Police think body found in park is Miller's

Iowa City Press-Citizen • August 24, 2008

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Iowa City police say “more than likely” the body and rifle found in Hickory Hill Park on Sunday is that of embattled University of Iowa professor Arthur Miller, dead of an apparent suicide.

If so — police have not made a positive identification yet or confirmed a cause of death — this would conclude a search for the man accused of offering better grades to students willing to bare their breasts or let him fondle them. Police began looking Wednesday after his wife reported him missing.

“Clearly, at this point everything points to that being Mr. Miller,” Iowa City Police Sgt. Mike Brotherton said.

Daniel Hoover, 51, of Marion who works with Linn County Underwater Search and Recovery, began looking for Miller at 10 a.m. Sunday and found a body in a meadow about 30 yards off a deer path in the north part of the park. He called police at 12:28 p.m.

“It was something because of past associations that I thought I could do. I didn’t think it would bother me if I did find a body, so I thought I would give it a try. … I hope that it will help provide closure to everybody involved,” Hoover said. “The woods there are very overgrown. (Finding the body) would be as much luck or divine guidance as anything. You could call it good luck or maybe bad luck.”

Police think Miller, 66, a UI political science professor for the past 23 years, felt humiliated after accusations stemming from May 8 and 13 became public. Police charged Miller on Aug. 8 with four counts of soliciting a bribe, a class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Miller also was to be put on paid leave when school resumed today as the university conducted an internal investigation.

Miller’s wife reported him missing and said he left an “apologetic” possible suicide note before 7 a.m. Wednesday morning. His red BMW was discovered Wednesday parked at the Upper Hickory Hill Park entrance. A city worker saw someone matching Miller’s description walk into the park Tuesday morning with a mustard-colored blanket. Miller used his cell phone at about 10 a.m. Tuesday, which is thought to be his last known contact, and a gunshot was reported in that vicinity late that morning, police said.

Police learned Miller had purchased a high powered rifle in June. Police found in Miller’s car his wallet, cell phone and boxes of ammunition, including one that was missing a few cartridges.

“If it is Mr. Miller, he’s been there since 10:30 a.m. Tuesday,” Brotherton said, noting advanced stages of decomposition of the body had set in. “That was when we lost contact with him.”

Police closed the 185-acre park and began a two-day search on Wednesday, including using specially trained K-9 units. Police initially suspected Miller had committed suicide, but they called off the physical search on Thursday evening after they didn’t find his body and considered the possibility that Miller may have left the park.

Police have not yet positively identified the body, but all signs point to this being Miller.
The body was discovered with the rifle underneath it and a yellow blanket nearby, about 200 yards from police’s staging area for its search on Wednesday and Thursday. The body also had a green shirt and green shorts, which was consistent with the description of what Miller had been wearing, Brotherton said.

Police could not say for certain the 30-06 rifle had fired or that the person died of a gunshot wound, but there was head trauma, Brotherton said.

“There are some consistencies and similarities with a suicide,” he said.

A crime scene unit and the medical examiner were on scene investigating Sunday as the northern entrance to the park was closed off for the afternoon. The rest of the park remained open.

The family has been contacted, Brotherton said.

“I think it is pretty much what they’ve been expecting all along,” he said.

The family did not return a phone message Sunday.

The family issued a statement Thursday indicating they thought Miller already had died.

“The ordeal of the last two weeks has become unbearable for Arthur. He could not live with the thought that his name and reputation were smeared and associated with the things which he believed he never had done,” the family said in Thursday’s statement.

An autopsy, which would allow for positive identification, is scheduled for today in Ankeny.

“More than likely, the signs point to (it being) Mr. Miller, but we can’t say 100 percent positive,” Brotherton said.

University spokesman Steve Parrott said the university would wait until confirmation before they issue a statement.



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Because I told you so, only works so well. Remember people; I'm only capable of selling toilet seats... I have no other marketable skills, and no functional knowledge to use in the working world outside of toilet seat sales.

I was off by approximately 12 hours on the lead time to find the body. However, I also had to work all weekend, otherwise I'd have gone corpse hunting I suppose. Also note, the person credited as making the recovery works for law enforcement, but is obviously doing this as an amateur, much as I suspected. The position of the body on the rifle is more indicative of kneeling position taken by the shooter, balanced forwards over the center of gravity, likely due to the angle necessary to hold the weapon. Properties boarding the entire western edge of the park are of residential are development, with several small schools and churches approximately in a mile radius from the center of the park. The northwestern border of the park is adjacent to a cemetery.

Any how, back to selling toilet seats for me.