Tim Miller, the father of Laura Lynn Miller, testifies at the manslaughter trial of James Dolphs Elmore Jr. in Galveston on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. Elmore is accused of manslaughter in the 1984 death of Laura Lynn Miller. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Tim Miller, the father of Laura Lynn Miller, cries while testifying at the manslaughter trial of James Dolphs Elmore Jr. in Galveston on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. Elmore is accused of manslaughter in the 1984 death of Laura Lynn Miller. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Galveston County Chief Assistant District Attorney Kate Willis holds up a reward poster during the testimony of Tim Miller, Laura Lynn MillerÕs father, at the manslaughter trial of James Dolphs Elmore Jr. in Galveston on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. Elmore is accused of manslaughter in the 1984 death of Laura Lynn Miller. STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News

One week before Christmas in 1986, Tim Miller dug a hole in the League City oil field where his 16-year-old daughter's body was found 10 months prior.

He was there to put a cross in the ground to mark Laura Miller's memory, more than two years after she first disappeared.

While he was digging, he found one of her bones and asked his daughter for her forgiveness.


 That place made me crazy,  Miller said.  I almost lived out there in that damned field. 

Miller, 79, took the stand late Tuesday afternoon to testify in the first criminal trial over his daughter's death. James Dolphs Elmore, 61, was charged in March with manslaughter and accused of providing another man, Clyde Hedrick, a lethal dose of cocaine that was used to kill the teenager.

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MORE FROM THIS WEEK'S TRIAL Texas Killing Fields defendant told police what happened right before Laura Miller died

Elmore and Hedrick were the Millers' neighbors in Dickinson in the 1980s, but Tim Miller said his life wouldn't become knowingly intertwined with Elmore's until 2022.


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