Kriti Mehrotra
‘The Widower,’ from the producers of ‘Dateline,’ goes behind the scenes of a confounding murder investigation that has kept America baffled since its occurrence on May 8, 2008. Sharon Causse Randolph and Michael James Miller were found dead in the former’s northwest valley home in Las Vegas, Nevada, on that hot summer day. But as time passed by, what was initially assumed to be an incident of a robbery gone wrong turned into a tale full of alleged conspiracy, greed, and evil. So now, if you’re here curious to know all the details of the same, we’ve got you covered.
How Did Sharon Causse Randolph and Michael James Miller Die?
On that fateful Thursday evening, Sharon Causse Randolph and her husband Thomas shared a romantic dinner at a suburban restaurant before watching a movie together to celebrate the upcoming Mother’s Day. Then, they decided to head back home and spend some more quality time together. Sharon’s favorite thing was to go to the theater, so whenever an occasion arose, that’s what the couple tried to do. But little did the film fanatic know at the time that this would be the last time she would ever get the chance to experience anything like it. After all, soon after the 47-year-old walked into her house, she was shot to death.
According to Thomas Randolph’s accounts, Sharon went in before him as he had to park their car. Therefore, when he stepped foot inside their home, he found his wife bleeding at the end of a hallway leading to their bedroom, having been shot in the head, and noticed a man in a black ski mask hovering nearby. Subsequently, for his safety and to ensure that the intruder wouldn’t get away, Thomas said that he headed to the closet and grabbed his 9-millimeter firearm. What ensued was a struggle that led to Thomas shooting the intruder five times in his garage. It was only after that that Thomas made the call to the authorities.
Who Killed Sharon Causse Randolph and Michael James Miller?
The one who pulled the trigger on Sharon was a 38-year-old man named Michel James Miller. However, what bothered investigators from the get-go and awoke their suspicion of foul play were the inconsistencies in Thomas’ story. Apart from that, upon examining his 911 call and the way he talked to the medical professionals as they instructed him on how to revive his wife, it seemed to the officers as if Thomas was doing his best to stall. As per records, the Las Vegas Metro Police speculated that Thomas was making sure that Sharon was long gone before help could arrive.
The detectives also marked the stark similarities between Sharon’s death and the death of Thomas’ second wife, Becky, in Utah in 1986. She, too, had passed away after taking a single bullet to the head. But even though Thomas faced trial for Becky’s murder, he was acquitted after her cause of death was ruled a suicide. After digging deeper into Thomas, officers discovered that he had met Michael Miller at a convenience store about a year before and had struck up a close relationship. In fact, Thomas had even hired Michael as a handyman to work on his northwest valley home.
With all this, officers concluded that Thomas had hired Michael James Miller as a hitman to kill his wife. When the job was done, they said that Thomas turned the gun on Michael to cut off all loose threads. As per official records, Thomas’s motive was greed. After all, not only did he pocket $500,000 from the life insurance policy that Becky had on herself, but he also received a $360,000 payout after Sharon’s death. In 2017, nearly nine years after the incident, Thomas was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Thomas Randolph was consequently sentenced to death. However, in 2020, his conviction was overturned upon appeal.
Read More: Where Is Thomas Randolph Now?
