Canadian True Crime - 20 The Murder of Laura Babcock - Part 2

Episode Date: March 1, 2018

[Part 5 of 6] Continuation of the Dellen Millard, Mark Smich and Laura Babcock story featured in episode 19 (and before that, episodes 7,8 and 9). 23-year-old Laura Babcock disappeared in July 2012 - and finally it is announced that Dellen Millard and Mark Smich are charged with her first degree murder. In this part, you'll find out what happened in the trial and aftermath.  This episode is part one in a multi-part series that covers three cases over six episodes. All episodes, in order, are:07 - The Murder of Tim Bosma - Part 108 - The Murder of Tim Bosma - Part 209 - The Murder of Tim Bosma - Part 319 - The Murder of Laura Babcock - Part 120 - The Murder of Laura Babcock - Part 233 - Dellen Millard and the murder of his fatherSupport my sponsors! Here's where the discount codes are:www.canadiantruecrime.ca/sponsorsPodcast suggestionsTales by Parcast (dark fairytales) Criminology (East Area Rapist)Recommended additional resources:BOOK: Dark Ambition: The Shocking Crime of Dellen Millard and Mark Smich by Ann Brocklehurst DOCUMENTARY: Fifth Estate - The Murders of Dellen Millard Information sources: Can be found with the episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca in the week after the episode is released.Join my patreon to get early, ad-free episodes, video AMAs and more: www.patreon.com/canadiantruecrime   Social media and contact information: Visit: www.canadiantruecrime.ca Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/canadiantruecrime/ Facebook group: /www.facebook.com/groups/478462932506209/ Twitter:  twitter.com/CanadianTCpod Instagram: www.instagram.com/canadiantruecrimepod/ Email: [e-mail] Credits: Research and writing: Kristi Lee Audio production: Erik Krosby Guest voices: The Night Time Podcast (Jordan Bonaparte)  https://www.nighttimepodcast.com/ Dark Topic (Jack Luna)  https://audioboom.com/channel/dark-topic True Crime Fan Club (Lanie)  https://truecrimefanclub.com/ The Marble Garden (Sawyer Westbrook)  http://themarblegarden.libsyn.com/ Music credits: We Talk of Dreams - original composer of "Canadian True Crime Loop" Music below is used under an Attribution License - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Podcast theme music: Space Trip.  http://www.dl-sounds.com/royalty-free/space-trip/ Chris Zabriskie - I Don't See the Branches, I See the Leaves Chris Zabriskie - Cylinders 7... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast may contain coarse language, adult themes and content of a violent and disturbing nature. Listener discretion is advised. This is Christy and welcome to Canadian True Crime Episode 20, Della Millard and the Murder of Laura Babcock, Part 2. Please note this episode is a continuation of the Tim Bosmer, Della Millard and Mark Smith stories in episodes 7, 8, 9 and 19. If you haven't listened to those episodes already, I strongly advise you to do so now. We last left off with Della Millard in the trial about to question Laura Babcock's father, Clayton. He started off by asking, quote,

This can't be easy for you being questioned by me considering I'm the accused. Does it make it extra difficult for you? No, Laura's father responded. Della then continued to ask Clayton questions about Laura's personal life and the relationship she had with her family. Clayton Babcock was poised and held his cool as he answered all of Della's questions. He said they had a happy family life, there was no abuse and he didn't ever speak to Laura about drugs or working for an escort service. He said Laura was a happy person and Della repeated the description. Clayton said, quote, Are you saying she wasn't? Della's goal with this line of questioning was to try and have Clayton admit to purposely painting Laura's life as much rosier than it was, but Clayton wouldn't budge.

The media reported that this line of questioning by Della was tone deaf, cold and would likely produce the opposite reaction of what he intended with the jury. Thankfully, thanks to the calm, confident and direct way Clayton Babcock answered the questions, the many tense moments didn't turn into anything more. On day two, the crown called its second witness, 27-year-old Sean Lerner, Laura Babcock's ex-boyfriend and the man who chased the police up about her disappearance. Dellen asked Sean, quote, Sean, you don't like me very much, do you? Sean said no. Dellen then asked if Sean found him sketchy. Yes, he replied. Sean then went on to detail his experience with Dellen the night of Laura's birthday party where Dellen gave her ecstasy. Dellen asked Sean if he was against hard drugs. Sean said, quote, I was against her getting her pills from you unsolicited by her. You made it clear that it was a birthday present. Dellen asked him why he cared about it. Sean said, quote, because she was my girlfriend and I cared about her and I loved her.

They talked about their meeting at the Starbucks where Sean asked Dellen about the phone records and what Sean knew about Laura's escort work. Dellen's questioning was clearly designed to test Sean's memory about that meeting. Dellen said to Sean, quote, you asked if I was having sex with Laura at the time. I said no and that I have a girlfriend. Some media outlets describe this interaction as testy. Dellen then asked Sean how he feels about Laura today. He replied, I miss her. Two of the teens who witnessed the garage incident with Mark Smith's rap about Ashi Stone were called as witnesses. Mark Smith's lawyer tried to discredit their testimony by suggesting the drugs they were taking at the time may have impacted their memory. Mark Smith's lawyer, Thomas Dungey, also said the rap lyrics were just tough talk and didn't mean anything and also suggested that the teens had little credibility due to essentially being dropkicks. Christina Nudger's friend Caroline testified about the volatile nature of the relationship between Christina and Laura. She said that Laura knew the right buttons to press to really upset people.

On cross-examination, Dellen asked a line of questions that were obviously in direct reference to the Crown's theory that the love triangle between he, Christina and Laura was the motive behind Laura's murder. He suggested to Caroline that it wasn't a secret that he slept with other women while he was with Christina and that she knew about it and stayed with him anyway. He also suggested that it was obvious that he really didn't seem to care about her or the feud she had with Laura. To these suggestions, Caroline agreed. Laura's friend Megan also testified, tearfully telling the court about how her friendship with Laura started to drift apart, the more she got into the world of escorting. Megan said she believed the last time she spoke to Laura was on July 4th, the day after the Crown says she was murdered. However, phone records showed Laura's last call was to voicemail at 7.03 the night before. The court also heard from the men from the escort agency that Laura worked for, as well as several of the men she stayed with in the months leading up to her disappearance. One of the men, Bradley, the one-time client of Laura's testified. This is the one who had a scheduled escort meeting with Laura, but then she returned to his place with her suitcase afterwards. In his original police statement, he actually said he met with Laura again on July 10th, that's almost a week after she was last seen.

