Defense attorneys for alleged killer Bryan Kohberger focused on the DNA evidence linking him to the murders of four Idaho college students in a court appearance Friday. The defense has questioned the validity of the DNA and offered an alibi for Kohberger, but an independent criminal defense attorney said it’s a weak argument. Elise Preston reports.
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Defense attorneys for alleged killer Brian Kohberger focused on the DNA evidence linking him to the murders of four Idaho college students in a court appearance Friday. The defense has questioned the validity of the DNA and offered an alibi for Kohberger, but an independent criminal defense attorney said it’s a weak argument. Elise Preston reports.
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Moscow, Idaho — Uncuffed and in plain clothes, Bryan Kohberger walked into a courtroom Friday as the families of the four University of Idaho college students he is accused of murdering last year watched from feet away.
In the hearing, Kohberger’s defense questioned the validity of DNA found on a knife sheath at the crime scene that authorities allege connected him to the four murders. Defense attorneys demanded more information from prosecutors about the DNA.
“They have provided full DNA discovery for the sheath, the knife sheath, but not the other three unidentified male DNA samples,” defense attorney Anne Taylor told the judge.
Prosecutors countered that they have handed over what they have.
“We have given the defense everything that we have received from the lab. They’ve asked for DNA work-ups on other people. To the extent that they don’t have them, they weren’t done,” Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson said. “We can’t produce something that doesn’t exist.”
Bryan Kohberger enters the courtroom for a hearing on Aug. 18, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022.
August Frank / Getty Images
On Nov. 13, 2022, the four victims were found stabbed to death at an off-campus home in Moscow. Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle resided in the house, while Ethan Chapin was a friend and fellow student.
Kohberger, a Ph.D. criminology student at Washington State University, was arrested in late December following an extensive six-week investigation. In May, the 28-year-old was indicted by a grand jury on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
According to an affidavit from Moscow police, on Dec. 27, 2022, just three days before Kohberger’s arrest, investigators collected trash from Kohberger’s family’s home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, from which they obtained his father’s DNA profile. They compared the DNA collected from Kohlberger’s father to a DNA profile from the knife sheath, determining it to be a familial match.
In court documents filed in June, prosecutors said that a DNA sample taken from Bryan Kohberger following his arrest was a near-match to the DNA on the sheath.
In court filings earlier this month, Kohberger’s attorneys argued that he is innocent and was out driving alone at the time of the murders.
“Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone,” his attorneys said, adding that he “is not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time.”
Criminal defense attorney Joe Tamburino, who is not part of the case, calls it a weak argument.
“An alibi defense is not, ‘I simply wasn’t there at the time,’” Tamburino told CBS News. “It’s, you must provide specifically where you were, time, place. Also, if you have any witnesses.”
The judge Friday denied a request by Kohberger’s defense to delay the trial, which remains slated to begin as scheduled in October. At his arraignment in May, the judge entered not guilty pleas on Kohberger’s behalf when he refused to enter pleas himself, staying silent.
In June, prosecutors said that if he is convicted of the murders, they will pursue the death penalty against him.
— Aliza Chasan, S. Dev, Cara Tabachnick, Gina Martinez and Lilia Luciano contributed to this report.
A neonatal nurse in a British hospital was found guilty Friday of killing seven babies and attempting to kill six others.
Lucy Letby, 33, was charged with murder in the deaths of five boys and two girls and the attempted murder of six other children when she worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between 2015 and 2016.
She was accused of deliberately harming the newborn infants in various ways, including by injecting air into their bloodstreams and administering air or milk into their stomachs via nasogastric tubes.
Lucy Letby mugshot after her arrest
Reuters/Cheshire Constabulary
“Lucy Letby sought to deceive her colleagues and pass off the harm she caused as nothing more than a worsening of each baby’s existing vulnerability. In her hands, innocuous substances like air, milk, fluids – or medication like insulin – would become lethal. She perverted her learning and weaponized her craft to inflict harm, grief and death,” prosecutor Pascale Jones said.
“Time and again, she harmed babies, in an environment which should have been safe for them and their families,” Jones said in a statement on Friday following the verdict.
Letby was also accused of poisoning infants by adding insulin to intravenous feeds and interfering with breathing tubes.
Letby denied all the charges. The alleged victims cannot be named under British law.
A jury of seven women and four men deliberated for 22 days before reaching the verdict. One juror was excused well into deliberations for personal reasons and the judge later gave the remaining 11 jurors the option of reaching a verdict with 10 people in agreement instead of a unanimous decision.
Letby was found not guilty on one charge of attempted murder and the jury could not reach a verdict on several others.
During the lengthy trial, which began last October, prosecutors said the hospital in 2015 experienced a significant rise in the number of babies who were dying or suffering from sudden deteriorations in their health for no apparent reason. Some suffered “serious catastrophic collapses” but survived after help from medical staff.
They alleged that Letby was on duty in all the cases and described her as a “constant malevolent presence” in the neonatal unit when the children collapsed or died. They said the nurse harmed the babies in ways that did not leave much of a trace, and that she persuaded her colleagues that the collapses and deaths were normal.
The first baby allegedly targeted by Letby was a boy born prematurely who died when he was a day old, in June 2015. Prosecutors alleged the nurse injected air into his bloodstream.
Police launched an investigation into the baby deaths at the hospital in May 2017. Letby was arrested three times in connection with the deaths before she was charged in November 2020.
Prosecutors said a Post-It note found at Letby’s home after she was arrested in 2018 on which she wrote “I am evil, I did this” was “literally a confession.”
But her defense lawyer argued she was a “hard-working, dedicated and caring” nurse who loved her job and that there was not enough evidence of her carrying out any of the alleged harmful acts.
The lawyer said the infants’ sudden collapses and deaths could have been due to natural causes, or in combination with other factors such as staffing shortages at the hospital or failure by others to provide appropriate care.
He also claimed that four senior doctors pinned blame on Letby to cover up failings in the neonatal unit.
Letby testified for 14 days, denying all accusations she intentionally harmed any baby. “I only ever did my best to care for them,” she testified. “I am there to care not to harm.”
She sobbed at times and defended the collection of medical records she kept at home on some of the babies in her care.
“I don’t deserve to live,” she wrote on a green Post-it note shown in court. “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them.”
Her lawyer defended the notes as the anguished writings of a woman who had lost confidence in herself and blamed herself for what had happened in the ward.
“One note says ‘not good enough,’” defense lawyer Ben Myers said. “Who did she write that for? She didn’t write that for us, the police or these proceedings. That is a note to herself. Writing for herself.”
The sentencing of Letby for all guilty charges will be at 10 a.m. local time on Monday, the BBC reported.
A British nurse has been found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others at the hospital where she worked, making her the country’s worst baby serial killer in recent times.
Lucy Letby, 33, harmed babies in her care by injecting air into their blood and stomachs, overfeeding them with milk, physically assaulting them and poisoning them with insulin, Manchester Crown Court in northern England heard.
Police found a trove of handwritten notes while searching Letby’s house during their investigation, including one that read: “I am evil I did this.”
She secretly attacked 13 babies on the neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester hospital between 2015 and 2016, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement.
Her intention was to kill the babies while duping her colleagues into believing there was a natural cause of death, prosecutors argued.
Doctors at the hospital began to notice a steep rise in the number of babies who were dying or unexpectedly collapsing, the court heard.
But concerns raised by consultants over the increased mortality rate of patients under Letby’s care were initially dismissed by the hospital’s management, the UK’s PA Media news agency reported.
In September 2016, Letby filed a grievance against her employers after she was relocated from the hospital’s neonatal ward. She was put back on clerical duties after two male triplets died and a baby boy collapsed on three days in a row in June 2016.
Later that year, she was notified of the allegations against her by the Royal College of Nursing union, but the complaint was later resolved in her favor. Doctors were asked to formally apologize to Letby in writing.
She was scheduled to return to the neonatal department in March 2017, but her return did not take place. The hospital trust contacted the police, who opened an investigation.
Nurse said ‘I killed them’ in handwritten notes
In 2018 and 2019, Letby was arrested twice by police in connection with their investigation, PA said. She was arrested again in November 2020.
Authorities found notes Letby had written during searches of her address.
“I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them,” she wrote in one memo, adding in another, “I am a horrible evil person” and in capital letters “I am evil I did this.”
Pascale Jones of the CPS called Letby’s actions a “complete betrayal of the trust placed in her.”
“Lucy Letby sought to deceive her colleagues and pass off the harm she caused as nothing more than a worsening of each baby’s existing vulnerability,” she said.
“In her hands, innocuous substances like air, milk, fluids – or medication like insulin – would become lethal. She perverted her learning and weaponised her craft to inflict harm, grief and death.”
Victims’ families said they “may never truly know why this happened.”
“To lose a baby is a heartbreaking experience that no parent should ever have to go through,” a joint statement said.
“But to lose a baby or to have a baby harmed in these particular circumstances is unimaginable,” the statement added.
“Justice has been served and the nurse who should have been caring for our babies has been found guilty of harming them.
“But this justice will not take away from the extreme hurt, anger and distress that we have all had to experience.
“We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb.”
Letby will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on August 21.
Quito — A popular Ecuadoran presidential candidate was shot dead while leaving a rally in the nation’s capital on Wednesday, prompting President Guillermo Lasso to declare a state of emergency and blame the assassination on organized crime. Fernando Villavicencio, a 59-year-old anti-corruption crusader who had complained of receiving threats, was murdered as he was leaving a stadium in Quito after holding a campaign rally, officials said.
Lasso declared a two-month state of emergency early Thursday following the assassination, but said general elections slated for August 20 would be held as scheduled.
“Outraged and shocked by the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio,” the president said in a statement on social media, blaming the killing on “organized crime.”
“For his memory and for his fight, I assure you that this crime will not go unpunished.”
Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio speaks to journalists upon his arrival at the Attorney General’s Office in Quito, August 8, 2023.
RODRIGO BUENDIA/AFP/Getty
Villavicencio was the second most popular candidate in the presidential race, according to recent opinion polls.
“The Armed Forces as of this moment are mobilized throughout the national territory to guarantee the security of citizens, the tranquility of the country and the free and democratic elections of August 20,” Lasso said in a YouTube address.
The president also declared three days of national mourning “to honor the memory of a patriot, of Fernando Villavicencio Valencia.”
“This is a political crime that acquires a terrorist character and we do not doubt that this murder is an attempt to sabotage the electoral process,” he added.
