Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #62 - 'They Feared He Had Killed and Buried Me Somewhere’: New 911 Calls in Mica Francis Case Reveal Haunting Details

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

Investigative journalists Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell are once again forced to scrap their plans for an episode topic because of breaking news. On Tuesday, TikTok user JusticeNTruth4SCcourts posted never-before published 911 calls from Mica Francis and her estranged husband Pastor JP Miller. This caught Mandy’s and Liz’s attention because they had FOIA’d Horry County for just about everything one can think of or related to this case and yet these calls were not disclosed to us. This public agency said to us that they gave all they found....? Are the police protecting themselves and violating public information laws? Or is this trove of calls now part of a bigger investigation into what led to Mica’s death in April?  Mandy and Liz break down the new calls and what they mean to the timeline.  They also consider new information revealed by both Mica and JP and how it fits into the bigger picture. What role — if any — did JP’s oldest son play in the harassment Mica was experiencing in February, March and April? And did Mica actually sign the power of attorney that granted JP complete authority over her medical decisions?  The deeper the rabbit hole goes, the more sunlight Mandy and Liz seek to bring in this case.  Join Luna Shark Premium today at Lunashark.Supercast.com. Premium Members also get access to searchable case files, written articles with documents, case photos, episode videos and exclusive live experiences with our hosts on lunasharkmedia.com all in one place. CLICK HERE to learn more: https://bit.ly/3BdUtOE. And for those just wanting ad-free listening without all the other great content, we now offer ad-free listening on Apple Podcast through a subscription to Luna Shark Plus on the Apple Podcasts App. Episode Resources: @justicentruth4sccourts South Carolina Code of Laws - Freedom of Information Act Mica Miller Timeline (Soak Up The Sun Members) For What It's Worth, by Buffalo Springfield Mica Francis Miller Healthcare Power of Attorney Myrtle Beach PD Missing Vehicle Report Mica's List Visit our new events page Lunasharkmedia.com/events where you can learn about the upcoming in-person and virtual appearances from hosts or submit your own ideas at lunasharkmedia.com/newevents. Or follow @mandy_matney on Instagram for the latest pop-ups. If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. What We're Buying... Lumen - https://www.lumen.me/sunlight for 15% off your purchase. Your metabolic health, in your hands. Understand your unique metabolism, promote fat burn, lose weight, and boost energy naturally. CBDistillery - https://cbdistillery.com with code “COJ” for 20% off. No fluff. No fillers. Just pure, effective cannabinoid products. Over 43,000 Verified Reviews. 60-Day Money-Back Guarantee. Free Shipping Over $75. Subscribe & Save Up To 30% Away Travel Softside Luggage - AwayTravel.com/mandy has our peace of mind secured with carry-ons, cases, accessories and more. And their Softside suitcases are lighter than others, super comfortable to roll and uber stylish. Here's a link to some of our favorite things: https://amzn.to/4cJ0eVn And a special thank you to our other amazing sponsors: Microdose.com, PELOTON, and VUORI. Use promo code "MANDY" for a special offer! *** ALERT: If you ever notice audio errors in the pod, email [e-mail] and we'll send fun merch to the first listener that finds something that needs to be adjusted! *** For current & accurate updates: TrueSunlight.com facebook.com/TrueSunlightPodcast/ Instagram.com/TrueSunlightPod Twitter.com/mandymatney Twitter.com/elizfarrell youtube.com/@LunaSharkMedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of AmeriCM Express. Visit amex.ca slash y amex benefits vary by card other conditions apply. I don't know why Horry County police are making it exceedingly difficult to find out the truth about significant events that led up to Micah Francis's death. But after a slew of 911 calls were released on TikTok that should have been released via

FOIA, we are seeing more clearly than ever how the justice system failed Micah before and after her death. My name is Mandi Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption previously known as the Murdoch Murders Podcast. True Sunlight is a Lunashark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. Well, hello. We are back in the beautiful state of South Carolina after a lovely trip around Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

We are extra grateful for Lunashark producer Sam Berlin who stepped up for the team when we needed some downtime. Okay, it's me. I needed the downtime and the uninterrupted live time that wasn't dictated by work. And we got it. Sam did a fabulous episode exploring a concept that comes up a lot in the stories we tell. Defamation With the help of attorney Becky Lindle, Sam did an excellent deep dive into everything you need to know about defamation.

If you didn't get a chance to check out the premium dive episode during our premium preview last week, you can learn more about how you can join Lunashark Premium from the links in the description. Also, a huge thanks to Becky Lindell for helping our audience understand the complexities of defamation and how it applies to the cases we cover, including Buster Murdoch's lawsuit. And speaking of the Murdoch family, there has been news on that front this week that has been wildly misunderstood in the press and online. We have a lot to explain with Ehrlich's appeals because they are complicated and there are

so many moving parts right now. But ultimately, the thing to know is this. This week, the South Carolina Court of Appeals filed an order from the state Supreme Court announcing that the higher court will review Elick Murdoch's appeal in his effort to get a new trial based on jury tampering allegations. This is not a bombshell like the New York Post and other clickbait outlets are trying to make it out to be. It is standard that the Supreme Court would want to rule on this case due to the uniqueness of the claim being made. Chances are still low for ELEC getting a new murder trial, but we will explain all of that in a later episode. Because honestly, Micah deserves our attention a lot more than ELEC this week.

So here we go. So in this episode, we are going to do something a little different. On Tuesday evening, right as our script was 90% complete, reporter Beth Braden brought some TikTok posts to our attention. A TikTok user by the name of Justice and Truth for SE Courts, account links in the description, posted nine videos related to the Micah Francis case. Some of them were 911 calls that we have never heard before, but that we suspected existed based on pieces of the puzzle we had been putting together. I say suspected because we had already blanketed Horry County and the Myrtle Beach Police Departments

with so many FOIAs, asking for every report and 911 calls related to Micah Frances Miller and her husband J.P. Miller. We even did one better than that. We asked for calls for service to numerous addresses just to make sure that we didn't miss anything. We have spent well over $1,300 on Myrtle Beach and Horry County FOIA requests in this case alone. And that is not counting the reporter's time that we are paying for. And yet things were missed. Since May, it has been a constant battle with Horry County and Myrtle Beach Police and we keep having to go back to the drawing board with them,

which again is time consuming and costly. And thank you to the premium members and our advertisers who make this work possible. Between the two of us and now reporter Beth Braden, we have done hundreds of FOIA requests on this show alone and thousands in our careers. Especially if you account for all the documents we got from physically showing up at police stations and courthouses and outright asking for records. We have never dealt with agencies this.

I don't know what the right word is to say here. I want to say disorganized and unsophisticated. But maybe the word I'm searching for is ignorant. Or rather, I hope that these are the reasons that they have been so unbelievably messy. Because the other reason is deception. So here is the thing. In South Carolina, our FOIA laws are actually pretty decent. They are not perfect, obviously, and there are things that I would change for sure,

but our state Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled in favor of more transparency and not less, largely because of retired Chief Justice Gene Toll, you know, the one who saved the day in the Murdoch case. The Supreme Court tells agencies over and over and over again to err on the side of transparency. Of course, there are a lot of small-town police agencies that find ways around being transparent.

There's a police agency that we used to cover that wouldn't give newspapers the initial incident reports, which they are legally obligated to do. Any citizen can walk into the lobby of a police department and ask to see the last 10 days of initial reports and the agency has to supply them to you for free. You cannot take those reports with you, but you can inspect them in the lobby without getting charged. Agencies that care about transparency keep those records in folders

or binders at the ready. The agency that I am referring to did not do that. All they would give us was the time, the date, and the nature of the call. So you would see things like peeping Tom and have no idea what neighborhood it was in or what the perpetrator even looked like. You cannot get more in the public interest than someone going home to home to look into people's windows and yet the police agency wouldn't budge. Another police agency only gave a few sentences of their initial reports, hiding the substance of the initial calls in their supplementary reports, knowing that the public couldn't see those until after the case was closed, when they would for sure be charged for it.

