438: He Hired a Witch on Etsy to Cast a Sex Spell, Then His Wife Disappeared | Maya Millete

May is still missing. We continue to hope that one day she will be found. We still have to bring my sister home. This is not her at all. I had right away knew there's something really wrong here. Larry was the last person that saw her. He went on the internet. I found a website that does witchcraft, cast spells. Brothers in the Rutherland were out knocking the outdoors, giving up flyers. Do you think my life at house on around? No. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of serialously. (upbeat music) Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to an all new episode of serialously. With me, your host, and your true crime bestie, Annie Elise, clocking in for duty. We got another case. We've got to talk about it. Look, before we get into it, 'cause it is a wild one. It's also one that is happening not too far from where I live. And so I've been following it closely since the very beginning. I feel like my new, I don't know, intro or tagline. It needs to be like, I hope you're having a good day 'cause I'm about to shit all over it. Because I feel like that's what I come here to do. It's not like I'm making your day any better, I fear. But anyway, this case isn't extremely important because I think it's incredibly educational. I think so many of us need to be more aware of the dangers that are lurking in plain sight around us. And also it's another reminder that when something feels off, it's important that you say something. Whether that's to a friend, a family member, a loved one, law enforcement, whoever it may be. And today's case, it didn't really happen that long ago. It was 2021, so just a few years ago. In 2021, Maya Malete, a wife, sister, friend, and mother of three, was looking forward to the start of a new year. She was planning a big family trip to Big Bear, which is a mountain ski town near Los Angeles. It's right outside of LA. It's kind of like the closest area where we can go to ski, to snowboard, get snow in Southern California. But she was going there to celebrate her daughter's 11th birthday on January 10th. Now Maya talked to her extended family every single day. She was also extremely close with her five siblings. They had a group text chat. There was always an open line of communication. But on January 7th, that open line of communication suddenly just stopped. Now for the first few hours, Maya's siblings, especially her sister, Mary Kreese, didn't really think much of it. They knew that Maya had a lot on her plate, especially with the upcoming birthday trip. So they didn't over a react. They were just kind of like, okay, she must be busy. Then the following day, on January 8th, Maya still wasn't answering any of her siblings' calls or texts. So, I mean, not answering for a few hours. That was one thing. But now after an entire day had passed, they knew that something just was not right here. Even if she were incredibly busy, she would have always had found time to send a quick text message. So before long, all five of Maya siblings realized the same thing. None of them had heard from her. So then, at around 6.30 pm on the 8th, her brother, J.R. went over to her house. Now, when he arrived, Larry, Maya's husband, and their three kids were all still there, yet there was no sign of Maya. J.R. asked his nine-year-old niece where Maya was, and she said that Maya had been up in her room for the last 11 hours by herself. She hadn't even come out to feed her or her sister during the day while they were there doing their homeschooling, all while her little brother and her dad, Larry, were gone. Just saying, "Mom's been upstairs. She hasn't even given us any food. She just kind of locked herself in her bedroom. We don't know what's going on." So then, when J.R. confronted Larry, the dad and the husband, he initially said, "Hey, I've been at work all day. I have no idea where Maya's at. I don't know what she's doing." However, later, he changed his story, telling J.R. that he had actually taken their four-year-old son to the beach that day. No less the beach for 12 hours. Either way, he claimed whether it was work or the beach, he had been gone all day and he couldn't confirm whether or not Maya ever left the bedroom. Now, at that point, her brother, J.R. obviously felt like something was off, but Maya's bedroom door upstairs was closed. So he figured, "Okay, maybe she just really didn't want to be bothered. Maybe there was some sort of fight. Maybe she was pissed off. Maybe she just wanted to be left alone." So he didn't check and he decided to leave the house instead. However, before leaving the area, he drove down the street so that he could get a better look at the windows of Maya's room, hoping he might be able to look up and see her walking back and forth in front of the window or maybe peering out the curtain to make sure that her brother left, but he saw nothing. The lights weren't even on in the bedroom. So he relayed all of that information to the rest of the siblings and it definitely did not make any of them feel any better about the situation. So that's when her sister, Mary Kreese, really started to worry. She and her husband, Richard, decided that they were gonna stop by the house the following day, just so that the two of them could check it out together. I mean, even if Maya was stressed out and wanted to be alone, surely she would at least talk to her sister, even if it was just through the bedroom door. But when she and her husband got to the house, they knew right away that something was off. Larry, again, answered the door, telling them that Maya was home but that she didn't wanna talk with anyone. Just like he had told her brother, J.R., the day before. Yet her sister thought that that was really strange and so she insisted that Larry let her speak with her sister without really being able to fight back, Larry let them inside. And when they got inside, the house was a complete mess, which her sister immediately thought that that was unusual, because no matter what was going on in their lives, Maya had always kept a clean house. She even had a house cleaner who came by regularly for the last three years. So seeing it just disheveled and messy, that was weird. Richard, the brother-in-law, also noticed how cold it was in the house. He couldn't help but shiver. Now, it was January, remember which I get it in Southern California? That doesn't really mean much. It's warm outside, but still the AC was blasting. So why was it so cold? Like what's going on here? And Marikris was not going to leave without her sister. So she told Larry that he needed to let her into the room where Maya was at. She didn't care if Maya wanted to be left alone or had told Larry not to let anybody in. She was not going to leave without seeing her sister. So Larry opened the door. But when they all peaked their heads into the room where Maya had allegedly been since the seventh, there was no one there. Now at this moment, her sister already had a sinking feeling in her gut that something was terribly wrong. I mean, seeing that empty room only confirmed it too, where the heck was Maya? At 11.50 pm, she called the Chula Vista Police Department and she reported Maya missing. And she said that nobody had heard from Maya since the evening of the seventh. But that wasn't all she said. Her exact words to the dispatcher were, "I want to report a missing person with possible domestic violence involved." She explained that Maya and Larry had been having marital issues and she knew that they had been fighting recently, which the fact that her mind immediately went to a possible domestic dispute situation, this was alarming, especially since nobody had heard from Maya or seen her in what was now two full days. All the signs at the family's home pointed to Maya being home too. I mean, her car was still there, so was her purse, which had her ID in it and all of her debit and credit cards. The only thing that was missing was her phone. But it wasn't just that Maya hadn't been answering calls or text messages either. It was the fact that her phone appeared to have either died or had been shut off at 125 AM on the eighth. So what was really going on here? And more importantly, who was Maya? And what could have happened? Maya was 39 years old in 2021 and she lived with her family in Chulavista, California, which is just south of San Diego. Larry and Maya first met in Honolulu where they were both working at a fast food restaurant. Both their families were originally from the Philippines and they had immigrated to Hawaii to start new lives. So they both had a lot in common with one another. When Larry turned 18, he joined the Navy and he and Maya didn't want to be apart. So they ended up getting married, which at this point, Maya was just 19 years old at the time. They were both so incredibly young. And while their families were shocked, they were also supportive. It seemed like they both came from the same