Myrtle Beach Police have closed the case of a paralyzed man who drowned in a neighborhood pool nearly four years ago.
Police reopened the case in January after new evidence surfaced regarding the death of Christopher Skinner.
Skinner, who was paralyzed and often spoke about overcoming adversity, died Sept. 6, 2021, after being found unresponsive in his Emmens Preserve neighborhood pool in The Market Common.
Myrtle Beach Police spokesperson Randolph Angotti said by email Friday that the case was reopened for the purpose of conducting additional interviews, but “further investigation provided no additional information that would indicate a crime had been committed, so the case was closed again in March 2025.”
Horry County Chief Deputy Coroner Tamara Willard said in an email last week that the coroner’s office and Myrtle Beach Police were contacted with “new evidence regarding the manner of death” in the case of Skinner.
His death at the time was ruled an accident.
It appears that some of that evidence is connected to Myrtle Beach pastor John-Paul Miller, who currently faces many accusations regarding the death of his estranged wife, Mica Miller. Mica Miller killed herself in a North Carolina state park in April 2024.
The 40-year-old Skinner and his wife attended Solid Rock Church, which John-Paul Miller pastored before closing it in November and then opening a new congregation, Mercy Church.
It wasn’t until after Mica Miller’s passing that questions were raised about the relationship between John-Paul Miller and Skinner’s widow, according to Skinner’s sister, Tamra McDermott.
As new evidence arose, “it made us question (that) we must have missed something,” McDermott said.
Multiple witnesses have come forward and provided new evidence to the coroner, McDermott said.
The day of Skinner’s passing, McDermott was preparing to leave her home for a planned cookout with her brother. “When I was packing (the food), I got a phone call that he was found in the bottom of the pool,” she said.
McDermott said that something didn’t seem right about the circumstances of his death. But the family had no reason to doubt his wife, to whom he had been married for 17 years.
However, McDermott found out that Skinner had approached John-Paul Miller about an alleged affair he was having with his wife two weeks before his death.
McDermott went to police to review the video footage and documents about her brother’s death. She found inconsistencies in the reports. One report said that Skinner went into the pool area, made a circle around the pool and then darted forward into the water.
Another said that he got too close to the edge of the pool and his wheelchair slipped in.
By watching the video footage, McDermott saw that Miller arrived on the scene about 40 minutes after Skinner had been pulled from the pool. He was called by Skinner’s wife, McDermott said.
“I found that interesting,” she said. “We were never told that at all.”
McDermott said that the four months prior to her brother’s passing, he was experiencing a mental health decline. He frequently talked about his dislike of Miller and had stopped going to church.
“My family and I, we really just want whatever the truth is to come to light,” McDermott said. “We just want the truth and the light to come out.
“Chris was the most strongest, most resilient person I know. When he became paralyzed, he didn’t really allow it to defeat him. He took it as a challenge, a challenge he would overcome.”
The death of Mica Miller has garnered national attention. Her family has alleged that John-Paul Miller abused his wife, a claim that he has denied.
The FBI searched John-Paul Miller’s home in November, although the reason is unknown. The Sun News has not received requested documents related to the search.
