This coming Tuesday will mark the sad and disturbing one-year anniversary of one of Goshen’s darkest hours.
Right around 1 a.m. on Oct. 9, 2011, a man broke into the home of Jim and Linda Miller on Wildwood Court on the city’s south side and brutally attacked the couple. Linda suffered serious wounds and Jim died as a result of his injuries.
The community was shocked and horrified. Jim was a respected, 58-year-old professor at Goshen College, mere footsteps away from where he would die violently in front of his home. Linda was a stay-at-home mother who had once gone to seminary for ministry and had just begun working again as a part-time pastor at Clinton Frame Mennonite Church.
This kind of thing just doesn’t happen in a place like Goshen. We sure wish that was true.
It’s been a year since Jim Miller, a Ph.D with more than 30 years in at GC, was taken from us. Linda and her family have been forced to move on with their lives, feeling and filling Jim’s void each and every day. As Linda told Goshen News Managing Editor Michael Wanbaugh in an interview last week, “This year has been a year of pain. I never knew that this could hurt as much as it did.”
Those of us outside the Miller family can only inadequately imagine how difficult it would be to experience, and then cope with the aftermath of such a brutal attack. May our thoughts and prayers go out to the Miller family always. It is remarkable to us how Linda Miller remains so grounded in her resolve. She still has a family to care for, bills to pay and thankfully a life to keep living.
Nearly a year has passed and no arrests have been made in connection to Jim Miller’s murder. Many rumors have been mumbled. Many leads have been investigated by Goshen police. Very much physical evidence is being analyzed by Indiana State Police and the FBI, according to Linda.
We understand that this crime is a sensitive topic and that it does weigh on the community at large. But as Linda Miller pointed out during her interview, police are working hard to get their investigation right and she has confidence that they will do just that.
Rather than focus on a year without an arrest, we would all be better served in the coming days to focus on a man who loved his family, was an educator who led young people, and a valued community member who was taken from us too soon.
Thank you, Professor Miller, for all you have taught us. You are certainly missed.
Opinion
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