Dellen Millard’s strange obituary for his father Wayne

One of the first things that drew me to take a closer look at Dellen Millard, the accused murderer of Tim Bosma, was the odd obituary he wrote for his father.

Wayne Millard died on November 29, 2012 of what we now know was a gunshot to the head, but when I first read his obituary this had not yet been revealed and the police had still not reopened their investigation into Wayne’s death, originally deemed a suicide.

I found it strange that the obituary didn’t mention any other family members than Dellen. There was nothing about Carl Millard, the father in whose footsteps Wayne had followed and who he is said to have adored; not a word about Madeleine Burns, Dellen’s mother with whom Wayne supposedly remained on good terms; and no references to his aunts, cousins or the new woman in his life who he was reportedly about to marry. Everyone was excised from Wayne’s life except for the son, who is now being investigated for his father’s death.

Later I learned from the many people that I interviewed for my National Post article on the Millard family, that none of them were informed about the reception at Vinsanto restaurant in Wayne’s honour and that his colleagues at the new Millardair business at Waterloo airport were all told he died of a brain aneurysm. When still others learned through the grapevine or from the newspaper obit of Wayne’s death, they mostly assumed the cause was a heart attack.

At this point, Toronto police are saying next to nothing about their re-opened investigation into Wayne Millard’s death. And, unfortunately, as a relative newcomer to this city, I don’t have the police sources that the veteran Toronto crime reporters do. For this reason, I am asking anyone who could help me track down Wayne’s girlfriend/fiancee to please get in touch with me. You can leave a comment here (mark it confidential if you wish and I won’t approve it for publication) or send an email to ann.brocklehurst@gmail.com. Every little bit of information helps.

November 2016 Update: You can read more about Dellen Millard and his relationship with his father in the book, Dark Ambition: The Shocking Crime of Dellen Millard and Mark Smich.

Dark Ambition is for sale online at McNally Robinson, Chapters/Indigo, Amazon.ca and Amazon.com. Or you can pick it up in your local indie bookstore, Chapters, Indigo, Coles — and at Costco.