Author: Laila

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Magee, Christian

Murderer: Christian Magee

Alias/Nickname: The Mad Slasher
Type: Serial Killer
MO: Was either acquainted with victims or picked them up hitchhiking
Characteristics: Sexual Assault, Stabbing, Strangulation, Mutilation
Time Span of Killings: 1974-1976
Number of Murder Victims: 3
Number of Sexual Assaults: 2+
Location: Strathroy and Mount Brydges, Ontario
Date of Birth: 1948
Hometown:
Diagnosis: Personality Disorder with classic sexual sadism including fantasies of torture, necrophilia, cannibalism, and dismemberment.
Outcome: Found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1977, and has been held at the maximum security Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre ever since.

Christain Magee grew up in an emotionally and physically abusive household.

The Victims

Judith Barksey

Judith Barksey, 19, was murdered on March 1, 1974.

She was attacked by Magee as she walked home after getting take-out from a local Strathroy Pizzeria. He threw her to the ground and cut her throat. As she lay bleeding, he undid her pants and fondled her genitals, and then stole any money she had on her.

The next day a man on his way to the mailbox found Judith’s body with her take-out: a pizza box, pop bottles, and a chocolate bar.

Rosalie Winters (survived)

In June of 1975, Rosalie Winters, 18, was walking to Alexandra Park when she was attacked by Magee.

He made known his intentions to sexually assault her and strangled her to subdue her. When Magee tried to rip her pants off, the zipper broke and could not remove them. Instead he strangled her into unconsciousness and groped her vagina before leaving her at the side of the road.

Patricia Jenner

Patricia Jenner, 19, was murdered on October 20, 1975 in her home in Mount Brydges.

She was a friend of Magee’s and had let him into her home when he knocked on the door. Police later reported that photographs were scattered around the crime scene leading them to believe Patricia’s killer was known to her, and that she was showing him pictures at the time of the attack.

While her baby daughter, Rachel, slept in her crib upstairs, Magee pushed Patricia to the floor and tore off her clothes. He then stopped without explanation. Then when Patricia began to redress herself, Magee strangled her with a black bootlace until she was unconscious then cut her throat with his jackknife.

Her husband Denys found her on the kitchen floor at 5 pm with their baby unharmed.

An elderly neighbour reported seeing a man with shoulder-length dark hair pull into Jenner’s driveway in light-coloured, late-model Oldsmobile.

Sylvia Holly Jennings (survived)

On November 3, 1974, Magee picked up Sylvia Holly Jennings as she hitchhiked outside of London.

He drove her to an isolate Mount Brydges road and demanded she take off her clothes. When she hesitated, he ripped them off. She fought back and Magee punched her to subdue her. He then brutally sexually assaulted her.

Afterwards, he choked her into unconsciousness, fractured her skull with a bottle and left her on the side of the road.

Susan Lynn Scholes

On June 15, 1976, 15-year-old Susan Scholes planned to hitchhike to her parent’s cottage in Hillsboro Beach. Her brother dropped her off in Forest to purchase batteries before she left and she was seen walking towards County Road 12 around 1:30 pm.

A forklift driver in the area saw Susan get into a ’75 pickup truck that he recognized as belonging to a Strathroy company that removed road kill. The company’s owner later told the OPP that Magee had been driving that truck on that day.

A farmer found Susan’s body the next day around 2:15 pm. She had been viciously sexually assaulted, strangled into unconsciousness, then stabbed in the throat and chest. She also had a 20 cm laceration above her vagina.

Sources

‘Mad Slasher’ wants to apologize, UPI, January 16, 2006

Murderpedia

Ontario ruling raises ire of mental patients, The Globe and Mail, May 18, 2006

Mellor, Lee. Cold North Killers, Canadian Serial Murder, Dundurn, Toronto

Videos

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Johnson, Russell Maurice

Murderer: Russell Maurice Johnson

Alias/Nickname: The Bedroom Strangler, The Balcony Killer
Type: Serial Killer
MO: Would stalk his victims and watch them sleep for hours before attacking them, he would scale the sides of apartment buildings and enter their homes through their balconies. His rape victims were strangled into unconsciousness.
Characteristics: Stalking, voyeurism, sexual assault, strangulation, stabbing, necrophilia
Time Span of Killings: 1973-1977
Number of Murder Victims: 7
Number of Sexual Assaults: 11
Location: London and Guelph, Ontario
Date of Birth: 1947
Hometown: Guelph, Ontario
Diagnosis: Sexual sadism, necrophilia, fetishism, voyeurism, transvestic fetishism and a “personality disorder not otherwise specified.”
Outcome: Johnson was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the murders of Beitz, George, and Veldboom. He has been institutionalized every since.

Early Crimes

Russell Maurice Johnson experienced a lot of trauma in his childhood including sexual abuse at 14-year-old. His Juvenile Record showed arrests for several sexual offences.

Johnson was an auto worker from St. Thomas. He was described as obsessed with cleanliness and was a compulsive hand washer. He wore gloves and petroleum jelly at work and at the gym.

He began attacking and raping women as early as 1969, but it wasn’t until the 70s that he graduated to murder.

The “Natural Causes” Victims

Johnson’s murder victims were all between 20-49 years-old. He stalked his victims for days and would break into their homes to watch them sleep for hours. He was able to crawl up the sides of apartment buildings to gain access through balcony doors.

