After 2 years, Miller family still hopeful killing will be solved

"He has told me it is very difficult to be (in the bookstore)," Miller said.

But for the most part, Heidi Miller said, her father is doing better than she expected, though this is typically a painful time of year for him. The entire family went through a phase where all they thought about was the killer being arrested and that the phone call notifying them of the arrest would come at any moment.

"It's not healthy, it's not something we can sustain emotionally to hope at that level every day," Greg Miller said. "We're just going on with life. That's what we've got to do. We're hoping one day it will come."

The family is still confident that the person responsible will be brought to justice one day. But they aren't going to dwell on that event. They aren't going to let the killer take any more time away from their lives by them worrying about him, they said. But they do expect they'll receive that phone call.

"It will be shocking in a positive way when that call comes," he said.

South Salt Lake police and the Millers talk with each other about every other month, Greg Miller said. He said there is information he believes they have that they aren't sharing. But in the interest of justice, he's OK with that.

"We're generally encouraged by what we hear from them, and my sense is they're still actively pursuing several leads," he said. "My observation is when they make an arrest, they want it to translate into a conviction, They don't want to have the case thrown out on a technicality. So they're being very thorough and very deliberate every step of the way."

The Millers hope that if anyone has any information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, that they call police at 801-840-4000. Texts can also be sent to CRIMES, or 274637.

Greg Miller said an arrest isn't just about bringing his mother-in-law's killer to justice, but is also about protecting the community. He wanted the public to know that he was billed for 32 hours of work by the crews who were hired to clean up the crime scene in the bookstore.

"I can only imagine what the scene would look like to require that kind of man-hours to clean it up," he said. "But I think it speaks to the brutality of the crime and that the person who killed Sherry is still out there, and if he can do it to, Sherry he can do it to somebody else.

"And it could be your mother or your daughter or your sister who is the next victim."

E-mail: preavy@desnews.com

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