The Good Neighbors (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
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Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. It was a frigid December day in a small logging town in Maine, roughly an hour's drive from the US-Canadian border. But despite the falling snow, Christmas shoppers were out in full force. While most of the shoppers hurried from store to store, a small crowd had gathered in front of the police station.

The shoppers watched as an officer stapled a poster to a telephone pole. Then, when he was done and stepped aside, they all shuffled closer for a better view. The poster was a sketch of a middle-aged woman. She had a narrow face, thin nose, glasses, and bangs. And according to the text above the image, the police were looking for this woman in connection with a recent double homicide. The murders were horrible, but they were also the most exciting thing to happen in this part of rural Maine for as long as anyone could remember.

So, despite the cold and the need to go buy Christmas gifts, these shoppers all stood there studying the sketch and discussing whether it looked like anyone they knew. And these shoppers were so caught up in their conversation that they didn't notice a bundled up figure hurrying past them on the sidewalk. And this figure slowed down just long enough to glance at the poster and recognize the face in the sketch, which bore a striking resemblance to their own face.

Then, before anyone could notice them, the figure turned and hurried off into the falling snow. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So, if that's of interest to you, please give the follow button's phone number to as many telemarketers as you can. Okay, let's get into today's story.

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On the evening of November 27th, 2009, Michael Miller, or Big Mike as pretty much everyone knew him, was stomping around his property in Webster Plantation, Maine, studying his double-wide trailer and thinking through the new addition he was planning. Like his nickname suggested, 47-year-old Big Mike was a huge man and he had a big bushy beard and he looked right at home in this desolate rural setting. The trailer stood at the center of a snowy clearing along the edge of dark woods.

There were no other buildings in sight since Big Mike's closest neighbor lived almost 20 miles away. His hometown of Webster Plantation wasn't really a town at all. It had a population of 85 people, a one-room town hall, two roads, and no streetlights. There had never really been much to do there aside from, you know, creek fishing and taking in the nature, and for a lot of people, working at the local lumber mill. Big Mike had been a seasonal employee there for 29 years, but just one week ago, he'd been laid off.

The loss of his job had stung, but he wasn't too worried. He and his wife Val lived frugally, and so they had enough cash stowed away to get by until he found another job. Big Mike was just about to head back inside when he heard a vehicle approaching. He turned to see a pair of headlights sweep through the trees. Then a familiar white Ford Explorer came into view and pulled up to his mobile home. It was his two sons, 27-year-old Mike Jr. and 26-year-old Matt.

Mike Jr., the oldest son, was like a smaller, clean-shaven version of Big Mike. But Matt was a lot different. He was skinny and pale, with a buzz cut and tattoos along his neck. Matt also had heavy shadows under his eyes, like he hadn't been sleeping well. Big Mike had not expected to see his kids tonight, but was happy for the visit. So he walked up and gave them each a big hug and invited them inside.

Then he called out to Val that the boys had stopped by for a visit, and within seconds, his wife appeared from the kitchen with a tin of her famous coffee cakes in hand. At 47 years old, Val was a very energetic and petite woman who looked even smaller standing next to her hulking husband. The family snacked and caught up, and then Val reminded everyone that they had a birthday tomorrow. Matt's baby daughter was turning one. However, Matt still had not told anyone what the party plans were.

Matt said they weren't really planning on doing anything, which Val immediately insisted was ridiculous. She said if Matt didn't want to plan something, well, she and Big Mike would be more than happy to host the party at their place. Matt tried to dissuade her, but finally just caved and agreed to let her host the party as long as it was small. Just immediate family, along with Mike Jr., Matt's girlfriend, as well as Mike Jr.'s best friend, Nate. The three of them were practically family anyway.

Then Matt excused himself and asked if Big Mike could step outside for a moment. Big Mike's jaw instantly tensed. He could guess where this was heading. And sure enough, the moment they were outside together, Matt asked his father if he could borrow some money. Matt began talking about how he hadn't worked in months and was struggling with all the costs of a new baby. He couldn't even afford gifts or a cake for tomorrow. That's why they hadn't planned a party.

When he finally finished his spiel, Big Mike told Matt not to worry about the cake. He and Val would be happy to pick one up before the party. But he couldn't lend Matt money at the moment. For one thing, Big Mike told his younger son that he'd himself just been laid off from his job at the mill, so money was tight for him. And more importantly, he couldn't trust that Matt would actually use the money for his family.

