RUNAWAY GROOM—Ron Peterson Jr

Good-hearted country boy Petie Miller vanishes without a trace two days before his wedding in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley in 1983. Some speculate it’s a case of cold feet, but investigators suspect cold-blooded murder. The bride’s stepfather, a violent career criminal named Charlie Almond, is the prime suspect. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Almond killed Miller and successfully disposed of the body. But with no witnesses, no forensic evidence, and no body, Almond is allowed to walk free. Meanwhile, Miller’s father never stops seeking answers about what happened to his son. For three decades, he tirelessly pushes the investigation forward, imploring the authorities to keep his son’s case file open. Finally, thirty-two years later in 2015, new witnesses emerge and Almond, now an octogenarian, is charged with first-degree murder. Chances of a guilty verdict seem slim, but special prosecutor Phil Figura, known in courtrooms as the “Dragonslayer,” is determined to bring justice. Can Figura win a conviction in the oldest, coldest “no body” murder trial in United States history?
Bestselling true crime author Ron Peterson, Jr. was provided exclusive access to the police case file to research this compelling story, interviewing over fifty sources, including family members of both Petie Miller and Charlie Almond, and working closely with prosecutor Phil Figura and lead investigator Aaron LeVeck.
In a case where justice seems impossible, could the truth finally prevail—or will a killer once again slip away? RUNAWAY GROOM: Cold Feet—or Cold-Blooded Murder?—Ron Peterson Jr. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You are now listening to True Murder, The most shocking
killers in true crime history and the authors that have
written about them. Gasey, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker VTK Every
week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and
infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host,

(00:30):
journalist and author Dan Zufanski.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Good Evening, Good hearted country boy Pete Miller vanishes without
a trace two days before his wedding in Virginia's Shannondoah
Valley in nineteen eighty three. Some speculate it's a case
of cold feet, but investigators suspect cold blooded murder. The

(00:59):
bride's stepfather, a violent career criminal named Charlie Almond, is
the prime suspect. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Almond kilde Miller
and successfully disposed of the body, but with no witnesses,
no forensic evidence, and no body, Almond is allowed to
walk free. Meanwhile, Miller's father never stops seeking answers about

(01:23):
what happened to his son. For three decades, he tirelessly
pushes the investigation forward, imploring the authorities to keep his
son's case file open. Finally, thirty two years later, In
twenty fifteen, new witnesses emerge and Almond, now an octogenarian,
is charged with first degree murder. Chances of a guilty

(01:47):
verdict seem slim, but Special Prosecutor Phil Forgera known in
courtrooms as the Dragon Slayer, is determined to bring justice.
Can Figura win a conviction in the oldest, coldest nobody
murder trial in the United States history? Best selling true
crime author Ron Peterson Jr. Was provided exclusive access to

(02:11):
the police case file to research this compelling story, interviewing
over fifty sources, including family members of both pet Miller
and Charlie Almond, and working closely with Prosecutor Phil Fgura
and lead investigator Aaron Leveck. In a case where justice
seems impossible, could the truth finally prevail? Or will a

(02:36):
killer once again slip away? The book that we're featuring
this evening is Runaway Groom, Cold Feet, or Cold Blooded
Murder with my special guest, journalist and author Ron Peterson Junior.
Welcome back to the program and thank you very much

(02:56):
for this interview. Ron Peterson Jr.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Thank you, Dan. It's great great to be with you today,
looking forward to talking with you.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Thanks so much. And congratulations on this new book. Like
I mentioned, quite the incredible cast of characters and an
extraordinary story.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well thanks, I look forward to sharing more about it.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well set the stage for us where you talk about
the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and Augusta County and a
little hamlet of Swoop near a town called Stoughton. Tell
us a little bit about this p. D. Miller, Richard
Miller Junior, Richard Miller senior, mother Dottie, sister Dorothy, tell

(03:42):
us about their family life, and tell us about Augusta
County and the little hamlet of Stoughton.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well, exactly, Dan. The story takes place almost entirely in
Augusta County, which the biggest city in Augusta County is Stanton, Virginia.
It's in not far from the central part of Virginia.
It's in an area known as the Shenandoah Valley, which
is a valley that runs along Interstate eighty one, which
is the landmark road that interstate highway most people would

(04:13):
know throughout the Shenandoah Valley and just a beautiful area.
There's mountains on either side. It's an area generally is
populated only by small towns and with a lot of
rural area, beautiful mountains, you know, crystal clear rivers, and
you just an excellent area. A lot of people go
there in the fall from Virginia and other states because

(04:35):
the leaves are so beautiful as they change colors. Augusta
County was also one where you know, there was not
a lot of crime, and that kind of factors into
this story. The young man who's the central figure in
this story, a young man by the name of Hede Miller,
who is twenty years old in nineteen eighty three when
the events, when the events and the story start, he

(04:56):
lived in a little hamlet called Swape spelled sw who Ope,
and Swope was in the western part of Shenandoah County,
a little ways outside the bigger city of Stanton, which
again would be the biggest city in this county. And
Richard lived there with his parents. He was twenty years old,
still live with his parents. They were Richard Miller Senior,

(05:19):
who is just a big part of this story, and
his mother who was known as Dottie. And then he
had a younger sister named Dorothy. And by every account,
and I interviewed many people that knew P. D.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Miller.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
He was just just a good hearted country boy. I
think would be the best way to describe them. To
describe him, He and his family were, you know, they
were simple people, and I say that very complimentary in that,
you know, they went about their day to day lives
without a lot of drama, without a lot of the
you know, the the challenges that you know, maybe the
big city people might might face. You know, they liked

(05:56):
the rural way of life. Richard was living at home.
He worked at the newspaper in the town of Stanton
and worked there as an inserter. When the back when newspapers,
you know, printed newspapers were a big thing and almost
everyone read them. He would insert the advertisements in there.
He'd go to work early every morning to do that
and then help sort the newspapers for delivery. His father

(06:17):
was a farmer. They lived on a family farm and
owned many acres in the rural area of Swape, PD.
Every morning since the time he was old enough to
work as a young kid, he'd get up before the
crack of dawn and would work on the family farm,
things like you know, cutting corn and tending to the crops.
They also had various livestock, you know, take care of that,

(06:39):
clean the clean the animal pins. And that was part
of his daily routine before he'd go to his regular job.
And then his father, Richard Senior, also ran a small
engine repair shop and he repaired everything from lawnmowers, detractors
to farm equipment. And p D also helped his father
with that operation, which was you know, again sort of

(07:00):
a sort of a family business. And then living with
them in the house to get you know, as well
as his mother, Dottie. And then I mentioned his younger sister, Dorothy,
who I worked closely with to write the book and
got a lot of information about about the kind of
young man Pete was. And she painted a picture of,
you know, a guy who was just as kind hearted

(07:20):
as he could be, never as much as said boo
to anyone, and you know, it was just a just
a great kid. So that's kind of the setting of
Stanton and Augusta County in this beautiful Shenandoah area of Virginia.
And then the you know, the Miller family, who were
just good hearted, god fearing folks living on a farm.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
You say that in nineteen eighty three, pet Miller was
engaged to Penny Wilson and Penny Wilson was eighteen years
old and as you mentioned, Pete was twenty years old.
They had just met a few months earlier. Tell us
about Penny Wilson's life. You mentioned the family life of

(08:02):
pe d Miller, very stable and very close knit family.
Tell us about Penny Wilson's family situation.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Pet and Penny had just started dating, as you said,
about about three months earlier. Had been a whirlwind romance.
You know, they got engaged very quickly. I was told
by people that knew Penny, including his sister, that this
was really the first serious, dramatic relationship that he was
involved in. And when he fell for Penny, you know,
fell very quickly. As you said, she was eighteen years old.

