Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #70 - What Happened To Mica In 2018? + How the SC Attorney General Is Failing Domestic Abuse Victims + Murdaugh Madness

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

Investigative journalists Mandy Matney and Liz Farrell return to the Mica Francis case and to March 23, 2018 … the day of Mica’s alleged first attempt at suicide.... Medical records from that day say her husband — pastor JP Miller — called one of Mica’s mental health providers at 10 a.m. to say that Mica had stolen JP’s credit card, snuck out of the house while he was sleeping, gone ot Dick’s Pawn Shop that morning, purchased a gun, received a lesson on how to use it and then tried shooting herself in their front yard. And, like with most everything else in this case, JP’s account contains inconsistencies, contradictions and raises a lot of questions. Such as could Mica have done all of that in less than an hour?  Mandy and Liz talk about that and what else is contained in the medical records from that day. Also on the show, an update on the Nautilus case — WILL ALEX MURDAUGH AND CORY FLEMING BE REUNITED?!?  Plus, Alex finally settled the Mallory Beach boat crash civil liability case and an update on the Beach family’s second civil conspiracy case and their request for a judge to step down.  Finally, October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and … we’re all aware. Now is the time for meaningful change, starting with South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson who needs to trade his photo ops with paper dolls for actual action in the courtroom … starting with getting a trial date for the Sara Lynn Colucci case.  Episode Resources “SC AG honors fallen victims of domestic violence” article Law & Crime's article on Christa Gilley’s murder PRESS Act FAQ’s H.R.4250 - PRESS Act NewsNation Interview with JP Miller Stay Tuned, Stay Pesky and Stay in the Sunlight...☀️ 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. 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... Hungry Root - https://hungryroot.com/mandy to get 40% off your first delivery and get your free veggies.. Hungry Root is the easiest way to eat healthy. They send you fresh, high-quality groceries, simple, delicious recipes, and essential supplements. Task Rabbit - Use promo code "mandy" at https://www.taskrabbit.com/ for 15% off your task. Task Rabbit connects you with skilled Taskers to help with cleaning, moving, furniture assembly, home repairs, and more. Peloton - onepeloton.com Find your push. Find your power with Peloton at onepeloton.com. 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 tiktok.com/@lunasharkmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Unfortunately, life doesn't come with an owner's manual. That's why there's Better Help online therapy. Connect with a credentialed therapist by phone, video, or online chat. Visit betterhelp.com to learn more. That's betterHELP.com. I don't know what exactly led to Micah's first alleged suicide attempt in 2018. But after taking a closer look at that incident and surrounding circumstances, we have a big question we hope the FBI is looking into right now. How in the world was she able to legally purchase a gun in 2024?

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 Luna Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. ["True Sunlight"] Hello and happy Thursday. We are excited and grateful to be back here with y'all after a much needed break. This week has been very special to David and me. We celebrated our two-year wedding anniversary on Tuesday and today

we tour the campus that means the most to me, the University of Kansas, my alma mater. Rock Chalk. Today, Thursday October 17th, we will be talking to several hundred Journalism 101 students. The class I took 16 years ago about our journey to create Lunashark media and all of the challenges we have faced along the way. I've spent a lot of time in the last few months preparing to talk to students on this university tour we've been on for three weeks now. This part of the work is really the most important to me, inspiring our younger generations to be brave,

to challenge the system, to expose evil, and to change the world. I have been thinking about all of these things that I wish someone told me 16 years ago. And whew! I tried my best to fit all of those things into an hour's speech that y'all can hear on the Lunashark Premium Feed. But I think the single best piece of advice that I can offer anyone who wants to do something meaningful in their lives and careers is to be smart with your relationships, both in your personal and professional lives. That means surround yourself with people who believe in you more than you believe in yourself.

It's not at all surprising to me looking back that my career started drastically changing and improving around the exact same time I started dating David. David was always a safe space for me to talk about my career and where I wanted to go. I told him in 2019 that it was my dream to start a true crime, journalism-based podcast, like Serial or Dirty John. I told him how perfect the Boat Crash story would be for a podcast, and he actually believed it. One day after work, in 2019, I remember getting to his house late, and I was nervous that

he was going to be mad because we planned on eating dinner together. But he wasn't mad. Instead, he set up a microphone on his kitchen counter and plugged it into his computer. He said, look, you can do this podcast. If it's something you want to do, we can figure it out." He had even downloaded some audio software and was playing around with special effects. And that moment changed the rest of our lives and so many others. Fast forward to June 2021.

He pulled out that same microphone and encouraged me to make the scariest and best move of my career by starting MMP. And here we are now, a few hundred episodes later, with our own media company gearing up to celebrate our two-year anniversary in the best way possible with a visit to my alma mater and a book signing at our favorite Lawrence, Kansas bar, the Sandbar. I cannot wait to see y'all there at 5 p.m. tonight. Again, Thursday, October 17th, see the link for details.

Now these past few years have been a journey and we have shared a lot of the negative parts with y'all. But today I want to talk about one of the best things that has happened since we started MMP in 2021 and that is watching David evolve into a fact-finding, FOIA-filing journalist. And I am so, so excited to announce that David now has his own podcast series for premium members only, The Corruption Watchlist. And we have another podcast coming, called Wherever It Leads on the Horizon. More details on that soon.

So David has been working with Lunashark reporter Sam Berlin to keep tabs on cases across the country where crime meets corruption. And wow, this week's episode alone just might set your rage brain on fire. From the latest in the Sandra Burchmore case in Massachusetts to the horrific Sonia Massey case in Illinois, David will tell you what you need to know about these important cases

where crime unfortunately meets corruption and he will further expose where exactly our public officials failed. Look for the corruption watch list on your Lunashark Premium feed starting this Friday. And speaking of relationships, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and we need to talk about it, because this subject deserves so much more than just a purple ribbon. If I've learned anything while diving into the cases of Sarah Lynn Colucci and Micah Francis, it's that domestic violence is far more prevalent and misunderstood than

I ever imagined. In fact, we need to start calling it Domestic Abuse Awareness Month, or even Coercive Control Awareness Month, because the conversation around domestic violence awareness needs to start where the abuse starts, with coercive control. These abusive relationships don't begin with violence.

They are defined by power and control from early on, by building a person up then breaking them down, piece by piece. If we learn how to identify coercive control, then we can save ourselves and loved ones before the abuse starts. I wish Alan Wilson would have said something like that, or better yet, done something, about the domestic violence murder case, the Sarah Lynn Colucci case, that his office has

dropped the ball on. But instead, the Attorney General of South Carolina hosted the 27th annual silent witness domestic violence ceremony at the State House this month. And I need to talk about this kind of performative politicking because it is a part of the problem. And no, I'm not talking about the victims who participated in this. Those who bravely shared their stories, which included the complexities of abuse, I am talking specifically about Allen Wilson. Allen Wilson stood before the State House grounds on October 1st and said, Quote, domestic violence is not just a private matter.

