Daily BrewMurder suspect Dellen Millard linked to bloody yacht in 2011
The blanket of questions that surrounds Dellen Millard, a suspect in the murder of Ontario father Tim Bosma, continues to be cast over the aviation prodigy’s history after fresh reports that blood was found on a yacht he rented two years ago.
Millard has been charged with first-degree murder, forcible confinement and theft in the bizarre disappearance and death of Millard, whose severely-burned body was discovered on Millard’s farmland two weeks ago.
Millard and co-accused Mark Smich remain in custody with court appearances pending. Meantime, police continue to search Millard’s property and investigators are reconsidering two previous cases to which he has connections.
And now, fresh allegations have emerged that blood was found on a boat rented to Millard in 2011, during which he appears to have spent time with two separate unidentified women.
[ Related: Accused in Tim Bosma killing left blood on rental yacht ]
The Manitoulin Expositor, a northern Ontario community newspaper, reports that the owner of a yacht rental company has reached out to Ontario Provincial Police regarding a “troubling” incident in which he found blood on a boat he had rented to Millard.
Chris Blodgett, the operator of Discovery Yacht Charters in Little Current, Ont., a community in the Manitoulin Islands on the northern shores of the Georgian Bay, told the newspaper he recognized Millard instantly after seeing reports about Bosma's murder investigation.
He said he contacted police about the two-year-old incident, although he didn’t suspect the incident would be tied to foul play. According to the report, Blodgett was called to fix a problem on board the boat, at which time he a spotted spattering of blood.
The Expositor writes:
When Mr. Blodgett came aboard to fix the problem, he noted a quantity of blood around the boat, which he questioned. Receiving a satisfactory answer, Mr. Blodgett fixed the problem and departed back for Little Current. During his visit, the woman was not in sight. Thinking about the encounter now, Mr. Blodgett said it was “troubling.”
Millard reportedly took the trip with one woman, but at some point he returned the woman to Little Current and spent the remainder of the cruise with a different woman.
[ More Brew: Police search property of murder suspect Dellen Millard ]
CBC News reports that the OPP have confirmed their Manitoulin detachment is helping in their investigation, although there have been no accusations of foul play.
Meantime, Toronto homicide investigators are searching Millard’s property, where Bosma’s remains were found burned beyond recognition two weeks ago. The Globe and Mail reports the search is in connection to the disappearance of Laura Babcock, a young woman who disappeared from Toronto last year.
Police had previously found nothing suspicious about Babcock’s disappearance, but reports that she had been in contact with Bosma before she vanished have investigators taking a second look at the case.
Police are also looking into the November suicide of Millard’s father, Wayne, from whom he inherited the family’s aviation company, Millardair Inc.
No charges have been laid in either of those cases, or the 2011 incident involving blood on a rented yacht. There are just troubling questions at the fringes of what began as a search for Timothy Bosma.