Matt looked absolutely furious at his father's response, but he did not push the issue. He just shook his head and headed back into the mobile home, where he asked if Mike Jr. was ready to go. The boys left a few minutes later, giving Val a kiss on the cheek before climbing into Matt's Ford Explorer. Big Mike watched the SUV disappear into the forest, wondering if he had been too hard on Matt. Then he heard Val calling, and he turned to head back inside. Around 12.40 p.m. the next day, so Saturday, November 28th,

Another car pulled up outside of Big Mike and Val's mobile home. The driver climbed out, grabbed a red plastic gas can from the back seat, and started trudging through the snow toward the trailer. The driver's name was Alan Richardson, and he was a neighbor and friend of Big Mike and Val's. Alan had borrowed the gas can from Big Mike a few days earlier, and he was here now to return it. However, when he reached the trailer and knocked on the door, no one responded. Alan tried the door handle and found it was locked.

Now, normally, Alan would have assumed that the Millers had just left to run an errand. But he looked and saw both of their vehicles were parked nearby. So, he tried knocking again, and when he got no response again, he moved to the nearest window and peered inside. Tilting his head, he was able to make out what appeared to be homemade birthday decorations taped to one wall. There were also paper plates and a few liters of soda sitting out on the counter. It looked like Big Mike and Val were getting ready for a party.

But just then, he noticed something disturbing on the kitchen floor. It took him a moment to realize what he was even looking at. But once he did, he nearly fell over backward, because Big Mike and Val were both sprawled on the floor beside each other, not moving. Once Alan got over the initial shock, he rapped on the glass and called out to them. But they didn't move at all. Alan's hands shook as he pulled out his phone and punched in 911.

The moment the dispatcher picked up, Allen told them he'd just discovered the Millers unconscious in their trailer with the door locked. He asked if he should break in and try to help them, but the dispatcher told him that could be dangerous. Whatever caused the Millers to collapse could still be in there, whether it was an electrical problem or a carbon monoxide leak or something else. And so the dispatcher instructed Allen to simply wait until the authorities arrived, which unfortunately would take a while since the nearest police station was over 30 miles away.

Allen was still waiting nervously outside the mobile home when he heard sirens approaching through the woods. An ambulance rounded a bend in the trees, followed by a police cruiser and a fire engine, and they all pulled up in front of Allen, lights flashing. A police officer wearing a respirator mask told Allen to stand aside, and everyone waited while the firefighters tested the air around the door for carbon monoxide. When they announced that the coast was clear, the police forced open the door and entered the mobile home, followed by a pair of EMTs.

And what they found, there in the kitchen, was Big Mike lying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling, with his legs folded awkwardly beneath him. His white fowl was slumped by his side, with her head resting on his chest. Their skin was waxy and pale, they weren't breathing, and there was a small amount of blood on the floor around them. The EMTs checked for a pulse to be certain, but it was obvious, the Millers were dead.

And as soon as the EMTs looked more closely, it became clear what killed the Millers. And it was not carbon monoxide. They noticed a small hole in Val's right temple and a similar one at the base of Big Mike's skull. The Millers had been shot. Meanwhile, Alan continued to wait outside, watching the activity from a distance and calling everyone he knew to tell them about his awful discovery.

At the same time, local police and medical personnel continued to arrive one by one until an entire fleet of law enforcement vehicles filled the clearing. Finally, about a half an hour after the EMTs first entered the mobile home, lead investigators Darrell Peary and Brian Strout of the Maine State Police arrived. The detectives stepped out of their car, quickly introduced themselves to Allen, and then said they had a few questions for him. They wanted to know how Allen knew the Millers and why he was visiting that morning.

He told them about borrowing the gas can and said that Big Mike and Val were some of his favorite neighbors, as good-natured and helpful as you could find. He also mentioned that he'd been surprised to find the door locked when he arrived. People around here typically left their doors unlocked. The detectives collected Alan's contact information and then told him he could leave. After that, they headed inside. Detective Peary's first thought upon entering the mobile home was just how neat everything was.

