Perhaps the most anticipated of the Crown’s witnesses at the murder trial of Dellen Millard and Mark Smich took the stand Wednesday.

Jurors heard from Christina Noudga, who was dating Millard at the time of Millard’s May 2013 arrest.

Millard and Smich have both pleaded not guilty to killing Hamilton resident Tim Bosma, who disappeared on May 6, 2013, after taking two men to test drive a truck he was selling.

Noudga is also charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact.

Noudga said that she and Millard had been dating since 2010. In 2013, they were living separately but often spending evenings together.

Jurors heard about text messages between the two sent two days before Bosma disappeared, in which Millard said he was on his way to Waterloo for some “mission prep.”

The Toronto resident had a number of ties to Waterloo Region, including a hangar at the Region of Waterloo International Airport and a farm property on Roseville Road in North Dumfries.

Previous witnesses have testified that “mission” was a word used by Millard and his friends to describe criminal activities such as thefts.

Noudga said Wednesday that Millard used the word “mission” to refer to a wide variety of tasks, including moving furniture and picking up equipment.

“The only illicit stuff was picking up marijuana,” she said.

When the proceedings turned to May 6 – the day of Bosma’s disappearance – Noudga said she knew nothing of her then-boyfriend’s plans.

As far as she knew, she said, Millard was simply interested in buying a pickup truck. Other witnesses have testified that Millard indicated interest in stealing a truck.

Jurors heard that Noudga and Millard had no in-person contact between May 6 and May 9, speaking only through text messages.

“He kept blowing me off, or he was busy,” Noudga said.

At one point, Millard said he was “heading west” the following week and invited Noudga to join him.

When the two met on May 9, Noudga testified, he picked her up in his red pickup truck, with a trailer attached.

Jurors heard that Millard said he wanted to drop the trailer at his mother’s house, and the two then drove to Kleinburg to do just that.

Bosma’s truck was later found inside a trailer parked outside Millard’s mother’s house.

Wednesday’s testimony also touched briefly on the incinerator in which the Crown alleges that Bosma’s remains were burned.

Noudga said she had seen the device, which jurors have heard was custom-ordered from an American company at Millard’s urging, inside the barn on Millard’s North Dumfries farm property.

Millard claimed he used the device to burn scrap metal he came into contact with at his Millard Air company, Noudga said.

Asked if she had ever seen the incinerator at the Millard Air hangar – where the Crown argues it was used on Bosma’s remains – Noudga said that she had not.

The incinerator came up again at the end of the day's testimony, when Noudga said that she and Millard stopped at the Roseville Road farm after leaving the trailer behind in Kleinburg.

Noudga testified that Millard asked her to help move the incinerator out of the barn, saying it was too heavy and was causing the floor to creak.