Rich party boy and sidekick convicted in 'thrill-kill' murder of Tim Bosma
02/21/2017 11:39 am PST
UPDATE Dec. 10, 2019:
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports serial killer Dellen Millard has been sentenced to another 25 years behind bars, this time for the murder of his father, Wayne Millard.
The sentencing marks the end of Millard's third high-profile trial in recent years. He made international headlines for murders that shocked southern Ontario — capped off with his most recent trial for the death of his father, who he shot in the eye while he slept. Millard is already serving time for killing Tim Bosma of Hamilton and Laura Babcock of Toronto.
Outside court, assistant Crown attorney Jill Cameron said it was a "great day for justice," and referenced Mark Smich, who was found guilty of first-degree murder alongside Millard in the Bosma and Babcock cases.
Millard was found guilty of killing his father at a judge-alone trial that concluded in Toronto in September 2018. Wayne Millard's death was originally ruled a suicide.
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February 21, 2017:
A young father disappears and one of the main suspects is millionaire party boy who at the age of 14 started flying planes and helicopters.
Tim Bosma kissed his wife goodbye and went on a test drive with two guys interested in buying his pickup truck in May 2013 -- but Tim never came home.
How could a young father simply vanish? Who could possibly want him gone? And why would he be taken?
The answers will reveal the twisted world of a thrill-seeking petty crook who some believe may have just graduated to serial killer.
Tim Bosma and his wife Sharlene were the picture of bliss, raising a young daughter in the quiet of the countryside. But money was tight, according to author Ann Brocklehurst, and that led Tim to sell his beloved Dodge Ram pickup truck.
"Tim Bosma was trying to sell this black Dodge Ram truck that had become a bit of a financial burden," said Brocklehurst. "He wanted to buy a cheaper truck it had been advertised online for a few weeks. Hadn't gotten much interest at all. And then he gets a call from these guys in Toronto who seem like serious prospective buyers."
On a Sunday evening, the two men arrive for a test drive. But they show up late, and on foot. According to investigative journalist Alex Pierson, Tim had a bad feeling right from the start.
"He had said right before he went out with these men he was feeling uneasy, while putting his daughter down, he was feeling uneasy about it because they were late," said Pierson. "It was an odd time to be coming to look at a truck. It was later in the evening."
Shortly after 9 o'clock, Tim kissed Sharlene goodbye and said he'd be right back. An hour later, he still wasn't home. She started phoning him and texting him, but got no answers.
"[Police] subpoenaed Tim Bosma's phone records," said Pierson. "In Canada when someone is reported missing, you wait 24 hours, but the police knew, I think instinctively, this was a different kind of case because it involved online ads, two guys coming to look for a truck, and that he was supposed to be back and he wasn't."
Meanwhile, Tim's wife Sharlene makes a desperate plea aimed at the men who took her husband.
"Her plea to the public to get information quickly got the attention of all Canadians," said Pierson.
While waiting for answers at home, Sharlene gets a phone call from Tim's phone. But the call is from someone who found Tim's phone while mowing the lawn in a nearby industrial area.
Tim's phone records show that the car shoppers called on a "burner" phone -- a seeming dead end. Except when police checked the call history of the burner phone. The day before it had called another man selling a Dodge Ram pickup -- an ex-Israeli soldier named Igor.
"Igor Tumanenko, unlike Tim Bosma, was built like a truck," said Pierson. "He was a big, big, big guy. He's the kind of guy that when you meet him you know in your head, you say 'I'm not messing with that guy.'"
Tumanenko tells police that he remembered one man had a distinctive tattoo on his forearm: the word "ambition."
"They were able to go through the records of profiled and see that tattoo in police records, and that's what led them to Dellen Millard," said Pierson.
Before he was a marked man, Dellen Millard was a boy wonder, the heir to an aviation fortune who made headlines at the age of 14 when he became the first teenager to fly solo in a helicopter and an airplane on the same day. Millard's father committed suicide in 2012, right after he invested more than $3 million in a new airport hangar.
"And Millard was never very keen on this business idea, and within a matter of days after his father died he canceled all the licenses, all the permits, all the certification required to work on aircraft," said author Ann Brocklehurst, who wrote Dark Ambition: The Shocking Crime of Dellen Millard and Mark Smich about the case.
"Instead of using what he had to make something for himself and continue this aviation dynasty that the Millard family had, he is out there partying like a rock star, doing a lot of drugs, and hanging around nefarious people and stealing stuff," said Pierson.
"Millard always surrounded himself with people who were younger than him four or five years, and he was the leader he paid for everything so he gained a certain amount of control and status by bankrolling these younger friends," said Ann Brocklehurst.
One of those groupies was Mark Smich, a wannabe rapper.
"Smich was going to be a rap star and I guess Millard saw himself as maybe the producer, the manger," said Brocklehurst.
"This is a guy who met his dream of all dreams: A rich guy he could do drugs with, steal cars with, hang around and play video games with, but it escalated for Mark Smich," said Alex Pierson.
"Millard and Smich and a group of friends went on what they called 'missions,' and the mission was to steal things," said Brocklehurst.
"There was no planes," said Pierson. "So for an airplane hangar, this thing was not doing what it was suppose to be used for, which was storing planes and servicing planes. No, this thing was a full-blown 'chop shop.' These guys were out stealing anything they could get their hands on. They were stealing a lot of construction equipment, bringing it in, stripping it down, and selling it for parts."
