The murder of Rebekah Gould
Guion, Izard County County, Arkansas · 2004
Overview
Rebekah Christian Gould was a 22-year-old Northwest Arkansas Community College student from Mountain View, Arkansas. On the morning of September 20, 2004, she dropped her boyfriend, Casey McCullough, at his job at a Sonic in Melbourne, stopped at the Possum Trot convenience store for coffee and a breakfast sandwich, and returned to McCullough's mobile home in rural Izard County to pack for the drive back to school. She was never seen alive again. A week later, on September 27, 2004, a search party found her body down a steep embankment beside Arkansas Highway 9 south of Melbourne. She had been bludgeoned about the head. For sixteen years the case stalled, with investigators' suspicion lingering on people close to her. The break did not come from forensic science. It came from the public: after journalist and licensed private investigator Catherine Townsend launched the podcast Hell and Gone in 2018 and used local radio and social media to push the case back into view, tips poured in. Among more than a hundred leads, two people who did not know each other independently reported the same thing about William Alama Miller, the cousin of Gould's boyfriend. Those tips, combined with reinvigorated police work by a new Arkansas State Police investigator, led to Miller's arrest in Oregon on November 7, 2020. He confessed, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on October 18, 2022, and was sentenced to 40 years in the Arkansas Department of Correction.
How it was solved
The Rebekah Gould case is a textbook example of a cold case broken open by the public rather than by laboratory evidence. After years of frustration, journalist and private investigator Catherine Townsend made Gould's killing the subject of the first season of her podcast Hell and Gone, released in 2018, and deliberately used local radio and social media to put the story in front of people in Izard County who might know something. Townsend has said the goal was to jump-start an investigation where, in her words, dust was collecting on the case files and there seemed to be no forward progress. The campaign worked: the podcast generated well over a hundred tips. The decisive ones concerned William Alama Miller, the first cousin of Gould's boyfriend, Casey McCullough. According to accounts of the case, two separate tipsters who did not know each other came forward with the same detail, that Miller's younger brother had been pulled out of Mount Pleasant High School in Izard County only a day or two after Rebekah went missing, and that Miller's family abruptly left Arkansas and returned to Texas. Investigators had long had Miller's name in the file, a prosecutor later noted that his name had appeared from day one, but the renewed public attention and the convergence of tips gave a reinvigorated investigation its focus. A new Arkansas State Police special agent, Mike McNeill, was assigned and pursued the leads, conducting renewed interviews and polygraphs. On November 7, 2020, an Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division special agent arrested Miller, then 44 and living in Cottage Grove, Oregon, after learning he had returned home from an extended stay in the Philippines. Miller eventually confessed, telling investigators he had struck Gould multiple times with a piano leg in her bedroom, wrapped her body in a blanket, loaded it into his pickup, and dumped it beside Highway 9. He waived his right to a jury trial and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on October 18, 2022, accepting a 40-year sentence. Because the resolution turned on members of the public coming forward with what they knew, rather than DNA or genetic genealogy, the case stands as a reminder that an ordinary tip can still crack a homicide decades later.
Sources
- State Police Follow Murder Case Leads to Oregon; Arrest Made in Rebekah Gould Homicide
“William Alama Miller, 44, now a resident of Cottage Grove, Oregon was arrested Saturday night, November 7, by a Special Agent of the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division ... Gould's body was found ... on a hillside off Arkansas Highway 9 south of Melbourne.”
- Arrest Made In 2004 Murder Of 22-Year-Old Rebekah Gould, Which Was Featured On 'Hell And Gone' And 'Murder Squad' Podcasts
“Miller had been the cousin of the man Gould had been dating at the time ... The 'Hell and Gone' podcast investigated the case ... Gould disappeared after dropping her boyfriend at work; spotted later at a Melbourne convenience store.”
- Rebekah Gould's murderer sentenced to 40 years after pleading guilty
“Mr. Miller advised that he then entered Ms. Gould's bedroom where he began to strike her multiple times with the piano leg ... He waived his right to a jury trial and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder ... sentenced to 40 years.”
- Murder Mystery: Murder in the Ozarks: Closer to Closure
“Catherine Townsend's podcast Hell and Gone generated over 100 tips ... a bloody mattress had been flipped over, and bloody bed linen was in the washing machine ... Miller's brother was unenrolled from Mount Pleasant High School a day or two after Rebekah went missing, and he and his mother relocated to Texas ... 'Miller's name has appeared in the case file from day one.'”
- How a Podcasting PI Went From Dating Columnist to Cracking Cold Cases
“'I think our investigation definitely helped reopen interest in the case.' ... 'Dust was collecting on the case files; it just seemed like there was no forward progress.' ... After the podcast premiered, a new investigator named Mike McNeil got put in charge.”
- S1 UPDATE: Confession, But Questions Remain - Hell and Gone
“Catherine turned to local radio and social media to spread the word about Rebekah's murder, and the tips started to come in ... tips from two different people who don't know each other provided the same tip: that Miller's brother had been unenrolled from Mount Pleasant High School a day or two after Rebekah went missing, and that he and his mother left the state of Arkansas.”
- Rebekah Gould Murder: How Did She Die? Who Killed Her?
“Location: Casey McCullough's trailer in Guion, Izard County, Arkansas ... Body discovered: September 27, 2004, off a 35-foot embankment beside Arkansas Highway 9 south of Melbourne ... William 'Billy' Alama Miller (Casey's first cousin) ... Guilty plea: October 18, 2022, to first-degree murder ... Victim's dog, car keys, money, and purse left at the residence.”
- Who Killed Rebekah Gould? Family Waits For Answers in 14 Year-Old Cold Case
“Monday morning she drove him to work at the Melbourne Sonic before stopping by the Possum Trot Convenience Store ... Gould's body was found along the side of the road outside of Melbourne in Izard County, Arkansas, on September 27, 2004.”
- Man who murdered Rebekah Gould gets 40 years in prison
“William Miller beat Rebekah Gould to death with a piano leg and then dumped her body on the side of the road; he pleaded guilty to her murder and was sentenced to 40 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.”
- Unsealed court affidavit in Rebekah Gould murder case shows student was bludgeoned with a piano leg
“The unsealed affidavit in the Rebekah Gould murder case shows the 22-year-old college student was bludgeoned with a piano leg.”