The Ontario Provincial Police have launched an investigation after the owner of a boat used by one of the suspects in Tim Bosma’s murder reportedly spotted blood on the vessel.
OPP Const. Allan Boyd said police launched an investigation in mid-May after a complaint was phoned in by Chris Blogett, the owner of Discovery Yacht Charters, which operates in Ontario’s Manitoulin Island region.
Boyd confirmed a complaint was made by Blogett, but could not say what prompted the complaint.
However, Blogett told CTV News that he spotted a small amount of blood on one of his yachts rented by Dellen Millard and his girlfriend in 2011.
Blogett said he visited the boat after Millard reported some mechanical problems while just outside of Little Current, Ont., located about a five-hour drive north of Toronto.
Blogett said he noticed about six to 10 drops of blood on the boat’s deck and the bathroom, but Millard gave him a reasonable explanation.
Blogett said he did not see Millard’s girlfriend during the visit, adding that she may have been in the boat’s cabin at the time.
On Thursday, Boyd gave few details about the ongoing investigation.
“We have initiated an investigation under the direction of our criminal investigations branch,” he told CTV Northern Ontario. “At this point in time, as you can appreciate, the investigation is not complete so we’re not at liberty or in a position to speak specifically to the specifics to the investigation.”
Police search Millard’s farm
Meanwhile, Toronto police returned Thursday to a farm owned by 27-year-old Millard, resuming an excavation of the property.
Officers from Toronto police’s homicide unit began combing the sprawling property early Tuesday morning after investigators received information about a particular area of land.
Police are using a backhoe to dig at the 102-acre farm, along with ground-penetrating radar which can detect buried objects.
Police have confirmed that the search of the North Dumfries, Ont. farm is linked to an ongoing investigation into the death of Millard’s father, Wayne Millard, and the disappearance of Laura Babcock.
Babcock, 23, has been missing since last July. She and Millard were friends and had a romantic relationship just before she disappeared last summer.
Millard, of Etobicoke, and 25-year-old Mark Smich, of Oakville, have been charged with first-degree murder in Bosma's death.
Bosma disappeared from his Ancaster, Ont., home on May 6 after taking two strangers on a test drive of a pickup truck he had posted for sale online. About a week later, police announced Bosma’s charred remains had been found in the Waterloo area.