When he got the call for two potential deaths at a trailer in the woods, he'd sort of half expected the place to be a cluttered mess, possibly even a drug den or a meth lab. Instead, he found a tidy living room full of family photos and birthday decorations. This was a well-cared-for home, a very crowded home at the moment, since police officers were still busy photographing everything in sight. The detectives slipped through the crowd and made their way to the kitchen, where they found the medical examiner crouching over the millers.

Detective Strout leaned down close to examine the bullet hole in Val's right temple. As he did, Fury commented that there wasn't a lot of blood in the kitchen for a pair of gunshot wounds, and the medical examiner agreed, explaining that the murder weapon had to be a small, underpowered handgun like a .22.

The detectives perked up when they heard this because they knew such a small gun like a .22 would most likely be used at very close range. And if Big Mike was shot up close from behind, it suggested one of two things. Either he had been held at gunpoint and executed, or he knew his killer and trusted them well enough to invite them into his kitchen and then turn his back on them.

Just as they were figuring out which was more likely, a police officer hurried over and said they'd just found something the detectives would want to see. Strout and Peary followed this officer to a small room that was full of shelves. They were stocked floor to ceiling with used electronics, stacks of DVDs, tools, and a small arsenal of firearms. Strout and Peary began walking through the room, pulling out random bins to check on the contents. They couldn't imagine what all this merchandise was doing here.

But before they could figure it out, there was a commotion outside. The detectives went back to the living room and looked out the window at a young man in his late 20s flailing his arms in frustration while a sheriff's deputy blocked him from entering the front door. The man kept repeating that he needed to see his mother and father until finally the deputy just said, I'm sorry, Mike, they're gone. At that point, the young man began to sob. Then he stumbled back to his truck, which was parked alongside all the other law enforcement vehicles.

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By the time the detectives reached the man, he was sitting in the driver's seat with the door open, repeatedly trying to call someone on his cell phone.

Strout and Peary introduced themselves to the young man, who replied that he was Mike Jr., the Millers' oldest son. They asked him why he had come to his parents' place, and he explained that he'd just heard from a friend that there was some kind of an accident at his mom and dad's place, and so he had brushed over as fast as he could, but he'd never expected to learn that both of his parents were dead. Mike Jr. said he had spent the last few minutes desperately trying to call his younger brother, Matt,

Mike wanted to be the one to break the news before Matt heard it from someone else. But unfortunately, Matt wasn't picking up. Now, Mike Jr. set his phone aside and turned to Stroughton Peary. He had the look of a man who was in shock. But he said he wanted to help and then offered to tell them anything they wanted to know. The detectives asked him if there was any reason he could think of that somebody might want to hurt his parents. Mike Jr. said what most people say in this situation right after they lose a loved one.

He said his parents were great people and everybody loved them. However, as he said this, a worried look came across his face. And he told the detectives that while his dad had worked at the mill, whenever times got tough, he would supplement his income with a lucrative side hustle, operating a pawn shop and loan shark business right out of his mobile home. He said his father also bought and sold prescription narcotics.

The whole operation was unlicensed and totally illegal, but this far from civilization, most people didn't care. Big Mike had a long list of regular customers who would often stop by out of the blue. This information cast the murders in a whole new light for the detectives. Big Mike and Val weren't just some respected couple mysteriously gunned down in their family home. They were the owners of a shady, illegal business that very likely could have turned their trailer into a revolving door of unsavory characters.

And the detectives figured Big Mike must have had large amounts of cash on hand to run his loan business. Maybe a desperate individual who did business with Mike saw him as an easy target. Detective Strout was now itching to get back inside the mobile home and verify whether anything was missing. But first, he asked Mike Jr. when he last heard from his parents.

Mike Jr. said he'd spoken to his mother around 10 a.m. that morning to firm up details for his niece's birthday party, which Big Mike and Val were supposed to host that afternoon at their mobile home. Mike also said it sounded like his parents weren't alone because when he spoke to her, he heard people talking in the background, and he actually recognized one of the voices as his cousin, a man who was named Clayton Gidden. The detectives made a note that Clayton Gidden could have been the last person to see the Millers alive,

After they wrapped up with Mike Jr., Detective Strout called the state police headquarters to try to get background information on Clayton. At the same time, Peary went back inside the trailer. He wanted to get a second look at the storage room where Big Mike had been running his business. And when he got back there and looked around at the cluttered space, it was impossible to say for sure whether anything had been taken. That is, until Peary found an orderly stack of ledgers on a shelf.

