Lacey Miller

Lacey was first seen as the girlfriend of River Boy leader Gage Reynolds. She encountered Theo when he came to the River Boys’ compound for work and they quickly struck up a flirtatious relationship over their interest in cars. When one of the River Boys, Mouse, was arrested, Gage put pressure on Lacey to find a replacement driver for their illegal racing, prompting Theo to volunteer. After he won the race, Lacey had sex with him in the garage, being caught out by Sonny. She continued having liaisons with Theo and was impressed when he stood up to Gage over being allowed to race his own car. Theo told her he wanted them to be together but Lacey told him they couldn’t be more than they were. She admitted to Sonny that Gage might know about them and he gave her his number. She was deeply worried when Gage then summoned Theo to a remote spot and she failed to stop Gage lowering Theo’s car onto him, being dragged away by Gage and only just managing to alert Sonny.

Lacey initially pleaded ignorance when Cash brought them in for questioning but later went back and asked Cash about protection, giving a full statement before making sure she was with Gage when he was arrested. She visited Theo in hospital but Leah told her not to come there again. Cash hid her temporarily at the station where she revealed herself to Justin when he came looking for information for Theo. She found threatening messages on her phone and called Theo to say goodbye before being taken to a safe house. However, she quickly withdrew as a witness and went to see Theo at the Diner flat, with them firmly established as a couple. Despite withdrawing herself, she accompanied Theo, Sonny and Dana as they headed off to court but they were ambushed en route, with Lacey and Dana left stranded in the middle of nowhere while the boys were kidnapped. Lacey planted her phone in the River Boys’ car to track it and alerted Cash, then volunteered to give evidence after all, getting Gage convicted. Afterwards, she was reunited with Theo.

Lacey somewhat awkwardly joined Theo in attending a meal with Leah and Justin where Leah apologised to her. She was staying at a backpackers at first but later accepted an offer to move in with Theo. Leah offered her a job at the Diner but she was hoping to get a job on her own merits. She told Theo that Leah reminded her of her mother, who had died in an accident, and received a reminder not long after when Cash called her into the station, which turned out to be a pretext by his new sergeant, David Langham, her estranged father. Lacey had left the family home six months earlier, and changed her surname to her late mother’s maiden name. She told Leah that David had been more interested in forgiving the driver that killed her mother than supporting her. She considered leaving town but decided to stay after telling David she wanted nothing to do with him.

She was unhappy when her sister Jo came to town, since she had been the driver in question, and their first meeting led to a fight and them both being arrested by Cash. She revealed to Cash that Jo had driven into a tree when their mother was a passenger and no-one had ever found a reason why, leading her to suspect David had covered something up. Lacey made an attempt to hand her CV out around town but Mali said he wasn’t hiring and Eden refused to take the CV at Salt given her River Boy connections. Mali later changed his mind and hired her at the board shop but she was shocked to learn she was expected to give surf lessons despite not being able to surf and called Theo for help. She confessed to Mali soon afterwards and he agreed to keep her on in a sales and admin role. She told Theo the full story about her family after he met David and Jo. She attended Kirby’s launch with Theo and was surprised to learn she was not only his ex-girlfriend but also his former songwriting partner, but quickly made it clear she wasn’t bothered.

She heard Theo had been mugged and was unhappy to learn Jo was his nurse and David was investigating the case. She was suspicious of the person he had sold his car to and placed a similar advert. When the same buyer turned up with the money stolen from Theo, Cash was on  hand to arrest both him and the thief. She nearly got into trouble after being rude to Jo at work, then had to admit that, with Mali away, the board shop hadn’t been making money. She and Abigail came up with a plan to push sales and pre-orders and get Theo to take lessons. David told her he had sold their old house and gave her a box of her things. Sorting through it brought back memories and she met with David to reflect on the past but turned her back on him again when he recalled taking her to the shop to get her ballet shoes which he did with Jo, rather than them being a present. David offered her $100,000 from the house sale but she refused it. She asked for her mother’s eternity ring and, on learning Jo had it, tried to get it off her, with Alf and Theo having to step in. She eventually suggested a compromise where David had the ring but still refused to have anything to do with Jo.