Johnson graduated to murder on October 19, 1973 when he murdered Mary Hicks, a 20-year-old student in London. Her death was attributed to an allergic reaction to medication because she was found in a natural sleeping position with no obvious signs of violence on her body.

Johnson took great pains to methodically clean-up the Hicks crime scene and make her death appear natural. He did the same with his next three victims.

Only a month later, another woman was found dead in a Guelph apartment. Alice Ralston, 27, was also found with no obvious signs of violence. Ralston’s death was attributed to a condition of hardened arteries.

On March 4, 1974, Eleanor Hartwick died at her home in London and, as in the case of Alice Ralston, her death was put down to a reaction to prescription drugs.

Doris (Dodi) Brown, 49, was found dead in August, and although the pathologist discovered minor abrasions to her body, as well as blood in her throat and rectum, her death was attributed to pulmonary edema.

The Vicious Murders

Russell’s next three victims suffered violent deaths and were sexually assaulted postmortem.

Diane Beitz, 23, was found dead in her Guelph apartment on December 31, She had been strangled to death with her bra and sexually assaulted postmortem.

Louella Jeanne George was found dead in her home in April, 1977. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted postmortem. Some of her jewellery and underwear was also missing. The items were later found in a garbage can nearby.

Donna Veldboom, 22, was found dead in her apartment not far from George’s residence. She had been stabbed to death and sexually assaulted postmortem. She was found dead in her London apartment after she didn’t show up for work at Union Gas.

The Victims

Mary Hicks

Mary Hicks, 21, was a senior at the University of Western Ontario when she was found dead in her ground floor Talbot Street London apartment on October 19, 1973.

Johnson had watched her sleep for a long time before killing her.

Mary was found dead the next morning in her bed by her room-mates. She had a pillow partially covering her face

Diane Beitz

Diane Beitz, 23, was found dead in her Drew Street apartment in Guelph apartment on December 31, 1976. She was described as “the girl next door.”

Beitz had just become engaged to her fiance, Jim Britton, on December 30, 1976. Jim and Diane enjoyed an early breakfast at her before he left for work at 5:45 am.

At 10:30 am, Johnson calls police to report a suitcase of clothing has been stolen from his car. He is only a few blocks away from Diane’s apartment.

At 6pm, Jim returns to Diane’s high-rise apartment. He finds Diane under a wad of blankets in her bed. Her hands are bound with pantyhose and her bra was left knotted around her neck. The pathologist reports that Diane was carried to the bedroom and strangled. She was raped and bound post-mortem.

Her building superintendent reports he looked out his window at 3:30 am and saw a brown Buick idling.

Other residents in Diane’s building remembered a brown car in the parking lot from 4-8 am that morning. The car was running with one person in the driver’s seat.

The police are puzzled by how tidy the rest of the crime scene is – no sign of a struggle. At first police believe that Diane knew her killer because there was no sign of forced entry.

A delivery driver says he dropped off flowers for Diane a few days before her murdered. Police then learn that the flowers were not sent by Jim.

It was later learned that Johnson’s ex-girlfriend had been a tenant in Diane’s apartment building at the time of her murder.

Alice Ralston

Alice Ralston, 27, was found dead in her Guelph apartment in November, 1973.

Luella George

Louella Jeanne George was found dead in her top floor London apartment in April, 1977.

George grew up on a farm and moved to London where she worked as a cashier in a hospital on Grand Avenue and lived in an apartment building directly across the street. She was engaged to be married.

When she did not show up for work,  a co-worker went to check up on her and found her dead.

She had been strangled and sexually assaulted postmortem. Some of her jewellery and underwear was also missing. The items were later found in a garbage can nearby.

Again, police note the tidiness of the apartment.

Nurses who live in the apartment building become very afraid.

Eleanor Hartwick

Eleanor Hartwork was found dead in her Westlake Street apartment in London on March 4, 1974. She was found with a book in her hand looking like she had just fallen asleep.

Donna Veldboom

Donna Veldboom, 22, was found dead in her London apartment not far from George’s residence on July 15, 1977. She had been strangled and stabbed to death, and sexually assaulted postmortem. She had also been bathed and posed in her bed.

Co-workers called police after she failed to show up to her job at Union Gas.

The night before, Veldboom spent the evening visiting a friend. That was the last time she was seen alive.

She had moved to Ontario from New Brunswick less than a year before her murder, and had roots in the Chatham-Kent area. She was described as very popular with a great social life.

Johnson, who lived in her building, had climbed through the door of her fifth-floor balcony.

He later admitted her slashed her check with a kitchen knife to “crawl inside her to be safe or warm.”

Doris (Dodi) Brown

Doris (Dodi) Brown, 49-years-old was found dead on August 9, 1974.

Dodi, a mother of two, had just separated from her husband of 30 years and rented an apartment on the 2nd floor. She lived alone with her two daughters, Laura and Colleen. She had also started a new job and was looking forward to a new life.

She was described as a graceful and refined woman who was involved in her church.

On August 8th, Brown’s youngest daughter Colleen was away visiting relatives and her oldest, Laura, was turning 16-years-old the next day. Dodi and Laura had planned to go to the Ministry of Transportation to get Laura’s learner’s permit to drive the next morning. Dodi and Laura go to bed in their own rooms that night.