But in the meantime, Bradley had realized that it wasn't actually Laura he saw, but another woman, and he changed his statement. Dylan Millard tried to latch on to the original statement, but the argument came off sounding weak in court. Many of the people we heard about from the last episode, who let Laura stay at their houses and the lead up to her disappearance, also testified. They spoke about the way she presented in terms of mental health, and whether she spoke of suicide at the time, she didn't. Next to testify was an intelligence analyst with the Toronto Police Service, as well as a senior investigator with Rogers Communications. They testified about how they tracked Laura's phone along with those belonging to Dylan Millard and Mark Smitch during the afternoons of July 3rd, 2012, starting at Kipling train station. Mark Smitch's defense suggested that just because the phones were tracked to the same cell towers didn't necessarily mean they were at the same place, and the analyst agreed. The Crown's theory was that Laura was murdered after 7pm that night.

The last outgoing call that came from her phone was at 7.03pm, lasted 60 seconds, and showed signs that the call was made to check voicemail. The evidence showed that, at that time, Laura's phone was still connected to a cell phone tower that was just a few hundred metres from Dylan Millard's house. Again, Mark Smitch's lawyer Thomas Dungey counted that just because someone is billed for a phone doesn't mean that they were the one actually using it. The expert witness agreed. As for the next morning, July 4th, the analysts testified about how they were able to track Laura's phone with Dylan's as they moved along the Lakeshore Drive by Lake Ontario before Laura's phone stopped connecting. Remember, the last line of Mark Smitch's rap was, if you go swimming, you can find her phone. Next, several members of the Ontario Provincial Police testified about a red duffel bag that belonged to Laura. The jury was able to see the bag and the tag with it that had the name Laura Babcock written on it.

Then, they showed photos of where they had found the bag. It was during a police search conducted in late May of 2013, just weeks after Tim Bosmer went missing and 10 months after Laura went missing. Laura's red bag was found in Mark Smitch's bedroom where he lived at his mother's house in Oakville. During this search, police also found a black iPad. A computer forensic analyst with the Ontario Provincial Police examined it and stated for the jury that when they found it, the name of the device was set as Mark's iPad. Analysts compared the serial numbers of this iPad with the one that Sean Lerner had given to Laura in the days before she disappeared. They were one and the same. Laura's iPad was now called Mark Smitch's iPad.

The name had been changed when the device was first connected to Dylan Millard's computer. On July the 4th, the day after the crown contended that Laura had been murdered, and many of the apps on the iPad had been set up using an email address connected to Dylan Millard. Dylan and Mark Smitch's lawyer counted the testimony by suggesting that anyone could have used that iPad as there was no security on it. Also, email addresses can be set up for anyone. It doesn't necessarily mean the person it appears to be from is the actual person who set it up. The analysts agreed to all these suggestions. Next, a salesperson from Sleep Country, the mattress retailer, testified to the fact that Dylan Millard bought a mattress the night of July the 4th, the day after Laura was said to have been murdered. The inference from the crown was that Dylan and Mark somehow destroyed or tarnished a mattress when they murdered Laura, and that's why Dylan needed it replaced ASAP.

In what was surprisingly described by some media outlets as a smooth cross-examination of the sales representative by Dylan, he agreed that Dylan was not stressed when he bought the mattress. In fact, he said he was behaving normally, was polite, and even seemed nice. Next, the mattress delivery person testified. When Dylan Cross examined him, he suggested that when the company delivered Dylan's new mattress, they had taken his old one, charging him $50 to recycle it for needy kids. Dylan suggested there was nothing out of the ordinary about his used mattress, but the delivery driver said he wasn't able to recall this transaction. Next up, retired OPP officer Jim Falconer testified about what was on three computers that were taken from Dylan Millard's house during a search in May 2013. This was a mammoth but explosive testimony that would take a few days to unpack. Found on the computers were five iPhone backups and one iPad backup.

The iPad backup was for the device now known as Mark's iPad. That's the iPad that Sean Lerner had originally given to Laura Babcock that now contained the crude rap lyrics performed by Mark in the garage. On the computers, police also found backups of texts, photos and videos sent between Dylan and his girlfriend, Christina Nudger. It took a team of five people several months to go through the sheer volume of electronic data that was linked to the case. They found the text from Dylan to Christina in April of 2012 that compared Laura to herpes saying, first I'm going to hurt her, then I'll make her leave, I'll remove her from our lives. In that same month, a series of text messages were sent between Laura Babcock and Andrew Mikowski. You'll remember Andrew from the first trial. He was one of Dylan's best friends and party buddies at the time. The guy you'll see in the photos with the blue mohawk next to Dylan's red one.

The conversation started with a text message Laura had received from Dylan. It read, Of course, I don't know your disorder. It's yours and you don't know anyone else's. So I'm fortunate you got dealt a bad hand. I don't blame you for your disorder, but it's up to you to manage it. This is your life, Laura. You're harmful to me. Please don't try to contact me until you've made some huge leaps of self-discovery. As I said before, good luck with life. Laura forwarded this text message to Andrew Mikowski, asking him, Am I that bad of a person? Andrew responded that she was, quote, super nice and means well, but said she needed to think before she said things sometimes. Laura then replied,

Yeah, Dell's definitely not a fan of me. He told me he told Christina when he slept with me before. These people cause so much unwanted drama for me and bring me into it. The next month, May 2012, Andrew Mikowski received a text message from Dylan. If you could keep me updated on where Laura goes to, that'd be of use to me. In May and June of 2012, in the two months before Laura disappeared, there were a series of texts sent between Dylan Millard and Shane Schlappman. As you recall, Shane was the loyal Millard air mechanic and son-in-law of Arthur Jennings, the employee who reported to crime stoppers that he saw Tim Bosmer's truck in the hangar. In the text messages, Dylan firstly asked Shane to put together a homemade incinerator, saying that three to four steel drums welded together end to end will do the job. Shane googled how to make a homemade garbage incinerator.

After a few bad starts, finally Shane completed the first prototype, which stood at 12 feet tall and, if you remember, looked like a giant rocket. It didn't work as intended, so Dylan wanted to move on to the next option, a properly manufactured incinerator. Dylan and Shane texted back and forth about options before he finally asked Shane to put in the order for a large industrial-sized incinerator called the Eliminator. It was going to take a few weeks to arrive. On June 9th, Dylan texted Christina Nudger, telling her that he wasn't going to call her his girlfriend anymore, so, quote, find the right person to make you feel wanted. He said he would do the same. A couple of weeks later, on June 30th, just three days before Laura disappeared, Dylan exchanged text messages with Laura at 2.30 in the morning. The next day, Dylan texted with a contact called Issho about buying a gun.

