The Laura Babcock murder trial began October 23rd and the jury started deliberating Tuesday afternoon at 2 pm.
Babcock, 23, has been missing since July 3, 2012. Cell phone data indicates she and Dellen Millard, 32, were in phone contact more than 100 times in the days prior and that he picked her up from Kipling subway station that evening, about an hour before her phone, banking, healthcare and other activity permanently stopped. Millard did not attempt to contact Babcock again after July 3rd.
Other evidence was extracted from computers at Millard’s house, including a photo from July 4th that the crown contends is Laura Babcock’s body wrapped in a tarp and Millard’s calendar note a few days later read “barn smell check.” Police found photos and video from July 23rd that appear to show Laura Babcock’s remains being cremated at Millard’s hangar in a large animal incinerator the accused had recently purchased and just gotten operational that day. The same night, photos show Mark Smich, 30, smiling and holding the incinerator ash scraper.
A rap song was composed on Laura Babcock’s iPad that night as well; the crown contends the lyrics tell of Laura Babcock’s murder. The iPad was found in Smich’s house and Smich’s friends testified that he later performed the song and indicated the murder was real.
The crown led evidence to show Laura Babcock had been causing a rift between Millard and his girlfriend Christina Noudga and that Millard had promised to remove Babcock from their lives. The defence contended that the crown did not prove that Laura Babcock is dead, let alone that she died at the hands of the accused. She had been leading a risky lifestyle, had arguments with friends and family and talked about going on a trip.
The jury was not told that Millard and Smich were convicted of Tim Bosma’s murder on June 17, 2016, or that Millard’s incinerator had already been proven to have been used to dispose of human remains.
Dellen Millard still faces the first degree murder of his father, Wayne Millard. That trial is expected to begin next spring.
