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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.
And let me tell you, it did. I've been listening to it while I walk, and I am absolutely loving it.
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Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid.
I am getting over a straight up laughing attack.
I don't know if Elena has shown all of you, but she may have not.
She just showed me a golden TikTok. Is it Miss Universe?
I think it's like Miss World or something or Miss Universe.
One of those. Are those the same thing? I have no idea.
Maybe they are. But is the universe? Well, the universe is bigger than the world, right?
Yeah. So I don't know which one. I think it's Miss World.
Okay. One of those competitions where everybody's involved.
Hold on. How? How can you even say that you're Miss Universe when we don't know about life on other planets?
You're not Miss Universe. You don't even know.
You know what? You're all Miss Universe in my book.
It's very new age of you. Every single one of you.
But either way, there's this TikTok going around and it's all of the contestants.
They force the contestants to like scream their country name.
And there's some of them that you can tell are just like nod it.
Like Denmark is like Denmark. Like it's like, get out of here.
Like they're not happy about it. And it's hard to scream.
I just want to preface this. It's hard to scream daintily.
So, but it gets to France. Yeah. And her scream.
It's like a fucking goose. She screams France and it's like, France!
But it's just, it's like a, it's like a seagull.
Like, ah! And it's so funny. And here I am saying I couldn't do better.
No. I'd be like, you want that? Freaking out.
It's hard to yell. But holy shit. It's one of the funniest things I've ever heard in my life.
It's on TikTok. I don't know. You probably just type in France at this point.
I'm sorry. And I'm sure it'll come up. But it'll make you laugh.
And you need that. And you need that. We all need that.
It's so fucking funny. I love TikTok so much.
I do, too. I often scroll through TikTok and think, like, what are they doing to me right now?
I often scroll through and I'm like, what did I do to deserve this?
This gift. This gift that has been bestowed upon me.
I mean, I go, I get that. And I literally screamed.
Like, I screamed. I screamed like France as soon as I saw it.
I did, too. I won't. No one ever will. John was next to me and I just went, ah!
Like, I just freaked out. I was like, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen.
I'm like, sorry. And then I swipe and it's like, sinister palm vibe, making me shit my pants laughing.
And then it's Drew Afulo. She kills me listening to her.
It's the purest sound in the entire world.
It is. I can't get it. I love her. It's all the best.
I mean, it's great. It's great. My For You page just gets me.
It makes me smile. It makes me laugh. And it was so necessary.
Yeah. Ash is dying. I'm so sorry. Oh, shit.
That was funny. Yeah. There's no way to transition.
Yeah. But we got all the funny out now because... Oh, man.
It's about to get real. Yeah. No, we needed France.
We needed France to get us through that.
Drew's just texting me restaurant names because it's like 9 o'clock at night and none of us have cooked dinner.
No. He's literally just going, Boston Market, Chipotle, Panera.
I'm like, can you calm down? Like, I don't know.
It's rapid fire. Like, Quidoba. You're like, I don't know.
Pick one. Damn. I'm working, okay? At least he gives restaurant names.
John will not pick a restaurant. He's not giving anything that I'm, like, craving right now.
But I don't. You know when you're craving something and you don't know what it is?
All right. Well, enough about me. All right.
So yeah, there's really no way to transition out of this.
But today's case is a really, really sad case.
It's one of those ones that starts and then it almost like the Lori Vallow case in the way that like it started and then it just peeled back layer upon layer of just fucking evil.
An evil onion. An evil onion. To take it back.
Taking it back. And we're in a place of...
Sorry. All right, no. We're in a place of Canada.
We're in a place of Canada. I love Canada.
Oh, yeah, you've been. And I love Canadians.
I love Canadians, too. We got Johnny and Tyler.
Yep. And Mikey. We got Jordan. We got Mikey.
Linz. Linz isn't, like, full-blown Canadian, but her family is Canadian.
So does that mean that Mikey's not full-blown Canadian?
There's Canadian in there. I said flow. Flow-blow.
Are you flow-blown Canadian? You know what?
Canadians. Well, everyone in this case is Canadian, and today's case takes place in Ancaster, Ontario.
Ooh, sounds pretty. Yes. And also, just a quick, quick, quick, quick little side note.
Okay. It is raining. Oh, soothed. So you're going to get soothed by the sounds of raindrops in the background.
Yeah. It's late. It is late. I like that laugh.
That's another one. Another good TikTok.
All right, shut up, Ash. We're out of a place of TikTok.
It is. All right. So on the evening of May 6, 2013, Tim Bosma left his Ancaster home with two men who simply wanted to test drive the truck that he'd been advertising for sale online.
As Tim walked out the door, he turned around and told his wife, Charlene, he'd be right back.
But that was the last time that Charlene or anybody else would see Tim alive.
That's fucked up. Really fucked up. In a pretty short time frame, the authorities were able to apprehend Dellen, better known as Del Millard, and his henchman, Mark Smich, the men responsible for Bosma's death.
At first, Tim's murder seemed pretty straightforward.
Authorities felt like this was kind of like a thrill kill.
But the deeper and deeper that they dug into Millard and Smich's relationship and separate histories, the more they realized that they... weren't dealing with like an impulsive one-off murder.
Instead, they realized that this case was rooted in a full-blown sinister plan that began well before Tim Bosma's murder.
And they would come to find out that it included more death and way more destruction than they ever, ever expected in the first place.
Damn. Yeah. Like I said, it was just like peeling, peeling, peeling back the layers of an evil onion.
Yeah. But first, let's head back to the beginning of this.
So in early May of 2013, Tim Bosma's wife, Charlene, posted an ad on, I think it's Kijiji.com, on behalf of her husband, who wanted to sell his truck.
His truck was a black 2007 Dodge Power Ram 3.
3,500 diesel pickup truck. Yep. And by the way, Kijiji, I think it is pretty much like the Canadian version of Craigslist.
Oh, okay. But the truck had become a nuisance for the Young family.
It weighed over three tons, and because of its size and requirement for diesel gas and like a shit ton of diesel gas, it was costing a lot of money to keep it running.
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And Charlene and Tim had a two-year-old daughter.
They were newish homeowners. So they thought instead of keeping the truck and having their finances completely drained by that truck, why not sell it and use the money to buy a smaller and more affordable car?
Yeah. Family first thinking. Makes sense.
So at first, the ad that they put out didn't really get much attention.
So Charlene ended up placing another ad on a separate website where it did end up getting some views, but it didn't seem like it was getting like actual interest.
Yeah. And Tim was starting to get frustrated with this entire process and the lack of interest.
He was really just about to give up on selling his truck.
But then he got a message from somebody with a seemingly genuine interest.
Me too. This potential buyer didn't give much information in his message, but he did seem interested and he did say that he was willing to drive a very long distance, about 100 kilometers or 62 miles from Toronto to the Bosma's home, like I said, in semi-rural Ancaster.
If you're not familiar with this area, Ancaster is an Ontario suburb, which is like an hour outside of Toronto.
Just so you know. I'm not familiar with the area either, but I did look it up.
But I did look it up. So Tim and the prospective buyer agreed to meet on the evening of May 6th.
Tim really wanted to make sure that the truck was in tip-top condition.
He was ready to sell this thing, and he was really hoping that this would be his chance.
Yeah. So to prep for the meeting, he washed the truck.
He waxed it. He deep cleaned the interior.
He vacuumed it out. Like he went to town on this thing just to make it look as good as possible.
Yeah. Every time I write about this truck, I can't help but get there's something about a truck out of my head.
I don't even know what that is. It's like a country song.
Oh. Yeah. That's why I don't know. I don't know any of the other words other than something about a truck.
Ooh, there is something about a truck. I think they end up saying something about a farmer's tan.
I think. That makes sense. I might have made that up, though.
Either way, I'm into it. Are you? I'm into you singing it.
Oh! I'm trying. On the morning of the 6th, though, Tim hadn't heard from the previously or seemingly previously interested buyer.
And he was getting nervous about this sale falling through the cracks.
He's like, Jesus Christ, like there's barely been any interest in how this is going to fall through the cracks.
So he was like, I'm not going to give up yet.
He sent a message to the guy saying, good morning, it's Tim.
I'm working in Hamilton today if you want to meet or do you still want to meet at my house tonight for 7 p.m.?
? Morning came and went with no reply at all.
So did the rest of the afternoon. Tim was pretty much getting the idea that this guy wasn't going to show up.
