How far will a psychopathic liar go? The case of Sharee Miller
How far will a psychopathic liar go? Very far.
In a discussion yesterday about the ways in which unscrupulous people can be willing to lie, I was reminded of the story of Sharee Miller. If this were a movie it might be considered unbelievable. But it actually happened:
Speaking of movies, the story has been the inspiration for a made-for-TV movie that roughly parallels it in plot.
In 2016 Miller finally confessed to her guilt, by the way.
Here are more details, which will only make sense if you’ve watched the video or already know about the case:
Between her visits to Reno, Miller and Cassaday kept in touch through the Internet. They sent each other hundreds of e-mail and spent hours corresponding in private chat rooms. The two almost always used the same screen names: She was “Jerry’s Fool.” And he was “Sharee’s Fool.”
“Your fool for life, Jerry,” Cassaday would sign off.
“Love, your brat, Sharee,” she’d answer.
In a Sept. 23, 1999, chat session, Cassaday read that Miller had been pregnant, that he was the father, and he pressed for details.
“This next part will be hard. I lost my baby, Jerry.”
“No,” Cassaday responded.
“I never thought I would ever tell you that he hits. I got in trouble because I was with you.”
Cassaday demanded more details.
“Sharee, you can tell me now, or in person when I beat it out of him,” he wrote.
“Where did he hit you?” Cassaday demanded.
“Jerry, I can’t tell you.”
Cassaday pushed for more.
“He didn’t hit me, Jerry; he raped me. I lost the baby because of the force.”
The next day Cassaday wrote: “The things you told me ripped me in half. No one, I mean no one, is going to get away with the things he has done to you.”
The next month Miller wrote that she was pregnant again, this time with twins by Jerry.
“Baby, it’s all gonna be fine soon,” Cassaday tapped out on his computer. “We will live a wonderful happy life together.”
Soon, after Cassaday had moved back to Missouri, he received electronic pictures of the sonograms.
“I love the e-mails you sent me about the baby,” Cassaday wrote. “Please don’t stop sending me this stuff. I love you so much honey.”
Jerry Cassaday opened his e-mail Nov. 5 to a message written under Bruce Miller’s screen name. (The prosecution presented evidence to prove that Sharee Miller had posed as her husband, using his screen name, to send the following messages purportedly from Bruce.)
“SHAREE IS GROWING FAT WITH TWO BASTARDS IN HER,” the message read. “SHE HAS DECIDED SHE DOESN’T LIKE THE EXCESS WEIGHT AND IS GOING TO GET AN ABORTION.” The e-mail taunted Cassaday for six more paragraphs.
Cassaday called hospitals in Flint and Sharee Miller’s cell phone with no luck.
“I’m beginning to worry. Where are you honey?? I love you,” Cassaday wrote in a Nov. 6 e-mail.
At 2 p.m., Cassaday found this message on his computer: “This is Sharee. I am going away for a few days. I will contact you next week sometime.”
This e-mail, again purportedly from Bruce, greeted Cassaday the next afternoon:
“WELL, JERRY, SHE TOLD ME TO LET YOU KNOW SHE WOULD BE HOME SOON. I THINK THE ABORTION WENT FINE. SHE SOUNDED LIKE SHE FELT BETTER KNOWING SHE WASN’T HAVING ANY MORE KIDS. THANK YOU FOR MAKING MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MY WIFE BETTER.”
Later that day, Cassaday went back online and found electronic photographs that seemed to show Sharee had suffered a horrific beating. (The prosecution presented evidence to show that these photos were fabricated by defendant Miller).
On November 89, 1999, at around 6:30 p.m., Bruce Miller was shot with at 12-gauge shotgun. Bruce had just gotten off the phone with Sharee. Forensic and medical testimony established that the blast tore into Miller’s neck and upper chest, killed him instantly and knocked him out of the chair onto an oily piece of carpet.
The email and instant messaging contents were read to the jury by two deputies. This was their testimony regarding a chat session the day before the murder:
Deputy #2 [reading Sharee’s messages]: (In court) (Reading) “Jerry, I am scared. Jerry, if this don’t work, he will hurt me bad.”
Deputy #1 [Reading Jerry’s responses]: (In court) (Reading) “It’ll work. What is the fastest way into the yard from 75?”
Deputy #2: (In court) (Reading e-mail) “75 to Mount Morris Road exit. Now you need to listen to me for a minute. I will call Bruce at 5 PM.
Deputy #1: (In court) (Reading) “OK.”
Deputy #2: (In court) (Reading) “Is the gun loud?”
Deputy #1: (In court) (Reading) “Somewhat.”
Deputy #2: (In court) (Reading) “Just do it and get the hell out of there.”
Deputy #1: (In court) (Reading) “I want him to know who I am.”
Deputy #2: (In court) (Reading) “Jerry, please.”
Deputy #1: (In court) (Reading) “He will know.”
Deputy #2: (In court) (Reading) “He will know.”
Deputy #1: (In court) (Reading) But not for long.”
Deputy #2:(In court) (Reading) “Are you going to be able to live with this the rest of your life? Because I can.”
Deputy #1: (In court) (Reading) “I love you. Yes, I can.”
