A Murder Conviction Does Not Require a Body
Prosecutors relied on Maya Millete's last movements, a failing marriage, and requests for spells to control her.
Dateline NBC · Children speak at father's sentencing. Business partner on trial for double murder. Plus, manhunts.In July, a jury found Larry Millete guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Maya, even though investigators never recovered her remains and prosecutors could not say for sure how she died.
Maya Millete, a 39-year-old mother of three, vanished in January 2021 from the Chula Vista home she shared with Larry and their children. She came home from work, got out of her car, and walked inside, but she was never seen leaving.
To fill the gap left by the missing body, prosecutors built a chain around what happened before and around that day. Friends and relatives testified that the marriage was failing, that Maya intended to seek a divorce soon, and that she was romantically involved with a married coworker.
Prosecutors also argued that Larry, a former Navy optician, tried to keep control of Maya by any means, including buying spells online. An online spellcaster testified that Larry paid for requests that ranged from asking Maya not to leave him to asking that she suffer an accident and a broken bone.
Prosecutors suggested Larry had shown interest in hemlock, a poisonous plant, but acknowledged the limit of the evidence. Without a body, they could not establish the manner of death, and the defense made the case entirely about reasonable doubt.
The guilty verdict shows how that kind of circumstantial chain can carry a murder case.
At Larry's sentencing hearing this week, Maya's relatives spoke to him in court and kept returning to the one thing a verdict could not supply, pleading with him to say where she was because they believed he held the answer.
Questions people ask
How can prosecutors prove murder when there is no body?
In the United States, prosecutors can bring a murder case without a body, but they must still prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person is dead and that the defendant caused the death with criminal intent. They usually do that with evidence that the person vanished suddenly, has had no contact or activity, and was last in the defendant's control.
Does the jury have to agree on how the victim died?
Usually they do not have to prove the exact method. They must prove that the defendant unlawfully killed the victim and, for first-degree murder, that the killing was intentional and premeditated. Jurors can agree on guilt even if the precise cause of death remains unknown.
Why keep asking where the body is after a conviction?
A conviction decides legal guilt, but it does not locate the remains or answer how the death happened. For families, finding the body can matter for burial, for certainty, and for closure. That is why Maya Millete's relatives continued to ask Larry Millete where she was after the verdict.