Issho is, of course, Matthew Ward Jackson, a Toronto rapper who later went on to sell Dylan the gun that was used to shoot Tim Bosma. Issho told Dylan that he has a 32, saying, quote, it's a really nice compact piece, I'm sure you'd like it. Dylan bought the gun. The following day, Dylan and Laura exchanged 23 text messages and four conversations on the phone. And the day after that, July 3rd, the day the Crown believes Laura was murdered, Christina Nudger sent a text to Dylan saying, quote, I'll see you Friday. Have fun doing big things. This message was deleted from the phone. The following day, July 4th, Dylan texted Mark saying he'd gone to Waterloo, meaning the Millard Air Hanger.

At 10.43am, Dylan sent another text to Mark saying he'd rolled his first spliff. Just a couple of hours later, at 2.40 in the afternoon, Dylan's phone took a photo of a long object that was wrapped up in a blue top with his dog Peddo sitting next to it. 10 minutes later, Dylan texted Shane the mechanic. Barbecue trailer is the next highest priority after Yukon. Barbecue trailer was obviously his nickname for the incinerator. They were still waiting for it to arrive from Manitoba. On July 5th, 2012, two days after Laura went missing, the incinerator arrived in Toronto. In the days after this, there were texts sent between Dylan and Shane about making the giant piece of machinery operational and testing it. A photo of the eliminator was taken.

On July 7th, four days after Laura was alleged to have been murdered, police found a digital calendar entry that said, Barn Smell Check. That same day, video was taken showing a dog playing with a toy and in the background was a man's voice talking about someone with some sort of cut. Quote, it was all pus, all pus coming out. On July 9th, there were a series of text messages between Dylan, Shane and Mark Smitch talking about getting the incinerator to work and how to transport it. Remember, this piece of machinery was massive. They talked about generators, propane and making some modifications to fit the propane tanks. They then talked about constructing a trailer that the eliminator would fit on.

Shane built the trailer and then sent a picture of it to Dylan. On July 20th, photos were taken that shows an SUV pulling the eliminator on a trailer. Around this time, Dylan received a text message from his friend Andrew Mikulski. The man had attached a screenshot of a news article he saw on Facebook about Laura Babcock's disappearance and asked, was this you? Dylan replied that he hadn't seen her. On July 21st, Dylan sent a text to Mark Smitch. Mark Smitch replied that he doesn't think taking his girlfriend Marlena will be a problem. And then, on the morning of July 23rd, almost three weeks after the crown said Laura was murdered, Shane finally texted Dylan to say the eliminator was now ready to use.

Straight away, Dylan texted Mark Smitch. The barbecue has run its warm-up. It's ready for meat. And then, Dylan searched this phrase on his phone. What temperature is cremation done at? Marlena Menacis, Mark Smitch's girlfriend, went with Dylan and Mark, picked up the eliminator from the hangar in Waterloo and towed it to his farm property. Once they got there, Dylan and Mark told Marlena to stay in the car and wear earphones. After a few hours, she got annoyed and wanted to go home. Dylan offered her some marijuana to keep her calm, which she accepted.

As she smoked, she walked by the incinerator and observed it smoking and crackling. Dylan and Mark said they were trying to test out the machine. Marlena testified that before the trial, she'd never met Laura Babcock and, in fact, had never even heard of her. Next, the court saw photos of Mark Smitch standing in front of the eliminator. He had a broad grin on his face and was holding what looked to be a rake tool. At 11.20pm that night, photos were taken that showed something burning in what appeared to be the inside of the incinerator. A video showed embers floating in the air and a rumble in the background. The court saw this evidence and Laura's father, Clayton, brought his hand to his mouth.

An hour later, just after midnight, a note file was created on the device now known as Mark's iPad that included the lyrics to his rap song, which he recorded later on. The bitch started off our skin and bone, now the bitch laid on some ashes stone last time I saw her outside the home and if you go swimming, you can find a phone. Find a phone? What? What? Find a phone. If you go swimming, you can find a phone. Find a phone. Remember, the phones were tracked along the shore of Lake Ontario before Laura's phone went dead. At 2.45am, Dellen texted to Mark saying,

Good night, bro. Just four days later, Dellen was contacted by Sean Lerner, who had possession of Laura's phone records. They met at the Starbucks where, as we know, Dellen denied any knowledge of what had happened to Laura. A month later, on September 16th, there was some text between Dellen and Mark. I have your big red bag here, the one you let me use with the wheels on it. That's yours now. After a few more photos were shown of Mark's Mitch and Milena Meneses, retired OPP officer Jim Falconer had come to the end of his presentation.

The court had been shown everything of note from the computers seized from Dellen Millard's house. Dellen cross-examined the officer, trying to raise questions about the date stamps on the photos and whether they could have been photoshopped or placed there after the fact. Jim Falconer said it was possible. Dellen also tried to introduce text messages of his own, saying they were for context. For example, the message where he texts Christina and says, quote, I'm not calling you my girlfriend anymore. But all the texts he showed were out of order and described as disjointed.

Whatever point he was trying to make wasn't being made successfully. The judge cautioned Dellen several times, saying he was taking too long to get to the point and this line of questioning didn't strike him as relevant in any way. On several occasions, Dellen tried to have Jim Falconer analyze and make on-the-fly inferences about these new text messages. The judge cautioned Dellen, saying that's the job of the jury. Next, the court heard from forensic anthropologist Dr. Tracy Rogers. As you'll recall, she inspected the remains in the incinerator for the Tim Bosmer murder case

and was also instrumental in the search of Robert Pickden's farm. For the Laura Babcock trial, she testified in relation to two photos taken on July the 23rd, the night that the incinerator was first fully operational, the same night that Dellen said the barbecue was ready for meat. The photos in question were taken at 11.20pm and showed something burning in what looked to be the inside of the incinerator. Dr. Rogers testified that she examined the photos and was able to state that the objects depicted in them appeared similar to human bone.

One is similar to a human radius bone, likely a left out of forearm, and another appeared to be similar to the upper arm that connects to the elbow. She did say she couldn't say for certain that these objects were definitely human bones because she was only examining photos. On cross-examination, Dellen Millard and the lawyer for Mark Smitch both argued that the photos were a bit grainy and pixelated and not the best for this kind of examination. The court heard testimony from Shane Schlatman, the mechanic for Millard Air.

