Dellen Millard’s lawyer said he may seek a change of venue. ‘In a criminal investigation, I have never seen police disclose so much to the media’
Reported by National Post 11 hours ago.
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Lawyer for Tim Bosma murder suspect says police damaging chance for fair trial
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Tim Bosma murder case: Police to provide update on missing woman Laura Babcock
Police will update media on the case of missing woman Laura Babcock Tuesday afternoon.Homicide Det. Mike Carbone, who has been leading the investigation since a possible link was drawn to murder suspect Dellen Millard, will speak to media at 2:30 p.m. at police headquarters.
Follow on mobile: live press conference at 2:30 p.m.
Babcock, 23, was last seen in the Queen St. And Roncesvalles Ave. area on June 26, 2012 after ex-boyfriend Shawn Lerner put her up in a hotel. Her last phone call was made to Millard on July 3.
Millard, 27, of Etobicoke, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ancaster man Tim Bosma.
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Babcock’s parents, Clayton and Linda, said Laura, a bubbly honours student who earned a degree in English and drama from the University of Toronto, was friends with Millard.
Before her disappearance, she was bouncing around between friends’ places and occasionally crashing at home, her parents said.
Then in June, Babcock dropped of her two-year-old Maltese dog, Lacey, unannounced, at her parent’s house. She never returned.
Her friends and family say the disappearance — now almost a year — is uncharacteristic of the “social butterfly” who worked at children’s toy store. Babcock’s family said she has been using the name Elle Ryan.
Police never interviewed Millard in connection to Babcock’s disappearance, her parents said. The detective assigned to her file was later promoted and they had not received updates for months, her parents said.
Last week, Toronto Police obtained a search warrant and were digging at the Ayr farm property owned by Millard. Earlier this month, Hamilton police located Bosma’s body on the farm “burned beyond recognition.”
Police are also investigating the death of Millard’s father, Wayne, after his apparent suicide in November 2012.
Toronto Police would not say what they were looking for at the farm. The search also wrapped up last week and there has been no information on what, if anything, was found.
More to come. Reported by Toronto Star 3 minutes ago.
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Police to provide update on missing woman Laura Babcock
Police will update media on the case of missing woman Laura Babcock Tuesday afternoon.Homicide Det. Mike Carbone, who has been leading the investigation since a possible link was drawn to murder suspect Dellen Millard, will speak to media at 2:30 p.m. at police headquarters.
Babcock, 23, was last seen in the Queen St. And Roncesvalle Ave. area on June 26, 2012 after ex-boyfriend Shawn Lerner put her up in a hotel. Her last phone call was made to Millard on July 3.
Millard, 27, of Etobicoke, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ancaster man Tim Bosma.
Babcock’s parents, Clayton and Linda, said Laura, a bubbly honours student who earned a degree in English and drama from the University of Toronto, was friends with Millard.
Before her disappearance, she was bouncing around between friends’ places and occasionally crashing at home, her parents said.
Then in June, Babcock dropped of her two-year-old Maltese dog, Lacey, unannounced, at her parent’s house. She never returned.
Her friends and family say the disappearance — now almost a year — is uncharacteristic of the “social butterfly” who worked at children’s toy store. Babcock’s family said she has been using the name Elle Ryan.
Police never interviewed Millard in connection to Babcock’s disappearance, her parents said. The detective assigned to her file was later promoted and they had not received updates for months, her parents said.
Last week, Toronto Police obtained a search warrant and were digging at the Ayr farm property owned by Millard. Earlier this month, Hamilton police located Bosma’s body on the farm “burned beyond recognition.”
Police are also investigating the death of Millard’s father, Wayne, after his apparent suicide in November 2012.
Toronto Police would not say what they were looking for at the farm. The search also wrapped up last week and there has been no information on what, if anything, was found.
More to come. Reported by Toronto Star 55 minutes ago.
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Tim Bosma murder case: police reveal little about investigation into missing woman Laura Babcock, death of Wayne Millard
Toronto homicide Det. Mike Carbone provided few new details at a press conference Tuesday on the investigation into a death and a missing person’s case that is related to murder suspect Dellen Millard.Carbone, who has been leading the investigation since a possible link was drawn to Millard, said Laura Babcock, who went missing last summer, remains unaccounted for and nothing was found during their search of Millard’s farm last week.
Police said they scoured the farm with high tech equipment, which included ground penetrating radar, after “receiving reliable information.”
Babcock, 23, was last seen in the Queen St. and Roncesvalles Ave. area on June 26, 2012 after ex-boyfriend Shawn Lerner put her up in a hotel. Her last phone call was made to Millard on July 3, which police confirmed Tuesday, and said they received the information shortly after Millard’s arrest in Tim Bosma’s death.
Lerner told the Star he gave police the phone records last summer, which Babcock’s family also confirmed to the Star. Carbone, however, was adamant that investigators in 22 Division, which handled the case last summer, “did their jobs” and conducted a thorough investigation.
*MORE ON THESTAR.COM*
Toronto homicide unit searches suspect Dellen Millard’s farm
Drops of blood seen on boat rented by Dellen Millard, owner says
Ancaster man was killed inside truck, source says
Carbone said Babcock advertised her services as an escort online in the months before her disappearance. He wouldn’t say if this is connected to her disappearance.
Millard, 27, of Etobicoke, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ancaster man Bosma.
Carbone said he doesn’t believe that Millard has been interviewed in connection with Babcock’s disappearance, but confirmed the murder suspect and Babcock were romantically linked, but not “in the traditional way.”
He wasn’t sure if Millard ever used the escort service Babcock advertised on.
Babcock’s parents, Clayton and Linda, said Laura — a bubbly honours student who earned a degree in English and drama from the University of Toronto — was friends with Millard.
Before her disappearance, she was bouncing around between friends’ places and occasionally crashing at home, her parents said.
Then in June, Babcock dropped off her two-year-old Maltese dog, Lacey, unannounced, at her parents’ house. She never returned.
Her friends and family say the disappearance — now almost a year — is uncharacteristic of the “social butterfly” who worked at a children’s toy store. Babcock’s family said she has been using the name Elle Ryan.
Police never interviewed Millard in connection to Babcock’s disappearance, her parents said. The detective assigned to her file was later promoted and they had not received updates for months, her parents said.
Last week, Toronto Police obtained a search warrant and were digging at the Ayr farm property owned by Millard. Earlier this month, Hamilton police located Bosma’s body on the farm “burned beyond recognition.” Police are also investigating the death of Millard’s father, Wayne, after his apparent suicide in November 2012.
Toronto Police would not say what they were looking for at the farm. The search also wrapped up last week and there has been no information on what, if anything, was found. Reported by Toronto Star 1 day ago.
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Tim Bosma murder case: Dellen Millard land deals ‘beyond smelly,’ experts say
In the days following his arrest for the alleged murder of Tim Bosma, Dellen Millard transferred ownership of three residential properties to his mother for $1, the Star has learned.The conspicuously timed real estate dump raises concerns about Millard’s intentions, according to eight legal experts specializing in real estate, tax and estates, who reviewed the documents at the request of the Star.
Those experts agree the timing of the transfers is “highly unusual” and poses serious legal questions.
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Stolen vehicles recovered from Dellen Millard’s hangar, police say
Toronto homicide unit searches suspect Dellen Millard’s farm
Drops of blood seen on boat rented by Dellen Millard, owner says
Protecting his assets from future lawsuits was among the potential motivations cited by several of the lawyers interviewed. A search of Millard’s name on the provincial property database no longer reveals his connection to any of the three addresses.
It’s an issue that arose in the case of convicted killer Russell Williams, who was accused in court of fraudulently transferring his Ottawa home to his wife to protect the asset from legal liability.
Experts interviewed by the Star say Millard’s real estate transfers could face similar scrutiny for contravening provincial laws that forbid such transactions.
“The timing is beyond smelly. It doesn’t make sense to me,” said Andrew Fortis, real estate lawyer with Hummingbird Lawyers. “It raises a lot of red flags.”
Millard’s lawyer, Deepak Paradkar, dismissed the allegations.
“I don’t think there’s anything unusual about a family member taking over assets while you’re in jail,” he said in an interview. “I don’t believe there’s anything untoward.”
On the day after his May 10 arrest, Millard, 27, hastily signed over power of attorney to his mother, Madeleine Burns, from the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre, public records obtained by the Star show.
Millard signed the May 11 document alongside Paradkar.
On the same day, police announced the discovery of Tim Bosma’s 2007 Dodge Ram pickup truck parked inside a trailer belonging to Millard on the driveway of Burns’s Kleinburg home.
Police have cleared Burns of any involvement in Bosma’s disappearance and murder. Millard is one of two suspects charged with first-degree murder.
Six days after signing over power of attorney, on May 17, three of Millard’s properties were transferred into his mother’s name: a condo in the Distillery District; a condo in Vaughan; and a bungalow in Etobicoke, all for a nominal $1 consideration.
May was a very busy month for Millard.
His flurry of real estate moves began with a posh condo purchase at 70 Distillery Lane.
On May 7 — the day after Bosma went missing — Millard bought the Distillery District condo for $627,524, real estate records show. Three days later, he was arrested in connection with Bosma’s disappearance.
On May 15 — five days later — he appeared in court to be charged with Bosma’s murder.
Two days after that, while he was in solitary confinement, ownership of Millard’s condo was transferred to his mother’s name.
