The brave 33-year-old woman, Paige, told investigators that someone was knocking on her door while she was sleeping in her home. So, when Paige got up to answer it, she didn’t see anyone and went back to bed, hoping it was all a dream. Within minutes, another knock was heard at the door, and again, she went to go check. When this sequence occurred a third time, she opened the door and peered outside. That’s when she saw 16-year-old Miller standing at the side of her house, holding a knife with a white handle.

Unfortunately, that’s when things went from bad to worse, especially for her attacker, who would be left with a memory to always remember his victim. Paige was instantly terrified and tried to shut her door, but Miller forced his way inside her home. He pushed her to the floor, climbed on top of her, and began punching her, all while screaming at her to stop fighting, and, “I won’t hurt you.” After asking where the bedroom was located, he “picked her up and placed her over his shoulder and took her through her house to the bedroom,” but he would soon regret ever touching her.

Once in the bedroom, Miller tried to undress Paige, but he picked the wrong victim. She kicked him hard in the gr0in, which only increased his anger. He shouted, “Now you have to die!” His method of killing her apparently was to ram his tongue into her mouth, since that’s what he did right after his announcement. However, that would prove to be yet another bad move, and the fierce woman had a painful surprise for him. Paige “bit his tongue as hard as she could until she heard a snap,” and Miller recoiled in pain and screamed as he got off the battered woman. Most of his tongue was severed and still in Paige’s mouth as she jumped off the bed and ran. She threw the severed tongue on the kitchen floor, scrambled into her car, and went to a nearby gas station to call for help. Meanwhile, the r-pist got away, but not for long.

The police later found Miller at a local Waffle House, after his mother had called 911 to get help for her son for “not having a tongue and needing medical assistance.” Police found his tongue at the crime scene and put it in a bag of ice. He was later treated at the hospital, but it’s not clear if doctors were able to reattach his tongue. Miller was charged as an adult on individual burglary, weapons possession, kidnapping, assault, and criminal se-ual conduct counts.  Paige sustained minor physical injuries and received help for emotional trauma. “I spoke with a counselor and my mom today and the counselor asked me, ‘What would you think objectively looking at your story? What would you think about that person?’” Paige recalled. “For the very first time, I felt empowered and I thought to myself, I would put that in my Rolodex of ‘If that happens to me that’s what I’m going to do.’”