He pretty much called it quits. I know. He pretty much called it quits when he still hadn't heard anything by dinnertime.
But then the potential buyer finally called or messaged a little before 730, I think he called, to say that he was on his way and he should be arriving to the household within the hour.
We love an uncommunicative prick. Oh, yeah.
We love it. I hate when someone says they're going to be somewhere at a certain time and then they're not there at a certain time.
That makes me fucking crazy. You get 10 minutes.
Yeah. 10 minutes. Honestly, I get annoyed after like three.
Accurate. Yeah. I can confirm. I have a text message on my phone from last night that says, hey, when are you going to be here?
But I was pulling in the drive. I wait when you said that.
Yeah, it's true. But the buyer ended up being a guy in his mid-20s, and he did not arrive within the hour that he said he was going to.
Asshole. But he finally did arrive a little after 9 p.m.
Oh, fuck him. And he had another young man with him who was also in his mid-20s.
Tim's wife, Charlene, immediately thought it was strange that the two men showed up on foot together.
Yeah. They said they were willing, this one of them said he was willing to make this like really long drive, but then showed up on foot.
Yeah, I don't like that. Tim had told her that they were traveling for more than an hour away, so she was like, obviously they didn't walk this entire way.
Like, where's the car that dropped them off?
Like, what the fuck's going on here? But at the same time, she hadn't been on any of the text exchanges with them, so she figured there was some kind of good explanation.
And again, they really wanted to sell this truck.
Like, that's really their main interest here.
This hurts my heart. So the three men made small talk for a few minutes.
Tim gave them all the information on the truck, and before leaving the house for a test drive, he turned around to his wife and he said, I'll be right back.
And that was just a little before 9.30 p.m.
So Charlene, his wife, figured this would be a quick thing, just like a short trip, go down some local roads, take it on the highway, see if it's making any noises, you know the gist.
So when Tim didn't return after an hour, she called his cell phone but didn't end up getting an answer.
She was slightly concerned, but she reminded herself that Tim was hardly a small guy.
He was in really good shape, so he could certainly take care of himself if the situation where he needed to arised.
Yeah. And he also dealt with strangers daily because he owned and operated his own HVAC business.
Oh, okay. So he really had no problem being assertive if the need came up.
Yeah. So that kind of soothed her soul a little bit.
But then more and more time went by, and she called one more time and again got no more answer.
And as the evening went on, she still had heard absolutely nothing.
I would be losing it. And she started to panic.
Yeah. And she's got a two-year-old at home.
Oh, I'd be losing it. Yeah. So she eventually decides it's time to call the police.
Like, I'm not being crazy here. Something clearly went wrong.
Absolutely. So the next day, still no Tim.
And the Hamilton Police Service ended up releasing a statement to the press at 8 a.m. that morning regarding Tim's disappearance.
The statement was brief. It just said 32-year-old Bosma had gone missing the night before.
They gave a brief description of his physical appearance.
They asked the public to contact the Hamilton Police with any information.
And that was really that. Jeez. The statement made no mention of the test drive or the two men that Tim had left the house with the previous night, but that was on purpose.
The police wanted to keep that information close to the chest because they didn't want to alert these two suspects that they knew anything about them.
Yeah, that makes sense. No need to have anybody do anything stupid.
Yeah, that's good police work. And the thing is, in cases where adults disappear, a lot of times the first assumption is not that they've been kidnapped or taken for any kind of nefarious purpose.
But usually for whatever reason, you know, people think, oh, they've grown tired of their life.
They walked away. They're running from something.
Yeah, especially an adult male, too. Yeah, exactly.
But by all accounts, Tim Bosma was in neither of those positions.
He and Charlene had married three years earlier.
A short time after that, like I said, Charlene gave birth to their daughter.
Their daughter was two years old when this happened.
They were so excited to be new parents. They'd recently bought a new house together, and they were looking forward to their full journey together as a family.
They loved having people over. They loved just being a family. and if you look up pictures there's a picture of him like holding his baby it will break your heart it's gut-wrenching he was the he's like adorable and he looked like the sweetest just like like a dad you know yeah and later i'll like tell you like his relationship with his family and he just he was he was just a dad he comes off that way he was he just loved his family so sad But like I said earlier, the truck had become something of a financial burden.
So I think they were like, well, you know, maybe there could be something there.
But then at the same time, Tim's HVAC business was doing pretty well.
And he and Charlene really had no financial concerns beyond those of just like your typical young family.
Yeah. To put it simply, Tim and Charlene were in a happy, stable relationship.
And nobody could think of any reason that Tim would just run off without telling anybody.
Right. Yeah, and it's like they have to cross all that off the list, but it seems like it was pretty easy to cross off the list here.
Exactly. So on the afternoon of May 7th, two days after Tim has gone missing, or a day, excuse me, after he's gone missing, news about his disappearance started making its way among social media.
First it was family and friends, but then word started spreading among a larger circle.
And in contrast with the police statement, the posts on Facebook were more detailed and, of course, included the fact that Tim had left the house with two young men.
By that evening, the posts on Facebook and Twitter had been shared thousands of times by everyone from friends and family, celebrities, news personalities.
Every Tom, Dick, and Harry was sharing this story.
Yeah. And unfortunately, even though they had been widely shared, the social media posts and requests for information, no credible tips came from them.
If anything, it really just disrupted the investigation.
I was just going to say, that happens more times than it doesn't happen.
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It's like, because...
Things get put out there that aren't true, that are just rumor.
Or that are true, but that the authorities are not wanting to let out yet.
That's the other thing. It's like you don't know why they're not saying what they're not saying.
But you kind of just have to trust the process.
Yeah, that's the thing. Like, look at the Idaho case.
Yeah, exactly. I think I say later on in this that there's another piece of this that reminds me so much of the Idaho case.
Yeah, it's like everybody was on that whole police force saying, like...
They can't handle it. They're not going to be able to do it.
Like they're not telling us anything. They're just sitting around and nope.
They were staying quiet because they had it.
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Shopify.com slash listen. Hey, weirdos, we need to tell you about something that has completely blown our minds collectively.
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So the next morning, when it had become clear that Tim was definitely a missing person, Hamilton police officially opened up a case into his disappearance.
And this case was led by Staff Sergeant Matt Cavanaugh.
So Cavanaugh's first press briefing, it was really short and simple.
He really just stuck to the facts of the case.
He gave a description of Tim and the circumstances under which he disappeared, and then he went on to describe the men that he had left the house with that night, saying, the one who drove the truck was white in his mid-twenties, six foot one or two, 170 to 180 pounds.
He had light to medium short brown hair and was unshaven.
He wore blue jeans, a long-sleeved orange shirt, and running shoes.
The second male, the one who sat in the back, was also white in his early to mid-20s, 5'9 or 10, small to medium build.
He was wearing a rude hooded sweatshirt with the hood up mostly covering his dark hair.
Mm-hmm. I never like when somebody approaches me with their hood up.
Yeah. Immediately, I'm like, what are you trying to hide?
Yeah. Why are you trying to hide your features?
Yeah, it's true. Put your hood down. Put your hood down.
Get away from me. So during this press briefing, the possibility actually of a third man being involved in Bosma's disappearance was introduced.
Because remember, they showed up on foot.
Yeah. That's fucking weird. Yeah. Kavanaugh wouldn't really say too much about this.
He would only confirm that the police were investigating two suspects described by Charlene, but users on social media had been speculating about a third man since it seemed pretty unlikely that these two just walked there.
Yeah. Kavanaugh wasn't going to speculate on the suspects, but he did tell reporters that due to the, quote, unusual nature of the disappearance, the case was being assigned to the Hamilton Police Homicide Unit and Search and Rescue Team, along with a K-9 unit that had already been deployed but had not yet turned up any leads or evidence.
Mm-hmm. Now, at the time of the first press briefing, police believed that the two mystery men had targeted Tim because they wanted the truck.
But while alerts had gone out to all of the relevant agencies in the three days since his disappearance, there was no sign of this vehicle at all.
Investigators had been able to get some data on Tim's cell phone in the hours after his disappearance, but the following day, it seemed like the phone had been turned off.
Oh. Oh, God. This is like, I'm just thinking about how much this would just kill me if I was his wife.
Oh, my God. It would destroy me. I don't know.
I'm just thinking about her. She must be one of the strongest people on planet Earth to go on after this because this entire time, all I could think of was Drew.