Flipping through these pages, it quickly became clear that Big Mike had kept meticulous records. Everything he'd bought or sold, and every dime he lent, was marked and dated. And from the information on these records, Peary could see that a safe where Mike stored jewelry and other high-value items was clearly missing. He also couldn't find one ledger book from the set, which looked like it was the one that was used to track Big Mike's loans.

And so Peary was thinking more than ever that robbery had to be the motive for the murders when his partner, Detective Strout, came in to join him. Strout said he had just spoken to the office who had given him an address for Clayton Gidden, Mike Jr.'s cousin. He was located in the nearby tiny town of Springfield. Strout told his partner that Clayton was apparently an avid hunter, which meant he very likely owned a lot of guns. Now, both detectives were even more eager to talk to him.

Later that afternoon, when Strout and Peary knocked on Clayton's door, a young girl answered. She ran to get her father and returned moments later with a man in his mid-30s. Clayton was clearly shaken up, as though he'd already heard the news about his aunt and uncle's deaths. However, when the detectives told him that Big Mike and Val were murdered, Clayton seemed startled. And then he became even more distraught when he realized he was a potential suspect. But Detective Peary promised Clayton they were only there to talk.

So Clayton took a few calming breaths, then he invited them into the living room. Clayton told the detectives that he'd driven out to have coffee with his aunt and uncle that morning, and he'd taken his nine-year-old daughter with him. When they arrived at their mobile home around 10 a.m., Big Mike and Val were at ease and looking forward to the birthday party later that day. There was no sign of any trouble, and the couple did not seem like they were in danger. Detective Strout listened patiently, while at the same time studying the man for any sign that he might be lying.

But Clayton seemed genuinely shocked, and if his daughter really had been there that morning, Stroud had a hard time believing that Clayton was the killer. After all, who could commit murder in front of their own child? But suddenly, Clayton said something that made both detectives lean forward in their seats. He told them that he and his daughter were not the only ones at the Miller's place that morning. When they arrived, Big Mike and Val were already chatting with a young man named Nate Nightingale.

Clayton didn't know exactly why Nate was there or what he was doing, but he said he didn't find it that unusual. Nate was Mike Jr.'s best friend, and he hung around the Miller's place all the time. But Clayton said the detectives should still talk to him, because when Clayton left the trailer at 10.30am, Nate was still there. Hearing this, Strout and Peary could both feel the case starting to pick up speed.

The Millers had been dead for only a matter of hours, but already the detectives had a potential witness who might have been in the room when the murders happened. When the detectives met at the state police office the following day, November 29th, they found new information waiting for them. The autopsy results had come in, and they confirmed that Big Mike and Val were killed with a .22 caliber pistol. This cemented the detectives' suspicions that they'd both been shot at close range, likely right there in their kitchen.

The office had also pulled Big Mike's phone records, showing that he'd called a friend at 10.40 a.m. The detectives would contact this friend, and they would confirm that, yep, Big Mike had called them, and during their conversation, nothing had seemed off. That left a narrow two-hour window when Big Mike and Val could have been shot. Big Mike was very much alive at 10.40 a.m., but the couple was dead by 12.44 p.m., when Alan Richardson, the neighbor, had called 911.

So, Strout and Peary got to work tracking down Nate Nightingale, perhaps the last known person to see the victims alive. But they were also eager to speak with Matt Miller, the younger son of Big Mike and Val who still was not answering his phone. And as they would find out, Nate Nightingale and Matt lived right near each other. So, the detectives set out to pay them each a visit. Matt's apartment was closer to the station, so Strout and Peary headed there first.

And from the moment Matt answered the door, the detectives could sense that something was just off. The 26-year-old had shadows under his eyes like he hadn't slept in days. But it was actually Matt's behavior, not his appearance, that really got their attention. Matt was not acting like someone who just lost his parents. He didn't show signs of grief or even press the detectives for any details on the progress of the case.

Instead, he seemed nervous and evasive, almost like he just wanted Strout and Peary to leave as soon as possible. And the detectives responded to this behavior by actually pressing him on his whereabouts the previous day. He told them he had just been driving around Lincoln with his girlfriend Tonya and their infant daughter, picking up last-minute items for the birthday party that afternoon. Matt's alibi was short on details, and the way Matt refused to meet their eyes as he spoke made the detectives even more suspicious.