It is a constant battle to educate agencies on the law and push back against them when they over-redact or refuse to release information that lawfully ought to be released. When it comes to the Micah Francis case, there are a few things happening. One is that the FBI is investigating, despite JP and his attorney's insistence that they are not. And that can complicate things, right? Investigations that were closed could now be considered open and therefore no longer subject to FOIA. The agencies can refuse to provide them, but they have to tell you that they exist and

they can't give them to you. They cannot just say nothing. Also at play here, we know of at least two Horry County police officers who attended Solid Rock, and that fact alone makes the fact that these certain calls were never released via FOIA even more suspicious. Another thing happening here is that Horry County in Myrtle Beach might not be used to this level of scrutiny. They might not have been challenged before like this. Honestly, it floors me to think that this is the case because we both worked for McClatchy and they have a newspaper there in Myrtle Beach, too.

McClatchy used to go hard on things like this. Reporters used to race hell over transparency issues. And Horry County isn't small either. It's actually one of the fastest growing counties in the nation, with nearly 400,000 permanent residents. And yet, the reports we have received have been paltry at best. Mere sentences filled with over-redaction. Literally, these people will redact the very key words that made this report relevant in the first place. They love redacting J.P. Miller's name, by the way. FOIA says that redactions can be used for personal information like birth dates and social security

numbers. But names? No. Addresses? Absolutely not. That is relevant information. That is of public interest. And yet they keep doing it. They refuse to unredact things for us when we ask. Several times Myrtle Beach police officials have told us the reports and investigative materials and cases do not exist when we have proof that they do. Again, so suspicious. Foyas can be very expensive, but they don't have to be. Public agencies in South Carolina are not required to charge you. I mean, they can.

The law allows for it, but they don't have to. And if they do, they're only allowed to recoup their actual costs for producing the documents. They're allowed to charge for materials like copying fees, and they're allowed to charge an hourly rate for the lowest paid person capable of pulling the documents, which, lol to that. Sometimes these agencies will try to charge you their lawyers fees for legal review, which

is on the public agency. That's something they're choosing to do for their own benefit. They'll say it's to prevent a lawsuit for accidentally revealing information that's not responsive to the Foyer Act. But in truth, the legal review is superfluous and it's being done to protect the bureaucrats and elected officials from public fallout over the information being revealed. Again, the South Carolina Supreme Court has been clear. They say to err on the side of transparency. So on top of all this, agencies will sometimes pad their expenses to make the cost of the FOIA prohibitive to make you say, never mind, forget it. 911 calls and videos are

very expensive to get and it's hard for journalists and for the public to tell if that's because these FOIAs honestly and truly are difficult and time-consuming to fulfill or if it's just a cash grab by these agencies who often charge every person who FOIAed for the item which goes way above recouping costs. At this point, especially in a case like Micah's, it's a moneymaker. They do a redaction once on one document, and then they distribute that one document to all the requesters while charging each and every one of them as if they had to do that task multiple times and for each person instead of just once. It's frustrating.

We're constantly frustrated. And what happened Tuesday has us enraged actually because it's yet another instance in which it appears that these Horry County and Myrtle Beach agencies are holding back. Now is that because these are now part of some sort of open investigation? Is it because their systems in Horry County and Myrtle Beach are so jacked that they can't do reliable database searches? Is it a lack of training? Are these people pulling the records

just simply not being thorough? Or, and we have to ask this question now, are they doing it on purpose? Did someone at these agencies not want us to hear these 911 calls or see these reports? We don't know the answer to that, but we're going to find out. Lunashark Media is currently considering legal action because again, this is public information we're talking about. We say FOIA around and find out, well now it's FOIA around, FOIA some more, and

maybe we'll have to sue you to find the truth. And now with the effort to get Micah's law passed, finally getting a law on the books that addresses coercive control and punishes those guilty of it, obtaining information about Micah's and JP's lives as it pertains to law enforcement leading up to her death is 100% in the public interest. Public agencies are cynical though.

They'll think, reporters just want the stuff to make money off of it. Uh, no. We can make money lots of other ways. Obviously, this content, in addition to being important, is also very compelling. But at the end of the day, it is public information. It belongs to the people of South Carolina and not to obtuse bureaucrats trying to protect their own agencies. I think after listening to today's episode, you'll understand why all of this has us so angry. Not because we didn't get the recordings first, even though we occasionally break news and we like that,

we know that our strengths and our mission are always going to be to connect the dots in these cases. We know what we're good at and we know what can help get a case moving forward. We're angry right now because of what these recordings that should have been responsive to our foyers reveal about the hell, the absolute and utter hell that Micah was living in prior to her death. And all these recordings would have been helpful for all the news agencies to have had before JP went on his public relations campaign when he sat for interviews with newspapers, TikTokers, and NewsNation.

These recordings would have also been nice to have had before the recent settlement in the Francis family's case against JP. So when we said deceptive earlier, when we wondered whether these 911 calls were held back for another reason beyond general ignorance and incompetence, we said that because guess what? These calls make police look horrible and worthless. And quite frankly, if we lived in Horry County or Myrtle Beach police jurisdictions, we would start attending city and county council meetings to voice major concerns about how the millions of dollars in policing is actually being used because it sure isn't being used to help women

like Micah Francis. Once again, we have evidence of Micah Francis begging for their help. She was being clear with them. She was asking them to help make this better for her. She was met with a shrug almost every time. But we'll end the episode with this ridiculous call. When JP called 911 to report that Micah and her father were trying to get him to open the door and let her in so she could retrieve her belongings, they responded to JP like he was a hostage with a bomb attached to his chest. That said, we don't know who Justice and Truth for SC Courts is, but we're very grateful to them for doing God's work in posting this public

information that was, until now, unreleased by Horry County and Myrtle Beach Police Department. We don't know who this person is or how they obtained the recordings. Were they leaked to them? Were they from earlier FOIAs that maybe were filed before Micah's death when her legal team was collecting evidence for her divorce? We're just not sure. But today, we're going to talk about them because they are important. They shed so much sunlight on the dark corners of Micah's marriage to JP and her attempt to leave him. We're gonna play each of the calls mostly in their entirety and offer commentary throughout,

but before going into them, we wanna point out a few things that we want everyone to pay attention to. And if you have thoughts on any of this, if there's any piece that's now clicking for you that we're not seeing, feel free to reach out to us or comment on Justice and Truth for SC Court's account on TikTok if you have that. So first, you're going to notice how calm Micah is during these calls and again, how

she practically begged for help from these agencies. There's one call we're not including that got released because we've already talked about it on an episode. That's the call in which JP had police on the phone while he was driving through Myrtle Beach and being followed by a woman who was waving a gun out of the window who turned out to be a man without a gun. There was no gun. I bring this up because of a comment we saw in the video posted by Justice and Truth. Someone astutely pointed out how much that call stood in contrast to how police responded to Micah's calls. They coddled JP. It was almost like he was calling them for therapy. But with Micah, her problems were unsolvable, apparently.