Yeah. It's awful. So in the afternoon of May 9th, Charlene, Tim's wife, went on television begging anybody with information to come forward and urging the two suspects to please release her husband.
She said, You are all aware that I saw the two men who took my husband.
You've already provided a description of these two individuals.
I ask you if you see anybody that closely matches the description of these men to please call the police.
My husband Tim is a loving father to our beautiful two-year-old girl, and she needs her daddy back.
His parents need their little boy back. Even reading this makes me want to cry.
I know. Oh, God. Yeah. She was asked how the children were doing during, like, all of this.
And she relayed this heartbreaking story about one of the kids in her family explaining that, quote, Uncle Timmy has been stolen.
Oh, my God. Something seemed to ignite in her, though, after she answered that question.
And she looked directly into the camera, seemingly talking to the two suspects, and told them loudly, it was just a truck.
It is just a truck. You don't need him, but I do.
And our daughter needs her daddy back. So please, please let him come home.
We need him to come home and may God have mercy on you.
I literally am covered in chills right now.
Wow. I have read that several times over.
And this is the first time I've read it out loud and I'm covered in chills.
Oh, that just... For that woman, that wife, that mother to be in that position because these two dickheads just felt like doing this.
Because that's what happened. They just wanted to do this.
That makes me so angry. They didn't care about the truck.
They didn't care about... His family just wanted to kill someone.
They just wanted to kill somebody for the thrill of it, and they wanted to steal a car.
My God. It's like, dude, just steal the car.
Yeah. Take the car. Exactly. I'm sure they would have been much rather that.
Absolutely. Like she said, it's just a truck.
It was just a truck. It is just a truck.
It is just a truck. My husband is more than just my husband.
He is everybody's world. And what kills me is she had to watch these men walk out the door of her home with her husband.
And now she has to know they were taking him.
And it's like you sat there and made small talk with him.
I'm sure his daughter came up. I'm sure there is a possibility they even saw his daughter.
I don't know if that's true or not. But you don't know.
You just take her dad away. I'm sure there was pictures of her.
Exactly. Like you just take her away, him away from his daughter and his wife.
And you don't think twice about that. Yeah, you have to be a real fucking monster.
Narcissist, piece of shit, dickbag. That's awful.
What you have to be. Later that day, after she gave that press conference, everybody's hopes fell when police found out that Tim's cell phone, or excuse me, they found his cell phone in an industrial area of West Brantford, which was about 20 minutes away from the Bosma's home.
According to Kavanaugh, the lead investigator, Tim's truck was spotted driving in downtown Brantford at 10.10 p.m. on the night of the disappearance.
Kavanaugh asked that all of the businesses in that area check any surveillance camera footage for any additional sightings they might find or lead to.
And he was hoping that they could use that footage to trace the route that the truck had taken through town.
Something a bit more important, though, than the truck sighting was that investigators had managed to follow up on the other cell phone that had been used to exchange text messages and calls with Tim, like whoever this prospective buyer was.
Most of the text came from that phone, came from multiple locations in Etobicoke.
I hope I said that right. I looked it up and I gave myself that little phonetic spelling.
The phone was determined, though, to be a burner phone.
This phone was purchased for this exact reason.
And the owner used a fake name when they set the phone up.
They used the name Lucas Bate. Even though that was pretty disheartening, the police were able to trace other calls that had been made from that phone.
And they actually found that a call had been made to another man who happened to also be selling his truck just like Tim.
Okay. According to the man who placed the ad, he got a message from somebody interested in the truck, and they arranged to meet with this prospective buyer the day before Tim went missing.
The situation was literally almost identical to Tim Bosma's experience, and the man who was selling his truck was able to confirm that both men matched the descriptions that had been given to the police.
So I don't know what happened in that scenario.
I don't know if they just... didn't have the balls to do what they planned to do or whatever it was yeah but the man even added on to it saying that the taller men of the two had a tattoo on his wrist that said ambition and was framed by a box said ambition because the owner of this tattoo had literally no ambition whatsoever.
Like Dick Hickok. Yeah. From the Clutter Family murders we were talking about earlier.
Very similar, actually, because it ends up being two men.
And it's like one kind of seems to follow the other, which was similar.
Yeah, like a henchman. Always a henchman.
But the man who had the tattoo had driven.
So this was a huge, huge break. Yeah. So while Kavanaugh and the Hamilton Homicide Unit conducted their official investigation in the open, they were providing the press with regular updates.
And while they were doing this, another investigation was taking place online via web sleuths.
Okay. It got real messy. Yeah. Websleuths can be a great thing, can be a fucking terrible thing.
Because websites like Websleuths claim to be friendly toward law enforcement agencies.
And, you know, sometimes they even have a hand in solving cases or helping to solve cases.
Yeah, absolutely. But they can also be a damaging distraction, especially in situations like this one where keeping information from the public was essential.
Yeah. That's the thing. Every case is so different in how it needs to be handled.
Right. And we don't necessarily need citizen opinions on victims.
Yeah. And that's exactly what happened here.
Because in the case of Tim's disappearance, journalist Anne Brocklehurst discovered, quote, an ugly strain of commentary from members who think they know more than anyone else.
And this included a good number of users who just completely rejected the investigator's theory that the suspects were only interested in the truck and not Tim.
Within days of Tim disappearing, the web sleuth's messaging boards were full of users just speculating that Tim and Charlene weren't as innocent as they were being made out to be.
Can you imagine? You're dealing with the fact that he's, and while this was happening, he had already died.
So I hope those people feel absolutely fucking terrible.
Well, that's it. It's like this woman is grieving.
This young mother of a young child is grieving.
Right. And missing her husband. And has no idea what's happening to him.
And literally they're just like posting like, I don't think they're as innocent as they make them out to be.
And it's like, I don't even care. And then people are like, no, it's like, shut up.
Jesus. People were saying Tim had been so willing to accompany these quote unquote strangers on a late night test drive.
It seems like it couldn't have been strangers in the first place.
He had to have known them. Nope, he didn't.
So you're wrong. They were also trying to say that he knew these people and suggesting that he was involved with some kind of crime organization or something nefarious like that.
Other users started actually digging into the couple's history for evidence of any wrongdoing, and they were sharing any and all personal information and photographs of this couple on these message boards.
What the fuck? Fuck, yeah, that's when, like, come on.
Literally everything anybody said negative about this couple was debunked.
But at the end of the day, it sat there and contributed to a rumor mill that completely obscured the public's knowledge of this crime.
And it did so at the expense of a missing man's reputation as well as his wife's.
Yeah. And this time, like we were just saying, it was grueling enough for Tim's family and friends.
This was the last thing that they needed to be dealing with.
It's like, mind your fucking business. Well, that's it's like, Jesus, like that's the thing with these kind of like areas on the Internet.
They can there's like a there's a little ray of light where you're like, this could be great.
Mm hmm. But we are humans and we can't handle this shit.
That's the thing. We can't handle gathering anonymously in an online cyberspace and being anything but fucking assholes.
And it's the truth. We've seen it time and time and time and time again.
It's like, yeah, there's little rays of sunlight flying.
For sure. Absolutely. Great things happen online.
Great things happen when people get together.
But unfortunately, it can only last for so long and it can only happen in certain instances because we as humans suck ass.
It's so true. And we can't handle... We can't handle it.
It's just the truth. It gets ugly. It gets disgusting.
It gets vicious. It gets like way out of control.
And then it just lives online. Right. And even if it doesn't get to the point where it's ugly and vicious and out of control, it can also just be completely unhelpful because the investigators most of the time know what they're doing.
Of course, we've covered cases where they don't necessarily have a good start or anything like that.
But we have to have faith that they know what they're doing and we have to let them do that.
Especially in the beginning of a case. It is the most crucial time in any case.
That's the thing. So it's like if we're, you know, these cases that are years and years out. and nothing's moving, and everyone's getting frustrated, and it seems like there's like dead end, dead end, dead end.
Places like that where people are coming up with new information and giving out tips, that's when it's great.
That's when it can be really great. Of course, there's ugly things there too, but for the most part, it can be really great.
In the beginning stages of an investigation when a case is still wide open.
See what the investigators can do. Zip and let it happen.
Give them time. And if shit starts, goes for years and nothing's happening, then, you know, sure.
Pull your pants on and see if you can find something cool.
But at the same time... But, like, this is so detrimental.
