The Covington-area man who went missing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in February likely died of a drug overdose before someone who allegedly supplied the drugs dumped his body in a deserted lot, police said Monday.
The Advocate newspaper of Baton Rouge reported Derrick Perkins, 45, was arrested Monday, March 20, on a charge of unlawful disposal of remains and other counts in connection to the death of Nathan Millard, whose address is Covington in Walton County.
Millard, an employee of a Conyers construction company, was in Baton Rouge for a business trip Feb. 22 when he was last seen. He had gone to an LSU basketball game and a downtown bar with a client before heading to his nearby hotel.
However, he was later seen on security video leaving the hotel and Baton Rouge police say Millard visited several local businesses later that night and did not seem to be in distress, The Advocate reported.
Arrest documents say that on the same night, Millard and an unidentified man and woman met with a known drug dealer called "Stanka" and rode with him to a convenience store, the newspaper reported.
WSB-TV reported police said Millard arrived at a Greyhound Bus station on Florida Street less than a mile from the bar at about 11:30 p.m. and was with the unidentified man, according to warrants. He used an ATM card to withdraw cash.
A security officer spotted him and asked Millard if he needed help. Millard refused and told the employee that he lost his cell phone. The employee offered to call a rideshare for him or take him back to his hotel room but Millard refused — telling the employee he was looking for “something to make him feel better,” according to a warrant.
Arrest documents say that on the same night, Millard and the unidentified man and a woman met with a known drug dealer called "Stanka" and rode with him to a convenience store, The Advocate reported.
Afterward, Millard and the man — later identified as Perkins — drove to a house on Lorri Burgess Avenue in Baton Rouge where they took drugs and Millard accidentally overdosed, according to an affidavit as reported by The Advocate.
Police spokesman Sgt. L'Jean McKneely told the newspaper Monday it was not clear yet whether Perkins provided the drugs that proved fatal and does not yet face homicide or drug charges. The investigation into Millard's disappearance and death is ongoing, The Advocate reported.
The affidavit states Perkins later wrapped Millard's body in plastic and put it in the trunk of his car which was later found burned near the place where Millard's body was found behind a former funeral home.
Perkins also faces counts of obstruction of justice, simple criminal damage to property and failure to seek justice. He was already in jail on a count of access device fraud because police say he used Millard's credit card the evening he disappeared, the newspaper reported.
Perkins is also accused of stealing the blue 2003 Toyota Camry that he put Millard's body in from an unrelated victim on Feb. 3.
The documents say Perkins removed the vehicle's bumper sticker and attempted to sand down the spot where the sticker had been, around the time that Millard's case began to garner national attention.
