Investigators are tight lipped, rumors are flying and a community is in shock by the discovery Saturday of a body that is widely believed to be Monroe County Election Commission Chairman Jim Miller, stuffed in the trunk of a burning car.Late Monday afternoon, it was announced that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation had become the lead agency of the four agencies investigating the case.
"It is Jim's car, and Jim is missing," said his longtime attorney and personal friend, John Cleveland, who is the city attorney for Sweetwater, Tenn. "But everybody would be pleased ... to find out that we are wrong (and it is not him)."
Cleveland issued a statement Monday on behalf of Miller's family that clearly indicates they believe he is the victim. Miller was last seen at the county's Election Commission office around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. He was working that day because of early voting, said County Election Administrator James R. Brown.
"He'd made a call to his wife and was going home, but he never made it home," Brown said. "This has got people talking in the county. It's got people wondering."
Around 8 p.m. that night, Miller's vehicle, a black Ford Crown Victoria, was discovered along Sands Road by a Monroe County Sheriff's Department deputy. The vehicle was "fully engulfed" in flames when the deputy arrived, according to a brief statement issued by the department.
Firefighters from the Christianburg Volunteer Fire Department were called to extinguish the blaze, after which the body was discovered. The state's Division of Bomb & Arson and the 10th District Attorney General's Office are also investigating the case. "It's pretty shocking, someone killed and put in a car and the car set on fire like that," said Sweetwater Fire Chief Doug Watson. "It's got the county all tore up."
It was a topic of conversation among people coming to Sweetwater City Hall on Monday, said City Recorder Jessica Morgan. "People are shocked," she said. "Jim was well known around here and well liked." "He was a very generous person and loaned money to a lot of people," Cleveland said. "As far as I know, he had no personal enemies."
No information has been released about how the victim died.
Miller, 60, was a lifelong Sweetwater resident and very active in community affairs and the Republican Party, say people who knew him.
Note he was a Republican, which is likely why this story won't be front page news on the NYT.
"Whenever somebody in the community needed anything, Jim was the first one everybody called," Cleveland said. "This is a tragedy to us," Brown said. "He was a gentleman who worked very hard for the county and community. He will be missed for a long time to come."