He went over his relationship with Dellen Millard and how he was commissioned to build the crude version of an incinerator out of drum barrels before they decided that that didn't work. They then went to a company and purchased an industrial sized one for over $15,000. The machine was actually dubbed The Eliminator by the manufacturer and Dellen and Mark Smitch's personal nickname for it was The Barbecue. Shane testified that Dellen told him he was getting into the pet cremation business with his uncle who was a veterinarian.

Side note, Dellen's uncle Dr. Robert Burns testified next as he did at the Tim Bosmer trial. He said there was no such agreement or even a discussion. It was obvious that he was not a fan of Dellen Millard. At one point when asked about a conversation he may have had with Dellen he said, quote, I can't even remember the useless drivel that would come from his mouth. He called the pet cremation idea absurd and said it wasn't anything that people in the vet business would ever do. Quote, can you imagine driving up to a strip mall to a vet clinic, carting out cadavers and lighting up an incinerator with embers flying out right there in the parking lot

and then traveling down Main Street to the next clinic? In cross-examination, Dellen conceded that he never put forward an actual business proposal to his uncle implying that his uncle's obvious hostile attitude towards him was the reason why. Back to Shane's testimony. He said after the eliminator had run on July the 23rd he saw ash and something that looked like bones inside it as well as a funny smell. Quote, like rotting, not nice, there was stuff inside of it. Upon cross-examination, Dellen Millard had Shane agree that he was the kind of boss who wasn't afraid to get dirty

and that they'd tossed out a lot of garbage when they worked together. Shane confirmed that Dellen never said what he was going to do with all of that garbage. Melana Menacis, Mark Smith's former girlfriend, testified, saying she'd seen the eliminator for the first time at Dellen's airport hangar. Dellen told her it was his new toy. She asked Mark what it was for and he said farm animals. She testified that she thought that was weird because Dellen didn't have any farm animals. Upon cross-examination, Dellen tried to suggest to Melana that Mark Smith was controlling and abusive,

frequently calling her his bitch. Mark's lawyer, Thomas Dungey, countered that Mark and Melana were always together, which often led to petty bickering. Melana also said she disliked Dellen because he would frequently make comments about her appearance and liked to put her down for being a high school dropout with little digs to insult her intelligence. At one point, when he questioned her in court, he had the gall to ask her, how do you spell hangar? Even while he was on trial for murder, he obviously couldn't resist the opportunity to make her feel small yet again.

The crown objected and Justice Code told him the question was irrelevant. After the trial was over, the public found out that there was one piece of testimony that Melana wasn't allowed to give because of the publication ban. Before he was arrested for Tim Bosmer's murder, Mark Smith confessed to her that it wasn't the only body they burned. This evidence obviously contained reference to the Tim Bosmer trial, so it wasn't permitted under the publication ban. Next, 27-year-old Andrew Mikowski, the former best friend of Dellen Millard, testified. He was asked about the text message he received from Dellen, asking him to keep tabs on Laura, and said he didn't ask Dellen what it meant.

He also testified that the first time he learned of Laura's disappearance was when he saw a Facebook news article and then texted Dellen to ask if it was him that was responsible for it. Dellen cross-examined his old friend, getting Andrew to recall how tight their friendship was, before asking that, surely if they were as close friends as they were, he could have brought up killing a person. Andrew agreed to this. Dellen then showed a number of photos of the two of them posing with different women. He then pointed out which women he'd been romantically involved with in an obvious effort to continue his narrative that he really didn't care that much about the feud between Christina and Laura,

with the implication that it can't have been motivation for her murder. The court heard about an agreed statement of fact that a .32 caliber gun was found at Dellen Millard's home with his DNA on the handle. Matthew Ward Jackson, the Toronto rapper also known as Big Issue, testified about the gun exchange. He was already in custody awaiting sentencing because he pled guilty to trafficking firearms to Dellen in 2012, including one that caused the death of Tim Bosmer. Matthew made it clear that he was there testifying against his will, and although polite, he would often dodge the crown's questions or say he couldn't remember. He also gave conflicting statements about whether he initiated the gun transaction with Dellen or whether it was Dellen's idea.

That said, Matthew admitted he did sell the gun to Dellen but said there was no ammunition in it when he gave it to him. Side note, two months later, in January of 2018, Matthew Ward Jackson would be sentenced to 11 years in prison for guns offences. The Crown's final witness was a retired Hamilton police officer who found the letters Dellen wrote to Christina Nudger at her house during a search in April 2014. As you'll remember, this is the same stack of letters referred to in the Tim Bosmer trial, the ones that Dellen wrote from jail after he was arrested for the man's murder. However, because of the publication ban, the fact that Dellen was in jail wasn't allowed to be mentioned, and the jury also didn't know that Dellen wasn't allowed to contact Christina. In fact, the reason for the letters was completely skirted around. In these letters, Dellen instructs Christina on what her story should be.

It's a very real possibility you'll be called on as a witness. Whatever you may believe, you need to put it aside. This is what happened. The night Laura disappeared, I came over to your place very early in the morning, and I tapped on your window. I told you Laura was overdoing coke with Mark in the basement. We went to say goodnight to them. You saw her alive with Mark, with Coke. Maybe they were going to leave to get more.

You and I don't like Coke, so we vaporized. I drove you home. We didn't go to see if they were still home. Later, when she was reported missing, I told you that Mark told me she OD'd. It wasn't clear this happened at Maple Gate. Mark wouldn't call police because he'd be charged with trafficking. Dellen went on for a bit longer, giving more details, and then ended the letter by telling Christina to reread it a couple of times and destroy it immediately. As we know, she didn't.

One question everyone had was, how were these letters being smuggled undetected between Dellen in jail and Christina on the outside, given they weren't allowed to contact each other? A select few people knew the likely answer to this, but it wouldn't come out until after the trial. In any event, Dellen Millard had no questions for this witness regarding the letters, and neither did Mark Smith's lawyer. This was the last witness for the crown. Next, it would be time for the defence, starting with Dellen Millard.

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and on the right side of his head he had what looked to be a small ponytail that was longer than the rest of his hair. Then he cut it even shorter, but still kept the ponytail. Clearly he was using the extra time he'd been given to work on his defence wisely. Everyone wondered whether he would take the stand and tell his story, and how would that work given he was acting as his own defence. If Dylan chose to testify, the judge would allow him to testify in a more narrative format, instead of the usual question and answer format. It would be like a speech.