On August 9th, Laura wakes up to the sound of Dodi’s clock-radio going off. When she entered her mother’s room, she saw her laying with her blankets tucked up underneath her. She knew immediately something was wrong with her mother.

There was nothing to suggest there had been a struggle. There was some slight blood found underneath Brown’s body, but the police were never notified.

Brown’s doctor later told Laura that there was no cause of death they could find and it was like a “crib death” of an adult – meaning, she just died in her sleep.

Sources

Victims’ families still ready to keep watch on unrepentant Bedroom Strangler, Toronto Sun, December 6, 2016

Serial killer Russell Johnson to remain in maximum security mental hospital, National Post, July 30, 2010

Mellor, Lee. Cold North Killers, Canadian Serial Murder, Dundurn, Toronto

Videos

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Thandi, Baljit

The Murder of Baljit Thandie

Baljit Thandie, 32, and her mother Avtar Kaur, 60, were stabbed to death by Thandie’s 29-year-old husband Dalwinder Singh on January 12, 2018.

The Laura Babcock Case

Map of Laura Babcock Case

Video of Laura Babcock Case

Sources

Millard tells Laura Babcock murder trial he was in open relationship, had no motive to kill, CBC, Dec. 5, 2017

A good guy emerges at grim trial into Laura Babcock’s murder: DiManno, Toronto Star, Oct. 24, 2017

‘Crying all the time,’ jury hears of Laura Babcock’s struggles with mental health at murder trial, CBC, Nov. 1, 2017

Dellen Millard and Mark Smich Guilty of Murdering Laura Babcock, The Toronto Tribune, Dec. 16, 2017

Laura Babcock, a 23-year-old University of Toronto graduate and aspiring actress, was described by friends as bubbly and fun-loving.

Although her body was never found, Dellen Millard, 32, and Mark Smich, 30, were found guilty of her 1st degree murder on December 16, 2017. The two had already been convicted for the murder of Tim Bosma and were sentenced to serve 25 years each before they are eligible for parole. Their sentences for the murder of Laura Babock will run consecutively, meaning they must serve 50 years before they are eligible for parole.

2008-09: Laura Babcock & Dellen Millard

Laura Babcock met Dellen Millard, a young millionaire and heir to Millardair, an aviation company based in Waterloo, at Toronto’s Brunswick House pub in late 2008 – early 2009. They dated for awhile, ultimately becoming friends and occasional lovers.

2010: Laura Babcock & Shawn Lerner

Laura met businessman Shawn Lerner who she dates for about 18 months before breaking up at Christmas in 2011. Laura and Lerner become very close friends and he will later play an integral part at her murder trial.

2011-2012: Laura’s mental health spiral

During a hospital visit in August, 2011, Laura told healthcare workers she cried all the time and suffered from anxiety and depression. She also mentioned having an intense fear of death that could last for months at a time. She admitted to self-harm.

By April, 2012, Laura had been to the hospital over a dozen times with mental health issues.

2012: The love triangle – Dellen Millard, Christina Noudga & Laura Babcock

In the meantime, Dellen Millard developed a relationship with new girlfriend, Christina Noudga, who became jealous of his relationship with Laura.

On February 26, 2012, Noudga texts Laura: Happy birthday. A year ago today was the first time I slept with Dellen.

Laura replies: That’s fine, I slept with him a couple of weeks ago.

After the exchange between his ex-girlfriend and current girlfriend, Millard sends the following text to Laura: You are harmful to me. please don’t try to contact me until you’ve made some huge leaps of self discovery. as i said before, good luck with life.

Millard would later say in court that he and Noudga had an open relationship and that she was aware he slept with other women. However, a text that Laura sent to a mutual friend, Andrew Michalski, tells a different story. She wrote the following: ya dells (Dellen) def not a fan of me. He told me he told xtina (Christina) when he slept with me before. Erg these ppl cause [so] much unwanted drama for me. and bring me into it.

On April 17, 2012, Millard texted Noudga that he was going to take care of Laura Babcock by writing: first im going to hurt her. Then I’ll make her leave. I will remove her from our lives.

June, 2012: Shawn Lerner steps in to help Laura Babcock

By June of 2012, Laura was homeless and working for Last Minute Escorts in downtown Toronto. She and her dog, Lacey, couch surfed as she looked for a permanent place to stay.

Lerner put Laura up in a west end motel for a few nights and gave her an iPad so she can search for apartments. He would later say that Laura had told him about her escort work, but she seemed new to it and told him there was no sex involved.

“The way she explained it to me, it was sort of . . . men looking to have a pretty girl on their arm,” he said at trial, “She may have believed it. I was obviously not convinced that might be all there was to it.”

Friends said that Laura had also developed a cocaine habit at this time.

July, 2012: Dellen Millard murders Laura Babcock, Mark Smich helps to dispose of her body

In the days before Laura’s disappearance, she and Millard’s cell phones made contact over 100 times. Then on evening of July 3, 2012, Laura traveled to the Kipling subway station where Millard picked her up and drove her to his home in Etobicoke. Her phone ceased all activity about an hour later.

Millard’s friend and accomplice, Mark Smich, received a text from Millard around 7:30 p.m. that read: I’m on a mission, back in 1 hr.

The next day, the iPad Shawn Lerner had given Laura is renamed “Mark’s iPad” through a connection to Millard’s computer and Millard takes a cell phone picture of an object wrapped in a blue tarp at his farm in Waterloo. Later that day, he orders a rush delivery order for a new mattress.