That same day, he transferred to her a condo at 281 Woodbridge Ave. that he’d bought in 2011 for $392,049, and a third property, the Maple Gate Court home where he grew up.
According to transfer documents, Burns took title and now has ownership of those three properties, which were placed in trust with Burns as the appointed trustee. It’s not known whether Millard maintained beneficial ownership, as trust documents are not public.
The Star is aware of two other properties owned by Millard that remain in his name: a six-unit residential property on Riverside Rd. and the Ayr farm where Bosma’s badly burned body was found.
Legal experts agree the documents show a series of sophisticated –— and curious — transactions for which there is a case to be made against Millard under the provincial Fraudulent Conveyances Act.
The act clearly states the transfer of property to “defeat, hinder, delay or defraud creditors or others of their just and lawful actions” — including suits or damages — is void if not done in “good faith” or with knowledge of such action against them.
A judge would ultimately rule on whether the transfers are null after hearing arguments on why they were made.
David Ullman, a partner at Minden Gross who specializes in issues involving creditors — including finding hidden assets — says Millard could have simply given his mother power of attorney to manage his affairs or added her to the property title.
“I think it’s a little strange that it’s being done six days after the power of attorney was appointed,” Ullman said. “My instinct as someone who deals with people who are trying to hide assets from their creditors is that this could be done for that purpose.”
Toronto lawyer Barry Fish called the property transfers “highly unusual.”
“The purpose of doing this is opaque to me,” he said. “[Millard] has not put these three properties out of reach of his creditors. He has only placed an obstacle in their path, which a plaintiff lawyer can circumvent.”
The lawyers the Star spoke to said it is normal for someone who has been arrested to sign over power of attorney to deal with paper-signing. What becomes suspect, they said, is the timing and intention of the transfers.
“The question is, could his lawyers argue that he was already going to do this and this was done in good faith . . . or was it done to avoid paying somebody in the future?” said Toronto real estate lawyer David Feld.
Paradkar said arrangements were made to facilitate day-to-day affairs while Millard is in jail awaiting trial. He said Millard is “not concerned about lawsuits.”
“He has the right to conduct his affairs in such a manner as he sees fit,” Paradkar wrote in an email. “Any suggestion of fraudulent conveyances are untrue and simply irresponsible speculation.”
John David Brunt, a real estate and commercial lawyer with Blaney McMurtry, handled the transfers, according to public documents. Brunt said in an email that he could not comment on the transfers due to client-solicitor privilege.
The Star received no response to requests for an interview with Burns and Millard about the transfers.
Bosma’s family currently has no civil actions filed against Millard, who plans to plead not-guilty to criminal charges, Paradkar has said.
Bosma’s family have the option to file a wrongful death suit against those accused of his murder — something that is typically done after a criminal conviction, once the evidence has been heard in open court.
Bosma’s widow, Sharlene, declined comment when reached by the Star.
Allegations before the courts that former CFB Trenton commander Russell Williams tried to surreptitiously protect his assets in the months after his arrest were triggered when he transferred his house solely into his wife’s name.
Both Williams and his estranged wife, Mary Elizabeth Harriman, denied those allegations in defence statements, arguing the transfer was made to protect Harriman’s financial security. The lawsuit is ongoing.
In prison, Millard has been placed in isolation “for his own protection,” his lawyer Paradkar said.
“It’s very difficult,” Paradkar said. “He’s got nothing to do. He’s an affable, outgoing guy, very low-key, not a guy who would project as having money. You just wouldn’t know.”
He said Millard never had any interest in the family business, spending his time instead in chef school and other interests.
“The family has been destroyed over this.” Reported by Toronto Star 7 hours ago.
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Tim Bosma case: 3rd man contacted to test drive used pickup truck
Hamilton police working on the Tim Bosma murder investigation say a third man was contacted to test drive a used pickup truck listed for private sale.
Reported by CTV 6 hours ago.
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Bosma accused Millard tried to arrange 3rd test drive
Hamilton police confirm a third man was contacted for a test drive of a truck he was selling with the same cellphone that was used to call Tim Bosma the day before he died.
Reported by CBC.ca 2 hours ago.
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Tim Bosma murder: Police say suspects attempted third test drive of Dodge Ram
Hamilton police are now saying a third man was contacted about a test-drive of his Dodge Ram before Ancaster resident Tim Bosma disappeared while showing his truck to a prospective buyer.
A Toronto man had arrangements to meet Dellen Millard but missed a phone call about a test drive of his Dodge Ram 3500, Const. Debbie McGreal confirmed.
Millard, 27, of Etobicoke, and Mark Smich, 25, of Oakville, have been charged with first-degree murder in Bosma’s death.
A source with knowledge of the investigation says there were actually four people contacted about test-drives of similar trucks, including Bosma, which police have denied.
