Accused Murderer Reportedly Told Someone He Killed Hayes

A witness led the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and State Highway Patrol to the pond where the presumed remains of 88-year-old Betty Hayes of Holliday were found last Friday. 65-year-old Lyle Miller of Madison was arrested Friday. Sheriff Joe Colston, in a probable cause statement, said he and other investigators interviewed the witness the previous day. The witness said in April of this year, they discussed a report of human remains being found by a mushroom hunter near Paris with Miller. Miller said those were not Hayes’s remains, and a few days later, said he had killed Hayes by striking her in the head and put her in a pond on his property.