The Georgia man who disappeared in Baton Rouge last month and was later found dead was seen on video cameras visiting several businesses late the night he vanished and did not seem to be in distress, Baton Rouge Police said at a news conference Tuesday.
Chief Murphy Paul said officers have traced Nathan Millard’s movements through camera footage and interviews with witnesses. They say he was last located at 4:30 a.m. of Feb. 23, hours after he parted ways with a client at a downtown bar.
Kevin Heinz, captain of the violent crimes unit, said Millard was seen at the Greyhound bus station, where a security guard offered to call him a ride, but he declined.
“He did not appear to be in distress, she just felt that he was out of place,” Heinz said.
Paul said he would not be giving more details on Millard’s death because it is still under an active investigation.
Earlier on Wednesday, the coroner’s office said Millard’s body showed no signs of internal or external trauma. A final cause of death is still awaiting toxicology testing.
Paul, along with Downtown Development District Director Whitney Hoffman Sayal, repeatedly said at the press conference that Baton Rouge’s downtown area is safe, citing recent redevelopment and events that take place there.
“It is a safe place,” Paul said. “It is a safe place to live. It’s a safe place to participate in events. We are proud of the work that’s going on downtown.”
Millard was the father of two teenaged boys from a previous marriage, two teenage stepsons and a 7-year-old daughter with his wife, Amber Millard.
The Covington, Georgia native had flown into Baton Rouge on Feb. 22 for what was supposed to be a short business trip, his family said. An employee of Advanced Construction in Conyers, Georgia, Millard had planned to meet with a client to view a job site the following day.
On the first night of his trip, Millard and his client went to a basketball game and then to a pub in downtown Baton Rouge before parting ways at around 11:30 p.m., police say. Millard then reportedly began to walk to his nearby hotel.
When Millard failed to show up to his 8 a.m. meeting, the client contacted police to file a missing person’s report after asking staff at the hotel where Millard was staying to conduct a welfare check and learning his room did not appear to have been slept in.
A grid search by police of the city’s downtown area, the levee and east of Interstate 110 yielded no results, though Millard’s phone was later discovered downtown by a city employee. His debit card was used several times over the days following his disappearance until it was deactivated by a family member.
Millard’s body was found Monday behind a shuttered funeral home on Scenic Highway after police received a call about a foul odor coming from the area. His body had been wrapped in a rug and plastic and discarded near a cluster of fast food restaurants less than a mile from the city’s ExxonMobil plant.
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