KALAMAZOO, MI — In the wake of tragedy, friends and family of a woman found allegedly murdered and dismembered are remembering her sweet personality.
Police officers responded to an anonymous tip that a woman’s body was inside an apartment on the 200 block of North Maple Street in Sturgis. The body of Kelly-Jien Warner-Miller, 42, was found dismembered inside, the Sturgis Journal reported.
On May 22, Wade Allen, 35, gave police consent to search the apartment on the 200 block of North Maple Street, the Sturgis Police Department said. He was arrested the same day and arraigned on May 23 on charges of open murder and dead body — disinterment and mutilation in St. Joseph County District Court, according to court records.
Lisa Seaman, the sister of the victim, said cremation is planned. She sent a statement to MLive on behalf of Warner-Miller’s family.
“It was too soon for you to go be with god and that we love and miss her dearly and we’ll see her again someday. Keep watching over us and guiding us down the right paths in life. Just know we never wanted this to happen to you and wish we were there to save you,” Seaman said.
She also shared a message about her sister’s death on Facebook, and said it could be used in this story:
Warner-Miller was a mother and a grandmother, Seaman said. She attended Loy Norrix High School, according to her Facebook page.
Seaman said Warner-Miller had been living in the apartment where her body was found, and said Allen was her boyfriend.
Jonathan Braun said he was homeless when he first met Warner-Miller in 2005 in Kalamazoo. She was often at Bronson Park, encouraging homeless people to keep their heads up, Braun said.
“She would make snacks and trinkets to hand out to help us get through our struggle,” he said.
She was often available to listen to people, Braun said, and later became homeless herself.
She was often seen crocheting or knitting, and wouldn’t let her situation get her down, he said.
“If anyone wanted to learn how to knit or crochet to escape the reality of the situation they where in, she would be there with yarn and needles/hooks,” Braun said. “KJ had few enemies, and most of us who knew her quickly fell in love with her upbeat, outgoing and pure spirit.”
Chris Wahmhoff of Kalamazoo said he first met Warner-Miller and Allen when Wahmhoff was part of an encampment in front of Bank of America in Kalamazoo in 2012. Meeting them and a few others, he said, helped him realize the extent of homelessness in the community.
Warner-Miller and Allen later stayed at his Kalamazoo home on Bryant Street for about a week, Wahmhoff said, after he invited them and other homeless people to stay there.
“I remember them being warm, that’s why I let them into my home,” he said. Warner-Miller was sweet and calm, Wahmhoff said.
The news of her death and the charges against Allen were unexpected, he said. Wahmhoff described Allen as nice, quiet and timid.
Allen messaged him in October and said he was looking for work, Wahmhoff said.
"He was trying to figure out how out to be a productive member of society,” he said.
Allen asked Wahmhoff how he was doing in the last message he sent, in May, Wahmhoff said. He did not see Allen’s latest messages until after he saw news coverage about the horrific incident.
“It was such a slap in the face,” Wahmhoff said.
Braun said he first met Allen in the fall of 2004.
“At first, I thought he was a good guy,” Braun said.
They were both homeless and spent a lot of time playing Magic: The Gathering, a fantasy card game, over the next decade or so. They spent many nights at Fourth Coast Cafe, escaping the weather, and through their conversations he saw a different side of Allen. He found out Allen was raised by a “militant father” and that their mother was a drug addict.
He never saw Allen get violent with anyone, Braun said, and he would run from an altercation. He attended several churches in the area and frequented Word For Life Church in Comstock Township and First Presbyterian Church in downtown Kalamazoo.
Allen was arraigned on charges related to Warner-Miller’s death and is scheduled for a pre-exam conference on June 4, with a preliminary hearing set for June 11. The Sturgis Police Department and St. Joseph County Prosecutor John McDonough did not respond to requests for additional information about the case.
In Kalamazoo, Warner-Miller was known a supporter of environmental activism, Wahmhoff said.
She was pictured hugging a tree in the Colony Farm Orchard in a May 2010 MLive article. She was among more than a dozen people, led by Kalamazoo Green Justice, who walked the wooded area to draw attention to the 54-acre property where Western Michigan University planned at the time to expand its adjacent Business, Technology and Research Park.
Carl Wiseman, of Portage and formerly of Kalamazoo, said Warner-Miller was a very good person.
“She was kind and a little quirky," Wiseman said. “Most of all, she was caring.”
He was surprised to hear Allen was charged in connection to her death.
“It’s really hard to see that from Wade,” Wiseman said. "He never seemed like the type or that kind of strange individual.”
Allen was “chronically homeless” for years in Kalamazoo and became an outcast, Wiseman said.
Wiseman said the last time he saw Warner-Miller was a few months ago, when the Polar Vortex swept through Kalamazoo earlier in the year. She was staying at First Congregational Church in Kalamazoo and Allen was not with her at the time, he said.
“We just talked about life and how things were going,” Wiseman said. “She was looking to god for the right answers. She had a positive outlook and a happy outlook on things. She was smiling and even through the struggles and the tribulations.”