- 2 days ago
Myrle Miller appears to be a sweet, loving grandmother, but beneath the facade lurks a woman driven by selfishness and greed. Today, even her own daughter, Rebecca, is haunted by the fact that her mom was a black widow in disguise.
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00:04when I got your call I was kind of struck I just kind of felt like maybe this is
00:13something I should venture out into and see what comes of it it's been a
00:22roller coaster I mean I have my ups and my downs you know there's the
00:25breakthroughs and then I'm like you know thank you Jesus you helped me get
00:28through this and then there's times where it's like I don't even understand why
00:31I'm going through this much pain and why I still hurt so bad there's days that I'm
00:36crippled
00:46my mom has always had homicidal tendencies and she has just taken a lifetime to
00:55actually finish the job I didn't know what to do because I wasn't present I
01:01wasn't a witness but I knew my mother I knew she had this history of attempted
01:09murder I knew what she did to me
01:15and
01:26sorry I just knew she did something
01:37you
01:43you
01:44you
01:45Oh, my God.
02:17so this is my mom i see a beautiful woman that had the potential to have a really good life
02:27and
02:28she made some bad choices i saw the good side i saw the bad side when she was good she
02:35was
02:35remarkable she was wonderful when she was bad she was horrible the eyes are a window into the soul
02:43there's no emotion in those eyes when you look in this photo my mom was very good pretender
02:52she was pretending things were okay and even though she was about to go to trial over attempted murder
03:17i was approaching eight and my bike was very small and i had asked for a bicycle almost every single
03:26day right up till christmas i wanted to ride and just be a kid and ride around see my friends
03:32and
03:32go to the park i woke up and i was one of the first ones in the living room
03:39and there was two bicycles i was hoping that one of them was mine and my mom kind of laughed
03:47at me
03:47and said that it wasn't mine because they're obviously boy bikes and not for me
03:56when everybody got their gifts and my brothers were all excited i cried
04:01my brothers did not ask for a bike that christmas i was the one that asked
04:05you would have to be intentionally spiteful trying to cause somebody some kind of pain when that's all
04:12they've asked for i asked my mom about the bike and she just basically said she didn't have the money
04:20but you have the money to buy them a bike
04:24i think it was very obvious how much i was hurt by that moment and she didn't care
04:34she showed me she didn't care because she never did buy me the bike
04:40there was never really a true healthy relationship with my mother
04:45i can say that i've never had that i always felt like i was chasing after something i couldn't have
05:09you open the fridge and you think you're going to make yourself some eggs and toast and
05:13you see there's no eggs there's no toast and then you're like well let me go over here and
05:17see if there's any cereal and then you see there's no cereal the fridge would be empty except for a
05:23big
05:24thing of spaghetti or goulash or something
05:28she honestly didn't care and she said well that's what there is and you'll either eat it or you'll go
05:33without and so a lot of times i went without
05:39i was hungry like i can remember my stomach growling
05:45i remember one time just like i'm like i'm gonna go steal some food
05:49a candy bar had nuts in because i was like starving hungry
05:55as a small child the doctors were worried because i wasn't growing
05:59i wasn't getting the nutrients i needed to sustain my development
06:04and to help me grow and she she honestly i don't believe
06:10cared she oftentimes would go out to eat go to the club buy herself new clothes
06:16don't wait up i'll be out late
06:21she was just constantly spending money and then she acted like going to the grocery store was
06:26you know gonna cost her an arm and a leg
06:29she provided mainly for her needs and the kids came last
06:39my father he was very distant he worked a lot and looking back i mean
06:46i can't say that either one had better qualities than the other because they both had
06:51poor qualities as far as parenting and people skills and showing compassion
06:58or or love and affection
07:02there are some things that still bother me and i still have moments where i have triggers
07:08of things that something will happen in the environment that i'm in whether i'm home or in the community i
07:15have to go through that process
07:21that's the thing with ptsd you don't always get over it
07:39i didn't understand why we weren't with our mother but it was because my sister had made an accusation
07:45of not having enough food in the house
07:49so eventually i ended up with a foster family that were two parents that were unable to conceive and have
07:58children
07:59and i learned to feel appreciated i learned to feel loved because she spent time with me
08:05we would listen to music together we would go out
08:09and i learned what it was to sit at the supper table you know and have a meal with the
08:13family
08:15that was the home i learned to brush my teeth in that was the home that i learned to take
08:20care of my hair
08:21i didn't even know that i had to learn those things