On May 6, Bosma left his rural home with two men who had responded to an online advertisement about test-driving his Dodge Ram 3500. He never returned.
Police earlier revealed that an unidentified man in Etobicoke who had also posted his Dodge Ram for sale online was contacted and went for a test drive with the same two men on May 5. He was returned without being harmed.
Police knew early on in the investigation that there were other test drives — even before Bosma’s charred remains were found, a source told the Star.
“There were at least four test drives of similar trucks,” the source said.
McGreal said police are not aware of a fourth test drive. Reported by Toronto Star 1 hour ago.
A Toronto man had arrangements to meet Dellen Millard but missed a phone call about a test drive of his Dodge Ram 3500, Const. Debbie McGreal confirmed.
Millard, 27, of Etobicoke, and Mark Smich, 25, of Oakville, have been charged with first-degree murder in Bosma’s death.
A source with knowledge of the investigation says there were actually four people contacted about test-drives of similar trucks, including Bosma, which police have denied.
On May 6, Bosma left his rural home with two men who had responded to an online advertisement about test-driving his Dodge Ram 3500. He never returned.
Police earlier revealed that an unidentified man in Etobicoke who had also posted his Dodge Ram for sale online was contacted and went for a test drive with the same two men on May 5. He was returned without being harmed.
Police knew early on in the investigation that there were other test drives — even before Bosma’s charred remains were found, a source told the Star.
“There were at least four test drives of similar trucks,” the source said.
McGreal said police are not aware of a fourth test drive. Reported by Toronto Star 1 hour ago.
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Tim Bosma murder: Unclear whether third suspect exists, lead investigator says
The lead investigator in the murder of Tim Bosma said they are considering the possibility there is no third suspect.Det.-Sgt. Matt Kavanagh with Hamilton police’s homicide squad told the Star he is not sure whether three suspects are responsible for kidnapping and then killing the 32-year-old Ancaster father, who left his home on May 6 for a test drive and never returned.
Dellen Millard, 27, and Mark Smich, 25, have been charged with first-degree murder.
Police earlier alleged the two men climbed into Bosma’s 2007 Dodge Ram and were then followed by a second car — Millard’s dark blue GMC Yukon. A third suspect was believed to be the person driving that second car.
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Dellen Millard land deals ‘beyond smelly,’ experts say
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Kavanagh now says police are not sure whether Smich, who is said to have been in the back seat of the truck while Millard was driving, exited that vehicle after leaving Bosma’s home and got into the driver’s seat of the Yukon.
“That is possible right now, yes, but I’m not going to commit either way,” Kavanagh said.
If there is a third suspect, Kavanagh said police do not have any leads on who it might be.
Millard’s girlfriend, whose identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, is not believed to be involved, the detective said.
“Millard’s girlfriend has been cleared of that,” he said.
As for the rest of names on a long list of people Millard and Smich have been ordered not to contact — including several known friends — Kavanagh would not distinguish between whether they are potential witnesses or suspects.
“They could be both,” he said.
And after the Star revealed Millard transferred three properties to his mother in trust in the days following his arrest, Kavanagh said those transfers are not part of their investigation.
“It doesn’t form part of the evidence in my case,” he said.
Both Millard and Smich have said through their lawyers they intend to plead not guilty to the murder charge.
Toronto police are also investigating the June 2012 disappearance of Toronto woman Laura Babcock and the apparent suicide in November 2012 of Millard’s father Wayne in connection to Millard. Reported by Toronto Star 5 hours ago.
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Tim Bosma murder: Dellen Millard lawyer Deepak Paradkar: ‘I treat trials like wars’
On the morning news broke about the mysterious disappearance of Tim Bosma, Deepak Paradkar whispered a silent prayer.“I prayed for his family and that he would be found safely,” recalls the Christian son of a Presbyterian minister, who says he felt deep remorse for the missing father and husband he’d never met.
“I haven’t stopped praying for him.”
Professionally, however, Paradkar’s relationship to the Bosmas has become more complex in the three weeks since that hopeful prayer.
On May 10, when police announced Bosma was dead, Paradkar was hired to defend the man police now consider a suspect in Bosma’s murder — Dellen Millard.
In a candid interview with the Star at his Thornhill home, the intriguingly textured criminal lawyer — he speaks of his prayerful spirituality alongside his “Napoleonic philosophy” of legal defence — says he is now focused on clearing Millard of responsibility the high-profile murder case.
“I never take a case without thinking I can win it,” the 50-year-old lawyer says. “As a Christian, I’m very sympathetic to the family for what has happened. But the rights of the accused have to be protected as well.”
He calls it a “paradox.”
There are more intriguing twists where that came from.
More crime stories on Thestar.com
Born in India, he became part of the Canadian immigrant narrative at the age of 7, raised by his parents in a modest Scarborough home with his sister.