Lasso has said he will not seek re-election.
A bullet-riddled vehicle is surrounded by police as they guard the hospital where several of the injured were taken after an attack in which presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot to death in Quito, Ecuador, Aug. 9, 2023.
Juan Diego Montenegro/AP
President of the National Electoral Council Diana Atamaint said “the date of the elections scheduled for August 20 remain unalterable.”
Nine other people were injured in the shooting attack, including a candidate running for the national legislature and two policemen, prosecutors said.
Villavicencio had been protected by three layers of security, the National Police said Thursday. The innermost ring of guards consisted of five police officers, who were flanked by a support team and two patrol cars.
One of the alleged attackers was shot and killed by security personnel following a pursuit, police said. And police detonated an explosive device planted in the area, said chief investigator Alain Luna.
Three officers who fended off the armed attacker were hit by ammunition, police said. They remain hospitalized in stable condition.
Police later confirmed they found a pistol-type firearm, ammunition and a grenade explosive at the crime scene. The grenade was neutralized with a controlled detonation.
Carlos Figueroa, a friend of Villavicencio’s who was with him at the time of the attack, told local media that the assailants fired around 30 shots.
“They ambushed him outside” the sports center, Figueroa said. “Some (of those present) even thought they were fireworks.”
The country’s main newspaper, El Universo, reported that Villavicencio was assassinated “hitman-style and with three shots to the head.”
Prosecutors later said six other suspects were arrested in raids carried out in southern Quito and in a neighboring town, and that Villavicencio’s body was brought to a police department and would undergo an autopsy.
Police on Thursday said all six people detained during the raids were foreign nationals linked to organized crime groups. Officers raided several homes and recovered a number of firearms and contraband, including a submachine gun, grenades, motorbikes and a stolen vehicle, police said.
In recent years, Ecuador has been hit by a wave of violence linked to drug trafficking which, in the midst of the electoral process, has already led to the death of a mayor and a parliamentary candidate.
National police officers work at the crime scene of an attack on a patrol car where two policemen were killed in the Maria Piedad neighborhood in Duran, Ecuador, November 1, 2022.
“Organized crime has gone too far, but the full weight of the law will be applied to them,” Lasso said in his post.
According to the latest polls, Villavicencio, a former journalist who wrote about corruption and served in parliament, polled at 13% behind lawyer Luisa Gonzalez, who is close to former left-wing president Rafael Correa.
Gonzalez and other presidential candidates denounced the murder and said they were suspending their campaigns, local media reported.
“We will never allow such acts to go unpunished. When they touch one, they touch all. When one’s life is at risk, everyone’s life is at risk,” Gonzalez wrote on social media.
National Court of Justice president Ivan Saquicela called Villavicencio’s murder “very painful for the country.”
“I am very hurt and very worried about Ecuador,” he said.
The United States, Spain, Chile and the Organization of American States observer mission have also condemned the crime.
U.S. Ambassador Mike Fitzpatrick said he was “deeply shocked” by the assassination, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. “condemns this brazen act of violence and assault on Ecuador’s democracy.”
Lasso on Thursday said he’s asked the FBI to assist in the investigation and expects a U.S. delegation to arrive in Ecuador “in the next few hours.”
“We are horrified by the tragic attack… Violence cannot win. Democracy can,” European Union ambassador to Ecuador Charles-Michel Geurts said in a tweet.
As a journalist, Villavicencio uncovered a corruption scheme for which former president Correa (2007-2017) was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Villavicencio later served as president of the legislative oversight commission, where he continued to denounce corruption.
The politician had complained this month that he and his team were receiving threats allegedly coming from the leader of a criminal gang linked to drug trafficking.
“Despite the new threats, we will continue fighting for the brave people of our #Ecuador,” he said at the time.
Atamaint, head of the electoral council, also said that several members of her organization, which is responsible for supervising the ballot, had received death threats.
President Lasso sent a message to Villavicencio’s family.
“My solidarity and my condolences with his wife and his daughters,” he said in his post.
This story originally aired on Nov. 5, 2022. It was updated on Aug. 5, 2023.
Bart and Krista Halderson had everything a couple could want: a beautiful home in Windsor, Wisconsin, and two sons they adored. Mitchell, 24, who worked in tech, Chandler, 23, a college student living at home.
Chandler had big ambitions – he talked of getting his IT degree, of his promising internship at an insurance company, and was especially excited about a new job he landed at Space X—founded by one of the richest people in the world, Elon Musk.
Bart and Krista Halderson
Dane County Sheriff’s Office
Everything seemed to be going well for the Haldersons. So, on Friday morning, July 2, whenKrista just didn’t show up at the office, Daniel Kroninger remembers becoming concerned.
Erin Moriarty: How unusual was it for, number one, for Krista not to show up for work, not to call and just not show up? How unusual?
Daniel Kroninger: Extremely unusual.
Kroninger and Krista not only worked together, but they were also close friends.
Daniel Kroninger: So, when she hadn’t said anything to me, I was like, “we’ll that’s kinda weird” you know … It wasn’t something that she would ever do.
Kroninger says he texted and called her several times but got no response. Later that afternoon, he and his girlfriend drove over to the Halderson home. A neighbor’s security camera shows them arriving.
Daniel Kroninger: You know, knocked on the door, didn’t hear anything … peered through the window. The only thing that seemed weird was there was a coffee table on its side. … you look through the door it was kinda off to the right over by … they had a fireplace over there.
Then, Kroninger says, he walked over to the garage window.
Daniel Kroninger: I looked in. Both cars were there. And I was like, “what?” You know, why are both cars here? And I was starting to go around the back of the house, and then Chandler came out the side door … and he came out in a towel saying, “Oh, I just got outta the shower,” you know, “hey what’s goin’ on?” I was like, “we’re just looking for Bart and Krista.” And he said, “Oh yeah, they went … had to go up north this morning for an emergency up at the cabin.”
Kroninger says he was relieved to know that Bart and Krista were at the family cabin. Over the holiday weekend, he kept in touch with Chandler to see if he had heard from his mom and dad.
Daniel Kroninger: He said, “yeah, they don’t have very good service up there so you kinda have to wait till the clouds clear before they get a message.”
On Sunday July 4, Kroninger says Chandler called him and said he was “bored and needed something to do.” So, Dan invited him over to watch the fireworks and asked Chandler about his parents.
Daniel Kroninger: He mentioned that he talked to them and they’re gonna be back Monday.
Erin Moriarty: When he said that he talked to them, did he say, he talked to both his parents or just his mom? What did he say? Do you remember?
Daniel Kroninger: I don’t think he was specific … I mean, I was asking about his mom because I knew she had a doctor’s appointment coming up that she was really, really wanted to be at. I think it had been rescheduled before.
But Krista didn’t show up for work on Monday and again on Tuesday. By Wednesday July 7, when there was still no word. Dan knew something was wrong.
Daniel Kroninger: And now she’s missed her appointment
Erin Moriarty: So, now it’s all out concern.
Daniel Kroninger: Right.
Erin Moriarty: You know something’s happened to her now.
Daniel Kroninger: Right, right.
Kroninger pushed Chandler to file a missing person’s report that morning.
Det. Sabrina Sims: Chandler Halderson walked into one of our precincts to report his parents missing.
Detectives Sabrina Sims and Brian Shunk with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office would lead the team to track down the missing couple.
Det. Brian Shunk: We had a lot of detectives assisting us with the caseload.
Their first stop: the Halderson home on Oak Spring Circle Drive
Erin Moriarty: So, when you first got there, who was home?
Det. Brian Shunk: It was just Chandler.
Det. Sabrina Sims: We’re inside the house with him and detectives are getting information outside and so we’re either getting phone calls or text messages of you know “hey, maybe ask about this.” We’re walking around the house with him. He’s pointing out things at the house, things that were missing that his parents took when they traveled to the cabin.
While deputies began interviewing neighbors and friends, Barbi Townsend, Krista’s first cousin, who lives in southern California, knew only what she had seen on the news: that the Halderson’s 23-year-old son Chandler had gone to the police telling them his parents were missing.
Barbi Townsend: What does that mean? What does missing mean? And that they had gone up to our cabin … the family cottage and didn’t return.
Bart and Krista had not mentioned to coworkers, or their older son Mitchell, that they’d been planning to go to the cabin that weekend. But according to Chandler, another couple, who he didn’t know, picked up his parents and drove them there.
The cabin was a remote, rustic lakeside retreat, and a treasured family heirloom. Barbi and Krista’s grandparents built it in the 1940s.
Barbi Townsend: You know, you start to think of crazy things cause our cabin’s up in the woods … and so we were worried are they being held hostage somewhere? … Are they tied up somewhere?
The day after Chandler reported them missing, his brother Mitchell and his fiancée drove three hours up north to see if he could find any sign of his parents.
Barbi Townsend: Why would they not call? Why wouldn’t there be a text or something?
Barbi Townsend: Your mind starts to go down really murky trails because you are trying to figure out what’s going on.
OFFICER (body cam): Hi there.
MITCHELL HALDERSON’S FIANCÉE: Hi there.
OFFICER: Are you guys uh …
MITCHELL HALDERSON’S FIANCÉE: The Haldersons.
OFFICER: You — OK you are affiliated with them?
MITCHELL HALDERSON’S FIANCÉE: Yes.
OFFICER: OK, maybe we could just take a walk around and see, you would know the property probably better than we would.
The police met Mitchell and his fiancée at the cabin — prepared for the worst.
SEARCHING FOR KRISTA AND BART
When the Haldersons disappeared, it stunned everyone who knew them. Barbi Townsend said neither her cousin Krista nor her husband Bart would just leave on a whim
Barbi Townsend: He was more structured. She was more nurturing – you know, indulging mom. It was a wonderful combination.
She worked as a customer service representative for an auto body shop and loved art projects. He was a managing director for an international accounting firm and enjoyed woodworking.
Barbi Townsend: They were 100 percent about family … and very involved in the scouting.
Chandler, left, Bart, and Mitchell Halderson on Father’s Day 2021.
Haldersons were together on Father’s Day in June 2021, less than a month before Bart disappeared. In a photo taken that day, Mitchell is smiling and Chandler, who had a mild concussion from a fall, is wearing a neck brace.
Investigators, anxious to find out what had happened to Bart and Krista Halderson, asked deputies from the Langlade County Sheriff’s Office to help Mitchell, who brought along his fiancée, search the family’s cabin – a three-hour drive north of the family home.