Millard had previously instructed his mechanic, Shane Schlatman, to order a commercial farm animal incinerator which arrives at the Waterloo hangar on July 5th, and Schlatman, Millard, and Smich build a trailor to move the it to Millard’s farm in Waterloo.

On July 14, 2012, both Lerner and Laura Babcock’s family file a missing person’s report with police. Lerner would later say the police did not seem concerned about Laura’s disappearance, even less so when they learned about her mental illness and escort work.

On July 23, 2012, Millard texts Smich “Bbq has run its warm up, it’s ready for meat,” and then does a Google search on temperatures for cremation. He takes pictures on his phone that include Smich with the incinerator that evening. Objects seen in the incinerator are described as human bones by a forensic expert later at trial.

July 27, 2012: Dellen Millard tells Shawn Lerner that he should” have no reasonable expectation” of finding Laura Babcock

In late July, Laura’s last phone bill arrived at her parent’s house. Her worried parents contact her friends, one of whom is Lerner, who noticed the last calls made on Laura’s phone before it went dead were to Millard.

Lerner texted Millard: I’m not looking to point a finger at anyone but we’re concerned about Laura and it looks like you were the last person to correspond with her.

Millard ignored the his first few texts, but finally responded that he didn’t know where she was.

Lerner asked Millard to discuss the situation in person, and on July 27th the two met up at Starbucks. Millard told Lerner that Laura was a cocaine addict and was hounding him to get drugs. Millard said he “vehemently” refused the request, adding that Lerner should “have no reasonable expectation of finding her.”

August, 2012: Mark Smich confesses to murder

Smich invited friends Desi Liberatore and David Cronin inside the garage at his mother’s home in Oakville to smoke pot. Smich rapped lyrics for the men that police would find later written on Laura’s old iPad. 

The bitch started off all skin and bone/ Now the bitch lay on some ashy stone
Last time I saw her’s outside the home/ And if you go swimming you can find her phone.

The men would later testify that Smich then confessed that he “killed a girl, burned a body, and disposed of it in a lake.”

May, 2013: Dellen Millard & Mark Smich charged with 1st degree murder of Tim Bosma

It wasn’t until after Millard and Smich were charged with the murder of Tim Bosma that police opened an investigation into the disappearance of Laura Babcock and reopened an investigation into the death of Wayne Millard, Dellen Millard’s father, who’s death had been ruled a suicide.

Dec. 2013: Police find Laura Babcock’s belongings at Mark Smich’s home

On a search of Mark Smich’s home in Oakville, police find Laura’s red duffel bag with an ID tag handwritten by her, and the black iPad that was given to her by Lerner and renamed Mark’s iPad after she was killed.

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Pinkus, Lori

Unsolved: The Murder of Lori Pinkus

Any information, contact Toronto Homicide at 416-808-7400, homocide@torontopolice.ca
or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477), www.222tips.com, text TOR message to CRIMES (274637)
Download the Crime Stoppers App on iTunes, Google Play or Blackberry App World

Lori Pinkus left a bar after having drinks with friends on September 8, 1991, but she never made it home. Her nude body was found strangled in the Brockton High School parking lot by the school caretaker later that morning.

The Case: Facts & Speculations

  • All persons of interest in the case have been ruled out by police
  • Police have strong DNA evidence, but have not been able to make a match (yet)
  • Suspect would be over 50 years-old now

Lori Pinkus, 21, was assaulted, strangled, and left dead in the parking lot of Brockton High School on a Sunday morning in September of 1991. Her body had been displayed on her back with her arms at her sides and her eyes open. She was wearing only a halter top.

The school caretaker found her just before 10 a.m. and several members of a Sikh religious group who met nearby on Sundays saw her body before police arrived.

Lori had just moved to Toronto from Ottawa five months earlier and lived in a basement apartment with her boyfriend a few blocks from the crime scene.

Born in Ottawa, Lori was the youngest of nine children and had a troubled past. She had been stabbed in the chest by two male assailants in her home, but the charges had been dropped after Lori failed to appear in an Ottawa court. A warrant was out for her arrest for failing to appear. 

Lori was addicted to drugs and worked in the sex trade in the Bloor and Lansdowne neighbourhood to support her habit. The school parking lot where her body was found was notorious for drug dealing activities after hours.

Toronto police have collected DNA of her assailant, but have yet to make a match.

Images of the Lori Pinkus Case

Video of the Lori Pinkus Case

Lori Pinkus Map

Possible Suspects

No suspects

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McWilliam, Margaret

Unsolved: The Murder of Margaret McWilliam

Any information, contact Toronto Homicide at 416-808-7400, homocide@torontopolice.ca
or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477), www.222tips.com, text TOR message to CRIMES (274637)
Download the Crime Stoppers App on iTunes, Google Play or Blackberry App World

Margaret McWilliam went for a jog in Warden Woods Park around 7 p.m. on August 27, 1987. Her body was later found in a secluded area. She had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled with a piece of her own jogging suit.

The Case: Facts & Speculations

  • Police believe Margaret was not targeted and did not know her assaillant
  • Police believe this was a crime of opportunity (wrong place at wrong time)
  • A very distinctive shoe print was found at the scene of a Korean-made gray and white runner with vinyl tops and the letters AAU on the heel. The shoes were only sold at Bata Shoe Stores in Canada.