culture, the same background, the same family. They just wanted to be together. Now Maya had always valued education and she was also considered the smartest of her siblings. So after high school, she graduated from the University of Hawaii and eventually their path led them to Chulavista where they then settled down and they started a family. By 2021, Maya and Larry, who had been together for 20 years at this point, had three children together, two daughters and a son. They were ranging from four years old to 11 years old. Now Maya had accomplished a lot in her life. But being a mother, that was her favorite role. She was incredibly hands-on and she was so proud of her kids. It was another reason why her sister knew that something was just very wrong when she saw that empty bedroom. Maya would never willingly leave her children, especially their youngest being only four years old. There was just no world where Maya would simply take off and leave them behind. So after making that missing person call, the police can. to the Millette House so that they could speak with Larry, also so they could speak with the brother-in-law Richard and her sister, Mary Chris. Now right away, it was clear that there were very different reactions. Her sister and brother-in-law were worried sick, obviously, like that is the natural reaction, right? But Larry, he seemed surprisingly calm. He told the investigators that he hadn't technically seen Maya since the seventh, though he claimed he had "heard her" moving around in the kitchen on the evening of the eighth. Still, though, he wasn't concerned. He assumed that she had just gotten too stressed out, simply needed some time alone, a break from everyone and everything, and that she just was doing her own thing. So the police did a quick look around the house. They didn't see anything that immediately stood out and they eventually left. But this didn't sit well with her sister and brother-in-law. They felt like the police just weren't taking their concerns seriously. The next day was Maya's daughter's eleventh birthday. Remember, the birthday that was coming that was supposed to have the fun big bear trip? Now, by that point, Maya's extended family all had gathered at the family's house, unsure of what to do next. They knew in their hearts that something was wrong here, but Larry's calm demeanor almost made them question their own instincts. So they tried to make the daughter's birthday feel as normal as possible. But, I mean, how normal could it be? And in between sitting together in the living room, trying to act normal for this little 11-year-old girl, their family was also out in the neighborhood, looking for clues, trying to juggle the two things. They even went door-to-door asking neighbors if they had any security cameras that might have captured anything. And when I say Maya's family, I mean her whole family, her siblings, their spouses, her parents, however, Larry. Larry wasn't doing anything at all. He just kept telling them that Maya was going to show up eventually. That, you know, she'll be back. She'll show up. You're over reacting. At one point, he even suggested that maybe she had gone hiking and that she would be back soon. Which, yeah, Maya loved being outdoors, sure. But a multi-day hiking trip where she missed her daughter's birthday and also turned off her phone and didn't tell a single person where she was going, hmm, no, probably not. That didn't make a whole lot of sense. So luckily Maya had plenty of people in her corner, even if her loser husband wasn't one of them. She had her close family, extended family, friends, co-workers, and once words spread that she was missing, everyone came together offering to do whatever they could possibly do to help. Very quickly, Maya's name and face were everywhere in Chulavista, also in the surrounding communities and all over social media. Her family also created a Facebook page called Help Find Maya. And there, they started posting about her disappearance from day one. She's not going to leave her kids. Not at all. Her case really took off. And it wasn't just on the local news. It was covered by every major news network and featured on Dr. Phil. I mean, it was everywhere. You name it. This, obviously, Mary Chris has been a huge local story that we've been continuing to follow. But what is it like now to see this national spotlight put on the disappearance of your sister? Yeah, it's early in a way, but not a good circumstance beyond the national TV, but then again, you know, we do like, we do want that national exposure for my sister's story. Maybe somewhere somehow somebody's still out there that maybe knows, you know, or have seen my sister, you know, not just locally, maybe in, you know, outside of, you know, the Sunday area or maybe national. So we are glad that Dr. Phil covered her story. On top of that, her family started reaching out to anyone that they thought might be able to help. Because in those first few days after Maya was reported missing, they didn't feel like the local police were treating the case with urgency. I mean, at least not the urgency that it deserved. So Maya's family reached out to attorney and former Air Force Colonel Billy Little. Billy was and still is very well known in the true crime community. He's appeared on 48 hours numerous times, and in his free time, he volunteers with the Cold Case Foundation. And Billy moved quickly. By January 11th, he was at Maya and Larry's house looking around, talking with Larry, trying to get a sense of what could have happened here. And there were a couple of things that stood out to him. First, Larry didn't seem particularly grateful to have Billy there asking questions. In fact, Billy said that Larry came across as unconcerned, if not a little annoyed by the whole thing. He also noticed something about the condition of the house. Whether it was still as messy as her sister had described a few days earlier, I'm not exactly sure. But what Billy did notice was that the majority of the doors and windows were open. Now, this is one of those things where people can reasonably disagree about whether it was suspicious or not. But according to court documents, the day that Maya disappeared, the high temperature was 63 degrees, and the low temperature was 50 degrees. There was also some fog. So for some people, that's just way too cold to have all the doors and all the windows open. Yet for others, they say, "Oh no, it's a nice breeze. It's perfect weather." So again, whether or not it was suspicious, it's really up for interpretation. But Billy said that in his professional opinion, it looked like someone was trying to air out the house. Larry had told them that the air conditioner was broken, and that's why he was doing it. So I didn't ask him when I went in there. I already expected that to be the condition of the house. I was mostly, at that point, seeing if I could smell anything, if I could smell any bleach or smell the smell of a dead body. And of course, there's absolutely no smell. I mean, the air movement was such that you couldn't smell anything in that house. Now, I noticed something about that clip right away. In the grand scheme of things, it may not be all that important, but it is another little inconsistency. When her sister and brother-in-law went to the house on the eighth, they both noticed how messy and cold it was, and Richard specifically remembered that the AC was blasting if you remember. But then, just a few days later, when Billy visited the house and saw all of the doors and windows open, Larry said it was because the AC was broken. Now, maybe it broke between those two visits. I don't know, sure, that's absolutely possible. But it is something that stood out to me because the explanations, they don't quite add up. Billy also noted something else during that initial walkthrough as well. Maya's family had told him that they noticed that a freezer was missing, and Billy wanted to document that himself. How did you know that there was a freezer missing when you did that walkthrough? Again, I've been informed by other witnesses that I spoke to that there was an allegation that there was a freezer that had been taken out of the garage, and that turned out to be true. Can you tell me, okay, where did you go to look for the freezer? Where was it supposed to be in, and what did you discover when you're in the house? So the garage had been cleaned. Again, couldn't notice a smell of bleach, but the garage had clearly been cleaned. Things, I hadn't seen the garage before, but it was pretty spotless in there, and the freezer that the people told me should have been there was not there, and the people that told me that the freezer had been missing, the freezer wasn't there. So at that point, there's no reason to talk to Larry about it. He's just going to, I assume he's going to lie to me like he did on some other things, so I just tracked down the freezer myself. I left when I found the location of the freezer, actually before I found the