Suspect in 1972 Snohomish County murder found dead hours before guilty verdict

When police went to arrest 78-year-old Terrence Miller last year in Washington, they found a stack of newspapers. One was opened to an article in the Everett Herald about William Talbott, a man tracked down and put on trial decades after his 1987 crimes through genetic genealogy, a forensic process that uses DNA and public ancestry databases to track down suspects.

Genetic genealogy lands 1993 Everett murder suspect

Prosecutors would later suggest that the newspaper article was open to that page months after the Talbott arrest because Miller was worried the new forensic tool would also lead to his crime catching up to him, and would be his downfall. It did, and it was, though not in the way he might have have expected.

Miller was charged with the murder of 20-year-old Jody Loomis. She headed out from her now Bothell-area home in 1972 on her white ten speed to go to the stables. She never made it. Hours later, a man and his girlfriend would find Loomis in the woods, mostly naked, with a gunshot to the head. They rushed her to a hospital, but it was too late.

It would be more than 45 years before an arrest was made, and only after DNA from Miller’s sperm was found years after Loomis’ death on one of her boots. It would take several more years to figure out it was Miller’s – only after genetic genealogy started being used to solve cold cases.

Genetic genealogists used the DNA to create a family tree and worked backwards until they got to Miller, and then surveilled him until he tossed a coffee cup leaving a casino that they snatched up and tested directly against the DNA from Loomis’ boot. It was a match.

In 2019, Snohomish County prosecutors became the first to take a genetic genealogy case to trial with Talbott, who was convicted for the 1987 double murder of a young Canadian couple.

Miller had been arrested about two months earlier, and in the months since successfully delayed the trial with health or other issues that bought him time. But time ran out in late October when prosecutors finally brought their case to trial, though Miller remained at home after posting a $1 million bond.

Prosecutors did not have a lot of traditional evidence. It had been nearly 50 years, so witness memories were not all they could have been. Some witnesses were dead.

They never located a bridal and other items they had been searching for to link to Miller and put a bow on their case. What they did have was the DNA on the boot, and that was enough to beat out defense attorney claims of mishandled evidence and alternate theories about who killed Loomis, including a suggestion that the man who tried to get her to the hospital was the actual killer.

Prosecutors also pointed to a phone call Miller had with his wife while in jail as likely proof he knew he was about to pay for his crime.

“When it’s all over and done with, the trial and all that, I’m going to be in prison,” Miller told his wife of over 40 years in the recorded call. “This is not a winnable case. That’s the thing.”

“I don’t like to hear that,” she said.

“I know, mama, but that’s the way it is,” he said. “This is not a winnable case. This is a DNA case, and they have an extremely strong case. You’re not going to beat it.”

The defense tried to suggest those were the words any innocent person might use when facing a murder charge nearly 50 years later, unable to recall specific details about what they were doing with DNA evidence.

The jury did not buy it. Halfway into their second day of deliberations, the jury let the judge know it had reached a verdict.

As the courtroom filled and a live stream of the courtroom went back up, the attorneys and judge had a brief discussion about what would come next given the unusual situation. It was not immediately clear what the situation was, but that did not last long.

Judge David Kurtz brought the jury back in, and asked whether they had reached a verdict. They had: Guilty of first degree murder of Jody Loomis. It was what followed that took some by surprise.

Family, investigators seek new leads in murder of South Seattle woman

“I am sure that you have noticed that Mr. Miller is not present,” Kurtz said to the jurors.

“I have to report that Mr. Miller has passed away. I’m sorry for everyone on all sides,” the judge continued, explaining to jurors that he would meet with them back in the jury room and explain how to get counseling should they need it.

Miller was dead.

“Just before 10 a.m. today, deputies responded to a report of a suicide in the 15900 block of 52nd Place West. They responded to that location after a family member reported to police that an adult male was deceased at that location. The deceased is believed to be 78-year-old Terrence Miller who was on trial for the 1972 murder of 20-year-old Jody Loomis, but positive identification, as well as cause and manner of death will be determined by the Snohomish County Medical Examiner,” according to a statement from Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department.

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