A little after 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 27, 1987, Margaret McWilliam was jogging along a path in Warden Woods Park when she was attacked by an unknown assailant and dragged into a secluded area. There he beat, sexually assaulted and strangled her with a piece of her own jogging suit.

Margaret jogged from her basement apartment on Santamonica Blvd north to St. Clair Ave. E., then traveled west towards Warden Woods park where she entered the trail on the southwest side of St. Clair and Warden. Her body was discovered in bush on the east side of the path.

Police believe that she did not sense the attack coming because she was wearing headphones to her walkman at the time.

Margaret, 21,  was a student at Ryerson University and worked part-time as a receptionist and dining room supervisor at Fellowship Towers seniors’ home (now called Davenhill Senior Living). When she did not show up for work on August 28, 1987, her supervisor contacted her landlord who found Margaret’s keys hanging from her doorknob where she had left them to go jogging.

A police dog found her body in the park later that day. Her assailant had punched her in the face leaving bruising and there were signs she fought him during the assault. Police were able to collect DNA samples from cells on her sweater that have lead to a strong profile of her killer, but it has yet to match anyone.

The case, called the “Cinderella Murder” was very high-profile at the time because Margaret had been murdered during broad daylight in a public area.

Map

Images from the Margaret McWilliam Case

Video of the Margaret McWilliam Case

Possible Suspects

Two months after the murder, police provided a sketch of a “potential witness” who left Warden Woods Park after 8 p.m. He was described as a light-skinned black man in his 30s with a thin moustache. He had a muscular build and was wearing a red hat.

Police developed a psychological profile of the killer that said:

  • He would have difficulty communications with and maintaining relationships with women
  • He would work in a low-end job and change jobs frequently
  • Probably uses drugs and alcohol
  • Possible traumatic incident involving his family at the time of the murder, either family violence or some kind of emotional turmoil with his mother

Police do not believe this was his first or last attack, but his DNA has not been matched yet because he is dead or left the country. Police do believe he confessed his crime to someone who has the key to bringing justice to Margaret’s killer.

Sources

Nearly 30 years later no leads in ‘Cinderella murder’, Toronto Star, Dec 27, 2016

Cold Case Files: Ontario family recalls moments after daughter’s death 29 years ago, Global News, Sept 29, 2016

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Isadore, Roxanne

Missing: Roxanne Marie Isadore

Contact Edmonton Police Service Complaint Line at 780-423-4567, EPS File #:13-147142,
or the Edmonton Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

On August 16, 1972, 15-year-old Ingrid Bauer left her Kleinburg around 9:30 p.m. en route to hitchhike to her boyfriend’s house. She was never seen again.

On Aug. 16, 1972, Ingrid Bauer left her home at 9:30 p.m. in Kleinburg (what was then Vaughn) to hitchhike to the home of her boyfriend, Larry Teeple, also 14, in Woodbridge. The distance was only six kms.

Before she left, she told her father she would be home by 10:30 p.m.

Her brother saw her on southbound Islington Avenue. Another witness, Terry Bell, then 18, saw Ingrid walking south on the west side of Islington Ave near Pennon Road about 9:45 p.m.

When Ingrid’s boyfriend called her home and let her family know she never showed up, a frantic hunt began involving 200 volunteers who searched 20-square miles around the Bauer home. Police officers reportedly waded into the Humber River for eight kms. and scuba divers searched an old gravel pit.

She was never found.

Several Kleinburg residents reported hearing the cries of a young person near Islington Avenue and Sevilla Drive around 10 p.m. that night. Residents also told police that they had seen a pickup truck in that area, but a search of the location turned up nothing. There were five original suspects who were all cleared through confirmed alibis.

Map of Kleinburg

Images Ingrid Bauer Case

Video Ingrid Bauer Case

Sources

York Regional Police

The Doe Network

COLD CASE: 45 years later — tips still come in for missing Ingrid Bauer, The Hamilton Spectator, June 12, 2017

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Bosma, Tim

The Murder of Tim Bosma

Tim Bosma went missing from his Ancaster home after accompanying two men on a test drive of a truck he was selling. He never returned. Dellen Millard and Mark Smich killed him in a field not far from his own home minutes after the truck pulled out of the Bosma driveway.

The Tim Bosma Case

Video of Tim Bosma Case

Sources

, Dellen Millard,

Laura Babcock 

 Mark Smich,

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Millard, Wayne

The Murder of Wayne Millard

Wayne Millard was allegedly murdered by his son, Dellen, in what was first thought to be a suicide. Police reopened the investigation into his death, and the disappearance of Laura Babcock, after Dellen Millard was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Tim Bosma.