location of the freezer, I called Trulavista Police, and I said, hey, there's a freezer missing from the garage. This said, okay, thanks. At that point, they were still accepting information from me. Then there was no action, so I found the freezer myself. I went over and found it from one of Larry's relatives, went to his house, interviewed him, inspected the freezer, and have a photo of the freezer, which I provided to you. What's his side of the story and how he got the freezer? He said that he had been planning on taking that freezer for a long time, so that was just coincidence that it happened within 24 hours or 30 hours of her going missing inside the same garage. What day is your understanding that he took the freezer out of the garage? The Saturday, the 9th of January. Do you know when? I don't. I think he said it was in the morning, but I don't. All right, okay. Now Billy even acknowledged it himself that maybe it wasn't as suspicious as it sounded. Maybe it really was just bad timing. Maybe the AC broke right after my disappeared. Maybe Larry opened off the doors and windows to cool the house down, but it also raises another question. Was he trying to let cool air in or was he trying to let something else out? And then to everyone's surprise, Larry decided to do his first public interview on January 14th. It's safe to say that Maya's family. was surprised that Larry stepped up to do anything. Let alone sit down for an interview. Because while the rest of the family had been running on very little sleep, coordinating searches and trying to find Maya, Larry had basically been like a bump on a log and stayed largely out of the public eye. But now here he was doing this interview. Larry began the interview by giving his full account of the last time that he saw and heard from Maya. Larry? Yes ma'am. Okay, right there. So first I, when it's recording, do I have your permission to record this conversation? Yes ma'am. Okay, thank you. I don't just like how we were talking Larry, I think one, but the last time you saw her was like last Thursday, I think? Visually, but she wasn't a house Friday. Oh, okay, so it was Friday. I mean, kind of just, you know, it's been almost a week now and you haven't seen from her yet, I heard you've seen her or heard from her. You have three daughter or three kids with her, and this isn't like her. No, not this long. It's the concerning and alarming part is she wouldn't be gone this long. Then he started talking about their marriage and everything that he loved about Maya as a person, everything he loved about her as a wife and a mother. At times though, the interviewer, who to the best of my knowledge, didn't know Maya personally, she seemed to help him along a bit. You know, what, you guys were married 21 years? Well, it'll be 21 years, made 21st of this year. So 20 years, it'll be 21 this year. Wow. What do you love about Maya? Oh, I love everything about her. She's very smart, kind, you know, basically just her, her social personality, her smell, just everything. And probably her love for life she loved to hike, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. She, you know, just her outgoing personality and probably a great mom. Oh, yes. Yes. The interviewer also asked him a pretty straightforward question. Why did he think all of this was happening? Did he have any theories about what happened to Maya or where she might have gone? So I mean, why do you think, what do you think happened? I mean, there's no reason that you can think of, you know, why she wouldn't be here, be here for, for kids. She wouldn't let her with ours birthday. You know, I don't want to speculate. There's a lot of speculations and, you know, people kind of like throw these, I don't know, speculations out, but right now, I just want to focus on how, you know, to get her back home safe and sound and, you know, that's it. And then I've always given in the case that I've had all about where she is. Oh, no, right now, but they, you know, I have full confidence. And like I said, the CVPD and the Navy, because they put maximum resources on our case. So, you know, this is what they do. This is what they do best. I'm pretty sure that, you know, they're going to be their job. And that's why I'm really hopeful and confident that, you know, things will work out. How are your kids taking that? That's what I mean focus for now. That's why I'm very thankful for my, my sister in law, Marcus, because she's handling all this media attention. She's actually doing everything that I should be doing, you know, out there. But at the same time, I'm just making sure, you know, it's as normal, like a normal day for them, you know, they do their school. They're, they're mainly their main routine is just kept. And, you know, I've been doing this for a while since she's been missing and they're still happy, they're lucky, most of the time. I know they've seen something is wrong, but, you know, minimize that. They don't really understand the gravity of it, but I know my oldest, my tool is kind of like see it, but I try to minimize the impact that it has on them. But although even though I'm trying to do that, I notice, you know, there's, you know, they know what's going on. A lot of people immediately pointed to Larry's explanation for why he hadn't been more involved with the media. And like so many things in this case, people were divided. Some felt it was strange, they argued that if he loved his wife as much as he claimed, then he would have made time to be more involved in the media and in the search efforts. But others saw differently. His three children were all very young and they were all living through something incredibly traumatic. So, wasn't it a good thing that he was trying to keep their day-to-day lives as normal as possible? Spend time with them, be with them and comfort them. Now before Larry's interview, there had actually been a candlelight vigil for Maya. And the biggest surprise to a lot of people, Larry didn't attend. So naturally, he was asked about it. Yeah, because they were down, he had the vigil one thing. Yes, I had my oldest down there for a little bit. And then my second youngest had tutoring, so I had to get her to come and then they had a candle today, which they missed because I allowed them to go to the park. So when I got to see a little bit of it, I was just overwhelmed and thankful for all the support. I was like, this is, you know, from all my end, it's strangers, but most of the time on TV, I mean, you see all the bad parts, but you don't see all the good parts where there's still good people out there, and they, you know, they really do care. I know. It's like, I guess that you didn't come just because you had to just like for privacy reasons or-- Yes, ma'am. Yeah, just, again, you know, I'm not, I'm not like that person to, like, basically, you know, go out there, but, I don't know, just, I just want to make sure it's focused on my wife, you know, finding my wife, not the house, and I just don't want any distractions from that. Because, yeah, police say that there's been, like, no digital footprint approach, which is really odd. You know, I, you know, police say that there's no crime at all, but it's like the whole issue. Yeah. And it's the disheartening part. The disheartening part is, you know, it's been really a really long time, and, you know, this is, you know, it's the, I don't know what to think about that. It's just so real, basically. You know, you see this stuff on the news, but you don't, you don't know how it is until, you know, it happens to you, so. Maybe they keep around early, you know, questioning you, or is that being real? No, I mean, you know, they got to do their job, I understand. So, you know, whatever it takes, they have to, you know, look at any leader. Basically, they just got to cover all their, all the protocols and stuff, so, you know, it's part of the job, I guess. What about the people that don't even know you, but they said? Yeah, that's the thing about the media, part, you know, it's upsetting sometimes that, you know, people, you know, make implications, and it's, you know, without even asking, you know, like domestic violence, I'm like, really? I guess her brothers are here, her three brothers, and they know our relationship. I've always not opened to the family about our relationship, and they're not never such a sister, so they're like, yeah, the media is sometimes they don't get their stories straight before putting it out there, or it's just maybe, you know, a irresponsible journalist or whatever, but we get it. I mean, you know, whatever makes the biggest impact to get the story or get the viewers attention. So, again, it's a double-aged sword. You get the viewers attention, you get their interest, and you know, you get the story out, they're like, oh, I'm interested, now they're following it, you know? And I'm thankful for that because whatever promotes helping find my wife, my, you know, whatever it takes, basically. So, like my