Surveillance Shows Freezer Move After Woman Vanishes

Interior view of an empty courtroom with wooden furniture and American flags

Surveillance footage shown at the murder trial of a California man captures a freezer being loaded into a vehicle the day after his wife vanished — and prosecutors say it is one piece of a damning pattern pointing to a cold-blooded cover-up.

Story Snapshot

Surveillance video shown at Larry Millete’s murder trial depicts a freezer being wheeled out of the family’s Chula Vista home on January 9, 2021 — one day after Maya Millete was last seen alive.
Prosecutors say Maya was captured on camera arriving home at 4:43 p.m. on January 7, 2021, and was never seen leaving again, placing her disappearance squarely inside the home.
The freezer footage is part of a broader surveillance package that includes testimony about loud bangs heard at the residence and repeated repositioning of Maya’s Jeep in the days following her disappearance.
Defense attorneys challenged the lead investigator’s credibility, arguing this was his first murder case and that key evidence remains ambiguous without direct forensic proof linking the freezer to any crime.

The Last Known Moments on Camera

Maya Millete, a mother from Chula Vista, California, was last captured on surveillance footage arriving at her home on January 7, 2021, at 4:43 p.m. Prosecutors presented hundreds of hours of neighborhood camera footage at trial and told jurors that Maya was never seen leaving that residence again. Her disappearance was reported days later, launching an investigation that ultimately led to murder charges against her husband, Larry Millete.

Lead investigator Jesse Vicente testified that the surveillance timeline revealed a series of suspicious movements in the hours and days immediately following Maya’s last appearance on camera. Neighbors’ cameras recorded loud bangs at the residence at 8:45 p.m. on January 7 and again between 9:57 and 9:59 p.m. that same night. Investigators said they were never able to determine the source of those sounds, a gap the defense has pointed to as evidence that the prosecution’s timeline is built on incomplete information.

The Freezer Video and What Prosecutors Argue It Means

On January 9, 2021 — two days after Maya was last seen — surveillance footage showed a freezer being wheeled out of the Millete home on a dolly and loaded into a vehicle belonging to Larry’s aunt. Vicente testified directly to this observation during the trial. Prosecutors presented the freezer movement alongside evidence that Larry’s Lexus had backed into the driveway in the early hours of January 8 and that Maya’s Jeep was repositioned multiple times in the days after her disappearance.

The prosecution’s theory holds that Larry loaded Maya’s body into a sport utility vehicle and transported it approximately 200 miles away for disposal. Prosecutors argue the freezer movement, the vehicle activity, and the loud bangs form a recognizable pattern of concealment behavior occurring in the narrow window after Maya was last seen alive. The jury is being asked to view these events not as isolated incidents but as a coordinated sequence consistent with someone attempting to eliminate evidence.

Defense Pushes Back on Circumstantial Case

Defense attorneys have mounted a direct challenge to the prosecution’s interpretation of the surveillance evidence. They attacked Vicente’s credibility in cross-examination, noting that this was his first lead homicide investigation and that he had recently transitioned from the Chula Vista Police Department to the District Attorney’s office. The defense argued investigators may have made errors and that the lead detective had downplayed evidence of Maya’s extramarital affair, which could point to alternative explanations for her disappearance.

Critically, the prosecution acknowledged during trial proceedings that the significance of the freezer footage remained unclear. The video does not show what was inside the appliance, does not clearly identify who moved it, and does not directly show any crime being committed. The case against Larry Millete is built almost entirely on circumstantial evidence — surveillance patterns, behavior changes, and witness accounts — without a body or direct forensic proof linking the freezer to Maya’s fate. Maya Millete’s family has previously told reporters that Larry spoke openly in the months before her disappearance about wanting to harm another man she was involved with, adding a motive layer that prosecutors have woven into their broader case.