In the days leading up to his wife’s disappearance, Larry Millete missed multiple days of work and sent a series of text messages to his immediate work supervisor describing his anguish over his wife’s desire for divorce, according to testimony Monday.
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Terry Fonville, Larry’s supervisor at the Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park, testified that on Jan. 8, 2021, he emailed Larry’s wife, May Millete, and expressed concern because he hadn’t heard from Larry.
“This is not like him to miss work. It has been a few days,” Fonville wrote May.
The testimony was delivered in the trial of Larry Millete, who is charged with murder in the death of his wife, who has not been seen or heard from since Jan. 7, 2021.
Police and prosecutors say they have been unable to determine Larry’s whereabouts Jan. 8 for a period spanning about 12 hours. Surveillance footage captured an SUV leaving the Millete home around 6:45 a.m. Jan. 8, then returning about 6:30 p.m. that evening.
Fonville testified Monday that he had known Larry for about 20 years through the Navy and their work at the Navy hospital, and that they shared an office.
Fonville called Larry “a stellar employee” and “one of the best we ever had.”
Though he declined to describe himself as Larry’s friend, he said they occasionally discussed personal matters.
Fonville was asked Monday about text messages he exchanged with Larry during the week of Jan. 2 through Jan. 9, 2021.
On Jan. 6, Larry told Fonville he would not be coming in to work.
“It’s been an exhausting day, full of getting yelled at,” Larry texted Fonville. The message continued, “I just can’t fathom what’s going on. This is surreal. Like life is hopeless.”
Fonville had shared his phone with investigators, which did not contain any texts with Larry between Jan. 7 and Jan. 8. On Jan. 9, Fonville reached out to Larry with, “How are you doing my friend?”
But Deputy District Attorney Christy Bowles produced a series of other texts that she said detectives later “recovered” between Fonville and Larry.
When asked whether he deleted those texts, Fonville said he “could have,” but did not provide any specific reason why he would have done so.
In one of the missing texts from Jan. 5, Larry wrote, “She’s asking for divorce again.”
Larry also provided Fonville with text messages that appeared to come from May, one of which read, “WE ARE COMPLETELY DONE.”
Other texts from Jan. 6 appeared to show May telling Larry, “I DON’T WANT TO BE YOUR WIFE ANYMORE. I’m filing whether you like it or not.”
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On the morning of Jan. 7, Fonville texted Larry asking when he would be arriving at work.
Around 12:30 p.m., Larry texted Fonville, “I am not right” and “I’m about to lose it.”
Fonville texted Larry, “Call me” and “Where are you?”
When asked whether he spoke with Larry on the phone, Fonville testified that he “could have.”
Fonville, who said he had met May and several other members of Larry’s family over the years, testified upon questioning from Colby Ryan, one of Larry’s defense attorneys, that he had never witnessed Larry be physically violent with May or their children.
Numerous members of May’s family previously testified that they also have never witnessed domestic violence between the couple.
However, in a 2012 letter introduced earlier in the trial, May wrote to her daughters that Larry had been physically abusive with her and that she wanted to ensure “he never puts his hands on me again.”
“I’m literally afraid of your dad sometimes,” May wrote. “He is capable of hurting me.”
Monday afternoon also featured testimony from Chula Vista police Detective Lorenzo Ruiz, who discussed items found during a search of the Millete home in October 2021, shortly after Larry’s arrest.
Among those items were several unexpired credit cards belonging to May, as well as purses and other valuables.
May’s work IDs were also found, though defense attorney Liann Sabatini noted in her questioning of Ruiz that May’s driver’s license and card used to access her workplace were not found in the house.
Investigators also discovered an undated letter Larry wrote to May in which he apologized for his behavior toward his wife, which he said was “controlling,” while he described himself as “the biggest threat to your sanity.”
Police have said there is no evidence of May leaving the family’s Chula Vista home after the afternoon of Jan. 7, nor any evidence to suggest she was alive after that date.
Bowles told jurors in her opening statement that Larry displayed obsessive and controlling behavior toward his wife prior to her disappearance, after which he “seemed unconcerned” about where his wife was, didn’t take part in the numerous searches for May in the months that followed and ceased his months of requests for magic spells to be cast on her in order to convince her to give up her plans for divorce.
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