Shock claims of how John-Paul Miller's new girlfriend treated husband (2025)

A quadriplegic Army veteran was so neglected by his wife before he mysteriously drowned that she stopped bathing him, insiders claim.

Suzie Skinner was at the time allegedly cheating on her husband of 17 years, Chris Skinner, with Mica Miler's husband John-Paul Miller.

Skinner, 41, drowned when his wheelchair fell into a pool in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on September 6, 2021, and his death was ruled an accident.

Two weeks earlier, Skinner hadconfronted Miller, 44, and demanded the controversial pastor end the alleged affair with his wife.

The drowning happened three years before Mica, 30, was found dead in Lumbee River State Park inNorth Carolinaon April 27, 2024, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, days after filing for divorce from Miller.

Skinner's death investigation was reopened last month amid claims Miller and Suzie's affair drove him to suicide, which they both deny.

Friends of Suzie and Skinner claimed the alleged affair led to her neglecting her disabled husband and planning to dump him for Miller.

'Suzie told me that she wanted everything to end,' a friend, who later spoke to the coroner's renewed investigation, said.

'She said she couldn't take care of Chris anymore, she was burned out, she was tired of it, and she just fantasized about moving on with JP... I am not kidding.'

Another source close to Skinner described to DailyMail.com howSuzie stopped helping him take showers in the last six months of his life.

'He felt her (his wife) pull away, the care declined, and he felt like a burden,' they said.

Skinner was so despondent that he refused to let his mother do more than sponge bathe him when she tried to step in, the source claimed.

He was said to have refused help because he didn't want to upset Suzie or make her think he was complaining about his care.

'I do believe that he was mentally forced to make that decision and he laid down his life for her,' a member of Skinner's family said of his speculated suicide.

Another friend sent a message to a confidant revealing that both Skinner and a friend of the couple both told them about Suzie's alleged neglect, and how 'pissed off' he was about the alleged affair.

'I remembered him (Skinner) saying that as well, along with either having told him (Miller) or planning to tell him to stay the hell away from his family,' they wrote.

'He actually got so mad he felt guilty for cursing... I don't recall ever hearing him that worked up about something.'

Skinner's family said he also stopped attending Miler's church, Solid Rock Ministries, and was angry with Miller in the last four or five months of his life.

Even before Skinner found out about the alleged affair, Miller was making his attraction to Suzie clear.

Miller during a sermon once remarked that Skinner was proof that people shouldn't let their insecurities hold them back from finding a partner.

'If this guy can get this hot momma right here, in a wheelchair, you have no excuse,' he declared.

Skinner's death was ruled an accidental drowning at the time, but Horry County Chief Deputy Coroner Tamara Willard reopened the case last month after mysterious 'new evidence regarding the manner of death' came to light.

CCTV footage obtained by DailyMail.com shows Skinner suddenly charge towards the edge of theneighborhood pool and go over the edge.

Skinner can be seen waiting for several seconds, then his wheelchair accelerates in a straight line towards the pool with no attempt to turn or slow down.

With no one around to save him, he drowned while strapped to his wheelchair.

Skinner is 'seen attempting to pull his head up a few times... but is unable to do so' and the motion-activated camera stopped recording, police wrote in their report.

Skinner's sister,Tamra McDermott, said the facts of the case now made it possible her brother's death was a suicide.

'It would be fair to say that the coroner has reopened the case because there's been evidence come forward thatit could potentially not be an accident,' she told DailyMail.com.

McDermott pointed toconflicting descriptions in the police and coroner's reports about how Skinner went into the pool, despite viewing the same CCTV footage.

'He appears to have gotten too close to the pool edge causing the wheel to slip and he fell into the pool,'Willard wrote in the coroner's report.

By contrast, the police report stated Skinner 'stops at a curve in the pool and then suddenly moves quickly forward and goes into the water'.

Additionally, Miller's first ex-wifeAlison Williams filed a petition for sole custody of their children last June that included shocking claims about his sex life - including some involving Skinner's wife.

Williams wrote in the affidavit that her husband began an affair with Suzie in 2021 by using their son, who played soccer with Suzie's son, to facilitate their liaisons.

She claimed her children were 'well-aware' of the affair, which their friends also gossiped about - causing them'a tremendous amount of embarrassment'.

'When I learned [John-Paul] was exposing our children to yet another one of his adulterous affairs, I confronted JP and Suzie and told them not to let it happen again,' she wrote.

Williams divorced Miller in 2015 after discovering he was having an affair with Mica, whom he married in 2018. It's not known if his alleged 2021 affair with Suzie ended before Mica's death.

'JP called me the day Suzie's husband died in an alleged drowning accident extremely upset and asking me to pray, which was incredibly bizarre,' Williams continued.

'Based on information and belief, just two weeks prior to [Skinner's death], Suzie's husband had confronted JP and asked him to leave his wife and children alone.

'It is chilling to know that the spouses of both Suzie and JP are now dead, from tragic events.'

McDermott said her brother fell out with Miller's church, Solid Rock Ministries, and with Miller himself, about four or five months before his death, after having worshipped there without issue since 2018.

'Chris definitely voiced that he did not like the pastor of that church and he did stop going to church there,' she said.

'He was in some emotional pain, and he was having a hard time... he was pulling away and distancing himself.'

This period of time is understood to be a focus of the re-investigation.

Miller admitted Suzie was now his girlfriend, but insisted they didn't get together until January this year, and denied cheating on Mica in 2021 or any other time.