sister-in-law said, she doesn't care what it takes as long as she comes home safe, and I agree. And so, you know what? You do what you've got to do, you know, and even though, you know, some of it's not all good, like I said, whatever it takes to bring her home, it's, you know, you do what you've got to do. In Marikris, you know, she's really, really doing it. Like, she's out there talking and talking to all the media, getting it promoted. So, you know, hopefully we get some kind of tip or help and, you know, get her back home. Now, here's my opinion, okay? Listening to Larry talk, if you didn't know any better, you'd probably assume that he and Maya siblings were working side by side, that everybody was on the same team, believing none of them had anything to do with Maya's disappearance, and that this must have been some random attack or abduction, and that they were both coming together trying to find her. But that's not really how the tone was going. Larry also said that he wasn't upset with the Chulavista department for doing what they needed to do to rule him out as a suspect or a person of interest. He even claimed that Maya siblings knew that he would never have laid a hand on her. But as you're able to see, that was far from the truth. Because going back to that initial 911 call, her sister immediately had told that dispatcher that she believed that this could be a domestic dispute type situation. And it didn't take long for the truth to come out about what had really been happening inside Maya and Larry's marriage. Despite being married, for 21 years. Things hadn't always been great in their marriage, especially during the year leading up to Maya's disappearance. When Billy got involved in the case, he had started interviewing everyone in Maya's life, close friends, extended family, friends, co-workers, you name it. Over the first few months after Maya disappeared, he conducted roughly 100 interviews, and those interviews gave him a much clearer picture of Maya's life, and he later turned that information over to the investigators. And here are some of the things that we now know about Maya. According to several of her friends, sometime in 2020, Maya began confiding in them that she wasn't happy in her marriage. It was clear that this wasn't a sudden feeling either. It was something that she had been wrestling with for quite a while. And Google searches from throughout 2020 showed that Maya had been looking up things like how to calculate child support payments, how much mortgage can I afford? Things that would lead anyone to believe she intended on living an independent life from Larry. At the same time, she was opening up to people she trusted about what was happening at home, and one of the people that she leaned the most on was her brother JR. JR had known for months that Maya wasn't happy and that things were rocky in the house. Sometime that summer, Maya had sent him a series of text messages expressing her concerns. She told him that Larry was toxic and mentally abusive. In her day-to-day life too, Maya said that Larry had become increasingly paranoid and constantly accused her of cheating. According to Maya, it got so bad that it got to the point where she wasn't even allowed to talk to other men, whether they were longtime friends of hers, co-workers, or even strangers that she happened to interact with at the grocery store. Because of that paranoia, Maya claimed that Larry monitored everything. He looked through her emails, her text messages, her social media. She also said even her finances weren't private anymore. Which I would assume that this was because he was trying to catch her in something. Maybe a restaurant receipt that he didn't recognize, or some other detail he thought would prove that she was hiding something, I don't know. And sure enough, I mean, it would later come out that Maya was having an affair. She was having an affair with a man named Jamie Leard. Maya first met Jamie back in the summer of 2019 when Jamie was hired to work at the Southwest Regional Maintenance Center where Maya was his supervisor. Although they met in 2019, their relationship remained professional for many, many months. However, by December, things started taking more of a romantic turn. Then on January 7, 2020, exactly one year to the day before Maya went missing, their relationship became physical. In February of 2020, Jamie's wife became suspicious that he was having an affair with Maya. This was after she saw notifications of the two of them messaging on his phone. And she knew that Maya was his supervisor. Jamie's mother-in-law even reported it to HR. So their supervisors met with both of them to sort everything out. But Jamie and Maya denied everything. They said that there was no affair happening. Jamie even claimed that there had been a huge misunderstanding in all of this. He admitted that he had cheated on his wife during a work trip with a woman named Maya, but he insisted that it was a different Maya. It wasn't this Maya, his supervisor. And it's hard to know exactly how serious the affair became. Jamie said that there were periods where they would take breaks and they would only communicate at work, but those breaks typically, I guess, only lasted a few weeks. But the two of them talked about everything happening in their personal lives. And Jamie was well aware of how unhappy Maya was in her marriage. He also would later admit that he loved Maya. But something that I found interesting is that I couldn't find anyone in Maya's personal life, whether that be a friend, a family member, anybody who knew about this affair. And anyone who could say whether Maya felt the same way about Jamie, or whether he was simply someone she trusted and confided in. So you might be wondering, okay, well, was Jamie ever looked into? Maybe this was one-sided? Maybe he was fixated on her? Maybe he was obsessed with her? Well, he was looked into. And as it turns out, his wife went into labor on January 7th, the same day that Maya disappeared. So investigators were able to verify his alibi pretty quickly. All of this to say, though, that by the summer of 2020, Maya and Larry's relationship continued to deteriorate. At one point, Maya apparently even, quote, "lost her car privileges," which is really just another way of saying that Larry wouldn't let her drive herself anywhere anymore, especially not to work. He insisted on dropping her off and picking her up himself. And this is definitely a form of abuse, okay? Anyone who's controlling your finances, your movements, your friendships, your communications, your driving, that is abuse. And Maya knew this. During one argument, she even secretly recorded Larry. And I want to play this clip for you, because I think it gives some insight into Larry's state of mind and how he was processing this affair that he clearly suspected, but at the time couldn't actually confirm. That's enough for you to wish death on me all the time. Oh, that's enough that you know that you gradually hadn't a affair since December. And you probably, whenever you got hired, whenever, and we got close to him, always keeping all that stuff, you're probably going to hire him. You know, you interview him. You interview him. Every day you do this. It was never a thing to do this. It's you always like, oh, it was the thing. But no, it was gradual. You guys, he was going for you already. He was going for you. Maya had been telling her friends and family that she felt controlled. And knowing that she couldn't even drive herself somewhere if she wanted to, I can understand why she felt like a prisoner in her own marriage. Things eventually became so bad that for a brief period of time, Maya moved in with her brother J.R. and his wife. This happened sometime in mid 2020. The source didn't specify exactly when, though I would imagine it probably was not too long after she lost all those so-called privileges. But months before Maya disappeared, she told her family that she wanted to separate from Larry. She just wanted to co-parent their children as best as they could. But Larry was not ready to let the marriage go. J.R. said that even leading up to Maya moving out, Larry would regularly call him to confide in him about the marriage falling apart. More than that, though, it almost seemed like Larry wanted Maya's siblings on his side. J.R. said that many of Larry's texts and phone calls were, quote, "to see what I could do with Maya. Basically, try to convince her to not leave him." Even after Maya moved in with J.R., the calls and texts didn't stop. Larry was also using J.R. to keep tabs on Maya. He constantly wanted to know where she was, what she was doing, who she was with, and whether or not J.R. knew anything. Now, understandably, that left Maya and feeling incredibly frustrated. Even doing something as drastic as moving out, she still couldn't get any real sense of peace or separation. In a series of text messages to J.R., her feelings were very clear. Maya wrote, "I'm tired of his mental and