08:26but while i was there it was life changing for me
08:32because it showed me the dynamics of a true genuine family and what it looks like what it feels like
08:52i feel like it was three or four months that i hadn't seen my mom and i hadn't seen my
08:58dad at all
09:01we were in a room with a children youth worker who was watching every interaction
09:08we all ran up gave her big hugs and she said she loved us
09:14i think um some part of it was not genuine because she was more compassionate and loving
09:22in public when there was multiple people around than she was privately
09:33i don't think she was nearly distressed as i would be having her children removed from her care
09:39it seemed like we were more of a hindrance to her
09:42we were holding her back from her doing the things that she really wanted to do
09:50she did not act like it was a big deal in my opinion as a small child when we saw
09:55her
09:55she seemed like she was a little bit on the nervous side
09:59and we sat at the table for a little bit with her before the visit was over and
10:04everybody went back to where we were
10:07i'll see you again soon
10:10i missed her every day i missed my mom all the time
10:16i think because that child parent bond it's just an innate uh feeling that every child has
10:26to be with their parent but my mom did not have that
10:38i remember feeling like my parents are going to walk in i'm going to get to have a supervised visit
10:43and they told us that our father was very sick and he was in the hospital
10:49and that uh the police had brought charges against our mother for poisoning him
10:58it was a wild ride to go in there thinking we were going to have a visit to find out
11:04that my mom was
11:05potentially in jail and my dad was in the hospital and that i wasn't going to see either parent that
11:12day
11:12i learned that my mother was being charged with attempted homicide
11:20i've never read this before so
11:24the victim stated he owned several properties which would become his wife's in the event of his death
11:31as well as several insurance policies
11:35it did make sense that my mom would be the beneficiary
11:38mrs turner also advised that she recalled that in the past her father would become strangely ill
11:46and bedridden usually after eating something prepared for him by the defendant she remembered one occasion
11:53when she had one cup set aside and was stirring in some white powder that appeared to be crushed pills
12:00the defendant then directed her to give the cup to the victim who was sick in bed
12:12my sister is recalling a poisoning event before i was even born
12:19that basically just reiterates that my mom had attempted to poison my father
12:25other times without success my understanding is there was something technical that allowed her to
12:35be acquitted she was left off on the technicality versus being innocent after the poisoning he was
12:44very weak very frail i do think it's very fortunate that my father is still alive i was shocked when
12:53i found out
12:54that my mom had done that you know i'm like is this true is this not true and i was
12:59not around when it happened so
13:02i had no idea of any of the details
13:13one day my foster mom had sat me down with the children youth worker that came to the house and
13:19they discussed
13:19um how would you feel about returning to live with your mother and i just was excited i was
13:26overwhelmed seven years old excited to be home with my mom
13:32when i was going home i had hoped that since my mom left my dad that things were going to
13:38be
13:39healthier they were going to be better it was going to be more like a normal family and i would
13:43find out that it wasn't
13:46good for me it has always been a reality that my mom would be in and out of jail
13:53she was in jail a few times my mom has always been writing bad checks she was in jail during
14:00the
14:00attempted murder trial and then she was in jail for stealing money from the legion where she was on a
14:08board and it was disappointment and it was sad to know that my mom was in jail and i always
14:15kind of
14:15felt bad for her as a kid i wanted to see my mom as innocent and as an adult i
14:22realized that she
14:24most likely deserved to be in jail during those times
14:44back in the day they used it to suppress somebody's behavior
14:49make them more docile i was like a walking zombie i was drooling i had like a shuffling gait
14:58my speech was slurred and then eventually one day i was in bed sleeping my mom she came to check
15:07on me and i was seizing really bad i just remember waking up and her telling the medics that she
15:14had done
15:14cpr on me thorazine has a deadly effect on my heart condition which is what caused my cardiac arrest on
15:24three occasions and after some time the doctors basically told my mom she either needs to come off
15:33this medication or she's going to die she wouldn't have taken me off of it unless a doctor would have
15:42really pushed her absolutely could have killed me i think my mom enjoyed not having to deal with me
15:50while i was heavily medicated she was very much about keeping me silent and keeping me under her
15:56control versus how it impacted my mental health my physical health my general health looking back
16:06knowing the things my mom is capable of i would say the thought has crossed my mind was she trying
16:13to