Another thing you'll notice in the calls is that the only time a dispatcher tells someone to calm down is when they're talking to JP. JP! Because again, Micah is rational in her calls. She's articulate, she's patient. We also want you to take note of how much of JP's rhetoric against Micah, that she's crazy and off her meds and out of control, actually seems to describe JP's behavior according to these calls anyway. We all suspected that,

right? We all suspected that he was projecting his own behavior onto her. He was projecting his own alleged mental health issues onto her. Oh, and make sure to take note of how he refers to her at the end. My ex-wife. Funny, right? He sure did insist to the police that they were not separated and remember that call that True Crime Re! posted between JP and DJ Bromit the man Micah was with on March 11th? JP made it seem like Micah was very much still his wife and that DJ had committed a grave sin by kissing her. JP sure does take a different stance on that when it suits him. These calls strengthen all of our suspicions about JP, but they also introduce a new element, JP's oldest son,

Logan Hardy. We've mentioned him a few times, specifically he was mentioned in Allison Williams' 2024 family court filing where she included text messages. In one of those messages, JP mentioned that Logan was at his house crying of those messages, JP mentioned that Logan was at his house crying, and this was around the time that Logan had been arrested for first degree domestic violence, which is the most serious DV charge there is in South Carolina next to murder itself. He was accused of hitting his 26-year-old wife

over the head with a bottle. Police found her slumped against a wall, going in and out of consciousness according to reports. Logan, according to these news reports, had fled and left her there. Shocking, right? Turns out Micah had a few complaints of her own about the guy. So the post from Justice and Truth for SC Courts begins with a very short video of the scales of justice. There's a song playing over the still shot. It's For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield. You know the words to that, right?

It's a 1966 song deeply connected to protest. It's kind of ubiquitous. The lyrics go like this. There's something happening here, but what it is ain't exactly clear. There's a man with a gun over there telling me I got to be where. I think it's time we stop, children. What's that sound? Everybody look what's going down. There's battle lines being drawn. Nobody's right if everybody's wrong. That's all there is to that video. Plus this caption. Did Micah sign the power of attorney? Did she ever get her notary seal returned? Here is just one 911 call in Micah's own voice and her dad right there supporting Micah. Should this have been allowed to be filed at all? Have all documents with Micah Miller as notary should be questioned for authenticity?

Mysterious, right? Turns out Micah was a licensed notary, by the way, and JP had allegedly taken her seal. And as you'll find out, Micah was worried that he was going to forge her name on the postnuptial that very much appears to have her signature on it now. And that power of attorney, we've talked a lot about that, that right when she got out of her hospital stay in December, 2022, the very first thing that she seemed to do was sign over her medical decisions to JP. We've had a lot of questions about that power of attorney because that hospitalization happened against JP's will. Remember?

The police got called because Micah was locked in a bathroom and appeared to have been drugged. Micah's sister Anna was able to extract Micah from JP and bring her to the hospital. And JP didn't seem to like that one bit. When police got there, he was trying to abscond with Micah who was out of it. When police got her alone, away from JP, she told them that she wanted to be checked into the hospital for her mental health. So, did Micah actually sign that power of attorney? Or was that forged? It's a very pertinent question now that we know that this was a legitimate fear of hers. In episode 53, we pointed out a number of red flags that we found on Micah's POA form.

1. JP's attorney Tom Winslow and his assistant Tiffany Marsh signed it, claiming they witnessed Micah's signature on November 28th, the day Micah was admitted to the hospital and JP wasn't allowed to see her. Micah didn't sign the document until December 5th, again, the day she was released from the hospital. How were they able to witness her signature several days before she actually signed it? And remember the last page of the document that had a written test that multiple attorneys

told us was unusual? Then the big mystery, the POA granting JP the ability to make health decisions for Micah was unfiled until March 20th, 2024. The same week, JP had told police Micah was stealing from the Dare to Care account, and the same week Micah reported JP for allegedly putting a tracker on her roommate's car.

It has never made sense why Micah would file that POA document after it sat unfiled for over 15 months during one of the most contentious and litigious time periods of their marriage. We're going to play the calls with commentary after this short break. And we'll be right back. through your breath. We love that Lumen is helping us be more consistent in achieving our goals. Lumen is portable and easy to use, and the app is such an effective companion.

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So if you wanna take the next step in improving your health, go to lumen.me slash sunlight to get 15% off your lumen. That's L-U-M-E-N dot M-E slash sunlight for 15% off your purchase. Thank you Lumen for sponsoring this episode. Go back to school with Rogers and get Canada's fastest and most reliable internet. Perfect for streaming lectures all day

or binging TV shows all night. Save up to $20 per month on Rogers internet. Visit rogers.com for details. We got you, Rogers. Okay, let's start with a call Micah made from South Strand Hospital in Myrtle Beach in February 2024. We don't have the exact dates of these calls yet, but we're going to try to discern where they fall and the timeline based on the context that we already know. This call seems to

match up with Micah's hospital stay from February 7th through February 12th of this year. She references that she was getting discharged on a Monday and February 12th is a Monday. Hi, Diana. I'm meeting somebody to go to my house. The house that I currently reside in, me and my husband are separated. And since I was admitted to the hospital, I have been told that he's taken possession of my phone, laptop, and car, which are all in my name. How do I get a deputy out there to get those items surrendered over to be temporarily held until I get out of the hospital? You want an officer to go to your home and temporarily hold your items? until I get out of the hospital. Less than five months before this, Micah had filed for divorce from JP, citing adultery as that reason. They briefly reconciled,

and a hearing that had been scheduled in November regarding Micah's request for temporary relief from the court got postponed. When Micah was hospitalized February 7th, the divorce was still in play. The day before her hospitalization, JP was trying to track her down because, according to him, her doctor had decided that she was having a schizophrenic episode and she needed to be picked up by police and taken to a facility. When Micah was hospitalized, according to texts between her sister and

her best friend, JP took Micah's wallet, laptop, and phone. On February 17th, Sierra warned Charlotte not to text or contact Micah because JP had taken Micah's stuff and still had possession of it. She told Charlotte that JP had Micah hospitalized so he could kick her out of the house while she was gone. Here Micah appears to have learned that JP was responding as her to her friends and family and she was rightfully worried. So your husband? We're legally separated. We both have lawyers and we're pursuing divorce. Copy. And he took possession of my items while being hospitalized.

I will put this in here for an officer. I'm not sure what they'll do. She is not sure what they'll do. The dispatcher is basically saying, good luck, honey. And it's my phone, my laptop, and my car, and my phone and laptop have naked pictures of me on them. Okay, what is your address? Copy. I also have a police radio, so bear with me. I'm trying to do more than one thing at a time.

I understand that dispatchers have to think fast on their feet and are often multitasking. Regardless, this comment adds to the idea that Micah's problem does not matter to police. Regardless of any harmless intent here, the police have communicated this idea to her. Any caller on Micah's end is going to hear, your problem isn't big enough for me to stop what I'm doing and listen. The dispatcher asked Micah for her name and JP's address. She also asked Micah for a callback number.

Micah tells her, if you call my number, JP is going to answer. So she decides to give police a number that they can call to the hospital and he took those items? Yeah, yeah. Okay. And now he's going through my phone and texting people impersonating me. Okay, do you want the officers to come to you to make a report about this? No, I'd rather them just show up at the house because he's a, he works from home. He's a pastor doing this And I'd like it to be as soon as possible because from what I hear from just people calling me at the hospital that it's been multiple people that he's sending out messages

from my phone saying it's me, but it can't be because he has my phone. Notice that the dispatcher seems a little bit at a loss as to how to handle this. She seems a little ill-equipped. She's asking Micah whether she wants the officers to come to the hospital to take a report, and Micah is like, no, I want them to stop JP from impersonating me. He was not my next of kin. The hospital wrongly gave these items to him, and I was in no position at the time to stop him. And now he's using this as an opportunity to engage in harassing behavior against me.

This moment should have triggered something for the dispatcher where she no longer viewed this as a report of a civil issue between a fighting couple and instead understood it as potentially criminal behavior. Now remember how much we've spoken about the February 21st call, which was about two weeks or so after this call. We talked about how JP was able to squash Micah's report by telling the police officer that the car she was trying to get back was marital property when we know it was in Micah's name only. And remember how we played the call about Spring Maid Pier and what happened there on March

11th when Micah seemed like she was trying to preempt any dismissiveness from the police by explaining, this car is in my name only. Micah does the same thing in this call, which means from the beginning she understood how police were looking for a reason not to help her. And she was saying to them, the T's are crossed, the I's are dotted, this is my property, there is no ambiguity here, now please help me. And the phone is in my name, it's not a dual phone, and the bill is in my name and everything.