The Wayne Millard Case

Video of Wayne Millard Case

Sources

Dellen Millard faces photos of his dead father, Wayne, as 3rd murder trial begins, CBC, May 31, 2018

Wayne Millard had made plans to celebrate girlfriend’s birthday days before his death, trial hears, The Canadian Press, May 31, 2018

Christie Blatchford: Victim had found love before his death, Millard’s trial hears, National Post, May 31, 2018

WAYNE C. MILLARD
Obituary (written by Dellen Millard)
Wayne C. Millard has passed. He is survived by son Dellen Millard. For those who wish to gather in fond memory of Wayne, there will be a reception from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 15, 2012 at Vinsanto Ristorante, 28 Roytec Road, Vaughan, ON. What few words could make comment here… His hope was for a time when cooperation would be the norm and competition was only friendly. He was frugal with himself and generous to others. The only people he feared were racists. He would answer a question with a story. He stepped carefully while advocating carefreeness. He could read and write five languages. He was patient and stubborn. He admired Christ, Gandhi and Lindbergh. He believed animal welfare was a humanitarian effort. He was a good man in a careless world. He was my father. A Master Pilot… Many who knew Wayne Millard, knew him as a pilot. Rightfully so, as he defined himself by the responsibilities of the trade. I now carry his pilot’s license in my wallet. It’s a good photo. Beside it are noted the type certificates he held. It’s a long list from B747s and B757s, to DC3s and L101s, to BH47s and HU500s. For Father piloting wasn’t just his job, it was his freedom. A Humanitarian… Wayne supported, organized, and helped fund many missions on behalf of animal welfare. Sponsor a Dog, the Canadian Flora & Fauna Society, Canadian Wildlife Film Productions, the Sea Shepherd Society and the Toronto Humane Society, only to name a few. He saw a future for mankind where we do not pollute our environment or subjugate animal lives to our industry. He was a man of vision. Yet To Be Realized… His last, still unlaunched, animal welfare mission is accepting donations to the ‘Elizabeth Glass Animal Welfare Fund’, 5 Maple Gate Court, Etobicoke, ON M9C 2K4. He believed we can make a difference in the world. With Wayne in my heart, I believe we must.

Wayne Millard, 71, had just begun massive construction on the largest hangar at the Waterloo International Airport where he planned to relocate Millardair MRO – an aircraft maintenance and services business – he owned and was president of in 2012. That all came to an end when his son, Dellen Millard, found his dead body in his Etobicoke on November 29, 2012.

That day, police received a call from Wayne’s ex-wife and Dellen Millard’s mother, Madeleine Burns, who reported that “her husband had passed away” and “there was blood all over.” Both Millard and Burns were on the scene when police and paramedics arrived at the residence. Paramedics would later testify that Millard seemed very calm.

Wayne was found lying on his side on his bed with his right arm underneath his head and his left arm outstretched. His head rested on a bloodied pillow with curious black, sooty marks on it. The coroner would later find a gun inside a Lululemon bag wedged between the bed and the dresser. Although the gun was the one that took Wayne’s life, there was no way the dead man could have put it there, proving someone else moved the gun after his death.

Wayne’s death was ruled a suicide with cause of death as a self-inflicted gunshot wound through the eye. Experts agree that it is very rare for people to choose the eye as the spot to pull the trigger in suicide cases.

MillardAir & Three Generations of Pilots

Wayne’s father, Carl, founded MillardAir in the 1960s as a charter airline flying out of Toronto Pearson International Airport. By 1990, the airline had gone bankrupt and was transformed into an aircraft maintenance/services business.

Wayne became president of the company in 2006 after the death of his father, and in 2012, was on the cusp of rebuilding MillardAir as a new company when he died.

Previously an airline pilot, Wayne married Madeleine Burns, a flight attendant for Air Canada, and they had one son together, Dellen Millard. Millard had a privileged upbringing and, at 14, became the youngest person to pilot a helicopter and airplane on the same day.

After Wayne and Madeleine divorced, she moved to Kleinburg. Millard would later say his parents’ divorce was emotionally devastating to him.

Before his death, Wayne had begun a relationship with a woman named Janet Campbell, who would later testify that although Wayne suffered from back pain, he was excited about his burgeoning business and not depressed.

Tim Bosma & Laura Babcock

Before Wayne’s death, 25-year-old Laura Babcock had gone missing in July. Babcock was a former girlfriend of Dellen Millard’s. Then on May 6, 2013, Tim Bosma went missing after accompanying two men to test drive a truck he was selling.

Dellen Millard and his accomplice, Mark Smich, were arrested, tried and convicted of the first-degree murder of Tim Bosma. Investigators then decided to reopen the case of Wayne’s death, as well as the disappearance of Laura Babcock.

In 2017, Millard and Smich were both convicted of the first-degree murder of Laura Babcock and sentenced to another 25 years on top of the 25 years they were already serving for the murder of Tim Bosma.

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Babcock, Laura

The Murder of Laura Babcock

Laura Babcock was murdered by her ex-boyfriend and occasional lover Dellen Millard on July 4, 2012. His motive was to appease his current girlfriend with whom Babcock had exchanged insulting texts.

The Laura Babcock Case

Map of Laura Babcock Case

Video of Laura Babcock Case

Sources

Millard tells Laura Babcock murder trial he was in open relationship, had no motive to kill, CBC, Dec. 5, 2017

A good guy emerges at grim trial into Laura Babcock’s murder: DiManno, Toronto Star, Oct. 24, 2017

‘Crying all the time,’ jury hears of Laura Babcock’s struggles with mental health at murder trial, CBC, Nov. 1, 2017

Dellen Millard and Mark Smich Guilty of Murdering Laura Babcock, The Toronto Tribune, Dec. 16, 2017

Laura Babcock, a 23-year-old University of Toronto graduate and aspiring actress, was described by friends as bubbly and fun-loving.