However, there's a risk that this stance would come across to the jury as arrogant. But many media outlets reported that while Dylan started off the trial unsure of himself, he seemed to get more and more comfortable at pretending to be a lawyer, increasingly using legal jargon like he was a seasoned pro, and making objections like they were second nature. So perhaps he would take the stand. The day he was about to start his defence, the courtroom was full, with even more people waiting outside to get in.

As it turns out, Dylan did not testify on his own behalf, and he also skipped making an opening statement. He just read out three admissions. The first said that he and Mark Smith's girlfriend, Milena Meneses, crossed the border back into Canada on July 30th, 2012. That's several weeks after Laura went missing, and that there was no record of any other people crossing the border with him. What exactly did this mean?

Everyone was puzzled. The second admission was about Laura's escort client, Bradley, and his possible sighting of Laura a week later than the crown contend she was murdered. And the third was another collection of disjointed text messages, again presented without context. Much of it centered around insomnia he had, and his efforts to try and get more sleep. Some of them were benign conversational texts between he and Laura Babcock and Mark Smith.

Some media outlets reported that it seemed he was trying to suggest he was busy and overtired. Dylan spent the best part of an hour reading these text messages, often apologising to the jury. Finally, he got to the end of what he'd presented as the first part of his defence, but many continued to be puzzled as to what it all meant. The day before Dylan was supposed to call his first witness, there was drama that the jury didn't see. He asked the judge to defer the trial while he sorted out his witnesses.

Apparently he wasn't able to get them to the court in time for testimony. Again, he whined about how he had problems keeping pace because he was representing himself and never had enough time to prepare. He complained that he hadn't been given the extra year to prepare that he'd asked for in the lead-up to the trial. This angered Justice Code. After all, he'd given Dylan many concessions to allow for the fact that he wasn't a proper lawyer. He ordered jail administrators to make sure Dylan had what he needed to prepare effectively. Dylan had even been given special transportation to and from the court,

and yet he still whined about every single thing he could. Back to the request for a deferment of the trial because of witness delay. Justice Code, clearly annoyed, asked Dylan if he'd ever sought the court's assistance and stopped with getting his key witness there in time, something he was more than entitled to do. Dylan said he had not, and now the witness was apparently in England and wasn't due to be back in Canada for another week. The Crown was angry, saying that what Dylan was doing was a game to buy time and dragged the process out like he'd been doing all along.

Justice Code called Dylan's bluff. A few minutes later, a court assistant had the supposedly unavailable key witness on the phone, and he wasn't in England, he was in Ottawa, and could definitely make it to Toronto in time to testify. The trial went on as planned, without the jury knowing that any of this had taken place. Dylan's key witness was Dr Scott Refolo, an animal bones expert who works at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. His testimony was in relation to the photos of the inside of the incinerator, and testified that in his opinion, the object burning appeared to be deer bones. He clarified that he was offering an opinion based on a very poor quality image.

Dylan zoomed in on the image a number of times, demonstrating its poor quality. The judge pointed out that there was a better quality photo that the court had seen before, but Dylan continued using this poorer quality one to make his point. The judge also explained to the jury that this animal bones expert was an archaeologist, someone who deals with animal remains at archaeological sites. He was not a forensic anthropologist as Dr Tracy Rogers was, that someone who applies the study of human remains to the criminal process. The crown cross-examined this witness, and he confirmed he doesn't study the physical remains of humans,

and because this was the first time he'd testified in court, he was technically not qualified to testify as an expert. Finally, after several lines of questioning by the crown, he admitted that the remains were possibly human. Dylan Mallard tried to question his witness again, but was spoken to by the judge, who said he was merely repeating the same questions. He was not allowed to just rehash what he went over in his original examination. Dylan apologized, and that was it. Dylan's next witness was Lisa Williams, the Millardair bookkeeper. He asked her a bunch of benign questions about the company, his father Wayne Millard, and the accounting procedures.

He was trying to prove that the incinerator was purchased on the books of the company, and not through Dylan's own personal finances. Justice Code interrupted, saying he struggled to see the relevance. Dylan had no more questions for this witness. Dylan then called another witness, Gabe Osterweil, a man whose son had a short relationship with Laura Babcock. His son was David, if you'll remember, the unemployed drug addict that Laura took up with for a time after her split from Sean Lerner. Gabe testified that in October 2012, three months after Laura disappeared, he saw her in a store, looking thin, wearing a brown bomber leather jacket and leather pants.

This was three months after all activity on her phone and bank accounts stopped. He said the clothes she was wearing were clothes that she wouldn't normally wear, but he said he was absolutely sure of the time period. On cross-examination, Mark Smitcher's lawyer, Thomas Dungey, asked Gabe how well he knew Laura and what she looked like. Thomas Dungey then pointed out that in the original police statement, Gabe said he saw Laura in March, but Gabe replied that he was absolutely certain that it was in fact in October. Remember, Laura went missing in July. When the Crown Cross examined him, Gabe admitted he didn't reach out to Laura's parents or the police when he says he saw her

because he thought she didn't want to be found, and later when he was contacted by the police, he told them that the woman pictured in the missing persons ad was not Laura when it was. He was also shown the video of Laura meowing and laughing with the white sunglasses on and said he wouldn't have recognized her as Laura either. After this witness, Dallin Millard rested his defence. It was Mark Smitcher's turn, but his lawyer told the court that he wasn't going to testify either and in fact wasn't going to be mounting a defence at all. So Justice Michael Code told the jury that they had come to the end of the evidence

and were moving into closing arguments and deliberations. Closing arguments started with Dallin Millard. Quote, He asked the jury to decide, Despite obvious attempts by Dallin to turn on the charm for his final statements, only about half of the jury members were actually looking at him. The rest would not look at him. They were either looking down or at their hands or at other spots in the courtroom.

Dallin said there were four people who had seen Laura after the date the crown says she was murdered. There was the father of her ex-boyfriend, Gabe Osterweil, who had testified that he couldn't quite remember what she looked like and had been confused about the time she'd gone missing. Despite this, Dallin stated that he found Gabe to be a credible witness and hoped that the jury did too. Then there was Bradley, Laura's client who says he saw her a week after she disappeared, but then revised his statement when he realised it was actually someone else that he saw.