That's the thing. There is a difference between being investigated, or, excuse me, being interested in true crime and completely derailing an investigation.
Yeah, like getting too involved. Exactly.
Yeah. And the thing is, to those people that actually knew him, not random strangers on the internet...
The idea that Tim Bosma ever had anything to do with any kind of criminal element at all was fucking absurd.
Yeah. His friends and family remembered him as literally, quote unquote, the jokester uncle and the one most likely to pull a prank.
He'd been born and raised in Ancaster, and he was part of a huge family who loved being together whenever they could.
He became one of the center points of his family, quote unquote, always up for a barbecue and a get together at the farm, which was the one that he and Charlene had recently purchased together.
Like he was starting to make memories at his house and host his family.
He was hardworking. He was honest. He never resembled anything like the suspicious character that he was being made out to be by these members of Web Sleuths.
And it wouldn't be long before their assertions that he knew the suspects would prove to be completely false.
Yeah, of course. So I hope they pooped on those words.
I don't want to say I hope they choked because I don't want anybody to choke.
So I just hope you pooped a lot after that.
I hope you pooped a lot after that. I hoped you had yucky poops.
There you go. So on Saturday, May 11th, another press briefing was called at Hamilton Police Headquarters, this time to announce that an arrest had finally been made in the disappearance of Tim Bosma.
I don't even know why I said finally because it didn't really take that long.
On the previous day, Hamilton investigators had received tips from sources in both Peel and Toronto that a man named Dellen Millard was a match for the description of one of their suspects right down to the ambition tattoo on his wrist.
Nice. You fucking loser. Seriously. If you have that tattoo, you're not a loser.
He's a loser because it was tattooed on him, but he had literally none of it.
And he's a fucking terrible piece of shit.
So on the nose. So there's that. That distinguishes between you.
Yeah, exactly. Totally. And so he had the tattoo, which right away they're like, fucking awesome.
But then to add to that, he also lived near one of the cell towers that was being pinged by the Lucas Bate phone on multiple occasions, which made him an even stronger suspect.
Look at that. According to Superintendent Dan Casella, 27-year-old Toronto resident Dellen Millard was pulled over in Mississauga by Ontario Provincial Police and, quote, detained without incident on the morning of May 10th.
He had since been charged with forcible confinement and theft over $5,000 for stealing the truck.
While detectives were really excited to announce that they had made an arrest, they were also still quick to remind the press that their main priority was finding Tim Bosma alive.
And also, Dellen Millard was just one of the suspects that they were seeking, and the case was still very much ongoing.
They were still searching for more evidence that would hopefully lead them to find a second suspect, and they reminded the public to be diligent and on the lookout for whoever the fuck this guy was.
Yeah. So the press immediately began assembling kind of a profile of Dellen Millard.
It seemed kind of strange and unusual that this young guy, he's 27 years old, was involved in what a lot of people were starting to suspect was a homicide investigation.
Dellen was the only child of Wayne Millard, and he was the heir to Millard Air, which was a charter airline that was started by his grandfather.
The airline mostly catered to wealthy clients in the greater Toronto area.
In 1999, when he was just 14 years old, Dillon actually made headlines.
Like, he could have had an incredible future.
He set a record for being the youngest person to fly a helicopter and fixed wing plane solo in the same day.
Jesus. At 14 years old. Like, that's the potential that this kid had and just fucking threw it all away.
Awesome. By the time he reached adulthood, Millard Air didn't operate a charter business anymore.
Instead, they switched their attention to actually building airplane hangars and flight technology.
Wow. When Dillon's grandfather Carl died in 2006, his father Wayne took over Millard Air until he actually died six years later in 2012.
Oh, wow. In the wake of his father's death, Dell took over Millard Air, and he was actually in the process of major layoffs and cutbacks at the time of his arrest.
He was not doing a great job. I was just going to say, shocking that he wasn't doing great.
Yeah, things were going to go to shit if he stayed in charge of this place.
As a child, he'd been described as precocious and a little spoiled, quote, with a tendency to get himself into trouble.
Characteristics that are, like, not even really cute when you're little, but are way less charming in adulthood.
Yeah. Grow up. Yeah. And by most accounts, he was bougie.
He loved showing off his wealth. He loved the attention.
He loved being in the spotlight. He was a pretentious motherfucker.
He would constantly throw parties at one of the family's hangers, which really was just an excuse to show off expensive cars, helicopters, any marker of wealth he had he wanted to show off.
Yeah. And according to that journalist, Anne Brocklehurst, when Dell got engaged to his girlfriend, he arranged for a photo shoot where they posed with classic planes, helicopters, and cars, which was clearly orchestrated to show off how fucking filthy rich he was.
It also included, quote, a variety of hairstyles and at least six different outfits.
What the fuck? I wore two different outfits in my engagement shoots, and I thought that was extra.
Wow. Yeah. The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.
The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.
His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.
Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.
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As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all.
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Unfortunately, it turned out that the fantasy portrayed in this photo shoot after they had just gotten engaged was just that, a fantasy.
Yeah, I could see that coming. Not long after Del proposed to her, Jennifer found out that he'd been cheating on her with an 18-year-old named Christina.
Christina. For some reason, I was going to say Carissa, even though it very much has Christina.
Awesome. So Jennifer broke off the engagement and moved out of the house that they shared in Oakville.
Yeah, get the fuck out of there, Jennifer.
Yeah, she was like, I'm out of here. Oakville is another suburb just outside of Toronto.
Oh, I knew that. Wow. I was going to say four and then I said so.
For so. For so. So for most of his early 20s, Del really just like floated through life.
He never committed to any of the projects, any of the careers he'd chosen.
He had made like... pretty cool attempt like pretty he had made attempts at getting pretty cool jobs but just never followed through yeah he had made attempts at 3d game design culinary school special effects makeup artistry and photography which are all things that i'm like how can you not get into that Yeah.
How can you not just like pick one of those and just devour it?
Yeah. And you have the privilege to have all of that at your fingertips.
Of being able to choose whatever you want to do, even your passion.
Yeah. Something that you really care about.
You want to be a painter? Go be a painter.
Right. Like do whatever you want. You want to make fucking vases?
Go make vases. Like do whatever you want to.
Yeah. And that's all such cool shit that would be super fun and so worth investing your time into, but Del just didn't give a shit.
By 2012, he really hadn't achieved much of anything other than spending his dad's money, failing to finish whatever he started.
That's pretty much it. Ambition. But... And getting a tattoo.
Oh, yeah. Ambition. He was like, I really have a lot of ambition.
Yeah. I'm just like working it out. I just have to find it.
But still, his father, Wayne, continued to support his son.
He really had a lot of faith in him, and it's absolutely heartbreaking.
Wayne hoped that Del would eventually start taking over his role at Millard Air and, like, take over.
Yeah. You know, he's getting older, and he wants to leave this business to his son.
He wants to know that the business is in good hands.
Yeah, exactly. Every time somebody would take steps to facilitate a more stable or professional circumstance for Del, he would just pretty much undo whatever they had done, either through laziness or incompetence or just completely undermining what anybody had done in the first place.
He sounds like a real fucking peach. I just want to, like, punch him.
Like, I'm like, you're such a piece of shit.
Yeah. During the attempts to establish a working relationship with the Waterloo Airport, Dell actually botched the airline certification process so badly on several different occasions.
He failed to make the necessary adjustments to the hangar.
He cut corners and actually caused structural damage to the building just in an effort to save money that he didn't want to spend.
Cool. Because he wanted it for himself. And another thing thwarting his dad's efforts to transform his son into this CEO was the fact that Dell seemed completely disinterested in taking the time to even learn the ropes of the industry or put effort into the business at all.
Yeah. By the end of 2012, none of that really seemed important anymore, though, because Wayne Millard had died by what the coroner originally believed was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his left eye.
They believed that he committed suicide.
Okay. People accepted that for the truth and believed that his decision came from the result of all the stress he was under at work and an increasingly problematic abuse of alcohol.
He was really going through it. Yeah. I don't know if it was suicide, though.
Just going to say that. Yeah, I don't know about that.
So on May 12th, Hamilton police started searching the home and property of Del's mother, Madeline Burns, in Kleinburg, yet another suburb about 45 minutes outside of Toronto.
Lots of Canadian suburbs. Yeah, all of them.
They really found nothing inside of the home, but they did impound a large trailer that was parked on the street in front of the house.
And do you want to guess what was inside that trailer?
