NBC Dateline: Why did William Miller murder Rebekah Gould?

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Content Warning: This article mentions blood, details about the murder, and some words that may be triggering. Reader’s discretion is advised.

In September 2004, Rebekah Gould, a 22-year-old Northwest Arkansas Community College student, disappeared suddenly. The house still contained all her belongings and a horrifying trail of blood-stained walls, mattresses, and linens. Gould was discovered dead from blunt force trauma beside a roadway. Investigators concluded that she had been strangled and had suffered two fatal head injuries.

NBC Dateline aired a two-hour special on Friday at 9 PM that examined Rebekah Gould’s horrific murder. The official plot line of the episode states, “When the body of 22-year-old college student Rebekah Gould is found a week after she vanished, theories about her murder run rampant through the Arkansas Ozarks. Dennis Murphy reports.”

What was this NBC Dateline episode about?

  • The Dateline show looked into the investigation of the murder of Gould. She was murdered 16 years ago. The show also focused on the family members and law enforcement personnel who assisted in solving the case. The cast and crew related to the show interviewed these people during the two hours long program.
  • The show also talked to George Jared who was one of the first journalists to pick up Gould’s cold case. George met Miller while working on the case.
  • Jared noticed William Miller immediately and thought something about him was not right. Furthermore, he kept track of his remarks and enthusiasm for Gould’s case. Later, after almost 16 years, the truth came to light. It was Miller who killed Gould.
  • Now, this episode answered two important questions: Why did William Miller kill Gould? And where is he now?

Why did William Miller murder Rebekah Gould?

There are no possible or apparent motives for Miller to kill Gould. They were never in a heated argument or physical fight. Miller even denied sexually assaulting Gould and did not explain why he would murder a person he had allegedly never met.

After his imprisonment, Miller said, “She said something to me, and it just infuriated me.” Miller claimed he doesn’t remember what Gould said, but he believes his violent rage resulted from his father beating him when he was a kid. He claimed it resembled something his father had done to him, and he did the same to her.

Though Miller’s confession is inconsistent with some of the known facts in the case, Gould’s father, Dr. Larry Gould, is optimistic that Miller’s true motives for killing his daughter will eventually come to light.

Where is William Miller now?

Undoubtedly, Rebekah was killed in a bizarre manner, and it took investigators almost two decades to find her killer. In relation to Gould’s murder, authorities finally made an arrest in November 2020. The man who was arrested was William Miller, age 44.

On October 18, 2022, Miller was arrested right away, according to KAIT 8. He was charged with ‘First-degree murder‘ and is serving a 40-year jail sentence. Presently he is in the East Arkansas Regional Unit, an Arkansas Department of Correction prison in Brickeys, St. Francis Township.

A detailed account of the murder

  • Miller had traveled to Casey McCullough’s house (Miller’s first cousin, and Gould’s then-boyfriend) in 2004 and parked his pickup in a field behind it. He then knocked on the front door, and when Gould came to the door, he requested her permission to enter so he could use the phone.
  • Miller acknowledged that Gould entered her bedroom while he pretended to use the phone.
  • Gould returned to her room. However, Miller walked into the living room to get a piano leg. He then headed to Gould’s bedroom and started repeatedly hitting her with it.
  • Miller allegedly said that after hitting the girl twice in the head, he strangled her to death with a necktie, wrapped her body in a blanket, loaded her into the back of his vehicle, drove north, and discarded her body next to Arkansas 9 highway.

The NBC Dateline episode entitled Secrets in the Ozarks was released last June 2, 2023. You can catch the episode on Dateline NBC via Peacock.

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