By his teens, he says he could envision a very different life unfolding for himself.
“I always visualized the house I would live in, what I would drive, the lifestyle I would have,” he says, citing the inspiration of self-help gurus such as Deepak Chopra, Anthony Robbins and Napoleon Hill. “I believe if you can see where you want to be in life, you shoot for the stars.”
Today, you’ll find a Hummer parked in his driveway. The meticulously polished, bright-red Maserati and the yellow-and-black Lamborghini (in deference to his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers) sit a few metres away in the triple garage of his multi-million dollar house.
That house he imagined as a teen has materialized in the French Chateau-style mansion he lives in today, complete with an indoor pool, a library filled with books on military history and elegant French furniture and mouldings.
“I’m not attached to my possessions,” he pauses. “I know it could all disappear tomorrow.”
He met his wife, Mandy, at the age of 20 while volunteering in a school for mentally challenged children. He was the broke university student. She was studying alongside Toronto’s elite young women at Havergal College.
Eight years later, he proposed marriage at the Eiffel Tower.
Together, they have two daughters — one of them a promising Canadian swimmer training for the 2016 Olympics.
Paradkar’s Gatsby-like social transformation followed a carefully-charted path from medical studies in university to a law degree from the University of Windsor.
After a few years on Bay St., he went solo.
“I didn’t like Bay St. I’m not a butt kisser. I didn’t like the hierarchy.”
He quickly gained a name for himself in the criminal community for being a go-to guy on tough cases, meticulously dissecting evidence, posing tough questions, probing reasonable doubts.
He’s successfully defended a host of high-profile figures with long-shot legal odds, including a Jamaican bobsledder accused of smuggling cocaine, a Yemeni man arrested in Toronto amid the 9/11 terror attacks carrying passports and a Lufthansa flight uniform and a murder suspect alleged to have stabbed his victim to death in a motel.
His nickname among colleagues is “Napoleon” for his use of battlefield tactics in the courtroom.
“I treat trials like wars. I’ve been emulating Napoleon since I was 16 because he came from nothing and became one of the great generals.”
The cover of his professional brochure features a horse-mounted photo of Napoleon and quotations like this: “Napoleon was famous for his fastidious attention to detail, for taking pains to study and thoroughly understand every military situation he ever faced — one must apply this to trial preparation in criminal cases.”
Paradkar’s calculated strategy in the Millard case includes building a “war room” to mobilize for the trial, including another lawyer, a collection of expert investigators and witnesses and a handful of law students.
“I like trial work more than plea bargaining people,” he says. “The evidence is the evidence. It’s what behind it that makes the case.”
His voice softens. A counterpoint re-emerges.
“I still feel for the (Bosma) family. As a human being, you have to care about people. You can do your job as a criminal lawyer, but you don’t stop caring for people.” Reported by Toronto Star 7 hours ago.
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Tim Bosma accused Dellen Millard and Mark Smich to make court appearance
Two men facing murder charges in the death of a Hamilton father are expected to make video appearances in court on Thursday
Reported by National Post 6 hours ago.
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Tim Bosma murder suspects have cases put on hold until August
Dellen Millard and Mark Smich both plan to plead not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Tim Bosma, who disappeared after taking two men on a test drive
Reported by National Post 41 minutes ago.
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Millard lawyer warns against 'rush to judgment' in Bosma killing
It was a brief appearance in court Thursday for the two men charged with the murder of Tim Bosma. They'll be back in court August 1.
Reported by CBC.ca 1 day ago.
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Tim Bosma murder suspects appear in court
A wealthy aviation heir and a young wannabe rapper both charged with murdering an Ancaster family man made a brief appearance via video in a Hamilton courtroom Thursday.
Reported by canoe.ca 2 days ago.
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Tim Bosma murder: Trial could be held in late 2014
HAMILTON —Dellen Millard appeared weary and said almost nothing during a brief court appearance Thursday in the early pre-trial phase on charges of first-degree murder, forcible confinement and theft of a vehicle in the death of Ancaster father Tim Bosma.
Millard, 27, of Toronto, acknowledged his name and said nothing in a video court appearance from the Barton St. E. jail in Hamilton.
Mark Smich, 25, of Oakville, his co-accused in the Bosma murder, also appeared briefly for less than five minutes via video hook-up.
Their next video court date is Aug. 1.
Police have said Millard and Smich know each other.
Smich, who is being held in the Niagara Detention Centre, no longer had the black eye and bruising he displayed in his initial court appearance on May 23.
Both wore jail-issue orange jumpsuits for their separate appearances by video.
Bosma, 32, didn’t return after leaving his rural Ancaster home May 6 for the test drive of the 2007 Dodge Ram truck he was trying to sell over the Internet. His badly burned remains were later discovered at Millard’s Ayr farm.