He also claimed McDermott was attention-seeking and unstable and that the siblings fell out in the months before Skinner's death.

McDermotthit back with text messages she said provedshe and her brother were close all the way up to his death.

She accused Miller of'an orchestrated campaign of harassment, intimidation, and defamation' against her for questioning how her brother died.

McDermottsaid the reopening of the investigation into her brother's death was partly prompted by new witnesses giving contradictory evidence to what Suzie and others told police at the time.

'When looking at the police reports and coroner reports, it is clear there was some inconsistency. Also, it was acknowledged that some of what was said at (the) scene may be inaccurate,' she told DailyMail.com.

Other CCTV footage released by authorities showed Suzie being interviewed by police at the scene after her husband was extracted from the pool.

Dashcam footage showed she was joined by Miller after she called him to the scene.

Suzie is understood to have been re-interviewed by police as part of the renewed investigation, but it was not known if Miller was questioned in 2021 or would be again.

Police reports showed Suzie told detectives 'that nothing was unusual this morning and that he wasn't suicidal'.

McDermott said police were incorrectly told at the time that Skinner had no family in Myrtle Beach who could corroborate 'the stories that were told [to police] that day at the pool'.

Despite both Skinner's parents and McDermott living in the town, they were never interviewed by investigators.

'Essentially the police took the word for the people that were on the scene at the time,' McDermott said.

Other sources close to the investigation told DailyMail.com that detectives were trying to establish if the alleged affair Williams described in her affidavit occurred, and what effect it had on Skinner's mental health leading up to his death.

Other avenues of inquiry include how truthful witnesses statements in 2021 were, and if police were incorrectly led to believe Skinner was not suicidal.

Skinner had an active life insurance policy at the time of his death, multiple sources claimed.

Skinner, an army veteran, was paralyzed from the neck down in a car crash involving a drunk driver when he was just 20, and later became a motivational speaker.

McDermott said her brother's case being reopened was a 'direct result' of its association with Miller and his continued relationship with Suzie, due to huge public interest in Mica's death.

'This exposure has... led to a significant number of witnesses coming forward' with 'invaluable' new information, she said.

Foul play has never been suspected in Skinner's death and the case being reopened doesn't suggest that will change.

McDermott said she had no idea Miller and Suzie were in a relationship until she saw DailyMail.com's photos of the two of them out together, and nothing of the alleged affair until Williams filed her affidavit.

She said she hoped the renewed investigation would uncover the full truth surrounding Skinner's death.

'I just want the truth because truth brings healing and then it results in peace, and I would like to feel peaceful when I think about my brother's passing,' she said.

'Chris, honestly, is one of the most resilient people I've ever known. He's just pushed through everything.'

Miller repeatedly denied he was in a relationship with Suzie in the weeks and months after Mica's death, despite people around them insisting they were.

Suzie finally admitted their relationship this month as part of one of the several legal dramas Miller is embroiled with.

Miller was accused in a lawsuit this month of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1998 while working at his father's church in Myrtle Beach when he was 19.

The accuser - anonymized as 'Jane Doe' - claimed Miller sexually assaulted her again more than two decades later in 2023 by forcibly grabbing her genitals in public without her consent.

The woman claimed the most recent alleged attack 'triggered repressed memories' of the incident from 1998, of which she previously had 'no conscious recollection'.

Miller strongly denied the allegations and launched a counter-suit for defamation against the woman, claiming she also posted the allegations on social media, causing him 'irreparable harm, damage and injury'.

Days later a second woman, known as 'Jane Doe #2', sued him and his father Reginald Miller for sexual abuse between 1999 and 2001 starting when she was 14.

'Behind their religious façade, John-Paul Miller and Reginald Wayne Miller engaged in sexual abuse and predatory conduct - often targeting minors,' she claimed.

'They used their positions of power to manipulate and exploit vulnerable victims while concealing their actions from the public.'

She claimed they ran their church in a 'calculated plan to groom victims while simultaneously gaining the community's trust and financial support'.

The lawsuit detailed sexual and psychological abuse she claimed to have suffered at Miller's church and atCathedral Hall Academy, a school he ran at the time.

Things could get worse for Miller yet still, as the attorney for Mica's family, Regina Ward, told DailyMail.com she has been in communication with multiple other women who are considering filing similar civil claims against Miller alleging abuse.

Mica contacted police several times in the months preceding her suicide to level allegations against her husband, including claims he 'groomed' her when she was a teenager.

Miller has vehemently denied any allegations of grooming and abuse. He has also previously suggested Mica suffered from mental illness and had attempted suicide on more than one occasion.

The circumstances of Mica's death are being investigated by the FBI, which raided Miller's home in November but wouldn't reveal why.

Ward was subpoenaed by the bureau last June to supply documents, including journal entries and electronic evidence, relating to the woman's death.

Mica and Miller initially split on September 20, 2023, before the divorce was dismissed on February 13.

Later that same month Miller filed against his wife for separate support and maintenance in a motion withdrawn March 11.

But on April 15, just 12 days before she was found dead, Mica filed for divorce once more and sought a no contact order against her husband.

Autopsy results, including a muzzle imprint and gunpowder residue on her head, later confirmed she took her own life, and found no drugs or alcohol in her blood.

However, Miller is accused in court documents of grooming Mica for years before they wed, committing her to hospital to steal her car, and cheating on his first wife with underage churchgoers.