What was inside? Tim's pickup truck. Are you fucking kidding me?
Nope. Right there. Just sitting right? In a large trailer.
Jesus. Parked in front of the home. Yep.
Wow. Initially, they had taken the truck to a local garage to hold it there until other arrangements could be made.
But the staff at the garage where it was being kept was taking pictures in front of it.
So the police had to move it to a separate facility.
Are you kidding me right now? No. No. If you are one of those people... Go fuck yourself.
Go fuck yourself. Like, what is wrong with you?
The shame on you. Because obviously you're taking a picture because you know that that's Tim Bosma's truck.
You know that this story is circulating around Canada.
So you sat there and you watched his wife plead for these people to bring her husband home, the father of her child home, and you said, yeah, let me take a picture in front of that pickup truck.
You're supposed to be Canadian. Exactly.
You are not Canadian. You're supposed to be better than this.
You are. Shame. Yeah. Shame. That's awful.
It's like in the Game of Thrones. They should do that walk.
We should do that to you. Yeah. Ring some bells around you.
Throw some food at you. Give you a stupid haircut.
Shame. That's terrible. It's awful. I just can't.
I just can't imagine doing that during an active investigation ever, but let alone then.
But especially, it's like, they don't even know where he is.
Like, Jesus Christ, guys. Exactly. And you don't even know what happened in that truck.
No. Get the fuck away from that truck. So while investigators searched Dell's mother's property in Kleinberg, a second team was searching his farm, which was in rural North Dumfries Township, which is a small community about 40 minutes from the Bosma house in Ancaster.
So as they were searching this property, they actually were approached by a neighbor.
He came on over and informed them that on several occasions he had seen, and this is a quote, a big redneck smoker in the woods and an excavator in the swamp on Millard's property.
So he actually led them to this wooded area behind the house and down an overgrown farmer's road, and there it was.
The neighbor had described it as a smoker, but what they actually found was a mobile incinerator actually intended for the use of cremating animals.
Oh, God. On this guy's property. The investigators approached the incinerator cautiously, fully expecting to find a body inside, but they were surprised to find the inside was empty aside from ash.
So since they found nothing at the site of the incinerator, detectives asked the neighbor to take them to the site of the excavator.
On the way to go see the excavator, which was in a swamp, they stopped in their tracks in the middle of a cornfield on the way because they discovered two large burn patches that looked as though they'd recently been cleaned up.
They could still smell some sort of accelerant in the area.
This had just happened. Oh, wow. When they arrived at the swampy area behind the house, it was exactly as the neighborhood described it.
There was a bobcat and a partially buried excavator that also appeared to have been recently used.
This is not looking great. Nope. So when Kavanaugh directed the forensics team to the incinerator in the woods, they ended up taking a closer look inside and they did discover small pieces of bone in the main chamber of this incinerator and also in a smaller chamber below.
The bone fragments were photographed and the images were immediately sent to Tracy Rogers, who is a forensic anthropologist at the University of Toronto.
From what she could see in the photos, she felt very strongly that these bones were likely human, but she didn't want to say that without examining them in person.
Yeah. So the next day she arrived at the farm and she actually had a group of forensic anthropology students with her and everybody examined the incinerator and the surrounding area.
In addition to the bone fragments in the incinerator, they also found on the property what appeared to be three partially burned seatbelts and other random debris.
What? And after a thorough search of the property, she and her team were only able to recover 58 of the 208 bones that make up the human body.
That's all that was left. The rest had been reduced to ash, obviously due to the extreme heat.
Yeah. That's what that's made for. An incinerator.
So although no conclusive DNA match was able to be made because, I mean, how could they at this point?
No identifying features had survived the fire either, but she was able to narrow down the sex and age of the victim to the point where she was reasonably confident in saying that these bones were likely a match for Tim Bosma.
Oh, God. absolutely awful that's even worse that they can't even like you don't have anything no like that's horrible because this 27 year old asshole who had literally everything he had the world at his fingertips just wanted a thrill jump out of a fucking plane if you want a thrill and honestly to this guy jump out of a fucking plane without your parachute Yeah.
That'll be a thrill for everybody. Go ahead.
Do it. You want to see what it's like to experience death?
What a piece of shit. Go do it, you asshole. awful so later that afternoon hamilton police called a press conference to announce their discovery chief glenn declare told reporters quote it's with a heavy heart that the hamilton police service announces the death of ancaster resident tim bosma a number of searches have taken place and human remains have been located we are convinced by the totality of the evidence that these are the remains of tim bosma the evidence indicates that the remains have been burned So immediately they were bombed with questions from the press, including some who were probably still operating off of the rumors from web sleuths, wanted to know if Bosma had a criminal record or if he had been known to the police at all.
It's like, can we take a minute? Like, you're essentially suggesting that his death was the result of his own behavior rather than the random fucking act that it was.
And we just announced this. Can you cool it for a second?
Yeah, like, take a second. It's ridiculous.
Both Declare and lead investigator Kavanaugh firmly and unequivocally stated that Tim Bosma had been targeted by these killers and he had absolutely no connection to them or any other criminals.
Yeah. And with that, go fuck yourself. Yeah, stop asking.
My God, it's so annoying. There's no evidence to it, so stop.
That's literally a blog on the internet.
I'm sorry, but when we really break it down, that's what that is.
It's what everything is on the internet.
Exactly. So now that the search for Tim Bosma had come to a conclusion, the investigators were able to shift their focus to investigating the homicide.
And as they did this, Del Millard, in true dickhole fashion, was refusing to cooperate with police.
He literally would not talk. Cool. His lawyers told the press, he's facing pretty serious charges and he's executing his right to remain silent.
Cool. Yeah, that's because we found an incinerator on his property.
I don't know what you would really have to say about that.
Yeah, what could you say? In Ancaster, Charlene made a statement to the press regarding the discovery of Tim's remains, saying, "...yesterday was the most horrifying day of my life."
People tell me I've been so strong, and all I know is that I have a beautiful two-year-old girl at home who now needs her mommy more than ever.
Oh, my God. But I am broken because a part of me is gone.
I can't even fathom. I can't even fathom.
No. I don't know... I don't know how you could look at that man's face on TV or, like, how you could get those memories out of your head.
The rage, I would feel. That's the thing.
I mean, good for her because she knows that she has a two-year-old that, like she just said, needs her more than ever now.
But, like, she is a strong woman. Absolutely.
To be able to... To carry on. To put that that way and say, well, I have to be a mom.
So... Like, she had no choice. Like, Jesus.
It's just awful. So in addition to the evidence collected at the various addresses that were searched after Millard's arrest, detectives also started looking into his associates.
And they discovered 25-year-old Mark Smich, who matched Charlene Bosma's description of the man that had accompanied her husband Tim and Del Millard on the test drive.
So on the evening of May 13th, lead investigator Kavanaugh instructed the officers to surveil Smich.
And by May 22nd, he felt like they had enough information to warrant an arrest.
And both Smich and his girlfriend Marlena were arrested while they were out just taking a walk.
Yeah, just taking a walk after what he's done.
As he was being taken away in cuffs, Mark Smich repeatedly shouted to his girlfriend, don't tell them anything, babe.
Don't tell them anything, babe. Are you fucking kidding me?
Because that makes you look fucking innocent.
I'd be like, wow, you probably didn't do anything.
Jesus. Don't tell them anything, babe. Don't tell them anything, babe.
I would be so fucking embarrassed to be his girlfriend.
But apparently she must have known something.
Yeah, exactly. You're an asshole. You should be embarrassed.
So the arrest of Mark caught the press and public by surprise because as far as they knew, police had made no mention of having identified a second suspect.
Yeah, that's true. Which is why you should let the police do their work.
Exactly. And Brocklehurst, my girl, that journalist, points out that...
The unexpected arrest of Smich, quote, was a reminder to both the mainstream media and social media detectives that no matter how public an investigation is, the police almost always have much more information than even the most dedicated reporters and true crime fanatics.
That is very true. You know, we've all learned this again and again.
Again and again. So Mark Smich had actually been known to police for some time.
He had a record of petty crime. He also matched the description of the second suspect.
He also owned a blue SUV that matched the description of a second vehicle seen following Tim Bosma's truck in Brantford on the night of his disappearance.
So, smoking gun. Yeah. From the moment he was arrested, people were, like, insatiably curious about Mark Smich.
Among other things, he seemed like a really unlikely companion for Del Miller.
