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DRAPER — A woman who pleaded guilty in 2014 to obstructing justice and desecration of a body in connection with a drug overdose of a 16-year-old baby sitter in 2011 was released from prison Tuesday, according to online records.
Dea Millerberg, 45, was paroled after meeting conditions for early release, according to the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole online database. Utah State Prison records also show she had been paroled. She was originally sentenced to be released in 2019 when she was sentenced in 2014.
Millerberg, along with her husband Eric, was charged in 2012 in relation to the death of Alexis Rasmussen in September 2011. Authorities said Alexis died from a drug overdose and her body was dumped in a remote area of Morgan County.
Eric Millerberg was sentenced 6-years-to-life in March 2014 after a jury convicted him of child abuse homicide. Dea Millerberg testified in court that Eric Millerberg injected Alexis with methamphetamine and heroin, which she overdosed from. She also told the court they prepared drugs, drank alcohol and engaged in sexual activity the night Alexis died.
Alexis was reportedly baby-sitting the Millerbergs’ two children the night she died. Dea Millerberg, who was a former nurse, said she tried to resuscitate Alexis, but she died. The Millerbergs then hid Alexis’s body, which wasn’t found until Oct. 18, 2011.
Dea Millerberg pleaded guilty to obstructing justice, acquiring prescription drugs unlawfully and abuse or desecration of a human body, each third-degree felonies, in June 2014. She told the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, “I feel like I do deserve to be here” during a 2015 hearing. She was denied parole, but officials acknowledged that she had cooperated with authorities in the case.
Dea Millerberg was denied parole again in 2017. The Utah Court of Appeals also rejected a request for a new trial by Eric Millerberg in February 2018.
