Detectives have found "linkages" in three cases tied to Dellen Millard and have combined the investigations into a multi-jurisdictional probe headed by a senior Ontario Provincial Police officer.
The cases – the murder of Tim Bosma, the disappearance of Mr. Millard's friend Laura Babcock and the death of his father Wayne Millard – are being overseen by Detective Inspector Dave Hillman under the province's major case management system.
Dellen Millard, 28, faces a first-degree murder charge in Mr. Bosma's death in May. Ms. Babcock, who police say was romantically involved with Mr. Millard, phoned him several times before she went missing in the summer of 2012. And police are re-investigating Wayne Millard's November, 2012, death, which was initially deemed a suicide.
Ontario's major case management system was developed after a judge found that a lack of co-ordination among different police forces helped sex killer Paul Bernardo fall through the cracks. The protocol has been used in several cases, including the murders of Holly Jones and Cecilia Zhang and the deaths of eight biker-gang members near St. Thomas.
Det. Insp. Hillman talked about the investigation during an interview last week.
On what triggered the major case management system
"Every once and a while, we will get linkages. Now, I can't tell you what the linkages are because they may form part of the evidence possibly at some future court proceeding. But there were linkages made and that basically triggers the major case management model. … It's three cases within one case, let's say."
On what it means to have a linkage
"The linkages could be as easy as a street name or a street address, could be a person's name. Could be an object. It could be through [the Centre of Forensic Sciences], could be through DNA. Fingerprints. Those are linkages. Could be a statement, could be somebody that gave a statement in Hamilton's case had information on a Toronto case. I'm not saying that's the case."
On how he's working with Hamilton and Toronto police
"They report to me and we have our briefings. It's very collaborative. We work very closely together, I'm not coming in to take over their cases. I'm coming in there to ensure there's communication between Hamilton and Toronto, which there is. There's never been an issue there. … I kind of set the speed, flow and direction to those cases, so I rely on them obviously because they're very qualified investigators. I review their material, I look at their stuff, and then if I have anything to offer, I'll have meetings with them and we go over the evidence and I'll also look for linkages and similarities and things that may assist one case and maybe will assist the other case that if they were to do them separately, some of those linkages you might not see."
On the status of the investigations
"The police are moving forward on all three of those cases and we follow the evidence. We're going to look at what we've got and we'll continue to follow the evidence and see what the outcome is as we progress."
This interview has been edited and condensed