The two of them just did not seem to go together at all.
They'd grown up completely differently. While Del was all about being a rich playboy heir to an airline, Mark Smich was just a regular middle-class guy with a pretty unremarkable life.
Hmm. He'd been born in Mississauga and lived there for several years with his mother and his two sisters until the family actually had to relocate to Oakville because of Mark, and this was when he was in middle school.
He was pretty much the reason that his entire family had to uproot their lives and move in the first place because this entire move was basically in the hopes of, quote, sorting Mark out.
Oh. He had a lot of issues. Yeah. Unfortunately for his family, though, his behavior continued on a downward spiral when he entered high school.
The move really didn't do much. He was getting into trouble on a regular basis, and he actually ended up dropping out of high school his sophomore year.
Okay. Just couldn't keep it together. After that, he kind of just drifted from like one job to another.
Not really great jobs, just he didn't have a lot of, it's actually.
I was going to say. Exactly like the case we just did with you.
Very much like the Clutter Family Murders with Dick Hickok and Perry Smith.
Yeah, just traveling from one menial job to the next.
And he was starting to build a reputation for himself with local law enforcement as a petty criminal and a straight up nuisance.
They were like, I'm so sick of dealing with this guy.
Yeah. He was usually unemployed, and by his early 20s, he had become a small-time drug dealer who, quote, when he had no supply, was reduced to selling single cigarettes to students at the local high school, who found him to be creepy.
Wow. So, like, when he couldn't get his hands on more drugs to sell, he would buy a pack of cigarettes and sell one square to To high school students.
Who found him creepy. Who found him creepy.
Wow. That's sad. That's a choice. That's wild.
Yeah. That's inappropriate. That's very inappropriate.
That is a lot to unpack, sir. It's gross.
It's gross. Can you imagine? You're just like outside a high school, just like... No, I can't.
I don't want to imagine that. Two dollars.
I will not... Two dollars, one cigarette.
I will not imagine that. What? No. What?
No, thank you. So Mark and Del met in 2008 when Mark was doing some temporary work at a friend's auto garage.
This garage was one of many that Del loved to hang out around.
He just, you know, with all his free time, he just hung out at garages.
He just loved a garage. Just loves... Because he's buying cars, even though it's like...
Just for the hell of it. Exactly. Doing everything for the hell of it, apparently.
I'm just so angry at this guy. I know. I hate this guy.
For the first few years that they knew of each other, their relationship was really nothing more than the occasional drug deal.
I think actually Mark became Del's dealer, but then he really wasn't a reliable dealer because he would run out a lot.
Yeah. But by 2010 or 2011, they actually started hanging out and chatting with each other on a regular basis.
They'd play video games together and get high.
Real winners. Cool. Ambition, right? I was just going to say ambition.
Yeah, it's all about the ambition, baby.
It was around 2011 that Del and Mark's friends started what Del referred to as missions.
Yeah. These missions were literally just spur-of-the-moment theft of random items, including Corvette rims, trees.
They would just steal trees. Stealing trees?
And also they once stole a concrete floor polisher from a restaurant.
Just because they could. Just because they could.
Because they had literally nothing better to do.
Ambition. Ambition. There you go. Eventually, these missions, which is what Del called them, evolved from these like impulsive acts to actually more planned out thefts and acts of vandalism, which were all orchestrated by one Del Millard.
He would literally pay his friends to help him commit these crimes.
He's so fucking pathetic. If you have to pay people to hang out with you.
You're pathetic. You're fucking pathetic.
Fucking pathetic and those are not your friends.
No, you're a loser. Get a life. In May of 2013, Mark was living between Del's house in Oakville and his own girlfriend's apartment.
He was kind of just like couch surfing. Yeah.
One day in early May, Del told the friend group that he wanted to steal a truck and he'd been scoping out some classified websites and he'd even made some calls to arrange test drives.
Can you imagine just being like, you know what?
I just, I've really been looking to steal someone else's property.
I don't, it's just, I've really been looking to do this.
I'm the heir to an airline. I have endless amounts of money.
I have money to last me the rest of my life, but I want to steal a truck.
Yeah, just, you know, I've been looking to steal someone else's shit.
What? You are such a loser. Such a loser.
In every way. Ambition. Ambition. Most of the guys in the group were very uninterested in going along with this specific plan.
They were like, listen, I'll steal a floor polisher from a restaurant any day of the week, but not a truck.
But not this. Grand Theft Auto is a little bit different, so I do see that.
Yeah. But Mark had developed this weird sense of loyalty when it came to Del, and he agreed to accompany his friend on this particular mission.
Even calling this a mission makes me feel like a dumbass.
Truly. By the time the two were ready to put their plan to action, Del had been planning this for months.
So on May 4th, they test drove a truck in Toronto, and they were – this was Igor Tomoniko – I hope I said that right – his truck –
He had been the man that police contacted when they found the cell data from Del Millard's burner phone.
And it was him who had filed an agreed statement of facts with the Hamilton police, officially identifying Mark Smich as the passenger who had accompanied Del Millard on the test drive of his truck.
Igor is a real one. Igor! On May 24th, 2013, Dell Millard and Mark Smich made their first appearance in court, where they were being arraigned for the first-degree murder of Tim Bosma.
And just as they were in their daily lives, the two were a very stark contrast from one another in the courtroom.
Dell was well-dressed. Obviously, he had the money to be.
He came off as confident. He spoke loudly, quote, clearly and forcefully when responding to the judge, made eye contact when he pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Mark Smich, on the other hand, appeared gaunt.
He showed up to the court wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.
He was also sporting a black eye. He had a cut open on his cheek, and he seemed literally incapable of even speaking loud enough for the judge to hear his not guilty plea.
Awesome. Yeah. Both men were held without bail, Mark Smich at the Niagara Regional Detention Center and Del Millard at the Hamilton Wentworth Detention Center.
So the discovery that Dell, a wealthy and supposedly successful, I don't really know who wrote that.
I don't really know about that. The discovery that he orchestrated the murder of Tim Bosma was a complete shock to the public, but not really a shock to investigators who were starting to notice a little bit of a pattern of tragedy in Dell's life.
Uh-oh. Six months before Tim Bosma went missing, Dell's father, Wayne Millard, supposedly took his own life in late November.
Yeah. Everybody at Miller Dare was told that Wayne had died of a brain aneurysm, actually, when in fact he had shot himself in the head or supposedly had.
Mm-hmm. The coroner ruled the death as suicide, and Wayne's remains were cremated at the request of his family.
Oh. Mm-hmm. Wayne Millard's death wasn't exactly suspicious.
He was the CEO of a major company. He was under a large deal of stress.
Of course, it's plausible and fully within the realm of possibility.
But at the same time, this wasn't the first unusual tragedy that Dell had experienced.
Six months before his father's death seems to be that he loves a six-month increment.
His former girlfriend, 23-year-old Laura Babcock, went missing in Toronto.
Oh. Mm-hmm. Like Wayne Millard's death, Laura Babcock's disappearance received really little attention from the police or even the press at all when it happened in late June of 2012.
Laura came from a stable middle-class family.
She was really well-liked by her friends, her co-workers.
And just one year before she was killed, she had graduated with a degree in English and drama from the University of Toronto.
She had everything going for her. Oh, man.
One year after graduation, things had taken a downward turn for Laura.
I don't know if she, like, got caught up in the wrong crowd or what happened.
But she had a quote-unquote mental health crisis, and she started mixing recreational drugs with her psychiatric medication, which is never a good idea.
It was only exacerbating her symptoms to the point where her parents unfortunately had to ask her to leave their home and find somewhere else to go.
Because of the circumstances, the Toronto police just assumed that when she was reported missing that she'd simply run away or wandered off somewhere and she'd eventually turn up.
You know, little attention. In both cases, police accepted the obvious and, in my opinion, the most convenient explanations.
Yeah. But others weren't so quick to rule out a way more sinister explanation.
At Miller Day, those who had been close to Wayne Millard in the weeks before his death remembered him as being very happy, very excited about new business ventures, and they said that he was eager to build the company back up so that he could leave his son with a successful business to operate.
Oh, that breaks my heart. To those people, the death of somebody so future-oriented came as a shock, which that can happen.
I was going to say it can absolutely happen.
But in this case, they just had a gut feeling that something was off.