(08:33):
And whereas Pete grew up in a household with a
lot of support from his parents, Penny's upbringing had been
quite tumultuous. She was at a young age. Her mother
was a single mother. She married Penny's stepfather, whose name
was Charles Almond, who went by Charlie Almond. Charlie Almond

(08:53):
was a guy who presented a lot of problems for
the family. They had at the time of Pete's disappearance,
which we'll talk more about. Obviously, in nineteen eighty three,
there was there was Penny, and then she had two
younger brothers who lived at the home with them, and
I use the word, you know, tumultuous. Charlie Almond's personality was,

(09:15):
you know, was quite mercurial. He'd be even keel one
minute and then you know, blow up about something the next.
And it was in a lot of ways just an
abusive household that that Penny grew up in. Obviously very
very challenging for her, and it may have been the
part of Pete's motivation in marrying Penny was to get
her away from that situation and you know, kind of

(09:37):
help her lead a better life. In addition to being
in love with her, you know, he wanted to get
her out of the terrible situation that she was in
at home.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Let's talk about Charles at nineteen eighty three, what he
was doing for work, and the proper that he had
and the businesses that he operated.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Charlie Almond would have been fifty three years old in
nineteen eighty three and was a guy. He was originally
from that area, was born and raised there, had traveled
fairly extensively, at least throughout the state of Virginia in
his younger years, and he did have a criminal background.
A lot of the crimes he committed, especially when he
was younger, were property crimes. He was involved in a

(10:18):
burglary ring that did a lot of breaking and entering,
had been charged with those crimes, convicted and served time
in prison. And then also some of his crimes were
of a more violent nature. He was just reading his
arrest record and reading some of the newspaper accounts of that,
and also hearing about it from some of the people

(10:39):
that I interviewed. He was a very vengeful man who,
you know, if someone crossed him or he had a
confrontation with someone, he was going to get revenge one
way or another. But by nineteen eighty three, it would
seem to outside observers and people that knew him only casually,
you know, maybe maybe just neighbors or people who saw
him in passing, that you know, he was not a

(11:03):
violent man. A lot of people didn't know that about
the background that he had as far as his line
of work. They lived in a house just outside of
stand not too far outside the city limits, owned some
acreage there and from that property. It was described to
me from by one person. And I don't think anybody
will be offended by the word I use here. I

(11:24):
certainly hope not. But but the property that Charlie Almond
and the family lived on was to described to me
as this redneck compound. There were several several outbuildings outside
the house, one of which was one he ran an
automobile repair shop from. He also had a car sales
business where he sold used cars, sort of a buy here,

(11:45):
pay here type of business. Catered to a lot of
people who had bad credit. And then he also had
a towing service where you know, he would would tow vehicles.
One of his reputations was as a mechanical genius. He
was a from a young age, he'd been interested in
auto repair. Was very good at it. Was very good
at repairing vehicles, did both mechanical work and body work.

(12:08):
And then a lot of those vehicles that he fixed
up he would he would later sell. He also did
have quite a few problems. You know, I mentioned some
of the confrontations he got in with other people. A
lot of those were business related, you know, as someone
who after they bought a vehicle from him, or had
a vehicle repaired, had problems with it, and he would
often get you know, get very confrontational and sometimes violent,

(12:31):
you know when when those things would happen. That was
you know, sort of his history over the years. I mentioned,
you know, the expression mechanical genius. That's one that a
lot of people that knew him used to describe him.
And then another analogy I heard if anyone remembers the
television show mcguiver back in the day, you know, mcgiver
about this person who could use unnatural solutions, you know,

(12:54):
to solve problems or to fix things. He was also
you know, that kind of in terms of his mechanical ability,
and not only with engines, but also electronics and then also,
as it factors into this story at one point, with
explosive devices as well.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
Now, about a month prior to the wedding that was
planned for November nineteenth, a Saturday, a little small wedding
was planned. About a month prior to that wedding date,
p D suggested to Penny Wilson that she moved out
of the Almond home and move in with the Millers.

(13:33):
Tell us about what was the reasoning for this and
tell us what Penny's decision was.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
You know, as I said, p D's big part of
p D's motivation was to rescue her from the home
situation that she faced. She often had arguments and confrontations
primarily with her with her stepfather. So a few months
before the wedding, or about a month and a half
I believe before the wedding, you know, Pete had the

(14:01):
idea of her moving in with he and his parents,
and she was she was more than willing to do that.
And then the plan was for the first at least
the first year or two of their marriage, they would
live at home with Pete's parents so they could save
money to ultimately buy a place of their own. Penny,
like like pet you know, at the time, was a
person of modest means. She worked at a Hearty's fast

(14:22):
food restaurant. She was part of the team that came
early in the morning at you know, the pre dawn
hours and bake the biscuits of people would eat for
in the in the morning for breakfast. So so she
moved in with the Miller family, and there were indications
that her stepfather, Charlie Almond, did not like that. In fact,
he resented it a great deal. You know, there were

(14:44):
were at that time only rumors of an inappropriate relationship
between Charlie Almond and his stepdaughter Penny, and they would
they would factor into this story, you know, a good
bit later.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Now, this little wedding was planned and a couple days
before Thursday, November seventeenth, nineteen eighty three. What were the
plans for the Miller's family that day that morning.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
Well, on the morning of November seventeenth, nineteen eighty three,
and again, Dan, it was two days before the wedding.
As you said, Pete was going to work that morning,
and then mister Miller had a doctor's appointment for physical
therapy in a neighboring town. So he and his son, Pete,
they were driving out in their vehicles. Pete drove an

(15:32):
old beat up pickup truck, as did mister Miller. So
they were driving out this two lane road to go
their respective ways and kind of playfully racing each other.
You know, both of them were auto racing fans, were
NASCAR fans, as are a lot of people in Virginia,
especially rural Virginia. They were kind of playfully racing each

(15:54):
other and mister Miller was ahead of PD and you know,
on the two lane road. After a few month ales
from their home. Mister Miller looked in his rear view
mirror and saw that p D was not behind him,
and he, you know, thought maybe PD had had engine trouble.
So he made a U turn and drove back until
he reached a point on the on the road, pulled

(16:16):
off to the side and he could see PD in
the distance. The PD had pulled off the road and
it looked to him as if PET were offering assistance
to a broken down motorist. You know, there was a
car there that was pulled off the road. PD was
you know, pulled beside it, and the person from that
vehicle was was having a conversation with PD. On the
side of the road. He could see that his son,

(16:38):
PD's truck was still running just fine. Not thinking much
of that situation and running late for his doctor's appointment,
mister Miller went back on the road and you know,
proceeded in the direction that he'd been going. Now, it's
noteworthy that the person that he saw who was in
the other vehicle was none other than Charlie Almond. That
that that was who PD was talking to. Now, very

(17:01):
significant part of the story is that was the last
time anyone saw P. D. Miller and he has not
been seen since then. There's not been a sighting of him.
So obviously there was was initial suspicion when you know
a missing person when the last person they're seen with
is you know, his stepfather, you know, that was certainly

(17:21):
cast suspicion on Charlie Almond.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Let's use this as an opportunity to stop to hear
these messages. Now, let's get back to what's going on
in terms of mister Miller's mind. His son's truck was
running a little bit rough, and actually he had said
to him that, you know, you need to get a
thing a tune up, so that was scheduled and they
both recognize that. So that was part of the concern

(17:48):
that maybe Pete's truck had broke down and the reason
why he turned around and tried to check on him.
But he was confident everything was fine, and he went
and proceeded to his doctor's appointment in nearby Fisherville, and
then he returned a little bit later in the afternoon,
not knowing anything. When did he and his wife have

