Days before the body of Tim Bosma was discovered, Hamilton police speculated that he may have been murdered in a so-called thrill kill, a source has told the Star.The source, who is not involved in the investigation, said police were considering that theory after Dellen Millard, 27, was arrested on May 11 in Mississauga.
But the lead investigator in the case denied that police were looking at the possibility the homicide may have been just for a thrill.
“I don’t know the motive for this,” Det. Sgt. Matt Kavanagh said Thursday. “I don’t even know what thrill kill means. It’s not been discussed. Where it’s coming from, I don’t know.”
Also according to the source, police said after Bosma’s body was found that they believed he was killed in his truck following a struggle.
“He did not die in the fire,” the source said. “He didn’t burn alive.”
Kavanagh told a news conference on Tuesday that Bosma’s body was found burned “beyond recognition” at an undisclosed location in Waterloo.
Since Sunday, police have been combing a Waterloo Region farm owned by Millard, where an incinerator was found, Kavanagh confirmed to the Hamilton Spectator. It is not known if the machine was used to burn Bosma’s body.
On May 6 around 9:30 p.m., Bosma took two men for a test drive in his pickup truck and was followed by another car, police said. He was never seen again. Police said Bosma was “targeted” and likely died within hours of his disappearance.
Millard is alleged to be one of two men who climbed into the truck with Bosma. He plans to plead not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, according to lawyer Deepak Paradkar.
Police described Millard as “a very intelligent guy,” but didn’t know much about him, the source said.
The search for Bosma has taken many strange twists after police found Bosma’s cellphone discarded at an industrial complex in Brantford and then discovered his truck parked inside a trailer at Millard’s mother’s house in Kleinburg. Police soon focused their search on two properties in the Waterloo region owned by Millard, one the sprawling farm and the other a multimillion-dollar hangar at the Waterloo Regional Airport.
And on Thursday, the office of the chief coroner for Ontario confirmed to the Star they are still investigating the death of Dellen Millard’s father, Wayne Millard, who died in an apparent suicide in November 2012.
Toronto Police confirmed they went to the Etobicoke home on Maple Gate Crt. jointly owned by Millard and his father on Nov. 29, 2012 for a death investigation that was deemed “not criminal.”
But almost six months since his death, the investigation into Wayne’s death is still “ongoing.”
“His death is still under investigation,” said Cheryl Mahyr, issues manager for the coroner’s office. “So it’s still open and has not yet concluded.”
Despite the case remaining open, the Riverside Cemetery & Cremation Centre in Toronto confirmed Millard’s body was cremated and is interred at an unknown location.
The coroner’s office did not clarify if the case had been concluded and then reopened or what impact the cremation would have on an ongoing investigation.
An obituary written by Millard, and published in the Star on Dec. 14, only indicated his father had “passed” and spoke about his love of flying and animals.
Bosma, 32, leaves behind in Ancaster a two-year-old daughter and a wife, Sharlene, who said Wednesday that “I know that I cannot fall apart, but I am broken . . . His daughter will grow up knowing how much he loved her.”
With files from the Hamilton Spectator Reported by Toronto Star 8 hours ago.