The following is a timeline of events connected with Tim Bosma's disappearance, his death, and the ensuing police investigation that led to the arrests of Dellen Millard and Mark Smich for first-degree murder. Reading on an app? Touch here for the full experience.
May 6, 2013, just after 9 p.m.: Mark Smich and Dellen Millard show up at Tim Bosma’s house to test drive his truck, about two hours after they said they would arrive.
May 6, 2013, approx. 9:20 p.m.: Surveillance video from a business near Bosma’s home shows a truck similar to Bosma’s on Highway 403, headed toward Brantford, followed by an SUV similar to Millard’s.
May 6, 2013, approx. 10 p.m.: Surveillance video from a business in the Oak Park Road area on the outskirts of Brantford shows a truck similar to Bosma’s and an SUV similar to Millard’s pull over, stop for about 10 minutes, and then leave.
May 7, 2013, 1:30 a.m.: Surveillance video from inside the Millard Air hangar at the Region of Waterloo International Airport shows Millard, Smich and Millard’s dog present. About 15 minutes later, something a police officer would later describe as a “large flame” is visible in surveillance video from a neighbouring business.
May 7, 2013, 8:17 a.m.: Millard’s Millard Air employees receive a text stating that “no one goes to the hangar today, not even just to grab something” because of “airport politics”.
May 8, 2013: Millard Air employees notice an unfamiliar black pickup truck in the hangar. Reports of Bosma’s disappearance start circulating widely on social media and in the press.
May 9, 2013: Bosma’s wife, Sharlene Bosma, issues a tearful appeal for help locating Bosma and bringing him back to his family. She calls his disappearance the sort of thing that “only happens on TV.”
May 10, 2013: Police announce that Tim Bosma’s cellphone has been found at an industrial site on the outskirts of Brantford. Searches continued of the area around Oak Park Road.
May 11, 2013, 1 p.m.: Police announce the arrest of Dellen Millard in connection with Bosma’s disappearance, on charges of forcible confinement and theft. Millard was stopped and arrested without incident the previous night while driving in Mississauga. At this point, police say that they are continuing to search for Bosma and have received more than 300 tips about his disappearance.
May 11, 2013, late evening: Police tape goes up at the Millard Air hangar
May 12, 2013: On Mother’s Day, Mary Bosma tells reporters that her Mother’s Day wish is for her son to return home safe. Later in the day, Bosma’s truck is found inside a trailer parked at Millard’s mother’s home in Kleinburg, just outside Vaughan.
May 13, 2013: A forensics van is added to the police presence at the Millard Air hangar as police say they have narrowed their search for Bosma to Waterloo Region. Police set up a presence at 2548 Roseville Road in North Dumfries, a farm property Millard bought two years earlier for $835,000 in cash. Lawyer Deepak Paradkar, who was hired to represent Millard but later dropped from the case, tells CP24 that his client is “100 per cent not guilty.”
May 14, 2013: Police say that Bosma’s remains were “burned beyond recognition” and Millard will be charged with first-degree murder. They say they have yet to identify the man who accompanied Millard on the test drive.
May 15, 2013: Millard appears in court to be formally charged with first-degree murder. Sharlene Bosma speaks to the media, thanking the thousands of people who had kept the case in the public eye and supported her family.
May 16, 2013: Police reveal that they have found an incinerator at the Roseville Road property. Officers are seen continuing to search areas around the farm and the hangar for potential evidence. A Millard Air supplier tells CTV News that Millard’s company had stopped taking orders in the days after Bosma’s disappearance.
May 17, 2013: CTV News reports that Toronto Police have reopened their investigations into the deaths of Millard’s father Wayne and friend Laura Babcock. Babcock disappeared from Toronto in June 2012, while Wayne Millard’s death was initially deemed a suicide.
May 21, 2013: A week after police tape first went up at Millard’s farm on Roseville Road, investigators continue to have an active presence. Police confirm that Bosma’s remains were found on the farm property.
May 22, 2013: Hundreds of people attend a memorial service in Bosma’s home community of Ancaster. As the ceremony concludes, police announce that they have made a second arrest in the case – a man later identified as Oakville resident Mark Smich.
May 23, 2013: Saying little and keeping his head hung low, Smich appears in court to be formally charged with first-degree murder. His lawyer says he intends to plead not guilty.
May 30, 2013: A Toronto resident tells CTV News that a motorcycle stolen from his driveway in 2012 was found by police in Millard’s hangar, stripped of its VIN information. Police say that blood found on a yacht Millard rented on Manitoulin Island is not related to any criminal activity.
June 14, 2013: A memorial fundraiser in Copetown, outside Ancaster, collects $191,000 for the Bosma family. A second fundraiser is held the following weekend, with motorcyclists from around the province coming together to raise $20,000.
February 2014: The Roseville Road farm is sold to a landscaping company for $840,000 in cash.
April 1, 2015: Officials with the Region of Waterloo International Airport announce that the former Millard Air hangar will be leased to Chartright Air Group, a company which specializes in corporate charters.
Jan. 18, 2016: Jury selection begins at the John Sopinka Courthouse in Hamilton for the first-degree murder trial of Millard and Smich.
Jan. 26, 2016: Jury selection wraps up, paving the way for the trial to begin on Feb. 1 with testimony from Sharlene Bosma.
June 13, 2016: The jury is sequestered and begins its deliberations.
Click here for full coverage from the four months of testimony
