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BRPD: No sign of 'foul play' in Georgia man's death; police looking for those who saw him last
BATON ROUGE - Investigators don't suspect any foul play in the death of a Georgia man who disappeared for more than a week before his body was found dumped in a vacant lot Monday, though detectives say they are still trying to determine what led to his death and who moved his remains.
The Baton Rouge Police Department said Nathan Millard, 42, was found dead around 3:30 a.m. in a vacant lot near the intersection of Scenic Highway and Chippewa Street. The body was apparently rolled up in a rug and wrapped in plastic. It appeared Millard — who went missing in late February — had been dead for some time.
On Tuesday, the East Baton Rouge Coroner's Office shared preliminary autopsy results, noting there was no sign of internal or external trauma, meaning it appeared he was neither beaten nor was he struck by any kind of weapon. The manner and cause of death is still pending the final autopsy report and toxicology results.
Police said the death is not being investigated as a homicide at this time.
"At this time, we don't have any indication that there was any foul play involved. We are looking into how he ended up where he was," Capt. Kevin Heinz said during the news conference.
In that briefing Tuesday, police laid out a timeline of the events before Millard's disappearance. That included an encounter between Millard and a security guard at the Greyhound bus station on Florida Boulevard around 12:30 a.m., about an hour after he left a bar in downtown.
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"The security guard offered to call him a ride, get him an Uber, to call the police for him..." Capt. Heinz said. "He didn't appear to be in distress. She just felt as though he was out of place. He declined that offer, and he left of his own accord."
Police said surveillance cameras then caught Millard near several businesses over the next several hours, with him last being seen alive around 4:30 a.m. that morning. Heinz reiterated that at no point in the video reviewed by police did it appear that Millard was in any kind of "distress."
See some of that surveillance video here
"It did not appear that there was anything taking place criminally."
When asked whether drugs may have been involved in Millard's death, Heinz declined to comment but said that is pending the toxicology report, which will help determine if any substances were in Millard’s body that could have killed him or contributed to his death.
Police said during the news conference that Millard likely died somewhere else and that someone moved his body to the location where it was later discovered.
"If something happened and there was a moment of panic, come forward. We just want to know what happened to him," Heinz said.
Millard, a contractor from Georgia, was missing for over a week after he disappeared during a business trip. He was last seen the night of Feb. 22, with surveillance photos showing him leaving his hotel in downtown Baton Rouge.
Sources told WBRZ that Millard left the hotel and went with a client to Happy's Irish Pub, where staff reportedly cut him off because he had too much to drink. He left the bar alone around 11:30 p.m., reportedly with plans to head back to his hotel. His phone and wallet were later found on the ground several blocks away.
Last week, authorities questioned a homeless person who was caught on video trying to use Millard's credit card at the Greyhound bus station, though that person was later released. The search for Millard had escalated in recent days, with multiple volunteer search groups joining efforts to find him.
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