Toronto police searched a Cambridge-area farm belonging to a murder suspect for a third consecutive day Wednesday.
The search is part of the investigation into the unsolved disappearance of Laura Babcock, a Toronto woman who was reported missing more than a year ago.
Forensic officers set up a blue tent on the property, not far from a barn and some trees. Earlier, officers sifted through hay and photographed the interior of the barn.
Police said they obtained a search warrant after receiving new information in the case.
Officers have been at the farm near Ayr, west of Toronto, since Monday.
The farm belongs to the family of 27-year-old Dellen Millard, one of two men charged in the death of Tim Bosma.
In an interview with CP24 Wednesday, Babcock’s uncle Thomas Ryan said the news of the search has been difficult for his family.
“Your daughter’s missing – that’s hard enough. Then months go by and there’s a connection to an alleged murderer, well that just takes it to a new low,” Ryan said. “Then you see on the news that police are out looking on a farm specifically for her, based on her case, and that’s hard to take.”
Ryan described his niece as a warm caring, and attractive young lady who was full of energy and said the family was surprised by her disappearance.
“To us she just gave the impression she was going to take off for a few days or a week or so and that was it,” he said. “But those days turned into weeks and those weeks turned into 15 months now and we know the same now as we did then.”
He said the family has never seen evidence that Babcock was harmed and still holds out hope she will return.
“We assume she’s just out somewhere having the time of her life and doesn’t know we’re looking for her and one day will come home soon,” Ryan said.
Still, he said seeing images of his niece on the news once again ‘turned his stomach’ and he went out to the farm because he felt he needed to do something.
Ryan said police notified his family beforehand that they would be searching the farm.
Toronto police previously searched the farm last May in connection with Babcock’s disappearance and the apparent suicide of Millard’s father Wayne.
Around that time, police said Babcock, who vanished in June 2012, had been romantically linked to Millard.
Her boyfriend told CTV News that her cellphone records revealed her last calls from that number were made to Millard.
Ryan said Wednesday he understood that his niece and Millard had been ‘boyfriend and girlfriend,’ but said he’d never met him.
No one has been charged in Babcock’s disappearance.
Millard and 25-year-old Mark Smich are charged with first-degree murder in Bosma’s death. The Ancaster man’s remains were discovered in May after he left his home to go on a test drive in a pickup truck he advertised for sale.
Millard and Smich are scheduled to return to court in Hamilton on Thursday.
With files from CP24 crime specialist Sue Sgambati.
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