Tim Bosma’s Last Day

This was not about a truck. People seem to have latched on to the truck as the point of the crime but that was early on and said by Tim’s wife when few facts were known. The truck was the method of abduction but the suspect in custody in the Tim Bosma disappearance case could have purchased a dozen similar trucks for cash.  I think there’s a level of evil still to be revealed that will repulse us all. 

When Tim Bosma and two men who ostensibly wanted to buy his truck pulled out of his driveway in Ancaster on May 6th, they were being followed by another vehicle.  That’s a revelation that Hamilton Police made yesterday. Tim was targeted, they say, but not because of anything in his past, but because of the online listing for his truck. Yesterday after the first police news conference of the day, where they revealed Tim’s burned remains had been discovered, I said to my colleagues, “This was a thrill kill.”  That’s my theory.  They’re a bunch of well off, molly-coddled losers who wanted to know what it was like to kill a man. But I also know enough to know that I could be very wrong.  Police said these same men took a truck seller out on a similar test drive in Etobicoke on May 5th but his size was intimidating so they let him go.  What they had planned, what they did to Tim – we may never know.

Years ago a father of 8 pulled into a Hamilton self-serve gas station late at night.  He had been working all day and just needed to fuel up before he went home. The cashier and a friend were literally waiting for someone like him to arrive because they had decided that that night they were going to see what it was like to kill someone.  And that’s what they did.  Some people are incredibly messed up and others become their unwitting pawns.

Tim Bosma was probably killed the day he was abducted, according to police.  It’s devastating and horrifying to think that any one of us or someone we love could have fallen prey to such a simple and ordinary scheme.  Tim’s discarded cell phone led police to Dellen Millard whose “ambition” tattoo was the icing on the evidence cake.  Millard now faces a first degree murder charge among other things. Tim’s truck was found in a trailer at Millard’s mother’s home (she wasn’t involved) and it appears Tim’s body was found on Millard’s Ayr, Ontario farm. Unless he is being framed in a spectacular way, he is, thankfully, a stupid criminal who left tracks and traces of evidence. He is a wealthy heir to an airplane business and isn’t speaking to police. His lawyer says he’s baffled by the charges and had nothing to do with the case.  An innocent man wants out of jail and will prove his innocence, won’t he? If I was wrongly accused of a murder I’d talk until someone believed me or my lower jaw fell off.

As my hands shook and heavy tears spilled from my eyes during the news conference I was reminded of Patton Oswalt’s words that most people are good and we outnumber the bad ones and always will. But that’s likely little comfort right now to Tim Bosma’s wife and 2-year-old daughter.  No one was really surprised that he was dead but, especially in light of recent events in Cleveland, we can be forgiven for hoping for a miracle. By all reports, Tim Bosma was like every nice guy you ever knew. He worked, loved his family and was loved by them. He was the kind of guy who thought nothing of riding along with a couple of guys who were interested in his truck.  I could see my husband doing the exact same thing and I guess that’s what makes it so frightening.  Well, there was a time when I could have seen him doing the same thing. Not any more.