And the car, the car is on my name, the car insurance is in my name, everything. The laptop, and he's taken advantage of me being in the hospital and he's taken possession of them. Even though we're legally separated and both have lawyers and everything. And you want the officers to hold on to your belongings or take them to the hospital? They can actually be put in a holding blocker or

something at the police department that only I can get them out if that's okay. I just need them to be confiscated and put in a holding thing. I get out, I believe on Monday is when they're released. I have my release date with the charts and stuff on Monday is when they'll think I'll be fully recovered. I want to break in real quick here to remind everyone about how JP characterized this time. According to JP, who in my opinion, is very close to Elick Murdoch's level of credibility at this point, he claims that Micah was all diagnosed at once.

That she was homicidal, suicidal, off her meds, having a manic episode, having a schizophrenic episode, off her lithium, etc. etc. Notice how calm she sounds here. Notice how linear and logical her thinking is. JP's narrative has been that Micah's dad busted her out of the hospital when she needed to be there. But here it seems like Micah has respect for the medical care that she's receiving and that there's a treatment plan for her that includes a scheduled discharge. Remember this moment when you listen to JP's call

at the end of the show. Is he at home right now, do you know? He probably will be, yeah. What's his name? John Paul Miller. And if you can not get Officer Wilson to do this, because they are friends, he's a parishioner at our church, so I think it would be a conflict of interest. Wilson?

Yeah. Yeah. It would be a big conflict of interest because he is a church elder. Brian? No, he won't. Okay, good. It would just be a really big conflict of interest and I'd hate to put him in the middle of it anyway. The dispatcher asks for more basic information about JP, such as his physical description. And Micah makes sure to tell the dispatcher that she doesn't live with JP anymore.

And then she tries to share a fact that she thinks is pertinent and tells the dispatcher that JP's sister currently lives with him. And it's not clear if the dispatcher heard that. According to reports, JP's much younger sister had moved in with him because of personal problems that she was having. And Michael will refer to her again later in another 911 call. And it's pretty clear that this is a sticking point for her, that this is a problem. The picture that's coming together is that one, JP's house appears to be more chaotic

than we thought it was, and two, JP and his father appear not to be the only ones with these kinds of problems. It seems like JP's older son and his sister are part of the problem too, at least from Micah's perspective. The next call appears to be sometime in February after she was released from the hospital. Turns out, as we said, Micah was a notary. Not only was she a notary, but it appears that she might have been a brand new one. According to the South Carolina Secretary of State's office, Micah's notary license expires on January 10, 2034. Notary licenses are 10 years, so

assuming she didn't have a notary license prior to this one, it means she likely only had this for a month. And it was potentially something that she viewed as a means to earn money. And here, JP appears to be messing with that. He is making her life more difficult for her. I don't really have a kind of courage at just right now. Me and my husband are going through a divorce and he kicked me out. But he stole possession of my car and he won't give volumetation of that either,

but all of my public notary stuff is in it. Like a seal, all of it. Okay, where do you live at? What was your house at? My priest's, it priest's cold water circle. Okay, and I'm not really separated, but when I was in the hospital recently, under heavy sedation, they said,

can your husband take your purse? And I said, okay. I didn't even remember this conversation, but apparently it happened. They gave him my purse that had everything and all my identification, my debit card, and then he took my purse with my keys, my phone, everything, and he took my card.

He put it somewhere and he won't tell me or my family or the police where it is. And it's got my notary seal in my car and my log and everything. The dispatcher asked Micah where she is so that she can send an officer to her. And Micah sounds so relieved. She's like, oh, that would be great.

While Micah is giving the dispatcher information, we then become aware that Micah's dad is with her. You know, the dad that JP has slandered up and down the street by saying he didn't care about Micah, saying he is one of three people who had coercive control over Micah, which included Micah's best friend Charlotte

and the guy who she was with on March 11th being the other two. Micah is using her father's phone to make this call and as you are about to hear Micah is going to reference a new car, one that was bought after they were separated. Could this be the car that JP insists Micah bought for her father in her alleged haze of lithium-free mania? Or is it the car she bought because he had her involuntarily hospitalized, and while she was in the hospital,

he kicked her out of the house and took possession over everything that she owned? Notice the way the dispatcher interrupts her as she tries to explain the pertinent details here. So it's your ex-husband that has all your stuff? We're currently officially both filed and separated, but... Okay. Um, yeah. Legally separated.

Legally separated, yeah. And his car was bought after our legal separation and he can transmit narrow property but I was told by my lawyer that... Are each weapons involved? I hope not. I don't have any in my car but we're both certified to carry weapons. We both have a CWP but he got my CWP. And I need to get his description. So Micah gives the dispatcher a description of JP and then says she'll be in a blue Ford Expedition and will park in an area that will be visible to the police officer.

She's very logical. She's very connected to reality. She's very calm. Now, this is the second call you've heard today where Micah is trying to retrieve her possessions from JP with the help of law enforcement, which is a safe way to do it and very appropriate given the tension in their relationship. Again, we're not sure where this call falls in the timeline and what else was happening before and after it. For instance, JP has referenced police coming to his house with Micah so that she can get clothes. Of course, he told Rich McHugh of News Nation that this was Sudderfuge for Micah to get a gun ostensibly to kill herself. So we don't know if that was before or after this. And we also don't know if this call

happened on the same day that Micah and her father appeared to have gone to JP's house to get Micah's stuff, which you'll hear about in JP's call. But here's the question we have. Why wasn't this dealt with already? It appears Micah still doesn't have her own phone. Why didn't police retrieve those items when she called from the hospital? Did JP talk them out of it? Had he poisoned the police, people he was friends with, against Micah so much that they didn't believe anything she said?

Because that was a thing, as evidenced by this next call. Hello? Lori, can I dispatch Wilson? Hey, uh just patch Wilson? Hey, uh, Officer Wilson? How can I help you? I'd like to do a wellness check, Officer Wilson. So, who is Officer Wilson?

You can tell by the change in Micah's voice that the person who answered the phone, who just said his name was Wilson, is the same Brian Wilson that she referenced in that earlier call. There are two Brian Wilsons, according to records. And one is an officer who is married to Captain Heather Wilson, the police officer that JP tried calling several times in November 2022 when he was trying to prevent police from allowing Micah to get admitted to the hospital. Heather Wilson is also the mother of the man that Micah was with on March 11th, the day that seemed to set course for Micah's fate. From what sources tell us, at some point during all of this, Heather Wilson realized that she was being played by JP and she has been cooperating with investigators.

Additionally, according to Micah's sister, Heather became a valued ally for Micah. Here Micah is showing us just how much she does not trust the police. She can't. We always suspected this by how she was treated in the police reports alone, but her tone of voice says everything here. She is frustrated and fed up and she can't trust the people who are supposed to protect her, the police, because of her husband's influence. Even though she appears to have the wrong Wilson, it is so clear from her voice that she has had enough. Officer Brian Wilson was not only an elder in the church according to Micah, but he was also chief of their security. There are several instances in JP's interviews where he references a police officer helping him with Micah,

including a certain police officer who apparently helped chase her down to involuntarily hospitalized Micah. So, can you blame Micah for being suspicious? Micah gives Dispatcher Wilson JP's address and then he asked her again for her address which she gives him again. it and there's some people staying at my house that I didn't invite into my house and I'm out of town so I'm just hoping there would be a wellness check and make sure there's no cars parked at my house that I don't recognize the license plate of or if you just take down those license plate numbers for me to review later just to do a wellness check and also

maybe even pursue the property that I'm saying has naked pictures of me on it. So again, we don't know where this falls in the timeline of events, but it kind of seems like it's before her hospitalization. I say that because she's referring to the Coldwater home as hers. She doesn't mention to the police, like in previous calls, that JP is her estranged husband or ex-husband. She doesn't mention the separation or the lawyers and she doesn't mention that he has taken possession of her items to include her laptop. It seems clear to us here that she's angry in this call, justifiably angry, but notice how she still

keeps it together. She's not emotional, she's just terse. It seems pretty clear that she views JP's sister and son being at her house as a threat to her well-being in that moment. Again, according to Micah's list, JP would use the threat of posting naked pictures of Micah online as a way to control her and to punish her. And if she's on the road, as it appears she is, because Bucky's is in Florence, and possibly even on the way to her sister's house, it would seem like there was some sort of skirmish perhaps happening.

