Police probing the mysterious disappearance of 32-year-old Tim Bosma, a church-going father who vanished Monday night after two men showed up at his Ancaster home inquiring about a pickup truck he was selling, believe the truck may hold the key to what happened.
It was an emotional Mother's Day for the family of an Ontario man who has been missing for almost a week.
Tim Bosma, a 32-year-old father, was last seen at his house in Ancaster, just outside Hamilton, before taking two men to test drive his pickup truck on the evening of May 6. He has not been heard from since.
"We don't know where he is, we don't know if he's safe or who's got him," his mother, Mary Bosma, told reporters on Sunday, fighting back tears. "We love him and we miss him so much. We know even though there's been an arrest, he is still not home with us."
Police arrested Dellen Millard, the 27-year-old heir to a well-known aviation dynasty, on Saturday in Mississauga, just west of Toronto. He faces charges of forcible confinement and theft over $5,000. Investigators were still searching for a second suspect.
Hamilton Police say they've received more than 400 tips and were planning two searches on Monday.
Television news station CP24 reported on Sunday evening that a Hamilton police source confirmed Mr. Bosma's 2007 black Dodge Ram pickup truck was located in Kleinburg, north of Toronto. The Globe and Mail could not immediately verify the information with Hamilton or York Region police services.
Police had spent several hours Sunday on a Kleinburg street where, according to a resident, Mr. Millard's mother lives. A trailer containing a pickup was removed from the street, neighbour Robert Dimas said. He did not know whether it was Mr. Bosma's missing vehicle, which he had listed for sale for $24,000 on Kijiji and Auto Trader. Police found his cellphone in Brantford, which is west of Ancaster, on Thursday.
"The focus of this investigation is to find Mr. Bosma," said Detective Sergeant Matt Kavanagh. "It's still a missing-person investigation so therefore, yes, I believe there's hope that he's alive."
Waterloo Regional Police Service officers were seen parked in front of a Millard Air hangar at the Region of Waterloo International Airport on Sunday. Det. Sgt. Kavanagh would not say whether Mr. Millard was co-operating with police.
Mr. Millard's grandfather, Carl, founded Millard Air, a charter airline, which was passed onto Dellen's father, Wayne, who steered the company into heavy-aircraft maintenance and built a 50,000-square-foot hangar at the Waterloo Regional Airport last year, according to an article in the aviation magazine Canadian Skies. Wayne died in late 2012, according to an obituary Dellen wrote.
On his 14th birthday, Dellen, who was then a student at the prestigious Toronto French School, according to the Toronto Star, became the youngest pilot to fly solo in both a single-engine airplane and a helicopter on the same day.
In recent years, he appears to have become interested in cars. He and another man were listed in the roster of the Baja 1000, an off-road race, in 2009. Photos on Facebook show Mr. Millard working on cars in an aircraft hangar.
Mr. Millard, his father and a woman are listed as directors of the Canadian Flora and Fauna Society, which was incorporated in 2007 and lists an address in Kleinburg, Ont., as its registered office. The firm's annual filings for 2011 and 2012 are overdue, according to corporate records. Wayne Millard was an animal welfare advocate, according to his obituary.
Sharlene Bosma last saw her husband around 9 p.m. on May 6, when two Toronto men arrived at their Ancaster home to take their truck for a demo drive. Mr. Bosma left with the men, telling his wife he would be home soon. At the time, he was wearing dark blue jeans, work boots and a long-sleeved shirt.
"You don't need him, but I do, and our daughter needs her daddy back so please, please let him come home," Ms. Bosma said last week. The couple, who are members of the Ancaster Christian Reformed Church, has a two-year-old girl.
Police believe the two suspects also went for an uneventful test drive on May 5 with a Toronto man who was selling a similar truck. The vehicle owner provided investigators with descriptions of the men, including that one had a tattoo of the word "ambition" on his wrist. Police said Mr. Millard has such a tattoo.
Jill Mahoney