On the evening of May 6, 2013, Tim Bosma, a 32-year-old husband and father from the Ancaster area of Hamilton, Ontario, waved goodbye to his wife, Sharlene. He was taking two men for a test drive in the black Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck he had advertised for sale online. A hardworking contractor, Tim was known as a kind-hearted man who loved his family, including the two-year-old daughter who was the light of his life. He smiled at his wife and said he would be right back.
He never returned.
His disappearance launched a massive search and a series of desperate public pleas from his family. "It was just a truck," Sharlene Bosma begged in a televised statement, her voice breaking. "You don't need him. But I do. And our daughter needs her daddy." The community rallied, holding prayer vigils and sharing missing person posters across the province. The family's faith and the overwhelming support provided a small measure of comfort during days filled with agonizing uncertainty.
The hope for Tim’s safe return was shattered eight days after he vanished. On May 14, 2013, police announced they had found his remains, burned beyond recognition. The horrifying discovery was made at a farm in Ayr, Ontario, belonging to Dellen Millard, the heir to an aviation business. Investigators located Tim's body inside a large animal incinerator, which Millard had purchased almost a year earlier and dubbed "The Eliminator." Tim’s truck was found partially stripped and cleaned inside a trailer parked at the home of Millard's mother.
The investigation quickly led to the arrests of Dellen Millard, then 27, and his friend, Mark Smich, 25. Their trial in 2016 revealed a chilling plot. The Crown argued that the two men had meticulously planned to steal a truck and murder its owner. Evidence showed they had contacted other sellers before targeting Tim. Inside Millard's SUV, police found the key to Tim's truck and the receipt for the incinerator. Though Millard and Smich tried to blame each other for pulling the trigger, the prosecution contended they acted together, shooting Tim at close range inside his own truck shortly after they drove away from his home.
In June 2016, a jury found both Dellen Millard and Mark Smich guilty of first-degree murder. They were sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years. Following the verdict, Sharlene Bosma spoke of the three years her family had waited for justice. "This does not bring Tim back, and he will still never come home," she said. "For Tim's murderers, their life sentence begins now, and ours began over three years ago when they murdered Tim."
The investigation into Tim Bosma's murder uncovered a darker history. Dellen Millard was subsequently convicted of two other first-degree murders: the 2012 killing of his former girlfriend, Laura Babcock, and the murder of his own father, Wayne Millard, whose death that same year had initially been ruled a suicide. These convictions established Millard as a serial killer. Both Millard and Smich were also found guilty of Babcock's murder.
Though their appeals for the Bosma murder conviction were dismissed, the legal process has continued to be a source of pain for the family. The killers were later moved from maximum to medium-security prisons, a decision the Bosma family publicly condemned. In the years since the tragedy, Tim is remembered not for the evil that ended his life, but for the love he gave as a husband, father, son, and friend. "I was fortunate enough to have spent four and a half years with a wonderful man," Sharlene said. "While Tim may have been stolen, that time never will be."
