Jury selection delayed in case of Union County woman accused of murder

Francis Scarcella, The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
·2 min read

Jul. 10—LEWISBURG — Jury selection in the case of accused murderer Myrle Miller will be continued until the next trial term in Union County, according to county officials.

Miller, 76, is accused of defrauding and poisoning her 77-year-old husband, John Nichols, who died in 2018. State troopers allege Miller intentionally fed Nichols her own prescription medication, verapamil, knowing it would cause his heart to fail. She was arrested in May 2021 and is held in county jail without bail.

No date has been set for jury selection.

In the years prior to Nichols' death, arrest papers state that Miller drained at least $87,000 from Nichols' bank accounts and opened two loans against his life insurance without his consent before he died, all while allegedly professing her love to other men online from questionable social media accounts that may have been fraudulent.

In 1988, then known as Myrle Rovenolt, she was acquitted in July of attempted homicide by a Montour County jury. Police alleged that she poisoned drinks with ant killer in 1986 and served them to her former husband, her first, Ronald Rovenolt, according to published reports.

Miller is also the grandmother to 2-year-old Cory Edkin, who went missing in 1986 from his Union County home and hasn't been seen since. Edkin was the son of her daughter, Debbie Mowery, the former girlfriend of Charles Burgess III of Sunbury who suspiciously died in a New Jersey motel in 1999 and is the subject of a cold case homicide.

Multiple stories published by The Daily Item since Edkin's disappearance identify Miller as Edkin's grandmother.

She's also identified herself as his grandmother on a Facebook page dedicated to Edkin's disappearance.

According to a story published Jan. 7, 1988, The Daily Item received anonymous telephone calls the previous year saying Edkin was murdered. According to the story, state police traced the call back to Miller's home at the time but no charges were filed. Miller was married to her first husband at the time, Ronald Rovenolt, whom she was accused of poisoning and eventually acquitted of an attempted murder charge.