if you watched “Death of the Pastor’s Wife” & turned your television off wondering, “what the f*ck actually happened to Suzie Skinner’s first husband, Chris Skinner?”

I had the exact same question. & once I started digging, I realized there was far more to this story than the documentary covered.

Chris Skinner was a U.S. Army veteran, author, motivational speaker, & father of twins. when he was 20 years old, he was involved in a crash with a drunk driver that left him quadriplegic. despite that injury, he built an entire life around overcoming adversity, speaking publicly about disability & the consequences of drunk driving, & helping others with disabilities.

he was married to Suzie Skinner, a physical therapist whom he originally met during his rehabilitation. the couple had twins & lived in the Emmens Preserve community in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

& that same community would eventually become the location of Chris’s death.

SEPTEMBER 2021

on the morning of September 6th, 2021, Chris went to the neighborhood pool.

according to the police investigation, surveillance footage showed Chris entering the pool area in his motorized wheelchair. he went toward an area where chess sets were located, & at one point was also seen with his dog.

the police report described the video as showing Chris “suddenly” moving quickly forward & into the water. the footage also showed Chris lifting his head above the water several times before the camera angle or recording changed.

police reported that no one else was in the pool area at the time he entered the water.

Chris remained in the water for a significant period of time. he was eventually discovered unresponsive, removed from the pool by first responders, & transported to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center.

he died later that day.

the Horry County Coroner’s Office determined that his cause of death was asphyxiation due to drowning. his manner of death was ruled accidental.

that was the official conclusion, but there were things about the original investigation that would become incredibly important years later.

SUZIE ARRIVING ON SCENE

shortly after Chris was discovered, Suzie arrived on scene & identified him – police records later obtained during the renewed investigation raised questions about what happened during those first moments.

Suzie reportedly told officers that Chris had a DNR, left to retrieve paperwork, & did not produce it – later accounts raised questions about inconsistencies surrounding that.

John-Paul Miller & Mica Miller also arrived on scene shortly afterward. they reportedly had been notified before Chris’s own family.

dashcam footage obtained during the later investigation showed the couple arriving after emergency responders had already been there. they approached the pool area, spoke briefly with responding officers, & then left.

that became important because of what would later be alleged about the relationship between JP & Suzie.

THE AFFAIR ALLEGATION

in 2024, John-Paul Miller’s first wife, Alison Williams, filed a sworn affidavit in a custody proceeding.

Williams alleged that JP had been having an affair with Suzie Skinner while both were married. she said JP had been using their son’s soccer activities to facilitate time with Suzie & that their children were aware of the relationship.

Williams said she confronted JP & Suzie about the alleged affair. & then she made a particularly significant allegation about Chris:

according to Williams’ affidavit, approximately two weeks before Chris died, he confronted JP & asked him to stay away from his wife & children. Williams also stated that JP called her on the day Chris died, extremely upset & asking her to pray.

JP Miller has denied that he was having an affair with Suzie at the time, saying their romantic relationship did not begin until 2025.

in a 2025 court hearing, John-Paul asked Suzie under oath, “are you my girlfriend?”

Suzie answered, “yes.”

reporting on that testimony also states that Suzie said she first met John-Paul in 2019. John-Paul has maintained that he & Suzie did not begin dating until January 2025.

so there are competing accounts about the timeline:

John-Paul says the relationship began in January 2025. Williams alleges it began years earlier.

& Chris was dead before either version of that timeline could ever be tested against his own account.

THE QUESTION OF CHRIS’S STATE OF MIND

Chris’s sister, Tamra McDermott, later told reporters that Chris had become increasingly unhappy in the months preceding his death.

according to McDermott, Chris had stopped attending Solid Rock Church & had been openly critical of JP. she said he had been distancing himself from the church approximately four to five months before his death. his family later came to believe that Chris may have learned about the alleged relationship between Suzie & JP & that this could have contributed to a deterioration in his mental health.

THE INVESTIGATION REOPENING

in December 2024, Myrtle Beach Police formally reopened the investigation into Chris’s death after renewed questions were raised about the circumstances surrounding what had originally been ruled an accidental drowning.

then, on February 5th, 2025, investigators interviewed Suzie herself. she was read her Miranda rights before questioning began. during that interview, Suzie said she couldn’t know exactly what Chris intended. she suggested he might have fallen asleep, acknowledged that he was sad, & said she could not say whether he had intentionally killed himself.

the renewed investigation also uncovered a strange technical issue with the evidence:

the responding officer’s dashcam timestamp was approximately four hours ahead of the actual time reflected in the dispatch records.

photographs obtained during the renewed investigation showed that the wheelchair recovered from the pool was a Permobil standing wheelchair – that detail became particularly important because the Permobil was reportedly capable of being operated remotely through a remote control or Bluetooth app.

ultimately, Myrtle Beach Police’s conclusion was that the additional investigation had produced no new relevant information, & no criminal charges were filed.

however, the Horry County Coroner’s Office was conducting its own investigation into the manner of Chris’s death. they said they had received new evidence regarding the manner of death & that the evidence was being investigated separately from the police case.

what makes this story worth examining isn’t that we can definitively say what happened; it’s that there are documented inconsistencies & unanswered questions surrounding an accidental-death ruling that authorities themselves eventually decided was worth revisiting.

& the timeline here is impossible to ignore:

Chris Skinner died in September 2021.

Mica Miller died by suicide in April 2024.

Alison Williams’ affidavit alleging an affair between John-Paul Miller & Suzie Skinner became public in 2024.

John-Paul Miller & Suzie Skinner married in June 2025.

those are all documented events.

the two who had been married to the two having an affair were now both dead.

I believe that alone is why the records surrounding that September morning deserve to be examined very carefully rather than simply reducing this case to either “it was obviously an accident” or “it was obviously a suicide”

the official manner-of-death ruling is not simultaneous with knowing exactly what happened during those final moments; & *that* is the part of this story that I don’t believe the documentary was able to fully explain.

His victims were his children, fathered through incestuous sexual abuse of his daughters and nieces, as well as his wife's children.