Family members and friends of Paige Miller and Michael R. Anderson struggled Thursday to understand how the two ended up dead outside Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo.
The couple had a history of problems and struggles, but their loved ones said they had no idea what could have led to their demise.
On Friday, Omaha police did say that the two deaths were homicides. But they still would not say how the couple died.
Several small yellow evidence markers were set up near each body on either side of barricades that blocked the bodies from view.
Zoo security officers found the bodies about 4 a.m. Thursday and flagged down police patrolling along 10th Street.
Officers were led to the bodies, which were near 10th Street and Bert Murphy Avenue, about 30 yards from the zoo's main entrance.
Miller, 23, and Anderson, 43, recently had moved in together in a South Omaha home. They had known each other for years, said Paige's cousin Matthew Miller.
Miller said he phoned his cousin early Thursday, just hours before she was found dead. She told him she wasn't doing anything, just hanging around her house near 17th and B Streets.
Miller said he heard Anderson in the background, gabbing as usual.
“Everybody is just dumbfounded over this,” he said of the deaths.
Miller said his cousin stayed in touched with him.
“She'd call all the time, checking to see how everyone was doing,” he said.
She was a caring person who constantly worried about her loved ones, said Erica Spring, Matthew Miller's girlfriend.
Yet she was stubborn and tough, Spring said.
Matthew Miller said Anderson was funny. “He was always trying to make people laugh.”
Anderson was a smart guy who would fix friends' cars for free, Spring said.
She described the couple as “firecrackers,” rowdy and outgoing. Miller said they had been dating about seven months.
Paige had grown up in the Carter Lake area, and Anderson had lived in northeast Omaha for many years. Anderson had been a longtime friend of the Miller family.
The couple enjoyed playing Hacky Sack, Spring said.
Until a few months ago, she had occasionally worked the night shift under the red lights at Sheri's Nite Club, 2909 Leavenworth St.
Her former co-workers said the dark-haired dancer revealed little about herself during those 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. shifts. They remembered a woman with a good heart and a difficult past.
“She was a lost soul,” said the club's bartender, who, like other former co-workers, declined to be quoted by name.
To co-workers, Miller was sweet and quiet. She sometimes spoke of her three young children: Chance, Catherine and Serenity.
Anderson sometimes came into the club at night, they said.
He was divorced and had been released from prison in November after serving two years for third-degree assault of a police officer.
He also was sentenced to 180 days in jail on a 2004 conviction for possession of methamphetamine.
Paige had had a few brushes with the law and told co-workers that she had struggled with drugs.
She was crushed after Frank M. Sillik her longtime boyfriend and father of her children was killed last summer.
Sillik, 33, left a Metro Area Transit bus at Fontenelle Boulevard and Kansas Avenue, walked behind the bus and was struck by a Jeep.
Rachel McCormick, 19, also a cousin of Miller's, grew up with the 23-year-old victim. McCormick said she was involved in sports and school activities as a young girl.
But Miller had her first child at a very young age, then set out on her own path.
The cousins reunited shortly after Sillik's death, McCormick said.
Paige Miller mentioned that she got a job at a northeast Omaha gas station. She urged McCormick to go to school and build a future for herself.
The zoo opened at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, the usual time, officials said. Zoo visitors were rerouted to the north entrance, down the hill from the main entrance, until about 10 a.m.
Liz Cox of Omaha was among zoo visitors who were rerouted to avoid the investigation scene.
“This is a zoo,” she said. “I wouldn't think it could happen here.”
Police ask anyone with information about the deaths to call the homicide unit at 402-444-5656 or Crime Stoppers at 402-444-STOP. They also may visit www.omahacrimestoppers.net, or text OPD and the tip to CRIMES (274637). People providing the tips may remain anonymous.
World-Herald staff writers Jason Kuiper, Chris Machian and Kyle Benecke contributed to this report.
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