When they got inside, it was dark. There were no signs of Krista and Bart. They also checked a shed; the canoe was there. It was obvious. No one had been to the cabin in a very long time.
OFFICER (body cam): They’re believed to be with another couple?
MITCHELL HALDERSON: Someone else at least.
OFFICER: OK.
When Mitchell was with the police searching the family’s cabin, Chandler was on his own hunt throughout the neighborhood.
He is seen on video doorbell cameras going door to door asking homeowners if they had seen or heard from his parents.
As detectives began investigating Bart and Krista’s mysterious disappearance, Chandler Halderson knocked on neighbors’ doors asking if they’d seen or heard from his parents.
Dane County Sheriff’s Office
CHANDLER HALDERSON (doorbell camera video): It’s kinda difficult to track them down.
Reporter Adam Duxter, now with CBS station WCCO in Minneapolis, worked in Madison, Wisconsin, at the time. He immediately started calling his sources.
Adam Duxter: So, we’re waiting to hear back from the sheriff’s office, and my boss at the time, he was like, “Well you can’t just sit around, you gotta go start shooting something” … and so … packed my gear in my car and drove out to their street in Windsor.
He knocked on the Halderson’s front door. The missing couple’s son Chandler answered.
Adam Duxter: And, so, I’m like, “If you’d be willing … I’d love to do a quick interview” … And he was like, “Yeah, I’ll do that. … but I don’t want you got film me. I don’t want to be shown, but you can record my voice.”
CHANDLER HALDERSON INTERVIEW AUDIO: So, my last message I got from them, they were going to White Lake for the Fourth of July … Other than that, their plan or from to my knowledge they were going to Langlade County to a cabin, their cabin …
Adam Duxter: At the time, I got the sense that he was in shock … This is someone who is roughly my age … And so, I’m thinking like, “Yeah, if my parents just went missing” – he probably hasn’t slept, he’s probably really nervous.
Alex Gravatt knew Chandler well.
Alex Gravatt: I was roommates with Chandler for a little while. … I called him Chaz.
The two friends shared an apartment from 2019 to 2020.
AlexGravatt: We grew up together and we played soccer together, did cub scouts together, and just hung out together. … he was a great swimmer, so I know that the swim team really got along with him.
Gravatt says his friend Chandler, who went by the name “Chaz,” could be a playful guy.
Alex Gravatt: He was a goon, a hooligan in a lot of — in a lot of senses.
Erin Moriarty: What do you mean by that?
Alex Gravatt: Yeah, I mean, so he would play pranks and … he would make lots of jokes or poke fun at people.
Gravatt described “Chaz” as popular with women. College student Cathryn Mellender, known as “Cat,” was his longtime girlfriend.
Alex Gravatt: He was a relatively attractive guy. … I mean he looked good. He had great hair. He kept up on appearances.
According to Gravatt, when they were roommates, “Chaz” often bragged to friends about “hooking up” with different women behind Cat’s back. When she found out about it —
Alex Gravatt: She grilled him. She was like “are you seeing other people?” … and he just kept denying it.
But Mellender remained suspicious and began tracking her boyfriend on social media. Gravatt says Chaz became more secretive and moved back home with his parents. And now those parents were missing. Detectives Shunk and Sims began follow-up interviews.
Det. Sabrina Sims: At that point, you know, what do we really have? We don’t know what we have.
Then they got a tip they desperately needed from the owner of a farm outside town.
Det. Sabrina Sims: We received information … from someone that, “yes … Chandler has been out to my property over the Fourth of July weekend.”
The owner was a friend of Chandler’s girlfriend Cat Mellender. The owner said she was with the couple at her farm on July 4. She told deputies she was surprised to see Chandler again, the very next day, and this time he was alone.
Det. Sabrina Sims: You know, and I saw him coming from the wood line. His car was parked backed up to the field. … So, of course right from that interview, we want to go search that property.
As deputies began searching, detectives wanted to know why Chandler had never mentioned he’d gone back to the farm by himself. Police picked Chandler up and took him to the station.
Detective Brian Shunk asked him to once again describe the last time he had seen his parents.
CHANDLER HALDERSON: It’s Thursday morning. I wake up.
DET. BRIAN SHUNK: What time do you think?
CHANDLER HALDERSON: Six.
Chandler said his dad Bart was at home working, and that later he had dinner with both his parents.
CHANDLER HALDERSON: That’s where they told me, while they were eating it … they were gonna go with their friends, and I was like, “Oh, cool.”
DET. BRIAN SHUNK: And they had said they were going to the cabin.
CHANDLER HALDERSON: Well, “we’re going up north.”
While detectives questioned Chandler, deputies were out searching the farm and made a discovery that quickly changed the tone of the interview.
The police interview lasted about two hours. Chandler Halderson told detectives his parents had gone to the cabin to take care of a plumbing emergency and that he helped them pack tools for the repairs.
Dane County Sheriff’s Office
DET. HENDRICKSON: Listen to me. This is the only chance you’re gonna have to tell us the truth. OK? … What we, listen, listen — I can’t tell you what we know, but we know you’re not telling us the truth … you need to tell the truth.
CHANDLER HALDERSON: There’s — (sighs)
DET. HENDRICKSON: Listen, listen, you need to tell the truth about what happened. And just tell us why it happened. I’m not B.S.in’ you, OK? So, can we do that?
CHANDLER HALDERSON: OK … yeah, OK. Lawyer.
Chandler’s request for a lawyer ended that interview. Detective Sims remembers the moment she learned what deputies told her they had found near that field.
Det. Sabrina Sims: You know, Brian and I were in the command post together … And I said, “What did you say?” You know I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
They had discovered human remains.
A DISTURBING DISCOVERY
On Thursday, July 8, 2021, in the village of Windsor, Wisconsin, the community struggled to make sense of the disturbing news.
The remains of an adult male had been found on a farm 20 miles from Bart and Krista Halderson’s home.
SHERIFF KALVIN BARRETT (to reporters): At this point, it’s very early in our investigation. I don’t want to make any uncorroborated speculations at this time.
Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett warned residents not to jump to conclusions.
The gruesome discovery was made the day after Bart and Krista had been reported missing by their son, and it was something detectives Brian Shunk and Sabrina Sims had never encountered.
Det. Sabrina Sims: The grass had been matted down. And they followed it to a trail which led to the discovery of a male torso that was concealed with sticks and twigs.
Erin Moriarty: That was really the moment, right?
Det. Brian Shunk: It was huge.
Det. Sabrina Sims: I think of other death investigations or homicide cases we’ve worked and, I don’t remember a time that I’ve worked a dismemberment case.
Erin Moriarty: And what other evidence was found out there?
Det. Sabrina Sims: We found some cutting instruments that were hidden in an old oil drum … some scissors, pruning shears – a broken bow saw.
And it was all in the same wooded area where the Halderson’s son, Chandler, had been seen earlier in the week. Detective Sims had a pretty good idea who the victim was.
Det. Sabrina Sims: Knowing in my gut that that was most likely Bart Halderson, and his son was seen in that area …
Police turned their full attention to Chandler Halderson; he was now a person of interest and the prime suspect. While tests were being done to confirm the victim’s identity, detectives arrested Chandler and charged him with lying to them.
SHERIFF KALVIN BARRETT (to reporters): The arrest was based on him providing false information in regards to a missing person.
Erin Moriarty: What did you think? They arrested him … for giving false information about a missing person.
Barbi Townsend | Krista Halderson’s cousin: That was the first day that I started to suspect foul play from their — from their own son.
Alex Gravatt: I checked my phone … and I saw that — that he had been arrested … and it was pretty wild.
Alex Gravatt, his childhood friend, learned about it on social media.
Alex Gravatt: My eyes got wide, I kinda just sat there for a second reading it … my first thought was if he’s being arrested for giving misinformation to the police … I didn’t think that there was really much chance that he wasn’t involved somehow.
But there’s someone who had a hard time imaging Chandler was involved – his girlfriend Cat Mellender. She spoke to police just before his arrest.
DETECTIVE: You don’t think he had anything to do with his mom and dad being unheard from?
CAT MELLENDER: No. I just — no. … that’d be crazy. … but I just don’t see him killing Mr. and Mrs. Halderson. Like, he had SpaceX. Like, why would he jeopardize something he, like, would dream of, you know? Like, they’re his parents. For Christmas, they got him and his brother matching tool sets. Like, come on.
DETECTIVE: OK.
CAT MELLENDER: He cooks dinner for them. They have root beer floats together. They play Mario Kart whenever his parents want to.
But, on Saturday July 10, 2021, the victim found in the woods was identified as Bart Halderson.
Det. Sabrina Sims: It just changed everything, like that moment changed everything …
Preliminary autopsy results would reveal Bart had been shot at least two times in the back. And there was still the troubling question: where was Krista?
SHERIFF KALVIN BARRETT (to reporters): Krista Halderson remains a missing person and we continue to ask for citizen involvement.
Krista’s co-worker Dan Kroninger ran through all the different possibilities.
Erin Moriarty: Did you at that moment … wonder, like, maybe Krista was involved in this too?
Dan Kroninger: It had definitely crossed my mind … you start to wonder, “well, why is Chandler lying? Is he covering for himself is or he covering for perhaps his mother? Is she involved?”
But the more investigators looked, it seemed the only person Chandler Halderson was covering for was himself.
Det. Sabrina Sims: You know, he just lied to everybody.
And in his lies, police started to believe they found a motive for murder. For months he’d been telling everyone, including his childhood friend, Alex Gravatt, that he was enrolled at Madison College during the 2021 spring semester.
Erin Moriarty: Did you have any idea he had flunked out?
Alex Gravatt: No.
Erin Moriarty: He didn’t tell you?
Alex Gravatt: No, it was surprising.
Detectives believe his parents had no idea he wasn’t in school. They say when his parents questioned him about his transcripts, the computer savvy Chandler Halderson crafted a chain of emails that seemed to come from the college.
Investigators say Chandler Halderson had made up a series of fake e-mails to make his parents believe he was still enrolled in school.
Dane County Clerk of Courts
Det. Sabrina Sims: Chandler creates people that work for Madison College and communicates via email with them. You know, Bart’s on some of them as well, talking to who he believes is employees of the school.
Erin Moriarty: And do any of those people actually exist?
Det. Sabrina Sims: No.
