KANSAS CITY, Mo — The internet black widow convinced her Kansas City, Missouri, internet boyfriend to travel to Michigan and murder her husband, falsely portraying him as abusive.
Sharee Paulette Kitley Miller spun a web of lies that ensnared her internet boyfriend, Jerry Cassaday, ultimately driving him to kill Bruce Miller. Cassaday relied solely on Sharee’s accounts and had no personal knowledge of Bruce.
Bruce and Sharee lived in Flint, Michigan. Bruce, who was 47 years old, owned a business called B&D Auto Salvage. Bruce initially hired Sharee, a 26-year-old single mother of three with a history of abusive relationships, to work as his bookkeeper. They quickly progressed in their relationship, moving from dating to living together and, eventually, getting married.
Friends expressed their concerns about Sharee’s financial habits, as she maxed out credit cards, which they believed she wouldn’t have had if Bruce hadn’t worked hard to make money. Bruce’s family, however, had a different viewpoint.
In an episode of “Snapped” featuring this case, Chuck Miller, Bruce’s brother, revealed that Sharee consistently praised Bruce as the best thing that ever happened to her. Judy, Chuck’s wife, said that Bruce thought Sharee to be the “perfect wife.”
Bruce purchased a computer to help Sharee track her expenses due to her extravagant spending. Unfortunately, Sharee began weaving her web here—her introduction to the internet.
Internet chatroom
Sharee met Cassaday in an internet chatroom even before she married Bruce. Cassaday initially met her in an online chat room while employed at a casino in Reno, Nevada.
Even after Sharee married her husband, she continued conversing with Cassaday and eventually traveled to meet him in person. Sharee and a friend vacationed in Reno in 1999, when they had their first encounter. Cassaday’s acquaintances say that Sharee entered his life when he was at his lowest point due to a failing marriage and adjusting to a single life.
As Cassaday’s feelings for Sharee grew stronger, they engaged in an affair, and Sharee used her cosmetics company as a front to meet Cassaday during her “work trips”. She had this affair during the summer and fall of 1999, while she was still married to Bruce.
The killing
Sharee deceived Cassaday about her husband, falsely claiming that Bruce was abusive. She also claimed that Cassaday got her pregnant and Bruce’s abuse of caused her miscarriage. She was never actually pregnant.
Sharee and her lover, Cassaday, conspired to kill her husband. She persuaded Cassaday that Bruce was a dangerous figure involved in organized crime and that her life was in jeopardy. They planned the specifics of Bruce’s murder together.
Shortly before the murder, Cassaday told his brother, Mike, that he would be leaving town for a few days and instructed him to look under his bed for a briefcase in case he didn’t come back.
Someone murdered Bruce on November 9, 1999. By December, Sharee had ended her relationship with Cassaday and initiated a new one.
The Missouri Connection
A year later, the case had a breakthrough after Cassaday died at his Missouri residence. He left a note and a briefcase that contained evidence and a confession about Bruce’s murder.
Cassaday wrote in the note that he killed Bruce and accused Sharee of plotting the crime. They collected additional evidence from the instant messages during the murder and Sharee’s involvement in ensuring Cassaday took Bruce’s wallet.
Sharee goes to court
During the trial, Sharee argued that Cassaday’s note had been forged and denied any involvement in her husband’s murder. However, the rest of the evidence in the case did not indicate a motive for Cassaday to make up lies in his note.
The police found that Cassaday compiled the evidence before his death solely to determine if Sharee had indeed manipulated him into committing the murder.
On December 22, 2000, the court found Sharee guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and subsequently sentenced her to life in prison.
The aftermath
Sharee briefly became engaged to Michael Denoyer in 2008, and they got married.
In 2016, Sharee admitted to planning her husband’s murder, 17 years after Bruce’s death. She acknowledged her involvement in Bruce’s killing by sending a four-page typed letter to Genesee Circuit Court Judge Judith A. Fullerton.
Sharee is notorious in the media
Sharee’s case attracted national attention, which led to the creation of a best-selling book and a television movie that focused on her story. Shows like “Deadly Women” and “Snapped” also featured her case.