Well, there's a lot more at play here. And at the same time, while it's true that Laura Babcock was struggling emotionally at the time of her disappearance, her ex-boyfriend, Sean Lerner, had a reason to believe that she didn't just run away.
Shortly after she disappeared, he was very concerned and he actually managed to get a hold of her cell phone bill.
And her cell phone bill showed that she had exchanged a series of calls and texts with Del Millard in the days before she had disappeared.
Meaning he was the last person to have any communication with her.
So Lerner, her ex, took this information and took the bill to the Toronto police, but they brushed him off and quote unquote accused him of playing CSI.
Like, no. Like, he's actually bringing an actual piece of evidence to you.
He literally has the information of the last person she spoke with, at least on the phone.
Like, that's pertinent, at the very least.
And he's not posting it on the internet.
No. He's bringing it right to the station.
He's doing everything you're supposed to do.
Yeah. Like, Jesus, you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't, apparently.
It's so true. Like, that's not cool. And then to add insult to injury, they informed him that because he wasn't family, he didn't have the right to file a missing persons report.
What? Okay. I didn't realize that was going to happen.
So when he realized he wasn't going to get anywhere with police, he took things into his own hands and actually went to confront Del Millard himself.
Ooh, that's dangerous. In late July of 2012.
Del told him, yeah, I've been talking to Laura, but I don't know where she is, and I haven't seen her or heard from her since I spoke to her last.
And Lerner really couldn't do much. I don't believe him.
No. So now, in the wake of both arrests for the murder of Tim Bosma, investigators in Toronto, with assistance from Kavanaugh's team in Hamilton and the OPP, begin to dig deeper into Dell's relationships with his father and Laura Babcock.
At first, family and friends believed that Wayne was depressed and that his work stress led him to commit this suicide.
The day after he died, Dell Miller told the press that his father, quote, carried some great sadness with him throughout life that I never knew.
He never wanted to share that with me. But whatever sympathy he showed at the time appeared to have been an act.
When investigators interviewed employees at Miller Dare, they found out that Dell regularly and continuously went around talking shit about his father.
He said his father was a failure. He said his father was intent on squandering his fortune by trying to build an empire to leave his son, who had no interest in running this company.
Wow. Wow. Basically saying, my dad put everything he could into this company for me and I don't even want it.
What a fucking idiot. That's annoying. Your whole life has been set up for you.
You are the idiot here. Yeah. I hate this guy.
Seriously. On the night of Wayne Millard's death, Dell told the authorities that he had been at Mark's house.
And given that police had already accepted suicide as the cause of death, nobody doubted his alibi or checked into it.
Oh, no. However, when the new detectives who were now investigating him attempted to confirm this alibi in June of 2013, cell phone records showed that, yes, he had been at Mark's house that night.
But he had traveled to his father's house in the early morning hours, and interviews with his friends and acquaintances gave them even more to go off of.
Detectives learned that in the weeks before his father's death, Dell illegally purchased a .32 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver from his friend Matthew.
That was the exact caliber and exact model used in the quote-unquote suicide.
Oh, come on. Their suspicions of Del's involvement were confirmed, but they still went above and beyond and tested the gun used in the shooting and discovered that Del Millard's DNA was on the handle.
Are you fucking kidding me? He killed his father.
Holy shit. He shot his own father in the head.
My God. Uh-huh. So police believed that he murdered his father, quote, to protect his inheritance, which was being used to fund a new aviation business.
Holy shit. And to keep him from having to inherit said business.
Oh my God. He killed his father because he didn't want to inherit the family business.
Yes. He killed his father because he's a lazy fuck who has ambition tattooed on his arm.
Correct. Wow. In the case of Laura Babcock, investigators learned that she and several of her other female friends had been engaging in escort services through an online escort site, including Del Millard's then-girlfriend Christina.
Del and Laura had briefly dated in 2008, and they remained friends after the breakup.
So in the spring of 2012, after Laura had been kicked out of her parents' house, she was actually temporarily staying with Del and Christina.
But tensions arose when she began spending alone time with Del, and that time eventually led to a sexual relationship with each other.
Oh. Not surprisingly, Christina was fucking pissed and demanded that Del end the relationship and cut off all contact with Laura.
Del agreed and told Christina what he planned to do to Laura, saying, First, I'm going to hurt her.
Then I'll make her leave. I will remove her from our lives.
Holy shit. Yup. Investigators made three separate searches of the farm where they'd previously discovered Tim Bosma's remains.
They did a more than thorough search of this property each time, but unfortunately they found no evidence of Laura's remains.
Ugh. But when you know what he did with Tim.
Exactly. And with his own father. So instead, they relied on interview testimony, cell phone data, text messages, and circumstantial evidence to build their case because they were not willing to let this go.
And they theorized that Dell and Mark had spent months planning how to get rid of Laura Babcock.
And on July 3rd or 4th, investigators believed they killed her, wrapped her body in a blue tarp, and loaded it into Wayne Millard's minivan.
Jesus Christ. And drove it to the farm where they disposed of her remains in the commercial incinerator that Dell had purchased on July 5th.
That is so fucked up. Even though they didn't find Laura's physical remains, they did find a photo that Dell sent to Mark on July 4th in which he's seen at the Millard air hangar standing beside a quote human sized bundle wrapped in a blue tarp.
Are you kidding me? Nope. What the fuck?
And he literally purchased the incinerator for her.
My God. So their trials began in February of 2016, and each man pled not guilty to the charge of murdering Tim Bosma.
Almost three years had passed since they'd been arrested, and in that time, investigators had collected a huge amount of damning evidence of guilt, including the remains found in the incinerator, the truck which was found at Del's mother's house, and a significant number of texts and other communications that pointed toward their being responsible for Laura's death.
But of course, both of their lawyers did the thing where they pinned the bulk of the responsibility on the other person.
Of course. I think it's sometimes referred to as the cutthroat defense.
They wanted to gain the jury's sympathies and receive a lesser sentence for their client by pinning the entire thing on the other client.
So Mark's lawyers were pointing the finger at Del's lawyer, or at Del, excuse me, and Del's lawyers were doing the same to Mark.
Yeah, of course. While the authorities had spent the previous year chasing down every single lead in the case, Dell and his defense team had been not so subtly pleading their case through the media.
Press interviews, statements, jailhouse interviews.
He did several while in jail and made every attempt he could to minimize the spoiled rich kid image that was being so focused on.
Yeah. But it's really hard to do that when you are just a spoiled rich kid.
Yeah, definitely. He told a reporter from the London Community News, quote, I shop at Costco.
I don't buy expensive clothes. I'm a bargain hunter.
I have one Hugo Boss suit. How humble. Everyone loves Costco, you moron.
Everyone bow down to the humble king. Like, I only have one Hugo Boss suit.
I shop at Costco. I'm a bargain hunter. Okay.
You're still a fucking cold-blooded murderer asshole, and you'll never enjoy a Costco free sample again.
So how do you like those apples? So fuck you.
How do you like those cut-up corn dogs? Wow.
According to Dell, any evidence of his leading a lavish lifestyle was actually him just trying to live up to the image that people expected of him.
People expected so much of him, Elena, and he just had to live up to that.
And he said if he was guilty of anything, it was for picking up strays like Mark Smich, the, quote, petty criminal who dragged him into this tragedy.
Shut the fuck up. Yeah. You're equally as responsible.
Good try. Mark's defense team, like I just said, was equally ready and placed all the blame on Dell.
They claimed that he was the, quote, master manipulator, which I believe, and the, quote, psychopathic rich friend, which I also believe.
Yeah, I was going to say. And they said he had enticed Mark Smich with empty promises and then ultimately took him, quote, on a test drive he never could have imagined.
Ugh. I do think that Dell was the master manipulator, and I do think he was the psychotic rich friend.
Yeah. But I also know that Mark Smich was an adult who was capable of making his own decisions and made the wrong fucking choice.
Exactly. The press could not resist the sensational story of this playboy heir turned murderer and Mark Smich's narrative of a petty criminal turned accomplice in a homicide.
Yeah. It was more so that they were interested in Del's story and a little bit less in Mark's story because Del's story sold papers.
Yeah. Mark Smith's story, nobody really cared a lot about it.
Mark is a petty criminal, so it just kind of floats away.
But Del is supposed to be this heir of this...
Huge corporation that's like airline turned criminal.
Yeah, it's wild. So in one interview after another, Dell had no trouble demonstrating his intelligence and his sharpness when it came to speaking.
