Bill Miller and his wife, Gendie Miller, loved watching their 16-year-old daughter, Marlee, play softball. The couple from Ligonier, Pennsylvania, traveled to McKeesport to watch her play in the Western PA College Showcase softball camp on July 23, 2025. While watching the game, tree branches began to fall on the couple. Bill Miller got out of the way in time, but Gendie Miller was not so lucky. Tragically, the branches injured the 49-year-old woman so seriously that she died.
Bill Miller said he heard the branches begin to crackle and told his wife they’d better move quickly, WTAE reported.
“I jumped out of my chair, felt a small branch of some sort that grazed my leg. And I immediately turned to my right to look back at her, and she was face down with large, multiple branches and limbs,” Bill Miller said.
He said the branches were 10 to 12 inches thick. Despite being rushed to Forbes Hospital for treatment, Gendie Miller succumbed to her wounds.
“To be so traumatic, and with the heavy load of the type of branch and limb, it was devastating. And I can tell you that she didn’t die from her heart, because her heart’s too big,” Bill Miller said.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time. An evening that started like any other, with families and friends gathered in the park for a game, has ended in tragedy after this horrible accident,” McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko shared in a statement obtained by WTAE.
Michael Mull created a GoFundMe account to help Bill Miller and Marlee following their devastating loss.
“I coach with this man on our daughters’ travel softball team. He has and would give the shirt off his back for anyone that needed it. Marlee is like another daughter to me as I would do anything for her, and I always jokingly told Gendie she’s the 2nd wife I never wanted because she’d always mess with me like my own,” Mull wrote.
“Everyone has been so amazing and generous during this horrific time. The Millers are beyond grateful, as every penny donated is going to help them in a very big way,” he shared in an update. The campaign has raised more than $54,000 thus far.
