What happened to Rebekah Gould?
The small city of Melbourne, Arkansas, was rocked to its core after a local college girl was found dead in 2004. Rebekah Gould was reported missing in September 2004 after she mysteriously vanished. She was a 22-year-old student at the University of Arkansas. Gould had just returned home to visit her boyfriend and was last seen leaving a local convenience store. A week later, her body was discovered off Highway 9 in Izard County.
What happened when a podcast was launched about the case?
Gould’s case remained cold for over 15 years until a true crime podcaster called George Jared helped bring the killer to justice. Gould’s killer had remained free for nearly two decades, but Jared refused to give up on the case. With the help of Jen Bucholtz, a police investigator from Colorado, and an online true crime community who joined their Facebook page, Unsolved Murder of Rebekah Gould, they were able to help piece together what happened to Gould. Early on in their investigation, a man called William Miller, who lived in the Philippines, joined the Facebook page and took a strong interest in the case.
The group quickly figured out that William was the first cousin of Rebekah’s ex-boyfriend that she had been staying with the weekend prior to the murder. After the discovery was revealed, Jared and Bucholtz gave the information to the police, and they began monitoring Miller’s online activity. Several months later in 2020, Miller was taken into custody, where he confessed to Gould’s murder.
Miller told investigators that the attack happened after she allowed him to “use the phone” at the place where she was staying. However, it is believed he made a sexual advance on her, which was rejected, and he killed her.
Where is William Miller now?
William Miller pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on the 18th of October 2022. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
He was set to have a jury trial on the 31st of October 2022, but he “waived his right to a jury trial circuit court.”
Miller is serving his sentence at the East Arkansas Regional Unit, which is an Arkansas Department of Correction prison in Brickeys, St. Francis Township.
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