Now, you're about to hear a big piece of the puzzle here about JP's son, Logan Hardy. Get ready, because it's a doozy. Okay, I can have an officer give you a call. Logan Hardy. Get ready because it's a doozy. probably have to make sure that that laptop doesn't end up in the wrong here. Okay so who has a laptop with your pictures on it? It's in my home but I currently have guests staying at my home that I did not invite there and so I'm kind of concerned that while I'm out of town, they might use that laptop for malpurposes. I don't 100% know who's there right now, but if it's who I think is there, maybe my husband's son, who hit on me the other day in my kitchen without my husband there, and I told him flat out,

this isn't appropriate and you need to leave, and that's on record because he texted my husband and I told my husband what happened He might be staying at my house and My husband's sister's been staying with us and I did not invite her to stay with us And I don't trust her further than I can throw her with my property that have naked pictures of me on it I don't have an officer give you a call because I don't know exactly what they're gonna be able to do. I mean Okay husband invited them into the house. Right, but it's my house as well. It's my dwelling and I did not invite them to be there. Okay, I'll have an officer give me a call if you're with them anymore.

I just need a wellness check. Yeah, I just need a wellness check. Take the license plate of anybody that's there right now because I might not recognize them. And they might be invited into my home without me while I was away but I just want to make sure nothing weird is going on in my house and also to retrieve property that's got naked pictures of me on it. And actually there's two laptops. There's two laptops that have naked pictures. Okay like I said I'll have the officer give you a call and see what they're able to do okay. Yeah if I can prove I just had a question you might be able to answer. If I can prove that there's naked pictures of me on the laptop, would that give them

cause enough to retrieve them? I'm not a police officer, I can't give you legal advice, but that's something you can ask the officer, okay? Sure, thank you so much, Officer Wilson. You're welcome. You're welcome. Bye-bye. And again, Micah's call is not taken seriously. And by the way, police officers cannot give legal advice either, Dispatcher Wilson.

But certainly, dispatchers and police officers should be well-versed in the law so they know what could and could not be construed as criminal behavior. Now, sure, I get that police cannot do much when JP has invited these people into his home. But guess what? JP had the home transferred into the church's name in December, So it is technically not his home either. But Micah seems to understand that. That's why she's saying, couldn't the fact that there are naked photos of me on this laptop be enough to trigger some action from the police?

What the dispatcher didn't ask her and should have is are they threatening to use those photos in any way? Have they threatened to access or post those photos? He should have been trying to suss out whether or not this was a potential crime here So that when he sent officers to the scene, they would be prepared Remember Micah was in survival mode at this point in time unlike JP Remember, Micah was in survival mode at this point in time. Unlike JP, she is not well-versed in spinning narratives and using trigger words to get police to take her seriously.

She just needed someone to care enough to ask some more questions, to listen to her, to look up her case file and maybe just send an officer to the house to let them know that they are on Micah's side too. Finally, the Logan piece of this that we have to talk about. Micah mentioned that Logan, JP's 20-something son who had just filed for divorce after his domestic violence arrest, had apparently hit on Micah in front of JP, according to Micah. Remember that, as Logan's name is going to come up again in this episode. We have a lot more to unpack after a quick break, and we'll be right back. Okay, this next call is also another major piece of the puzzle. Y'all, I can't even tell you how trippy this is going to feel.

I'm just going to let it play and allow you to experience it. This is Micah calling about JP shortly after she was released from the hospital in February. 72 hour pickups that a spouse can initiate. I need this to be a little quicker because he is a flight risk There's been domestic violence. He put his hands on me And I need an immediate pickup not a 72 hour where he can flee the county Can you say that one more time? He's my husband Who's a PBU, honey? He's my husband. And he put his hands on you?

Yeah, he tried to punch me, but thankfully I was standing up. So he made contact, but it didn't knock the wind out of me like it should have. And he pushed me down and cut thousands of people at Disney World. And so, yeah, and his best friend even saw that happen. He slapped drink right out of my hand. Okay, when did he put his hands around your throat? That was before I got, I was in the hospital after that from just a panic attack of what was happening. That was about a week ago, but I just got out of the hospital a couple of days ago.

And when I got out, he was impersonating my identity with the phone that he had in his hands. I didn't even have my phone or anything. And he's texting everybody. He hacked my social media. And he's got guns in the home and a baby staying there right now. Okay, so pause.

Whoa, right? Remember episode 60 when we told you about how Jay. appeared to be on a media blitz, trying to retrofit all the accusations made against him in Micah's list by offering alternate explanations for his behavior? Alternate narratives? He described this incident in Disney as an accident, but sure doesn't seem to be that way to Micah, right? And it's wild to us that the dispatcher isn't like, okay,

so would you like to report these assaults? As you'll see, the call is sort of amorphous, and we'll talk more about that after you listen to JP's call in a bit. Micah isn't articulating a concrete problem beyond this guy is erotic, he's dangerous, and you all need to do something about it. But right there, she did articulate an assault and it seems like nothing came of that. In addition to all that though, we get some insight into why she was feeling the way she was prior to her February hospitalization. She was having a panic attack. And guess what gets prescribed to help with panic attacks? Hydroxazine, the only drug mentioned in Micah's medical examiner report.

She was having a panic attack, but that somehow got twisted into Micah needs to be hospitalized. And this is why Micah was trying to evade JP's goon squad before they caught her and brought her to the South Strand Hospital. She was rightfully experiencing stress and anxiety because she was allegedly being abused. And JP appears to have turned that into a diagnosis of schizophrenia and bipolar in that moment. Now Micah tells the dispatcher that JP's sister is staying with him and that she's about to go pick up her baby from her estranged husband.

So by six o'clock tonight when they pick him up in Conway that baby's gonna be at pick up her baby from, which he should have on January 3rd. And I believe at this point, based on the people that he's come in contact with, some of them reported to me that based on how he was talking, they feared he had killed and buried me somewhere. Did you hear that? When Micah was months after this call, it makes you sick to think about. Hearing her say those words is absolutely chilling

now that we know the fate that awaited her. Micah tells the distance she's taken from her to the person she's going to be with. She's not going to be able to see her face. She's not going to be able to see her face. She's not going to be about. Hearing her say those words is absolutely chilling now that we know the fate that awaited her. Micah tells the dispatcher that JP is a flight risk, and then Micah's dad gets on the phone.

This is her dad, and she's having to use my phone because he took her phone. He has possession of her car, her purse, all her valuables. Guns that were bought in my name that I fear he's going to use and then say it was in my name. He's got my CWP license, he's got my public notary license, and my seal and my stamp, which he's been trying to force me to sign a post-nup for the last year and a half and I fear that he's going to use my seal to impersonate my signature like he's been impersonating my identity for the past three days He signed that post-nup saying that I get nothing if we divorce And that's not even my biggest concern. It's the identity theft. I don't care about not getting anything from the divorce. I really don't care.

