A “monster” dad in Alabama who called a local TV station in an emotional plea for help finding his missing wife later admitted to fatally strangling her, cops say.
Stephen Miller Sr., 64, filed a missing-person report for his wife of 30 years, Gloria Miller, 57, on Feb. 24, the Dothan Police Department said in a press release. The next day, he was arrested and charged with her murder — but not before taking his case to the air, calling WDHN-TV and then appearing alongside his missing wife’s family.
While Stephen appeared on camera on his phone supposedly making calls to help find his wife, her devastated kin pleaded for her return.
“This is not normal at all. She hangs around the house, she doesn’t venture away from the home, she pretty hangs around the house all the time,” Gloria’s brother, Sidney Whitaker, told WDHN shortly before Stephen’s confession surfaced.
Gloria’s family said she didn’t leave her home very often, and if she did, she would usually drive, yet car was still at the house. Whitaker added that she would typically call him daily, and she hadn’t.
As Dothan police dove into the investigation, multiple indicators of foul play quickly cropped up, cops said.
Gloria’s phone and wallet were found at a mall 5 miles from the Millers’ home. Cops say Stephen apparently planted her belongings there before they were turned in by a local business.
Her hubby eventually admitted to “manually strangling her until she was lifeless” Feb. 22, according to the DPD.
“I didn’t realize that monster was in him,” Whitaker told WDHN.
Investigators recovered Gloria’s body on Feb. 25 in a dry creek bed underneath a bridge near Geneva County, the district just outside of Dothan.
The couple had a history of alleged violence and conflict in their marriage. The DPD wasn’t sure exactly how many reports the two had filed against one another.
Stephen had filed a protection order against his wife in January claiming she pushed him and vowed to “destroy him.” He said she had a history of “mental abuse” and had previously been committed to a mental hospital.
The protection order was dismissed when the couple agreed to instead seek counseling and consider medication.
But the order was a repeat of a previous one that Stephen filed in July requesting protection when his wife allegedly threatened to kill him, their son and the son’s ex-wife. He later asked for it to be dismissed.
Their daughter had also attempted to file a restraining order against her mother, claiming repeated harassment and even an incident where she came at her with a knife, but the request was denied.
Whitaker and the rest of Gloria’s extended family advised that she get a divorce, especially after they say she started to seriously fear for her life over the past few months. Whitaker surmised that Gloria likely stayed because her husband didn’t want her to have access to any of their assets.
Stephen is being held on a $1.5 million bond in the Houston County Jail.