It is a public concern that needs our collective response. When we stand together, we can end domestic violence and create safer communities." Well, Alan, that's great. It is a public concern, and it does call for action and awareness, meaning more than a performative, positive press-focused ceremony during which he called the names of 30 men and women who lost their lives to domestic violence in South Carolina in 2023, and there were 30 silhouettes on the statehouse steps to mark each life lost. When I read this, I was a little shocked.

Only 30? Studies show that 3-4 women per day are killed by an intimate partner in the United States. Every week, several of y'all send me shocking stories of women being killed by their partners. And those are just the ones that editors in newsrooms consider to be newsworthy. Which means those are the extra horrifying ones. Like just this week, Christina Bauer Gilley, a pregnant 38 year old mother of two, was found dead in her Houston, Texas home. Her husband claimed that she overdosed, but doctors quickly realized that she was strangled to death.

Christina was a Clemson grad who used to live in Charleston. Her husband, Lee Gilley, was charged with capital murder. We are going to be watching that case closely, as it is yet another case where a husband tried to convince authorities that his wife died by suicide when evidence said otherwise. And I need to know how often that really does happen. Because the horrifying reality is that these cases are far more common than we think they are. So according to Sled's annual report, 55 people were murdered last year by an intimate partner in South Carolina.

So Beth Braden of Lunashark Media asked Attorney General's spokesperson Robert Kittle about this discrepancy, and he said essentially that they don't count boyfriend-girlfriend domestic violence murders. They only go with what the state defines as domestic violence, which is...odd. So, the AG's office is using the most narrow definition of DV, therefore minimizing the problem in their ceremony to raise awareness about domestic violence. 495 people were murdered in South Carolina last year, and only 67% of those cases were solved. 110 of the 495 murder victims were females.

Which tells me that there's probably a lot more than 55 domestic violence murder victims last year, and there are likely far more than 30 people who were killed in domestic abuse incidents in the last year. This also doesn't count children like Paul Murdoch who were killed by their father in domestic violence situations. So many of these murders happen in slow motion. So many of these murders happen in families that looked from the outside world to be perfect. And too many of us think that these abusive relationships that end in death are far too

rare and uncommon to warrant drastic legislative change. And maybe that is by design. If people knew just how bad the issue was, politicians like Alan Wilson would have to do a lot more work. Micah Francis and Sarah Lynn Colucci both wanted out of their marriages. This is well documented by their text messages and statements to friends and family. They were both married to men with violent histories. They both died suddenly in their 30s. Both of their husbands claimed that their deaths were suicides. And both of those husbands are still wandering freely about

South Carolina. Well, Michael Colucci is sort of free. And we need to talk about that case for a minute because Alan Wilson needs to get his house in order, especially while claiming to be a champion of domestic violence awareness. So in May 2016, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the same agency that investigated the Murdoch murders, charged Charleston area jeweler Michael Colucci in the 2015 murder of his wife, Sarah Lynn Colucci. Like thrice accused rapist Bowen Turner and murderer Ellic Murdoch, Michael Colucci is yet another well-connected male defendant whose case represents an ongoing issue here

in South Carolina that we hope to change. Two systems of justice that favor the rich and powerful. During the 2018 murder trial, Colucci's mastermind defense, led by top-tier attorney Andy Savage, managed to skew the simple narrative of this story so badly, it resulted in a hung jury, despite the pile of evidence stacked against him. The story that Michael Colucci told police about the circumstances surrounding his wife's death shifted several times and ultimately just didn't match the evidence. The defense claimed that Sarah Colucci either hanged herself intentionally with an industrial

hose or tripped on an industrial hose and somehow strangled herself. All the while, Michael, her husband, was just a few feet away in his car. On the contrary, the state believes that the couple, on the brink of separating, got into a fight and that Michael strangled her to death and attempted to stage a suicide or accident. So remember, this case has been going on for nine years. Sarah Lynn Colucci was killed in May 2015. Two years after that, Michael Colucci was tried for her murder and the judge declared

it a mistrial when the jury could not reach a verdict. And we are six years out from that mistrial, still with no trial date as Beth confirmed this week. As y'all remember, the retrial was set for May and it was suddenly postponed because, well, as we were screaming about for months, the court realized that this murder trial starring Andy Savage, who's essentially Dick and Jim's smarter and sneakier uncle, was going to take a lot longer than the week it was scheduled for. Now, the reason we focused on the Calucci case for several months was in fact because

we heard that the AG's office was treating it like a hot potato that nobody wanted. Sarah Lynn Calucci and her loved ones deserve more than that. We are glad that suddenly the AG's office realized that they needed more time and resources for this trial that was going to put them in the spotlight. But it is past time for them to schedule this trial and give the victims at least a date to hope for closure. It has been over nine years since Sarah Lynn Calucci died in what the state contends was a vicious murder by her husband. And it is time that the state starts acting like it. If Alan Wilson truly cared about domestic violence victims, like he said in his little ceremony,

then he would do four very simple things in this case. One, schedule the trial. Two, dedicate more resources for the battle that awaits them facing Andy Savage. Three, establish an actual bond for Michael Colucci and actually monitor him. And four, communicate all of this clearly to the victims because so far in this case all we have seen from Alan Wilson's office is a series of failures that have demonstrated a clear message and that is victims are at the bottom of

their priority list. Here is the thing the most disturbing part of this case is that I am completely convinced no one of authority has any idea where accused murderer Michael Colucci is and what he is doing. Beth Brayden has asked AG spokesperson Robert Kittle about this dozens of times. And this question should be simple. What are the bond conditions for this man who was out on bond for murder? And several times, we got answers that gave us absolutely zero reassurance. He even used words like pretty sure when referring to this accused murderer's ankle monitor.