But that was given to me by the Secretary of State, trusting me to keep it safe. And then when I got in the hospital, they gave all my belongings to my husband. And we're here now. So, guns in Micah's name. That makes sense, right? JP didn't have the ability to purchase weapons on his own until 2022 because he was a felon, but also the post-Nushill agreement we talked about earlier. Remember, that agreement was from February 2023. It basically gave JP all the leverage and power in their relationship, and Micah is saying that she refused to sign it and yet after her death, we can see that it was signed. So this means that we have Micah's signature on a power of attorney that gave JP the authority to make medical decisions for her starting in December 2022 on the day she was released

from a hospitalization he didn't want her to have. We have that power of attorney which didn't get properly filed until a month or so before her death right around the time when the probate court told JP that no Micah did not qualify for state institutionalization and now we have Micah's signature on a post-nuptial agreement that here she is saying she refused to sign. Think about what Micah's internal world looked like at this point in time. This kind of stuff would drive you mad. And she was utterly cornered from every direction.

And another reason I feel like it's so urgent is because he's very hyperactive right now. He's causing a lot of damage very quickly. And his son is a felon who's been living in my house after I left. His father is a registered sex offender because of what he's done. So the whole family, I'm very scared for what they'll do. So my family, the church, he's a pastor. And especially me in my life. Again, Micah is begging someone to finally listen to her.

Micah gives the dispatcher more information and she tells the dispatcher that JP's son was also following her in his business truck, which is very easy to identify because of his business logos all over it. in the last three months. His ex-wife currently has had his children taken away and they're getting a divorce. So again, we know that Micah has accused Logan of hitting on her and following her around town. And we know that in early January, Logan was arrested and charged

in the domestic violence incident we mentioned earlier where he allegedly hit his wife over the head with a bottle. We also know that Logan was navigating divorce court around the same time that his father was. After his domestic violence arrest, Logan's wife filed for an emergency hearing in Horry County Family Court. On January 17th, 2024, Logan, like his father,

took control of the divorce proceeding and filed for divorce himself. And in February, 2024, Horry County Family Court filed an order of protection in their case. This could mean nothing, but now that Logan's name has been brought up multiple times by Micah, it is interesting to think about how Logan and his father

were both experiencing legal marital issues at the exact same time. What we don't know is how involved was Logan in his father's apparent mission to harass and intimidate Micah in the weeks leading up to her death. Not to be dramatic, but did Robeson County Sheriff's Office look into Logan's background at all? Did Logan provide an alibi for the day that Micah was found dead? This is not to suggest anything, by the way.

We are simply asking whether police were actually as thorough as they thought that they were because even after reading bits and pieces of the death investigation that were released and even after seeing the videos of Micah at Dick's pawn shop, things still don't add up. And they should. They should add up. We should be able to walk away from that investigation and be like, okay, it was a suicide. We get it now. But none of us are doing that right now.

Because there is something else going on here and we really don't know what it is yet. The next call we're going to play is yet another attempt where Micah is trying to get her notary stamp and license back from JP. Now this is the call that she appears to have made on February 21st, the day that she reported her car as being taken by JP out of the Walmart parking lot where she had been accosted and taken to the mental hospital a few weeks earlier.

What you will immediately notice is this, we have the report from this incident and nowhere in that report does it mention a notary seal. Nowhere does it mention that Micah was trying to get back a tool that is used to earn money. Instead, the report reads like a book report titled Believe the Husband without fact-checking anything that he says. Because the officer told Micah there was nothing that he could do here and the officer allowed JP to criticize this as Micah having a manic episode. He told the officer he took the car so she wouldn't sell it and he told the officer that they were not separated

and the car belonged to both of them. Lies, lies and more lies. The dispatcher is at a loss about what to do here. Micah is with her dad and she's trying to help the dispatcher figure out how to track down this officer who said he would meet her there. In the meantime, Micah gives her more information about what she's trying to get and she again references her concealed weapons permit, her CWP license. But let's talk about this. Just let's all put aside our individual viewpoints on guns. It is indisputable that some women like to carry

them as protection. Micah's civil rights were still intact. She wasn't like JP. She wasn't a felon who wasn't allowed to have his weapons. She was legally allowed to carry a weapon and if she had her CWP, she was trained to do so. JP was preventing her from protecting herself and he was infringing on her second amendment rights. Now, of course, he will spin this and say that he was protecting her from harming herself, which obviously is a legitimate concern given how she allegedly died. But he's wearing her down in the meantime. He's pushing on her. And over and over, we keep getting these examples of JP trying to disempower Micah in every possible way from every

possible direction until she was fully and permanently powered off on April 27th. He also has my CWP license and if we want to get really technical, this person also has my ID, all my debit cards, but the public notary seal is the main thing that I need to retrieve because if he signs anything and uses my stamp That's my name, you know Okay, so I think you were talking to myrtle Beach Police Department. Um Sorry, one moment. Can you say that again? It's a little loud rather. Yes, ma'am I think you were talking speaking with Myrtle Beach Police Department. Because that's their jurisdictional area.

Okay. Who is this? This is Horry County. Okay. So that's good. This is a bigger precinct. Yes ma'am. But that, you're in Myrtle Beach jurisdiction. So I'm going to have to transfer you to Myrtle Beach. Okay that sounds good. Okay give me one second. Hello you have reached the city of Myrtle Beach police department. Please wait while I transfer your call.

So this is Rich. It's always so incredible to me how public agencies have these complicated and convoluted districting issues that they then punt off to the public and use to shield themselves in a way. So Micah called 911, but in Horry County, there's the Myrtle Beach Police and the County Police, but you access both of them through the same 911 and your call gets routed based on where you're calling them from. So if you're standing in the Myrtle Beach limits and calling about something within the limits, it goes to Myrtle Beach. If you're making the call about Horry County but you're in Myrtle Beach, the call goes

to Myrtle Beach. It's obnoxious, especially because of how many donut holes there are in South Carolina towns and cities, areas that weren't annexed in so they're still under county jurisdiction. So it is very confusing and no law enforcement agency should ever use that confusion as an excuse to punt off a person seeking help. And if they're going to send the person to another agency, which I totally get, they need to do it in a way that doesn't further confuse and stress out the person seeking help.

These are the kinds of obstacles that stand in the way of women getting help. They are obstacles that wear people down over time and make it seem like no one in this complicated web is in charge of anything at any time. Okay. So again, we believe that was the February 21st call. It was now nine days after Mike is release from the hospital and she's still a nomad and she's still being kept from all the things she needs to be a fully functioning adult human being with agency. And according to all these reports and calls,

JP is the one keeping her from that. Also, according to reports, another new fact on this very same day, JP allegedly went to Waccamaw Center for Mental Health to get paperwork to have Micah committed to an institution by the state of South Carolina. As you all know, the state disagreed with JP and let Micah go.

Again, it's an instance in which he seems to have used her mental health as a weapon of retaliation against her, as a show of his power over her. So let's hear from JP now, shall we? About two weeks after Micah's February hospitalization, JP called the Horry County Sheriff's Department to report Micah and her father for, quote, trying to break into his house to get Micah's things. We've talked a lot about this call because of what you'll immediately notice. The dispatcher takes him seriously and she

stays on the phone with him like a personal therapist guiding him through his emotions. Like we said, he did the same thing in the call that he made after Micah's death when he said a woman was following him and waving a gun out the window. Again, wasn't a woman and there was no gun. Now, it makes total sense that dispatchers would take JP's calls more seriously than Micah's based on the fact that in both of these calls, he was expressing that he was in imminent danger. He is emotional. He's dramatic. It's a total tone shift from Micah's calls. Remember, JP is not just a pastor, he is a pastor who performs. But Micah's calls, each one of them represents a paper cut. She was getting cut over and over and over. It was a death

by a thousand paper cuts, as they say. And the problem is that our system is not geared toward making sense of that. There's no one that appears to be looking at the bigger picture. There's no one saying, wait a minute, we're getting calls from this person regularly. And when we piece this together, we're seeing patterns of harassment happening, criminal harassment. And that is what needs to change because look at the difference in JP's call and think about the paper trail he was creating in his mission to paint Micah like she was the crazy one. Yes, the door is locked. They're trying to break in. Alright, alright. Calm down. Take a breath. What's your name?