Prosecutors argued the actual murder took place almost as it was scripted in that instant message exchange…
According to evidence presented by the prosecution, just about everything that Jerry Cassaday was told about Bruce and Sharee Miller was wrong. Sharee Miller could not have become pregnant. She had a tubal ligation after the birth of her youngest child in the mid-1990s, court records show. The sonogram pictures that Cassaday received also were a fraud. Prosecutors pointed out that they were dated 1994.
The prosecution discounted allegations of spousal abuse, too. Flint area police agencies had never responded to any complaint of domestic violence at the Miller household. Bruce Miller had no criminal record, no known ties to organized crime. Neighbors described Bruce Miller as a loving family man.
After her husband’s murder, Sharee Miller received the junkyard, which she subsequently sold, about $16,000 in the couple’s bank accounts, a little stock and $80,000 in insurance, according to probate court records and investigators.
Heart of darkness.
I remember seeing this episode. This was one of the first stories I remember of people from long distances meeting on the internet and then becoming involved and eventually criminal. I think the man was a cop or former cop also. I seriously wonder sometimes if the internet has been a net positive or negative to the world in a large sense. Probably positive but boy it has enabled an unbelievable amount of bad to be made easier.
i can tell you.. ALL the way.. thats how far
and all the way is farther than a normal person can imagine
in fact, mine faked her murder, disappered, nearly had me indicted for a capital offense, robbed my accounts, robbdd my parents, took the child, and more.
but had no rights
and she played the system
so.. .i lost everything.
she got everything
nothing at all, nada, nothing
i lost home, career, child, family, friends, etc.
fun..
now i just wait to die..
its something you never really crawl out from under
like false accusations, which such use
ps. it could have been a lot worse… except that i dont do whats expected so plans never worked and it was just baseline hell..
the police faked all the evidence, destryed the career, flubbed the court, gamed the lie detector. so they were ALSO psychopathic liars to, with a mission and a paycheck. nothing happened about that either..
waiting to die
oh well
I seriously wonder sometimes if the internet has been a net positive or negative to the world in a large sense.
everthing is a wash in a universe in which nothing was split into positive and negative somethings till they recombine..
poof again.
Violent psychopaths and sociopaths are humanity’s version of rabid dogs.
This case was a very unsubtle instance of Sharee pushing all of her lover’s buttons very hard. It seems to be relatively common for women (murderers) to try to get someone else to commit their murders for them. Sometimes it’s by hire, but more usually it’s their lover.
The movies “Double Indemnity” and it’s loose remake, “Body Heat” both show the subtle side of this, which are born out in many real crime cases. The woman plants the idea in her lover’s head, “Wouldn’t it be great if my husband were gone?” and then lets the idea percolate for a while. It seems so unlikely that this would work, but many of these men have been convicted.
This is why the ancients thought Moses brought a great set of laws. You needed two independent witnesses to testify as to someone’s guilt, not just one source.
Although that didn’t stop people from making up testimonies by getting their stories straight, but the penalty was not like what we see today in the US. If you falsely accuse someone of a crime, then the crime’s punishment is applied to the false accuser.
A lot of humans are foolish, or pathetic, or gullible enough to believe something just because they fear it is true or because they want it to be true. They do not have an objective lense because their physical desires control them , not the other way around. They’ll start spreading their stories as fact and soon enough even they will fall for their own self deception.
When we don’t know what to do with rabid dogs we are in a suicide pact with PETA. Isn’t is obvious?
I actually know slightly, a women who killed her two children and faked a suicide attempt while her husband was out deep sea fishing. She called his sister and told her she had just shot the two girls, who were 3 and 5 as I recall. He later gave us a doll house he had bought for his daughters. She was sent to a mental hospital on an insanity defense. She was released a few years, three or so, later.
The most unbelievable part of the story, however, is that he then remarried her. His friends were so outraged at this that they all dropped him. He and his wife moved out of state after that and I don’t know what happened.
Talk about a strange twist.
Sharee Miller is a particularly striking example but not really uncommon either.
My wife loves to point out how cynical I am. I tell her its a byproduct of being lied to all the time. All. The. Time.
Is that a knife in your pocket?
“No.”
But it was a knife.
How did you come to have the pound of heroin in your pants?
“These aren’t my pants. I was at a sleepover and had to get to a job interview in a hurry. I put on my friend’s pants.” (This was a real excuse)
Do you have anything in your pockets I need to worry about, anything that can harm me ?
“No.”
Contents of the pockets after the pat down:
-2 razor blades (why we wear special gloves…)
-a syringe,
-4 cell phones (only one of which is a ‘Bama-phone’)
-but no I.D.
-3 lighters
-$2
Now, given that, I actually believe that a lot (not most) people I see everyday are actually honest . Really. But when you deal with career criminals and psychopaths , you get used to casual deception. They lie so often, so well, it is stunning.
When I was but a young rookie (or Boot as they say nowadays), it rocked my world. I grew up in a loving family, raised by decent people. I was altogether unprepared to see that side of humanity.
@Geoffrey Britain January 12th, 2018 at 6:32 pm:
“Violent psychopaths and sociopaths are humanity’s version of rabid dogs.” However, if they aren’t violent, they may be pillars of society by success. Yet, the same incapacity for empathy and seeing others as anything but disposable is still there. Thank g*d CEOs don’t kill during board meetings. That would be disruptive to their normal business practices.
What I’m wondering is how much of what we accept as acceptable business practices comes from the psychopaths…