Although her body was never found, Dellen Millard, 32, and Mark Smich, 30, were found guilty of her 1st degree murder on December 16, 2017. The two had already been convicted for the murder of Tim Bosma and were sentenced to serve 25 years each before they are eligible for parole. Their sentences for the murder of Laura Babock will run consecutively, meaning they must serve 50 years before they are eligible for parole.

2008-09: Laura Babcock & Dellen Millard

Laura Babcock met Dellen Millard, a young millionaire and heir to Millardair, an aviation company based in Waterloo, at Toronto’s Brunswick House pub in late 2008 – early 2009. They dated for awhile, ultimately becoming friends and occasional lovers.

2010: Laura Babcock & Shawn Lerner

Laura met businessman Shawn Lerner who she dates for about 18 months before breaking up at Christmas in 2011. Laura and Lerner become very close friends and he will later play an integral part at her murder trial.

2011-2012: Laura’s mental health spiral

During a hospital visit in August, 2011, Laura told healthcare workers she cried all the time and suffered from anxiety and depression. She also mentioned having an intense fear of death that could last for months at a time. She admitted to self-harm.

By April, 2012, Laura had been to the hospital over a dozen times with mental health issues.

2012: The love triangle – Dellen Millard, Christina Noudga & Laura Babcock

In the meantime, Dellen Millard developed a relationship with new girlfriend, Christina Noudga, who became jealous of his relationship with Laura.

On February 26, 2012, Noudga texts Laura: Happy birthday. A year ago today was the first time I slept with Dellen.

Laura replies: That’s fine, I slept with him a couple of weeks ago.

After the exchange between his ex-girlfriend and current girlfriend, Millard sends the following text to Laura: You are harmful to me. please don’t try to contact me until you’ve made some huge leaps of self discovery. as i said before, good luck with life.

Millard would later say in court that he and Noudga had an open relationship and that she was aware he slept with other women. However, a text that Laura sent to a mutual friend, Andrew Michalski, tells a different story. She wrote the following: ya dells (Dellen) def not a fan of me. He told me he told xtina (Christina) when he slept with me before. Erg these ppl cause [so] much unwanted drama for me. and bring me into it.

On April 17, 2012, Millard texted Noudga that he was going to take care of Laura Babcock by writing: first im going to hurt her. Then I’ll make her leave. I will remove her from our lives.

June, 2012: Shawn Lerner steps in to help Laura Babcock

By June of 2012, Laura was homeless and working for Last Minute Escorts in downtown Toronto. She and her dog, Lacey, couch surfed as she looked for a permanent place to stay.

Lerner put Laura up in a west end motel for a few nights and gave her an iPad so she can search for apartments. He would later say that Laura had told him about her escort work, but she seemed new to it and told him there was no sex involved.

“The way she explained it to me, it was sort of . . . men looking to have a pretty girl on their arm,” he said at trial, “She may have believed it. I was obviously not convinced that might be all there was to it.”

Friends said that Laura had also developed a cocaine habit at this time.

July, 2012: Dellen Millard murders Laura Babcock, Mark Smich helps to dispose of her body

In the days before Laura’s disappearance, she and Millard’s cell phones made contact over 100 times. Then on evening of July 3, 2012, Laura traveled to the Kipling subway station where Millard picked her up and drove her to his home in Etobicoke. Her phone ceased all activity about an hour later.

Millard’s friend and accomplice, Mark Smich, received a text from Millard around 7:30 p.m. that read: I’m on a mission, back in 1 hr.

The next day, the iPad Shawn Lerner had given Laura is renamed “Mark’s iPad” through a connection to Millard’s computer and Millard takes a cell phone picture of an object wrapped in a blue tarp at his farm in Waterloo. Later that day, he orders a rush delivery order for a new mattress.

Millard had previously instructed his mechanic, Shane Schlatman, to order a commercial farm animal incinerator which arrives at the Waterloo hangar on July 5th, and Schlatman, Millard, and Smich build a trailor to move the it to Millard’s farm in Waterloo.

On July 14, 2012, both Lerner and Laura Babcock’s family file a missing person’s report with police. Lerner would later say the police did not seem concerned about Laura’s disappearance, even less so when they learned about her mental illness and escort work.

On July 23, 2012, Millard texts Smich “Bbq has run its warm up, it’s ready for meat,” and then does a Google search on temperatures for cremation. He takes pictures on his phone that include Smich with the incinerator that evening. Objects seen in the incinerator are described as human bones by a forensic expert later at trial.

July 27, 2012: Dellen Millard tells Shawn Lerner that he should” have no reasonable expectation” of finding Laura Babcock

In late July, Laura’s last phone bill arrived at her parent’s house. Her worried parents contact her friends, one of whom is Lerner, who noticed the last calls made on Laura’s phone before it went dead were to Millard.

Lerner texted Millard: I’m not looking to point a finger at anyone but we’re concerned about Laura and it looks like you were the last person to correspond with her.

Millard ignored the his first few texts, but finally responded that he didn’t know where she was.

Lerner asked Millard to discuss the situation in person, and on July 27th the two met up at Starbucks. Millard told Lerner that Laura was a cocaine addict and was hounding him to get drugs. Millard said he “vehemently” refused the request, adding that Lerner should “have no reasonable expectation of finding her.”

August, 2012: Mark Smich confesses to murder

Smich invited friends Desi Liberatore and David Cronin inside the garage at his mother’s home in Oakville to smoke pot. Smich rapped lyrics for the men that police would find later written on Laura’s old iPad. 