(18:11):
some concerns. When did they get alerted to the idea
that something was amiss.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
Well that night. You know, Pete was the kind of kid.
He always living, still living at home with his parents. Obviously,
he always came home for dinner. You know. One of
his father's jokes was, you know, you can call pe
d a lot of things, but you can never call
him late for dinner, because he was very consistent in that.
That night, though Pete did not come home, he was
not there for dinner. When bedtime came at the Miller household,

(18:40):
he was still not home. Missus Miller obviously were very
worried and had a conversation. Mister Miller felt that maybe,
you know, maybe Pete was out sowing his oats. With
the wedding coming up in a few days, he'd gone
out with friends, lost track of time, you know, any
number of scenarios was you know, although he was not

(19:01):
a not a partier, not a drinker, you know, maybe
the festivities had distracted him from you know, from getting home.
So mister Miller tried to try to reassure his wife,
you know, hey, let's just wait till the morning. He'll
come home. You know, he always does However, the next morning,
which was the day before the wedding, P D. Miller

(19:21):
was was still not home. The Miller family obviously at
that point, was you know, quite concerned. Phone calls were made.
No one had seen Pete. It was learned that he
did not show up for work that previous day, and
also a phone call was made to Penny who said, yeah,
she was looking for him too, that he always called
her during the day on his lunch break. He had

(19:43):
not called her that day before, and that he was
you know, he was missing. So you know, by then
his parents were very very concerned. Missus Miller stayed home
and you know, and work the phones, made phone calls
and was there in case anyone called. Remember this was
in the cell phone era. And then mister Miller went
out and you know, drove all around the roads, first

(20:05):
in the town of Stanton and then kind of started
looking further out in Augusta County looking for for PD
or for the pickup truck that he drove and there
was no sign of him. Now, remember we said that
the last person seen with PD at that time was
Charlie Almond. And indications are you know, at this point
in the occurrence that mister Miller did not think that

(20:30):
that Charlie Almond really had anything to do criminally with
his son, you know, being missing. Mister Miller, you know,
was the kind of person who would typically see the
good in other people and not the bad. And you know,
that's apparently the mindset that he was in at that point,
you know, just a day after pd had disappeared.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
At the same time, he had no suspicions, but it
was suspicious for anyone reading this book would would find
that when he tried to call him, he wasn't there
was no answer. When he tried to go over to
the Almond home, that was he wasn't there. So he
calls Finally, he waits and calls a deputy at the

(21:11):
police stage at the Sheriff's department, pardon me, and he
was told that someone had filed a missing person's report.
Tell us about this revelation from police, and what does
that mean to mister Miller.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Exactly. Yes, it was a big red flag when mister
Miller called the Sheriff's department. And at that point, you know,
this was later on Friday. P T had been missing
by then for over twenty four hours, so he called
to report his son missing and was told by the
sheriff's deputy, you know, hey, wait a minute, a missing
person report has already been filed. And so mister Miller

(21:48):
was puzzled and he said, well, who filed it? And
he was told Charlie Almond, Andy's stepfather. Mister Miller was
surprised to hear that. And then when he finally was
able to talk to Charlie Allmond, and you know, he
was by then, he was upset, and he did suspect
that Almond wasn't sharing the whole story. Charlie Almond assured him,
you know, he had nothing to do with it. He

(22:10):
even told mister Miller, he said, you know, wait, you
think you saw me with p D yesterday morning? He said,
you know, I wasn't there, That wasn't me. You must
be mistaken. So at that point, mister Miller begins to
strongly suspect that Charlie Almond had something to do with it.
And that's probably when the first indications that there might
have been foul play, you know, appeared in mister Miller's mind. Now,

(22:32):
as that weekend progressed, you know, the Saturday of the wedding,
Pete was still not around. There was still no reports
from anyone who had seen him after that Thursday morning.
And then as the Sheriff's department became involved and started investigating,
you know, they too and as you and your listeners
probably know, with with any missing person investigation, that would

(22:53):
involve into a murder investigation, and it had not at
this point. But in any investigation like that, you all
look at the people close to the victim first, so
you know, one of those was Charlie Allmond, but then
there were other other things that other friends had shared
that made the investigators think, you know, well, wait a minute,
Pete might have just gotten cold feet. I mean, you know,

(23:14):
it's obviously not unusual for a twenty year old man
to have second thoughts before their wedding. Although there was
no indication of that directly, you know, that was certainly
a good possibility, and in the mind of the investigators,
who who you know, probably had seen this kind of thing,
a lot part of their attitude was, you know, hey,
he's going to eventually, he's going to show up, So

(23:35):
they were probably not real aggressive in the in the
early days of this investigation.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Who is very aggressive is mister Miller, and he starts
wanting to meet with the sheriff, and he does with
the sheriff, John Kent, and he wants people to sign
to this case. So he is pushing despite there's no
indication that there's any crime according to the police, and
so they're not treating it as a homicide whatsoever in

(24:05):
this regard. He is directed to someone that becomes a
central and important figure in this story, Sergeant James Jim
Mad and he's a longtime Stanton resident as you write,
and he requests that mister Miller come down for a
meeting and they have a conversation. Tell us about this

(24:28):
first meeting and what does that indicate to mister Miller
and what does it indicate to James mad.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
James Mader was the initial investigator on this case and
was a very good investigator. But you know, in an
area like Stanton, where there's not a lot of murders,
you know, they might have only a handful of homicides
each year, and a lot of those are either their
domestic or drug related, and they're not exactly a you
know who done it that requires a lot of investigation.

(24:58):
They're kind of open and shut murder cases. But nonetheless,
Jim Mater was the lead investigator. He seemed to take
it seriously. You know, mister Miller assured him as I
think as any parent would, you know, Hey, this is
not like my son. This is very untypical of him.
If he's if he's missing, if he's disappeared and not
in touch with us, then something must be terribly wrong.

(25:21):
So you know, at that point the investigator mador did
you know. Indications are that he did take the investigation
quite seriously. However, you know, in rural Virginia in nineteen
eighty three, the investigative resources that were available, you know,
were not very abundant.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
What they do police in their investigation, they get witnesses
that went by that pull off that day. So in
retrospect they were asked to what did they see? What
did they witness? There were a couple very interesting people,
credible people that came forward with what they witnessed that
day exactly.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Yes, and I'm sorry I didn't touch on that. So
they went in canvas to that area. You know, other
passing motorists who would have would have been driving that
morning of November seventeenth, on that Thursday morning, spoke to
them also spoke with residents of a nearby neighborhood and
they got varying accounts. You know, different people saw different things.

(26:23):
But there were people who did see a pickup truck,
you know, pulled off the side of the road, and
another person and then another motorists described a person who
did you know, look like Charlie Almond, although no one,
you know, none of the potential witnesses were able to
identify Charlie Almond directly.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Now, once police have mister Miller's account that he saw
Charles Almond, what do they do interestingly to verify that?
Tell us about this hypnosis?

Speaker 3 (27:00):
Yeah, yeah, And this was an area or a time
period in era when police departments had really been using
hypnosis quite a bit, and this would come into play
with witnesses who witnessed a crime, you know, a serious crime,
and their recollections were not you know, were not totally clear.

