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Tim Bosma slaying linked to Laura Babcock, Wayne Millard cases: OPP

Three police investigations involving Dellen Millard, who is accused in the slaying of Tim Bosma of Ancaster, Ont., are now being overseen by the Ontario Provincial Police.

Police say there are links between the killing of Tim Bosma, 32, from Ancaster Ont., the disappearance of Toronto woman Laura Babcock and the death of Millard’s father, Wayne.

Now, the OPP is now overseeing all three of those investigations under the province’s Major Case Management (MCM) system.

Though investigators won’t specify the exact nature of what ties the cases together, the 28-year-old Millard is the most obvious link. He and a friend have been charged with first-degree murder in connection with Bosma’s death, he was romantically tied to Babcock and was one of the last people to speak to her before she disappeared, and questions remain surrounding his father’s death, an apparent suicide.

The OPP’s MCM system is used so that valuable information that links multiple cases can be shared between police forces when “serial predators and offenders are concerned,” said OPP spokesperson Pierre Chamberland.

“It just ensures all information will be shared amongst all agencies,” Chamberland told CBC Hamilton. “It tears down the silos.”

Previously, Toronto police were overseeing the Wayne Millard and Babcock investigations, while Hamilton police were investigating Bosma’s slaying. Now OPP Det. Insp. Dave Hillman will be overseeing all three investigations and helping to pass information back and forth between both agencies, Chamberland said.

“He has a 50,000-foot view of the case,” Chamberland said. Hillman was not immediately available for an interview.

Millard and Mark Smich, 26, were charged with kidnapping and killing Bosma after the husband and father disappeared on May 6 after taking two men on a test drive of a truck he had advertised for sale in an online ad.

Laura Babcock, a 23-year-old from Toronto who police say had a relationship with Millard, was reported missing in June 2012. Millard’s Waterloo Region farm was extensively searched last month, and police said the search was related to Babcock’s disappearance.

According to cellphone records, her last known calls were to Millard.

Police have also reopened the investigation into the death of Millard’s father, Wayne. His death was previously ruled a suicide.

Chamberland wouldn’t comment on any specific links between the cases. “We can’t speak to that at all,” he said. “It forms part of the overall investigation and we save that sort of stuff for court.”

The OPP’s MCM system was created following the 1995 Paul Bernardo case to help share information about crimes that may have been committed by the same person, Chamberland said.

“We didn’t do a very good job of sharing information between jurisdictions there,” he said.

Though the OPP is now overseeing the investigation, local police officers will still be involved just as they were before, Chamberland said.

The MCM system was previously used in Ontario for the SARS and E. coli outbreaks, and the kidnapping and murder of Cecilia Zhang in Toronto in 2003.