Millard’s lawyer, Deepak Paradkar, said that his client is being held in isolation for all but half an hour a day. “It’s very difficult for him to do that — to be held in isolation,” Paradkar said.
Paradkar said he has no complaints about his client’s treatment in jail.
“They have treated him with respect and maintained his security,” he said.
Paradkar said he was pleased to hear the Crown will be granting disclosure of forensic evidence in the case later this month.
“(Millard) just has to mentally prepare for the long road ahead,” Paradkar said.
He said the case could get to trial in one and a half years, which is quick for such a case. He said it’s too early to know if the Crown will try the two men together or separately.
Paradkar said Millard has been visited by friends and family while in custody.
“His mother is very supportive,” he added.
Paradkar said Millard hasn’t been questioned about the disappearance of Laura Babcock, an online escorted who had been romantically linked to Millard and was last seen June 26, 2012.
Police are also investigating the apparent suicide of Millard’s father, Wayne, last November. Paradkar said his client hasn’t spoken with police about it since a brief conversation immediately after the body was discovered.
Smich’s lawyer, Thomas Dungey, was not in court; Jennifer Trehearne appeared on his behalf and declined to comment. Reported by Toronto Star 2 days ago.
Millard, 27, of Toronto, acknowledged his name and said nothing in a video court appearance from the Barton St. E. jail in Hamilton.
Mark Smich, 25, of Oakville, his co-accused in the Bosma murder, also appeared briefly for less than five minutes via video hook-up.
Their next video court date is Aug. 1.
Police have said Millard and Smich know each other.
Smich, who is being held in the Niagara Detention Centre, no longer had the black eye and bruising he displayed in his initial court appearance on May 23.
Both wore jail-issue orange jumpsuits for their separate appearances by video.
Bosma, 32, didn’t return after leaving his rural Ancaster home May 6 for the test drive of the 2007 Dodge Ram truck he was trying to sell over the Internet. His badly burned remains were later discovered at Millard’s Ayr farm.
Millard’s lawyer, Deepak Paradkar, said that his client is being held in isolation for all but half an hour a day. “It’s very difficult for him to do that — to be held in isolation,” Paradkar said.
Paradkar said he has no complaints about his client’s treatment in jail.
“They have treated him with respect and maintained his security,” he said.
Paradkar said he was pleased to hear the Crown will be granting disclosure of forensic evidence in the case later this month.
“(Millard) just has to mentally prepare for the long road ahead,” Paradkar said.
He said the case could get to trial in one and a half years, which is quick for such a case. He said it’s too early to know if the Crown will try the two men together or separately.
Paradkar said Millard has been visited by friends and family while in custody.
“His mother is very supportive,” he added.
Paradkar said Millard hasn’t been questioned about the disappearance of Laura Babcock, an online escorted who had been romantically linked to Millard and was last seen June 26, 2012.
Police are also investigating the apparent suicide of Millard’s father, Wayne, last November. Paradkar said his client hasn’t spoken with police about it since a brief conversation immediately after the body was discovered.
Smich’s lawyer, Thomas Dungey, was not in court; Jennifer Trehearne appeared on his behalf and declined to comment. Reported by Toronto Star 2 days ago.
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Tim Bosma comes home, heartbreakingly, in a small box
ANCASTER, ONT.—He came in a box, a small wooden square not much bigger than a shoe box.Tim Bosma’s remains were returned to his family last week and, more than a month after he went missing and was found dead at a farm near Waterloo, he was buried Monday at a Hamilton cemetery.
“It was just a box. A small, tiny box. Just a little …” said a teary Sharlene Bosma, unable to finish the sentence, but making the shape of a box with her hands.
Sharlene spoke to the Toronto Star for nearly three hours on Friday, talking about her Tim, her daughter and what life has been like since he went missing May 6.
Tim was supposed to meet two men that Monday night, but they were late, so he was able to tuck his 2½-year-old daughter into bed.
Then two men arrived, on foot, to his large country home in rural Ancaster. He told Sharlene he’d be back soon. Or back in 20 minutes. She can’t remember his exact words, which would be the last she’d ever hear out of his mouth.
Tim left shortly after 9 p.m., headed out the door with the men who said they were interested in buying his Dodge Ram, which he had put up for sale a few weeks earlier.
“I gave him one hour,” she said. “Then I started calling and texting.”
When there was no answer she called police. Shortly after, a massive manhunt began. She gave police a description of the two men.
Sharlene didn’t say if the two men she saw are the same two men in custody. But she did say she’s confident with the investigation led by Det. Sgt. Matt Kavanagh.
Sharlene didn’t sleep for the first 48 hours and managed only a few hours as each successive night passed without her husband. On the evening of May 10 came what seemed like good news: police arrested Dellen Millard, 27, and charged him with the theft of Tim’s truck and forcible confinement.