(27:21):
So very often they were put under hypnosis and they
could remember additional details from a trained hypnotist. And like
a lot of trends, you know, this started actually in California,
in Los Angeles with the police department there in the
nineteen sixties and seventies, when you know, they actually had
staff hypnotists who began this trend, and then other law

(27:41):
enforcement agencies from around the country would send their law
enforcement officers to Los Angeles to be trained, you know,
in this technique. So there happened to be a trained
hypnotist for this type of situation in Charlottesville at the
University of Virginia Police Department, which was only about a
half hour away. So mister Miller was taken there, he

(28:04):
was put under hypnosis, and the account he gave under
hypnosis was, you know, exactly like the initial account that
he'd given. There was not a lot of a lot
of additional information that he remembered under hypnosis, maybe a
few more details about what Charlie Almond was wearing. He's
wearing in distinctive fishing hat. Under hypnosis, mister Miller's account

(28:26):
was very consistent with the one he'd initially given. So
that gave the investigative team, you know, even more more
belief that what he said was true and that Charlie
Almond was in fact the last person seen with with P. D.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Miller.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
Now, keep in mind, though it was still still a
very very weak, circumstantial case. You know, there was there
was no forensic evidence, There were no other eyewitnesses to
link Charlie Almond with any kind of violence toward P. D.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
Miller.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
And you know, and obviously the biggest piece of evidence,
which of a murder, which would have been Pete's body,
you know, you couldn't even prove that he had been murdered.
So so it's you know, the investigation was was really,
even with that additional info, still at a standstill.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Talk about the standstill. Investigators speak to Charles Almond to
get his official story of his whereabouts and lend credence
or or doubt to his story. What is his official
story and what is his response to questions that were

(29:35):
derived from information from mister Miller.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
His story, you know, is that he did not he
didn't see Charlie umon that morning. You know, he said
that mister Miller must have been mistaken if he thinks
that he saw him. And you know, he gave a
very specific account of his activities that morning, said that
he was delivering cakes for a neighbor. And he also
had an alibi. He had a person, a friend his,

(30:00):
the guy that did some work with him in his
auto repair shop, who you know, vouched for for you
know what, Charlie Almond vouched for Almonds alibi that morning.
And then as you know, in later attempts to question
Charlie Almond, you know, he was never, for example, brought
into brought to the police station for a full fledged interrogation.

(30:21):
You know, that never happened. You know, he, I guess,
like any savvy criminal would you know, he declined answering
any more specific questions, you know, repeatedly telling the police
you know, hey, I want to help out here, but
I've told you everything that I know. You know that
that's this is really all that I know. As far
as interviewing him or interrogating him, you know, that was

(30:43):
as far as the investigation got there in those early stages.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
You talk about the neighbor, and that neighbor was someone
named Cheeny or her nickname was Teeny. But she was
not only he helped her, she was had mobility issues,
helped her with her cake business delivering, and that was
part of his alibi, was that he was delivering cakes
on her behalf away from in a different part of

(31:11):
the county, but also that she handled all his correspondents
and and so in exchange, she did all of the
things for him, because what he claimed was that he
was illiterate, couldn't read or write. So she handled all
of his correspondents. And this David Schover basically was this

(31:31):
team that hung around the property and he would hire,
as you write, young men to help him with his
various businesses. And so he said that he was David
was his alibi.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
It was indeed, yeah, as was Teeny, the neighbor that
you mentioned. She did the for example, did the books
for his business. And you know, you alluded to something
interesting about Charlie aumen that should have mentioned earlier. He
always maintained that he could not read or write and
kind of use that to his advantage. You know, their
most indications are he was he was a pretty smart guy,

(32:09):
certainly very savvy and good in dealing with people. And
part of his reason for claiming that he couldn't read
and write, you know, I think, was so that people
would underestimate him in his business dealings, when in reality,
you know, he was very very savvy and that you know,
anyone who dealt with him, either with business or even
a police officer interviewing him in a criminal matter, you know,

(32:31):
he was much much smarter than than the impression that
he tried to give, and that that was certainly it. Dan,
you mentioned David Shover, who was his alibi throughout the book.
You know, allman kind of has this I compare him
to as kind of this h'll Billy Tony Soprano kind
of character. If if any of the listeners here watched

(32:53):
the television show The Sopranos that was on HBO, you
know Tony Soprano as the charismatic leader of this organized
crime group in New Jersey. Charlie Almon was not unlike
that in Augusta County. You know, granted these were smaller
scale crimes, but there were a lot of people who
were kind of his disciples. You know, you mentioned young people.

(33:16):
They worked for him in his auto repair business and
also helped him out with some of some of the
illegal activities that he did over the years. So he
had this group of you know, this group of supporters,
any one of whom, this was never proven, but certainly
could have been an accomplice in, you know, whatever he
allegedly did to bring harm to P. D. Miller.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Let's use this as an opportunity to stop to hear
these messages. One thing that we haven't spoken about is
that even early on investigators when they spoke to Penny Wilson,
there was something very very interesting that occurred she said
that occurred that afternoon of November seventeenth, and that was

(33:59):
regarding money for shopping. Tell us about what she said
and also about phone calls to the house about the wedding.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
Yeah, as as investigators, you know, obviously one of the
people that investigator Jim made her and the team working
on the case wanted to talk to was PDE's fiance,
Penny Wilson, And I should say, you know, she she
was cooperative. She told them, you know what, told them
what she knew, you know, just like Pete's parents, you know,
she wanted to find out what had happened to him.

(34:30):
She told a story that that the afternoon after pet disappeared,
she and her mother were they were going still thinking
the wedding was going to happen, you know, they were
going shopping. Charlie Almond gave them, gave them one hundred
dollars to go shopping, and part of it might have
been to you know, to get them out of the
house for him to do you know, whatever but when
he gave it to them, he said, you know, and hey,

(34:52):
don't buy anything for p D. He's not going to
need it. And you know, at the time they thought
little of it. And then also in the weeks up
to the wedding, when people would call the house asking
about the wedding or asking about details, or in a conversation,
Charlie Almond would would say to them, you know, his
comment would always be, there ain't going to be no

(35:14):
wedding and that you know, that was the way he talked.
He would repeatedly make those comments, and Penny thought at
the time he was just taunting her, which you know
he often did, but it might have been, you know,
and probably was an indication of of you know, his
plans to to kill Pete. So so you know, Charlie
Almond was was always adamant that that there was not

(35:35):
going to be a wedding and that that you know,
Pete would not be there for for the wedding.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
In this book, there's a large expanse of time and
so we will sort of fast forward somewhat in this
frustration that mister Miller and the Miller family feels. Mister
Miller believing that this, there's no progress, there's always a
personnel change at Augusta County Sheriff's office and department. He

(36:05):
feels that not enough is being done, and he does
everything in his power to try to push this case
forward and the investigation into his son's death that they
believe it does turn from a just a missing persons
to a homicide case eventually, but there was always resistance
from the Commonwealth attorney prosecutor potentially in this case. Tell

(36:29):
us about this seeming wall of frustration that they feel
because the prosecution doesn't seem to be moving forward.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
Exactly. You can just imagine how frustrating this would have
been for pe D Miller's family. You know, they felt
and they believed they knew exactly who is responsible for
his disappearance, which had evolved into a murder investigation that
if you know, as the months turned to years and
then eventually years to decades, you know, they knew that

(37:00):
Charlie Almond had had killed Pete. You know, they were
one hundred percent convinced of that. And again we said,
this was nineteen eighty three, you know, the nineties go
by the new millennium. In two thousand, mister Miller continues
to do everything he can to push this case forward.
Like with any law enforcement agency, there's turnover at the

(37:21):
sheriff's department, there's new investigators that come into the job.
And each time that happens, you know, mister Miller will
reacquaint himself with them and bring up his son's cold case,
which at this time, you know, was one of the
one of the few unsolved homicides in Augusta County, and
he gets really really frustrated. You know, a lot of them,
and again that this is probably true in any law

(37:42):
enforcement agency, you know, the priority is given to current
cases and to stopping crimes. You know, in the current time.
You know that whereas on television we see there's dedicated
cold case units that work on cold cases, the reality
is in Virginia there's not a lot of that, you know,
especially in a rural county like Augusta County and Stanton.

