27-year-old Cynthia Jane Miller was known for having a winning personality, warm smile and good-natured sense of humor. She was engaged to the love of her life and a teacher ready for the new school year.
Miller and her fiancé, Gary O’Neal, decided they would hold a small wedding ceremony on August 27, 1981, just a few days before school started, as Miller didn’t want to confuse her students by changing her name mid-school year.
Sadly, the blushing bride would never make it to her wedding day.
On the eve of her wedding, Miller was murdered in her Raleigh County apartment. She had been shot multiple times in the head while her fiancé was visiting his parents and her downstairs tenant was sleeping.
Police quickly got to work trying to find a suspect but, aside from ballistic reports and blood splatter, little evidence was found in the home.
The case of Miller’s murder dragged on for days, for months, for years, and then eventually went cold. That is until 36 years later when the Beckley Police Department publicly announced that they had received new information which could lead to a break in the case.
Was Miller’s murderer ever found? How did her downstairs tenant not hear four gunshots when they could be heard by neighbors in separate buildings?
Listen to Living Lore, Episode Six here to see if the 40-year-old case of Cynthia Miller ever found its long-awaited resolution.