16:26get rid of me jack made good money you know more than enough to support us and take care of
16:32things
16:33but the fact that my mom had fines that she had to pay and she had bad checks that just
16:38multiplied the
16:40amount of debt that they had to pay he eventually got to the point where he struggled to financially
16:46provide for all of us and i came home from school and i walked in the living room and there
16:55was no furniture
16:55in there there was nothing but like a lamp in the corner but there was furniture there in the morning
17:07when i left for school we had a couch a love seat a chair and a recliner and coffee table
17:13and end tables
17:14and a tv big floor model all of it was going when i got home i don't know what's happening
17:21i'm
17:21thinking are we moving that was the first thought that came to my mind as a kid and then when
17:26my mom
17:26came home i questioned her are we moving where's the living room furniture and she said
17:32i didn't pay my building they came and they picked it up today it was a rent to buy situation
17:40with
17:40furniture and so she would frequently just not make her payments what the hell is going on here
17:49i do remember my mom and jack having arguments where they would be yelling at each other
17:55i think he was mad at her for not spending the money appropriately she always said she didn't have
18:04the money so i mean that was a hard statement for any of us to process because we knew she
18:10had the
18:10money and she was constantly spending money i would learn over the course of the next year that was going
18:18be a frequent occurrence people coming knocking on the door because she didn't make a payment
18:38in 2010 when jack was diagnosed with cancer about the time my first daughter was born i had to deal
18:45with
18:46the family stuff that was going on i was close to jack i was there i was helping him he
18:53was putting
18:54up the good fight you know he was doing the medications he was doing the chemo he was doing
19:00everything he could to try and live longer try and beat it as best he could because what jack had
19:07was an
19:08incurable cancer from october to december he just declined november into december was the hardest for him
19:19and then the night he died my sister was there and told my mom you know if you need to
19:26go to bed you
19:26need to rest and i looked at my sister and i said i don't think he's going to be here
19:32that much longer
19:35and my mom went to bed she didn't hesitate she just went and she wasn't in that room 20 minutes
19:43and he
19:44passed away and i said you need to go get mom because he's gone and my mom did not cry
19:59i don't know if she was so struck that she couldn't cry or if that was her lack of like
20:07empathy
20:11she didn't care some part of me questions was her love for jack as genuine at the end as it
20:23was at
20:23the beginning but within 30 days she was courting our neighbor
20:40this is december 2011 um a couple weeks before jack had passed away we gave him his christmas present
20:49early i think for the whole family's sake we were blessed to have him in our life
20:57her track record says that she probably would have murdered sooner had she not been with somebody who
21:04was so adamant on keeping her on the straight and narrow jack was the backbone that kept my mom from
21:13going astray and i felt like when he died it was just going to dissipate into chaos and it kind
21:23of did
21:32john and joan bought the house two doors down from my mom and it became the social central place to
21:40be
21:41my mom and joan began to hang out more often she had said that joan was complaining that she had
21:48a lot of
21:48heartburn and she was feeling like she was nauseated a lot lately she had called joan joan didn't answer the
21:56phone
22:00she opened up the door and she opened up the door and she went in and joan was asleep
22:06with her coffee next to her in her chair in the back room and she called 9-1-1 then
22:16they came and pronounced
22:17her death i'm not sure why my mom had to go down and check on joan i don't know the
22:24reasoning why
22:26i thought my mom and joan were good friends at the time i did not think joan had any foul
22:31play in her
22:32death but there was the question that she may have possibly done something to joan so it's kind of how
22:42i grew up looking at my mom you know with that question mark did she do it did she not
22:49do it it's
22:50always been there kind of fluctuating she's capable of doing that so there's a question there but i don't
23:00want to speculate anything that can't be founded because joan is cremated and we'll never know those
23:23results so this is mom and john's wedding day i felt that my mom's ambition to marry him
23:33was not with the full intention of love my mom was seeking him out almost immediately after
23:41jack's death we hadn't even had jack's memorial service i think
23:48my mom saw an opportunity and she did everything she could to seize that moment she told him that she
23:57loved him and i think she loved him more for his assets her facial expression she has an awkward smile
24:05it looks like it's kind of forced i kind of sensed in my spirit at that time that something was
24:11going on
24:12because i could see the behavior pattern starting back up john had no idea what he was getting into
24:35john was not shy about saying that he had money he didn't care that people knew that he had money
