Alaska teacher agrees to return to Missouri to face child abuse charges: report

Owen Melvin Miller was the father to seven adopted children, but one of them told a police officer he had done ‘inappropriate things to her, leading to an investigation. Miller will return to Missouri to face charges.

BY Michael Walsh

He fled to a remote area of northwestern Alaska, but he couldn't outrun the allegations of child abuse.

A Missouri man who has been teaching language arts in the Alaska's Northwest Arctic Borough will reportedly return to his home state to face accusations that he raped his adopted child.

Owen Melvin Miller, 42, was arrested in the Kiana School in Alaska on Aug. 29 for multiple charges, including child molestation, statutory rape and incest, Alaska Dispatch News reported.

Last year, one of Miller's seven adopted children told a Wasilla police officer that he started doing "inappropriate things to her" in 2002, according to the local broadsheet.

This information was reportedly forwarded to Missouri authorities who interviewed two of his other adopted children. They also said they had been neglected and physically abused for years.

"They recounted several incidents being locked into the basement, attic or outside," a probable cause statement reads. "The kids would go on average two days without food if they were in trouble."

On Wednesday, Miller agreed to head back to Missouri to face charges by phone from a prison, where he was being held on $100,000 bail, Alaska Dispatch News said.

Miller had no previous criminal history in either state. His wife has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

The sheriff's office for Andrew County was not immediately available to comment on the case.