During one of the times that Beth asked where Michael Colucci was living, Robert Kittle said he quote, thought he was at an address at a home where we looked up, but he was evicted from in 2018. He was supposed to be on house arrest, they told us. And yet he was tagged this year multiple times on Facebook, booping around a golf course and horsing around with buddies. In early May, the attorney general's office

finally told Sarah Lynn Colucci's family that Michael Colucci was in fact on an ankle monitor, but not on house arrest and had very few conditions set in stone as to where he can and can't go. This means, for those who fear Michael Colucci, that they essentially have no layer of legal protection, aside from a piece of plastic stuck to his ankle that apparently no one is monitoring. So Allen Wilson's office is not only failing the victims every single day by not giving

Kaluci a trial date, but they are failing the victims by allowing this man to roam around on bond with zero consequences. We notice that just like JP Miller, ol' Michael Colucci can't help himself on the road. Colucci got a speeding ticket in Colleton County in April, and that oddly disappeared from the public index, just like one of JP Miller's did. And then, Colucci got pulled over and charged for driving

without registration in early June, which I know isn't a huge deal, but it shows that he's out and about and still has little respect for the law. In Alan Wilson's domestic violence awareness speech, he said, quote, each life lost to domestic violence is a call to action. Let their memory fuel our fight for justice and change. So Alan, here is your call to action. Sarah Lynn Colucci deserves justice. You can fight for justice. You can fight for change. Or you can continue to choose inaction while the whole world is watching

you. And to any South Carolina politician who wants to raise awareness on domestic violence this month or any month, please start by advocating for Micah's law to be passed and for coercive control, education, and prevention. Like we said, so many of these domestic abuse murders happen in slow motion, and if our leaders just cared a little bit more, we could actually lower the number of victims killed

every year instead of just skewing the numbers and pretending like we are improving. We have a few quick updates for you before we catch you up on the Micah Francis case, but I wanted to reiterate something that Mandy mentioned. The reason there hasn't been a trial this year in Sarah Colucci's death is because the AG's office told the court that they only needed that single week to make their case. Even though this is a retrial because of a hung jury in 2018 and even though they know from that experience from that trial the one they didn't win, it actually took nearly two weeks. So logic and hope would dictate that sure in the past six years

the AG's office was probably working on making a tighter case against Michael Colucci so maybe it makes sense that the trial would be a week. Also, old witnesses might not be around anymore, etc. But the fact that they scheduled a single week and then right before it was time for that, after they saw that we had been covering the case on True Sunlight coincidentally, they then announced that they actually did need those two weeks. That right there would tell you how wrong we would be to rely on that logic and hope, the one that gives them the benefit of the doubt for being prepared. To an outsider, which we certainly are, it instead looks like a big uh-oh. And another big win for

Michael's high priced attorney, Andy Savage, who ultimately gets to benefit from more delays. In the meantime, Alan Wilson has apparently been busy making paper dolls to put on the state house steps for what amounted to a photo op. Something to just show how much Alan the politician cares about domestic violence. Again, one way we'd like Alan, you know, the state's top law enforcement guy, to show his support for victims of domestic violence would be by not kowtowing to defendants who can afford to hire high-priced attorneys

and by treating every trial involving domestic violence and especially murder involving a spouse or romantic partner like it is the most important thing they've ever done. Because to the future would be victims, showing future would be defendants, that engaging in domestic violence would mean all out war against them, that is the most important thing the AG's office

and all solicitors' offices could do to show their support for them. So start there, Alan. Use some of that paper at all time for that. And we'll be right back. ["The Daily Show"] Delivery and pick-up, score in-store promos, PC optimum points, and more free time. And still get groceries. Shop now at pcexpress.ca.

After decades of shaky hands caused by debilitating tremors, Sunnybrook was the only hospital in Canada who could provide Andy with something special. Three neurosurgeons, two scientists, one movement disorders coordinator, 58 answered questions, two focused ultrasound procedures, one specially developed helmet, thousands of high intensity focused ultrasound waves, zero incisions, and that very same day, two steady hands. From innovation to action, Sunnybrook is special. Learn more at sunnybrook.ca Learn more at Sunnybrook.ca slash special. Okay, let's talk about what's new in the world of Elec Murdoch. On Cup of Justice this week, we talked about the Nautilus case and where that stands. Real quick, this is a case where Nautilus, one of Elec's insurance policyholders back

when Gloria Satterfield died in 2018 in Moselle knew there were shenanigans afoot because Ellic's own attorney had told them, I smell a rat here. But nevertheless, they wrote a check to Corey Fleming for $3.8 million on behalf of the Satterfield family who never saw a dime of it. Nautilus wants Ellic and Corey to give back the money they stole. Nautilus also sued Palmetto State Bank and Chad Westendorf, who is the bank employee that got tens of thousands of dollars for signing off on the settlement as the personal representative for Gloria Satterfield, a woman he never met. But over the summer, federal judge Richard

Gergel effectively released Chad and the bank by dismissing claims against them and they were both officially dismissed on September 30th. Nautilus is suing Corey's former law firm but not PMPED even though ELEC used PMPED resources to help steal this money. Once again, PMPED's origin story on how they found out ELEC was a thief gets accepted as fact without anyone asking to look under the hood. In the meantime, Ellic has kept on being Ellic. In an effort to get Nautilus to go after the Sadderfields instead of him, he told the court that he told a lie when he said that Gloria told him she had been knocked over by the dogs and therefore, Nautilus paid out that money on a fraudulent claim, which no duh, Ellic is a liar. But he did that to be like, well, you shouldn't have paid out that money

in the first place because it was fraudulent. So why don't you go take your money out of what the Satterfields have been paid by my law firm, Corey's law firm, and the banks because of my thefts? Family murders aside, think about how purely evil a person has to be to steal millions of dollars using their housekeeper's grieving family to do so, and then to turn around and say, I'm not giving back what I stole, go get it from my victims.

Anyway, the Nautilus case is moving forward, meaning they are not backing down so far. They want their money, which is interesting because both Ellic and Corey are claiming to be broke. Ellic broke with his four high-priced attorneys representing him in this case alone. A trial date has been set for January 6, but Judge Gergel also ordered that all parties try to reach a settlement by late November. If they can't reach an agreement, then they'll be headed to Charleston for the trial and, so far, it appears that Corey will be there.

No word yet on whether Ellic plans to join in, but can you imagine? Ellic and Corey in the same room since, well, since before this very tender moment in the fall of 2021. Dear Cory, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I'm so sorry for all the damage I have caused you and your family. You were the last person I would want to hurt, and I know I did. I'm still not sure how I let all this happen. I think about you all the time. I miss you more than you could know. I hope you are doing as good as you can under the circumstances. Let Jim know if I can do anything at all to help you in any way.

