Nancy Guthrie: “Gone in the Night” | MURDERISH Ep. 207

On January 13th 1995, a facilities worker at the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus was performing routine maintenance when he was struck by the unmistakable odor of decomposition. What appeared to be a decaying animal from far away led to a gruesome discovery as the UT employee drew closer. It was the mangled body of a young woman, later identified as 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

On the afternoon of April 27, 2024, 30-year-old Mica Miller placed a call to 911, informing the dispatcher of her intention to end her life. Mica asked if her location could be traced through her phone. She wanted her family to be able to find her body afterwards. Mica was calling from Lumber River State Park in Orrum, North Carolina. Roughly 90 minutes after the 911 call, a kayaker spotted Mica’s body face down in the water. While a Robeson County coroner determined she died by suicide, more than two years later Mica’s loved ones remain suspicious of her estranged husband, pastor John-Paul Miller. The August 2026 release of Netflix docuseries Death of the Pastor’s Wife has renewed the public’s fascination with this case. Could her death have been orchestrated by her estranged husband and possibly others? Or was her passing simply the tragic outcome of pervasive mental health struggles?

As if the families of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, and Maddie Mogen haven’t been through enough, the killer has forced his way back into the headlines. From a segregated cell south of Boise, where he’s serving four life sentences, Bryan Kohberger has launched a long-shot petition to vacate his guilty plea, alleging ineffective counsel, undisclosed evidence and a botched deal. In a handwritten motion provided to the New York Times in late July, the convicted murderer said he wants the state to prove its case at trial, even if it means facing the death penalty, an outcome taken off the table as part of his plea agreement. Even though Kohberger has been granted an evidentiary hearing scheduled for June 2027, legal experts say the motion has almost no chance of succeeding. The one-time PhD student proclaimed aloud in an Ada County Courthouse in July 2025 that he was responsible for the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, and Maddie Mogen. The four college friends were murdered the morning of July 13th, 2022, inside a home they shared just off campus.

In April 2026, Brian and Lynette Hooker were sailing near Elbow Cay in the Abaco Islands of the Bahamas when Lynette fell overboard and vanished. Both seasoned sailors with more than a decade of experience, the Hookers spent a month exploring various parts of the Bahamas before Lynette’s disappearance. What’s been called into question about this case is why Lynette has never been located. If she drowned, surely her body would’ve washed up on shore. When she disappeared into thin air, the Hookers were riding an 8-foot dinghy en route to their yacht. The water depth was fairly shallow, anywhere from 3 to 14 feet deep, but the spot where Lynette went missing is prone to dangerous currents. Was this a tragic accident? Or did Lynette Hooker’s disappearance have nothing to do with unpredictable sailing conditions?

In this episode of Serial Streamers Jami invites Aimée Baker and Vanessa Cicarelli, hosts of hit podcast “She Goes by Jane,” to help her break down the Netflix documentary Death of the Pastor’s Wife. This three-part docuseries chronicles the case of Mica Miller, a 30-year old devout Christian woman whose body was found in a remote forest having apparently died by suicide. Jami, Aimée and Vanessa break down the strange aspects of this case, and also discuss the apparent abuse Mica suffered at the hands of her estranged husband, pastor John-Paul (“JP”) Miller, before their separation and how it might be evidence of him potentially playing a role in her death. The ladies all agree there are more questions than answers in this tragic and peculiar case.