(38:03):
You know, they had their hands full of solving current crimes,
you know, not going back to work on this twenty
year old case. And then specifically, you know, the other
key person in terms of law enforcement was the prosecutor
for Augusta County in Virginia, they're called commonwealth attorneys. This
would be the same as you know as a district prosecutor,

(38:25):
you know, say in New York State, or a state prosecutor.
His name was Lee Irvin. And although you know he
was a good prosecutor, he'd been re elected every four
years for the past twenty plus years, he was very,
very reluctant to attempt to charge Charlie Almond with murder,
or to indict him for murder with what he felt

(38:45):
was a weak, circumstantial case. There were over the years,
you know, there were witnesses who allegedly heard Charlie Almond
make comments about killing P. D. Miller. Some of them
Almond did in terms of bragging. Other ones were comments
he made to timidate other people. For example, if he
had a disagreement with someone, you know, he'd say, hey,

(39:05):
I'm going to kill you and make you disappear, just
like I did P. D. Miller. Well, those people were
scared to come forward officially and go on record, you know,
about the comments that Alman had made. So for these
reasons and others, the prosecutor, Lee Irv and he did
not want to move forward on the case, did not
want to charge P. D. Miller with murder without a body.

(39:26):
You know, in any murder investigation, in any trial, the
biggest piece of evidence is the victim's body, and it
just it just wasn't available in this case. And you know,
it's one thing to feel like you have probable cause,
but to convince a jury, you know, and in Virginia
it would be a jury of twelve people to convince
them beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty. Lee

(39:48):
or and felt like that was just, you know, just
too difficult to do. He was probably right at that point,
you know that it was you know, would would not
be a winnable case. There's a thing called double jeopardy,
and it's a you know, constitutional provision or an amendment
that you know, you can't be put on trial for
the same crime twice. So if Charlie Almond was charged
with PD's murder and found not guilty, even if the

(40:10):
body later showed up, charges could not be brought against
him again. So so for those reasons and more, Lee
Irvin was reluctant to move forward on the cases. The
prosecutor and this was very, very frustrating for the Miller family,
specifically from mister Miller, who was spending a lot of
his spare time on his own investigating this case. And

(40:32):
you can only imagine, you know, a small town like Stanton,
all too often they would run into into the alleged killer,
Charlie Almond, you know, in their daily travels. They'd see
him on the road, he'd be sitting beside him at
a stoplight, to see him at the grocery store, out
at a restaurant, and he was this, you know, this
menacing person who as a as a sociopath, he seemed

(40:52):
to really enjoy taunting them about it.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Very interesting too, you say that the investigators are hearing rumors,
and they're hearing from witnesses that claim that he has
bragged about killing Peter Miller, also about how he could
kill other people and putting somebody through a wood chipper.
But what's very fascinating is the investigators find out something

(41:19):
that I couldn't believe. It's very chilling, and it was
an account from a witness that said when he did
when he Charles Almond talked about this Amos Sensibow and
the revenge and he enacted upon this person with explosives.
He had a little smile on his face, tell us
about this extraordinary story that law enforcement knew that he

(41:43):
was involved.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
With exactly dan one of the stories and it was
kind of the legend of this guy, Charlie Almond. There
was that he'd planted a bomb and blown a man
up back in the nineteen sixties. A lot of people
didn't know the details, you know, law enforcement in Virginia did,
although the incident happened in North Carolina, and in my

(42:07):
investigating I found, you know, the police report on it
and also newspaper accounts what happened. This was about fifteen
years before P. D. Miller disappeared, Actually about seventeen years before.
Charlie Almond was in prison serving time on an armed
robbery conviction. He had a girlfriend. She was he'd lived
with her a while. She was considered his common law wife.

(42:30):
They had two children together. While he was in prison,
she ended their relationship and started dating another man. His
name was Amos Sensible. He was from near the town
of Lexington, which is kind of the next town down
inter State eighty one, and she eventually, after about a year,

(42:50):
she married Amos Sensible and Charlie Almond behind bars, was
insanely jealous remember we've said a few times he was
a ventuful person. He very publicly threatened to kill Amos
Sensible when he got out, so within about another year
Charlie Almond was paroled. He made threats personally to Amos Sensible,

(43:12):
so much so that Sensible and Charlie Almond's ex girlfriend
common law wife, they moved down to Charlotte, North Carolina,
in large part to get away from Charlie Almond. Sensible
was a construction worker down there. He was this big
barrel chested guy. In nineteen sixty six, one morning he
stepped out onto his porch to go to work early

(43:33):
in the morning, out from his trailer, and there was
a massive explosion. A bomb had been planted under the steps,
and it blew off both of Amos Sensible's legs and
one of his arms. Miraculously, someone was there right away,
applied tourniquets and he managed to live through the incident.
Charlie Almond was the prime suspect in that, and it

(43:55):
did not take investigators long to arrest Charlie Almond charged
him with that murder. As he awaited trial. There's a
thing in Virginia called the speedy Trial Provision. And again
this is a constitutional right. If you're charged with a crime,
you've got to be brought to trial and a certain
number of a certain amount of time, and the North

(44:17):
Carolina statute for that was one hundred and twenty days.
And the prosecutor in Charlotte, North Carolina, mistakenly let the
time go too far, and Almond's defense attorney went before
a judge and said, hey, my client's right to a
speedy trial has been violated. It's been longer than one
hundred and twenty days. He hasn't gone on trial for
this yet. And sure enough, the judge dismissed all charges.

(44:41):
They were dismissed without prejudice, which means they could not
be reinstated. And Charlie Almond very luckily was free. So
this was, you know, it was just a a terrible
chapter in his life which spoke to his level of
violence and his you know, how bad he wanted vengeance
if he'd been wrong. And again, all this happened about

(45:03):
fifteen years pardon me, seventeen years before pe D. Miller disappeared.
So it certainly spoke to what Charlie Almond was capable of.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Now let's talk about Brenda Almond, because, as you the
strategy of the investigators was that they would have loved
to speak to Brenda, Charles's wife at that time and
what happened in November nineteen eighty three. However, every time
they tried to question her, he was present and would

(45:37):
intercept any police trying to interview her further. What was
their strategy given the expanse of time and what did
they think would be a reason for her to finally
maybe be able to speak to them.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
Yeah, Brenda Almon was someone who was always viewed as
potentially a key part to the investigations. As Charlie Almond's
wife and Penny's stepmother, it was believed that that she
knew a lot about what happened on that day of
November seventeenth when Pete disappeared. She could potentially put him
at the scene of the murder, as well as shining

(46:17):
a light on some of the suspicious things he did.
You know, she might have even witnessed his disposal of
the body directly or indirectly. But she was always very,
very reluctant to talk with the authorities anytime they'd try
to question her, try to interview her or have her
come down to the to the sheriff's office. Charlie Almond
was there. You know, he'd decline it, and you know

(46:40):
she was obviously very intimidated by her husband as well.
This went on for several years. There were times when
Almond would go to prison on other charges. You know,
they would talk to her and she would not disclose
a lot of information. Finally, about fifteen years into the investigation,
she divorced him and you know was in another relationship

(47:01):
with another man, and she did share a little bit
of information that you know that would would have helped
the investigation. But then in about in the two thousands,
the year in the about two thousand and six, I
think two thousand and seven, Brenda Almond died of natural causes,
and you know, any information she'd be able to provide

(47:21):
to implicate her ex husband died along with her, So
that was a big blow to the investigation. There.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
You also write about Charlie Almond returning to prison with
this bizarre incident involving his entire family and a TV set.
Can you tell us about this that nets him a
significant time in federal prison.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
I believe this was about nineteen ninety seven, there was
a family gathering at the Almond house and one of
his sons and one of his grandsons were having this
argument about what they wanted to watch on television. I
think the young kid cartoons. The father wanted to watch sports.
And they're at this you know, family gathering. You imagine

(48:05):
everyone in this house, kind of a small house, and
Charlie Almond sitting in his recliner and he gets tired
of the racket from the arguing, you know, the noise,
and he pulls out of twenty two and he shoots
the television charge of glass go everywhere. There were two
young kids there. One was his grandchild who was cut
by glass and taken to the hospital. And then in