Love and apologies to Eve and the children as well. Just wanted to say hello. I hope I get to see you or talk to you soon. I miss Mags and Paul so bad, but I am more proud of Buss than ever. He has been so strong. Not sure how he does it given all I've put on him. Check on him if you get time and feel like it. All my love, Alec." That was a letter that Alec wrote Cory after Alec was arrested in the Satterfield case

and Cory was in a high-hot panic about his role in the heist. Anyway, we'll keep you posted on where the Nautilus case looks like it's going and whether these two brothers in love and crime will be reunited. Okay, last update. The two cases that stemmed from Mallory Beach's death in 2019. Let's talk about those. First, the civil conspiracy case. That's the one where Greg Parker is accused of leaking confidential court materials, including pictures of Mallory's dead body, that ended up in the hands of a reporter who was working on a documentary that was also produced by an associate of Greg's. We told you about how the new judge in the case, Judge Doc Morgan, is refusing to step down after discovering that his clerk corresponded with all

parties in this case, despite a potential conflict of interest, which the judge himself acknowledged shortly after this contact was made according to court documents. The conflict was that this same clerk interned for one of Parker's attorneys, Debbie Barbier, while Debbie was working on the case. Debbie has a small law office, so it makes sense that there would be questions about this. Since we told you about this two weeks ago, Parker's team have filed their own brief. Surprise, surprise, they think there's no appearance of impropriety here, which is the standard for recusal here. They downplay just about every aspect and they're trying to paint the Beach family and their attorney Mark Tinsley as being shady for even having a problem with this, which is deja vu to the boat crash case.

Reminder, the judge is the one who brought this potential conflict to the attention of everyone, according to documents, and he even inquired about whether the Beaches had a problem with this, which they obviously said they did. Parker's main point is that the clerk, Adam Compton, didn't start his job with Judge Morgan until August 14th, that very same day, and that his email to all the parties was harmless. They say he was just acknowledging receipt of a thumb drive. But here's the thing, Parker's own exhibits show otherwise. In the so-called harmless email, Adam doesn't just say, received, got it, no, no. He says, I will let you know if I have any trouble accessing the documents. And then he signs it with his name and gives

his cell phone number. That would indicate some action, right? He's not just some unconnected guy sending out a secretary's note to everyone, he's indicating that he's involved and touching the case. But more than that, Parker's team is trying to brush all of this off by parroting the judge's claim that even though the email has Adam's name in it and is signed by him and has his cell phone number, that this was actually sent out by the previous clerk, Jonathan Umbriano, which again is contradicted by Parker's own exhibits. On Tuesday, August 13th, the day before Adams sent out the so-called harmless email and the day before Judge Morgan said Adams started with him, Adams' name already appeared in the judicial clerk's email address. So either the IT department is lickety split on the

switch over between clerks or Adam started earlier than they're saying, right? Then there's also this zoom record that we found online that shows Adam actually starting on August 1st. So there's a discrepancy there that we just can't account for. So on Wednesday morning, reporter Beth B Braden contacted the state Supreme Court to get clarification on when Adam actually started, but we haven't heard back from them yet. So we'll update you on what we hear back from them as to what Adam's actual start date was. As of Wednesday, Judge Morgan also had not stepped down nor had he set a hearing date to further discuss this matter. We'll keep you posted on all of that because once again,

we're talking about the state judges seeming not to care about following the rules and the rules say that they should recuse themselves if there's even an appearance of impropriety. But here's some more food for thought for anyone out there thinking that the beaches are wrong for having a problem with this. And it's a question that should be posed to Greg Parker. If the law clerk in question had interned from Mark Tinsley's office,

would old Greg be okay with that? Or is it more likely to believe that Debbie Barbier and Mark Moore would be racking up the billable hours trying to get that judge removed? I think we know the answers to those questions. The second beach case update has to do with the boat crash case, the original case that spawned the civil conspiracy case. Remember when the beaches and the boat crash victims settled the case back in July 2023? And how going into the settlement, Elick Murdoch had verbally agreed to settle the case as well? And then immediately after that that took it back?

Well, his insurance company finally settled. Progressive, the one that insured the boat, paid out $500,000. That money will go toward the lawyer's fees in the Beach case. So what was up with this? Why did it take so long? Well, it's about the receivership money. We all thought we were done having to talk about that, right? But sorry, there's more. There's always more. Ehrlich wanted leverage to keep the Beach family from getting any of the receivership money. Remember, the receivership money is basically the pennies that were found in Ellic's couch. After Mark Tinsley argued for the court to freeze Ellic and Maggie's assets in fall 2021 and have a receivership appointed, attorneys John T. Lay and Peter

McCoy did a deep dive to account for every last dime of Ellic and Maggie's personal net worth. Basically, they tried to find the stolen money so that it could go to victims. Now, there have been many problematic things to occur with this receivership. One, before it was actually in place, Ellic and his family and friends were accused of quote, wasting his assets.

It was like a big old fire sale in those weeks leading up to and after Ellic's first arrest. To Randy Murdoch and Johnny Parker, remember, Ellic's law partner, who loaned him hundreds of thousands of dollars even after PMPED began to suspect Ellic took their money? They tried to use the court to make a cash grab, saying that Ellick owed them large sums of money. In Johnny's case, he was accused of trying to make this cash grab after being told that the judge had agreed to the receivership. 3. Buster was dropped from the boat crash case in exchange for not fighting the receivership. And the beaches let him keep $500,000 of his mother's assets.

Four, even so, the Murdoch stand accused of continuing to hide assets after the court froze them. For instance, Mark Tinsley told us this week, they discovered that several pieces of jewelry belonging to Maggie had not been disclosed to the receivership, possibly worth around $200,000. And five, Fox Nation used photo and video assets for a pro-Murdoch docu-series that allegedly included photos and videos belonging to Maggie's estate.

As a part of Maggie's estate, any of the money received for the use of those photos and videos would belong to the receivership and therefore the victims. The receivership is still trying to sort out those last two things and has subpoenaed for records that might help sort it out. That said, old Ellic is a thief. He killed his wife and son thinking that their tragic deaths and his tragic loss would put an end to the boat crash case and his law firm's inquiries, and therefore no one would find out what he had actually been up to for pretty much his entire legal career. The sad thing is, he was almost right about that.

But then he got caught, right? On all fronts. And he's lost battle after battle after battle after battle and repeatedly showing himself to be the lowlife that he is. Once again, here he is, sitting on a settlement for more than a year in hopes of keeping the Beach family from getting any part of the $1.76 million of receivership money. Ellick tried to say that he was doing this because he wanted his other victims to get more money, but let's be real, Johnny Parker and PMPED got 30% of that money. You know, who the federal government say are the real victims here. It's truly sick.

Anyway, the boat crash case is finally and fully settled. After more than a year of ELEC playing games. Alright, let's talk about Micah Francis. For weeks we've been promising to tell you what happened on March 23rd, 2018 when JP Miller said his wife first attempted suicide. We kept getting breaking news and foyers back that were more pressing to talk about, but now we have some time. So just to catch you up from where we left off, late in the summer, we had received a stack of Micah's psychiatric records from True Crime Rhee,

who is a TikToker connected to JP Miller. We've already told you about what was happening in December 2017, and we shared information from the reports from January, February, and early March of 2018. These were the first few months of Micah's marriage and the first few months of her first being diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. Again, Micah was 23 years old at the time.