emotional abuse." In another text, she wrote, "He's got you all in his pockets and I'm alone and isolated, exactly where he wants me to be." Now, from everything that I've been able to find, Maya's family wasn't aware of any physical abuse. However, one of Maya's friends later came forward and said that Maya had confided in them that Larry had once choked her until she lost consciousness. The exact date of that alleged incident was never reported. Regardless, though, one thing was clear here. Maya had made it well known to the people closest to her that she believed that Larry was emotionally, mentally, and physically abusive. However, eventually Maya moved back into their true la vista home. Yet, she continued doing her research, continued confiding in friends that things weren't getting any better, and she continued saying that she wanted to leave Larry. By late December 2020, it appeared that she had made up her mind, too. She told some of her closest friends that her marriage was definitely over, and that she was going to file for divorce. It was now simply a matter of when. Now, fast forward a few weeks. At the beginning of 2021, Maya and Larry were still technically together, and the entire family took a trip to the desert for New Year's. And this wasn't just Maya, Larry, and the kids. It also included Maya's extended family and her siblings. And during that trip, several people noticed that Larry just was not acting like himself. They described him as being erratic and behaving strangely. And at one point, he reportedly asked someone if they knew anybody who could quote "get the other guy," which obviously that's a very strange comment. I would imagine it means get the other guy like the person she's having the affair with, but the person he asked really didn't know what to make of this question. So the rest of the trip continued, and everybody tried to relax and enjoy themselves as much as they could. But it seemed like Larry was still completely convinced that Maya was cheating. And it's like he was actively trying to figure out what to do about it, spiraling. Like, let me neutralize the threat, let me get rid of the other guy, then she won't leave me like trying to brainstorm and figure it all out. But after the trip, Maya once again confided in several of her siblings, including her sister, that she was done. She told them get ready because she was going to finally ask Larry for a divorce, and she believed that it was going to end badly. She literally told her sister quote "Be ready, it's going to be a messy divorce. If something happens to me, it's going to be Larry." It's going to be Larry. Let's just pause for a moment on that. We know that a woman's intuition is a very strong thing, right? Usually it's leading you on the right path and I've often said to your intuition is your first line of defense. It's there to protect you. Listen to it. Trust it. Trust your gut. And unfortunately, I feel like in so many cases women, sometimes other people, sometimes even men, do trust their gut and they do outcry and say, "If anything happens to me, it's so-and-so only for then something to happen to them and it to most likely be that person that they identified." And that conversation with her sister, that happened just days before Maya disappeared. So it makes complete sense why when her sister called 911, Larry was immediately the first person that she thought of. Maya had warned her that something like this could happen. Now, the interviews that Billy had been conducting became incredibly valuable because there wasn't a lot of physical evidence early on and those interviews really helped investigators build a timeline and start to identify people who knew exactly what had been happening in Maya's life leading up to her disappearance. And on top of that, so much of it was documented in text messages. Meanwhile, the Chulavista Police Department was conducting its own investigation. The first search warrant in Maya's case was served in late January 2021. Between January and May, investigators executed more than 20 search wards. Warrants for the house, vehicles, social media accounts, as you name it. So the police were actively working the case and trying to gather as much evidence as they could. For Maya's family, though, the process of getting answers, it felt incredibly slow, agonizingly slow. "It's just a search warrant, but it is, like you said, progress. I don't know if there was something that was more ideal for you guys that you were hoping for." "Well, you know, we were hoping for, you know, closure. I guess, you know, it's been four months and it's been too long. But we're trying to be patient, but then there's the frustrations and the family and just the waiting. It's a long time and it's heartbreaking. Kind of happy that, you know, there's a progress in the case, you know, that they are doing whatever they can, you know, to solve the case." Pretty early on in the investigation, sometime in April of 2021, investigators found something. Unfortunately, it wasn't Maya or any sign of where she might be, but it was almost as significant. The Malette's lived in a nice neighborhood and most of their neighbors had security cameras because of that, whether on their front door or covering the outside of their homes. And when the Chulavista Police Department started combing through surveillance footage from the neighborhood, they uncovered four major pieces of evidence. And honestly, each one raised even more questions than the last. In the first clip, which was recorded on January 7th, 2021, at 4.45 pm, Maya is seen driving her Jeep home, parking in front of the house, and then helping the three kids out of the car and going inside. But that was the last time that Maya was captured on surveillance footage. After she walked into the house that afternoon, she was never seen leaving it again. The second clip was recorded later that night, beginning at 9.57 pm, and there were eight loud bangs. First came five in rapid succession, then a sixth bang, about 10 seconds later, a seventh bang, about 34 seconds after that, and then finally, an eighth bang, around 23 seconds later. And listening to this, you certainly did not need to be a firearms expert to think that these bangs sounded a lot like gunshots. Like somebody emptying a bunch of rounds into somebody and then doing a couple final ones spaced out to finish the job. Now here's a clip of those initial bangs just to give you an idea of how loud they were and what they sounded like. Now this next part really stood out to me. Those gunshot-like sounds happened at 9.57 pm, then around 30 minutes later, at 10.34 pm, that same surveillance camera captured something completely different. Under normal circumstances, it would sound like a happy moment, children laughing, yelling, calling each other by their nicknames. But in this case, it feels very different. It was dark outside and well past the children's bedtime. It was also only about 50 degrees. Yet Maya and Larry's children were outside. They were playing just 30 minutes after those huge bang noises. Which what are they doing playing out at 10.30 at night when it's cold out? And right after these gunshot-like sounds, investigators were able to confirm that it was in fact their children and not just neighborhood kids, because at one point their oldest daughter called out their younger sister by name. So it makes you wonder whether Larry intentionally wanted the kids out of the house. As if he knew that he could send them outside to play, keep them distracted and keep them away from something inside the house that he didn't want them to see. The audio expert received the recording over the weekend from an attorney working with the family of Maya Miliette. Just having done some gunshots the way it peaks so quickly. And just the sound of our gun after doing 41 years of this, it's fairly easy to recognize. The other gunshots, I don't have a question about that. They do sound like they're indoors, at least the first few of them. I haven't analyzed them completely. Then there was a fourth surveillance clip. This one was recorded on January 8th, 2021 at 5.59am. Larry was seen walking outside and getting into their Lexus, which was already parked in the driveway with the trunk facing the house, so parked in reverse. He then backed the Lexus up even farther, until it was almost touching the garage. Now this feels very much ripped from the Chris Watts handbook, right? If you've seen that footage, you know what I'm talking about with the truck backed up. But it's important to point out that the camera angle never captured whether the garage door opened or not, or whether Larry loaded anything from the garage into the trunk of the car. However, he backs it up very closely, and then he went back inside. And he wasn't seen again until 6.45am, when he once again came back outside, got into the Lexus, and drove away. And he didn't return home until 6.06pm that evening. Now here's what's interesting about that, okay? That