24:41and
24:41he didn't think that he was a target he didn't think that he was vulnerable he thought she was just
24:47your everyday nice old lady who liked to make pies and be a social butterfly he was oblivious
24:57every time i came to the house my mom said shh don't say anything and i always looked at her
25:05and i said
25:06what do you mean don't say anything don't talk about her past he doesn't need to know anything
25:13she did hide all of it as much as she could
25:18john didn't know about her attempted murder trial didn't know about her being in jail for bad checks
25:25and stealing money um so he didn't know any of that there were moments where i felt compelled to
25:32tell john some things but she didn't want him knowing anything because she didn't want him to
25:37discount her
25:40she was talking about vacation she was talking about cars she was talking about furniture she was talking
25:46about giving money away she said that he's very tight with his money and doesn't like to give up any
25:52control and it's going to take her a while to gain access
26:09my sister-in-law that is married to my brother and i had a conversation and she said that she
26:15had
26:16given away like 35 000 of john's money as i'm asking my mom questions she got very offended
26:27very defensive and she said it's none of your business what john and i do with our money
26:38but at the same time she didn't want me to talk to john about the money at all
26:44something was going on that she didn't want to talk about there was tension between my mom and i since
26:50i questioned the money and everything like things just seemed to start to go south she starts escalating
26:59she starts plotting and planning
27:07and the next thing i know my mom had called children youth services and made accusations
27:12against me in regards to my children
27:21she said to my sister that she was going to keep the kids and she was going to have children
27:26and
27:27youth allow her to foster them and i was like oh no not happening she was trying to keep me
27:35at
27:36distance she was trying to break me down before i could do anything to alert john
27:46i called the state police and i told them the situation that my mom had taken the children home
27:52and i wanted a state trooper to come out because she was not going to release the kids to me
27:58i had got there before the trooper got there and i went to the door i said i'm here for
28:03my kids
28:06and my mom said you can't have them and i said don't tell me i can't have them i have
28:11my custody
28:11order and i have a state trooper on the way she said you don't have a trooper on the way
28:14i said try
28:15me i said he'll be here very shortly you can release my kids to me now or you can wait
28:20for this trooper
28:21to come and we can deal with it the hard way i was so angry i was trying to hold
28:29back all my tears
28:30to get through the fact that i had to go get my kids she didn't really act like she was
28:37going to
28:37turn them over to me and i told both my kids i said gather your things anything that's yours i
28:42want
28:43you to get it and i want you to put it in the car then i told john that he
28:47needed to check his
28:48accounts because she was giving away his money he did not believe me and he told me to get the
28:54out of
28:55his house i think she had already coerced and made up her own lies and fed them to john
29:03i feel like she manipulated him and prepared him for what i was coming out to do and that was
29:10the last
29:10words he spoke to me and it was the complete resolution of my relationship with my mother it
29:18completely dissolved any relationship i had with her
29:30he was a healthy strong man i got a phone call almost two weeks after his death from his daughter
29:40and she just feels like something was really wrong this was not a normal death my mother is just going
29:48on about the will and how she got full inheritance of all his assets she thought that was very
29:56suspicious and then she said the medics are the ones that called the state police to come out and
30:01start a wrongful death investigation the way he was dying resembled a poisoning versus an actual
30:10cardiac arrest because typically when you have a cardiac arrest you're not frothing at the mouth
30:18his daughter was concerned because they were about to release the body back to my mother who was going
30:25to have him cremated and if he was cremated there would be no further investigation of his remains
30:36okay so when she tells you that your mom is going to get control of the body what's the first
30:43thing that
30:43goes through your head no it can't happen because i knew and
30:55i'm sorry sorry i just knew she did something
31:07um
31:08um that was a long phone call we uh talked for a long time i cried a lot in that
31:15phone call
31:17i cried a lot after that phone call um i had this gut wrench feeling that something wasn't right but
31:26i
31:26didn't know what it was and i didn't want to jump to conclusions i didn't know what to do because
31:31i
31:31wasn't present um i wasn't a witness i didn't see anything um but i knew my mother and i knew
31:40her
31:40behavior pattern had reverted back i knew she had this history of attempted murder i knew um
31:46what she did what she did to me and john was a good guy
31:55he didn't deserve this so i called the state police asked for the investigator
