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January 7th, 2021. That's the last time anyone saw Maya Millettee, a 39-year-old
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California mother of three. In October, her husband, Larry Millettee, was arrested and charged with her murder. 5
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years later, he went on trial in Chula Vista outside San Diego. And now, after the jury deliberated, we have a verdict.
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Millettee has been found guilty of murder. >> No verdict can erase the pain of losing
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May or the years of uncertainty that have endured, but we hope today's outcome provides a
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measure of justice and accountability. I'm CBS News legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Caroline Pissy, and
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this is a special episode of Casey by Case. This was a largely circumstantial nobody case, one we covered for weeks on
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this podcast with witnesses ranging from Mia's friends and family to her former lover and that man's ex-wife. And then
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there was the spellcaster. But even with this verdict, one question remains. Where is Mia's body? 48 hours
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first reported on Mia's disappearance back in 2021 and 2022. Her sister, Mary Chris Dulier, described her lovingly.
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She was the gifted one, you know. She she got the she got the brains. Um she's very kind, very caring. She loves her
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kids. >> Maya and Larry met and married young and both went on to work for the US Navy.
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They waited a few years before having their three kids. When Maya vanished without a trace, Mary Chris couldn't
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process it. >> You know, I'm still in denial. like, you know, it's like I I still can't believe it's it's
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happening that she's nowhere to be found. Like she's nowhere. Like she just vanished. Like
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I was just talking to her, you know, we were just talking to her and all of a sudden she just gone.
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>> There were family and community search parties looking everywhere for Maya, but
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court testimony revealed there were serious problems inside the Millette home. As we talked about in our previous
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episodes of Casey by Casease, testimony showed Mia's growing concern with Larry's efforts to control her. Mary
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Chris's initial 911 call played in court referenced fights and violence. And Larry's arrest warrant for Mia's murder
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also referenced Maya telling a friend that Larry had once choked her until she passed out. The defense has maintained
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there's no evidence of domestic violence between the two. Mia's sister, Mary Chris, testified that just over a week
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before Mia disappeared, Mia confided in her siblings that she wanted a divorce. Mary Chris told 48 hours in 2021
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something that Maya had said to her in passing once. >> At one point, she said, you know, if
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something happened to me, it would be Larry. She just kind of like blurred it out and
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she was mentioning about, you know, the divorce. I just told her, just be careful.
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just be careful because you know we in the back of my mind in the back of our minds that he is capable of hurting my
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sister. >> During this time Maya had been having an affair with coworker Jaime Leair. Both
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Jaime and his ex-wife took the stand and both testified that Larry knew about the
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relationship and was obsessively trying to hold on to his marriage. Then there were Larry's emails. He contacted
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spellcasters hoping to control Maya and allegedly to punish Jaime Leair. The last confirmed sighting of Maya is
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camera footage of her returning home to Chula Vista the afternoon of January 7th. She was never seen leaving. There
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was a record of internet searches that evening from her phone, but at 1:25 a.m. cell transmission ended. The court also
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heard audio from a neighbor's surveillance system where multiple loud bangs were heard on the evening of Mia's
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disappearance. The next day, Larry's vehicle left the house in the early morning and didn't return for hours. His
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phone was off. An investigator testified that roughly 444 miles of the vehicle's
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travel that day couldn't be fully accounted for. Yet, during cross-examination, the defense
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questioned the police work and some of the data. After the prosecution spent weeks on their case, the defense rested
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after just calling a few witnesses over the course of a single day. Perhaps they
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believed there was enough reasonable doubt. The jury disagreed, finding Larry responsible for Maya's death. Larry will
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be sentenced at a later date and could appeal. This has been a special verdict episode of Casey by Case. We'll be back
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next week with a brand new episode. Thanks for listening.