was the day that he claimed he took their son to the beach, for 12 hours, which I don't know how many people are spending 12 hours at the beach with a four-year-old. And it's just the math ain't math in, and I know what you're probably thinking, like that makes absolutely no sense. Surely investigators will look into that alibi, and don't worry, they did. But the frustrating part is there was no way to conclusively prove or disprove the alibi. Larry's phone stayed at home during that entire 12-hour period. So the investigators couldn't use location data to determine whether he actually went or not. And I got to say, that was a smart move on his behalf, leaving the phone behind. But again, what parent is leaving the cell phone behind? What if there's an emergency? What if you get a flat tire? What if something happens? Like, it seems as if I am like to back the car up all the way against like the garage door to where you're out of view, and any cameras won't capture anything. I mean, to me, well thought out, at least parts of it. Now aside from just the cell phone data, lifeguards at the specific beach that Larry claimed he visited said they didn't remember seeing him, which the problem is, eyewitness memory isn't always reliable. However, there were security cameras at the beach parking lot, and those cameras never capture Larry or the Lexus. So while yes, he was thinking through some elements of this, doesn't seem like he thought through all of them. As investigators reviewed all of those surveillance videos, especially the audio containing the gunshot like sounds, they moved very quickly. On May 7, 2021, they served Larry with a gun violence restraining order, also known as a GVRO. In this filing, investigators wrote that Larry posed a "significant danger" if he continued to have access to firearms. And Larry owned a lot of guns. Investigators recovered a total of 22 firearms from the house. Eight were legally registered to him, while 14 were not. And these firearms included AR-15s, handguns, shotguns, the whole gamut. Now Larry's response to the GVRO quote, "I'm an avid gun collector, and the firearms seized from my home twice are considered family heirlooms and have sentimental value." Now he's acting like he's the victim. The police did their investigation. There's a reasoning behind the guns being taken away in all the search warrant that they would say about his house. In late July of 2021, Larry was officially named a person of interest in Maya's disappearance. And honestly, I don't think that anybody in Maya's family was at all surprised. He is the last person that sold my sister Maya. So I think that's automatic on your a person of interest. It's nothing like nothing new. I wish they could help. Another press rule is saying we have the person responsible. of your sister. Now as significant as that announcement felt, there were still far more questions than answers at this point. The Chulavista Police Department released only a very brief statement saying that they wouldn't be providing any further details. And as the months passed, Maya's family remained just as active in searching for her as they had been from the very beginning. Meanwhile, Larry remained just as inactive. Then on Tuesday, October 19th 2021, there was major breaking news. Larry had been arrested. The official arrest documents were released publicly. And this is what the probable cause summary stated, which you'll notice that they refer to Maya as may, which was her legal name. Maya was actually her nickname. But I'm going to read this for you. The investigation has revealed that in the days leading up to January 7th, 2021, May Millete was taking affirmative steps to divorce her husband, and that Larry was determined to stop her. When Larry's desperate begging and threats failed to stop May from seeking a divorce, the thought of losing his family was unfathomable to him. May was dedicated to her career, loved her family, and she was committed to and cherished her children. There is no evidence to suggest that May left and disappeared on her own accord, or that she had the financial means to do so. Rather, the investigation has revealed that Larry had an overwhelming motive to prevent his wife from divorcing him. On January 7th, 2021, May Millete was determined to leave the marriage, and Larry Millete was determined to stop her. Based on the totality of the investigation and circumstantial evidence including surveillance video, phone, text, and social media communications and motive, we have probable cause to believe that Larry unlawfully killed his wife May and disposed of her body on or about January 7th to the end of March 8th, 2021. And take a listen to her sister's response to this. Sorry, it is just overwhelming at this time for for me. I'm still trying to take it today. It's been really important. It's a family. It's our family. It's hard to go against a family. It's been with us for 20 years. My sister did love him. She gave him three kids. She just can't let him go. And if this is not, this is still not the end. We're still have a long way to go. We're still asking the public please help us bring my sister home. Oh, where am I, please? I still want to say what is this to her? I just don't want her to come home to us. Please, if you know anything at all, please help us. Please, you're already. We did promise to her 11-year-old daughter that we will bring her mom home, please. Let the kids know where their mom is at. Let them know the truth. But they'll still be brought up. And that she didn't abandon them. She didn't just get up and leave. I also want to thank the media for never giving up on the family. My mom is a case. You guys put her face on all the television's newscast, social media. You guys never gave up on this. And you guys didn't let this case become a cold case. The media had already reported on a number of suspicious things about Larry in the months leading up to his arrest. But the arrest documents? They painted an even more troubling picture. Earlier, I mentioned that throughout 2020, Maya had been researching divorce and trying to understand what the next chapter of her life might look like for both her and for her children. And these arrest documents revealed that Larry had been doing some of his own research as well. Just very different research. In March of 2020, Larry Googled, "Plan, you take to never wake up." Then, in November of 2020, he searched Water Hemlock, which for anyone who isn't familiar, that is considered one of the deadliest plants in North America. Then, in December of 2020, he searched for three different types of drugs. And I'm going to do my best to pronounce these. But, you know, I am not good when it comes to like crazy, tricked up medical names. Floonitrazepam, Rohipnaal, and Difenhydramine. Now, according to court documents, all three of those are central nervous system depressants or sedatives that could, in theory, all be used to incapacitate someone. And actually, Rohipnaal is actually the brand name for that really crazy one, Floonitrazepam, whatever it is. And to be more specific, that one is commonly known by another name that probably is way more familiar to all of the date rape drug. So, not something that people would casually be searching for. Now, as important as Larry's arrest was, it was still devastating for Maya's family. They have long believed that Larry was responsible for her disappearance. But now, seeing an official court document state that investigators believed that Larry had killed her, it just made it feel all painfully real. I was still hoping, you know, it's just still out there. You know, and to hear the chief saying, you know, he is being arrested for a murder. I just couldn't wrap my mind around it yet. Larry, being behind bars, gave Maya's family hope that maybe Maya would finally be found and that she could receive the justice that she deserved. But time continued to pass. Investigators followed up on tip after tip, and Maya's family continued organizing searches yet, despite all of those efforts, Maya's body was still nowhere to be found. For the first time, volunteers started using cadaver dogs over the weekend in their ongoing search for missing mother of three, Maya Miliette. It's the first time volunteers have used canines as part of team Maya searches, simply because most cadaver dogs work exclusively with law enforcement search and rescue operations. Now, everyone watching this video, you know the drill by now. In a case like this, getting justice without a body is difficult. Difficult, but not impossible. With no body and no clear crime scene, the other evidence really had to be strong enough that neither one of those things mattered. And on January 25th, 2023, after a two-week preliminary hearing, a San Diego County Superior Court judge ruled that the prosecution had presented enough evidence for Larry to stand trial. So he was officially charged with one count of murder and one count of possessing an assault weapon. But he pleaded