Slaying probe tests ongoing

Evidence examined in June 9 Pittstown shooting

Shell casings and other evidence recovered from the house where a 19-year-old former high school football all-star was fatally shot are being tested as State Police investigators seek to speak to several people about the early morning June 9 homicide, authorities said.

Nathaniel M. Miller was inside his home at 151 Jay Herrington Road when several intruders tried to enter through a window, troopers said. Someone shot into the house, fatally wounding Miller at 3:35 a.m., authorities said.

“There are several people we’d like to speak to,” Trooper Kerra Burns, a Troop G spokeswoman, said Thursday.

Jay Herrington Road runs through the woods in this rural town in northern Rensselaer County. Investigators haven’t found the usual wealth of video from surveillance cameras that has become a hallmark of crime investigations in urban and suburban areas.

In the hours after Miller was shot, drones were flown over the area to photograph the

wooded terrain and a search was made for cameras that hunters or wildlife observers may have mounted in the area around the residence.

A motive for the killing has not yet been determined, Burns said. Troopers are not yet prepared to discuss what type of firearm was used to kill Miller.

Miller graduated from Hoosick Falls High School. He was a Section II all-star football player.

After Miller was shot, three people who attempted to enter the house ran from the residence into the surrounding wooded area. There are about 10 residences along the road, according to Rensselaer County property assessment rolls. Jay Herrington Road is located in the Buskirk section of Pittstown.

Troopers recovered a black sweatshirt that one of the three suspects is believed to have left behind when they fled. The sweatshirt has white detailing showing a kneeling angel.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Matthew Hauf said the sweatshirt and other items have been sent to the State Police Forensic Investigation Center for DNA evaluation and other analysis. The shell casings are among the evidence that forensic scientists are studying. The lab also is reviewing electronic equipment.

Hauf confirmed that investigators have several persons that they want to speak to as they build their case.

Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked by State Police to contact their tip line at 1-800-4483847 or crimetip@troopers.ny.gov.