On Tuesday, May 7, 1991 at 1:48 p.m., deputies responded to the E-Z 8 Motel, located at 15401 Park Avenue in Victorville, after employees reported discovering a dead body in one of the rooms. Deputies responded and found John Richard Miller 39, of Lacygne, KS dead and notified the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, Homicide Detail, who assumed the investigation.
During the investigation, detectives discovered Miller’s 1988 Chevy pick-up truck was missing from the motel parking lot. On May 9, 1991, Miller’s vehicle was located by police officers in Pomona, California. The vehicle was towed to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, Crime Lab and processed for evidence. In August 1991, all leads were exhausted; the case went cold.
In April 2008, the sheriff’s department formed the cold case unit to review unsolved homicides. Cold Case Detectives requested physical evidence, which had been stored at the property division, be resubmitted for analysis using new equipment and technologies.
In April 2012, DNA evidence identified James Christian Arrowood 44, Gatlinburg, TN as being involved in the homicide. The District Attorney’s Office filed charges against James Arrowood in May 2012, however, James Arrowood was incarcerated in Tennessee on an unrelated criminal charge.
On January 18, 2013, James Arrowood was extradited to California and was arraigned on January 22, 2013. He is was scheduled for pre-preliminary hearing on January 30, 2013.
The Sheriff’s Cold Case Team and DNA Analyst are funded in part through a US Department of Justice grant “Solving Cold Cases with DNA.”
Arrest made in 1991 Cold Case,
Incoming search terms:
- cold cases files
- James Christian Arrowood
- john richard miller murder
Seemed that for a while criminals were a step ahead of the law using technology. Seems the tables have turned. Technology is is responsible for bringing many of those that thought they got away with it back to justice.
Who knows what or who’s next on the crime busters bag of tricks?