not guilty to both charges. And then Larry started talking. In August of 2023, Larry spoke with the media for the very first time since his 2021 arrest. He then spoke with them again in September. However, neither one of those interviews was released until October 2023. During the first interview, Larry and the reporter were sitting face-to-face. During the second interview, there was a glass barrier between the two of them. So if you're watching the video version of this episode, you'll notice that the interview clips do look different and that's why. So during the interview, Larry was asked point blank. Did you do it? I know I haven't done anything. Larry told us. Police have it all wrong. I'm not coming here with a bias, but I do think the average person would have to believe in extraordinary set of circumstances. To believe you. Yes, ma'am. Why should we? Because it's the truth. Did something happen in the heat of the moment? No comment. I mean, are you for real? No comment was Larry's answer to a lot of questions during these interviews. He claimed that he didn't want to say anything that could jeopardize his trial. Which, okay, I understand. But at the same time, why then agreed on multiple interviews when you know that they are going to ask you very specific questions about the case. It just doesn't make sense. I don't even want to say anything, you know. But the allegations are not rated. Why are they? Why would you say they're outrageous? I can't. I just don't want to keep you out. You have to say. My parenthesis to what you said. Even when he was asked where he believed Maya was or what he thought could have happened to her if he didn't kill her, he still didn't have much to say. No comment, ma'am. It's just, you know, I have some recommendations but don't come out during the trial. I know you've told me you think she's still alive. Is that still true? Yes, ma'am. But I'm kind of the guy that's like a prefer to best, prefer to worse. Now my favorite part of the interview was when Larry Mary was asked about the final surveillance footage of Maya walking into the house and then never seen leaving again. Take a listen. Something I keep coming back to, as I think you know, how, if Maya still alive, how did she manage to leave your home without being seen? We have this surveillance video of the last time Maya seen coming home that afternoon. How is it possible for her to have left your home without any video, any evidence, anyone seeing her? That will be coming out during the trial. There's ways, but you know, we don't want to divulge that information because, you know, the DA can use this. Even if you can explain how that's possible, how she leaves the home. If she's still alive, how do you explain no financial transactions, no self-own activity, no evidence of life? Again, that will come out during the trial. There's, you know, there's speculations that the defense has and I'll just leave it up to, you know, the trial to when that stuff comes out. Again, just a lot of non-answers. Why weren't you freaking out that weekend? Again, people react in a good way, it's shocking like a shock to the system, and you know, some people freak out, some people say, you know, I just, I just try to, again, keep my composure. I try to think through and I'm thinking about what I'm working on today, you know, I don't want them to be affected, freaking out, maybe I don't freak out, they're not gonna freak out, you know. Now, this is probably one of the better interviews that I have seen in a long time because instead of simply accepting Larry's answers, the reporter challenged him. Like, okay, you say you react differently than other people, you say that you were trying to stay calm for your children fine, but why didn't you help with the searches? That isn't really a matter of expressing emotion differently. For some moment, it kind of felt like all of San Diego County was searching for Maya. You weren't. Where were you? Trust me, the main reason I didn't go, 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 blind light, you know, so again, I don't want to answer that question. 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? I'm a kind of, I should tears in private, you know, again, see, I don't want to say that because I don't want to embarrass you, you 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, it doesn't mean that, you know, I'm not human and I don't have feelings, you know what I mean? So that was Larry's explanation for why he hadn't been involved. But then, during his second interview, he admitted that he should have done more. What would you do differently? Now, the last thing that I want to quickly go over regarding these interviews is something that, in my opinion, shows just how dishonest Larry was being. Larry had always denied knowing that Maya was planning to file for divorce. He also denied knowing that, on the day she disappeared, she had called two divorce attorneys. Even during this interview, though, when he was asked whether he first learned that Maya had made those calls, he claimed he didn't find out until the preliminary hearing. "Where's the first time you found out about that? How did you feel when you found out? That wasn't true. Maybe Larry didn't know about the specific calls to the attorneys, but at the very least, he knew that Maya was actively trying to end their marriage. There were two text messages, too. One found in Larry's phone records and another in Maya's. So that directly contradicts this idea that Larry had been completely clueless. The first message was sent from Larry's phone to his boss on January 5th at 8.31am, and it read, "She's asking for a divorce again." Which I mean, hello, that is about as clear as it gets. That message alone proved that Maya had already brought up divorce with him. The second message was sent from Maya's phone to a friend on January 6th, and this message read, "I told him I'm filing for divorce whether he likes it or not. I'm done trying to make it amicable for the kids' sakes." So both of those messages proved that before Maya disappeared, she had made it very clear that she was done for good. And while those text messages, yeah, did say a lot on their own, there was even more evidence showing that Larry had known for a very long time. Not only during the final days before Maya disappeared, but well before that. He knew that the marriage was ending and she was trying to leave, and it also showed just how desperate he was becoming. Which here's where we get into more of the evidence. I don't know how many of you listening to this episode have ever heard of the term Etsy Witches, but it's exactly what it sounds like. Witches or people who practice witchcraft and sell their services on Etsy. For a certain amount of money, they offer all different types of spells or hexes or whatever you would call it. I've seen everything from good luck spells to money spells to love spells to weather spells. And apparently Larry had seen them too. Because in his desperation to keep Maya as his wife, he turned to Etsy. Which maybe this needs to be an ad for Etsy, I don't know. But although Etsy don't come for me, this isn't going to be a marketing play for you. Because the actual website where Larry found this particular spellcaster was Fiverr. And if you haven't heard of Fiverr, it's a website where you can hire people to do things for $5 basically or like the starting price is $5. So this guy's name was Tess Joy. And I know some of you may find all of this a little bit out there, a little bit spooky. But these people are real. And these are real practices and many people believe in them. Now I will say they are mixed in with some scammers here and there. Absolutely. It comes with the territory just like anything else. But anyway, between September 2020 and January 11, 2021, Larry paid for 70, 70, 70, 0 different spells, spending more than $1,000. Now in the beginning, Larry just told these spellcasters that he wanted his relationship with Maya to improve or that he wanted them to have sex more often. But over time, his requests became much darker. Which pause for a moment and can you just talk about that? Can you imagine a guy being so desperate that he's trying to get a spell to make his sex life better? Like, not to shame anybody who feels like they do need to improve their sex life, I probably do too. But like, I'm tired, but like, I don't know. There's just a certain level of like cringe and Ike with this, like, my man, you want more sex? Like, I'm glad you're not cheating, I guess, but like, it's weird that you're trying to cast a spell over it, in my opinion. So anyway, these asks became much darker. Now, first, Tess said that Larry seemed like he was a nice guy, someone who was lost and someone who was clearly desperate enough to turn to something that he had never tried before. But as time went on, Larry became increasingly desperate in a way that Tess was no longer comfortable with. Now, Tess didn't practice black magic, so