In June 2021, Bart Halderson called Madison College, pretending to be Chandler, and got an answer he wasn’t expecting:
MADISON COLLEGE OFFICIAL (phone call audio): I don’t see that you were admitted in any program
BART HALDERSON: you said there, the IT degree is in there, right?
MADISON COLLEGE OFFICIAL: No, those are just classes … You might have just took the classes but not be in the program.
Bart learned that not only had his son been lying about that IT degree, but there was no internship with an insurance company, either. And remember that big job with SpaceX? It turns out that was just another elaborate lie.
Barbi Townsend: The delusional reality that he concocted … that is shocking to me.
According to detectives, Bart was planning to meet at the college with his son on Thursday July 1. Around 2 p.m. Bart, who was working from home, sent his son this text: “I’m ready whenever you are.”
That text is believed to be the last message Bart sent.
Seven days later, Bart’s remains were found. Investigators got a search warrant for the Halderson home. No weapon was found there, but a shell casing was discovered in the basement, and several areas inside the house tested positive for blood.
SHERIFF KALVIN BARRETT (to reporters): Chandler middle initial, M, last name Halderson, age 23 of Windsor, is now being charged with first-degree homicide, hiding a corpse, and mutilating a corpse.
Chandler Halderson was charged with his father’s murder and with dismembering and hiding a body.
Dane County Jail Records
On July 15, 2021, Chandler Halderson was formally charged with his father’s murder.
SHERIFF KALVIN BARRETT (to reporters): Chandler is currently being held in the Dane County Jail.
Barbi Townsend: I mean I don’t know what else to say … How could you do that to your father?
But where was his mother, Krista? Chandler Halderson had lawyered up and wasn’t talking, but someone very close to him was.
Det. Sabrina Sims: She had communicated with him that whole weekend.
That loyal girlfriend, Cat Mellender, had a potentially damning piece of evidence about her boyfriend on the social media app Snapchat.
Det. Sabrina Sims: She actually consented to a download … of her phone.
Erin Moriarty: So that was a breakthrough.
Det. Sabrina Sims: (nods her head yes to affirm)
THE SNAPCHAT CLUE
Chandler Halderson was charged with his father’s murder, but his mother’s whereabouts were still unknown. Lead detectives Sabrina Sims and Brian Shunk knew if Krista was alive, they needed to find her fast.
Det. Brian Shunk: At that point, we were hoping for the best … it was one of those things we just needed to push on.
Detectives turned to Chandler’s girlfriend for help. She had given them permission to download information from her phone.
Det. Sabrina Sims: Chandler had lied to her before and had cheated on her before. And so she — you know, would track his location.
Cat Mellender had convinced Chandler to let her track his movements using Snapchat — the popular social media app which allows users to send messages and share their location in real time.
Det. Sabrina Sims: And that was an agreement that … “Yes, you will have your locations on so I can see where you are going…”
Detectives were most intrigued by messages posted early on the morning of July 1, the day Chandler Halderson and his father were supposed to meet with Madison College officials. Chandler Halderson, whose online name was “chazzzledazl, messaged Mellender at 7:30 a.m.
chazzzledazl: I hardly slept
Cat: I’m sorry b. Why?
chazzzledazl: Idk stuff hasn’t really been going well for me lately so I’m tryna plan for the next thing to f*** me over
Cat: B it’s gonna be okay
chazzzledazl: Yeah I just had a great future planned and it’s falling apart
According to detectives, the tone of those messages worried Cat. So, two days later when Cat checks Snapchat and noticed her boyfriend’s avatar — “Hubby” on her screen—indicated that he was nearly 25 miles from home – Cat saved the image to her phone.
A screenshot of Cat Mellender’s Snapchat app, showing her boyfriend Chandler Halderson’s avatar — “Hubby” on her screen — at a remote location near the Wisconsin River days after his parents went missing.
Dane County Clerk of Courts
Det. Sabrina Sims: It was a Snapchat screen shot of Chandler … almost nine in the morning out by the Wisconsin River.
Detectives Sims and Shunk took “48 Hours” to that location on the river where they had hoped to find Krista.
Erin Moriarty: So where are we exactly? What would you call this area?
Det. Brian Shunk: It’s the Wisconsin State Lower Riverway.
This photo of Chandler holding a knife was taken near the Wisconsin River a year earlier.
Dane County Clerk of Courts
And it’s a familiar place to the former high school swimmer Chandler Halderson — close to his favorite swimming hole where he was photographed a year earlier, holding a large knife.
Law enforcement throughout Dane County searched the wooded area.
Erin Moriarty: And how long was he here?
Det. Brian Shunk: Forty-five minutes, I believe.
Det. Brian Shunk: And just keep in mind, in July … it was definitely far thicker than what you’re seeing here now.
Still no sign of Krista Halderson, but search teams refused to give up.
Det. Sabrina Sims: “Let’s go hit one more area” and that was where they ended up discovering the remains.
Erin Moriarty: And what exactly did they find there?
Det. Brian Shunk: They ended up findin’ two legs – cut into different sections.
The remains of Bart Halderson were discovered at a farm located about 20 miles away from the Halderson home. Krista’s remains were found in a remote area near the Wisconsin River.
Maria Falconer
DNA tests confirmed it was Krista Halderson. The concerned son who had reported his mom and dad missing was now charged with both of their murders. Krista’s cousins were horrified.
Barbi Townsend: You couldn’t write this. … it just wasn’t anything that you could possibly come up with in your head.
Erin Moriarty: How do you make sense of it?
Barbi Townsend: We don’t. And that’s the hard part. We don’t have a why.
In January of 2022, at the Dane County Courthouse, Chandler Halderson went on trial for the murder of his parents. He was also facing charges for lying to the police and for mutilating and hiding their bodies.
ADA WILLIAM BROWN: Our job is to, over the course of the next couple of weeks, present evidence to show you the path of what we believed happened –
ADA WILLIAM BROWN: That Chandler Halderson killed his parents, dismembered their bodies and hid them around southern Wisconsin.
In January 2022, Chandler Halderson went on trial for the murder of his parents. He was also facing charges for lying to the police and for mutilating and hiding their bodies.
WISC
Prosecutors laid out a motive. They say Chandler murdered his parents when his lies were about to be exposed and that for months, he had been trying to hide the truth from them.
Among the evidence: those fake e-mail accounts he created.
ADA ANDREA RAYMOND (in court): No one uses a Gmail account as their official Madison College email?
KATE JOCHIMSEN | MADISON COLLEGE: No.
And his fictious internship with an insurance company
LORI SNAPP | AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE (in court): I found no record of that person working for American Family.
Investigators believe the murder weapon was a semi-automatic rifle that had been hidden in a barn at that farm where Bart’s remains were discovered.
The rifle came from Andrew Smith, who testified that he was in the military when he met Halderson online.
ANDREW SMITH (in court): Playing video games, while stationed in Germany, sir.
Halderson had wanted a gun. Smith testified he had no idea what Halderson wanted to do with the weapon, and in June 2021, he gave him that semi-automatic rifle as a gift — and nearly 480 rounds of ammunition.
ANDREW SMITH:I’m going to give it to someone who might actually appreciate this weapon and take care of it.
ADA WILLIAM BROWN: How did Chandler react when you gave him the gun?
ANDREW SMITH: Oh, he was happy.
ADA WILLIAM BROWN: How did you know he was happy … how do you know that?
ANDREW SMITH: Because he had a big smile on his face when I had given it to him as a gift..
But the most anticipated witness in this trial would be Halderson’s girlfriend who gave police that Snapchat screen shot.
ATTORNEY: What is that?
CAT MELLENDER: Screenshot of Chandler by the Wisconsin River.
A JURY DECIDES
For three hours, Cat Mellender, sat on the stand telling the jury about the young man she thought she knew: Chandler Halderson.
ADA WILLIAM BROWN: Did you go on a lot of dates together?
CAT MELLENDER: Yeah, we would grab dinners, um have movie dates … just sit at home and watch movies, go on walks quite often.
Mellender told the jury that she was working on July 1, when authorities believe the murders happened, and didn’t see her boyfriend in person that day.
ADA WILLIAM BROWN: You weren’t with him?
CAT MELLENDER: I was not with him.
ADA WILLIAM BROWN: Did you know that Bart and Krista Halderson had died?
CAT MELLENDER: No (cries).
According to investigators, Chandler asked Mellender to bring a few cleaning supplies to his home the following day. He told her he’d stepped on some broken glass from the fireplace. She brought him a Swiffer mop and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.
ADA WILLIAM BROWN: Cat, did you have absolutely anything to do with cleaning anything up or their disappearance?
CAT MELLENDER: No.
Investigators say there is no evidence that Mellender had any involvement in the murders. They believe Chandler Halderson acted alone. Prosecutors showed the jury police video from inside the Halderson home. At first glance, it seemed neat and clean,but test results revealed what appeared to be blood.
A forensic expert testified that there appeared to be blood in the basement of the Halderson home. The expert also told the jury there appeared to be evidence of a cleanup.
Dane County Clerk of Courts
ATTORNEY: Is that all blood that it’s reacting to?
OFFICER: This could be blood that it’s reacting to, and it appears to be some wiping or clean up.
For Barbi Townsend, the most disturbing part was when the jury was shown a view of the Halderson home from a neighbor’s security camera.
Barbi Townsend: I was talking to one of my cousins. We said one of the images that is gonna be seared in our minds is when they showed that video of the window. … And it was the flickering glow from the fireplace, for like hours. that is haunting, knowing what was happening,
A forensic expert testified more than 200 bone fragments were discovered in the fireplace.
ATTORNEY: there’s a white area in the middle of that base.
FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST: Based on my training and experience that appears to be bone.
Halderson’s defense attorney Catherine Dorl did not address the bone and blood evidence found in the home but insisted that did not mean her client was the killer.
CATHERINE DORL: Chandler Halderson did not murder his parents. He is not guilty of those crimes.
She reminded the jury there were too many unanswered questions.
CATHERINE DORL: What happened to the Haldersons? What happened in the Halderson’s home? … You just are not going to know what happened.
Chandler Halderson himself didn’t testify and his defense didn’t call any witnesses.
Instead, defense attorney Crystal Vera, closed the case, and urged the jury to find reasonable doubt. She admits Chandler told a lot of lies, but she argues there isn’t enough direct evidence to tie him to the murders.
CRYSTAL VERA: You have to go back and look at everything.
