A massive, 80-person search conducted Saturday in the Lake Poway area was aimed at finding a man who went missing more than three months ago, according to sheriff’s officials and the man’s estranged wife. The search was unsuccessful, and the man’s wife said her estranged husband was “severely depressed” and is likely dead.
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Valley Center resident William Clayton Miller, 59, last contacted his wife on March 2, and his sister reported him missing about two weeks later, according to his wife and sheriff’s Lt. Juan Marquez.
“Miller’s vehicle was later located parked and unoccupied at the Blue Sky Ecological Preserve in the city of Poway, where it had remained for several weeks,” Marquez said.
Marquez said Miller is considered a voluntary missing adult who is not known to have any life-threatening medical conditions nor the need for life-sustaining medications. His case was recently added to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
Silke Miller said she and William Miller separated last summer and that he had been struggling with stress and severe depression. She said phone records showed he last made an outgoing call March 3, the day after she last had contact with him, and a search of his home didn’t appear to show that he had made any plans to leave the country or go off the grid.
“There are reasons to believe he walked off and may not be alive anymore,” Silke Miller said. “It’s probably just a very sad story.”
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Marquez said Saturday’s operation was the second coordinated search for Miller.
“No items of significance were located during either search effort,” Marquez said.
Silke Miller said there have been no indications of foul play in her husband’s disappearance. Marquez said it is standard for the Major Crimes Division to handle adult missing person cases after a month.
Miller is described as White with brown eyes and gray or white balding hair. He is 6 feet and 210 pounds. He typically wears New Balance shoes and has a tattoo of a pit bull on one shoulder.
Marquez urged anyone with information regarding Miller’s whereabouts to contact the Major Crimes Division at 858-285‑6330.
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