She asked David for the money from the house sale, intending to use it to hire a private investigator to look into the crash. However, although she did hire someone, Vivienne White, she immediately dropped the case, leaving Lacey thinking Jo had warned her off. She realised Theo wanted to help Justin at the garage so convinced Abigail to fire him from the board shop. Mali asked her to learn to surf so she could take lessons and Theo offered to teach her but she admitted she was scared to go that far out in the water. Theo instead arranged a job share where he did the lessons first thing and Lacey continued to work in the shop.

When David and Jo moved into the beach house, David gave Lacey a key. With encouragement from Theo, she visited and agreed Kristina would like the house but refused to live there. She returned the key when David shut down a party at the flat. Although she was relieved that Jo was all right after hearing of a stabbing at the hospital, she still wanted to avoid her family and considered leaving Summer Bay. Theo talked her out of it. Jo accused her of being behind David reinvestigating the crash, which was the first she’d heard of it. David explained that he felt they couldn’t move on unless he was certain nothing was missed. Lacey learned Jo was the one who called the ambulance, something she hadn’t been able to remember. Just as she was willing to give up on getting answers, she learned from Cash that Jo had undergone hypnotherapy and remembered another car forcing them off the road. She tried to steal the case file but was caught by Cash, so got Jo to tell her what she remembered only for Cash to tell them memories recovered by hypnotherapy weren’t admissable. Jo told her she’d seen a man at the station that seemed to recognise her and Lacey got Jo to lure David away from the station by claiming to have a panic attack, then photographed his evidence board. However, she didn’t tell Jo or Theo what she’d found.

Having identified a photo she’d seen as Councillor Craig Wendell, she began calling him posing as a podcaster, claiming to have witnessed the accident and threatening to go to the media. She confided in Theo, who was arranging a trip to Tasmania for them. She then told Jo and they found Wendell’s name in the condolence book after their mother’s funeral, telling David. Although she promised to keep David in the loop, she secretly convinced Jo to undergo hypnotherapy again where she remembered someone coming to the car and checking on Kristina before leaving. Lacey rang Wendell, telling him to meet her at Waratah Drive, then grabbed Theo from Cash and Eden’s wedding reception as back-up. She told Wendell she would go to the police unless he confessed. He pretended to agree, then tried to run her over. Theo pushed her out of the way but was run over himself and died. Lacey gave a statement then went to see Leah only for her to blame her for what happened and order her out, later railing at her again at the police station. She realised Leah wouldn’t want her there when Theo’s friends gathered on the day of the funeral but went round to tell her when she heard Wendell had been arrested, only to be thrown out again. Feeling unable to stay on at the flat, she asked David and Jo to get her things so she could move into the beach house.

Feeling at a loss, she spent some time at the police station helping David with photocopying before asking Mali if she could return to work. She refused to talk to Peter Rolfe, a journalist looking to do a story on Wendell, and quickly worked out Jo was secretly seeing Tane, supporting her. She approached Leah about marking Theo’s birthday together but Leah rejected the idea. David organised a family meal to mark it instead. When Rolfe printed his article painting her as a hero, she was confronted by an angry Leah and was unable to convince her she hadn’t said anything to him. However, she turned down David’s suggestion of taking out an AVO. She was slightly bemused to find Jo spending time with her ex-boyfriend Eddie Shepherd after he came to town by chance. David spoke to her about recording a victim impact statement and she convinced Leah to do one too, which helped resolve the tension between them. She let Leah know when the news came through that Wendell had been given a minimum of twenty-five years without parole. She refused to say anything except basic facts when Tane tried to question her about Eddie but questioned David about their break-up, noting Theo fought for them to be together and suggesting Jo deserved someone who would do the same. She was convinced to accompany Jo on a trip to see Eddie perform and acted as her confidante when Eddie proposed to her on the journey, shortly before the train crashed.