Naman Shrestha
When a mother of four named Tammy Lovell was found dead in Mesa, Arizona, along with her two children, her boyfriend Steven Duffy, and his brother in February 2006, a wave of terror and shock engulfed the entire community. During the investigation, the detectives uncovered Steven’s unlikely connection to an arson charge a few months prior, which ultimately led them straight to the perpetrator. Investigation Discovery’s ‘The Killer Beside Me: Fatal Fraud’ delves deep into the case and the extensive investigation that followed, featuring detailed interviews with the officials who helped solve it.
Tammy Lovell and Steven Duffy Were Killed Alongside Their Other Family Members
Tammy Lee Morehart Lovell entered the lives of her parents, Patricia and Charles Morehart, as a little bundle of joy on September 13, 1973, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Alongside her parents and siblings, Joseph and Luhanna, Tammy relocated to Alexandria, Virginia, in 1982. Given her extroverted and friendly nature, she made many connections and friends. At the tender age of 16, she married Paul K. Lovell in October 1989. In the following years, the couple gave birth to two children — Cassandra “Cassie” Louise Lovell on January 28, 1991, and Jacob Burley Daniel Lovell on January 21, 1996, both in Manassas, Virginia. Unfortunately, cracks began to appear in the marriage, and they officially parted ways in 2003. By then, Tammy was a single mother of four children in total — Cassie, Jacob, Heidi, and Derango.
In 2005, she and Jacob relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, where they stayed with her sister, Luhanna, for a while. That’s when she met a military man named Steven Terence Duffy II, the beloved son of Colleen Conway Duffy, born on July 7, 1975, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He had a brother named Shane Donovan Duffy, who frequently crashed at his place. After they began dating, she and her two children, Cassie and Jacob, moved in with Steven in his Mesa, Arizona, home. Tammy also joined Steven at his workplace, PuroClean, by landing a job at the disaster restoration clean-up company. In the early hours of February 21, 2006, while 32-year-old Tammy Lovell, 15-year-old Cassie Lovell, 10-year-old Jacob Lovell, 30-year-old Steven Duffy, and 18-year-old Shane Duffy were sleeping at Steven’s place, a neighbor heard multiple gunshots and screams inside the military man’s house and alerted the police.
Around 5:30 am that morning, the authorities entered the home with the help of the SWAT team and found all five occupants in the house deceased in different rooms. While Tammy had three gunshot wounds, Jacob had a single gunshot wound in the forehead. Her daughter, Cassie, was shot in the chest. Meanwhile, Steven had been shot four times, including twice in the face. As for his younger brother, he was also shot in the face. The cause of death for each of them was determined to be gunshot wounds. As the detectives collected evidence from the crime scene, they found .40 caliber casings and .22 caliber casings, indicating that two different guns were used to commit the quintuple homicide. The ballistics department also concluded that a third weapon was involved, as they found evidence of a 9mm firearm at the scene.
Tammy Lovell and Steven Duffy Worked as Police Informants to Get the Killer Arrested
While investigating the gruesome murders, the detectives delved deep into the relationship and lives of Tammy Lovell and Steven Duffy. They soon learned that their employer at PuroClean, William Craig Miller, owed them $10,000 in back wages from Hurricane Katrina. To pay them back, William enlisted Steven’s help to commit insurance fraud. On November 25, 2005, Steven allegedly helped William commit arson at William’s home in an attempt to collect insurance money. After he told Tammy about what he had done, the couple decided to cooperate with law enforcement and became state witnesses against William. Tammy helped police get incriminating evidence against her employer, who was arrested on December 1, 2005, and charged with arson of an occupied structure, fraudulent schemes, and endangerment.
Not long after his arrest, William got out on bail. Scared for her life, Tammy moved to a gated community, hoping that it would be enough to keep her and her children safe. After Steven went to trial for his involvement in the arson, he managed to get his probation. Given the history between him and Tammy and Steven, the authorities began suspecting William of being involved in the murders. On February 22, 2006, he filed a complaint with the Phoenix Police Department alleging harassment at his workplace. During the interview, he also told the police that his secretary had a gun stolen from her vehicle a few days prior to the murders. Upon digging deeper, the detectives learned that the secretary had purchased a 9mm revolver on February 13, 2006, in the presence of William, according to the gun store employee.
While the investigators surveilled William at his home and workplace, he reported a burglary on February 27, 2006, claiming that someone fired a gun through his window into his bed. As they searched his house, the ballistics of his house matched the ballistics found at the Mesa house where the murder took place. Furthermore, his employees at PuroClean also alleged that he had asked them to help him kill Steven and Tammy in the months prior to the homicides. William’s friend also told the authorities that while staying at William’s house on the night of February 20, 2006, he claimed to have seen two firearms on the kitchen counter. During a search of William’s residence, the police found matching .22 caliber casings and took him into custody outside Fleming restaurant in Scottsdale on March 3, 2006. He was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, a weapons misconduct charge, and one count of burglary.
William Craig Miller is Awaiting His Execution at a Arizona Prison Facility
More than five years after his arrest, in early August 2011, William Craig Miller’s murder trial commenced. During the trial, the prosecution told the jury that the defendant was out for revenge against Tammy Lovell and Steven Duffy after they worked with the police to get him arrested for the arson at his home. After several weeks of testimonies, the jury deliberated for less than three hours and reached a final verdict. Thus, on August 29, 2011, William was found guilty on five counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary, and four counts of solicitation of first-degree murder in connection with the murders of Tammy, Cassie, Jacob, Steven, and Shane.
Less than a month later, on September 22, the jurors deliberated for about six hours and sentenced the convict to death for the gruesome crimes. In May 2021, his appeal to get a new sentencing hearing was denied by the Arizona Supreme Court. As of today, 49-year-old William Craig Miller is on death row at the Rincon Unit of the Arizona State Prison Complex in Tucson, Arizona.
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