And also, Tonya was out running errands with the baby, so she couldn't even confirm Matt's story. Strout felt sure that Matt must be hiding something. So, he tried asking about his relationship with Big Mike and Val. Was he on good terms with his parents? Matt brushed the question off, saying of course he was on fine terms with them. They were his parents. And then after that, no matter what the detectives asked, Matt gave similarly curt responses.

It eventually became clear the detectives were not going to get much more from him today. So they got a cell phone number for Matt's girlfriend, Tanya, and told him they'd follow up soon. And then they left to go talk to the next person on their list, Nate Nightingale. After their interview with Matt, speaking to Nate was like a breath of fresh air. From the moment Nate answered the door, he was polite and eager to help.

Nate was clearly upset and told the detectives that he'd been close to the Millers for years. He had been best friends with Mike Jr. since high school, and he considered the Millers trailer like his second home. Detective Peary asked Nate what he had been doing at the Millers trailer on the morning of their murders. Nate said that he'd dropped by to catch up and also to take out a small loan from Big Mike. They'd just wrapped up business when Big Mike's nephew, Clayton Gidden, had arrived with his daughter.

Nate said that Clayton left at 10:30 and then Big Mike took a phone call shortly after that. And then after Mike got off the phone, Nate said his goodbyes. To this point, Nate's story about what happened that morning matched all the details the detectives already knew from speaking to Clayton and also looking over Big Mike's phone records. But then Nate revealed something they had not expected. Nate said that as he was leaving, a woman arrived at the Miller's trailer.

He said he'd never seen her before, but she looked like she was in her 50s, maybe around 5'4" tall, with a slender build and glasses and bangs. He said she had called out, "Hi Val!" as she entered the mobile home, and she greeted Nate as he was leaving. His best guess was that she was a customer, but she could have just been a friend. At that point, Nate said he drove off to meet up with his girlfriend, so he didn't know how long that woman had stayed at the trailer.

The detectives got the feeling like things were speeding up again. They now had someone who was at the trailer during the two-hour window when the shooting occurred. The detectives knew they had to speak to this woman, but they had to find her first. Strout and Peary told Nate that a department sketch artist would be in touch very soon to put together a sketch of this mysterious woman. And sure enough, by the time the two detectives were back at the office, they found that the artist and Nate had already linked up and the sketch was complete.

Looking at the sketch, the detectives thought this woman looked like she could be anyone. But there weren't a lot of people in this part of Maine to begin with. So if this woman was a local, there was a decent chance somebody would recognize her.

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On December 1st, 2009, so three days after the Millers' murder, the detectives hosted a press conference where they officially disclosed what many people already knew: the Millers' deaths had been ruled a double homicide. Then they also released the forensic sketch of the mystery woman, saying she was an important person of interest in the case. Anyone who recognized her was encouraged to call the investigators as soon as possible.

Right after the press conference, police posted copies of the sketch all over town, while others went door to door asking if anyone knew the woman. And soon, calls started to come from people all around the state who said they did recognize her. The detectives were just starting to look into these tips when Matt Miller's girlfriend, Tanya, finally returned their call from two days ago. They asked her where Matt had been on the morning of the murders, wondering if she would confirm Matt's claim that she'd spent the morning driving around with him looking for gifts.

But instead, Tanya insisted she had not been with Matt at all that morning. She said on Saturday morning, Matt had walked out the door without saying where he was going. And for the next two hours, nobody could reach him, which was extremely frustrating considering they were supposed to be getting ready for their daughter's birthday party that afternoon. She said he finally returned around noon, but refused to say where he'd been.

The detectives were astonished. Matt had clearly lied to them, and his own girlfriend was now saying that she herself didn't know where Matt was during the time of the murders. They considered driving over to pick Matt up for questioning, but decided to hold off until they could gather more information. The detectives already knew Matt had a criminal record. There was an outstanding arrest warrant out for him for writing bad checks. But now, Strout and Peary wondered if he might be involved in more illegal activity.

For the next three days, the detectives quietly contacted people throughout the area pressing for information about Matt. And what they learned was that Matt was clearly addicted to prescription drugs and had recently begun selling personal items, including his own Xbox, so he could buy more. And Matt's older brother, Mike Jr., had told them that Matt had asked his father for a loan on the night before the murders, when the brothers had dropped by.

