Missionary Pegged to Lesbian Kidnapping Case Wants Trial Moved

A missionary suspected of helping a woman flee the country from her ex-partner with their daughter is attempting to have his trial moved from Vermont to Virginia.

Timothy Miller was arrested in April, and is being charged with helping Lisa Miller and her 9-year-old daughter leave the United States. They fled after a Vermont family court awarded her former partner, Janet Jenkins, custody of their daughter, Isabella. Lisa Miller and Timothy Miller are not related.

In addition to getting his trial moved, the Associated Press reports that Timothy Miller will file a motion in federal court Thursday to have statements that he made to investigators excluded from all evidence because he was not read his Miranda rights before divulging possibly incriminating information. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of abetting an international parental kidnapping. He is currently free on $25,000 bond.

Jenkins and Lisa Miller were joined in a civil union in Vermont. Isabella was born two years later, but the couple split in 2003. Soon after, Miller said she was no longer a lesbian and turned to Christian evangelicalism. She has lost full custody of Isabella after several court cases in both Vermont and Virginia, but she has still failed to adhere to the court's orders. It is believed that Lisa Miller and Isabella Miller-Jenkins went to Central America, possibly Nicaragua, where Timothy Miller worked as a missionary for Christian Aid Ministries.