She had just had a breast augmentation surgery, which her family said she did because JP had pressured her to do so. JP denies that. He says it was Micah who wanted it. Regardless, Micah seemed to experience post-anesthesia psychosis, which is something that's known to be transient in the last few minutes, couple hours, up to at most a few days. She was also experiencing what seemed like a major infection from the surgery, according to statements from JP. The reports we've shared with you so far had several red flags that,

while not necessarily red flags on their own, were made red flags by the context. The context being that Micah's family and her legal team have published pages and pages of examples of alleged coercive control behavior from JP that they say contributed to Micah's death. Again, he denies all of that. The context also being though, the stack of police reports we've seen and screenshots

of text messages between JP and Micah, Micah and her friends, Micah and her family, JP and Micah's family. One of those red flags is that we were told by True Crime Re that any handwritten marks on the records were from JP. And one of those marks turned out to be a redaction that didn't quite cover the text below it. When Beth Braden zoomed in, she could see that JP or JP, according to True Crime Re anyway, had tried to hide the part of Micah's March 8th, 2018 medical record where the doctor had written that, quote, patient and husband stop meds on their own

or share each other's meds. This is significant because this was at a time when Micah was feeling desperate. She went from being a healthy young woman in November 2017 when, according to Micah's family and friends, JP had insisted that she secretly marry him ahead of their December 31, 2017 wedding date so that Micah could move in with him and he could take care of her after her surgery. After she moved in with him, her health began to fail. She was on new heavy duty medication, including painkillers from the surgery and mood stabilizers. And she

was subjected to what seemed like routine harassment for JP or what seemed like harassment to us anyway. Imagine being 23 years old and moving in with the pastor you had known since you were 15, a guy you later accused of grooming you, a pastor who is also the man who broke up your first marriage because of an affair you had with him, a pastor who had five children and whose church was on the brink of financial ruin because of the affair. Then imagine having major plastic surgery where one of your breasts hardened because of an infection, according to JP. Imagine having no money

and being entirely reliant on this pastor who is now your secret husband, someone you can't tell people you're married to yet for some unknown reason. Imagine doing all that while also planning your wedding in the church where you had the affair. Think of the shame that Micah might have been dealing with at the time or at least the stress of being the subject of gossip. And think of the helplessness and

the disillusionment. She believed that she was marrying her soulmate and now this soulmate, the one that she had blown up her life to be with, was sending her long-winded emails about how disappointed he was in her. Within weeks of being married, and all this was within weeks of them being secretly married and weeks before their wedding, a husband who was weaponizing the Bible and establishing the terms for her on what being a godly wife was all about. Then add in that this man, whom she had likely idealized and idolized up until this point, was also her nurse. He was nursing her back to health. He was in charge of her care. But instead

of recovering, Micah ended up with a mental health diagnosis and a long list of behaviors that JP found to be unacceptable, including Micah discussing ideas and wanting to learn new languages. Another red flag is that Micah only went to one therapy session before her alleged suicide attempt on March 23rd, 2018. In those notes, the clinician mentioned that Micah was codependent and that the clinician had told Micah that it wasn't a good idea for JP to attend her sessions until maybe later when they could integrate some couples counseling into the mix.

It seems like an indicator that JP had perhaps been ejected from the session or prevented from coming in. After this appointment, Micah opted not to return to the therapist, but continued to see Dr. Shadi Juchesny, the psychiatrist, and the nurse practitioner, Suzanne Herreault. JP appears to have attended most, if not all, of those appointments starting with Micah's

first outpatient appointment in mid-January 2018 and extending through her alleged first suicide attempt in March 2018. In fact, another red flag is that Dr. Duchesny sometimes refers to Micah as they, as if she were seeing Micah and JP as one patient, or as if she was subconsciously understanding them as a unit, could this have been a result of one being the patient and the other being the narrator of how the patient was actually doing? It's a question we have to ask. We've told you about how Dr. Duchesny was an addiction specialist in Pennsylvania and lost her medical license for around three years in 2009 after pleading guilty to writing prescription for oxycodone

to an alleged patient. A woman who was going to different pharmacies to fill said prescriptions. And we told you how in South Carolina there had been two complaints made against her with the State Department of Mental Health, one which included an accusation that Dr. Duchesne, instead of merely reporting the facts of a patient's medical exam, extrapolated that the patient was just trying to get disability. Both complaints appear to have been considered and unfounded, and neither resulted in any disciplinary action against Dr. Duchesny. But this was notable to us because sources in the field have identified passages of Dr. Duchesny's

narratives in the medical reports as appearing to be examples, examples of counter-transference, where the doctor was allowing her personal bias to affect how she was interpreting Micah's health. During this time period, Micah was struggling with the side effects of her medication, specifically a condition called akathisia, where your body feels the escapable impulse to move. Like a more severe case of restless leg syndrome, but where you feel the need to get up and move around rather than just kick your leg and shake it off. Micah was also exhausted and repeatedly mentioned a desire to return to work, and she felt sad in a way that she never had before.

In addition, Micah truly did not believe she had bipolar disorder. At her first outpatient appointment that we have record of in January 2018, she expressed concerns about her diagnosis and her hospitalization in December, but the clinician did not expound on what those were. Within weeks of her initial appointments, she was reporting severe depression and even suicidal ideation, where she would think about how she would do it, but said that she would not and could not kill herself. On February 1, 2018, Micah was described in the medical report as being despondent and

showing no emotion. In this appointment, she told doctors that she didn't believe that she had bipolar disorder but instead had a nervous breakdown in December 2017 when JP said that she was speaking gibberish. That gibberish, by the way, largely consisted of Micah talking about her job as a salesperson at a car dealership and wanting to learn Spanish so she could expand her client base, as well as stories from the Bible and theories about God and energy. We have also shared with you the content of videos that got posted online by another TikToker whose aim seems to be to show that Micah did have bipolar disorder. To us and others,

those videos show a young woman frustrated with her husband and feeling misunderstood, possibly persecuted. Frankly, they show a very young woman who was catching on to how her words and her behavior could be twisted and used against her. She was also catching on to the hypocrisy of her situation when JP said something quirky or something philosophical related to the teachings of the Bible. He wasn't seen as crazy, but when Micah did it, it was suddenly time to call the doctors,

right? And we'll be right back. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows. Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you and your loved ones financially, giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters. Find their products through banks, credit unions and associations or

visit securiancanada.ca. Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. Anyway, this is where we were at when we last left off. The medical records really seemed to show that Micah had this diagnosis thrust on her prematurely and with an influence coming from JP's account of her behavior. And the medical staff at the outpatient clinic didn't seem open to exploring her contentions with her. Now all of that is our impression of the records. But nowhere in the early records do we see where anyone had ever asked Micah why she thought she might have been having a nervous breakdown and why she thought this wasn't bipolar disorder. Nowhere does it seem to give her account of what was going on at the time.