Big Mike had apparently turned him down, most likely because he knew Matt would simply blow the money on drugs. But the most damning tip of all didn't have anything to do with Matt's addiction or his criminal past. A local resident told the detectives they'd seen Matt's white Ford Explorer in the vicinity of his parents' house on the morning of the murders. This was something Matt had never disclosed to the police, and it potentially put him at the scene during the two-hour window when Big Mike and Val were murdered.

At this point, Stroud and Peary knew it was time to talk to Matt again. They were not quite ready to charge him with his parents' murders, but the facts were quickly stacking up against him. So, on December 3rd, five days after the murders, they arrested Matt on that outstanding bounced check charge and brought him in for questioning. Once they put him in a room, they pushed him hard, telling him they knew he killed his parents. And Matt just denied everything, while at the same time becoming increasingly emotional.

But after hours of intense interrogation, Matt stuck to a story that he never would hurt his parents. And even the detectives started to wonder if they had it wrong. So they ultimately sent Matt back to a holding cell and then stepped out of the interview room to regroup. And that's when they got a tip that reassured them they were on the right track. A local man called to say that on the evening before Big Mike and Val were killed, Matt had called him up looking to buy a gun.

He even specified he wanted a .22 caliber pistol, which, according to the autopsy, was the type of gun used to commit the murders. The man said the firearm sale had not gone through, but the detectives figured Matt still could have kept on looking and eventually gotten his hands on a .22. With this new tip, the detectives marched back into the holding cell where Matt sat on his bed and told him what they'd learned. Matt immediately insisted that the tip was false, saying he never tried to buy a gun that night.

But the stress of the interrogation was clearly wearing on him, and finally he broke down and confessed. Not to murdering his parents, but to lying about his alibi. He said that on the morning of the murders, he was meeting with a drug dealer not far from his parents' place. He bought some pills and then went into the woods to take them. He later lied about it because he didn't want to incriminate himself and because he was ashamed that he was off getting high while he was supposed to be getting ready for his daughter's first birthday party.

Strout and Peary were skeptical of Matt's tearful confession, especially after all the lies, but they agreed to check out his new alibi and see if there was any truth to it. The detectives began by pulling security camera footage from businesses along the route Matt said he took. It was a very tedious process that took two full days as the detectives scrubbed hours of footage looking for Matt's white Ford Explorer. Strout's eyes were starting to glaze over when Peary suddenly grabbed his shoulder and pointed at the screen.

The footage showed a familiar car traveling away from the Miller's place at 11.25 a.m. on November 28th, the morning of the murders. The detectives stared at the grainy footage, slowly realizing what this meant. The footage conclusively showed that the car's driver had lied about their alibi and had been close to the trailer around the time the crime was committed. Strout and Peary leapt into action. They sent officers out to bring that driver in for questioning.

But before the arrest warrant could ever be drawn up, Peary's phone rang. He answered it and there was a woman on the line. Peary did not recognize her voice, but she told him she had vital information about the Miller's case. For a moment, Peary was ready to write this off as just another bad tip. He and Stroud had been fielding calls all week from people who claimed to recognize the mystery woman from the forensic sketch. And every one of those calls had been a dead end. But this one was different. The caller didn't mention the mystery woman at all.

Instead, she said she actually knew who killed Big Mike and Val. And as the detectives listened to her story, the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. Based on the evidence collected at the crime scene, security camera footage, and interviews conducted throughout the investigation, the following is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Michael and Valerie Miller on the morning of November 28th, 2009.

Early that morning, the killer was home in their apartment, rifling through drawers in search of something, anything, that they could quickly turn into cash. They'd already pawned or sold their video game console, DVD player, and sound system, along with pretty much everything else of value. Now they were broke again and getting desperate. Suddenly, their hand closed around a metal grip. They pulled the object from the drawer and they felt a rush of exhilaration as they stared down at the .22 caliber pistol in their hand.

It wasn't what they'd initially planned to sell, but this gun could get them all the cash they needed. A few hours later, the killer was standing in the Miller's mobile home, talking to Big Mike in the kitchen. After their desperate morning search, the killer finally felt calm. Finally, the conversation with Big Mike moved past chit-chat to business. The killer pulled the pistol from their jacket and held it out, asking how much Big Mike could offer for it. The killer wasn't here to shoot Big Mike. They had come to pawn the gun.