Sharlene had hope.
“We thought this was it,” Sharlene said. “Police would interview him, then we’d found out where Tim was and he’d be home.”
She clung to the lack of a murder charge — which would come the following week for Millard and for Mark Smich, 25. But Friday night dragged into Saturday.
“We waited. And waited. And waited,” Sharlene said, but Millard wasn’t talking. “That was the turning point — just not the turning point we had hoped for.”
The massive manhunt turned to two properties owned by Millard, a hangar at the Waterloo airport and a farm in Ayr.
Around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, police told the Bosmas inside Sharlene’s home that they had found Tim’s remains. Tears and rage followed.
In the same living room where the news of Tim’s death was delivered, Sharlene oscillated between happy memories of her husband, sadness over his death and rage over all the unanswered questions.
“We still don’t know why this happened.”
But he’s finally home.
“Right from when he went missing, we wanted him back,” Sharlene said. “Now he’s back. But we’ll never have Tim back.”
Nothing has been normal for Sharlene: how her husband died, the national media attention it received, and waiting five long weeks for a proper burial.
She finds life difficult. There are so many questions, and so few answers.
“The only thing that really gets me up in the morning is my daughter,” Sharlene said, “because that’s what she needs, so I have to.”
She has a group of friends she calls her “babysitters” who come over, help out with her daughter and keep her company.
“I’m rarely alone,” she said. “I just can’t be alone. Not right now.”
The community’s outpouring is still evident. A large container full of greeting cards sits in her spacious living room. There are still some flowers out near the road.
Even if she tries, she can’t escape memories of Tim, partly because of the house they built. Sharlene designed it with her mother, while Tim helped build it with many of his friends.
But it wasn’t finished yet. There is the front walkway that Tim was going to build this summer. There’s still only one phone jack in the house — Tim forgot to wire the house for phones. And the doorbell, which Sharlene just found in the basement on Monday, was never installed.
Their kitchen table, which became headquarters for the massive social media campaign when Tim went missing, is a “piece of junk.”
“Tim really loved that table,” Sharlene said. “And he didn’t want to get a new one.”
He was also cheap. When he went for groceries, he bought no-name everything. Ketchup, mustard, anything, Sharlene said.
“See, we saved so much money,” he would tell Sharlene.
And Tim was a two-sock kinda guy. He doubled up on socks, two on each foot, before throwing on his work boots. He’d take both those socks off and plop them on the coffee table that now sits clean in the living room.
“He’d keep the socks together, so I’d have to pull them apart,” she said. “It drove me nuts.”
Then Tim would turn on CNN and, within five minutes, he’d be asleep.
But what Sharlene will miss the most is the family’s Sunday afternoon drives. The couple would go to the Ancaster Christian Reformed Church in the morning, then drive around for hours, chatting about life and what they planned to do with it.
They had planned for their annual camping trip to Darien Lake in New York state on Victoria Day weekend. They had talked about working on their house — Tim recently “got a great deal on some rocks” that they planned to decorate their landscape with.
They even spoke about death. They wanted to be buried beside each other. They wanted caskets. And they wanted a traditional viewing ceremony. If Tim died first, Sharlene wanted one last touch. One last time to stroke his face. And one final kiss on his forehead.
Sharlene Bosma never got that. She got a box instead. Reported by Toronto Star 12 hours ago.
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Tim Bosma mystery: Dundas forensic expert examines Dellen Millard’s farm
Tracy Rogers doesn’t read true crime.As one of Canada’s lead forensic anthropologists, it’s one of her cardinal rules.
The Dundas mother of two has consulted on some of Canada’s most gruesome murder cases, including the notorious 2002 search of serial killer Robert Pickton’s British Columbia pig farm and, most recently, the Tim Bosma mystery.
You can see Rogers’ yellow Volkswagen Beetle in photos from the Waterloo-area farm owned by accused murderer Dellen Millard where Bosma’s charred remains were recovered back in May.
“Yes, that’s my car,” the 47-year-old admitted, but that’s as much as she’ll say.
“I can’t talk about the case,” she says firmly, sitting in her University of Toronto Mississauga office where – when she’s not looking for human remains – she teaches.
But like everyone else in Canada, she admits that the Bosma case hit close to home.
Tim Bosma – a 32-year-old Ancaster dad – went missing on May 6 after taking two men for a test drive in a used pickup truck he was trying to sell online. Police say he was murdered that same night, his body taken to a Waterloo-area farm and burned beyond recognition.
Two men – Millard, 27, of Etobicoke and 25-year-old Mark Smich of Oakville – have been charged with first-degree murder.
Unlike the Pickton case, Bosma went missing just a short drive from Rogers’ own home.
