But the roads were dry that July, there were no storms, and no reports of accidents involving Amish families anywhere in the region.
The supernatural theory: In a community where faith is central and miracles are believed in, some whispered about divine intervention. Perhaps the family had been taken by God, raptured like Elijah in his chariot.
Bishop Hochstetler gently but firmly discouraged such speculation. “God does not work that way,” he told his congregation. “We must trust in His plan, but we must also face reality.”
The reality was that six people had vanished completely, leaving behind a farm frozen in time and a community haunted by unanswered questions.
By August 1992, the active investigation was scaled back. The case remained open, but with no new leads and no evidence of foul play, there was little more investigators could do.
“We never closed the case,” Lawson emphasizes. “But without leads, without evidence, we had nowhere to go. I thought about the Millers constantly for years. It was the one case I couldn’t solve, the one that kept me up at night.”
