DJ tells JP that he's not on the phone to argue. He says he's repenting and he doesn't know what to do beyond ask for JP's forgiveness. He says he doesn't expect JP to forgive him. I don't know what else to tell you other than to ask for your forgiveness, and honestly, I don't even expect that from you. And JP responds with, no, I forgive you.

No, I forgive you. No, I, I forgive you.

As DJ is telling JP that he feels sick to his stomach about this whole thing, JP cuts him off yet again and says, You know, Micah did the same thing to me 10 years ago. This exact same thing. We met at the same place. And there it is, right? There goes JP making Micah out to be the Jezebel, the temptress. JP is making it seem like he too fell for Micah's tricks, like he was led into sin by her. And it's absolutely disgusting of him. DJ continues to apologize and says he'll take all of the responsibility. JP responds by asking, you think she wants to date you or marry you or anything like that? DJ says no, and that he and Micah mostly talked, that it was basic conversation, that they talked about Micah's new church, and that they didn't even really talk about JP, which, you know, had to have upset JP, right? He likes people talking about him. He again cut off DJ with a question. And you kissed her or she kissed you? DJ says it was a mutual thing, and JP says, y'all were holding hands? DJ admits that yes, they were holding hands.

JP comes back at him saying, well, you didn't mention that before when I asked you how you were touching each other. JP tells DJ that he knows he was holding hands with Micah for a long time. DJ agrees but says it wasn't the whole time, but it was longer than he had kissed Micah. DJ begins to apologize again, and JP cuts him off yet again, saying, my guy says she grabbed your crotch. DJ repeats his question back to JP as if trying to understand why JP is saying something like this. JP says, yeah, that she put her hands on your junk. I'd say right about now we all need a little palate cleanser to remind ourselves that JP is a pastor and he's on the phone with a church member and employee at who knows what time in the morning, talking about whether this guy went to third base with his estranged wife, who he's allegedly cheated on repeatedly. JP tells DJ to swear to God that that did not happen, which DJ does, saying that Micah's hand was on his leg at one point and that's it. Again, DJ starts to offer another apology, and again, JP cuts him off, saying, He's going to check the photos and video to see if there's anything different from what DJ is telling him.

And he asks DJ whether there's anything else he wants to tell him before he looks at that evidence. DJ then tells JP that both Micah and he were lying down in the sand at one point. JP immediately asks, you on top of her or she on top of you? DJ answers that they were lying side by side. JP then says, you know, I was making love to her 4 weeks ago, and she told me that I was the best husband in the world. Reminder, 4 weeks prior to this, Micah was in the hospital. Also, JP is giving some real Facebook friends are my real friends energy here. You know, the kind who take offense if you don't like every photo of theirs and then think it means something really big when you do. And 4 weeks prior to March 11th, Micah's October 2023 divorce filing was still in play. Now, in November of 2023, they began to work on the relationship again, and Micah could have dismissed her filing back then or at any point in December or January. But she didn't. She kept it active until the day she was released from the hospital, which again, we wonder whether the timing of that indicates that she dismissed her filing in some sort of bargain with him to maybe get some of her things back.

So JP then asks DJ whether he knows what JP has been through with Micah. And just like that, he says, you're going to take that from me? So let's pause right there because what? Take what from JP? What's he insinuating? You know what I've been through with Micah. So what's he taking if he's insinuating that he's been through just hell and back with her mental issues? JP is acting like his marriage wasn't in shambles at that time and that Micah wasn't living somewhere else and that he hadn't tried to have her hospitalized again and that he hadn't taken her car. And again, he had just filed for divorce from her. JP is like, just like that, you're gonna ruin my marriage. Yeah, he's blaming DJ for the ruination of his relationship in that moment. And then, as if it were possible to make this any more weird, JP tells DJ that Micah had only slept with one other man before him, her first husband. Remember, JP was friends with that husband while sleeping with Micah behind his back. So spare us this sanctimony, please. JP then goes on to say he's the only other person Micah has ever kissed since her divorce.

He says, so if she comes back in 3 months, 6 months, what's that going to feel like? This notion, by the way, is so gross. He's acting like Micah has been tainted. Beyond that, why would JP have any thought that Micah was going to come back when he had just filed to divorce her. DJ can barely get out his next apology. I'm so sorry, he says. And there's JP again, using DJ's apology as an invitation to speak over him. Or a year, JP says, extending this fictional time in which Micah might return to him. Which, by the way, remember that JP has already told DJ that he and Micah are not separated. If they are not separated, what exactly does he mean when she returns to him? How can she return to someone she's not separated from? JP then tells DJ, And I warned you. You know I warned you. It appears that JP was saying that for the recording. Then he says, and you got mad at me when I warned you. You got defensive. And your mom got upset. She sent me a really, really mean text. JP continues after DJ agrees that yes, JP had warned him.