This did make him a potential asset to his own case, unfortunately, especially if he was put on the witness stand.
And while Mark Smich couldn't compare to him in terms of public speaking or self-confidence, he'd actually undergone a pretty considerable physical transformation during his three years in jail.
And his defense team, I think they did this strategically, and they were hoping that it would work in his favor.
He wasn't the scrawny, poorly dressed, meek drug dealer who had basically like muttered his plea during the arraignment.
Now Mark had grown out his hair to a more like conventional style.
He'd put on weight and muscle in the years since his first court appearance.
He appeared more respectable and his lawyers hoped more sympathetic and believable.
I think this was all like a Casey Anthony.
Yeah. You know, they tried to make her look like a sweet, solid mama.
They buttoned her all up. They brushed her hair back.
Yeah. And she was looking so believable.
Yeah. Unfortunately, that worked. Mm-hmm.
Smich's defense lawyer, Thomas Dungy, I believe is how you say it, he worked really hard to establish his client as the unwilling pawn in Dell's psychotic plan.
He aggressively questioned Dell's friends and associates to the point where the judge, Justice Goodman, interrupted to say, I think, Mr. Dungy, we can lower the tenor with respect to the witnesses.
Wow. But this was all part of his strategy to demonstrate that whether it was through his own wealth or his charm, Dylan Millard had a way of dominating people and convincing them to engage in behaviors or activities that they might not otherwise.
It was a tactic. And his tactic proved to be successful, and it really spoke to Del Millard's character.
And then to speak even further to that character, several law enforcement officers were called to testify.
Pretty much all of them said that Del was a narcissist who used his money and influence to get whatever he wanted.
We can all see that. Yeah. Well, at the same time, Del Millard's defense lawyer, Raven Pillay, had petitioned the court to exclude a considerable amount of evidence that they said would bias the jury against the client.
And he was unfortunately successful in doing so.
The evidence included a large number of communications between Del and different friends that implicated him in drug use, which it's like we all know he did drugs.
He's a spoiled rich kid. And just pretty much other things like that.
Mm-hmm. Pillay, the defense attorney, pretty much ignored the claims that his client was a psychotic narcissist and instead argued that it made no sense for Dell to develop an elaborate plan to steal a truck.
He could have just gone out and bought one.
And he also argued that it was Mark Smich who needed money and he intended to steal and sell the truck, but he said something unplanned happened and went wrong and Mark Smich produced the gun that killed Tim Mosma.
He said it was all Mark. Yeah, look at that.
He also suggested the large amount of evidence collected by investigators from bone fragments, browser history, the truck at Dell's mother's property was actually evidence of Dell's innocence.
After all, he said, wouldn't somebody who committed murder try to cover up their involvement rather than leave it out in the open where anybody could find it?
That's a bold move. Let's see if it works out for him.
What? That's a bold move. What? If I was on the jury, I would just literally sit there and like raise my hand and just say, what?
Like, you can't be serious, my guy. He was.
You can't be serious, my guy. Yeah. I'm astounded.
He was so serious. After four months. So serious.
Four months of testimony. Closing arguments began on May 31st, 2016.
Each lawyer took nearly an entire day to make their final case to the jury, which I always, I'm like...
Don't do that to the jury. I'm always just astounded by that.
I'm like, how do you talk for that long?
An entire day? I feel like you're at that point going on like too long.
But you know, I'm like, that's amazing to me.
I mean, yeah, it's absolutely amazing. Like badass.
So the jury deliberated, that's always another hard word for me to say, for four days.
And they were actually sequestered at this point.
Oh, wow. So they came from that to deliver their verdict.
Wow. both Dellen Millard and Mark Smich were found guilty of the first-degree murder of Tim Bosma.
And because the sentence for first-degree murder in Canada is an automatic 25-year prison sentence, both men requested to be sentenced immediately rather than wait for a hearing, of course.
Good. Good. Good. The Bosma family was pleased with the verdict, and they felt that the prosecution's theoretical explanation of Tim's final hours did answer a lot of their questions that had been lingering.
And they'd been struggling at this point for years.
And they said, quote, the weight just went off of our shoulders.
The public, on the other hand, which like I'm not as concerned about as long as his family's happy, I'm happy.
But they were left to question what turned Del Millard and Mark Smich to turn into thrill killers.
Yeah. Especially where both of them maintained their innocence.
Yeah. Which clearly they were not. An incinerator was found on his property.
Yeah, exactly. Now, in February of 27, the disastrous duo went on trial again for the murder of Laura Babcock, both represented by their same lawyers that they had been in the Tim Bosma case.
Like I said, without a body, it was going to be tough.
But the Crown based their entire case on circumstantial evidence and then also witness testimony.
They also had found Laura's belongings in Del Millard's possession and photos shared between Mark and Del were used in their argument.
Oh, okay. The defense argued that, for all anybody knew, Laura Babcock was still alive, and any suggestion of violence having been committed against her was nothing more than the boasting of adolescent drug users.
Wow. Like, she could still be alive. My client just said he killed her to boast.
Like, come on. In the end, the jury thankfully sided with the prosecution and found both men guilty of the murder of Laura Babcock.
Wow. Without a body. Holy shit, that's hard.
Yeah. I think the text messages really spoke for themselves.
And the photo. I think the photo spoke for itself.
The fact that a lot of her stuff was still in Donna's possession.
I think all of that spoke. That's fucked up.
Justice Michael Code, who was the one to preside over the trial, called Del Millard, quote, profoundly immoral and dangerous.
And he said his accomplice, quote, enthusiastically participated in the murder of their supposed friend.
Jesus. The courtroom literally erupted in cheers when the justice sentenced both to life in prison.
Good. With the eligibility for parole in 50 years.
Like, God. In the fall of 2017, Dell went on trial again, this time alone, and for the murder of his father.
Oh, shit. Wayne Millard. In September of that year, he was convicted of first-degree murder.
Justice Maureen Forstel, I want to say, presided over the case and handed down Millard's third consecutive life sentence.
Holy shit. Meaning any chance at parole was just not going to happen for at least 75 years.
So he would be like, I don't even know. Like seven, three.
He'd be like 100. It's not happening. Before handing down his sentence, Forstel addressed the court saying, Dellen Millard has repeatedly committed the most serious offense known to our law.
He has done so with considerable planning and premeditation.
In the murder of his father, he took advantage of the vulnerability of his father and betrayed his father's trust in him.
Millard's lawyer called the sentence unduly harsh.
Oh, okay. He killed someone, though. And Dell said that it was unreasonable and unconstitutional.
Can you explain how, sir? The judge disagreed.
Thank you. But in May of 2022, the Supreme Court in Canada overturned the 2011 provision which allowed justices the power to sentence individuals to consecutive sentences.
Come on. I know. Which meant that both Millard and Smich would actually get the potential opportunity for parole way earlier than anybody expected.
That's bullshit. And people were fucking pissed, rightfully so.
Yeah, I'm fucking pissed. Charlene Bosma told reporters, quote, Now because of this ruling, when my daughter is 27, she will be asked to carry on the fight I thought I already fought for her.
That's fucked up. That is fucked up. That's really fucked up.
And it's smart for her to put it that way.
Yeah, absolutely. Because that'll make people really see.
And think about it. Think twice. Fucking A.
The Toronto Police also caught flack for not diligently investigating Wayne Millard's death or the disappearance of Laura Babcock.
And a lot of people pointed out Tim Bosma could still be alive if they had actually done due diligence in both of those cases.
It's true. But unfortunately, no member of the Toronto Police Service has ever been held accountable for those failures.
Damn. And that is the case of Del Millard and Mark Sminch, two of the world's...
Just stains. I was literally just going to say stains on the world.
Like cross out your ambition tattoo. Truly stains on the world.
How... The Tim Bosma case just destroys me.
So senseless. And the thing is, none of us will ever know what happened in that truck and why they ended his life because they won't say.
Because they're even bigger pieces of shit than originally thought.
To let his wife and his daughter continue living their lives having no idea what happened to their husband and father and...
All your mind is going to do is come up with your own.
The worst things. Exactly. And to leave them in that position makes these two men even more fucking insufferable than they already were.
And it was like a 42 on the Richter scale.
That's horrible and so fucking senseless.
I hate them. I hate them so much. This case infuriated me.
That's awful. Awful. damn i know this was a heavy one yeah it really is but with that being said we hope that you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird so weird that you yell there you go bring it back If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
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