Dallin said he didn't think the man was a reliable witness because his story changed. The next was the doctor who Laura met while escorting. In the transcript of his testimony, he said he last saw Laura in July around Canada Day, maybe a week after. Canada Day is July the 1st and Laura went missing July the 3rd. Dallin said this was important because of the phone records. Remember Laura's friend Megan who said she thought she spoke with Laura on the phone on July the 4th? The day after Laura went missing?

The phone records proved that her last phone call was the night before, a call to voicemail. But in response to this, Dallin offered the explanation that Laura must have changed her phone or must have had another phone and therefore it was entirely possible for people to have spoken to her or seen her after July the 3rd. Of the fact that Laura's bank accounts also hadn't been touched since that date, Dallin tried to say she never used them in the first place, she preferred cash. Dallin had promised to go through 14 chapters of a document he'd put together as part of his closing address, but many in the courtroom weren't sure where one chapter ended and another began.

He spoke in circles, often mentioning things without context. He stated there is an absence of evidence and went on to say that the bickering between Laura and Christina was not the motive for murder because he and Christina had an open relationship. He didn't care that much about the bickering, he said, and did a lot more for other girlfriends he'd had than he did for Christina. He said he never offered her monogamy or exclusivity and had even offered her to his friend. He spoke about the text messages he sent, quote, First I'm going to hurt her, then I'll make her leave.

He said they weren't threats at all, but just attempts to reassure Christina, telling her what she needed to hear in the moment. He then tried to discredit the photos of the red bag and the blue rolled up tarp in the photos, calling them red hearings. He said the letters found at Christina's house had, quote, No evidentiary value because the court hadn't heard from Christina herself to find out what they meant. He mentioned that she was available as a witness but wasn't called. This was true. She was in Poland, ready to come back at any time to testify,

but at the last minute the crown opted not to call her back. But the thing was, Dellen himself could have called her back too, but he also opted not to. Back to his closing argument. He spoke about Laura's mental health issues, suggesting she could have left the country or died of a drug overdose or even died by suicide. He shocked crude insults at her shocked parents about their relationship, quote, Is it really so unimaginable that somebody would choose not to contact home and not contact friends, given the rocky relationship of those friendships and the rocky relationship with her family?

Laura's parents shook their heads and discussed at this suggestion. Dellen then concluded, quote, She could be alive right now. That's the evidence we have before you at the trial. Next, it was time for Mark Smith's lawyer to make his closing arguments. Thomas Dungey got quite animated at times and often shouted his rebuttal at the jury. He echoed Dellen's argument that there was no evidence that Laura was dead. He said the crown's case was full of holes and amounted to fiction. He said Mark Smith didn't testify or present a case because they didn't believe the crown met the onus of reasonable doubt.

He also said Mark had nothing to do with the love triangle the crown was presenting as motive for the murder. Lastly, Dungey directed the jury to Dellen Millard, quote, I'm not here trying to demean Mr. Millard. He did quite sufficiently his own job of demeaning his own character. But does it strike you that he's the type of guy who's going to care a damn about Christina Newtka? The crown's closing argument went over Laura's last few days, saying she didn't disappear. She was murdered. Even through her struggles with her living arrangements,

she still kept in constant contact with her mum and was always making calls and sending texts to friends. If she was still alive, the crown said, she wouldn't put them through this kind of torture. Crown prosecutor Jill Cameron went on to say that the fact that Laura was murdered was evidenced by the electronic footprint she left everywhere before she vanished, with it all stopping abruptly. In the days before she went missing, she'd been communicating with Dellen Millard. Phone records suggested he picked her up from Kipling train station, quote, Her last footprint was in their company.

Think about the improbability of coincidence. It's almost too many to count. That is no coincidence. That is murder. She suggested that something catastrophic happened to Dellen's mattress that rendered it unusable, prompting him to order another one with a rush delivery. She said after they killed Laura, Dellen wrapped her body in a tarp, dumped it in his father's minivan, and then drove to his hangar for some work

and then onto the farm to hide the body in a barn until the incinerator was ready. Of the picture of the blue tarp rolled up. The crown mentioned the text that Dellen said to Mark the day after Laura was murdered, saying, rolled first spliff. She mentioned that Laura was five foot eleven and thin and said, quote, He wasn't referring to marijuana. This is Laura's body. What else would he wrap like that?

She mentioned that three days later, Dellen had set the calendar reminder for barn smell check and later the search for the temperature of cremation. Lastly, she said to the jury that the pictures of the object burning in the incinerator did not show dear bones, quote, That is a picture of what was left of Laura Babcock after they got through with her. The crown went on to say that it doesn't matter how they killed her and that we'll never know, quote, But they killed her and then they tried to cover it up by burning her body. They took pictures of what they'd done and didn't destroy them.

They kept her possessions as if they were trophies. The plan was to murder Laura Babcock and eliminate all traces of her body from this earth. Feel sharp the injustice as they stand here today and say Laura is out there because the crown can't produce her body. This was their plan from the beginning. They thought then and they argue now that nobody equals no murder and they are wrong. The complexity of the case and the evidence presented in the trial meant that Justice Michael Codes addressed to the jury took three days.

He said the case was based on two crucial questions, whether Laura is actually dead and whether Della Millard and Mark Smitsch killed her. He said the case was mainly circumstantial. He also told the jury that their options were manslaughter, second-degree murder and first-degree murder. The trial had lasted for over seven weeks. With that, it was time for the jury to deliberate. As they were deliberating, Della Millard put forward a ten-page application for a mistrial on the grounds that Mark Smitsch's lawyer pointed the finger at Della Millard in his closing address

instead of just defending his client as he thought they'd agreed to do. But the judge swiftly denied it, saying his argument was weak and that all Thomas Dungey was doing was referring to the evidence presented by the Crown. After almost five days of deliberation, the jury came back with a verdict. They found Della Millard and Mark Smitsch guilty of first-degree murder and the death of Laura Babcock. Della Millard swiveled in his chair and stared at Laura's mother and shook his head. Linda Babcock just smiled. As the verdict was read out, Laura's family cried along with several jurors

and in the courtroom quiet cheers could be heard. All 12 jurors recommended consecutive sentences for Della Millard, meaning they would be served one after the other. Five jurors recommended consecutive sentences for Mark Smitsch, but the decision would ultimately be up to the judge to decide at the sentencing hearing. Outside the courtroom, Laura's father Clayton Babcock made a statement on behalf of the family. We've sat through a six-week funeral for our daughter Laura and you all know what a wonderful woman she was,

as well as all the pains and struggles that she faced. You also know about the evil beings that took her life and if society's lucky, we will not see them again on the streets. Today's verdict really brings us little joy. The loss of Laura is no less painful today than when it was realized five years ago. Like any parent that loses a child, we can only move forward with the thoughts of what might have been. There's others that we want to thank, including Sean Lerner. I doubt that there's another person who cares more for his friends than Sean.

