"A trailer containing Tim Bosma's truck, key evidence
in the murder trial of the two men accused of killing him, was left
unsecured during transport to an Ontario Provincial Police facility,
court heard Wednesday — allowing a box to fly out the rear doors onto
the highway, where it was run over by an unmarked police car. The trailer with the Ancaster, Ont., man's truck inside was being
transported from a secure facility in Hamilton to an OPP forensics
facility in Tillsonburg, Ont., for examination on May 14, 2013. Det. Const. Lauren Troubridge was tasked with following the trailer
as it was towed. On Highway 403, at the Golf Links Road overpass, the
rear doors of the trailer flew open while travelling around 110 km/h,
Troubridge testified in court Wednesday. This was around 6:30 p.m. "It was very heavy traffic at that time," she said, adding that
a cardboard box fell out of the trailer and she ran over it with her
car. "The lock wasn't actually securing the doors closed," she said,
elaborating that the bar across the back of the trailer didn't secure
the doors properly. Const. Brent Gibson testified that on May 12, 2013, he locked the
trailer with his own lock. During cross-examination, Troubridge agreed
that the doors "apparently" weren't secured as they should have been. Troubridge said that once she saw the doors fly open, she honked her
horn — but the tow truck driver didn't notice. She changed lanes, sped
up next to the driver and got his attention to pull over. Dellen Millard, 30, of Toronto, and Mark Smich, 28, of Oakville, Ont., have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of the 32-year-old father from Ancaster, Ont., whose body was found burned beyond recognition. Millard's lawyer, Ravin Pillay, seized the opportunity in court
Wednesday to point out that Troubridge couldn't say if anything else had
fallen out of the trailer or been disturbed once she wasn't travelling
behind it. "You don't know if anything else came out, because you weren't watching it, correct?" he asked. Troubridge said she believed the box was the only thing that fell out.
Doors secured with wire, not another lock. She went back to the same area of the highway that night to look for the box and believes that she found it. "You don't know if it's the same box," Pillay said during cross-examination. "I know it's the same box, I saw it come out of the trailer," she
said. But it had also been driven over by several cars, she said. A second box was also recovered by police, but Troubridge said it didn't come from the truck. After the tow truck driver pulled over, he secured the trailer doors
with a piece of wire he had in his truck, Troubridge testified. Pillay also questioned that decision in cross-examination. "You didn't secure the trailer at that moment with another lock?" Pillay asked. "I didn't have one," she answered. Pillay also asked if she could have called for backup from the side of the road and used another lock. "I guess I could have done a few things, but I secured it with a wire. That's all we had," she said."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/tim-bosma-trial-trailer-with-truck-left-unsecured-during-police-transport-1.3441914