ABC 13 in Lynchburg, VA interviewed Lisa Miller’s friends and supporters, who claim that they have no idea where she and Isabella have gone but says that they completely support her actions, noting that offers to hide Miller have come in from as far away as Israel.
They say Miller’s kidnapping of her daughter and disappearance, calling it a necessary act of civil disobedience in the face of an unjust law and likening it to using the Underground Railroad to escape slavery:
Friends of Lisa Miller say they don’t know where she and her seven-year-old daughter are, but they say they support her decision to leave.
A Vermont court ordered Miller’s ex-partner Janet Jenkins custody of their daughter in May, and now it’s been six months since Miller’s friends say they’ve had any contact with her.
The case has drawn national attention and has strong ties to Lynchburg. Liberty Counsel is working on filing an appeal to the latest court order, which included handing over Isabella.
Her friends say they understand why she decided to go into hiding. Miller’s friends here may have had the last known contact with mother and daughter.
It was January 1 when Linda Wall said she knew for sure her friend Miller and her seven-year-old daughter Isabella had gone into hiding.
“Unbeknowing to any of us… she was doing something behind the scene,” Wall said.
Wall has known the mother and daughter since 2004. She had been getting involved as a conservative Christian activist and a self described “former homosexual.”
“I was able to leave homosexuality through a miraculous encounter with the Lord,” Wall said.
She says about two years ago, she began talking to Lisa Miller about what would happen, if she was ordered to give up custody of Isabella. “Just knowing Virginia law wasn’t going to defend her.”
That school year Miller taught at Liberty Christian Academy. Wall says, while offers came in from as far away as Israel to hide Miller and Isabella, friends say Thomas Road Baptist church didn’t play a part.
“There is nothing more outlandish than that,” TRBC Pastor Tipton Killingsworth.
“I am supposed to be the number one suspect because I was so involved in this and I don’t know where she is,” Wall said.
Lisa Miller’s friend Janet Stasulli also has no idea of her whereabouts. “We have no idea where she is.”
The last time Wall says she had contact with Miller was in late September. Up to that point, she believes Miller was working behind the scenes on her escape. It’s a decision they support.
“I do support what she’s done,” Wall said. “When the law is wrong, what’s a person to do?”
Likening the situation to the underground railroad during slavery, “Was it Harriet Tubman who risked her life for the underground railroad for the black community? Maybe I am committed to this for the children I might be that one voice.”
