Credit: Netflix

When Mica Miller was found dead in a North Carolina state park in April 2024, the official conclusion was suicide, and ordinarily, that would be the end of it. Dreadful tragedy acknowledged, case closed, nothing more to see. Except we’re well aware that Netflix would never pick something that easy if it weren’t for a plot twist.

That’s right, Mica had spent the weeks beforehand telling police she was frightened and believed she was being harassed. There you go. Doesn’t look so straightforward now, does it?

Mica was 30 and married to John-Paul Miller, then pastor of Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach. By spring 2024, however, the marriage had fallen apart, and she was seeking a divorce. This man was 15 years older than her, by the way.

In March, she reported damaged tyres and a tracking device on her car, alongside unwanted contact she said had become a feature of everyday life. And then comes the sentence that rather stops you in your tracks: Mica told police she was “afraid for her life”. Good grief. Once that was in the police record, everything that followed became much harder to brush aside.

On April 27th, Mica travelled to Lumber River State Park, where she was later found dead from a gunshot wound. The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office ruled it self-inflicted and concluded she died by suicide. Investigators also said they found no evidence connecting John-Paul Miller to her death. But that point was absolutely crucial, because speculation surrounding the case spiralled quickly.

Netflix is now returning to Mica’s final months in the three-part Death of the Pastor’s Wife, releasing August 26th. Directed by Julia Willoughby Nason and Mike Gasparro, it includes unseen footage and testimony from friends and relatives.

But the story did not end with Mica’s death

Then, in December 2025, the case took another turn. A federal grand jury indicted John-Paul Miller on charges of cyberstalking Mica and making false statements to investigators. Prosecutors allege that from November 2022 to April 2024, he repeatedly contacted her against her wishes while he tracked her movements and interfered with her finances.

And, as if that were not disturbing enough, the indictment also alleges that he posted an intimate image of her without consent and damaged her tyres. By the way, Miller has pleaded not guilty, and these remain allegations, not proven facts.

And none of this overturns the official ruling on Mica’s death. What it does change, however, is how her earlier warnings are likely to be read now. Conduct she described as frightening while she was alive is now at the centre of a federal criminal prosecution.

That is where this Netflix documentary becomes far more than a retelling of Mica’s death. It has an official answer. Her final months, rather conspicuously, do not.

What’s important here is Death of the Pastor’s Wife does not appear to be some breathless “who killed Mica?” exercise. The question is what she said she was enduring and whether anyone grasped just how serious it was.