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On the night of September 10, 2011, 16-year-old Alexis Rasmussen vanished after babysitting for 38-year-old Eric & 40-year-old Dea Millerberg’s children in North Ogden, about forty-five minutes north of Salt Lake City, Utah. She had started babysitting for the couple in the spring of 2011 & that night, she was asked to babysit so Eric & Dea could go out shopping for their daughter’s birthday.
Alexis “Lexi” Michele Rasmussen was born on January 24, 1995 to Dawn Miera & Kirk Rasmussen. According to her obituary, she was no ordinary person; she was going to be the type of person to make a difference in this world. She loved to read, shop, dance, hang out with her friends & spend time with her family, spending hours coloring with her little sister. She had three siblings, two brothers & a sister & despite the fact that she & her brother always fought, he was always her best friend. She was vivacious, free-spirited & smart & attended Weber High School.
At about 10:30 pm that night, Alexis was seen with Dea on surveillance video at a nearby all-night pharmacy. Alexis’ mom, Dawn Miera said that while her daughter was babysitting for the couple’s two young daughters, a 6-year-old & a 9-month-old, she received text messages from Alexis about an hour later. She told her mom that she was back at the Millerberg’s home, still babysitting since the couple left to resume their date. It wasn’t clear why they would have come home to go to the pharmacy & then gone back out.
Dawn told her daughter to just spend the night since it was already so late & soon after, Alexis vanished. The last time Dawn heard from Alexis was 11:30 pm. When Alexis didn’t come home the next morning, Dawn went out looking for her, starting at the Millerberg home. Here, she talked to Eric, who she described as being “all over the place.” She said he was “bobbin’ & weavin’ all over, jumping from one subject to another.” Eric told Dawn that Alexis left their house to meet a friend at a nearby elementary school. At this point, Dawn reported Alexis missing. When police spoke with Eric & Dea, they indicated that Alexis left their home before midnight to meet a friend, but that friend told police that he never saw Alexis, only texted with her.
Two weeks after Alexis went missing, Dawn just happened to bump into Dea. She felt it was very strange that Dea didn’t even ask about her missing daughter.
The investigation was initially difficult because many of Alexis’ friends did not want to cooperate with authorities at risk of uncovering their own questionable choices & activities. Police also continued to get reports of sightings of Alexis which took time away from the investigation. Police initially treated it as a missing person case since Alexis had run away in the past. Dawn felt from the beginning that Alexis hadn’t run away, but hoped she was wrong because of the numerous reported sightings. She allowed herself to be convinced & that’s how she was able to get through each day.
One of Alexis’ best friends, Brenna Cain indicated that she & Alexis often secretly got drugs, alcohol & even sex from Eric, who was an ex-con & alleged white supremacist & Dea, who were her neighbors. Eric is reportedly a member of the Silent Aryan Warriors & considers himself a ‘watcher of the flock’, meaning he felt it important that he be the one to provide teens with drugs so they didn’t go elsewhere to try it on their own. They would often hang out at their house or sometimes get a hotel room & hang out as friends. Oftentimes, Alexis was paid with Xanax for babysitting. It was unusual to Brenna that she wasn’t with Alexis on the weekend that she went missing & when she couldn’t get ahold of her friend, she was immediately concerned.
When Brenna confronted Eric about the whereabouts of Alexis, he denied knowing where she was & assured her that he would never do anything to harm her or Alexis. Those that knew Alexis & the Millerbergs were convinced that Dea knew everything that happened to Alexis.
Several search warrants were served on the Millerberg home & a couple of vehicles were also seized. When the home was searched, police found traces of human blood in an area where the carpet had been removed.
Thirty-eight days after Alexis disappeared, a man named Eric “Peanut” Smith came forward & told police that Eric called him in September & said that he had “something to get rid of.” He helped Eric move Alexis’ decomposing body farther off the road in rural Morgan County on September 12, 2011 which was one day after the Millerbergs initially dumped her remains. On October 18, 2011, Smith eventually led investigators to her remains.
Both Dea & Eric were arrested on October 3 for charges unrelated to Alexis’ disappearance. Eric was sent to prison after violating probation in a 2010 fraud case after authorities say he was found with Oxycontin & heroin & had failed to report to his probation officer. Dea later went to jail for unrelated prescription fraud charges & up until the point that she was bailed out, she continued to lie to police or anyone that would ask about Alexis. A search warrant painted a picture of Eric not wanting to go back to prison & Dea wanting to protect her husband. A friend told investigators that Eric said he was “not going back to prison for that girl.”