Okay. The cops have been here several times over the past two weeks because of her. Good call back number in case you get disconnected. Alright, is anybody else in the house with you? Yes, my sister's here. Okay, can you get yourselves upstairs to a bedroom? Yes. Okay, can you lock the bedroom door? Yes.

Okay. Let me get the bedroom door? Yes. Okay. Let me get someone started out your way. Alright, do you know, are they armed? No, she's been looking for a gun. Last time she came here she tried to get a gun. And the police had to throw her out the house. Because she told them she wanted clothing. I said a clothing, she wanted to grab a gun. Or she tried to grab a gun.

She didn't grab one because her face is lost. She doesn't even know the combination, but yes, she tried to. Okay, so thisah his ex-wife in this phone call. Every other time, he refers to her as his wife. He denied that they were separated to the police officer who was trying to help Micah get her car and notary stand back. He told DJ Bremet that DJ had committed adultery because JP and Micah were still together. But here, oh, here they are exes. And notice how Mr. I-was-just-trying-to-get-Micah-the-help-she-needed called Micah crazy. Lastly, did you notice what JP didn't say when he was talking about the guns?

He never says that Micah was seeking a gun to kill herself. His big fear, right? The one that caused him to hire a private investigator who appeared to follow Micah until right around the time of her death and the one who got evidence of her kissing another man. By the way, how did JP go from she went to grab a gun to she tried to grab a gun to she didn't grab one because the safe is locked

and she doesn't know the combination? Did you see the evolution of that lie? He somehow twisted Micah asked for her guns back to Micah trying to grab weapons while the police dragged her out of his house. How could someone try to grab something that isn't there? We're still on the phone with you. Are you able to get yourself to safety? Yes, yes, yes. I'm in the back bedroom. Okay. All right.

I'm afraid they're going to try to steal some of my stuff too. She's been trying to take something. We're already going to court. Don't worry about that right now, okay? Okay, okay. It's just you and your sister, no children? Yes. No, two little dogs. That's it. Okay. All right.

Do you think you can leave safely? No way. There's no way I can get out. They won't let me out. I'm gonna stay on the phone with you, okay? Notice the sniffling? You tell me if you hear anything, see anything. Okay, thank you. the sniffling? I'm just typing in what you're telling me. I hear the dogs barking. I'm shaking. I can't stop shaking. Okay. Stay on the phone with me, okay? He's a very dangerous man. He was in the Army and he threatened me before.

He just got out of the mental institute a few weeks ago and we have a court date coming he referring to? Because on the day Micah was released from the hospital, paperwork was filed with the Horry County Family Court seeking a dismissal to the divorce she filed in October. Her signature was on the motion to dismiss. And now that we know Micah says she did not sign her post-nuptial agreement in February 2023 and that JP was trying to get her to do that still, that she was afraid he was impersonating her, we have to ask whether Micah actually did sign the dismissal documents because if she did sign them, she did so while all of this was going on. So if a court date did in fact exist at this point, then that means this call was made on

February 23rd or after. That's the date that JP filed his own divorce papers against Micah. I don't want you to put yourself in danger. You stay in the room. No, I'm not. Yeah. The police are already on their way to you. They're in their cars. They're back in their cars. Okay. Kind of a car, then. Are they in two separate cars? They're in a brown CRV. And we had to call the city police. We had to call... Because her family broke into my school that I own. And they wouldn't leave. So we had to call the city police just Friday broke into my scho wouldn't leave. So we had

just Friday to get them o I needed a trespassing fo already told him one time come back. This will be t property after they told the property of my house. the bedroom. Yes, ma'am. I'll let you know when it's good to come out when the officers are on scene, okay?

Are they still in the driveway? Are they still in the property? Yeah, they're still in the property. Okay. Notice here, JP switches from panic mode to controlling the narrative mode. He has likely already filed his own divorce paperwork at this point, which means he is trying to build a case against Micah. He is aware that this call is being recorded.

He's getting all of this on the record and he knows it. Listen to what he does next. Let me just say, I love my wife and I want her to be okay. And I'm trying to do what I can to get her to take her medicine and have her come home and you know all that kind of stuff but I had to file papers just for the safety of my children and to keep her... I get it believe me I understand I get it. I want the police officer to know I'm not mad at her but her dad's not allowed on the property ever and right now my lawyer told me that I had to file just to protect all

the assets because she drained the bank account, she bought two cars in the past week, she's doing frantic things because she hasn't taken her medicine. It's not normally like this for her. She only does it about once a year, but right now her death has been very evil. Okay. It's just shaking so bad. Okay, take a deep breath in, all right? Take a deep breath in.

I'm going to sound the phone. Okay, I don't want them to be upset with her, but it's her dad that kind of causes all this. She's just mentally ill and doesn't know what she's doing. She's just not aware of what she's doing. She's just not aware of what she's doing. She's just not aware of what she's doing. She's just not aware of what she's doing. She's just not aware of what she's doing. She's just not aware of what she's doing. She's just not aware of what she's doing. She's just not aware of what she's doing. Take a deep breath in, all right? Take a deep breath in. I'm gonna sound the phone. Okay, I don't want them to be upset with her, but it's her dad that kinda causes all this.

She's just, he's mentally ill and doesn't know what she's doing at the time. She thinks she's moving to Africa and she wants to sell everything. It's just not well. She just got over to the mental institute here at South Stream about two weeks ago. And we already have a probate.

Probate's already sent a letter for her to meet on March 5th to be evaluated by a doctor and then she'll be served tomorrow with the divorce papers, the separation papers to tell her to stay off the property and stuff. So everything's been worked. And she came here, she's come here before with cops, police officers twice, trying to get things and she tricked them and said she was getting clothing when she has no clothing here and she actually tried to get a gun.

And then the cop told her that she had to leave, that she couldn't even be here because the way she was acting. Notice how he acts like probate court is just randomly trying to get Micah committed. He, JP, is the reason Probe Court sent Micah a letter to get evaluated. That just didn't happen on its own. Also, notice that a lot of what he said here was repeated in his interviews with the media and content creators. Again, Kaiser Soze from the Usual Suspects. It's like he reviewed all of the material Micah was collecting against him and then re-explaining it in a way where he is the hero.

Going back to what we said earlier about FOIAs, we have FOIA for every report on Solid Rocks property. We have a report from February 23rd, the same day JP filed for divorce against Micah, where someone from the church, possibly him, called police to say that there was a family on the scene who had been told not to be there. But we don't see any record of the Francis family

being told this prior to this date. The report also notes that a woman on scene also called police about this incident. It is not clear if that is Micah calling, but it notes that the person who called police from the church, again, most likely JP, was now yelling at the family. The report notes that the family was alerted that there is an indefinite trespass notice against them, and the report notes that the family left without issues. Police told the family that if they needed to come back on the property to first call them for an escort.