(48:27):
the course of treating the child and the child getting
sutures at the hospital, you know, it was it was asked,
you know, how did this happen? And family members shared
what happened, and then at that point Charlie Almond was
charged faced federal charges of being a convicted felon in
possession of a firearm, as well as to start discharging

(48:47):
a firearm in an occupied residence at that time. He
was convicted on federal charges and sent to federal prison,
and by that time it was his third stint in prison.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
And during this investigation, when they would hear credible testimony
from someone a witness, there were search warrants and even
searched Charlie Allman's property and also another person that was
a friend that they said that the c A bird
operated a salvage yard. Also his property was searched. So

(49:22):
they seemed to make inroads with credible evidence and enough
to get search warrants, but came up with nothing significant whatsoever.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Yeah, exactly. So all this time, you know, in this
multi decade cold case, there are leads coming in as
to where P. D. Miller's body might be. You know,
there are accounts from varied witnesses. Some were credible, some
were not credible, but they were you know, they were
leads on where PD's body might have been disposed of,

(49:54):
you know, or buried or thrown in a well or cistern.
A lot of this came at as the result of
the investigative work that mister Miller did, you know, not
giving up on the case, and then he'd bring the
authorities in, you know, once he was sure it was
a qualified lead. So they searched several properties they searched,
abandoned property that Charlie Almond owned. One of Charlie Almond's

(50:17):
friends ran a salvage yard called Bird's Salvage. It was
where Almond got a lot of his auto parts, and
there were thoughts that he might have buried Pet's body
somewhere there or put it in a cave that was
on the property, and it was also searched as well,
all of it obviously though to no avail. And you know,
there was nothing that came out of those searches.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Another fascinating character and unusual circumstances, likely the idea of
loll Sheets, and he's involved in Stanton's crime of the Century,
the ice cream murders, the High the highs ice cream murders,
and was solved by this Lowell Sheets tell us what

(51:01):
how he's involved in this case and what unusual request
he makes of the Sheriff's department.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
Low Sheets was a very interesting guy, and he was
another one of my sources for the book. You know,
I mentioned all the people I talked with and having
access to the police file, but low sheetz was a
He's I refer to him in the book as a
citizen sleuth and what he was. He was a longtime
resident of Augusta County. It was in his sixties at

(51:28):
the time, and he ran an appliance store in town,
you know, one of the one of the largest businesses
in Stanton, really successful business. You know, he's very well
thought of, popular and prominent businessman there in town. And
he had a really good set of investigative skills. He'd
worked earlier in his career when he was young, right

(51:49):
out of college, he worked as a probation and parole
officer with a court system in Stanton, so he knew
his way around the legal system and was comfortable dealing
with with a lot of the people that were involved
in this case. You know, some of them which were
solid citizens, and others the kind of shady characters. Mister
Miller had heard about loll sheets. Loll Sheets had helped

(52:13):
solve and really was responsible for solving another unsolved crime
that had happened in Stanton back in the nineteen sixties,
known as you said, Dan the High's ice Cream murders.
This is when two young female employees of an ice
cream shop were shot and killed in the business and
it was never solved and then years later, Lowell Sheets

(52:35):
began working on the case, was given a lot of
access to the case information, and he identified a suspect,
spoke with her. It was a female who the two
workers there had ridiculed for being lesbian, and that was
her motive for the murder. When all along, you know,
the the investigators were probably looking for a man whose

(52:55):
motive was robbery, and she was identified and she made
a deathbed confession for the crime when she was termally ill.
And all this happened as a result of the work
that Lowell Sheets did as a civilian investigator. Now, when
mister Miller heard about this in the late two thousands,
this would have been about two thousand and nine, he

(53:17):
approached Loll Sheets and said, hey, will you work with
me on trying to help me solve my son's murder
and helping me gather evidence against Charlie Almond. Loel Sheets
was a little reluctant at first, but then was willing
to do it, and he worked a great deal with
mister Miller on it, you know, going out and interviewing people,

(53:37):
doing some really really clever investigative work on his own,
and then also having meetings with the police investigators and
with the Commonwealth Attorney, the prosecutor, we talked about Lee
Irv and you know, again an appeal was made to him.
You know, hey, let's prosecute this case. We're not getting
any younger. And Lee Irvin again declined to do it.

(53:58):
But it was Loel Sheets who really helped keep the
case in the public eye and helped move it forward.
And then he also made a very valuable connection for
mister Miller when he heard about a prosecutor who worked
out of Richmond in the Attorney General's office by the
name of Phil Figura.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
Well, yes, let's talk about Phil Figura, because it's interesting.
Lowell Sheets gives mister Miller the phone number of Phil Figura.
Phil Figura is not in the practice of he's driving
and he gets a call and he but somehow he
thinks I should take this call. And the call is
not friendly and he doesn't know who this person is calling.

(54:41):
This is an incredible scene in this book. Tell us
about that phone call.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
It is and this, you know, came to me directly
from Phil Figura, who was very gracious and provide a
lot of information for this book. And his backstory was
he was an attorney, was a prosecuting attorney out the
Attorney General's office in Richmond, Virginia, the capital. He was
the Assistant Attorney General. And he was someone who would

(55:08):
specialize in prosecuting very very difficult felony cases, and a locality,
for example, a county like Augusta County or an outlying
city like newpert News or Norfolk could bring him in
and he would prosecute the case for the local prosecutor
or assist the local prosecutor. And he was very very

(55:29):
good at doing this. Really, the more difficult the case,
the better that phil Fagura would do. So a side
note is, you know, I never missed an opportunity to
talk about Phil Figura without saying just just how modest
he was, you know, and I found him to be,
and really anyone who knows him just a you know,
really humble person with almost a servant kind of mentality,

(55:52):
you know, very deep religious faith, and believes that prosecuting
these terrible crimes is his calling. And you know, I
just could not have been more impressed with him. And
he is also in one of the other books that
I wrote, Eyes of a Monster, for prosecuting another case
in Hampton Virginia. That's a whole different story. But any rate,
as you said in about twenty eleven, Phil Figer is

(56:14):
driving and cell phone rings this number he doesn't recognize,
he answers it and it's mister Miller who has gotten
his number from Lowell sheets. Mister Miller, by now is
very very aggravated because he's gotten the run around from
everyone in law enforcement. And he begins in a very
confrontational way, you know, saying to Phil Figura, you know, hey,

(56:35):
you've got to come to Stanton. We know exactly who
killed my son. You need to come here and prosecute
this case because no one here will do a damn
thing about it. And as you can imagine, Phil Figura
was kind of taken aback and his first questions were, well, sir,
who are you, where are you calling from, and what
are you talking about. At that point, you know, he

(56:57):
got mister Miller to calm down a little bit and
he told him the story about his son. For some reason,
you know, Phil Figuera right away was you know, very
very interested in the case. Intrigued him. He got in
touch with Lee Irvin, with the Commonwealth Attorney, and got
permission to come down and view the case file and

(57:17):
look into the case. Phil also met with a new
investigator in the case, whose name was Aaron Leveck, who
had just become the lead investigator. Leveck had done a
great job, He'd cultivated some potential witnesses, and the more
that Phil Figuera looked into the case, you know, he
really believed that there were enough witnesses, and by witnesses,

(57:39):
I mean not to the actual crime, but to the
statements that Charlie Allman had made over the years implicating
himself in the murder, that he thought it was a
winnable case, and that was very much to the surprise
of a lot of people who've been around it. He
officially requested permission from the state and from the local prosecutor,
Lee Irvin, you know, to take over the case, and

(57:59):
that's what he did. And then over the course of
about the next year, along with Aaron levec and others,
Phil Figura met with potential witnesses, and his level of
professionalism I think gave them the confidence that, you know,
if they came forward and they testified in the trial,
that you know, they would be able to put Charlie

(58:20):
Almond away for murder once and for all. So if
not for the work of Aaron Levec and Phil Figura,
you know, this case would would obviously not have been solved.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
Let's use this as an opportunity to stop to hear
these messages. You talk about Phil Figura and that faithful
phone call, but also that he was a deeply religious
man who believed there was a reason for that phone call,
and so he took this as a took this case
on personally involved, and it was a very high stakes prosecution.

