By Neil Johnson, Reporter/Anchor, Big Radio and WCLO Radio News

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In an unusual move, the Rock County Sheriff’s Office has publicly released a detailed inventory of its work investigating the disappearance of Christopher Miller.

In a 14-page, bullet-pointed document released this week, the sheriff’s office outlines what authorities say is an inventory of efforts the sheriff’s office made to search for Miller over the last eight months since he ran from police and vanished after he crashed a car during a police pursuit along Interstate 90/39 near Janesville Nov. 19.

Rock County Sheriff’s Captain Mark Thompson says pending an investigation by the sheriff’s office and the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office, authorities still can’t release details behind the discovery of Miller’s body Sunday at 8356 S. Creek Road on Sunday—miles from where police had last spotted him Nov. 19.

It remains unclear who made the discovery of the Madison man’s remains, how long Miller had been at the home, whether he’s thought to have died there, and other circumstances in the case. Family members say they’ve learned that Miller’s body was significantly decomposed, although authorities told family they were able to ID the 27-year-old father and fiancé using old dental records and by matching a tattoo that was still partially visible on Miller’s chest.

Thompson said police’s detailed report is an attempt to show public transparency over aspects of Miller’s Nov. 19 disappearance and that are not actively under investigation.

It comes as the sheriff’s office and Madison and Dane County police authorities involved in the search for Miller have faced criticism by Miller’s family that police hadn’t done enough over the winter months to find the Madison man since he disappeared.

Family members have said they wonder, among other things, why Madison police removed Miller’s name from a missing person’s hot list. Authorities have said Miller, a Black man, was actively being sought by police at the time, and his case didn’t meet the criteria of a “missing person.”

The family told Big Radio that police earlier this week hadn’t shared much information about the discovery of Miller’s body, including how long his remains had been at a house police now say is owned but has been “vacant.”

Thompson says the sheriff’s office released the boil down of how it handled communications with Miller’s family and ongoing searches that the sheriff’s office conducted—not because of pressure from the family, but instead because police are now being peppered with questions from multiple area news media outlets.

“It was basically related to all the requests we were receiving from media outlets for information. Obviously, we can’t release any information on the new investigation, but with the (earlier) search aspect, we felt this was the best way to release this information,” Thompson tells Big Radio.

Among information the sheriff’s office released in its inventory:

• Phone records show Miller apparently texted someone at 2:11 a.m. on Nov. 19 – about 5 minutes before Wisconsin State Troopers dispatched the sheriff’s office that they needed backup pursuing Miller. Miller’s phone records show that he then received a text at 2:40 a.m. that he apparently never responded to.
• The sheriff’s office has a flash drive of records released by the Madison police after that agency opted to close investigations on Miller on Feb. 7, a little over a month after the sheriff’s office had turned over the case to Madison authorities. It was around the same timeframe Miller’s family asked that the case to be overturned to the FBI.
• The last time any police agency actively made any query on Miller prior to his body being discovered in June was a search of his information by Beloit police, although the sheriff’s inventory doesn’t explain that query.

The sheriff’s office in the inventory say authorities called off repeated searches during the coldest parts of the winter months earlier this year, and that authorities told Miller’s family they’d resume searching in the spring, or if and when “credible” information surfaced in the case.

Other notes showed phone tag between the sheriff’s office and Miller’s family in April over coordinating a search with dogs. The sheriff’s office noted that it told Miller’s family more than once that the sheriff’s office could not prevent further searches for Miller by family or other private groups, as long as searchers followed the law.

The sheriff’s office says in the inventory that about a dozen people connected with the family had filed open records requests with the sheriff’s office in recent months seeking phone records, police officer GPS data, and other records linked to high-speed pursuit and disappearance of Miller.

According to the sheriff’s office, most of those requesters never picked up records they’d asked for.

Sheriff’s office records supplied this week show a gap in communication between the sheriff’s office and Miller’s family that rolled out between mid-July and Miller’s body being-discovered this week.

The sheriff’s office says a planned meeting with the family July 13 got scrubbed after some disagreement between family over whether family or a local NAACP official operate as “liaison” for ongoing communication with police.

In all, the sheriff’s office says it conducted near-daily searches for a week following before turning the case over to Madison

Authorities say Miller was last seen alive running into a line of trees near Avalon Road after a speedy pursuit of Miller on I-90/39 ended with Miller crashing his car into a traffic signal and fleeing across a bare field toward a line of trees.

The town of Turtle house is several miles across farm fields and wooded areas from where Miller first fled police Nov. 19.

Police say Miller’s remains were reported Sunday by an anonymous tipster.