For the first time since he was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife, Maya, Larry Millete is speaking out in an on-camera interview with NBC 7 Investigates.
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What happened to Maya Millete? Larry's jailhouse interview
It’s been nearly two years since three children in Chula Vista have seen or spoken with either of their parents. Their mother, Maya Millete, is missing and presumed dead. Their father, Larry Millete, is behind bars, facing a charge of first-degree murder in her disappearance. He’s pleaded not guilty.
Larry has been silent since his arrest in October of 2021 and hasn’t cooperated with police or prosecutors. In the wake of that silence, questions keep building:
- Where is Maya?
- If she was murdered, how? And when did that happen?
- Will prosecutors be able to convince a jury that a suburban father of three, with no adult criminal history, could make his wife vanish without a trace?
Nine months after Maya vanished, shortly after Larry’s arrest, investigative reporter Alexis Rivas requested an interview with Larry. That request went unanswered. But after a San Diego County Superior Court judge ruled Larry must stand trial for murder, a new attempt in July to speak with Larry proved successful.
Over the course of four visits, which included two on-camera interviews, Larry Millete broke his silence to NBC 7 Investigates. Those interviews were conducted against the wishes of his defense attorney Bonita Martinez.
During the first two visits, NBC 7's team established ground rules for the interviews. Larry agreed that no questions would be off-limits.
Larry’s terms were unique. He told us he didn’t want his children to see their father in a jail uniform. He also believed that prosecutors would use video of his facial expressions and body language against him in the upcoming trial. So NBC 7 agreed to only show portions of Larry’s face and body.
Throughout our sessions, Larry told us: The police have it all wrong.
“I know I have, I haven’t done anything,” Larry said.
Alexis: “I'm not coming here with a bias, but I do think the average person would have to believe in an extraordinary set of circumstances to believe you. Why should we?”
Larry: “Because it's [the] truth, and I don't know.”
Alexis: “Did something happen in the heat of the moment?”
Larry: “No comment.”
At first, Larry used the phrase “no comment” a lot, saying he didn’t want to jeopardize his defense at trial.
Larry: “I don’t even want to say anything. But the allegations are outrageous.”
Alexis: “Why would you say they’re outrageous?”
Larry: “Again: I just don’t want to go into detail, because then my words can be twisted.”
Alexis: “What was the last interaction you had with Maya before she vanished?”
Larry: “Um, I just don’t want to comment about that.”
Alexis: “So where do you think Maya is now?”
Larry: “Um, no comment. It’s just, I have speculations but it'll come out during the trial.”
Alexis: “I know you've told me. You think she's still alive, but is that still true?”
Larry: “Yes ma’am. But I'm kind of the guy that's like a pray for the best, prepare for the [worst].”
Alexis: “Something I keep coming back to, because I think, you know how, if Maya is still alive, how did she manage to leave your home without being seen? We have the surveillance video of the last time Maya’s seen coming home that afternoon. How is it possible for her to have left your home? Without any video, any evidence anyone's seeing her?”
Larry: “That will be coming out during the trial. There’s ways, but you don’t want to divulge that information because the DA could use this.”
Alexis: “Well, even if you can't explain how that is possible — how she leaves the home — if she's still alive, how do you explain no financial transactions? No cell phone activity? No evidence of life?”
Larry: “Again, that will come out during the trial. There's a, you know, speculation that the defense has, and I'll just leave that to the trial when that stuff comes out.”
At 5:59 a.m. on Jan. 8, 2021, video surveillance from one of the Milletes’ neighbors captured the Millete family’s Lexus SUV pulling into the street and then backing into the garage. Prosecutors say this happened about six hours after Maya last used her cell phone.
Forty-five minutes later, with the sun coming up, video captured the SUV driving off with Larry and his youngest child inside. The SUV didn’t return to the house until 12 hours later, just after 6 p.m.
Alexis: “Where did you go for 12 hours with your cell phone turned off the day after Maya vanished?”
Larry: “Again: I'd rather not answer that question.”
During the preliminary hearing, a detective testified Larry told him that he took his son to Torrey Pines, but lifeguards told the police they didn’t remember seeing Larry or his son that day. And beach parking lot cameras didn’t spot the SUV.
Investigators say they downloaded data from the SUV’s computer. While it didn’t record the vehicle’s location throughout the day, detectives say someone entered the Millete’s home address into the vehicle navigation system at 3:29 p.m. That’s two and a half hours before Larry and his son returned home – suggesting they may have been driving home from someplace significantly farther than Torrey Pines.
Alexis: “So if you didn’t go there, where did you go?”
Larry: “Not true. I already explained where my son and I went. And the reasons why. So you know for them to try to argue that is just ridiculous.”
Alexis: “Well, why did you turn your phone off? Something detectives say you rarely did.”
