The medical examiner found James S. Miller died from blunt force trauma, while court records describe surveillance video, a damaged car and a knife.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The first call sent police to a reported stabbing. The homicide case that followed, however, came to focus on a car, surveillance footage and a confrontation in which prosecutors say Mary Ann McKinzy deliberately backed over her boyfriend, James S. Miller, after he attacked her vehicle with a knife.
The change in focus began with the medical evidence. Miller, 75, was found dead Nov. 28, 2025, at an apartment complex in Portland’s Centennial neighborhood. Portland police said the Multnomah County Medical Examiner determined that he died from blunt force trauma and ruled the death a homicide. That finding did not erase the knife from the investigation. Instead, court records described in published reports place the knife in Miller’s hands shortly before the fatal impact, making it part of the context for both the prosecution’s case and McKinzy’s claim that she feared for her life.
Investigators then had to reconstruct what happened around the two vehicles in the parking lot. A friend who drove Miller to the complex told police that Miller approached McKinzy’s car and demanded that she open the door, according to reports on a probable cause affidavit. The friend said Miller threatened to break the window. Miller then allegedly told the friend to position his own vehicle so McKinzy could not drive away. McKinzy backed into that car, according to the friend’s account, turning an argument at a window into a collision between vehicles.
When the friend got out to look at the damage, he said he saw Miller throw a knife at McKinzy’s car. Surveillance footage cited in the reported court record allegedly shows Miller stabbing the tires as well. That video is important because it is described as capturing at least part of the confrontation independently of the witness account. The sources reviewed for this article do not include the video itself, however, and they do not establish precisely what every camera angle shows before, during or after Miller was struck.
Prosecutors allege the decisive act came next. McKinzy put her car in reverse, hit Miller and backed over him, according to the affidavit as reported by Law&Crime and other outlets. Miller’s friend told investigators that he yelled for McKinzy to move the vehicle. McKinzy allegedly responded that Miller was “trying to kill me” before driving away. The prosecution says the strike was intentional. The same sequence, though, contains the conduct by Miller that could become relevant to any defense argument about fear or justification.
Physical evidence from the car added another layer to the reconstruction. Reports based on the court record say McKinzy’s vehicle was found at a tire shop later on the day Miller died. A hubcap at the scene allegedly matched the car, while another matching hubcap was found inside the vehicle. Investigators also documented damage to the hood that was described as consistent with Miller’s knife. Personal items or documents linked to McKinzy were reportedly left inside, giving detectives additional reasons to associate her with the vehicle.
What investigators believed happened before the collision came from a separate line of evidence: the relationship between McKinzy and Miller and a dispute over money. Prosecutors say Miller had won $3,200 in the lottery and gave McKinzy $1,700. They allege she later took another $800 from him without permission. Court records cited by news outlets say Miller then sought help finding her so he could recover the money. The reports do not identify the lottery game, where the ticket was bought or how the alleged taking of the $800 will be proved in court.
The friend’s role connects those two parts of the case. He reportedly told police he agreed to drive Miller to McKinzy’s apartment complex but did not know what Miller planned to do once they found her. His account places him at the scene for Miller’s demand at the window, the effort to block McKinzy’s car, the collision between the vehicles, the knife and the fatal reverse movement. As a witness, his statements are part of the prosecution’s reported evidence, but credibility and the weight of those statements would ultimately be issues for a court if the case proceeds to trial.
The investigation did not end with the scene or the recovered car. By the time Portland detectives obtained an arrest warrant, McKinzy had left Oregon or departed soon afterward, according to published reports. Her location remained outside the reach of local officers until federal marshals found her months later. Portland police said the U.S. Marshals Service arrested McKinzy on Aug. 5, 2026, in Bakersfield, California. She was jailed there while extradition was arranged.
On Sept. 18, McKinzy was transported to the Multnomah County Detention Center. Portland police said she was booked on second-degree murder, first-degree assault and negligent homicide. Those charges formally shifted the case from an investigation focused on identifying and locating a suspect to a criminal prosecution in Oregon. The police announcement did not provide the detailed narrative of the parking-lot encounter; that account came through reporting on the probable cause affidavit.
The distinction between the official police statement and the more detailed court-record reporting is significant. Police publicly confirmed the death, the medical examiner’s finding, McKinzy’s identification as a suspect, her California arrest and the charges on which she was booked. News organizations reported the alleged lottery dispute, Miller’s threats, the knife activity, the vehicle movements and McKinzy’s statement after the impact. Those details may be important evidence, but they remain allegations and reported contents of court records rather than findings reached after a trial.
The forensic sequence also complicates any simple description of the case. The first report of a stabbing was wrong as to Miller’s cause of death, yet the knife was not irrelevant. The medical examiner attributed the fatal injuries to blunt force trauma, while investigators say video and witness accounts show Miller using a knife against McKinzy’s vehicle shortly before he was hit. In other words, the early emergency call misidentified the mechanism of death but appears to have reflected a real part of the confrontation that prosecutors and the defense may both consider important.
Publicly available reporting reviewed for this story does not resolve several questions. It does not show whether McKinzy has entered a plea to each charge, whether a defense lawyer has filed a formal self-defense claim, or whether a judge has ruled on the significance of the surveillance footage. It also does not provide a later public account of the Sept. 29 court appearance Law&Crime said had been scheduled. Those gaps matter because the evidence described so far can support competing arguments about what McKinzy intended and what danger she believed she faced.
As of Nov. 8, the latest official Portland police release located for this story remained the Sept. 22 update announcing McKinzy’s arrest and extradition. Police have asked anyone with information who has not spoken with investigators to reference case No. 25-325754. The prosecution’s accusation is clear: McKinzy intentionally used the car against Miller. What remains unresolved is how a court will assess that allegation alongside the threats, blocked exit and knife activity described in the same reported record.
Author note: Last updated November 8, 2026.