We can only wish him the best in all he does in the future and if we can ever be of assistance, please don't hesitate to call. To all those who are friends to Laura, especially the strangers, because of you, our faith in humanity remains steadfast, although obviously shaken. We hope that the kindness you showed Laura has returned to you tenfold. MUSIC So what about the 65 jailhouse letters between Dallin Millard and Christina Newtger? After Dallin was first arrested, there was a court order preventing he and Christina from communicating with each other.

Yet Dallin's stool managed to get the letters outside the jail and into her hands. How were they smuggled back and forth between the pair undetected? Well, this information was protected by a publication ban in both trials. But after this trial, the media were able to report that the transmission of the letters was linked to Deepak Paradkar. If you remember his name, he was the first lawyer to represent Dallin Millard after he was arrested. He was described in the press as flashy and gave a few media statements after the arrest and in the lead-up to the first trial. But before the trial started, he suddenly withdrew without a reason and another member of the team, Ravin Pillay, stepped in as Dallin's lawyer at the Tim Bosmer trial.

During that trial, Crown Attorney Tony Leach said that Deepak Paradkar would bring Dallin's letters to his mother, Madeline Burns, who would then give them to Christina. This is also evidenced by an envelope with Deepak's name and Solicitor Client Privilege being found in Christina's bedroom. The lawyer denied any wrongdoing and although he's named in the court documents, he hasn't faced any action for it for unknown reasons. On February 12, 2018, Dallin Millard aged 32 and Mark Smitch aged 30 had their sentencing hearing. By sheer coincidence, it was held on what would have been Laura's 29th birthday. Her mother Linda was seen hugging some of the jurors who were waiting in line to get into the courtroom. Charlene Bosmer, Tim Bosmer's wife, arrived with his parents and other family members as a show of support and solidarity for Laura's family.

Two families united in separate tragedies, perpetrated by the same two people. The courtroom was packed full. This time, the publication ban had been lifted and there was no need to try and show Dallin Millard and Mark Smitch as regular guys. They were now sitting in the prisoner's box on opposite sides. Mark Smitch wore black. Dallin wore a white shirt and had cut his hair even shorter, but the little ponytail he had behind his right ear was now in a long braid. He decided not to represent himself for the hearing and employed Ravin Pillay, the same lawyer who took over for the Tim Bosmer trial after D-Pack Paradkar stepped down. The fact that they were found guilty meant they would both receive an automatic sentence of life imprisonment without a chance of parole for 25 years.

But the reason for the hearing was for Justice Michael Code to determine whether they would get concurrent or consecutive life sentences. I've mentioned in previous episodes about Canada's tendency to dish out concurrent sentences, meaning two separate sentences served at the same time. In 2011, a law was enacted that allows judges to deliver consecutive life sentences for people convicted of more than one murder. Effectively, if Dallin and Mark received concurrent sentences for the murder of Laura Babcock, they would obviously serve the same amount of time that they were already serving. The general public, as well as members of the media, spoke out loudly, calling for consecutive sentences, saying that anything else wouldn't deliver justice for Laura. The hearing started with victim impact statements, with the first coming from Laura's immediate family, that's her parents Clayton and Linda, and her brother Brent. The statement was read out by Crown Prosecutor Jill Cameron, as a picture of Laura was displayed on a large TV. Parts of the statement read, quote,

Today we should be celebrating Laura's birthday with a special cake and gifts. Instead, we are here, a sad and heartbroken family. Our lives are overwhelmed with sadness. To have her murdered in such a cold, calculated way is beyond rational thought. The anger that we feel towards you convicted men pales against the grief and sadness that consumes us. If Tim Bosmer had not been cruelly and senselessly murdered, we'd probably still be agonizing over what happened to Laura. In their statement, the Babcocks went on to say that they'd always taught their children not to use the word hate, as they felt the emotion was too horrible and destructive. Quote, But now, unfortunately, you men have made us hate. We hate what has happened to our family. You have broken our hearts and lives. We hate you for taking Laura's life away from her. She should be laughing, dancing and enjoying life. Few parents will ever have to see trophy pictures of their beloved daughter's remains being cremated. These images will haunt us for the rest of our lives.

The court also heard victim impact statements from Laura's aunt and grandmother. Then, a photo of Tim Bosmer was displayed on the screen and Crown Prosecutor Jill Cameron referred to the details of that case. As she spoke about how Tim Bosmer was shot in his truck and his body burned in the incinerator, his widow Charlene Bosmer shed some quiet tears. The Crown argued that both Dylan and Mark had a, quote, thrill-kill need, some senseless and diabolical adrenaline rush. She showed text messages between the pair sent two months before Laura went missing. Mark said, The knife is sick. Dylan responds, Glad you like it. Some day I'll ask you to cut someone with it. And in reply, Mark said, I'd enjoy that. The Crown stated that Mark Smith was a willing participant all along. She went on to say, quote, We have not once seen a glimmer of remorse from either of them, not a flicker of regret or shame for the callous extinguishment of a young life.

During these arguments, photos of Laura Babcock and Tim Bosmer were shown in the courtroom and neither Dylan nor Mark ever looked at them. Dylan Mallard's defense argued for a concurrent sentence, saying that if one is sentenced to 50 years, that effectively casts away the prospect of rehabilitation. And it's not in society's best interest to dash all hopes of a prisoner rehabilitating themselves. Mark Smith's defense said he wouldn't even be in court if it wasn't for Dylan Mallard. He didn't even know Laura Babcock. Thomas Dungey talked about Dylan's, quote, cult of personality and his ability to get people to do things. At this point, Dylan was seen to look over at Mark in the prisoner's box with a look of shock on his face. After all that, Justice Michael Code said he wasn't going to sentence Dylan or Mark today. He wanted to think about it and said it would probably take a week or two.

Exactly two weeks later, on February 26th, 2018, court was back in session to hear the judge's final sentencing decision. Tim Bosmer's family attended again to show their support. Justice Code read out a 27-page judgment that took over an hour, going over the facts of the case and the history of sentencing. He commented on Dylan Mallard, quote, he is clever and he knows how and when to deploy a more socially acceptable side of his personality. His text messages and his criminal conduct, however, reveal a profoundly immoral character. He then spoke about Mark Smith, saying that although it appeared he was more of a follower, he was still, quote, enthusiastically involved in Laura Babcock's murder. The judge went on to say he is satisfied that the two murders are sufficiently separate and distinct to justify consecutive sentencing, saying there was substantial planning and deliberation in both the Laura Babcock and Tim Bosmer cases.