Big Mike looked the weapon over thoughtfully, then gave his answer. The killer blinked, then shrugged and nodded, feeling a bit disappointed. It was less than they had hoped for, but probably a fair offer for the tiny pistol. Big Mike handed the gun back over and said he would need to grab his business ledger from the storage room, and then he turned, but before Mike took a single step, the killer's finger brushed against the trigger. The hammer was still cocked from Big Mike's examination, and the gun went off.

The killer jumped from surprise as Big Mike collapsed, his enormous body slumping to the floor of the kitchen. Val screamed and rushed into the room, instantly dropping to her husband's side. In an instant, the killer realized what they'd just done. They had shot Big Mike in the head. Maybe Val would believe this was an accident. Maybe she wouldn't. But right now, all the killer wanted was for her screaming to stop. Without really understanding why, the killer raised the gun and fired, this time on purpose.

Val's scream was cut short as a bullet hit her in the head, and she collapsed onto her husband. The killer just stared down at the crumpled bodies, horrified by what they'd just done. The situation felt so unreal, but as the seconds ticked by and Big Mike and Val didn't move, the killer knew they were dead. Then, the killer realized that if they didn't want to spend the rest of their life in prison, they would need to get out of the mobile home right now. And they were about to flee when a thought suddenly struck them. They came here for money.

and Big Mike would not be needing money anymore. Besides, it might be good for the killer if the police thought the shooting was part of a robbery. So, the killer ran for the storage room. They threw the door open and stood there for a moment, taking stock of the guns and electronics. The killer knew they couldn't carry very much, so they decided to take the safe. Before leaving, the killer stopped to consider Big Mike's business ledgers. They knew these books would include the sizable loans the killer had taken out from him in the past.

and this made the killer nervous. So, the killer quickly flipped through the pages of the ledger books until they found one containing their own name. They tucked that ledger under their arm, picked up the small but heavy safe, and left the storage room. They avoided looking at the bodies on the kitchen floor as they shuffled past, and they just continued to drag the safe out of the mobile home back to their car. Before leaving, they doubled back to lock the trailer's door. With any luck, that would delay the bodies from being discovered, and hopefully buy the killer a bit more time.

A few minutes later, the killer was speeding away and they were so focused on just getting out of town that they didn't notice the closed circuit cameras aimed at the road. When Detective Strout and Detective Peary reviewed the camera footage two weeks later, they didn't see the white Ford Explorer they were looking for because Matt Miller was not the killer. It was Nate Nightingale, the best friend of Mike Jr., who the Millers had treated almost like a third son.

The woman who had called in with a hot tip was Nate's girlfriend, and she told Stroud and Peary that Nate had come to her and confessed to the crime. Nate was arrested on December 12th, and shortly after that, he would admit to everything. He said he really had gone to the Miller's place intending to pawn the gun. He needed the money so he could go Christmas shopping with his girlfriend. But while he was showing the gun to Big Mike, it went off by mistake, and when he realized what he had done, he panicked and intentionally killed Val.

Nate also admitted to fabricating the story about the mystery woman. He said she was just a red herring to keep the police off his tail. She didn't exist. Detective Strout and Peary didn't like to admit this, but Nate's ploy almost worked. The search for that mystery woman burned up a lot of their time, and if they hadn't stumbled upon the security camera footage of Nate's car, it might have saved him. But now that they knew the truth, they looked at the forensic illustration again, and they noticed something they hadn't before.

The woman in the sketch looked shockingly similar to Nate Nightingale himself, down to the narrow face, thin nose, and glasses. Nate had intended to throw the police off his trail with this mystery woman, but as he gave them details for the sketch, he sort of subconsciously wound up describing himself. It was almost like his guilt over murdering the people who helped raise him was so great, he could not let himself get away with it. Nate was sentenced to 40 years in prison for murdering Val.

Big Mike's death was treated as manslaughter, for which Nate received 15 years to be served concurrently. Big Mike and Val's sons, Mike Jr. and Matt, sat stone-faced at the sentencing while Nate tearfully apologized for destroying their family. Neither brother responded, but they stayed and watched while he was led away in handcuffs. Ever since, the two brothers have celebrated Matt's daughter's birthday a week early so that on November 28th, they can also remember their parents.

A quick note about our stories: they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

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