Alibi check – Caroline Miller

On Saturday, April 12, Deputy Willits and Deputy Watson interviewed employees at the Yoknapatawpha County Library.

In an April 11 interview with Detective Murphy, Caroline Miller said she was attending a yoga class at the library when her husband was killed.

Library employees were interviewed to determine if a class was held at that time and whether or not Mrs. Miller was present.

The witness statements provided below are in summary and not verbatim and are representative of all interviews conducted.

Kathryn Stader
Librarian

Ms. Stader is the head librarian at the Yoknapatawpha County Library. She explained that the library has night classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6:00 p.m. until about 10:00 p.m. She confirmed there is a yoga class on Thursday evenings from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Ms. Stader said she's never at the library during the evening classes as she leaves around 5:30 p.m. The library employee on staff on April 10 was library assistant Bella Martin. 

Upon request, Ms. Stader called Ms. Martin and the class instructor, Erin Ramsey, and asked them to come into the library to speak with investigators since they would be better able to provide the information needed.

Bella Martin
Library Assistant

Ms. Martin was the Library Assistant on duty on the evening of Thursday, April 10. She said that when she works on Thursday evenings, her duties mostly involve library administrative tasks, helping library patrons find the classes they need, and answering patrons' questions.

When shown a photograph of Mrs. Miller, Ms. Martin said she had seen Mrs. Miller at the library before and is fairly certain that Mrs. Miller does attend night classes on Thursdays. She said Mrs. Miller had come in recently, but she didn't specifically recall seeing her on the evening of the 10th.

However, Ms. Martin noted that it's not unusual for her to have no contact with the people who come in for night classes since most of them know where they're going and have no need to stop at her desk.

Erin Ramsey
Yoga Instructor

Ms. Ramsey teaches the Thursday night yoga class at the Yoknapatawpha County Library. She confirmed that her class runs from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. and that she was there on the night of April 10.

When asked about Caroline Miller and shown a photograph, Ms. Ramsey confirmed that Mrs. Miller occasionally attended her yoga class, but she didn't recall seeing her there on the 10th.

To determine if Mrs. Miller had been at the April 10 class, Ms. Ramsey consulted the student sign-in sheet for that evening. Ms. Ramsey said Mrs. Miller did not sign in that evening, but she noted that sometimes students don't sign the sheet because it's not mandatory. 

However, since she is also fairly certain that she didn't see Mrs. Miller that night, she would conclude that Mrs. Miller was indeed absent.

According to Ms. Ramsey's records, Mrs. Miller had signed into class on the following dates: February 13, February 20, March 6, and March 20.

When asked if she had noticed anything unusual or suspicious about Mrs. Miller's behavior in recent weeks, Ms. Ramsey said that while she did notice that Mrs. Miller seemed a bit stressed out on a couple of occasions, she didn't think her behavior was in any way suspicious or unusual.