Georgia man dies mysteriously in Baton Rouge

At 3:34, Monday morning, March 6, 2023, a passing motorist found the body of Nathan Millard, 42, a businessman from Walton County, Georgia, dumped in an abandoned garage in the 2900 block of Scenic Highway, walking distance from Exxon-Mobil’s Baton Rouge refinery.

Someone had wrapped the corpse in plastic and a rolled carpet before leaving the body miles from Millard’s hotel.

Hours after the discovery, Baton Rouge officials told a news conference they did not suspect foul play.

Speaking with a reporter, Kiran Chawla, the motorist said the odor was strong enough to entice him to stop his car and investigate. Flashlight in hand, he walked passed a shuttered funeral home to the crumbling cinderblock garage.

Inside the structure, amid scattered garbage, he saw feet protruding from a rotted carpet.

Backing out of the garage, he called the police.

“At first, I thought it was someone throwing out food, and then I saw the feet. I got really scared, and my stomach was turning in knots,” the witness said.

Millard’s wife said Thursday night that she had not seen the news conference. However, investigators told her that her husband likely died of an drug overdose.

“There were no signs of internal or external trauma,” Captain Kevin Heinz said during a news conference Tuesday. He said investigators believe Millard died at another location and that someone transported his body to the vacant lot. “There doesn’t appear to be any foul play at this point,” the policeman told reporters. “I know that he was placed there, obviously by another individual. We’d like to know who and why.”

Webster’s dictionary defines foul play as “unlawful or dishonest behavior.”

Are Baton Rouge Police suggesting the dead man asked someone to wrap him in plastic and hide his body under a rug in a deserted neighborhood? Captain Heinz’s theory was unclear.

Even if Millard died from an overdose, which we will not know until the toxicology report comes back, how can investigators say he was not provided one drug laced with another? It is much too soon to rule out foul play. In fact, it is too early to discard the possibility of homicide.

Nathan Millard came to Baton Rouge to meet a prospective client for his construction company. Wednesday evening, February 22, the pair attended a Louisiana State University basketball game, LSU’s Tigers versus the Vanderbilt Commodores.

After the game, the men stopped briefly for dinner and later drinks at the Penthouse Club. They finished the night with drinks at Happy’s Irish Pub, four blocks from the Courtyard by Marriott Downtown, where Millard stayed.

Police believe Millard left the bar alone around 11:30 that evening, walking back to his hotel. When Millard missed a nine o’clock meeting Thursday morning, his client contacted the hotel. Working with hotel staff, the client determined Millard had not returned to his room and called the police to report him missing.

Using downtown cameras and interviewing various people, police retraced Millard’s route after leaving the bar. Surveillance video captured him walking with a stumbling man ten minutes later.

Millard went to a Greyhound bus station about an hour after leaving the bar. A security guard offered to call him a ride, but he declined.

Police say they tracked Millard near several businesses in the area over several hours. Someone last saw him at a place around 4:30 Thursday morning, but police did not disclose the business name. However, surveillance video shows Millard walking with a person in a light-colored shirt and shorts around the same time.

Someone using Millard’s bank card attempted to extract money from two ATMs located blocks apart. At some point, someone found Millard’s wallet and phone on the ground several blocks from his hotel.

According to Millard’s wife, Amber, police told her they have been looking at surveillance video and her husband’s debit card purchases since last week. She said his card was used twice that morning, once on Florida Boulevard and once at the Greyhound Bus Station.

“My understanding is that they have tried to get camera footage over and over. Only one has been turned in, and it shows a black male using Nathan’s debit card,” Amber Millard said.

The Millards were married for nine years. They share a 7-year-old daughter, and Nathan Millard was stepfather to two teenage boys and father to two sons from a previous marriage.

“My daughter, she knew her daddy was lost,” Amber Millard said. “We had been trying to keep it simple for her, but I don’t know what to tell her now.”

This investigation is still ongoing. If you know anything that can help the police, call Crime Stoppers at 344-STOP.