Investigator Testifies About Efforts To Locate May Millete's Remains

CHULA VISTA, CA — Though May Millete's body has never been found, a District Attorney's Office investigator testified Monday that the Colorado River Reservation near the California-Arizona border emerged as a promising area to search for her remains.

The testimony came in the trial of Larry Millete, who is accused of murdering his wife of 20 years, who disappeared on Jan. 7, 2021. Police have said there is no evidence of May leaving the family's Chula Vista home after the afternoon of Jan. 7, nor any evidence to suggest she was alive after that date.

Investigators have been unable to pinpoint Larry Millete's whereabouts for a period of about 12 hours on Jan. 8, but surveillance footage captured the Millete family's Lexus SUV departing the home early that morning.

Investigator James Rhoades said through an analysis of travel records, cell phone activity, and financial records, he attempted to account for all miles the Lexus traveled between late December of 2020 and late January of 2021.

Rhoades said there were 444 miles he could not account for and testified that approximately half of that mileage was consistent with a one-way trip from Chula Vista to the Colorado River Reservation.

The investigator testified that the region also caught his eye because of the Millete family's propensity to drive through or near that area on their numerous family trips to places like Lake Havasu.

Rhoades testified that he personally drove to the reservation, which he described as a "vast" rural area filled with open space. However, he said efforts to locate May's body were unsuccessful, as there were "too many possibilities," as far as potential sites for her remains.

Rhoades said investigators downloaded data from the Lexus' "infotainment" system, but it could not provide them with precise location data.

However, investigators were able to recover data pertaining to "power on events," which Rhoades said indicate when the vehicle is turned on.

The last such event prior to the Lexus returning to Chula Vista happened at around 3:30 p.m. Jan. 8, according to Rhoades. Investigators also found a navigation search entry in the system that occurred at around 3:30 p.m. While the map search does not include a starting location, the end location was entered as the Millete residence, he testified.

Rhoades' testimony on Monday also covered Larry's communications with "spell casters" during the week of Jan. 1 through Jan. 8, 2021.

Prosecutors say Larry's desperation to get his wife to give up her plans for divorce included purchasing "spells" he believed could magically influence her behavior.

Leading up to Jan. 7, Larry's messages to multiple spell casters appeared to increase in frequency and his written pleas to the supposed magic practitioners described a need for urgency due to May's firm intention to divorce him.

On Jan. 4, Larry asked a spell caster to make May "remain faithful and focused on me" and to banish all men in her life other than himself and the couple's young son.

"I want and need her to want to spend ALL her time with me and our children please," another message on Jan. 4 read.

On Jan. 5, he purchased a "Blazing Fast Mind Changing Spell" and urged a spell caster, "It's not too late to turn this around. Please I'm begging you."

On Jan. 6, he messaged a spell caster, "She wants me to let her go. Please, the situation is critical."

On the morning of Jan. 7, he informed multiple spell casters that May took off her wedding ring.

"Now she's saying nothing I can do will change anything," he wrote one spell caster.

Later that morning, he sought to have a spell make May sick, as he indicated that was "the only time she's nice to me."

He also described his wife as "out of control" to many of the spell casters.

"She's out of control and pushing and pushing. I think she wants me to snap," he wrote.

At around 3 p.m., he told a spell caster, "I'm shaking inside and ready to snap."

From the afternoon of Jan. 7 onwards, Larry's communications with spell casters dwindled and had little to do with May, according to messages presented in court.

On Jan. 9, Larry reached out to a spell caster and asked them to remove any hexes from May and place them instead on the co-worker May had an affair with, James "Jamey" Laird. Subsequent messages with spell casters focused on attempts to "hex" or "punish" Laird.

Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles told jurors in her opening statement that Larry displayed obsessive and controlling behavior toward his wife prior to her disappearance, but afterwards "seemed unconcerned" about where his wife was, didn't take part in the numerous searches for May in the months that followed and ceased his months of requests for magic spells to be cast on her.

By JASON KUROSU / City News Service