Larry: “No. No. Trust me: During trial, that’ll come out. It’s not, it’s not that reason.”
It didn’t take long for Maya’s family to notice she was missing. During the preliminary hearing, her siblings testified that Larry acted like nothing was wrong, so they were the ones to call the police.
Alexis: “Why weren't you freaking out that weekend?”
Larry: “Again, um, people cope, you know, people react and cope in different ways. It's shocking. It's like a shock to the system. And some people freak out, some people stay calm. I just try to, again, keep my composure and try to think things through. And I'm thinking about more of my children. Hey, I don't want them being affected, freaking out. Maybe if I don't freak out, they're not going to freak out. You know?”
In January of 2021, it felt like all of Chula Vista stopped. Everyone was trying to find Maya. And it didn’t take long for people to notice who wasn’t part of public search events.
Alexis: “We have a huge file of video showing the hundreds of people that search for your wife, every weekend, off of hiking trails and open fields. For some moment, it kind of felt like all of San Diego County was searching for Maya. You weren't. Where were you?”
Larry: “Trust me. Um, the main reasons I didn’t go, where I was getting death threats from almost instantly. After, you know, the situation and we were doing our own thing, but it wasn't like in the limelight. You know, so again: I don't want to answer that question.”
Alexis: “If it was my boyfriend that went missing, I would lose my mind and I would be out there desperate to find him, and why don't I feel that from you?”
Larry: “I’m kinda … I shed tears in private, you know? Again, see, I didn't want to say that because I don't want to embarrass or humiliate our children because this stuff stays out there, and, you know, to hurt someone, they usually use your weaknesses against you.… So, you know, not just because I'm not weeping or crying in public, or on camera, doesn't mean that, you know, I'm not human and I, I don't have feelings, you know.”
A month after the disappearance, police say Larry stopped cooperating with their investigation.
Four months after Maya vanished, a large fire in the Millete’s backyard caught another neighbor’s attention. District attorney investigator James Rhoades testified about what that neighbor witnessed.
“It was approximately 8 p.m. at night, and she felt her windows rattling, so she proceeded to go out into her backyard, and she could see a large fire … with a single male standing by a large fire pit and that she believed it was Larry Millete, and she described the fire as being something to burn stuff, not in a recreational sense,” Rhoades said on the stand.
Police say they later recovered a burned credit card and some papers. At the hearing, Rhoades suggested that Larry may have tried to destroy Maya’s belongings. But in our interview, Larry told us a different story.
“Ma'am. That's normal practice. If you ask my next-door neighbor and my other neighbors, I've been doing [this] since 2013,” Larry said.
Larry told us the family burned junk mail all the time. Not only that, he said the fire was well after police had already searched the Millete home multiple times.
“That wasn’t Maya’s card,” Larry told us. “That was basically one of those, um, you know, those junk mail credit cards…. What evidence can I burn? Then they've already been to, that was after the third search — second or third —they did a fourth one, like a really, another extensive search. So what else can I have burned?”
But in hindsight, Larry acknowledges the optics of how he acted after Maya disappeared left room for suspicion.
Alexis: “What would you do differently?”
Larry: “Maybe I should have been more, you know, um, involved. You know. But again, it was a surreal, shocking moment. You know, thinking, 'OK, maybe there's nothing wrong. Maybe I'm just overreacting.' ”
The prosecutors' evidence against Larry isn’t limited to what happened after Maya vanished. They presented even more material from the months before Maya was last seen alive.
Alexis: “What did you love about Maya?”
Larry: “Oh, she’s kind, beautiful, very intelligent. She’s been my best friend since we were 15. And, um, you know, we just get along…. You know, over 20 years together. I loved her and love her still.”
Larry and Maya were high school sweethearts and married when she was 18. He said he still hopes Maya will come back home.
“I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make her happy, and if it takes 5, 10, 15 years, you know, I'd wait,” Larry told NBC 7.
But in court, family and friends – including Maya’s brother, Jay-R Tabalanza — testified the Milletes’ marriage was on thin ice.
“She didn’t want anything to do with him anymore,” Tabalanza said.
In fact, Maya and Larry separated for several weeks the year before she vanished. Jay-R’s wife, Genesis Tabalaza, testified that Maya told her Larry was prone to violent outbursts.
“She said that when Larry gets angry, he would punch the wall,” Genesis said.
Maya’s co-worker Kristeen Timmers said Maya revealed something even more foreboding.
“Through tears, she told me, ‘I’m afraid Larry will hurt the kids to hurt me,’ ” Timmers testified.
The hearing didn’t just reveal marital fighting. It exposed something Maya kept secret, even from her tight-knit family. District attorney investigator Matthew Grindley testified Maya had an affair with a married coworker named Jamey in the months before she vanished.
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