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Police say husband asked spellcasters to hex his now missing wife

▶ Watch Video: Searching for Maya Millete

Case update: On July 9, 2026, a jury found Larry Millete guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Maya Millete.  

Friends, colleagues and family of Maya Millete knew that it was unusual behavior for her to just disappear, but that is what happened in January 2021, just days before her eldest daughter’s birthday. Her husband Larry offered investigators and her family various stories of why Maya was gone. Did the real answer lie in something Maya may have told her husband in an argument right before she disappeared? 

Maya Millete missing poster
Maya Millete’s family last heard from her on January 7, 2021.

Maricris Drouaillet

The search for Maya, the unusual details surrounding her disappearance and her husband’s arrest is the focus of “Searching for Maya Millete,” reported by “48 Hours” contributor Jonathan Vigliotti. 

On a chilly night in January 2021, I caught the local news coverage of a missing mother of three, Maya Millete, who suddenly disappeared from her Chula Vista, California, suburban home. Maya, who also went by the name May, had been planning the birthday celebration when she seemingly just vanished. Her family last heard from her on January 7.

Larry Millete gave her family different accounts about where Maya could have gone, from hiking to visiting wine country. But according to Maya’s family, friends and colleagues at the naval base where Maya negotiated contracts for the U.S. Navy, she was not the kind of person who would just take off.  

Maya’s sister and brother-in law, Maricris and Richard Drouaillet, explained that they immediately believed something was wrong. They were sure Maya would never miss one of her daughter’s birthdays. Maricris reported her sister missing to the Chula Vista Police Department on January 9. Maya’s family and friends were adamant in local news reports that she did not leave her children voluntarily. Maricris and Richard would later tell “48 Hours” that they grew suspicious of Larry almost from the beginning.

Larry and Maya Millete
Larry and Maya Millete

Maricris Drouaillet

In a matter of days, the family’s pleas for help turned into weekly physical searches for Maya. The search parties were made up of dozens of friends, family members, colleagues of Maya’s and also strangers. They called themselves Team Maya and began looking for her in vast desert areas east of Chula Vista, near the Arizona border. They were focused on this area because Maya and Larry had gone hiking there and Larry was familiar with the area. Local media followed these searches with the hope that Maya might be found. Months later, I discovered for myself how vast, wild and desolate this location was. To search for Maya on such a terrain was a testament to Team Maya’s dedication to finding her.

The Chula Vista Police Department declined “48 Hours'” request for an interview but told local media last April that it had been conducting its own investigation since mid-January and was keeping its findings close to the vest. As I watched this case unfold over the following months, the family, and now a growing community of friends and strangers, were demanding answers about the investigation into Maya’s disappearance from authorities. Their weekly searches were also turning into gatherings of protest at Chula Vista Police headquarters. 

Although Maricris and Maya’s family say they were not getting many details from the police department, there was someone giving them some information. That person was Billy Little, an attorney and a former criminal defense investigator for the U.S. Navy who was asked to look into the case by his wife Lou, who worked at the naval base with Maya. “Somebody asks for help you just do it, right?” says Little.

Little had stepped into the case just days after Maya went missing, visiting Larry at his home on January 11 and noticing some odd things. Little says it appeared that Larry was airing the house out and he noticed what he says were a couple of recently repaired holes in the bedroom door and wall. Little also obtained numerous texts from Maya and Larry’s friends and family indicating the couple was having trouble in the marriage. 

And Little says Larry was taking some unusual approaches to try to avoid a divorce; Larry had contacted spellcasters in an attempt to get his wife to stay in the marriage. Little explains, “there are people on the internet that’ll sell you for five bucks, you know, how to make a spell that will get her to be attracted to you.”

Millete blood altar
Larry Millete’s bloody altar

Billy Little

Maya’s family and the public would learn a lot more about these alleged tactics when Larry was arrested for Maya’s murder on October 19, 2021. According to authorities, the month before Maya disappeared Larry was getting increasingly panicked, and in one message to a spellcaster Larry wrote, “Please punish May and incapacitate her enough so she can’t leave the house. It’s time to take the gloves off.” 

What’s more, authorities announced that the last known call that Maya had made was to a divorce attorney on the day she went missing. They believed that was the triggering event which led to her alleged murder.

