Charges Filed 27 Year Old Murder Case
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HENDERSON COUNTY, Tenn.- After 27 years of searching for answers, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Henderson County Sheriff’s Department filed charges against a man for the kidnapping and killing of a Lexington woman. TBI officials charged John Edward Miller, 47, with first degree murder and perpetration of kidnapping in the death of Betty Carol Thomas, 32. Miller is currently incarcerated in the Morgan County Correctional Complex in Wartburg, on unrelated charges. Investigators said 27 years ago on March 14, 1986, Betty Thomas disappeared after receiving a phone call from an unknown man wanting to meet for pizza. According to family members, she left her home at 11:45 that morning and was never seen or heard from again. Her family later discovered her 1971 Ford LTD abandoned at Waugh’s Pizza. On December 25, 1986, hunters found her human skeletal remains near Pine Lake, south of Lexington. The medical examiners revealed that Thomas died as a result of her throat being cut. “I’ve waited for this for 27 years maybe we will get some more answers,”said Amy Lyles, Thomas’ daughter. “Whats made this so hard is how somebody would hurt such a good person.” In January 2013, investigators said a witness called the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department and provided a statement that Miller had confessed to killing Thomas with a cutting instrument in March 1986 and placed her body near a “state lake”. TBI agents said in February 2013, another witness told investigators about overhearing a telephone conversation concerning Miller’s plan to kidnap Thomas, before she disappeared. “She was just the sweetest person that you could ever meet always had a smile on her face,” said Jennifer Hopper, Thomas’ niece. “It’s a numbing feeling I don’t know how to describe it, just to finally put a face and a name behind everything.” Officials said the relationship between Miller and Thomas remains unknown. Family members told WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News the two were close friends and that Miller was a family friend. Miller was charged with aggravated robbery in Carroll County in 1986. Investigators said he was out on bond when Thomas disappeared, then later sentenced to 40 years in prison for an aggravated robbery charge. According to records, Miller was paroled in 1995 but it was revoked in 2002 on robbery and burglary charges in Illinois. Miller was sent back to Tennessee and has been incarcerated here since 2002. Family members said in this case justice came after many years of never giving up. “It’s indescribable I’m just numb, kinda at this point,” said Lyles. “They never gave up they still worked this case. It’s still active and that means so much.” TBI agents said Miller was 20 years old when Thomas disappeared. He is currently jailed in East Tennessee for violation of his parole. “Anybody out there that has a case like this, don’t ever give up one day it can happen,” said Hopper. Sheriff Brian Duke said right now they are working on having him extradited to Henderson County to answer the charges against him. TBI officials said their investigation is ongoing.