The bitch started off all skin and bone/ Now the bitch lay on some ashy stone
Last time I saw her’s outside the home/ And if you go swimming you can find her phone.

The men would later testify that Smich then confessed that he “killed a girl, burned a body, and disposed of it in a lake.”

May, 2013: Dellen Millard & Mark Smich charged with 1st degree murder of Tim Bosma

It wasn’t until after Millard and Smich were charged with the murder of Tim Bosma that police opened an investigation into the disappearance of Laura Babcock and reopened an investigation into the death of Wayne Millard, Dellen Millard’s father, who’s death had been ruled a suicide.

Dec. 2013: Police find Laura Babcock’s belongings at Mark Smich’s home

On a search of Mark Smich’s home in Oakville, police find Laura’s red duffel bag with an ID tag handwritten by her, and the black iPad that was given to her by Lerner and renamed Mark’s iPad after she was killed.

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Adriano, Delia

Unsolved: The Murder of Delia Adriano

Any information, contact Det. Phil Campbell at 905-465-8736 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477)
www.haltoncrimestoppers.ca or by texting “Tip 201” with your message to 274637 (crimes)

Delia Adriano’s fiancée dropped her at her parent’s Oakville home on a Sunday night and drove away. Delia never made it inside. Her body was found Nov. 6, 1982, in the woods near Campbellville.

On Sunday, Sept. 26, 1982, 25-year-old Delia Adriano spent the day with her fiancé Danny Dutra watching a soccer game and hanging out at a barbecue before he dropped at her parents’ home in Oakville around 9:30 p.m. Before she could get into the house, she was abducted.

Six weeks later, on Nov. 6, 1982, Delia was found nude in a wooded lot just south of Milton by Del Parcham, a woodcutter. Her body was too decomposed to determine cause of death or whether she had been sexually assaulted.

Witnesses reported hearing a woman’s screens a few blocks from Delia’s home that night around 10:30 p.m. Others also reported seeing a woman who fit Delia’s description being forced into a car by a man. The man and woman argued inside the car for about five minutes before the man drove the car off with the car’s lights off.

Delia’s purse was found on the sidewalk in the area of the incident the next morning.

The Case: Facts & Speculations

  • Police think Delia knew her assailant. Delia’s family also think it could be someone who knew their family because the family dog did not bark while she interacted with the man on the street. Also, witnesses said it seemed like a couple arguing and not strangers.
  • The fact that she was found nude suggests sexual assault as a motive even though her body was too decomposed to provide definitive answers.
  • A composite sketch was made of the suspect who was described as white, 5’7 to 5’9, medium build, with brown hair feathered back to the neck.
  • The car was descried as a dark blue, 2-door subcompact 1970s Chevrolet Chevette (or something similar) with three stripes on the side. The car had Ontario plates and was seen parked in the driveway of a model home sales office nearby.
  • Adriano was part of a very close-knit Portuguese community, so it is possible the killer was someone in that group. Even the priest made a comment about it at her funeral.
  • Her fiancee is not a suspect in her murder.

Map

Images from the Delia Adriano Case

Possible Suspects

Larry Talbot (pseudonym)

In his book, “A Viable Suspect:The Story of Multiple Murders and How a Police Force’s Reach Proved Too Short for Canada’s Most Notorious Cold Case”, retired OPP officer Barry Ruhl believes a serial killer he calls Larry Talbot could be responsible for the death of Leah Sousa, as well as many other girls and women in southwestern Ontario.

In 1971, Talbot broke into Ruhl’s Sauble Beach cottage and attacked his fiancée. Luckily, Ruhl interrupted the assault and arrested Talbot at the scene.

Later, he attended a community policing meeting about Leah Sousa’s murder where he learned that the intruder gained entrance to the home by smashing out the back door window. This was also how Talbot broke into Ruhl’s cottage 21 years earlier.

A traveling salesman, Talbot frequented the highways of southwestern Ontario and a “rape kit” was found in his car, but he died before he was thoroughly investigated for any unsolved murders, including:

  • Lynne Harper, 12, from Vanastra. Her 1959 murder saw Steven Truscott wrongly convicted.
  • Lynda White, 19, went missing from London in 1968. Her remains were found in Norfolk County in 1973.
  • Jacqueline English, 15, went missing from London in 1969. Her body was found near Tilsonburg.
  • Pauline Ivy Dudley, 17, from Oakville, was killed in 1973. Halton Regional Police informed Ruhl that Talbot was the prime suspect in her case.
  • Christine Prince, from Toronto, was killed in 1982. Her body was found floating in Toronto’s Rouge River.
  • Leah Sousa, 13, from Cumberland Beach, was killed in 1992. Her body was found in her back yard.
  • Valerie Stevens, 19, from Toronto, murdered in 1992. Her body was found in Burford.
  • Cindy Hallaway, 17, last seen in Midland, was murdered in 1992. Her body was found near Phelpston.

Sources

35 years ago Delia Adriano was dropped off in front of her Oakville home but she never made it inside, Toronto Star, Nov. 30, 2017

Who killed Delia Adriano?, Inside Halton, Sept. 26, 2007

Defrosting Cold Cases

Police re-examine cold case, The Globe and Mail, Apr. 4, 2005