Larry Millete has pleaded not guilty. He maintains that Maya left on her own, and his lawyer, Bonita Martinez, addressed reporters after a bail hearing, saying, “His wife was used to leaving the house in the past. You cannot rule out that she’s alive.”

Maya’s advocates bristle at some of the allegations that Larry’s attorney filed in court that suggest that she was a party girl and may have abandoned her family. They argue that Maya was a devoted mother who was dedicated to her job and family and would never leave her children.

Larry’s arrest was not the end of the weekly searches. In fact, it was just the beginning of a new pinpointed search because volunteers were now armed with evidence revealed by law enforcement which indicated that Larry may have travelled to an area two and a half hours from Chula Vista the day after Maya went missing. The family believes that area was one of the camping locations they were all familiar with in the Anza-Borrego Desert or at the Glamis, California, sand dunes in Imperial County. I joined several searches in these areas to document them on camera for “48 Hours.”

millete-search.jpg
Family, friends and strangers volunteer to help search for Maya each weekend, like this gathering in the Anza-Borrego Desert on October 23, 2021.

CBS News/Cindy Cesare

These dozens of volunteers, most of whom never knew Maya, try to meet this challenge every weekend, battling the extreme weather, the rough landscape and sometimes even rattlesnakes to try to find her and keep her story alive in the media.

Judge in Don Lemon indictment asks to see grand jury records, adding to growing scrutiny of Justice Department cases