Instead, Micah is depicted as defensive and defiant, and JP is depicted as the reasonable arbiter of her health. Even after, a doctor noted that JP was sharing his medication with Micah. In other words, it looks like no one was listening to Micah. Instead, they were all telling her, this is who you are now. And every time she protested, their response was, see, you're acting crazy. They appeared to be relying almost solely on JP's depiction of Micah, which they either got from JP himself, according to the records, or from Micah, who might have believed JP's interpretations at the time to some extent.

Or maybe Micah felt scared and dependent on her new husband, her pastor, who was 15 years older than she was, and didn't feel free to speak up because she wanted him there with her. Or maybe she didn't want to cause more trouble for herself by saying something that would upset JP. Whatever the case, it seems like Micah wasn't entirely free to speak her mind in a way that wouldn't result in more lengthy pontificating emails from JP. This is where the cycle started, or really the downward spiral. If Micah was misdiagnosed in

December 2017, she spent the next nearly seven years trying to accept it and then extract herself from it. But once that diagnosis was put on paper, it became the lens that everyone who knew about it saw her through, and it legitimized JP's accounts. An example of this is in 2024, this year, when JP had Micah involuntarily hospitalized, which meant involving the police. Once he involved the police with that, with the notarized form from Waccamaw Center for Mental Health saying Micah was homicidal and suicidal, the police marked her in the system as 1096, which is the call number for

mental subject. It's a label that can help save a person's life in that the police can immediately identify them as mentally ill and understand any unusual words or behaviors coming from them as related to that as opposed to being signs of a threat to the police. But it's also a label that doomed Micah. It meant dispatchers would be more dismissive or dubious of her claims. It meant that police responded to her calls about being harassed with this in their heads. The involuntary hospitalization in February 2024 was the ultimate power move by JP. And if there's anything we've learned about him, it's that he doesn't

seem to hesitate to use law enforcement as his own personal private security firm, meaning he's very aware of how the police can help him. Anyway, then it got worse, right? Because when Micah's body was found in April, it looks like the medical examiner's office largely relied on these same medical records and Micah's alleged suicide attempt from March 23, 2018 to determine that Micah's death was by suicide. In other words, these same medical records that contain example after example of JP's involvement and influence on the medical staff were used to support their theory that Micah's death was by suicide.

And from there, JP's narrative got to be that he was desperately trying to prevent her death, that he alone cared about Micah's mental health. By the way, in that same report we told you about, where JP appears to have tried to redact parts of the record where Dr. Duchesny noted that Micah and JP were stopping her meds counter to her directions and JP and Micah were sharing meds, Dr. Duchesny had suggested hospitalization. Suggested it. Micah was saying, yes, I have thought about killing myself and I can't live the rest of my life like this.

And the doctor only suggested hospitalization. She didn't appear to even ask if there were any firearms in the home. This was a moment when hospitalization could have been justifiably involuntary. This was a moment when a trained psychiatrist maybe should have stepped in to say something is not right here and I cannot let the patient's husband dictate the treatment plan here. But that's exactly what the doctor seemed to do, because JP said, nope, I got this. I'm with her 100% of the time. I won't let her out of my sight.

Which knowing what the last 18 months of Micah's life looked like, and knowing what the chaos of the early days of her marriage looked like, that also seemed like a big red flag, right? He wouldn't let her out of his sight. They were together 100% of the time. We should note that other than the sole therapist report, there is no evidence that clinicians

asked to speak to Micah without JP present to suss out whether there were any relationship concerns. The age difference alone should have prompted that, in our opinion. Because was he smothering her with his presence? Was he giving her medication that wasn't prescribed to her because he thought it would help or because it further incapacitated her and made her his? Made it so that she couldn't leave him like his first wife did, right? Needless to say, JP did let Micah out of his sight, according to the records. On March 23, 2018, Suzanne Harow noted that JP called her at 10am.

Here's David with the rest of that narrative from her report. He reported the client went to Dick's pawn shop this a.m. and purchased gun. She then went home and shot the gun into the ground to test the power. The neighbor heard her and then client tried to shoot herself and the gun locked up. Client presents with suicidal ideation with an attempt to harm self which was unsuccessful. She reports since December she has and the rest of this sentence and the next are in all caps has been waking up every morning with thoughts of buying a gun and killing herself. I can't get these thoughts out of my mind. Client is

very tearful and states, I wanted it to work. She has been medication compliant and husband reports she had two good weeks once meds were adjusted in early March. Client remains actively suicidal. At the bottom of the medical record, there's another note that states that a Dick's pawn shop employee gave her a lesson on how to load the gun and that JP was going to return the gun to the pawn shop. Now, this report says Micah wanted it to work, presumably it being the suicide, which could absolutely be what she said but given the sloppiness of other parts of these reports and other things that Micah has said repeatedly about work during this time period over the previous few months we have to raise this question did

she say I wanted it to work or I wanted to work? It might seem like a dumb question to ask here but we know that Micah felt responsible for providing for her younger siblings at this time. She was very worried about not having an income, about not being able to go to work or being able to work because of the medication. When she had a breaking point with how JP was treating her, it's just a question that we have to ask. Again, we don't know the answers, obviously, and again, it's 100% possible this report is accurate. But there are so many parts to this that don't make sense.

For instance, why did JP call the nurse practitioner and not the police? We've checked with the Horry County Police Department and they do not have a record for getting a call from JP that day. Okay, so maybe JP didn't know how to handle this, right? That's understandable. Maybe he felt like calling the police was unnecessary. But it's interesting that JP seems to have no problem calling the police for the most minor of issues.

We have years of reports from calls made from solid rock. Most are, for lack of a better term, pretty carrony. They're about things like kids playing in the parking lot or cars being parked there or remember the one where the cops were called because someone had entered the church to ask for water? So maybe the neighbors would have called the police, right? No. There is no record of anyone calling the police about gunshots, a suicide attempt, a woman with a gun, or anything related to this incident on that day. And here's another inconsistency. This is JP's explanation of what happened on March

23, 2018, from his interview with News Nation reporter Rich McHugh. One other time when she tried it the same way the bullet got lodged and then she moved the gun away and it shot off when the neighbors came out you know running grabbing her so I'd imagine she tried to make sure the gun works again you have to imagine she wasn't depressed in this moment but she was euphoric she wasn't thinking oh life's horrible she wasn't thinking which this brings me peace I know this about I know what happens when she gets this far into the mental illness. She wasn't thinking, I hate my life.