So JP's depiction isn't quite right. From the outside, looking at these reports and hearing these calls, it seems like this is a family trying to help Micah get back on her feet while her husband seems to continue to do everything he can to make sure that she has nothing. The dispatcher asks if Micah and her father are still in their cars. He said they are. Police are getting closer to the property. Then JP launches back into his narrative. Listen to this next sentence and try not to laugh. We have all heard from Micah for much more than two minutes. And all we hear is a woman

trying to extract herself from a monster. There's nothing left here. I don't know what to do with the papers after being searched. I might have thrown them away. I don't know what to do with them. So they could ask her about that. According to records, Micah was served with her divorce papers from JP on February 28th. That case didn't last long. JP ended up dismissing it in mid-March, shortly after the March 11th infamous Springmaid Pier incident. Now in his call, he again goes on with this ridiculous narrative. He seems to be putting things on the record that will inevitably help him with his divorce claims against Micah. Seems natural, right? That seems like something that would be on his mind. But there might have been something else on his mind. He might have been trying to create a record that

he could show the church so that when Micah inevitably left him, when he had to explain what happened, the thing that happened to him in 2015 wouldn't happen again. The big mass exodus of his congregation. This was something that's well documented at this point that would have been a major concern for JP at the time. And remember Mic's October, 2023 divorce was on the grounds of adultery. He was being accused of adultery yet again. So at the time of this call, J.P. was not only on the defensive, he was on the offensive at the same time. I'm just putting it what you're telling me.

Yeah. Yes, we has everything that's hers. I mean, I want her to come back. I want to have a happy marriage, but she has to take the lithium. Right. Because she could kill one of my kids in the middle of the night. She thought the dog was, she tried to kill the dog one time. She thought it was baby Jesus, she said. She had it, drowned it in oil.

That must have been scary. She just emailed Mark Hammond, the Secretary of State, last week. I have the email where she sent him the email saying to investigate the two police officers that came here a few days before and kicked her out of the house. She does these things when she's mentally ill that aren't normal. I have all the paperwork from the police officers that were here last week and the week before. I have all the notes and everything to show them what everything you see. I have all her mental medicine notes. I have everything in a notebook that can be... Now whose car is the CRV? Who does that belong to? My wife. She just bought that two weeks ago, then she bought another one just yesterday.

that belongs to my wife. ago. Then she bought anot She just keeps buying car Yeah, she stole money fr now. She just committed a ago when their churches, charges on her and I'm ba think that she's gonna ge

to get well. Right? The c the city of Little Beach the police where the turc police on her two weeks a So, she keeps buying cars because she's bipolar or I don't know, maybe it's because she needed a car to get around in and you wouldn't give her her car back. The theft that J.B. is describing here, by the way, would not have been considered a felony

because it's for an amount less than $2,000. But also, as we've reported several times, the judge found no probable cause to arrest Micah. In fact, they found that she had withdrawn her own money that she had put into the account and that she was the sole signatory on the account, which I'm not an expert on accounting, but doesn't sound like a very good practice at a church. Beyond that, JP says he was holding off on pressing charges against her and that the church wanted him to do it.

JP is and was the church. According to a source close to the situation, one of the elders, someone close to JP, was confused as to why he wasn't pulling the trigger on this accusation of theft. Why was he pressing charges against Micah for it? In our opinion, he was keeping the case open to hang over Micah's head and further attempt to pressure her and attempt to control her behavior and punish her for having the audacity for wanting

to leave him. How long was she in the hospital? She was there for five days, but this is the sixth time that she's been there. She's been in on six mental institutes over the past several years, and they normally give her lithium and she gets out she's fine. Well this time they didn't give her any lithium. She went to a new mental hospital and they didn't know her. And she got out and she just left. She just, Taylor just left. And she drained the bank account and took everything she owned and just left. And so I had to, but then she's been, you know, harassing and tormenting and the case officer's here. Thank God.

Okay. All right. I'm going to let you go talk to them. Okay? Thanks so much. Have a good day. Okay. Bye now. Okay, fine. Oh, so there is an answer to a question, right? JPE has maintained this entire time that Micah was off her lithium because of her so-called controlling father's so-called insistence on Micah taking a holistic approach to her mental health. But that wasn't the truth, was it?

Or at least it doesn't appear to be. Micah wasn't on lithium, and this is according to JPE, because she wasn't the truth, was it? Or at least it doesn't appear to be. Micah wasn't on lithium and this is according to JP because she wasn't prescribed lithium. We have pointed this out a few times now. The medical examiner's report mentioned Micah's anti-anxiety medication, but nothing about lithium. Now we know why. Micah's family has accused JP of using medicine to alter Micah's mental state to control her. If that's the case, then this certainly would have been a big blow to that plan to not have a lithium prescription to draw from. It certainly would help explain his desperate attempts to have her hospitalized again. One last thing about this call. It was different from Micah's call to police when she warned them

that JP was armed and dangerous and she asked them to come call to police when she warned them that JP was armed and dangerous and she asked them to come get him when she told them that he was off his anti-psychotic meds, right? JP knew what to say to police. He was almost a professional at it. He knew what buttons to push to get them to regard her as mentally unstable. Micah wasn't as well versed in that. mentally unstable. Micah wasn't as well versed in that. That call to police she made was more authentic. It was more of an outline of his behavior, right? She wasn't using the phone call to advance any narrative. She didn't point to any one behavior. She didn't use the language he uses. She wasn't like, he's homicidal, he's suicidal, here's his diagnosis. Nothing like that. She seemed to be at

her wit's end. She seemed to be at her wit's end. She seemed to be fed up at JP for being able to use this system against her and she seemed fed up at the system that seemed to roll out a red carpet for any claim her husband made against her while not doing the same thing when she made claims against her husband. Micah was essentially saying to the law enforcement in that call, John Paul Miller is all of these things. He's done all of these things. He's surrounded by all of these people. I've done nothing except try to get back what is mine and start my life without him. So why aren't y'all doing anything about him?

Why is it always me? It has never been more clear how the system failed Micah Francis completely. And we'll be right back. These calls were hard to listen to. In the last 24 hours, I have wrestled with a lot of emotions after hearing about so many incidents of Micah asking the police for help and more evidence of the system degrading and devaluing her in the months before she died. I am sickened.

I am saddened. I am frustrated. I am furious. We have been submitting FOIA requests in this case for more than three months now, just trying to get to the truth of what led to Micah's April 27th death. And here we are in the middle of August and all of the sudden we find out from a TikTok account that there were at least 6 other incidents that we didn't know about involving Horry County Police that we should have known about months ago.

Incidents where Micah was belittled and shunned when seeking protection, while she was trying to leave an allegedly abusive husband who happened to have connections in that same police department. Incidents where Micah clearly expresses fear of JP Miller and his family members, and she was not taken seriously. Incidents that are hugely important Miller and his family members and she was not taken seriously.

Incidents that are hugely important to the question we have been asking all along. Who is responsible for Micah Miller's death? Who has blood on their hands? Then I thought about the last words that Micah ever said on public record. Tell me what's happened. Um... I'm about to kill myself. And... I just want my family to know where to find me. Okay, ma'am.

Just listen to what I'm saying, okay? Let me make sure I got the exact location where you're at, okay? Just one minute." That is when the call that we have goes out. Robeson County Sheriff's Office officials still haven't said if there was more to that call that was redacted or if it just cut out. But what if she called police to see if the people who were supposed to be there to help her finally showed concern for her? What if the dispatcher's quick reaction to I'm going to kill myself was, please don't

instead of, okay ma'am just listen to what I'm saying? Or what if Micah didn't kill herself at all? What if we have merely scraped the surface on uncovering the injustice that led to Micah's death? Stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. Stay tuned, stay pesky, and co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky. The justice system can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be.

We all want a drink from the same cup of justice, and it starts with learning about our legal system. My name is Mandi Matney, and together with journalist Liz Farrell and world-renowned attorney Eric Bland, we create the perfect trifecta of legal expertise, journalistic integrity and a fire lit to expose the truth wherever it leads. We all encounter a part of our justice systems at one point, so why not get prepared while being entertained with tales from the newsroom and the courtroom? Cup of Justice has amazing special guests like Sheryl Crow, Vinnie Politan, Emily D. Baker, and other experts to share their take on the bright side of the truth.

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