Husband reports wife missing before she’s found strangled in creek bed, Alabama cops say

A husband reported his wife missing, then her body was found under a bridge in a creek bed, according to Alabama authorities.

Police say he’s the one who killed her.

Stephen Miller Sr., 64, told officers on Feb. 24 that his wife had been missing for two days, the Dothan Police Department said in a news release.

Miller put out an “urgent request” for tips on Facebook that said Gloria Miller was last seen in a residential neighborhood of Dothan the evening of Feb. 22 before she disappeared. He asked anyone with information to contact him.

But police said that before Stephen Miller reported his 57-year-old wife missing to police, someone had found some of her personal items in a parking lot of a shopping center.

Family members also took to Facebook to share the woman was missing, adding that her phone and wallet had been found at a local shopping center “for some reason.”

Police said they later learned Stephen Miller had left his wife’s items in the parking lot, then someone found them and turned them in.

Investigators said Miller told police during an interview that he and his wife got into a physical fight on Feb. 22, and he strangled her to death. Lt. Ronald Hall with the Dothan Police Department told WBRC that Miller said he put his wife’s body in his pickup truck, drove across the county line and dumped her remains.

Police said Miller pointed them to the location, then they found his wife’s body in a dry creek under a bridge in neighboring Geneva County.

Miller was charged with murder and booked in jail on $1.5 million bond, police said.

Dothan is in Houston County in southeast Alabama.

This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 2:27 PM with the headline "Husband reports wife missing before she’s found strangled in creek bed, Alabama cops say."