CRYSTAL VERA: I guarantee you that the 12 of you that are going to go back and deliberate are all gonna have 12 different theories on what happened. And that’s a problem. I’m asking you to find him not guilty of first-degree intentional homicide.
Prosecutors had the final word.
ADA WILLIAM BROWN: This is a first-degree intentional homicide. You cannot shoot someone in the back, you cannot chop them up, you cannot scatter their remains and come to any other conclusion. And there is only one person who did those things here and that is Chandler Halderson. We’re asking you to find him guilty. Thank you.
It didn’t take long for the jury to decide.
JUDGE JOHN D. HYLAND (reading verdict): “We the jury find the defendant Chandler M. Halderson guilty of first-degree intentional homicide as to Bart A. Halderson. Guilty of providing false information. Guilty of mutilating a corpse. Guilty of first-degree intentional homicide. Guilty of mutilating a corpse. Guilty of hiding a corpse.”
Guilty on all eight charges.
Det. Sabrina Sims: I think it was just overwhelming … from all the work that we put in on it.
In March 2022, at his sentencing hearing, Chandler Halderson, who had been silent during his trial, surprised everyone by indicating he finally had something to say.
JUDGE JOHN D. HYLAND: Mr. Halderson wishes to make a statement.
CHANDLER HALDERSON (addressing the court): Your Honor, I want to take this opportunity to state my intent to appeal my convictions. If there are any lawyers listening and willing to take on my appeal, take a moment to please reach out to me. It’s not that I do not have feelings, it is that I was warned to not show them due to the scrutiny of this case. Thank you.
Erin Moriarty: What was your reaction when he had the chance to speak and all he did was ask for a lawyer to take an appeal? What was your reaction?
Barbi Townsend: I was actually disgusted. I just couldn’t believe it. Like, you can’t even say I’m sorry.
Chandler was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Erin Moriarty: When do you miss ’em?
Dan Kroninger: Oh, I think about ’em just about every day.
Erin Moriarty: Really?
Dan Kroninger: Yeah … we’re building a pond in our backyard or … and just, you know, they would love to see that, and love be a part of it.
Mitchell Halderson, Bart and Krista’s oldest son, is now living with an unimaginable loss. Barbi Townsend shared a text and a photo thatKrista sent to family just three months before she died
Barbi Townsend (reading text): “Happy Easter. Yes, the boys and their women . Mitchell is still at Epic Systems and will turn 25 this year. Yikes. … Chandler is currently interning with American Family Insurance as an IT administrator. But his other degree, sustainability management, has given him an edge …”
“Happy Easter. Yes, the boys and their women,” Krista Halderson texted to relatives.
Barbi Townsend
Barbi Townsend: You see in her text how proud she was of her boys … and how 100 percent completely believing Chandler.
She can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Chandler had just been honest with everyone.
Erin Moriarty: If he had just gone and thrown himself at the mercy of his parents, what do you think Krista and Bart would have done?
Barbi Townsend: They would have helped him. … they definitely would have confronted him on it. But after the confrontation and the truth telling, would have come to grace. “How do we go forward? How do we help you? How do we get your life back on track?” They would’ve helped him.
In April 2023, two of Chandler Halderson’s convictions related to hiding his parents’ corpses were vacated on procedural grounds. He continues to serve a life sentence with no possibility of parole for the murder and dismemberment of his parents.
Her has filed an appeal.
Produced by Marcelena Spencer. Iris Carreras is the field producer. David Dow is the development producer. Mike McHugh and Greg McLaughlin are the editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
A Florida man has been charged with first-degree murder on suspicion of killing and dismembering his wife, whose remains were found in suitcases at a beach last month, authorities said Thursday.
William Lowe, who was arrested Wednesday, is accused of killing his 80-year-old wife, Aydil Barbosa Fontes, Delray Beach police Detective Mike Liberta said in a news conference Thursday.
Investigators allege Lowe, 78, fatally shot Fontes in the head, dismembered her body at their apartment in Delray Beach and placed the remains in suitcases and a tote-like bag before discarding them at their local beach, Liberta said. Authorities believe Fontes was killed sometime between July 17 and July 20, police said previously.
During his first court appearance Thursday, Lowe pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and abuse of a dead body, online court records show.
Marc Shiner, an attorney representing Lowe, told CNN in an email Thursday that Lowe is a “former Marine who honorably served our country.” Shiner added the defendant “is looking forward for the entire truth to come out in the courtroom.”
Lowe was being held without bond Thursday at Palm Beach County’s jail.
The investigation started July 21, when police received calls from people reporting seeing suitcases they thought contained human remains at or near the Intracoastal Waterway at Delray Beach, about 9 miles north of Boca Raton, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The tips led detectives to three suitcases filled with human body parts that day. Police first found one suitcase floating in the water, and shortly after, they found two more suitcases at nearby locations along the beach, police have said.
A tote-type bag with more remains was found during a search of the waterway the next day, the affidavit reads.
“This is probably the worst I’ve seen,” Liberta said.
Video surveillance of the area where the bags were found and witness statements helped police locate the defendant, Liberta said.
Witnesses told police they saw an older White man apparently look at one of the suitcases, and one witness said the man was there five or six times over a three-day period before authorities found the remains, according to the affidavit.
Witnesses also told police about a vehicle they’d seen a man with the same description get into near where a suitcase was dumped on the same day police found it, the affidavit states.A detective reported seeing a similar vehicle in the area, and the vehicle’s tag revealed it belonged to Lowe, according to the affidavit.
Upon questioning, Lowe told police on Monday his wife had been in Brazil for “about three weeks,” according to the document.
Police searched Lowe’s apartment and spotted large amounts of blood in multiple areas in the home. A search of the suspect’s storage unit revealed a chainsaw police believe was used in the dismembering, Liberta said.
“Detectives observed blood spatter throughout the residence to include the living room, dining room, hallway, both bathrooms and the master bedroom. Blood was detected in the master bath shower drain as well as the tub of the second bathroom,” the affidavit states.
Police also saw drag marks in the living room, hallway and master bathroom along with numerous cleaning supplies, the affidavit notes.
Investigators don’t know of a motive in the killing, Liberta said.
Rex Heuermann, the man suspected of several murders near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach, appeared in court Tuesday. His wife, who has filed for divorce, said in a statement before the hearing that their children cry themselves to sleep. Errol Barnett reports.
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Lori Vallow Daybell, the “doomsday mom,” was sentened for the murders of her children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow. Her husband, Chad Daybell, will face trial in 2024. Jonathan Vigliotti reports.
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A Green Bay woman wasn’t mentally ill when she killed and dismembered a former boyfriend and scattered his body parts at various locations, a jury found Thursday.
The same Brown County jury that deliberated less than an hour Wednesday before convicting Taylor Schabusiness, 25, of homicide, third-degree sexual abuse and mutilating a corpse in the February 2022 killing of Shad Thyrion, 24, needed less than an hour Thursday to find she didn’t suffer from mental illness or defect at the time.
Brown County Circuit Judge Thomas Walsh set sentencing for Sept. 26, CBS affiliate WFRV-TV reported.
After deliberations, Taylor Schabusiness has been found responsible for the murder and dismemberment of Shad Thyrion. Phase two of the trial was to determine if she was not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect.https://t.co/cX2Zfr52dQ
Schabusiness strangled Thyrion at the Green Bay home he shared with his mother, sexually abused him and dismembered his body, leaving parts of it throughout the house and in a vehicle, authorities said.
Thyrion’s father testified that his understanding was that Schabusiness and his son were friends from middle and high school, WFRV reported. He described her as “polite.”
She appeared to suffer from a range of mental issues when she was evaluated at the Brown County Jail in 2022 and 2023, said Diane Lytton, an independent psychologist who testified for the defense Thursday.
Schabusiness, who had thrown a plastic chair at Lytton during an evaluation, was a “psychotic person,” the psychologist testified.
Defense attorney Christopher Froelich said Schabusiness was under a civil commitment order in April 2021 “because she was mentally ill.”
Brown County Assistant District Attorney Caleb Saunders said the issue for jurors was the defendant’s mental state when she committed the crime, not in 2021.
If the jury had found Schabusiness was mentally ill, she would be sent to a mental institution instead of prison.
Walsh ruled in March that Schabusiness was competent to stand trial.
In February, Schabusiness attacked her previous attorney during a hearing before a deputy wrestled her to the courtroom floor.
During the trial, the prosecution showed a photo of Schabusiness lying next to her phone, showing a photo of Wisconsin serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, WFRV reported.
Schabusiness’s father testified that her mother died in her sleep and the death took a took a toll on the family, WFRV reported. He said he sent her to Texas to live with her grandparents in 2017, the station reported.
Investigators have wrapped up their search of the home of Rex Heuermann, the man accused of killing at least three women on Long Island. Errol Barnett has the latest on the investigation.
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Police are once again looking into the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. Shakur was killed in a 1996 drive-by shooting in Las Vegas when he was 25. The cold case was recently reopened and last week police searched a Las Vegas home in connection to the murder. Lena Nozizwe, a journalist and the podcaster behind “Tupac’s Murder Was His Case,” joined CBS News to talk about the new developments.
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This article was originally published on Feb. 18, 2022. It was updated on July 22, 2023.
Maya Millete, a young wife and mother of three disappeared from her Southern California home in January 2021. From almost the beginning, Maya’s family and friends grew suspicious of her husband Larry. Investigators say the couple had been having marital troubles and shortly before Maya’s disappearance, Larry had been contacting spellcasters to have a hex put on his wife so that she would stay in the marriage. Where is Maya Millete?
A DESPERATE SEARCH
More than a year has gone by since 39-year-old Maya May Millete, mother of three young children, vanished in Chula Vista, California.
Maricris Drouaillet: I still have hope. I still have that hope that we’ll find her alive.
Maya Millete, a mother of threee, was last seen in January 7, 2021 in Chula Vista, California.
Maricris Drouaillet
Maya’s sister, Maricris, and her husband Richard Drouaillet have fought hard so Maya’s disappearance doesn’t become a cold case.
Richard Drouaillet: It’s been a really, really tough year for the whole family … we still don’t have answers yet.
Maya was 13 years old when she immigrated to the United States from the Philippines with her parents and five siblings in 1995. Maricris says her sister thrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, where the family settled to build a new life.
Maricris Drouaillet: She’s always been, you know, the smart one. And — she’s very active at school. … education — it’s very important to the family. … I’ve always been so proud of her.