It wasn’t until December 30, 2011 that Dea finally began telling the truth. She indicated that she didn’t do so earlier since she was terrified of her husband who she described as very controlling. She told police that it was time to tell the truth since she didn’t want Alexis’ family to keep going through hell, not knowing what happened to their daughter.
Dea admitted that she gave illicit drugs to both Alexis & Brenna which included prescription opiates, heroin, Xanax & methamphetamine. She said that both she & Eric engaged in sexual acts with Alexis, including on the night that she disappeared. An inmate had also told police that Eric told him that he & his wife injected drugs into Alexis’ neck & engaged in sexual acts with her. She said that she herself couldn’t have told police where to find Alexis’ body since she didn’t know where it was.
Dea said that she picked Alexis up to babysit her kids, but instead, she & her husband decided to get high. From what she could remember from the night that Alexis disappeared, instead of leaving the house to buy a birthday present for their daughter, Eric prepared drugs for injection for the three of them & helped Alexis “get high.” They injected heroin & methamphetamine, smoked marijuana & drank alcohol. Eric injected Alexis with drugs three times, once in her neck & twice in the arm; once with heroin & twice with meth. They all attempted to have sex together, but they were too high. In August, one month before her death, Alexis reportedly asked to become sexually involved with the couple & Dea later testified that she & Eric began kissing & having sex when Alexis ‘jumped in.’
Shortly after Eric injected Alexis with drugs for the third time, she complained of feeling really cold, shaky & so she decided to take a bath in the Millerberg’s tub. Dea was a former nurse & said she didn’t think much of Alexis’ symptoms at the time. They helped Alexis into their bed & went outside to smoke. When they came back into the house, they found that Alexis wasn’t breathing & she had mucous coming out of the side of her mouth. Dea attempted CPR but Alexis never responded. She said it was at this point that they began to panic & weigh their options.
They made the decision to dump Alexis’ body in a remote part of Morgan County near the Taggart exit of Interstate 84. Dea helped her husband place Alexis’ body in their car. They left their 6-year-old child at home, strapped their 9-month-old baby into the car & drove to the remote, wooded area. When Alexis’ remains were discovered in October, she was found in a shallow grave with her legs folded against her in a fetal position, her lower half having been stuffed into a garbage bag. Due to the state of decomposition, her body was identified through fingerprint & dental records. Alexis’ body was decomposed enough to limit a thorough autopsy, but toxicology reports revealed large quantities of both methamphetamine & resulting metabolites of heroin in her remaining muscle tissue.
In 2013, while awaiting trial, Eric was stabbed multiple times by his cellmate with a metal shank about the size of a pen. He was sent to the hospital to be treated for his non-life threatening wounds & later moved to a different part of the prison.
Dea Millerberg was granted immunity in her husband’s trial, meaning that her testimony could not be used against her. Charges were also not filed against Smith who made a deal with police in exchange for leading them to Alexis’ body.
Eric was charged with child abuse homicide, a first-degree felony as well as obstruction of justice, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor & abuse & desecration of a human body. Dea had a separate trial & was also charged with child abuse as well as child endangerment which she pleaded guilty to.
Defense attorney for Eric, Randy Marshall agreed that Alexis’ death was a “terrible tragedy”, but added that “the fact that she is dead does not make Eric Millerberg guilty of anything.” He argued that this was not an intentional, premeditated murder & there was nothing to warrant the request for consecutive sentences. It was simply an accident & no one intended for there to be a death, according to Marshall. He told the jury that no one has more motivation to lie than Dea Millerberg because she is “right up to her neck.” Marshall said that Eric struggled with drug & alcohol use & questioned why the bulk of the blame was placed on him while Dea was also present that night & part of the decision to dispose of Alexis’ body.
Prosecutor Chris Shaw took issue with the contention that the death was an accident & only involved one victim. As he pointed to Alexis’ family, he said there was absolutely more than one victim in this case. He argued that intentionally injecting heroin & methamphetamine into a young girl is not an accident & instead, is child abuse & homicide. He also pointed out that Eric failed to take responsibility for his actions as well as his long criminal history that includes several felonies & failed probation opportunities.
