Family, friends and even strangers clung to the hope Tim Bosma would be found alive, but a sprawling weeklong search across the GTA ended with the discovery of the Ancaster father’s charred body.“Investigation has now revealed that Tim Bosma was murdered,” Hamilton police homicide Det.-Sgt. Matt Kavanagh told a news conference Tuesday. “He was taken to a location in Waterloo area where his body was burned beyond recognition.”
The discovery escalated a missing person’s case that has captured national attention into a homicide investigation, and raised as many questions as it answered.
One man in custody is about to be charged for first-degree murder. Police, meanwhile, seek two other suspects and a motive to explain why Bosma, 32, was targeted and killed.
Kavanagh said he believes Bosma was killed shortly after his disappearance. The coroner’s office has yet to determine a cause of death.
Police now say that when Bosma left his rural Ancaster home on May 6 to test drive his 2007 black Dodge Ram pickup with two men in their 20s, a second car was captured on video surveillance trailing in pursuit.
Those new details have lead police on the hunt for at least two more suspects — a second man who climbed into Bosma’s truck that night and whoever was driving the other vehicle, which Kavanagh said has not been identified but could be an SUV.
Asked if he could give any reason why someone would abduct and murder the family man, Kavanagh just shrugged.
“I wish I could,” he said. “I don’t know at this time.”
“Do I think he was targeted? The answer is: yes.”
Dellen Millard, the 27-year-old Toronto man arrested in connection to the case will have his charges upgraded to first-degree murder when he appears in a Hamilton court on Wednesday. Heir to an aviation dynasty, Millard made headlines in 1999 when he became the youngest person to fly a helicopter solo at 14. He set another record by taking his first solo flight in a Cessna 172, the youngest to fly both a helicopter and fixed-wing plane solo in one day.
Kavanagh said Bosma and Millard had “no connection whatsoever” before May 6.
Since Monday, forensics officers were seen at both a Waterloo Regional Airport hangar where Millard’s aviation maintenance company is headquartered and several cars and planes are stored, according to police.
Asked if the location is a suspected chop shop for stolen vehicles, Kavanagh said: “We plan to call in experts from our auto squad to have a look at the vehicles.”
The second location on Roseville Rd. is a large farm solely owned by Millard, where police had roped off a wooded area. A large tarp suspended next to several search and rescue tents could be seen Tuesday. Records show Millard purchased the property in 2011 for $835,000.
On Tuesday, 120 officers were working on the case as police continued to execute multiple warrants and interview several people across the GTA, Kavanagh said.
The day before Bosma’s disappearance, the same two men are believed to have test driven a newer Dodge Ram model in Etobicoke, police said earlier.
Surveillance footage capturing that drive revealed there was no follow car in that instance, Kavanagh said.
Like that man, whose identity is being protected, Bosma posted an advertisement online for his truck and was contacted via phone by the suspects.
It was Bosma’s cellphone, found discarded at a Brantford industrial complex, that led police to Millard, who was arrested on Saturday in Mississauga.
On Sunday, police located a trailer they say belongs to Millard parked at the Kleinburg home of his mother, Madeleine Burns.
Kavanagh confirmed Tuesday that the black pickup truck found inside the trailer is Bosma’s. He cleared Burns of any connection to the case.
Kavanagh said he couldn’t say which suspect was in the leadership role in the abduction and murder.
He said there is a concern with at least two other suspects at large.
“Certainly there’s a fear of that.” Reported by Toronto Star 7 hours ago.