(58:56):
When you talk about the witnesses, the kinds of witnesses
that come forward, the people that they get crucial information
from are Charles Almon's son Chuck and also the step
daughter Penny. What kind of information was especially included in
the testimony that they were able to give for this case.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
Yeah, exactly, And I'll the first part of your question
what you mentioned earlier, you know, is you're exactly right
that in that as the prosecutor, you know, Phil Figuera
had a lot to lose in this case. When you
when you're a prosecutor and you choose to move forward
on a very very difficult to win case, you know
that there's a lot to lose, and there's a big

(59:39):
downside and it can really hurt your career, you know,
if you lose one or more of these these high
profile cases with all the you know, the time and
the resources that are put into it. Not to mention
what I said earlier about you know, about Double Jeopardy.
So so no doubt, Phil Figura jumped in with both
feet and he felt all along he was confident that
it was a case he could win. And Dan, what

(01:00:02):
you mentioned about the witnesses, you know, testifying against Charlie
Almond for the prosecution. Three of the star witnesses were
his two sons and his daughter, Penny Wilson, Pete's former fiance.
All three of them testified against him, and excuse me,
they testified to specific information that you know, that Charlie

(01:00:23):
Almond had said about the murder and about how he
convict how he committed the murder. They were, you know,
among the information that was provided by them. He said
Almonds said very specifically that he shot Pitot and this
was what he told these witnesses who were called to
the trial. He told him this, you know, in the
way of bragging or intimidating. He said he shot Pete

(01:00:46):
in the head with a twenty two caliber pistol and
then put a crayon into the opening so that it
wouldn't bleed. When he disposed of the body, he told
another person that he he ran the body through a
wood chipper, you know, And this would have been years
before The Moon the Fargo, which famously had a scene where,
you know, a body was run through a wood chipper.

(01:01:06):
But he made that claim to a few people, and
then also had spoken in detail about how to dissolve
a body in sulfuric acid, So you know, that became
another theory of the crime and about how he committed
the murder. And this was Charlie Almond's own words that
were presented in the trial, you know, to testify against him.

(01:01:27):
And then in her testimony, Penny Penny Wilson, pe D's
former fiance, you know, she told about how a few
weeks before Pet disappeared, he'd had a disagreement with Charlie Almond.
The disagreement was over we'll call it a very very
inappropriate relationship that Charlie Almond had had with Penny. He'd

(01:01:50):
been sexually molesting her for quite some time. Pet had
found out about that and p D had told Charlie Almond,
you know, if you do anything again, or you touch
her again, I'll kill you. You know, I will shoot you.
And Charlie Almond said in response, well you better be
careful because that bullet can come back and get you,
was his direct comment. And that was the motive you

(01:02:11):
know for it that that there had been this argument
between Charlie Almond and p D. Miller, you know that,
So that was presenting the trial as a as a
motive for the murder, and it was provided by by Penny,
by PD's old old fiance.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
Now, this trial is not a slam dunk, regardless of
the confidence of phil Figura, because one of the main
people that needs to be at this trial and and
and testify is mister Miller. What is mister Miller's health
condition at this time? And again the clock seems to
be ticking because they this Charles Almond is entitled to

(01:02:52):
again a.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
Speedy trial exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:57):
One of the most heart wrenching parts of this story
is is both of Pete's parents. You know, his mother
died very young and according to the family, and according
to her daughter Dorothy, a big part of her health
problems where the stress and you know, anxiety from this
this whole terrible situation with p D. You know, she
was susceptible to a lot of health problems and she

(01:03:18):
died young. And then as this story progresses, mister Miller
is in his seventies at the time of the trial.
He's in very very bad health. A few weeks before
the trial started, he's actually admitted to the hospital and
there is doubt whether he can even come to the
trial to serve as a witness. And the law in

(01:03:39):
the United States and in Virginia was very very clear.
You know, if he couldn't make it into the courtroom
to testify, to be you know, first to present his
direct testimony and also be to cross examined, be cross
examined by the defense, then his testimony could not be provided.
And he was the one, remember who provide the key
testimony about being the person who saw all Charlie Almond.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
With p D.

Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
Miller, you know, and that Almond was the last known
person to see the victim alive. So it was very
very valuable testimony. So there's this race against time and
this big question, you know, is is mister Miller even
going to make it in accord to testify. Now somewhat miraculously,
he did testify the first day of the trial. He

(01:04:23):
came in in a wheelchair on oxygen and he took
the witness stand and provided some very damning testimony against
Charlie Almond, you know, about what had happened the day
of Ped's disappearance. And then under cross examination from PD's
defense attorney, who did a very good job, you know,
he stood up. Mister Miller, you know, was able to

(01:04:44):
stand for some very very difficult cross examination from the
defense and provided some you know, some really valuable testimony
for the prosecution.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Yeah, it's very dramatic scene. He comes in there in
a wheel chair and an oxygen strapped to the back
of his chair. But however, he does say some very
very interesting information, provides some interesting information such as the
car was found in a place that Charlie Almond was
very familiar with, which was Richmond, and when his vehicle

(01:05:19):
was found, mister Miller was the person that was driving
that vehicle back home. And remember we mentioned that he
was having truck problems, that this thing was due for
a tune up and wasn't running properly. Whatsoever. Yet when
he picked this vehicle up a month later or whenever

(01:05:40):
it was found in Richmond, this thing, he said, ran
like a top again, mechanical genius that Charles Almond was.

Speaker 3 (01:05:49):
That's exactly right, you know, So it was easy for
the jury to make that conclusion that PD's truck after
he disappeared, it was given a tune up, and the
point was made, you know who involved in this was
was a good automotive repair person, and obviously that was
was Charlie Almond. So yeah, it was that was among
the testimony provided by mister Miller. That was was very

(01:06:11):
very valuable.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
You have all of the witnesses, and the second witness
was this John Maddock Junior who had it was butchering
a hog, and Charles Almond made an interesting statement, incriminating
statement about how it looked like Pet Miller and just
made a comment about this hog looking this butchered hog

(01:06:33):
looking about the same, and also that the other various
witnesses and including dramatic testimony from Penny Wilson.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
And there were you know, we're many people who I
say many, you know, there were at at least eight
witnesses who provided testimony, and I was provided the court
testimony as I as I wrote the book about this
runaway groom and just fascinating this. See, you know how
their testimony was weaved into the into the trial about

(01:07:05):
all these incriminating statements that that PD made. You know,
as you said, about five or six years after Pet disappeared,
there was a group of these you know guys, uh
slaughtering a hog and Charlie Almond made the comment, you know, hey,
look at that hog. It looks just like p D.
Miller when it was in the process of being slaughtered.
So he came back and provided that that testimony, you know,

(01:07:28):
as well as other threats, you know, in in bragging
about p D's murder. You know, Charlie Almond used it
to intimidate people, and a lot of those individuals came
back and were more than you know, more than willing
to provide their testimony. And it's important to know these
were witnesses who had been reluctant to come forward. But
then when Aaron Levec and prosecutor Phil Fagera became involved,

(01:07:52):
you know, those witnesses had the confidence to come forward
that one they were going to be safe, and that two,
Charlie Almond was going to be convicted and and you know,
sent to prison where everyone felt he belonged.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
You're right in that regard, in that his own son,
Chuck or Charles junior, Chuck Almond was still afraid even
to testify against his father in court.