She was thinking, oh, this is a great idea. This is what my mind's telling me to do. That's how psychotic those diseases are. She wasn't depressed, y'all. She was just euphoric. So again, another inconsistency. The medical report seemed to document someone who is desperate for help at that time because of this overwhelming depression she was feeling. And an email JP included in his probate case filing showed allegedly Micah sending an email to a doctor pleading for help with her depression. And yet here

JP is saying she tried to kill herself because of euphoria. Also, notice he didn't mention that she shot the ground first. He just says the gun jammed and indicated she was ambushed before she could fire off another shot. So that doesn't seem to match up either, right? Now here's JP's account of this incident to the TikTokker named Flo in an interview JP did with him this past summer. So, it's interesting that he said go to work, right? It's interesting that when she got into a suicidal frame of mind, JP is saying he would assure her by letting her know that life would be great, she could go to work and they could get something to eat. Anyway, we're not making this up, this idea of Micah working seeming to be some sort of issue, especially for her. Or rather, it seems to come up a lot in conjunction

with all of this. But again, there are inconsistencies here. Did you notice how in this account she's not shooting the ground first either? Before we ask our next question, let's have David Reid from the 2nd March 23rd, 2018 report. This one was presumably written by Dr. Duchesne. The doctor listed Micah's chief complaint as, quote, I just want to die. Patient presented with husband on a crisis state due to suicidal attempt. She stole husband's credit card and went to Dick's pawn shop and bought a gun. This morning, prior to the husband getting out of bed, she went outside to kill herself. She decided

to test the gun first by shooting it into the ground. When she tried again to her head, it jammed. The neighbors came and stopped her. Patient admitted that since she left the psych unit the first time, she has been entertaining the idea of buying a gun to kill herself. Every morning I wake up and immediately a huge sadness comes over me and I want to kill myself. Husband said that she was doing very well with no depression symptoms, but patients said it was very different inside her head. She also said, quote, I'm sorry to tell you

that I am going to eventually kill myself. End quote. Now, if I'm JP, I'm going to point to this report as evidence that Micah was always bound for a death by suicide. If I'm the medical examiner in North Carolina, I'm going to see this and think, oh, okay, that explains the empty casing on the riverbank. It explains why Micah shot the gun twice in April.

If I'm the police, I'm going to look at that and think, ah, yes, a person with a history of suicidal tendencies has killed herself. Case closed. But here is the problem. We keep seeing cases where law enforcement immediately write off young women's deaths as suicide. And because of that, evidence doesn't get collected or it gets destroyed until investigators look at the context of the victim's life leading up to the woman's death. They shouldn't be case closing anything at all. In Micah's case, her family immediately spoke out and brought the context to the attention of law enforcement. In Sarah Calucci's case, her family had to push and push

for law enforcement to consider the context before her death was understood to be a murder and well before her husband was arrested. In Sandra Burchmore's case, who's the young pregnant woman from outside of Boston, her death was officially ruled a suicide, but her friends and family knew that that couldn't be true and federal

authorities stepped in to investigate. More than three years after her death, the local police officer who had allegedly groomed her since she was 14 years old and who was allegedly the father of her unborn child was charged in her murder. Every day we are sent similar stories where murder victims are mislabeled as deaths by suicide, only for investigators to find out, oh yeah, the more you look into this, things don't add up. Now we are not saying Micah was murdered.

JP denies harming Micah, he denies abusing her. He denies everything negative that you could possibly say about him before you've even said it. So let's get that on the record. He's never been charged with harming her in any way. But from what we understand, the FBI is continuing to investigate Micah's death. That said, we strongly believe that no medical examiner should ever declare a woman's death a suicide until law enforcement has considered the entire context surrounding her death. This isn't to say that women don't ever choose to die by suicide. We are just saying, great harm is done to a murder case by medical examiners trying to check boxes and investigators who simply do not want another open case to worry about.

No one should be able to kill their partners and stage it as a suicide with a reasonable expectation of getting away with it. But that is the world that we live in right now, even though this is a problem with a very easy solution. And we'll be right back. Metrolinx and CrossLinx are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals, be careful along our tracks,

and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. We don't know how deep Robeson County Sheriff's Office went in considering the allegations of prolonged abuse leading up to Micah's death, but the fact that the FBI stepped in does feel significant and like it might speak to that. Anyway, let's talk about that second report from March 23rd. So Beth Raiden did a run-through, and imagining a scenario in which Micah had driven from her house to Dick's pawn shop on the morning of March 23rd, 2018, purchased a gun, received a lesson on how to use it, and returned home, shot the gun once and then tried to shoot

it again all in time for J.P. to call the clinician by 10 a.m. Why did she do that? Because Dick's Pawn Shop didn't open until 9am that day. Micah and JP live about 10 minutes from Dick's without traffic. But March 23rd, 2018 was a Friday. A workday. Myrtle Beach does not have mass transit in the way that other cities do. It's more of a transport service that brings in workers from other counties. But the city has also grown faster

than its infrastructure could. So what I'm saying is the morning and evening commute times are known by locals to be a bit of a slog. So, okay, let's assume Micah got up early stole JP's credit card and snuck out of the house without him noticing, even though she had expressed suicidal thoughts two weeks earlier and he had declined to have her hospitalized because he was going to keep a close eye on her. Let's assume Micah was at Dick's pawn shop when the doors opened at 9. On April 27, 2024, the day of Micah's death, Micah walked into Dick's pawn shop at 12, 12 p.m. and immediately went to the cash register.

She didn't stop, she didn't shop. She appeared to already know what she wanted and it appeared to be immediately available and ready to go. At that point in her life, Micah and JP appeared to have owned multiple firearms, so it's not a stretch to imagine that she knew her way around that store in April 2024.