Five days after Tim Bosma went missing, cops track Dellen Millard to a bank, where he's spotted withdrawing $3,000. Minutes later he's arrested. They find the keys to Bosma's truck in Millard's possession. But for now he's only charged with unlawful detention. What police really want to know is where the truck is? And the bigger question: Where is Tim Bosma?
A man out for a ride on his dirt bike spots something strange behind a barn. It's an incinerator labeled "The Eliminator."
Police have zeroed-in on two suspects: Dellen Millard and Tim Smich. As the pieces of the puzzle start to come together, investigators now believe Tim Bosma may not be the only victim of this pair.
Millard isn't talking. Police find surveillance video from a neighboring business that shows Bosma's truck driving past shortly after Tim left his house.
Police believe it's Dellen Millard behind the wheel with his sidekick Mark Smich in the back -- and in the passenger seat, Tim Bosma.
Video from that location shows two vehicles arriving at the scene, Bosma's truck and Millard's SUV trailing it. Tim Bosma's phone was found about 300 yards from the same spot.
Video from the Millard airplane hangar shows same two vehicles driving up about two hours later. This time, Bosma's truck is towing a large piece of equipment. Footage from inside the hangar shows Smich and Millard arriving. An hour later, a bright flame is seen erupting from outside the hangar. It burned all night.
"Mark Smich and Dellen Millard are not smart guys. I mean, these are two of the stupidest people on Earth," said Alex Pierson. "So they took this truck and put it in his hangar and they told their employees, 'Don't come in,' but then the employees start showing up the next day to the hangar and there's this black truck that's all over the news."
After Millard is arrested, police search the hangar but can't find the truck. Surveillance video shows three days after Bosma went missing, Millard's red pickup is seen towing a large fifth-wheel trailer from the hangar. They decided to hide this truck at Millard's mother's house, according to Pierson. Thanks to a tip from neighbors, police search the trailer and find Bosma's truck concealed inside.
Despite the fact that the two front seats have been stripped out, police find a .38-caliber shell casing in the back seat, Dellen Millard's fingerprints, and bloodstains from Tim Bosma. Infrared Luminol examination reveals even more blood that was hastily washed away. Plus, a .38-caliber pistol was found in a toolbox owned by Millard.
A search of Dellen Millard's property turns up disturbing evidence. Hidden in the woods, police find "The Eliminator," an industrial incinerator that burns up to a scorching 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit. It's riding atop a trailer Millard had specially built to make it mobile.
"This huge hulking piece of equipment used to incinerate cows, horses, huge livestock, that's what it's meant for," said Pierson.
Police believe this was the heavy equipment being towed that night to the hangar and also the source of the flame seen burning white-hot for several hours.
A forensic pathologist combs the inside of the eliminator, finding bone fragments, a tooth and a bloodstain on the outside matching 32-year-old Tim Bosma.
Police quickly arrest Millard's partner in crime, Mark Smich, and charge both men with murder. But during the trial, Smich turns snitch.
"Mark Smich very quickly pointed out that he was in it to steal a truck," said Pierson. "Didn't know anything about killing anybody, and then all of the sudden Dellen Millard pulled out a gun and shot the guy, and he was so scared he just went along for the ride to burn the body, cover up the crime. Which is just an absolute load of B.S. He was in it, he did it, he partook in it and he got caught."
According to prosecutors, throughout the trial Dellen Millard wrote letters begging his girlfriend to lie in his defense.
"The letters say 'destroy this letter' all over them after you've read it, but she very helpfully put them in the bedside table, so that when the police arrested her they found them," said Brocklehurst.
We may never know which man actually pulled the trigger, but the jury is convinced that Millard and Smich are guilty. Each man was sentenced to life behind bars.
But according to Ann Brocklehurst, who literally wrote the book on this case, the questions don't end there.
Laura Babcock, a young woman struggling with drug and mental health issues, has been missing for more than four years. Police say her last-known contact was with Dellen Millard. Millard bought "The Eliminator" shortly before she vanished.
"Police sources told the Hamilton Spectator that they believe that Laura was incinerated," said Brocklehurst.
And then there was Millard's father, who supposedly committed suicide by shooting himself shortly before his son turned the family air hangar into a chop-shop party house. The illegal gun he used was traced back to a notorious gun dealer and, police say, associate of Dellen Millard.
Both Smich and Millard are awaiting trial in the murder of Laura Babcock, and Millard for the murder of his father.
Both Dellen Millard and Mark Smich are appealing their convictions.
Lawyers for Smich have also filed to have his murder charge in the case of Laura Babcock dismissed because it's taken so long to try him. So far the court has not ruled.
That trial is expected to start in September and we will bring you the very latest here on Crime Watch Daily.
UPDATE Dec. 10, 2019:
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports serial killer Dellen Millard has been sentenced to another 25 years behind bars, this time for the murder of his father, Wayne Millard.
The sentencing marks the end of Millard's third high-profile trial in recent years. He made international headlines for murders that shocked southern Ontario — capped off with his most recent trial for the death of his father, who he shot in the eye while he slept. Millard is already serving time for killing Tim Bosma of Hamilton and Laura Babcock of Toronto.
Outside court, assistant Crown attorney Jill Cameron said it was a "great day for justice," and referenced Mark Smich, who was found guilty of first-degree murder alongside Millard in the Bosma and Babcock cases.
Millard was found guilty of killing his father at a judge-alone trial that concluded in Toronto in September 2018. Wayne Millard's death was originally ruled a suicide.
MORE:
