Scott Miller was never named a suspect in his wife’s brutal 1978 murder in Nazareth. But as decades passed and Sandy Miller’s slaying remained unsolved, the sideways glances and suspicious whispers bothered Miller more and more.
“I’m 71 now and I don’t want to leave this world with a question mark attached to my name,” he said.
Miller, who now lives in Lenhartsville, Berks County, is determined to solve his 22-year-old wife’s murder. He’s written a book about the killing, which occurred 48 years ago this week, and has been working with a private investigator to gather clues.
In his book, “The Buried Truth: The Brutal Murder and Collateral Cover-Up of Sandy Miller,” Miller describes what he believes was a botched investigation by small-town law enforcement officers who allowed curious locals to gawk at the crime scene and possibly contaminate evidence.
Scott Miller talks Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in Lenhartsville about the still-unsolved murder of his wife, Sandy, 48 years ago. Sandy Miller was 22 when she was fatally beaten, stabbed and choked Sept. 18, 1978, in her Nazareth home. Scott Miller wrote a book, “The Buried Truth,” about the investigation. (Sharon Merkel/Special to The Morning Call)
He complains that Sandy Miller’s slaying, which occurred while their 10-month-old daughter was in the home, has received less attention from law enforcement than other Northampton County cold cases, such as the 1979 slaying of Bethlehem teen Holly Branagan, and the murder of Realtor Charlotte Fimiano in 1997 in Lower Saucon Township.
“The only time Sandy’s case gets looked at is when I ask questions,” Miller said.
The murder
Sandra Ann Miller’s body was discovered on the morning of Sept. 18, 1978, in a second-floor bedroom of the Miller’s Spring Street home. Police said she had been beaten, stabbed and strangled.
The couple was separated at the time. Scott Miller, then 23, was at his job as a road paver when his boss told him that there was a “problem,” and he needed to go home. Miller rushed to his house and found dozens of first responders, as well as neighbors and other onlookers, going in and out of the home.
He said he saw what police believe was the murder weapon, a large bread knife, sitting in the kitchen sink in a pool of bloody water. No one was guarding or documenting the evidence, Miller said.
A firefighter who was a friend was standing at the bottom of the stairs.
A Morning Call story on the murder of Sandy Miller in her Nazareth home in September 1978. (Morning Call archives)
“Scott, you don’t want to go up there,” Miller recalled the man saying.
Police at the time said they found evidence of a violent struggle. Flower vases were overturned, there were blood stains on the bed and a telephone was found near Sandy Miller’s body, as if she were trying to call for help.
The couple’s daughter, Kelly Marie, was found unharmed in her crib in another bedroom.
“The investigation was completely screwed up, in my opinion. I walked into the crime scene and there was no police tape. No urgency,” Miller said.
Miller said police barely questioned him. At the time, he said, that was a relief.
“For the longest time I was just happy that this crazy investigation didn’t come back to me, or end up with me being arrested for something I didn’t do.”
Statistically, Miller could have been a suspect. According to government studies, 34% of female murder victims were killed by a male partner.
Miller said he’s appeared before a grand jury and talked to law enforcement numerous time since 1978. He even passed lie-detector tests, he said, though police would not make the results public. He’s petitioned the courts for access to investigative records, without success.
Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta confirmed that Miller has contacted him seeking records, which Baratta said he does not have.
“I can also report that Mr. Miller is unhappy with my representations and/or my inability to provide him with records,” Baratta said in an email.
The state police cold case unit is handling the investigation, the district attorney noted. Trooper Nathan T. Branosky, a state police spokesperson, said there are no updates.
A search for justice
Scott and Sandy were high school sweethearts, though their marriage was strained from the start.
“We were too young. We probably shouldn’t have been married. I was 23 with the maturity of a 14-year-old,” he said.
The Millers had lived in their brick twin home for about a year before the murder, and were described as good neighbors, according to news accounts at the time. The other half of the double home was vacant.
Sandy Miller was working at the Beer Stein Tavern in Wind Gap at the time of the slaying.
About a month after the murder, newspaper reports indicated there were three prime suspects, but no one was ever charged. Scott Miller said police never told him the names of the suspects or if he was one of them.
Miller said he hopes someone reads his book and it jogs something in their memory that might move the investigation along. Although he moved out of town years ago, Miller said generations of his family lived in Nazareth and it bothers him that he may only be remembered there in connection with his wife’s murder.
Clearing his name and getting justice for Sandy are equally important, he said.
“My roots run deep and I don’t want them tainted,” he said.