Maya met her future husband Larry Millete when they were both working at a fast-food restaurant in Honolulu. Larry’s family had also immigrated from the Philippines. When Larry turned 18 and joined the Navy, the couple decided to get married.
Jonathan Vigliotti | CBS News correspondent: They were so young.
Maricris Drouaillet: Yeah.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Teenagers.
Maricris Drouaillet: Yes … She’s the first one to get married so it was a shock for everyone, but we respected her decision.
Larry and Maya Millete
Maricris Drouaillet
Maya and Larry moved to Southern California and built their careers working for the Navy. Larry was an optician at the Naval Medical Center, and Maya worked as a supervisor contract specialist at Naval Base San Diego.
Claudia Julao: She was my mentor from day one.
Allison Alexander: She was like this little, tiny person but she was a big personality.
Claudia Julao and Allison Alexander worked with Maya at the base and became friends.
Claudia Julao: We actually negotiate contracts for the U.S. Navy. … And she was very good at it. … I used to you know joke around with her because she had a photographic memory.
Allison Alexander: I had a lot of respect for her. … She was a very strong and confident leader. A lot of the women in the office really looked up to her.
Claudia Julao: There was no glass ceiling. We could get wherever we wanted, didn’t matter where we came from.
Maya and Larry decided to wait 10 years before starting a family. The couple eventually welcomed two daughters and a son.
Maricris Drouaillet: It’s joy to see them, you know that they have their own family, too. … We’re always out camping … We’re always outdoors.
Richard Drouaillet: Larry was a good dad … always attentive to the kids, great parents.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What kinda mother was she?
Maricris Drouaillet: Very caring, loving mother. She, hands on. … She’s always teaching them somethin’, especially, you know, music. … she has some videos with her son … singing with her.
Richard Drouaillet: Word by word. Word by word. Brings us to tears every time we watch it.
Claudia Julao: Her kids were everything. … She enjoyed her kids.
In early January 2021, Maya was focused on planning a ski trip to Big Bear for her daughter’s birthday. But her family grew concerned when she suddenly stopped communicating on January 7.
Maricris Drouaillet: For her not to tell us … what’s gonna happen for her daughter’s birthday, you know, that was a big deal.
Maricris says when their brother J.R. drove over to check on Maya the next day, her husband Larry told him Maya had been in the bedroom for several hours. J.R. knocked on the door but got no response.
Maricris Drouaillet: He kinda just thinks, “OK, maybe she’s just, maybe she’s sleeping” … Larry did say that they had an argument. … He left it at that.
Maricris Drouaillet: We believed Larry … they had an argument and she just, she just wanna be left alone.
The following day, when there was still no news from Maya, Maricris and Richard drove over to the Millete house.
Richard Drouaillet: When we walked in, the house was a mess which I’ve never seen their house messy … and it was cold. … It was January … and he had the AC running, which was really odd.
This time, Larry told them Maya was out.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, Larry says Maya’s been where?
Richard Drouaillet: Hiking. She went hiking.
Suspicious that something wasn’t right, Maricris reported her sister missing to the Chula Vista Police Department that night.
Jonathan Vigliotti: How did the police react?
Maricris Drouaillet: They sent — three officers … went through the house. … They questioned us …
Maricris and Richard were upset with what they say was a lack of concern from the police.
Richard Drouaillet: It seemed like there was no urgency from the police department to investigate it properly.
By January 10, Maya had now been missing for three days. Her family gathered at her home to celebrate her daughter’s birthday, hoping against hope.
Maricris Drouaillet (sobbing): We’re all, like, looking at the door, hoping she’ll walk in on her daughter’s birthday. She never did. I felt so bad … After that she said, “Mommy didn’t show up for my birthday.” I didn’t know how to comfort her.
As Maya’s family tried to keep some normalcy for the sake of the children, Richard was watching Larry during the party.
Richard Drouaillet: Just laid back, wearing his Navy sweats on a Sunday, no shoes.
Richard Drouaillet says he was watching Larry during the party. ” Larry had no concern whatsoever on his face for his missing wife. … Not even for his daughter’s birthday.”
Maricris Drouaillet
Richard Drouaillet: Larry had no concern whatsoever on his face for his missing wife. … Not even for his daughter’s birthday.
That night, Claudia got the distressing news that Maya was missing and drove over to the Millete house. By now the birthday party had turned into a search party.
Claudia Julao: So, they were outside with babies and blankets, trying to look for their sister, their daughter. … Her parents are elderly … The brothers and the brother-in-law were out knocking on doors, giving out flyers.
Claudia Julao: He had no interest in helping.
As word spread that Maya was nowhere to be found, more friends stepped in trying to help.
Billy Little: My wife… Lou was working at the 32nd Street Naval Base. … said that a friend of hers went missing. … the family is concerned … would you help them? …, somebody asks for help, you just do it, right?
Billy Little: So, if she was still alive, I needed to get to her quickly. … that’s why I went straight to the last place she was seen, which was that house … I had no idea that it would turn into what it was.
A TREASURE TROVE OF CLUES
On January 11, 2021, four days after Maya Millete was last heard from, attorney Billy Little – a former criminal defense investigator for the U.S. Navy – decided to step into the missing person’s case.
Billy Little: I knew what had to be done, and I did it.
Billy Little: I went straight to where the last place she was seen, which was that house.
Little wanted to talk to Larry Millete. Amongst other things, he had found it odd that Maya’s husband wasn’t the one who initially called the Chula Vista Police Department.
Billy Little: In fact, when the family wanted to call 911, he discouraged it.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Were there police around also investigating at this point? No?
Billy Little: No. According to the family, the police had come. He had given them I guess the same story.
Larry Millete gave Maya’s family different accounts about where she 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.
Maricris Drouaillet
In news reports at the time, a Chula Vista Police spokesperson stated that Larry was being cooperative, they were treating it as a missing person’s case and had found no indication of foul play. Little says after he showed Larry his naval civilian ID, he let him in.
Billy Little: I started looking for things that I thought might be suspicious in the house.
Just like Maricris and Richard, he noticed something strange.
Billy Little: Most of the windows in the house were open. … It was clear he was trying to air the house out.
Little knew from Maya’s family that the couple had had a fight on the day she was last heard from.
Billy Little: I was … looking to see … if there’s any damage in the house that would indicate some domestic violence.
Billy Little: I’m also looking for defensive wounds on his hands, which I don’t see.
But Little says he did see something outside the Millete bedroom.
Billy Little: We went upstairs where her bedroom was, the first thing I noticed was the hole in the door right next to the handle … cause it’s right in the area where, if you need access to a locked room, you’re going to punch right through there.
Billy Little: And I touched the patch and it felt new; it felt wet. … I made a comment to Larry about, “Hey what’s this?” And he says, “Oh yeah, Maya punched a hole … in the door there.”
Inside the bedroom, Little says he noticed another hole on the wall that also appeared to have been recently repaired.
Billy Little: That would’ve been too high for Maya to punch because she was smaller … and I said, “Larry, what about this hole?” … And he said, “Oh yeah, she got mad and punched that, too.”
Jonathan Vigliotti: Larry’s creating a picture here of a woman who is violent … Is this adding up to you?
Billy Little: No … none of this story is adding up.
Jonathan Vigliotti:When you left the house that day after collecting those puzzle pieces, what were you thinking?
Billy Little: I thought Larry killed her and we need to find out what he did and what he did with the body.
Billy Little: But … I wasn’t ready to tell Maricris yet because I didn’t know, right? I could be wrong.
Little began canvassing the neighborhood and knocking on doors to track down home security footage to see if anything suspicious was caught on camera around the Millete house.
Billy Little: So, I knew we had to get that quickly and preserve it quickly.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Time was of the essence.
Billy Little: Oh god, yes.
What little found was a treasure trove of clues. He says a camera from a neighboring house recorded the voices of the Millete children playing in the yard, at 1030 p.m., on the night their mom was last heard from.
Billy Little: On … a school night … and it’s cold outside … and the weather — I believe it was in the … high 40s that night.
Another camera recorded Larry backing their Lexus into the garage at 5:58 a.m. the next morning.
Billy Little: So, you can’t see what’s going on, but you can see it going in the garage.
Larry then leaves the house at 6:45 a.m. and doesn’t return home for almost 11-and-a-half hours.
Jonathan Vigliotti:You could have … moved on. Why did you stay on this case and take matters into your own hands?
Billy Little: In my mind, my job wasn’t nearly complete.
Jonathan Vigliotti: It was just beginning.
Billy Little: It was just beginning (tears up) … When I see Maricris and I see her crying, I’m just like, I got to figure this out.
Billy Little: It’s just not in me to quit, so I don’t.
As Billy Little continued investigating, Maricris and Richard turned to local media and organized the first search for Maya on the hiking trails behind her house.
Richard Drouaillet: We’re desperate for answers … We wanted action and we wanted to do something. Stayin’ at home, sitting down wasn’t gonna bring us answers.
Aleida Wahn: Her sister goes on television and is begging the public for help, “help me find my missing sister” and that really moved people.
Aleida Wahn, an attorney and true-crime author, saw Maya’s case on the news and started following it closely.
Aleida Wahn: You realize that this was somebody that was very vibrant … was really out there living her life. And that is part of why it’s all so shocking that she’s missing … It shocks your conscience.
As the case gathered steam in the media, on January 23, 2021, two weeks after Maya’s disappearance, the Chula Vista Police Department searched the Millete house.
Aleida Wahn: And what they did find was that Larry had a lot of firearms. They seized two Glock handguns, a rifle and a shotgun. … and they found that he was in possession of an illegal assault weapon.
Two weeks after Maya’s disappearance, the Chula Vista Police Department searched the Millete house. Investigators had found this image of Larry’s guns on his phone. They seized some of Larry’s firearms.
San Diego Superior Court
Investigators also downloaded images from Larry’s phone. Three days later, the police were back.
Aleida Wahn: On January 26, they served another search warrant … and the police take the navigation system, the GPS, from Larry’s Lexus
Meanwhile, Maya’s friends had been revealing details about the couple’s relationship.
Claudia Julao: I will say March or so of 2020, the obsession became obvious.
Larry’s behavior had grown alarming before his wife went missing.
Claudia Julao: He would do subliminal messages for her to be that perfect spouse. And it was everywhere she walked, at different times, they would turn on. … That is insane. … It sounds like from a movie.