“You don’t like to think of those kinds of things happening at home…but I think the reason the Bosma case hit so hard was that could have been anyone. It’s not even so much proximity to home, just the nature of the case itself,” she says.
Rogers speaks more freely about her time working on the Pickton case — one of her first after completing her PhD at Simon Fraser University in 2000 (and a post-doctorate degree at Mac in 2001).
Rogers spent a full summer at the Pickton farm in 2002, and made multiple flights out after she returned to teach at U of T in the fall.
“There were 69 women that were thought to be associated with that case, so we were potentially looking for 69 people. There were two scenes that had to be completely examined; one that was 14 acres and one that was 16 acres. And because we didn’t know how he disposed of the bodies … everything had to be searched. They ended up deciding we would excavate that property completely until we know there was nothing left below … a certain level,” she said.
How can she leave a scene like that and be confident that nothing was missed?
She shows me a spread of small bones laid out on a counter in the forensic anthropology lab at the university, where she teaches her students to distinguish between bones.
Most are from animals, some are from human, and some are in fact not bones at all; they are sticks or shards of rock that could easily be mistaken for bone.
Most of these came from the search for Shirley Treadwell late last year, she says. The Stoney Creek Mountain woman was believed to have died in 2009 at age 62, and then police allege she was buried by her niece who continued to collect her social assistance cheques.
“You asked me before do I ever leave a scene wondering if we found it all? In this case we found all these tiny pieces … if she was there, we should have found her,” she says, fingering a small piece of – real – human skull.
Police have said Treadwell’s body was likely carried off by animals from a shallow grave and her remains have not been recovered.
Rogers first became interested in anthropology during her undergraduate studies at McMaster University. She loved the historic aspects of the discipline, but she wanted to put her skills to more practical use. To help people.
As a forensic anthropologist, there’s nothing she can do for the victims. They are gone by the time she is called in. But she works for their families, their loved ones, to help bring closure and justice.
“I actually don’t watch any of the interviews with family or anything like that because I don’t want to be swayed…I actually don’t even watch the news at all,” she says.
“One thing I found very early on is it does bother me to see it on the news, to hear it from the family…I don’t like to hear about people’s tragedies.”
It’s her job to find the stories behind the bones.
Even when police describe remains as “beyond recognition,” Rogers says there is still much that can be determined from even small pieces of bone.
Even a burned body – she has encountered several – is not the same as the remains you would receive from a commercial crematorium, which are processed into a clean ash.
“Medical records, dental records, those are the type of things that help us identify people … I mean, beyond recognition could mean your facial features are no longer visible, your finger prints are no longer visible,” she says.
As a forensic anthropologist, there are many things she can determine just from bones — age, sex (in fact Rogers has developed a technique for identifying gender from the distal humerus bone, or the upper elbow), ancestry … so much more than meets the eye.
In Canada, there are only a handful of forensic anthropologists, she says — and only one that consults full time. They are underutilized, she says, but she feels that the more they work with police and different agencies, the more they will continue to be called in.
As shows like CSI continue to rule mainstream television, there are many misconceptions about the world of forensics, she says.
As an anthropologist, Rogers does not do DNA testing. That’s the job of a forensic biologist. There are also forensic chemists, who would analyze things like car paint chips from hit-and-run scenes.
She takes us on a walk toward a small campus cottage just steps from her office.
Inside, there is blood spatter on the dining room wall. Little more than a suitcase and a bedframe in the bedroom, a small desk covered with fingerprint dust.
This is the “crime scene house,” where everyone from PhD students to police agencies to middle-school-aged summer campers comes to learn about the world of forensics.
Beyone the science, the technology, there is one important lesson she makes sure to teach them all.
“People talk about the crime scene ‘black humour’ but I train my students that we don’t do that,” she says.
“We do the best job we can with the skills that we have … with dignity care and respect because that’s the way I’d expect my family members to be treated … and that’s the way that I teach my students.”
mhayes@thespec.com
*MORE FROM THESTAR.COM*
Dellen Millard lawyer Deepak Paradkar says, ‘I treat trials like wars’ Reported by Toronto Star 1 week ago.
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Sharlene Bosma launches charity in honour of slain husband, Tim
The Bosma family has created a charity to help the families of homicide victims in honour of Tim Bosma, who was killed in May.
Reported by CBC.ca 5 days ago.
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Bosma slaying suspects back in court Sept. 12
Dellen Millard, one of the men charged with killing Tim Bosma, will appear in court on Sept. 12 to set a date for a judicial pretrial.
Reported by CBC.ca 4 days ago.
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Widow of Tim Bosma finds hope in her new charity
The widow of slain Ancaster, Ont., man Tim Bosma has become skilled in how to explain death to a toddler.
Reported by CBC.ca 4 days ago.
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