Sentence Is 3 Life Terms For Killing Rampage

The New York Times

Saturday, June 13, 1998

A 33-year-old maintenance worker who murdered his former girlfriend, best friend and mother within six hours in 1995 was sentenced yesterday to three consecutive life terms in prison, prosecutors said.

In one of the deadliest rampages in Burlington County history, the man, Hugh Miller, of Burlington, beat and strangled to death his former girlfriend, Corrine Cochran-Ball, after arguing with her because she ended their relationship, said Michael E. Riley, the first assistant Burlington County prosecutor. After killing Ms. Cochran-Ball, Mr. Miller visited his best friend, Keith S. Tiesman, whom he shot in the head after Mr. Tiesman taunted him about his failed relationship, Mr. Riley added.

Mr. Miller then drove to the home of his mother, Charlotte Simcox, and confessed to her about the previous killings. When Ms. Simcox urged her son to turn himself in, he shot her in the head as well, Mr. Riley said.

While sentencing Mr. Miller, Judge Donald P. Gaydos of State Superior Court told him that his crimes would haunt him for the rest of his life. Mr. Miller pleaded guilty to the three murders in April, avoiding a potential death sentence, Mr. Riley said.

Hunt For Killer

By Rebecca Goldsmith - The Inquirer

April 10, 1995

The investigation of Charlotte Simcox's death began like any other. Contact relatives, friends, neighbors, coworkers - anyone who might know something.

That routine inquiry into the homicide of a 49-year-old Burlington City woman became increasingly urgent during the next 14 hours. Investigators discovered a second body, then a third, all with close connections to one missing man: Hugh Miller Jr., 30, of Burlington Township.

"Certainly our concern was that three people had died, and our concern was certainly to locate him (Miller)," said Jack Smith, spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office.

Five hours after Charles Simcox arrived home around midnight Friday night and found his wife face-down on the floor of an enclosed patio, police arrived at the residence of Miller, Charlotte Simcox's son by a previous marriage.

Miller wasn't home, but the corpse of his ex-girlfriend, Corrine Cochran- Ball, 23, of Willingboro, lay on a bed in his apartment. Initial reports said she died between 4 and 4:30 p.m. Police have not elaborated on how she was killed.

That discovery prompted police to search for Miller as a bona fide suspect, not just a family member or friend, Smith said.

By about 11 a.m., nearly 12 hours into the investigation, the search for Miller escalated to a frenzied state after officers found the body of his close friend, Keith S. Tiesman, 25, of Burlington City, with a bullet wound to the head from a .45-caliber weapon. Police believe he was killed shortly after 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Officers then sent out a general radio broadcast about Miller, who was reportedly driving Cochran-Ball's car. Investigators distributed a list of locations in and out of state where Miller, described as a sometime drug abuser, could have been.

Investigators finally tracked Miller down Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Pitman, at the home of a woman friend. He was arrested without incident. Burlington County Prosecutor Stephen J. Raymond said Miller would be charged with three counts of murder and possibly other charges.

Raymond called the murders "a night of carnage" and said the triple homicide was unprecedented in his 20 years as county prosecutor.

The killings destroyed the lives of a young mother who was trying to pull her life together, a high-school dropout who took pride in his stable job, and a woman whose two grown children were out of the house, but not forgotten.

SEX: M RACE: W TYPE: T MOTIVE: PC

DATE(S): 1995

VENUE: Burlington City, N.J.

VICTIMS: Three

MO: Shot his mother, ex-girlfriend, and a male acquaintance.

DISPOSITION: Three consecutive life terms, 1998.

Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans

Hugh D. Miller