By CNN
(CNN) — A federal judge in Minnesota will probe this week whether grounds exist to toss the Justice Department’s case against journalist Don Lemon. It’s the latest example of judges’ growing skepticism of whether the department is behaving ethically behind closed doors in grand jury proceedings.Judges across the country have signaled they are willing to give far less deference to federal prosecutors than in previous administrations and have raised concerns about DOJ’s apparent abandonment of regular practices.Federal judges in Wyoming, Illinois and Virginia have either thrown out charges or seriously admonished federal prosecutors for missteps in front of the grand jury. The botched grand jury presentments have prompted a historical review of cases in Chicago and, in some courts, new rules requiring defendants to be notified when a grand jury declines to indict.On August 18, Minnesota federal Judge Laura Provinzino issued a short but extraordinary order demanding the Justice Department provide her a wide swath of grand jury materials related to Lemon and his co-defendants, including presentations made by prosecutors and case agents, and the totality of communications prosecutors had with grand jurors resulting in their indictments.Provinzino set a Tuesday deadline to provide her with the presentation by federal prosecutors and case agents related to grand juries empaneled in January and February. Further, Provinzino told DOJ to provide any introduction, legal instructions, witness testimony, closing arguments, and answers to questions from grand jurors.Lemon’s team has aggressively pursued obtaining grand jury materials and had asked for either grand jury records to be provided to the defense or, at a minimum, reviewed by the judge privately, citing “irregularities” in the grand jury that resulted in his indictment.“There is substantial evidence of grand-jury irregularities in this case,” Lemon’s team wrote in a recent filing.“Multiple judges, including at the Eighth Circuit, found there was no probable cause to charge Lemon” and his co-defendant Georgia Fort, the filing said.Mark Wolf, a former Massachusetts District Court judge and federal prosecutor, said it is rare for defense attorneys to ask for grand jury transcripts in federal court. It is even more rare that judges grant the motions, he said.“There is a high bar to getting grand jury materials,” Wolf said. “You have to have some direct or circumstantial evidence that there has been some defect in the grand jury proceeding.”In her two-page order, Provinzino wrote that she weighed the necessity of maintaining grand jury secrecy against whether grounds may exist to dismiss the case due to a “matter that occurred before the grand jury.”She did not say she had already found evidence of any misconduct.The Justice Department’s initial attempt to charge Lemon in January for appearing alongside protestors who disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, was rejected by a federal magistrate judge, which “enraged” then Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to a source who spoke to CNN at the time.Lemon, a former CNN anchor, was later indicted by a grand jury along with several other defendants, including independent journalist Georgia Fort. Lemon has been charged with conspiring to violate someone’s constitutional rights and violating the FACE Act, which prohibits the use of force or threats to intentionally interfere with someone expressing their First Amendment right to practice religion.Lemon has pleaded not guilty to both charges. His team has aggressively pursued obtaining grand jury materials throughout the case, and earlier this month filed a motion to dismiss the case altogether.Justice Department losing credibilityWolf told CNN he does not believe the Justice Department’s credibility remains intact.“For good reasons, the Department of Justice’s reputation with judges generally has been injured,” Wolf said.In Chicago, defense attorneys urged Judge April Perry to release grand jury transcripts in the highly publicized case against protestors at an ICE detention facility outside the city.After reviewing those transcripts, Perry found federal prosecutors engaged in inappropriate actions, such as interacting with grand jurors outside the proceeding, ordering some jurors to leave in another hearing, and “vouching” to the grand jurors.Vouching is a practice where prosecutors present their own reputation while delivering their case to a grand jury. It is forbidden in grand jury proceedings because the practice effectively asks jurors to trust the prosecutor personally rather than only on the merits of evidence.“I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts,” Judge Perry said during a May 21 hearing.US Attorney Andrew Boutros then dropped the case against the protestors. Later, after reviewing the prosecutor’s conduct, Boutros opted to drop at least two more criminal cases, ordered a historical review of more than 100 grand jury transcripts, and launched reforms such as more training on grand jury presentations.“If I was a federal public defender or a private defense attorney, every case I get that’s indicted, I’m going to file a motion that is asking the judge to review the transcripts,” said Mike Fox, a current Cato Institute fellow and former Colorado public defender.“In my view, at this point, it doesn’t matter in which court it is, doesn’t matter if I have binding case law,” Fox said. “Every single case, the defense attorney should be filing, and the judge should be inquiring.”In May, a panel of three federal judges in Wyoming dismissed felony drug and gun indictments against nine defendants after the judges found the acting Wyoming US Attorney referred to defendants as “bad guys,” and “murderers,” and handed out business cards to jurors outside of the proceeding.Prosecutors opted not to appeal the judges’ order. Later, Wyoming federal prosecutors empaneled a new grand jury which issued a new indictment. The case remains ongoing.Fox believes the remedy is a more engaged judiciary where judges routinely witness grand jury proceedings.The current law doesn’t require judges to listen to proceedings, but some courts are issuing new local rules to ensure greater oversight. This spring, the Northern District of Illinois, where Boutros is US Attorney, enacted a rule requiring grand juries to alert a magistrate judge when a grand jury fails to issue an indictment.A spokesperson for the Justice Department told CNN in an email the executive office of the US Attorney provides training for prosecutors which includes grand jury practice.“On rare occasions where there is an issue, as noted in our Chicago US Attorney’s office, we took immediate corrective action and provided renewed, in-depth instruction on ethics and grand jury practice,” the spokesperson wrote.“Our US Attorneys will always follow the law and prosecute cases without fear or favor. Nobody is above the law, regardless of political affiliation. Beyond that, we don’t comment on pending litigation.”Grand jury presentments in the spotlight last yearLast fall, in the most high-profile and politically charged example of a problematic grand jury presentment, then-interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, took a proposed indictment against former FBI Director James Comey through a grand jury on her own. A magistrate judge in Alexandria, Virginia, reviewed the transcript and found Halligan may have incorrectly presented the law to the grand jury. The judge called the debacle “profound investigative missteps … to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding.”Halligan later admitted to a judge the grand jury hadn’t supported the initial version of the proposed indictment of Comey, and the full grand jury hadn’t signed off on the final charging document. That Comey case was dismissed for a separate reason, when a federal district judge determined Halligan wasn’t serving as a legitimate prosecutor. The Justice Department is appealing.But the grand jury handling in the Comey case and other cases continues to hover over prosecutors.Comey’s defense team, for instance, is attempting to pry into grand jury records in the separate, newer case against him, out of Eastern North Carolina. He is charged there with threatening the president by posting on social media a photo of the numbers “8647” written in seashells on a beach.The phrase 86 is sometimes used to say nix or get rid of something. Trump is the 47th president. Comey has denied wrongdoing in the case.“The highly irregular procedures that led to the indictment create a significant risk that the government misrepresented key issues of fact and law to the grand jury,” Comey’s lawyers wrote in a recent court filing, citing federal searches of Comey that they question.If Comey’s defense cannot gain access to the grand jury transcript, they at least want a judge to look at it to check the Justice Department’s work.Wolf said he is deeply troubled by the Justice Department’s recent actions and told CNN he believes it shows the American people that the department will use the law for partisan purposes.“It sends a message that a Department of Justice that should institutionalize our ideal of equal justice under law is not doing that,” Wolf said. “And that means anybody is vulnerable.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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