whenever Larry requested a spell that went against his morals, Tess refused. And because of that, eventually Tess cut off all communication with Larry. Because some of his requests, they just became too dark and too extreme. However, that didn't stop Larry from finding other people. And he was just treating these spellcasters like genies who could grant him these unlimited wishes. And each time, those wishes became more and more disturbing. On Christmas morning, Larry messaged another spellcaster, saying, "I wish that she would get sick and stay sick until she realized how much she loves me and needs me." Then, just two days later, on December 27th, he wrote another spellcaster saying, "Please punish me and incapacitate her enough so that she can't leave the house. It's time to take the gloves off. She's too much. She needs to be humbled down to the lowest of the low." At one point, he even suggested that she suffer broken bones or some other painful injury that would force her to depend on him. Just so sick and twisted and like, the level of if I can't have you no one will, to where he wants to incapacitate her. He wants her to be completely reliant on him. It is so scary when you really think that pee about it and realize that people like that exist. Now, obviously, these spells weren't a body, the body that they were looking for, the body of Maya, they also weren't a traditional crime scene, but they were evidence of Larry's growing desperation and his need to keep Maya trapped in their marriage. Because let's face it, the prosecution knew that this was not going to be an easy case because a murder case without a body rarely is, but there was a lot of compelling evidence. For Maya's family and friends, the beginning of 2026 brought up a lot of emotions. sadness, eagerness, anxiety, and January 27th, 2026 marked five painful years for searching for Maya and wondering what happened to her. I feel like for us January 7th, it's probably like the worst day of our family's lives. I mean, five years without closure. It's been the hardest years of our lives. I was hoping child will be done in 2021. Can you imagine that? Five years of not knowing where her final resting place was. Five years of wondering whether they would ever see justice. Five years of watching her children grow up without their mom. That's because just still out there, because I'm hoping somewhere, somehow, someone might know something, not knowing anything. So it's been really hard. It had been a long time coming, but 2026 was also the year that Larry's trial was finally scheduled to begin. Opening statements began on May 18th, and almost immediately Larry's defense team began doing everything that they could possibly do to buy more time. On May 19th, Maya's father, who was overcome with an emotion none of us could ever even begin to understand, he caused a slight delay when he yelled at Larry across the courtroom. Yelling "Why did you do this?" The defense called for a mistrial, but thankfully the judge wasn't having it. The defense also argued that investigators had focused on Larry way too early, preventing them from properly exploring other possibilities. They argued that there was no proof that a murder had ever occurred, or that Maya was even dead. The prosecution's case, though, was that Larry killed Maya and disposed of her body to prevent the divorce that he knew was coming. And for the first time, we heard where the prosecutors believed her body may be. In 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on January 8th, the period when Larry claimed he was at the beach with their four-year-old, and remember there was no proof that he actually went to the beach, they did say that there were 444 miles on the Lexus that the investigators couldn't account for. So prosecutors theorized that Larry could have traveled roughly 222 miles from Chula Vista to an area near court site Arizona. But there were multiple problems with searching that particular area. The first was that it was nothing but desert for miles and miles. Larry could have driven out there and easily gone unnoticed. The other problem was that some of that land belonged to a nearby reservation. And with that, there were very strict rules prohibiting digging without the tribe's permission. Still, though, there was hope that maybe one day Maya's body would be found and her family could finally lie her to rest. So the trial continued, and after seven weeks of testimony, the jury deliberated for less than a day, and then they came back with their verdict. Guilty of first degree murder. And it was, the heart and pounding, it's terrible. It's not a good emotion, it doesn't feel good, but it was right. We have no reservation. We took one vote, and it came back, and it was a sale vote. And we all agreed that he was guilty in the first degree. Wow, a resounding vote with no reservation, you just said. Even though there's no body, did that wave of body? She's here. He knows where she's at. He did it. It's overwhelming evidence. When you put all those pieces together, and then you look at those spell casters, and that pitch of going all the way up until, in my opinion, and the jurors that he killed her, then he stops. It's boom. And then he says, oh, the extra spells put on Jamie Lair, the one she hadn't affair with. And Larry just stopped. He didn't look for his wife, he did his demeanor, and we saw all that evidence. We heard from the witnesses. And no, I think he knows exactly where she is. Maya's friends and family were overwhelmed with mixed emotions. They were relieved the justice had been served, because this was the moment that they had been waiting for for more than five years. But at the same time, like in most cases, this would be the moment when a family could finally exhale and begin to try to heal and get peace, but Maya's family couldn't. They wouldn't rest until her body was found. Justice Paul, we have been served today, but we still have my sister out there. We still have the second step to go through. We still have to bring my sister home to bring her to her three children that's been waiting for her for five years. And we still ask about, like, for home, maybe, you know, one of these days, we can bring her home. No verdict can erase the pain of losing May or the years of uncertainty that have endured. So we hope today's outcome provides a measure of justice and accountability, while today's verdict is significant. We continue to hope that one day she will be found so her family can lay her to rest with the dignity she deserves. With that said, there are ways that we can help Maya's family, even when it feels like there's nothing we can do. Our family continues to share updates about the case through the help find Maya Facebook page. And if you live near the family, there are also volunteer opportunities to take part in future searches. So if you or someone you know saw or heard anything or has any information that could potentially help locate Maya, please contact the Chulavista Police Department at 619-691-5151. This case is so heartbreaking because her kids still don't have the closure that they deserve and need. Her family, her friends, they don't have it either. And here you have this selfish man who thought he was entitled to keep her. As property, as his, isolate her from the world, not allow her to talk, drive, do anything without his okay, then now, even in death, even when he has made the ultimate decision himself to play God, he still won't even share where her body is located. A cruel, pussy fucking loser ass little man that guy is. Not even to give his kids that closure or that piece. And this poor four-year-old, who probably was along for the ride, into this desert where he buried Maya, it's like, it's unfathomable. The trauma that he's inflicted all because what you thought, you were entitled and deserved her and she wasn't allowed to leave you, give me a fucking break, like, come on, small a man that ever lived, honestly. So thank you so much for hearing Maya's story today, please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. Let's hope, hope, and pray that one day they are able to recover her body and lay her to rest. And I'm just happy that her friends and family have stepped in. I hope her kids are doing well and I'm glad that this monster is locked up behind bars. All right, guys. I will be back on soon with you with another case. As a reminder to all of these cases are unsensored. If you're watching the YouTube version of this, you know they're always censored. So they are unsensored. The video versions on Patreon also completely add free. You can just go to patreon.com/anyeles and the unsensored audio version always will live on the podcast feed. And YouTube is a thorn on my side and so they censor everything I say. All right, thank you again so much and until the next one, be nice. Don't kill people. Don't be a pussy loser of a man. And like, don't play God. Maybe that's a good one. Don't play God. All right. Bye. [BLANK_AUDIO]