Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
“20 Year Anniversary: Sharee Miller” is a special episode of Snapped that will delve into the crimes of Sharee Miller. The episode will air on Oxygen on Sunday, May 12, 2024, at 6 p.m. ET. A synopsis of the episode reads, “20 years in the making, this special reexamines the Internet’s first murder trial, revealing a twisted seductress with a skill for manipulation; after time in prison, she has a second chance at life and love with a stunning final update in her case.”
Per Fox 2 Now, Bruce Miller was the owner of B&D Auto Salvage. He had hired Sharee, a mother of three, as a bookkeeper. After they began dating, the duo eventually got married and started living in Flint, Michigan. Their peers who knew the couple shared concerns about Sharee’s reckless spending habits. Owing to this, Bruce Miller bought her a computer to track her expenditures.
ABC News reported that Sharee Miller met Jerry Cassady in an internet chat room. The latter was a former homicide detective who worked at a casino in Reno, Nevada. At the time their relationship began, Cassaday was reportedly going through a separation from his wife and was in financial trouble. Sharee and Cassaday’s relationship grew, and she went to see him multiple times. Soon, Sharee told Cassady that her husband was involved with the mafia and that he was an abusive man.
What did Jerry Cassaday do?
According to ABC News, Sharee Miller told Jerry Cassaday that she was pregnant with his child. She sent him photos of her stomach, which were later revealed to just be pictures of her bulged-out stomach. Sharee even told him that Bruce found out about the pregnancy and beat her, leading to a miscarriage. She also sent him photographs of bruises on her stomach. A few months later, she told him she was pregnant again and was having twins this time. However, after a while, she told Cassaday that Bruce forced her to abort the twins.
This news reportedly enraged Cassaday, following which he and Sharee came up with a plan to kill Bruce. She told him to arrive in Michigan to shoot her husband to death while he was at work. Before the murder, Cassaday allegedly told his brother that he would be out of town for a while and asked him to check out a briefcase under his bed just in case he did not return. Then, in November 1999, Bruce Miller was shot in the neck and upper back.
Sharee Miller soon began dating another person. Meanwhile, police considered John Hutchison, who worked with Bruce Miller and had borrowed $2000 from him, to be a prime suspect. The murder case remained unsolved until a year later when Cassaday killed himself on February 11, 2000, in his Missouri residence. However, he left a briefcase that had a confession and details about Bruce Miller’s murder.
The briefcase also consisted of airline tickets, hotel bookings, and chats between Sharee and Cassaday, which implied Sharee Miller’s involvement in the killing of Bruce. Cassaday reportedly complied with evidence after he began suspecting that Sharee manipulated him into killing her husband.
What was Sharee Miller convicted of?
KSRO reported that Sharee Miller was convicted of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in relation to Bruce Miller’s death in December 2000. Initially, Miller claimed that all of the evidence found in Cassaday’s briefcase was forged. However, the circumstantial evidence proved otherwise.
During the trial, her attorneys argued that the emails found in Cassaday’s possession were forged. Although an expert was brought in to claim that they could be forged, they could not explain how exactly the emails could have been faked, leaving the argument invalid.
The outlet reported that nine years after the court sentenced her, Sharee Miller was to be subject to retrial after a judge ruled that Cassaday’s suicide note should not have been considered valid evidence in court. However, the court decided later that the note was admissible in court and Miller was ordered back to prison. While she was serving time, Miller was reportedly engaged to Michael Denoyer. According to Fox 2 Now, the couple married in 2008.
The court sentenced Sharee Miller to life in prison. In 2016, over a decade after Bruce Miller was killed, Sharee Miller admitted her guilt. She typed a letter to a Genesee Circuit Court Judge and detailed her plan of killing Bruce Miller. She explained that she did not want to cause any more pain to the families of Bruce Miller and Cassaday.
As per KSRO’s report, she publicly came forward with her guilt and claimed that it had helped her come to terms with what she had done. She said, “I waited to tell the truth until I get nothing from it, but, hopefully, a sense of peace.” Sharee Miller is currently serving time at the Huron Valley Women’s Prison.
A Snapped episode titled “20 Year Anniversary: Sharee Miller” will feature Sharee Miller’s crimes and conviction. The episode will air on Oxygen on Sunday, May 12, 2024, at 6 p.m. ET.
