A
Art Mann
Guest
In 1999, Dellen Millard became the youngest person to fly a helicopter solo at 14 years old, setting a world record
and earning a free breakfast from the Brampton Flying Club. He set another record by taking his first solo flight
in a Cessna 172, making him the youngest to fly both a helicopter and fixed-wing plane solo in one day.
Dellen Millard’s strange, downward spiral
Waterloo Region Record, June 1
NORTH DUMFRIES — Two years ago, Dellen Millard's life appeared to be brimming with promise.
He bought an $835,000 farm in the rolling pastureland along Roseville Road and planned to build his dream house up on the hills. He had a beautiful fiancée, and he was working with his father on the next ambitious chapter in the family's aviation dynasty.
Millard, 27, and his father Wayne were partners at Millardair, a company inherited from his grandfather Carl, and to outsiders they were running a successful family business.
"I remember thinking this young guy's got a well-enough connected family that he can buy a farm like this, and he's got a good-looking young woman waiting to marry him," said Bruce Nicholson, the Kitchener realtor who brokered the deal to buy Millard's 45-hectare farm property outside Roseville.
"I've been doing real estate for 33 years and figured myself a pretty good judge of people. He was businesslike, and well connected, but he didn't have a big money attitude. He was an easy guy to deal with."
Things certainly looked great for Millard. By May of 2013, everything changed. Millard is in jail, facing first-degree murder and forcible confinement charges in the death of Tim Bosma. Another man, Mark Smich, 25, is also charged in the homicide.
Millard's dream home in North Dumfries? Never built. His pending marriage? Didn't happen.
And that next great chapter for Millardair? The $6.4-million hangar Millard and his father built at the Region of Waterloo International Airport to repair jetliners, it's finished. The building has never been used for anything other than storing small planes and, according to police, stolen vehicles.
The pretty girl he introduced as his fiancée at the Runways Café at the region's airport remains a mystery woman. Police are more interested in Millard's friendship with another woman, Toronto's Laura Babcock, who disappeared last summer after a series of phone calls to the 27-year-old.
Friday, Toronto Police wrapped up their search of Millard's farm in connection with her disappearance. Investigators wouldn't say what, if anything, was found on the property.
Police are also investigating the death of Millard's father last fall.
Wayne, a man friends say had no depressive tendencies, was found shot in the eye in the Etobicoke home he shared with Millard. Police initially ruled the death a suicide — news that shocked those who knew him. Homicide detectives are now re-examining those circumstances.
READ MORE HERE
Dellen Millard, 27, is charged with the first-degree murder of Tim Bosma. The airport hangar
at Waterloo Regional Airport is a "chop shop" for stolen autos, according to police
