The family of a South Carolina woman said they aren't buying her pastor husband's claims she killed herself after he announced her death during a church sermon.
Michael Francis said his 30-year-old daughter Mica Miller was found over the weekend in Lumberton, North Carolina, "with a fatal gunshot wound." A no contact order and a divorce was filed just days before this tragedy, according to a Facebook post Tuesday. "We are devastated."
While preaching at Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, earlier this week, Mica's husband, Pastor John-Paul Miller, announced her death to the congregation.
He prefaced the news by asking churchgoers to "leave church quietly" and not "talk about the announcement."
"I got a call late last night," Miller said, according to sermon video. "My wife has passed. Yeah, it was self induced."
"I'm just kind of going on adrenaline, right now. So, y'all pray for me and my kids and everybody. And she wasn't well, mentally. She needed medicine that was hard to get to her. And so I'm sure there'll be more details to come. But just keep our family in your prayers," said Miller.
"I'm taking a bit of a break and I don't want to have to worry about the church," he added.
The Robeson County Sheriff's Office has launched an investigation into Mica's death, according to WPDE-TV.
"This has to be at least looked into deeply. There's got to be some accountability here," Mica's friend, Kenn Young pleaded, the station reported. "Because yeah, a tragic life was lost, and it's not just as simple as mental health issues."
Miller called his late, estranged wife "probably the greatest wife anyone could ask for."
"She was incredibly affirming. We spent every night together for hours just talking and talking and talking," he said, according to WPDE.
"She had struggled with suicide before. Each time we would help her through it and take her to the doctor, and we got through it and everything was fine," explained Miller. "She even gave a few testimonies here at church that we have on video. She battled suicide but God took care of her and got her through it."
On Facebook, Mica's sister, Sierra Francis, begged the public to "not listen to false stories being shared about her."
"Mica was a God-fearing, joyful, loving woman who did not deserve the abuse she endured," Francis wrote, without elaborating on the abuse. "If you hear anything about this from anyone other than her family please question it, reach out to her siblings or parents."