During the February 2014 trial for Eric that lasted three days, Dawn stood in front of the judge & explained how the loss of her daughter has affected her life & her family. She said that each & every day, she cries & sometimes avoids dropping her other children off at school because she is so fearful that she won’t see them again. She has to tell her 7-year-old child that no amount of wishes will ever bring their sister back. Dawn said that everyday reminders such as the empty chair at dinnertime, sends her spiraling into sadness. They have had to create a new normal within their lives because despite the fact that one of the most amazing people in the world is gone, time still goes on.
She asked that Eric be kept in prison so that he is unable to hurt anyone else. On the night of Valentine’s Day, 2014, the eight jurors reached their verdict in two hours. Second district Judge Scott Hadley sentenced Eric to at least six years & up to life in prison which is the maximum sentence available. Alexis’ father, Kirk Rasmussen, read a letter aloud in court & described Eric as a sick man & there is no place for people like him, except for prison, “He ruined a child that had the rest of her life ahead of her.” Judge Hadley indicated that, if there is such a thing, this homicide is not a typical one & that injecting a young lady with dangerous drugs multiple times is beyond reckless. Alexis was a vulnerable victim that Eric took advantage of after she was injected with these drugs. After the fact, when Eric realized that Alexis was dead, he made the decision not to call 911 or the authorities making it so much more horrendous. He was given multiple sentences for each charge but the sentences will run consecutive to each other.
Eric spoke to Alexis’ family & told them that he was sorry for the loss & he could not imagine what this has done to them, but he would not take full responsibility for her death, saying, “I am willing to shoulder the responsibility for the role I played & the things that I have done. There is no way it’s all mine.”
Dea Millerberg was sentenced on August 12, 2014 to three consecutive terms of 0-5 years on her convictions. The board originally set a parole date for April 16, 2019, but because she completed the prison’s ExCell residential substance abuse treatment program, plus culinary arts & business technology programs, she was released early, on October 16, 2018. She served four years & two months at the state prison in Draper. Dea’s attorney said that she had an unstable mother & she began drinking at age thirteen, later turning to drugs. She was abused by both Eric as well as a previous husband. Nevertheless, she had managed to finish high school, obtain her nursing degree & purchase a home. However, she relapsed & began using drugs again.
Dawn expressed sadness that she ever trusted Dea who was a mother of two young daughters herself. She indicated that her biggest mistake was making the assumption that she was like herself or other moms she knew. She never fathomed that they could be capable of doing what they did. Prior to her disappearance, Dawn had never met Eric, but when she finally did, she had the most horrible feeling in the world. Had she met him beforehand, she likely would never have allowed Alexis to babysit at his home.
Both Dawn & her husband, Alexis’s step-father, Mike Miera, are warning other parents to keep an eye on their children & who they’re spending time with & not assuming they’re safe based on the fact that they might live in a nice neighborhood. Dawn remembers her daughter as a “look at me” type of girl with a large personality & a large force that drew everyone to her. She said that as beautiful as she was, Lexi was also smart & someone she believes would have made a big difference in the world. She was someone who could drive you crazy while making you laugh at the same time.
References:
- AP: Warrants detail sex, drugs in death of Utah teen
- Deseret News: Eric Millerberg injected 16-year-old Alexis Rasmussen, then put her in garbage bag, prosecutors say
- The Salt Lake Tribune: Utah woman pleads guilty in death of babysitter Alexis Rasmussen
- Deseret News: Eric Millerberg gets 6-years-to-life sentence in ‘reckless’ death of babysitter
- CBS News: Utah man gets life sentence for teenage babysitter’s drug-fueled death
- Deseret News: Eric Millerberg back at Utah State Prison following attack in jail cell
- Standard-Examiner: North Ogden woman who helped dispose of babysitter’s body gets out of prison early
- KSL.com: Millerbergs charged in Alexis Rasmussen homicide case
- ABC7NY: Prison time for woman charged in babysitter’s overdose death
- CBS News: Body identified as that of missing Utah teen Alexis Rasmussen
- The Salt Lake Tribune: Alexis Rasmussen
- KSL.com: Family shares sadness, anger over Alexis Rasmussen’s death
- The Salt Lake Tribune: Hundreds attend funeral of Alexis Rasmussen