JP tells DJ that he's trying to save him from the same thing that he, quote, fell for. Again, JP is painting himself as a double victim here, as a victim of DJ's disobedience to his god and Micah's spell. JP then tells DJ not to come to the church until he looks at the videos to see if DJ is telling the exact truth. DJ reiterates that they only cuddled, held hands, and kissed. JP then says, okay, bye, but DJ continues to ask for another second. He tells JP that he feels horrible and understands if JP doesn't want him at the church even after watching the videos, then he essentially quits, saying that he doesn't think he can be there after everything that's happened anyway. JP agrees with him. I really did love you, JP says to him. And I really did believe that you'd take over the church for me one day as I started traveling and got older. I'm so sorry it didn't work out that way. I'm just telling you, if Micah would do this with her first husband and Micah would do it with me, don't you think she'll do the same thing to you?

DJ responds, I know. It was so incredibly stupid. JP seems to be laying the foundation for the future here, by the way. He seems to be ensuring that DJ won't try to return to Micah after all this. It feels like this rendezvous provided JP with his own personal narcissistic playground where he could toy around with other people and feel morally justified in doing so. He then says to DJ, I kind of feel like I want you to text Micah. He says he wants DJ to text her, you just committed adultery and talked me into doing it as well, and now I'm losing my job and everything because of it. DJ doesn't have a response to that, so JP asks him, What did you say to her whenever I kept calling? Which obviously shows us that JP was repeatedly calling DJ that night. DJ tells JP that Micah told him not to answer, but that he knew he was going to have to talk to JP at some point in time. JP presses him. That's all she said? Don't answer? DJ says yes. Then JP asks, did anything happen in Africa? DJ says no, hand on the Bible, no.

JP asks if anything else happened between them before that night. Again, DJ swears it didn't, which is kind of stunning, right? That the drama on March 11th was all about this rated PG encounter that happened that night. One night, on a night when JP's PI was supposed to be tracking Micah to see if she was going to a gun shop at 2 in the morning. Well, JP says to DJ, let her know that she did it to another man, the same thing she did to 2 other men.

Whew!

The anger that boils up at that statement. To hear JP say this, knowing that Micah was just 15 years old when she says 30-year-old JP, a married father, started showing interest in her. To hear him act like Micah is some deviant for making out with this guy when JP faces multiple accusations of adulterous affairs during his marriage to both Allison and Micah, to blame her, to post this online in what seems like an effort to hurt her family ahead of the settlement, is just stunning. Because from where we sit, It looks like JP was in desperation mode from November 2022 forward. It looks like he was desperately trying to keep Micah while also wanting to live his life exactly the way he wanted, regardless of what it did to her. Where he got to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and go with whomever he wanted, and Micah just had to accept it all. As, to quote JP, his godly wife.

Think about that. What was put on the internet on purpose to win a settlement. A recording of himself, a 44-year-old pastor, telling a young employee in the middle of the night that Micah was a woman who did this to 2 other men. A woman he first took interest in when she was 15, and he was a 30-year-old married father of 5. 2 years later, that campaign was answered by a federal grand jury. In December 2025, JP Miller was indicted on charges that he cyberstalked Micah from November 2022 until her death, allegedly tracking her car, posting a nude photo of her online, interfering with her finances, and the feds alleged he lied to investigators about it. He pleaded not guilty, and his trial is set for October after 6 continuances. And he's never been charged in connection with Micah's death. Hold on to that need to make Micah the problem, because in this episode ahead, you're going to see how far back it goes and how far it went. We're opening up JP's probate filings, stacks of documents where JP, in his own words, describes the wife he claims he was trying to save, and emails and medical records that tell a very different story about who was controlling Micah's healthcare, the doctor at the center of it, and the FOIA request Micah filed herself because she was already fighting to reclaim her own history.

And we're going to take a hard look at the death of Chris Skinner, and we'll walk you through what the months leading up to what authorities called Micah's suicide attempt before we arrive at the day that the federal agents knocked at JP Miller's door. JP called March 11th the day everything changed. He was right, just not in the way he meant. Until next time, stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight.

Coerced: The Devotion and Death of Micah Frances Miller is a Luna Shark production with reporting from journalists Mandy Matney, Liz Farrell, and Beth Braden. Made possible by producers Kate Thomas, Grace Hills, and David Moses. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com.