SIGNS OF TROUBLE
Claudia Julao: She didn’t just walk out. That’s something she would never do.
About a month after Maya’s disappearance, her husband Larry Millete hired a lawyer and stopped cooperating with investigators.
Claudia Julao: I believe that he did something to her.
Billy Little was told by Maya’s friends and family that troubling signs in the marriage began emerging the year before.
Billy Little: And it started back in January of 2020 when they started having marital problems.
Maricris Drouaillet: Larry would call every single one of us … trying to ask for help to intervene, you know, into the marriage.
Billy Little obtained numerous texts from Maya and Larry’s friends and family indicating the couple was having trouble in the marriage.
Maricris Drouaillet
Larry was complaining that Maya was having a midlife crisis.
Richard Drouaillet: He’s like, “Well, she’s been going out with her friends more often. And she has a lotta single friends.”
Maricris Drouaillet: But my sister is saying you know, “It’s not me, it’s Larry.”
Maya’s friend Claudia spent time with the couple socially.
Claudia Julao: His relationship was very, kind of to the side and just very watchful. … From what my observation of him, he always had to be in control.
Claudia recalls an instance when Larry couldn’t get a hold of Maya at work.
Claudia Julao: You know when … somebody might be agitated or you overhear their voice … I did hear, you know … “Where are you? …it takes you this long to get from your car to your office …Who were you talking to?“
Maricris Drouaillet: He wants her … to be submissive for her to comply to him … to be the same person as, you know, she used to.
Maya’s advocates argue that Maya was a devoted mother who was dedicated to her job and family and would never leave her children.
Maricris Drouaillet
But Maya’s loved ones say that Maya was changing.
Richard Drouaillet: She was growin’ into someone new. A strong woman, for sure.
As the months passed in 2020, Larry’s grip on Maya tightened.
Billy Little: He’s now tracking her spending habits. He’s gotten into all of her social media accounts. … She doesn’t have any privacy.
And he suspected she was straying.
Billy Little: Larry … accused her of having affairs with several men at work, wrote emails to her boss at work … he knows that, if he tells the boss that she’s having an affair with somebody at work, that she will get fired.
Billy Little: He tells all of Maya’s family, she’s cheating, she’s sinful, help me get her back on the Christian religious way … starts forcing her to go to church.
These are texts that Larry sent to Maya’s family.
Billy Little: He’s quoting the Bible … and it says “for the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey … Her feet go down to death. … Her steps lead straight to the grave” … He’s talking about Maya.
Billy Little: In his own words … he said that he was “getting desperate” … And he felt that the “devil was tempting him.”
At some point, Maya’s family says they told her they were concerned about what was unfolding.
Maricris Drouaillet: At that time, we knew … that my sister is ready to move on. … We told her, “Whatever your decision is, we’re here to support you.”
By the fall of 2020, Billy Little says Larry was growing increasingly desperate to hold onto Maya.
Billy Little: And, so, what does he do? He goes to witchcraft.
Billy Little: 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 … to bind your marriage in blood. And that’s what he tried to do … does a witchcraft blood altar.
A photo of Larry Millete’s witchcraft altar. Billy Little says he found evidence that Larry Millete purchased spells online. According to Little, Larry first tried spells to get Maya to fall back in love with him. But as the couple’s marital problems worsened, police say, Larry eventually wanted to harm her.
Billy Little
Billy Little [referencing photo]: That is the picture that he took of the altar … An old photo of them with blood thrown on it.
Jonathan Vigliotti: And he writes of this spellcaster … “She is kind, professional and courteous. My casting has not yet manifested, but I’m really hoping and counting on it.” …leaving a review like one would leave on Yelp for a food order.
Billy Little: Like, it’s an Uber ride. … Like, “Oh, five stars. Good job spellcaster.”
Billy Little: So, he’s not quite as smart as he thinks he is. He doesn’t realize that all of that stuff is pointing the finger at him.
By December 2020, Maya and Larry were sleeping in separate rooms. Little says Maya found speakers in her room and confronted Larry. He admitted he had been playing subliminal messages while she slept. Maya messaged a friend and said her marriage was definitely over.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What was that message that was coming out of those speakers under the bed?
Billy Little: It’s right there.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Oh, “No more men.”
Billy Little: “No more men.”
On New Year’s weekend, Maya told her family her decision.
Maricris Drouaillet: She’s ready for divorce, she’s finally made up her mind. … I just told her, “Just be careful. Just be careful.”
On January 7, the last day she was heard from, Maya filled out a divorce intake form and made an appointment with a divorce attorney.
Allison Alexander: I think she told him that she was going to file for divorce.
Claudia Julao: He snapped when he found out that he was finally losing her.
What had happened in the house that night? Little thinks he knows after a neighbor reached out with some information.
Jonathan Vigliotti: The neighbors, do they say, oh yeah, we heard gunshots?
Billy Little: Yeah. Not only did they tell me that they’ve got gunshots, but they’ve got the … audio.
A home surveillance system from the neighbor captured loud bangs around 10 p.m. that night. Little also believes they are gunshots.
Billy Little: It’s coming from Larry and Maya’s house.
Remember, Billy Little had tracked down that other home security footage that police agreed captured audio of the Millete kids playing in the backyard at 10:30 p.m.
Billy Little: The picture is becoming more and more clear. … He’s got to clean up, and he’s got to move the body … so he needs to send those kids outside on a school night … at 10:30.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Do you try to speak to law enforcement?
Billy Little: I did. … I told them what I had found. … And time and time again, there was just no follow up by the police.
The Chula Vista Police Department declined “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview, but in April 2021, they told local media that it had been an active investigation since mid-January, and they were keeping their cards close to the vest.
Richard Drouaillet: It’s tough … there was very minimal details. And that was part of our frustration working with the police department.
Aleida Wahn: The family now is having various rallies in front of the Chula Vista Police Department, basically demanding answers. But … the police are not going to release a lot of information to the family. This is potentially a murder investigation.
In May 2021, the police served Larry Millete with a gun violence restraining order. Among the reasons: investigators had found an image of guns on Larry’s phone. Another photo, which had been redacted, featured the couple’s 4-year-old son surrounded by weapons.
Authorities retrieved more firearms from the Millete house.
Billy Little: I think that was a smart move by the police … it protects the children while they try to buy a little bit of time. … but it also protects them if they have to go in and arrest him.
In the summer of 2021, investigators named Larry Millete a person of interest in his wife’s case.
Aleida Wahn: You keep wondering … is this going to be the time that they are going to arrest Larry?
On October 19, nine months after the disappearance of Maya, investigators did just that.
CHIEF KENNEDY (press conference): Today at 11:42 a.m., the Chula Vista Police Department SWAT team … arrested Larry Millete for the murder of his wife Maya Millete.
And with that, even moreevidence came to light.
A LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE
Maya’s family and friends anticipated the news of an arrest for months.
Allison Alexander: I understand that there is a case that needs to be built. There is only one shot. But it just seemed like it was too long.
In October 2021, Larry Millete was arrested for his wife’s murder. He pleaded not guilty
CBS News
Yet when Maya’s husband Larry Millete was arrested for her murder in October 2021, it was still a mixed range of emotions.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Claudia, what was your reaction?
Claudia Julao: Relieved, yet at the same time, sad … and so although you keep that hope up now it became real.
Richard Drouaillet: I think we had different reactions. I said, “Finally” (emotional). She started crying.
Maricris Drouaillet: He’s been with us for 20 years. My sister did love him. She gave him three kids. He just couldn’t let it go.
In a press conference, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephanlaid out some of the details of the months-long law enforcement investigation.
SUMMER STEPHAN: In homicide cases, there’s often a triggering event. In this case, the last call recorded that May made was to a divorce attorney.
That call was at 3:48 p.m. home security cameras captured Maya arriving at her house at 4:42 p.m. There were no images of her leaving.
Investigators had also turned up more evidence of Larry trying to keep Maya in the marriage through the supernatural before she went missing.
SUMMER STEPHAN: I’ve never had a case where that was involved.
But the spells they discovered went beyond more than asking Maya to be attracted to him. According to the arrest warrant, Larry now wanted Maya to be harmed.
Aleida Wahn: Before Maya went missing, Larry sent this message to a website that claims to cast spells … “Please punish May and incapacitate her enough so she can’t leave the house. It’s time to take the gloves off.”
It was evidence, they say, of his “unbalanced mindset” and “homicidal ideation.”
Aleida Wahn: The day Maya went missing, Larry sent countless emails to spellcasters. “I think she wants me to snap … I’m shaking inside, ready to snap.”
What’s more, according to the arrest warrant, Larry had allegedly snapped before.
Jonathan Vigliotti: One of Maya’s friends said that Maya told her Larry choked her, to the point where she was unconscious.
Maricris Drouaillet: I just heard that. … Oh, I was mad. How could he do that?
Sisters Maricris Drouaillet, left, and Maya Millete. “I want her to be found. I want to bring her home to her kids, to our families,” said Maricris.
Maricris Drouaillet
Maya had never shared that with Maricris.
Maricris Drouaillet: She didn’t share … what she’s going through, ’cause she didn’t want the family to worry about her … she was also protecting Larry … and she was protecting the children.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Were you aware of any physical abuse?
Claudia Julao: No.
Allison Alexander: No.
Allison Alexander: She would say little things here and there, but … not always to the same person.
Claudia Julao: There were already incidents that were huge red flags that if we all knew it at the same time, it would have been a bigger picture.
Claudia Julao: I feel guilty, you know, after the fact, once she went missing it was a very harsh reality for me (cries). … I wasn’t able to help her … And I will forever live with that.
Evelyn Rodriguez: Nobody had the full picture right besides the two of them.
Evelyn Rodriguez is an associate professor of sociology who teaches on topics of race and identity at the University of San Francisco. She reviewed the case for “48 Hours.”
Evelyn Rodriguez: The signs of domestic abuse can be so hard to identify … because we as a society … are unable to distinguish the line that divides that kind of, like zealous, passionate love from controlling behavior.
Evelyn Rodriguez: Larry Millete checks all the boxes for domestic partner abuse.
Evelyn Rodriguez: He knew what Maya’s pressure points were. … And so he weaponized her work … He weaponized her children, her family, her religion before he got desperate enough to try these other means of controlling her and keeping her in that marriage.
Rodriguez suggests when Larry turned to spellcasting as another method to control Maya, he may have been inspired by an old-world form of folk magic in the Philippines.
