Julianne Miller was 27 years old when she disappeared from her Old Saybrook cottage in September 1982. She left behind her car, her purse, her wallet, her glasses and her golden retriever, Bo-Jo.
Miller, who was a graduate student at the University of Hartford and was working part-time at a day-care center, is presumed dead. But her body has never been found.
Miller was last seen in her 27 Clinton Ave. home around 10 p.m. on Sept. 21, 1982, arguing with her then-live-in boyfriend, James Clayton, neighbors told police. Her parents, who had bought her the house five years prior, were out of town that week, but reported her missing on Sept. 29, 1982, after being unable to get in touch with their daughter.
Clayton, who later moved out of state, told police he didn’t report Miller missing because she was supposed to watch her father’s house while he was away, and Clayton didn’t want to get her in trouble. He also said he saw Miller leave their Clinton Avenue home in a brown pickup truck driven by a Black man. Clayton himself is Black and drove a brown pickup truck at the time, police said.
A few days prior to their argument, Miller had picked up a quit claim deed with hopes of taking Clayton’s name off as an owner of her home. She had added Clayton to the deed in 1980. The paperwork was still in her purse, unsigned, when she went missing.
Police at the time brought in Clayton’s pickup truck as well as items from the home he shared with Miller for forensic testing. Blood was found on a couch in the home, but Clayton told police it belonged to the dog. It is unclear whether police tested the blood at the time.
Even though officials had suspicions about Clayton’s story of what happened, there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him in connection with Miller’s disappearance or potential murder. Without a body, an arrest could have set Clayton up for double jeopardy if he were acquitted, meaning police wouldn’t be able to charge him in the case again if more evidence turned up later on.
A few weeks after Miller disappeared, her family reported that some jewelry was missing from Miller’s belongings, including Miller’s grandmother’s ring. The ring was found months later at a pawn shop in New Haven. A relative of Clayton’s had sold the ring.
In 2000, about 18 years after Miller went missing, the Chief State's Attorney's Office Cold Case Squad was brought in to take a new look at the case and retest some of the evidence gathered from Miller’s home, including pieces of the couch with potential blood on it. It is unclear whether this testing provided any new information.
"It remains the most perplexing case we have that hasn't been resolved," Old Saybrook’s then-Police Chief Edmund Mosca told The Middletown Press at the time. "I'd like to get a resolution."
Officials did several searches of a 70-acre property Miller’s family owned at the time near the Cockaponset State Forest, including using state police dogs in the Deep River woods and special radar equipment borrowed from the U.S. Army, but no trace of Miller was found.
Miller’s family hired a private investigator, but eventually gave up hope of finding her.
When Clayton was convicted of attempted murder by a military court in Hawaii in 2002, Connecticut officials decided to review Miller’s missing person’s case again. They also hoped Clayton would come forward during his five-year military prison term with more information about what had happened to his former girlfriend. But despite pushing for answers, officials were left with little more info than they already had.
It is unclear if Clayton is still alive and if so, where he lives today. In the past, he declined to be interviewed by local media in connection with Miller’s disappearance.
At the time of her disappearance, Julianne Miller had strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes, was 5-foot-6 and weighed around 110 pounds. She is Caucasian. If she is still alive, she would be 69 years old today.
The state of Connecticut has offered a $50,000 reward for anyone who may have information that leads to an arrest and conviction in Miller’s case.
Anyone who might have information related to her disappearance can contact the Old Saybrook Police Department at 860-395-3140 or the CT Cold Case Unit Tip Line at 866-623-8058.