Kriti Mehrotra
Ever since its premiere back in 1992, NBC’s ‘Dateline’ has been delving deep into one horrific true-crime tale after another to really shine a light upon the dark, sordid side of human nature. Thus, of course, its season 31 episode 35 ‘Secrets in the Ozarks,’ chronicling the atrocious fall 2004 murder of Rebekah Christian Gould at the hands of a stranger, is absolutely no different. So now, if you simply wish to learn more about this case — with a focus on the events to have transpired, its ensuing investigations, as well as its overall aftermath — we’ve got you covered.
How Did Rebekah Gould Die?
At the age of 22, Mountain View native Rebekah was honestly well on her way to building a happy, stable life for herself when everything was snatched away from her in the blink of an eye. The truth is she was a student at Northwest Arkansas Community College, was socially active, and had a great support system of loved ones who were as protective of her as she was of them. It hence comes as no surprise she was reported missing within a day of her failure to return to college or contact loved ones following a weekend visit to her then-boyfriend Casey McCullough.
As per reports, Rebekah planned to leave Casey’s trailer in the small town of Guion and meet a sister for the drive back to college on Monday, September 20, 2004, but she never showed up. She didn’t respond to any texts or calls either, driving her loving mother Shirley Ballard to frantically contact local Izard County, Arkansas authorities for a welfare check the very next morning. That’s when it came to light her beloved dog Lady, car keys, money, purse, and vehicle were still at his home, plus a mattress had been flipped over to hide a deep yet fresh blood-stain beneath.
The quick ensuing investigations actually revealed Rebekah had driven Casey to work the morning she disappeared before last being seen alive at a convenience store in nearby Melbourne. Thus began an extensive search for the young woman, only to sadly result in the discovery of her remains off a 35-foot embankment beside Arkansas Highway 9 south of Melbourne a week later. She was taken in for an autopsy on September 27 itself, yet it was a 2020 confession that ultimately ascertained she’d been hit twice with a piano leg before being strangled to death with a tie.
Unveiling the Killer: William Miller’s Guilty Plea
Because of the circumstances surrounding Rebekah’s sudden disappearance and death, her then-lover Casey McCullough was identified as a likely person of interest almost immediately. After all, the fact he hadn’t even returned home that night initially seemed more convenient than anything else, plus he made a few contradictory public statements in the ensuing months. Though his friends backed him up over the former by telling officials they had in fact planned to go out for a movie and dinner, following which he simply opted to stay at one of their homes.
As for Casey’s contradictions, while he told detectives he’d briefly popped into his place to grab a change of clothes for work on the morning of September 21 but failed to recognize the bloody signs, he allegedly told a reporter in June 2005 that he hadn’t returned at all — he went straight to his job, where the police eventually contacted him. However, the then-youngster has since asserted he had indeed stepped foot into his trailer, yet he honestly hadn’t noticed his bloody mattress, the bedding in the wash, the blood on the floor, the missing piano leg, or the smell of bleach.
Therefore, owing to an utter lack of concrete evidence as well as Rebekah’s missing suitcase (the actual case, not belongings), the police also looked into other possible leads but to no avail. They’d apparently exhausted nearly every possible resource before this matter went cold, just for a State Investigator to land a breakthrough upon being assigned lead 15+ years down the line. They actually dug through not only Casey but also his family based on proximity, making them realize the former’s first cousin William “Billy” Alama Miller was at the residence the night prior.
According to both their original statements in 2004, William had arrived in the city the same day from his hometown of Aransas Pass, Texas, to help his mother and younger brother move back. Though he decided to pull into his cousin’s driveway just to say hello ahead of starting the shifting process, leading them to have a 15-or-so-minute-long conversation while standing outside. The former was interviewed once in the days after Rebekah’s vanishing, yet there ostensibly wasn’t a focus on the fact he’d seemingly left Arkansas in a hurry a little over 24 hours following the fateful day.
Therefore, officials questioned William once again in 2020, but this time they chose to be much more intense due to his odd behavior as well as his admittance of having closely tracked the case. In fact, they asked this then-Oregon resident to take a polygraph test within two hours (which he later failed) and then outrightly claimed DNA evidence had connected him to the homicide. There was no such evidence anywhere, yet the oil rig worker/plantation owner didn’t know this was a bluff, so he ended up confessing to everything — he had killed Rebekah for no reason at all.
Toward the end of his 10-hour interrogation, William actually revealed he was out hunting on September 20, 2004, on the property adjacent to the trailer when he noticed Rebekah’s car. He grew curious and decided to see her under the pretense of wanting to use the house phone for an emergency, which she obviously allowed once he’d identified himself as Casey’s close cousin. This was the first time they’d met, the 44-year-old told authorities, but once she walked away into the bedroom and laid down in her t-shirt and panties, the sheer urge to kill her overcame him.
That’s when William began pacing the trailer, per his account, only for a loose leg on the piano in the living room to fall to the ground and immediately give him an idea of how to proceed. He said he killed her, wrapped her body in a sheet, placed her next to the bed, and began cleaning up the scene as best as possible, following which he decided to use her suitcase to move her body. However, because it was too small, he simply grabbed her as well as the case, shoved them into his truck, and began driving to dispose of them — he maintains his motives weren’t sexually driven.
William was thus arrested on November 7, 2020, in Lane County, Oregon, after returning to the country following what police have described as “an extended stay in the Philippines.” He was subsequently extradited to Arkansas and formally indicted of first-degree murder, just to ultimately waive his right to a jury to plead guilty to the same on October 18, 2022.
Read More: Where is William Miller Now?
