MELBOURNE, Ark. — An Oregon man pleaded guilty on Monday to the murder of an Arkansas woman and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
William Alama Miller was arrested and charged in November 2020 with the murder of Rebekah Christian Gould.
The body of Gould was found close to 18 years ago on a hillside south of Melbourne along Arkansas Highway 9.
Gould was just 22 years old at the time of her murder, and in the days leading up to the discovery of her body in September of 2004 family members had reported her as missing.
During the investigation into her disappearance police were able to determine that she had sustained many injuries prior to her death.
According to reports, the Arkansas State Police medical examiner said that she had in fact been the victim of a homicide.
In an interview done with Miller at the time of his arrest, it was revealed that in 2004 he had driven to a home and hid his truck in a field behind the house.
He then knocked on the front door of the home and told Gould to let him in so he could use the phone.
Miller admitted that while he pretended to use the phone, Gould went to her bedroom, he got a piano leg from a piano in the living room and then proceeded to beat her multiple times with the piano leg.
He then said that after Gould died, he placed her in the bed of his truck and proceeded to dump her body along a highway outside of Melbourne.