32:02i said if somebody in your lifetime goes missing or dies
32:09by a wrongful death it might be a coincidence one person but when it's more than one something's
32:17wrong somebody's meddling in something there's something murky in the water
32:32it was three years till my mother was arrested for first degree murder i felt like there was some
32:39justice happening she may not have been caught for what she may have done to my father she may
32:46not have been caught for what she did to me but this time you know she took a life and
32:52this time
32:52she's caught police responded to a union county home for a report of a deceased male who was identified
33:00as 77 year old john nichols an autopsy was performed showing that he had fatally overdosed on verapamil
33:08which was not prescribed to him police say the medication was prescribed to his wife 76 year old merrill miller
33:22so a woman charged with the death of her husband back in 2021 was found guilty on all charges
33:29miller had been involved in suspicious activities leading up to her husband's death including
33:34fortunate signatures to make herself a sole benefactor for two life insurance policies
33:49the day that i read the autopsy report
33:56i came home i shut my kitchen door and i fell
34:01i fell to the floor and i saw she did overdose him on a cocktail of medications
34:10i was crippled it's
34:27the investigators had learned that my mom had about eighty five thousand dollars from
34:33my my stepdad john my understanding was she had like three different life insurance policies
34:40that one was he knew about the other two she opened without his knowledge and she had other people
34:50pretend to be john during the phone interview she was going to gain a small fortune if she was not
34:57found
34:58out that was her number one motivation for anything and everything she did she had a love for money
35:06i don't care how much money she stood to inherit there's no price tag for his innocence and taking his
35:12life
35:14it's not right and i'll stand on the side of justice every single time
35:28so that's my mom after she was arrested
35:34it's sad
35:37she could have made better choices her selfish desires landed her there she's in an orange jumpsuit
35:48she's raw there's um no cosmetic to cover up
35:56she can't pretend you see the person she was i think had she got away with this it's possible she
36:08could have done it again
36:10i mean she did like to give people drugs we saw that with my father we saw that with me
36:19and then john
36:33it was january
36:397th um i got a phone call
36:44late that evening telling me that my mother had passed away at the er
36:52i was in shock i wasn't expecting her to pass away
36:58it had been a good eight nine years since i had real interaction with her
37:07and i had hoped to have a sit down to have that exchange of forgiveness so that
37:14i know she could die in peace i could continue to go on and live and just know that even
37:22if it was the
37:23last conversation i ever had that i could just say i forgive you i love you go in peace
37:38so there's um one bible verse that that just popped off the pages to me
37:49and my faith has brought me to my healing without my faith i wouldn't be able to stand
37:57a bruised reed he will not break a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish he will faithfully
38:04bring forth justice and that's isaiah 42 3. i read that i was the bruised reed
38:13i was the amber that was dying out i was losing my zest i was losing my life i felt
38:20like
38:21there wasn't anything to go forward with all that was taken from me
38:26my innocence was taken from me my mom tried to destroy my my family she tried to take my kids
38:35and then he says he's going to bring forth justice
38:39and in the end there was justice it may not have been for all everything my mom had done but
38:46there
38:46was justice
38:57i believe in evil i believe in evil i believe my mom had some very evil traits
39:03i believe if she made the choice she could have been good but she made the choice
39:09not to so she chose evil for good i view my mother as the person that birthed me
39:23all right i'm sorry i'm getting emotional on you here in the end
39:28please don't be you're bearing your soul to us so thank you um who used me mistreated me she went
39:43through seasons where i think she tried to get better she tried to be that person that we all wanted
39:54her to be but there was something in her that drew her back to the old her
40:03whether it was money or selfishness or her apathy
40:10i'm not sure what drove her to go backwards because in the end she lost a lot
40:18i can't change who she was i can't change what she did um so i have to accept it and
40:28know
40:30i did the best with what she gave me i'm at peace with a lot of the things that have
40:37happened i've
40:38dealt with a lot of that trauma i am happy at home i got my husband that gives me joy
40:45i got my
40:46kids that give me joy generally i am happy but there are days of grief my mind goes back to
40:55that
40:56trauma um but i don't have i don't have to stay there and i know how to bring myself out
41:01of it
41:13i've looked at this picture many times it's surreal i don't know all the people that he killed i
41:21honestly don't know and i still to this day believe that everybody that he killed he thought he was
41:27he was killing me
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