A childhood friend of Mica Miller, the Myrtle Beach worship leader whose 2024 death drew national scrutiny, says she believes the earliest days of Mica's relationship with pastor John-Paul Miller carried the hallmarks of grooming rather than mentorship. Alexx Altman-Devilbiss, who met Mica in high school, shared her account as the case heads toward a federal trial scheduled for October.
A Friendship That Predates the Headlines
Altman-Devilbiss told investigative reporter Anne Emerson that her bond with Mica Miller began in their teenage years, long before Mica became a worship leader at a small church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. According to WOAI, Altman-Devilbiss watched Mica's relationship with John-Paul Miller, then her pastor, shift from close mentorship into an affair that ultimately ended his first marriage.
The station's report describes Altman-Devilbiss as coming to believe, in hindsight, that the early dynamics of that relationship amounted to grooming. She also recalled that when the affair became public within the congregation, much of the community's anger landed on Mica rather than on John-Paul Miller, the pastor. Altman-Devilbiss and her husband eventually left the church over the situation, and she says she lost touch with Mica in the years that followed, only later learning of her friend's death.
What Investigators Actually Found
Mica Miller died on April 27, 2024, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at Lumber River State Park in North Carolina. The Robeson County Sheriff's Office officially ruled her death a suicide on May 7, 2024, a conclusion drawn from 911 audio, gun shop receipts, surveillance footage, and witness statements placing John-Paul Miller in Charleston at the time, according to FITSNews. Just two days before her death, Mica had formally served John-Paul Miller with divorce papers, as reported by Netflix Tudum.
Federal Charges Move Toward Trial
The case took a new turn on December 18, 2025, when a federal grand jury in South Carolina indicted John-Paul Miller on charges of cyberstalking and making false statements to federal investigators. Prosecutors allege he subjected Mica Miller to a pattern of harassment between November 2022 and April 2024 that included placing GPS trackers on her car, deflating her tires, sharing a nude photograph without her consent, and making more than 50 calls to her in a single day, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice. Federal agents had executed a search warrant at Miller's Myrtle Beach residence back on November 1, 2024, as part of the joint investigation, per the Post and Courier.
Miller has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges. He was released on a $100,000 bond with electronic monitoring, and his case has been placed on the docket for trial during the October 2026 term, the Post and Courier reports. He is presumed innocent unless and until a jury finds otherwise.
Church Closure and Community Fallout
The turmoil surrounding the case reshaped the Myrtle Beach congregation Miller once led. Solid Rock Church permanently closed in November 2024 amid persistent “Justice for Mica” protests outside Sunday services, and its 2.18-acre property sold in February 2025 for $2.1 million to be redeveloped, according to the Hindustan Times. Weeks earlier, on November 6, 2024, Myrtle Beach police had arrested Miller on a third-degree assault and battery charge following an altercation with a protester outside the church.
Miller has continued holding pop-up religious services for 15 to 20 attendees around Myrtle Beach, now alongside his new wife, Suzie Skinner, whom he married in June 2025, the Hindustan Times notes.
A Legislative Push and a National Spotlight
Mica Miller's death has also fed a broader policy debate in South Carolina. Lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 702, known as Mica's Law, to criminalize coercive control by expanding the state's domestic violence definition to include non-physical patterns of intimidation, surveillance, and isolation. The measure stalled in committee in 2026, according to the STAR Network.
The case reached an even wider audience on August 26, 2026, when Netflix released Death of the Pastor's Wife, a three-part true-crime docuseries directed by Mike Gasparro and Julia Willoughby Nason examining Mica Miller's life, the coercive control allegations, and the ongoing federal case, per Netflix Tudum. The series was watched by viewers around the world, and it's within that renewed attention that Altman-Devilbiss has come forward publicly, saying she still has unanswered questions about the circumstances surrounding her friend's death.
