Above, Homicide victim Roberta “Bobbie” Miller’s reward poster is held up by her sister Mickie Moore Monday at a news conference at the Attorney General’s Office. To her right is Bobbie Miller’s ex-husband Gary Miller, and Bobbie’s mother Madeleine Blake. PAULA TRACY photo.
Jennifer Miller speaks at a press conference at the Attorney General’s Office in Concord Monday about the murder of her mother Roberta “Bobbie” Miller 15 years ago. Paula Tracy photo
By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – With $56,000 in a reward and a new set of eyes on the state’s expanded cold case unit investigating, members of the family of Roberta Dionne Miller, 54, of Gilford said Monday they have new hope that the person who committed the crime will finally be brought to justice 15 years after she was shot multiple times in her home.
Roberta, known by her many friends as “Bobbie” was a bubbly, active and caring person who loved to hike Mount Major in Alton and did so almost weekly. She was last seen on a surveillance camera at a Lowe’s in Gilford buying building materials for window boxes two days before her body was discovered.
She had a term paper or test due on Monday which was never completed, leaving family to believe she died likely on Oct. 31, 2010, on Halloween.
At a press conference at the Attorney General’s Office in Concord, the victim’s daughter spoke for the first time. Jennifer Miller pleaded with the public to try to recall anything that can help homicide investigators find the killer.
Tearfully, she said: “I am just here to talk a little bit about my mom and I guess looking for those extra bits that people have that might give us something to go one.
“My mom was the person whose house was always open to many of my friends. She was always the one who gave them all the snacks that they shouldn’t have, that their moms wouldn’t let them have,” and Bobbie Miller loved Halloween, likely when the perpetrator knew he or she could easily get into the house during Trick or Treating.
“My mom shouldn’t have been taken from us. I still need her,” she said.
Jennifer said her mother told her on the telephone days before her death that she was scared, which was quite unlike her. Jennifer said she believes that the killer is still alive, and theorizes it is someone who her mother held very close, did anything for, and this time she simply said “no.”
Jennifer said her parents had just gone through a three-year contentious divorce and she also said the fact that her father’s house in Maine was burned to the ground just days before her mother was killed was not likely coincidental.
Gary Miller, the victim’s ex-husband, also attended the press conference and spoke emotionally gesturing to Roberta’s mother, Madeleine Blake of New Boston, who said that she should not have to go to her death without knowing who killed her daughter.
Jennifer Miller, a NASA scientist who was in Pasadena, California at the time of the crime, has not spoken publicly about the death until now.
Also speaking to the press was Mickie Moore of Florida, the victim’s sister who was among the tight-knit family of six children.
Bobbie Miller was a 1975 Manchester West High School graduate who did not go to college but raised two children in Wolfeboro. Her ex-husband owned a car dealership and the couple were very active in that town.
To start a new life after the divorce her daughter said Bobbie Miller had just moved to Gilford, was pursuing a business degree and was at home that late fall weekend when she and her dog, “Sport,” a yellow Lab, were shot multiple times and killed inside her home on Country Club Road in Gilford.
She was found dead Nov. 1, 2010, inside her kitchen.
R. Christopher Knowles, senior assistant attorney general and chief of the Cold Case Unit which has 127 cases listed here https://www.doj.nh.gov/bureaus/new-hampshire-cold-case-unit/victim-list, said the case is active.
“Even the smallest detail might solve this cold case,” he said. Independently, family and friends have raised the money and have a reward of up to $56,000 to go to the person whose information to authorities leads to the conviction of the killer.
“The passage of time has not changed our resolve,” Knowles said. “The family has lived 15 years without justice. We know someone out there has the answer…even the smallest detail might make a difference.”
He urged anyone with information to call 603-271-2663 or go to the Department of Justice website at https://www.doj.nh.gov/criminal/cold-case/tip-form.htm.