Speaker 3 (01:08:18):
He was Indeed, it wasn't referenced in the book, but
I was told later I learned from from Penny that
they were actually, you know, provided there was reason to believe,
you know, it was a credible threat against their lives,
not from Almond, but from people that Almond knew and
would put up, you know, put up to it that
they had had guards, you know, at the hotel they

(01:08:38):
stayed at the night before the trial, there were law enforcement,
you know, conducting surveillance and standing guard at their rooms
so that so they wouldn't be harmed before the trial,
which tells you, you know what the Sheriff's department believed
that Almond was capable.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
Of incredible Also that the very important information to Chuck
Almond imparted at this trial was that when the vehicle
was back at home, Charles demanded that his wife clean
the trunk, and she noted that it smelt like he

(01:09:15):
said it he used he had spilled myriadic acid in
that trunk. However, she said she was very familiar with
the smell of myriadic acid, and Chuck testified to that
as well as that it did not smell like myriadic
acid alone. It smelt like something very very bad, decomposing.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
And in their line of work, they used murriadic acid
to clean autoparts, you know, to clean them up before
they were used. They'd get a used part at salvage,
you know, and use that to clean it. So they were,
as you said, Dan, very familiar with that smell, and
you know they had both noted. Now Brenda Almon wasn't
able to testify in the trial she was deceased. Chuck

(01:10:00):
Allman did note that, you know, it smelled like something
all together different than just murri attic acid. And the
conclusion by the jury obviously was that, you know, it
was the smell of decomposed and you know, bodily fluid
that had been part of this process somewhere in how
Charlie Allmond disposed of the body.

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
So Phil Figuera puts this case together, puts a compelling
circumstantial case together credible witnesses saying that they heard firsthand
statements made by Charles Almond regarding this murder. And so
despite him having a credible defense attorney in Michael Hallahan,

(01:10:46):
what happens at this trial in terms of you say
that opening statements are very very important, the closing statements
are very important. Phil Figura gets up and makes the
closing statement, and also that the state has the advantage
of having what you could call a rebuttal statement, so

(01:11:06):
a further closing argument in this case.

Speaker 3 (01:11:10):
Exactly. Yeah, the very dramatic trial. You know, phil Figura's
opening statement, closing statement, and rebuttal statement, as well as
the witnesses he called, we're all very strong. Michael Hallahan,
I'm glad you mentioned his name. You know, he was
an attorney out of the Charlettsville area, very good attorney
and also very good at criminal defense. He provided a

(01:11:30):
very capable defense for Charlie Allmond and and did you know,
a great job too in his opening and closing arguments
attempting to cast a reasonable doubt. You know, keep in
mind there's always this thing in a murder trial or
any criminal trial with a jury of twelve. You know,
if you're the defense, you just have to convince one
of the people that there's reasonable doubt, you know, and

(01:11:53):
that they are supposed to vote innocent if they have
reasonable doubt. Whereas if you're the prosecution, you know, it's
got to be unanimous. You've got to convince all twelve.
So you know, it was, as you alluded to, you know,
a very very interesting trial. It's worth noting one of
the witnesses at the trial who was there awaiting the

(01:12:13):
verdict was none other than Amos Sensible, the man who
you know, four decades earlier, Charlie Almond had planted the
bomb and blown his legs and arms off. So that
was just a kind of a twist of fade and also,
you know, maybe some additional justice for Charlie Almond that
he finally had resolution with that. After the jury deliberated,

(01:12:36):
Charlie Almond was found guilty of first degree murder.

Speaker 2 (01:12:40):
And mister Miller wasn't able to be present in the courtroom.
He was notified but tell us sadly, when did he die?

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
He passed away three weeks after the trial, and one
of you know, one of the promises he had made
to his wife before she died years earlier, was the
he would, you know, try to bring justice for their
son and for their family. So he did that, and
then you know, another part of the equation though, you know,
different different cultures have different traditions and feelings about burial,

(01:13:16):
you know, and things like that. Right, and the Miller family,
you know, you alluded earlier, they were people of strong
faith and Methodist faith, and they felt very very strongly
that they wanted a part at least of PD's remains
to be buried and to be put to rest. Now,
as of this date, that has not happened. So although
this case is solved and you know, there was a

(01:13:38):
man convicted for the murder, there's still a question about
what happened to P. D. Miller's remains. My hope is
that this book will shed some light on that, that
somebody out there has some information about it. Although some
of the counts we heard in the trial, you know,
about either a wood chipper or a murray attic or
sulfuric acid, you know, makes you wonder if there are

(01:13:59):
any of his mains left, if it's even anything you
know that would be tangible remains. But you know, that's certainly,
certainly something we'd hoped for.

Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
Absolutely, And in your conclusion you say that Charles Almond
died of natural causes May twenty, twenty twenty behind bars.
He received a life sentence, so he was going to
die behind bars anyway. The interesting end of this is

(01:14:29):
that Richard Miller Senior got to have an impact statement
at this trial, so what he would have said in
person was read, and Charles Almond got to hear what
he had to say. And also the last word about
pe D was the sister was very close to pet.
His sister Dorothy had the last word about the character

(01:14:53):
of this P. D. Miller, a man only twenty years old, again,
taken from this earth far too soon.

Speaker 3 (01:15:01):
That's exactly right, you know, all at the you know,
the hands of obviously a very terrible man and an
awful murder. You know, you can hope. I think closure
is a term that's probably overused in cases like this,
but you know, you hope that at least brought the
family some some type of resolution, the fact that they
were able to provide a victim impact statement at the
end of the trial after he was he was sentenced. Yeah,

(01:15:23):
and as as you said Dan Charlie. Allman ended up
serving about three and a half years of that life sentence,
and he died in twenty twenty. I didn't wasn't specific
about his age when he went on trial. He was
eighty four years old, yes, in his trial, and then
he then he died in prison at age eighty eight.
There's an expression about, you know, justice delayed is justice denied.

(01:15:45):
But so in this case, it was certainly delayed, but
you know, was was not denied. And it's you know,
it was wonderful that this great team of people, not
only the people you know, like Phil Figura and Aaron Leveck,
the investigator who came in there at the end and
brought it across the finish line, but there were all
the earlier investigators over the course of four decades who

(01:16:06):
did a really good job with the case file and
with their notes. You know, as I read through the
case file, very very detailed, and you know, although the
case was not solved by the original investigators, I think
it was the amount of detail and information they provided
that enabled the other investigators to pick up the case
and go from there and then later on, you know,

(01:16:28):
get back in touch with these witnesses who eventually were
able and willing to provide testimony in the murder trial.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
And one person that was in dogget pursuit was mister
Richard Miller, Sr. So very fascinating story For people that
want to find out more about this book, Runaway Groom,
Cold Feet or Cold Blooded Murder. Could you tell us
about a website or any social media that you do.

Speaker 3 (01:16:54):
Absolutely as an author, I'm on social media. My name's
Ron Peterson Junior. On Facebook, Book, Instagram, and x formerly Twitter,
so you can find me there. The books available wherever
books are sold here in the United States at Amazon,
you know, it's probably the easiest way that a lot
of people get it. Also, retail bookstores like Barnes and

(01:17:17):
Noble and independent bookstores a lot of them have it
in stock, and if they don't, they can order it,
you know, the next day. It's available in paperback, and
then also in ebook, and then it's coming out soon
in the audiobook format, and it'll be on audible at
some point in the next few months as well.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
Well. That's great. Thank you so much, Ron Peterson Jr.
For Runaway Groom, Cold Feet or Cold Blooded Murder. Thank
you so much for this interview and good night.

Speaker 3 (01:17:45):
Well, thank you Dan, great being with you. Good night,
good night,