In 2018, Micah was 23 and JP was a felon who wasn't allowed to purchase or own a firearm, but stick a pin in that one. The April 2024 purchase, which Micah made with her own debit card, came with a so-called background check to make sure she was never involuntarily hospitalized for mental issues. Which hello, she had been hospitalized by a state agency with records of her hospitalization on file with local law enforcement who had labeled her as 1096. It doesn't seem to get much more clear or easier than that, so we continue to have a

big question about what repercussions might exist for Dick's pawn shop on this one. On the day of her death, Micah was in and out of the pawn shop within 22 minutes. According to a Dick's employee, a background check takes between 15 minutes and a couple of days. Micah was in and out of Dick's in 2024

without shopping for a gun, without even asking questions about which one she should get, without being shown the difference between types of weapons, and without receiving a lesson on how to load the weapon. So is it reasonable to believe that in 2018, Micah was also in and out of Dick's Pawn Shop in 22 minutes and back home by 9.32ish? I'm sure JP is nodding his head, but no, not really. In addition to the shopping, the presumed questions, the lessons from an employee, the 15-minute at least background check, Micah was using JP's credit card in 2018.

She was using the credit card of a felon to purchase a handgun but fine. How is Dick's pawn shop supposed to know that, right? But it should have caused pause, right? It should have raised the issue of one, this is a pawn shop and the person whose name is on the card isn't there. And two, was this a straw purchase? Was the person buying the weapon for someone who was legally barred from purchasing or owning one? Those are questions that we think should have been asked. Maybe they weren't.

But if they were, that would have added time to the transaction too. We also don't know if Micah had already changed her last name to Miller at that point. Her January 2018 intake form refers to her as Micah Francis still, meaning it's possible the last name on her ID didn't match the last name on JP's card at that time, right? That said, JP's account is that within an hour after Dick's pawn shop opened, Micah was able to choose a weapon, get a lesson in how to load it, have a 15 minute background check done, fill out the ATF form, purchase the weapon using a credit card

that didn't have her name on it, return home through Myrtle Beach traffic, shoot the ground and then attempt to kill herself or attempt to kill herself and then maybe not shot the ground. Then after that, neighbors came over and Micah was either stopped from killing herself by them or the gun jammed.

Two different stories there. Though maybe the neighbors prevented her from attempting again. Either way, we imagine there were conversations being had after JP woke up from the drama and came out to the yard. We imagine time had to have been spent on answering the question of what the hell is going on here. JP is basically saying all that occurred between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.

that morning. I mean, maybe it happened that way, but it's interesting how often in this story we're finding circumstances like this where JP's accounts can never just stand on their own because there's always a moment that's like, wait a minute, a moment where things start to fall apart. Oh, another wait a minute moment. JP's apparent immediate mention of the neighbors hearing the gunshot. That could mean nothing. It could just be a detail that spilled out of him under duress. But in the business that we're in, we have learned that spontaneous utterances, the things a person says consciously or subconsciously in the immediate aftermath

of a traumatic event, can be very telling. Remember Ellic on the phone with 911 talking about how Paul was involved in a boat crash and there were people who were after him. Remember the second time Alec was on the phone with 911 and the first words out of his mouth weren't, I've been shot in the head. Instead, we got a backstory about his flat tire, which also turned out to be a lie. So experience has taught us to raise this question. Did JP mention that detail about the neighbor's hearing to the clinician at 10 a.m. because he wanted her to believe it really happened the way he said it did? I realize how that sounds by the way. We have two different clinicians documenting that Micah made statements

about wanting to kill herself and then owned up to trying to kill herself and we believe that's real that the clinicians were writing what they were being told. But again, we're not always clear on what part is JP talking to clinicians and what part is Micah. We also don't know everything that was going on behind the scenes at that time. What was happening in their house on the morning of March 23rd? We know what we know though. Micah was being told who she was and what she was and why she was a broken person by JP and by the clinicians around that time and no one seemed to be listening to her.

We know everything we've seen of JP's behavior since November 2022 when Micah escaped him and fled to her sister's home four hours away right up until today. We know that behavior started long before then. It was present in the very first moments of their marriage and some of it was even present in his marriage to Allison, according to court records. So, was Micah suicidal on March 23rd, 2018 because she was misdiagnosed and not on the right meds? Was she suicidal because she was being given medication that wasn't hers and randomly being taken off the medication by her husband, Dr. JP?

Was she suicidal because of all of that plus the circumstances, the absolute chaos and stress she was dealing with at the time? Was she suicidal because of how she was being taken care of? Micah's list includes accusations of JP doing cruel things like preventing Micah from sleeping. So was she sleep deprived in March 2018? Was she eating? Within days of her being put on lithium, JP was already making notes in his emails to her about her weight gain and what he called poor eating habits and lack of exercise. Was she also trying to lose weight at the time of this incident? Micah stayed in the hospital for a week after this. On April 5th, she had her first outpatient

visit. Between her hospitalization and disappointment, she had resigned from the car dealership and was working at a Christian coffee shop with the other pastor's wives, which was noted in the records. Her clinician advised her to keep stress levels low and noted that the gun had been returned to the pawn shop, something that we should note would be considered a self-report. Without seeing the paperwork, we're not going to say for sure that it was returned. Remember, JP told the State Pardon Board in 2022 that he had forgotten. He even had the felony charge on his record. The clinician also noted that Micah was more receptive to her diagnosis of bipolar.

In April 2024, the public was told by JP that Micah was a very sick woman who had a long history of suicide attempts. This is the only alleged attempt that we have seen a record of. And we're saying alleged because there are red flags in the medical records. Pieces of JP's account of what happened on March 23rd, 2018 simply don't make sense. We've seen his emails to Micah from the first weeks of their marriage and, in our opinions, they contain evidence of coercive control tendencies. There is evidence that he was doing his own thing when it came to Micah's medications.

He refused the doctor's recommendation for hospitalization when Micah was clearly under duress. This same man who wrote page after page of Micah's new diagnosis who said he was warned that she would be repeatedly hospitalized for the rest of her life. This man was suddenly like, Oh, I got this. We saw this same thing again in November 2022. When Micah was in clear medical distress,

JP wanted to cart her away from the hospital and getting admitted and was only stopped because police were called. We saw how he immediately sought to prevent this from ever happening again by drawing up power of attorney papers for Micah. We saw JP's text in November 2022 when he was furious at her for leaving. Not one time did he mention her mental health, her alleged diagnosis, her medication or any fears that she was having a break from reality. Not one time did he express a fear that she could be suicidal or on a path to harming herself?

Instead, he berated her and he threatened her over and over about how bad of a wife he thought she was. He made sure that she knew he was locked and loaded and on his way to come and get her. We're saying alleged because we have seen what Micah's life looked like in the months and weeks leading up to her death when she was trying to leave JP and he responded by deploying every tool he could to seemingly destroy her. We're saying alleged because while we don't trust JP's account of anything, the system did. Over and over again. We have a lot more to share with you on that, including JP's recent interactions with

local police that we have a lot more questions about. For now, stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky. It's the season for new styles and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back

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