With that, Justice Code asked both men to stand. Dylan Mallard and Mark Smith were sentenced to life in prison consecutively, meaning their sentences would be served one after the other and they would not be eligible for parole for a total of 50 years. As both men stared straight ahead without expression, muffled cheers could be heard from one half of the courtroom. As Justice Code got up to leave, he thanked the court and said, quote, Mr. Mallard, Mr. Smith, good luck to you in the penitentiary. I mean that sincerely. The courtroom then stood to their feet and erupted into loud clapping and cheers of joy that continued as Dylan Mallard and Mark Smith were led out of the courtroom in shackles. Tears were shed as the families of Laura Babcock and Tim Bosmer stood and embraced as they celebrated the fact that Justice was finally served for their loved ones.

It wasn't going to bring them back, but at least full justice was served. Outside the courtroom, Clayton Babcock spoke to the media again. We're satisfied with Judge Code's decision, obviously. Justice has been served to the murderers of her church daughter, Laura. Without our Laura, our days will never be as joyful as they once were. After almost six years, the pain is as great as ever, but we want everyone to know that we will be strong and we'll move forward in a way that we know Laura would have approved of, and that is to try to be happy. In addition to being murderers, this pair of cowards, we could have accepted an earlier parole eligibility, but when asked in court if they had any final words, both declined to say even that they were sorry for our loss or had any remorse for what they were proven to have done.

Regardless, any words that they might have said would not have lessened our anguish nor that of the Bosmer family. We can be assured that these horrible specimens of humanity will not come outside of a prison for decades to come. We must admit that it was satisfying to see the two cuffed and shuffling off to the prison shuttle to a life that for most of us would be unbearable. One thing that we haven't been able to accept is that somehow Christina Nuttga comes out of this sorry affair unscathed. As a matter of fact, she's living in Europe and having a normal existence. Her careless and encouraging words help propel Delamallard and his minion, Mark Smitch, down the path that has led us here today. It is our firm belief that she knew more than just what was presented in the court in the form of text messages and letters. This has us wishing for her to be brought before the court where she will be accountable for her actions or inactions, either before or after the murder of our daughter.

There seem to be others who knew or suspected that something had happened to Laura. Shame on you, shame on you, who did not act and turn a blind eye to the events of that time and through your inactions may have unwittingly assisted in the demise of two other innocent people. In a bizarre way, we are saddened that the trial is over, for it's kept the memory of Laura fresh in everyone's mind. Of course, she will always be in the forefront of ours. Thank you. So what happened to Christina Nudger? She lives in Poland now, having narrowly but successfully escaped the entire ordeal of being an incidental character, at best, in the cases of both Tim Bosma and Laura Babcock. She keeps a low profile on social media, but actively maintains a colourful Instagram account where her account's description says, Take what gives you pleasure. Give what brings you joy. Share the experience of beauty in this unique creative void.

The earlier state that Dellen Millard will be eligible for parole is May 10, 2063, when he'll be 77 years old. For Mark Smitch, it will be 12 days later and he'll be 75. In the meantime, the court is gearing up for the next trial. Dellen Millard's first degree murder charge in the death of his father, Wayne Millard. Currently, the trial is scheduled for April 2018. Dellen will not be representing himself this time. He has retained Ravin Pillay again, the lawyer who defended him in the Tim Bosma trial and came back for his sentencing hearing for Laura Babcock. If Dellen is convicted a third time, he will be technically eligible to be labelled a serial killer, even though in Canada the term is dangerous offender. I'll be sure to update you. So what became of Lacy, the little white Maltese dog that was Laura's constant companion? Her father, Clayton Babcock says, We still have Lacy and in a weird way it's helped us make it through the years. Every time I see the dog, I think of Laura and of better times. If you're in the Toronto area, Clayton Babcock will be speaking at the Interim Place Purple Tie Luncheon on Sunday, June 3, 2018 at the Credit Valley Golf and Country Club in Mississauga. Interim Place is a charitable organisation that's been providing shelter, support, counselling and advocacy to help abused women and their children break the cycle of violence for over 34 years.

If you're interested in attending, the link to purchase tickets is in the show notes or visit this episode's page on my website, canadiantruecrime.ca. I wanted to take this opportunity to again recommend Anne Brocklehurst's fine book Dark Ambition, The Shocking Crime of Della Millard and Mark Smitch. It's compelling and suspenseful and goes in depth into the murder of Tim Bosmer and the history of Millard and Smitch. You can find Dark Ambition by Anne Brocklehurst on Amazon. I'll put a link to it in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening. I'd love to know what you thought about all of this. Do you believe Della Millard was the instigator and Mark Smitch was just the tag along? Or do you think they were both equal partners? And what do you make of Christina Nudeger's involvement? If you're on Facebook, come and join me in the Canadian True Crime Discussion Group. Special thanks again to Jordan Bonaparte from the Nighttime Podcast, Lainey from True Crime Fan Club, Jack Luna from Dark Topic and Sawyer Westbrook from the Marble Garden Podcast, who provided their voices to these two episodes.

Before I get to the shoutouts, my other podcast suggestion this episode is Criminology, a true crime podcast that takes a deep dive into some of the most famous cases in the annals of crime. The first season they covered is the Zodiac Killer, and they're back now with another famous case. Check them out. We'll be covering the case of the East Area Rapist Golden State Killer, responsible for over 50 rapes and a dozen murders throughout California. And we're going to get into every detail of this predator that terrorized California from 1976 to 1986. This predator needs to be identified. So check out Criminology, the first episode of Season 2 comes out on February 24th. You can find Criminology on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favorite podcast app. As always, a huge thanks to those who have left me 5 star reviews on Apple Podcasts and other podcast apps. It really does help me get a lift.

And special thanks to my Patreon supporters. Remember, for just $2 a month you can get access to my episodes early and without the ads. This episode I'm thanking these patrons. Jamie S, Julie, Amanda Ashton A, Angela S, Jill C, Liam F, Terry, Lama Bug, Louise H, Joanna F and Linda D. This episode was researched and written by me with audio production by Eric Crosby. I'll be back in a couple of weeks with another Canadian true crime story. See you soon. .