Evelyn Rodriguez: And this is stuff of, like, the old world to our parents even.
Evelyn Rodriguez: Somehow that has evolved into what I think Larry was able to find.
But Rodriguez points out that it is important not to lose sight of what the issue is here.
Evelyn Rodriguez: Really the story here is that this was an abusive partner, regardless of his culture, who was exhibiting every single … sign of domestic abuse.
With Maya’s alleged killer behind bars, her family knew their work was not done. They were more determined than ever to find her — energized with new information that had come out after Larry’s arrest. Aleida Wahn was part of that search.
The search parties are made up of dozens of friends, family members, colleagues of Maya’s and also strangers. They began looking for her in vast desert areas east of Chula Vista, near the Arizona border.
Help Find Maya/Instagram
Aleida Wahn: The thing that this case really needed was to be able to know where to search. That was the problem here. You can’t just search the entire world.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Where are we right now?
Richard Drouaillet: It’s a hot spot that Larry could have brought Maya’s body out here.
Like Billy Little, investigators obtained footage that showed Larry leaving the house in the couple’s Lexus for almost 11-and-a-half hours the day after his wife was last heard from. They analyzed the car’s navigation system.
Richard Drouaillet: According to the information that we have now … he was about two-and-a-half hours out from his house when he put his address in.
Somewhere two-and-a-half-hours away from his house, Larry had entered his address to find his way back home. That information was enough to center the searches on places Larry was familiar with, like the desert area where he and Maya had gone hiking.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What are you specifically looking for as you comb this area?
Richard Drouaillet: At this point, unfortunately, I hate to say it, but we’re probably just looking for clothing or bones.
Maya Millete’s sister, Maricris Drouaillet, right, during a search in the Anza-Borrego Desert on October 23, 2021.
CBS News/Cindy Cesare
Over the months, droves of volunteers have responded to her family’s calls to the community and have joined Team Maya.
Richard Drouaillet: We’re just so thankful and blessed to have everybody here.
James Shelby | Volunteer searcher: I’m San Diego City retired firefighter … I got a team, and we go out and we systematically cover … areas where someone could possibly hide a body. And it’s very sad to even talk about but you have to do it. And it’s the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Why are you here today?
Damien Hurt | Volunteer searcher: Really just to support the family. … Hopefully we can bring peace to the family.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What drives you to do this for a total stranger, somebody you don’t even know?
Keri Park | Volunteer searcher: It felt that it should be a community effort … you just want closure for this family so much. … And that’s why we’re out here. It’s why we keep coming. They deserve it. … Maya deserves it.
As the search for Maya continues in the vast lands of eastern San Diego, the quest for justice is just beginning in the halls of the San Diego court system.
Aleida Wahn: The problem with this case … is you don’t have a body.
THE SEARCH CONTINUES
Larry Millete has been behind bars since his arrest in October 2021, awaiting trial. He pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and illegal possession of an assault weapon. If convicted, Larry could face up to 25 years to life in prison.
Billy Little: His ego was so damaged by the fact his wife didn’t want to be with him anymore and he couldn’t handle it. So, he killed her.
Although there is still hope Maya could be found any day, a victim’s body is not required to convict someone of murder.
Billy Little: This is one of the strongest circumstantial cases I’ve ever seen… you don’t have a body. So what? … You don’t get to get away with murder because you’re good at disposing of bodies.
But Larry maintains Maya left on her own. His defense attorney Bonita Martinez turned down “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview but spoke with reporters after a hearing where Larry was denied bail.
BONITA MARTINEZ [to reporters]: … his wife was used to leaving the house in the past. … And you cannot rule out that she’s alive.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Larry maintains that Maya voluntarily left him, left the children to start her own new life. Do you believe that?
Claudia Julao: No.
Allison Alexander: Nope.
Claudia Julao: Not at all.
Allison Alexander: I would never believe that. Never.
Claudia Julao: Maya loved her kids. There’s no way she would have … up and left.
Aleida Wahn: The best argument for the defense here is Maya is not dead. They don’t have a body. She’s alive and well.
Attorney Aleida Wahn says a “no body” defense has worked before in other cases. She says without a body, the prosecution may be at a disadvantage.
Aleida Wahn: They need strong evidence … And the question is what do they have? Do they have something that they’re going to bring out in a courtroom that definitely ties Larry to murder?
Those loud bangs recorded on the neighboring security camera may not be proof of anything. An FBI analysis was inconclusive.
Aleida Wahn: They couldn’t definitively say those were gunshots because the sound quality was not good enough.
In November 2021, Larry’s attorney filed documents with the San Diego Superior Court with more allegations about Maya.
Aleida Wahn: They believe that she had this wild lifestyle, that she was out there having affairs, she’s dating different men off the internet … that she’s drinking excessively, that she’s become this completely different person. And so, they’re pointing to third party culpability. If she’s harmed, it was somebody else.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Larry and his parents claim in court documents that Maya was essentially a party girl.
Claudia Julao: Definitely not. … the Maya that I know … was a devoted mother.
Not long after Maya’s disappearance, Maricris and Richard say Larry cut off contact between the children and Maya’s side of the family.
RichardDrouaillet: We’re just trying to see them. … Going from hangin’ out, hugging ’em, jumping on my back … seein’ them at least once or twice a month — at least, to not seein’ them at all for nine months.
The Millete children are still living at home in the care of Larry’s parents. But after months of not seeing them, Maya’s family was granted visitation rights in November 2021. But the fight is not over. Maricris has filed a petition for guardianship of her sister’s children.
Maricris Drouaillet: … just show them that the whole entire family are waiting for them. And, you know, are eager to be with them again.
Allison Alexander: What those children will go through, all those moments in life when they need their mom and she’s not going to be there. … It breaks my heart.
In January 2022, Maya’s family and friends held a vigil to mark the one-year anniversary of her disappearance.
Claudia Julao (cries): There’s somebody out there that knows something, that’s seen something … They should come forward. … Have it in your heart to help us bring her home.
Maya Millete
Maricris Drouaillet
Claudia Julao: She will forever be my hero. that’s what I’m going to take with me, is a bright, shining star of a woman that gave every other woman, regardless of what she was going through an inspiration to be whoever they wanted. … That’s who Maya is.
If you have information on the case, contact the Chula Vista Police Department at 619-691-5139.
Produced by Asena Basak. Cindy Cesare is the development producer. Hannah Vair is a producer, and Lauren Turner Dunn is the associate producer. Ken Blum, Jud Johnston, Atticus Brady and Gary Winter are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
CBS News has learned that the man suspected in the cold-case murders of at least three women on Long Island’s Gilgo Beach area is now being investigated to determine if he has any connection to unsolved murders in other states. Lilia Luciano has the latest.
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A Florida judge tentatively agreed Thursday that live ammunition could be used in a reenactment of 2018’s mass shooting inside Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as part of a civil lawsuit.
Broward County Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips had earlier this month ruled that each side could conduct reenactments in the school’s three-story 1200 building, where the shooting took place. But on Thursday attorneys for the plaintiffs and the defendant told Phillips they’d agreed on conducting only one, and Phillips OK’d the plan.
“We did not see the need to put the community through that twice, and I think that the agreement that we have reached serves everyone’s purpose,” Michael Piper, Peterson’s attorney, said during Thursday’s hearing.
The plaintiffs – several of the victims’ families and a survivor – want to record a reenactment of the shooting to show the former Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy would have heard the shots and known where they were coming from, their attorney has said previously.
The defense team for Peterson, who has argued he didn’t enter the building because he couldn’t tell where the gunshots were coming from due to echoes on the campus, also has said it was interested in a reenactment.
As for the ammunition: The plaintiffs’ attorneys had previously said they intended to use blanks in the reenactment.
But on Thursday, plaintiffs’ attorney David Brill asked the judge’s permission to use live rounds fired into a ballistic bullet trap, saying experts his team consulted noted a difference in the sound of blanks from the live rounds.
The defense also would prefer live rounds be used in the reenactment, Piper, Peterson’s attorney, said.
Attorneys for both the city of Parkland and Broward County schools said they didn’t object to the use of live rounds, but said this was their first time hearing about the proposal and would like to confer with their clients.
Phillips told the attorneys she wouldn’t have an issue with the use of live rounds, but wanted to allow attorneys for both the city and school board the opportunity to speak with their clients in case they wanted to raise further objection.
“Given the testimony we’ve heard here … I really don’t think that should be an issue. However, if it is, I’ll certainly take that up in the future,” Phillips said.
The ballistic trap would be the type widely used by law enforcement to capture live rounds “in a completely safe manner and in a controlled environment,” Brill said.
Former FBI special agent Bruce E. Koenig, an expert for the plaintiffs, testified that while blanks are as loud as live rounds, there is a difference in the quality of the sound.
“There is no advantage there going with blanks … but as a forensic scientist, I’m concerned about giving the court and all the parties involved the most accurate assessment of the scene,” Koenig said.
The civil suit comes after Peterson was found not guilty late last month of criminal charges. Prosecutors had accused him of ignoring his training and failing to confront the shooter, instead taking cover outside the building. The building was preserved pending Peterson’s trial and that of the shooter, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole last year.
The school system has indicated that the 1200 building would be demolished sometime after the reenactment.
A warrant obtained by Las Vegas police and filed Tuesday with the Clark County District Court showed the home of Duane Keith Davis, 60, was searched in connection with the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department conducted the search Monday in Henderson, Nevada, less than 20 miles from the Las Vegas Strip where Shakur, 25, was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996.
The items police took from Davis’s home included a desktop computer, a laptop, 40 ink cartridges, a copy of the book “Compton Street Legends,” a copy of a Vibe magazine issue on Tupac, two tubs of photographs and other documents, court records showed.
The warrant, signed by Judge Jacqueline M. Bluth, had allowed for seizures of computers, electronic storage devices, typed or handwritten notes concerning media coverage of Tupac’s murder and documentation of Davis’s affiliation with the Southside Compton Crips, among other items.
“LVMPD can confirm a search warrant was served in Henderson, Nevada, on July 17, 2023, as part of the ongoing Tupac Shakur homicide investigation,” Las Vegas police said in a statement Monday.
The investigation into Shakur’s killing has been going on for nearly three decades.
In 2019, Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective, alleged to CBS News Los Angeles that Shakur’s murder had already been solved after Davis —also known as Keffe D— confessed to his involvement in the killing of Shakur while being questioned in connection with the murder of Biggie Smalls.
