Worker who found Tim Bosma’s truck in airport hangar testifies at murder trial

An employee of an aviation company owned by one of Tim Bosma’s accused killers has testified that he recognized the dead man’s car parked inside an airport hangar and eventually notified police.

Arthur Jennings says he was shocked when he saw the pickup truck that was “identical” to one police and media reports had said belonged to Bosma, who disappeared on May 6, 2013, after going on a test drive with two men.

Dellen Millard, 30, of Toronto, and Mark Smich, 28, from Oakville, Ont., have both pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Bosma’s death.

Jennings, who worked for Millard’s company, Millardair says Bosma’s disappearance was big news in Hamilton, which is why he knew details about the missing man’s vehicle.

On May 8, a day after Millard told all employees to not show up for work due to “airport politics,” Jennings says he came across the truck in the hangar in Waterloo, Ont.

Jennings says the truck’s interior was stripped, except for the rear seat, and it sat on a green tarp with paint cans nearby. There was no license plate.

“My exact words to myself were: ‘Oh my god, could that be the truck?’”

But he kept to himself that day continuing work on a trailer for Millard.

“I kept looking at that truck and thinking of that poor man and hoping that Dell hasn’t gotten himself into something, I was also concerned for Dell,” Jennings said, referring to Millard.

He went home and spoke to his wife. He said he was confused and unsure what to do.

The next morning, on May 9, he went back to work at the hangar and was alone, he said, so he examined the truck. He photographed the vehicle identification number, snapped a picture of the truck and then called Crimestoppers.

He said he asked Crimestoppers if it was Bosma’s truck. The operator, he said, told him to call back in 45 minutes.

“Yes, it is the truck,” Jennings recalled the operator saying. “Please tell us where it is.”

He didn’t.

“I went in shock, walked outside and went inside my pickup truck and vomited,” he said.

He phoned his wife. Panic set in. So he calmed himself, returned to work and made it through the day.

When he returned to work the next day, Jennings said he noticed the black pickup truck was gone.

Sometime later that day, he called police and told them what he knew.

Jurors also heard testimony Thursday from a Toronto man who said he went on a test drive of his Dodge Ram truck, same as Bosma’s, with two men on May 5, 2013.

Igor Tumanenko said he was familiar with the truck’s diesel engine from his days in the Israeli army.

“There was a pause when he sit in driver seat,” Tumanenko said, referring to the tall guy that was now driving his truck at the entrance of Highway 407, just north of Toronto.

“Shorter guy (in the back) asked ‘what did you do in Israel army?’” Tumanenko told court.

“I look at him and said ‘you don’t want to know what I did there.’”

Tumanenko said the dynamic changed in the truck after that. When the test drive ended, the tall guy said the price was a little over his budget.

Smich has admitted to being in Tumanenko’s truck during the test drive

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