Sorry to jam this lengthy post in here, but I've been wanting to publish a detailed analysis of the timeline around the critical moments of Bosma's murder, to explain why I see a significant time gap in Smich's story...
Using only the Bate phone's cell tower pings, which are fixed points of comparison, there are 18 minutes between the time the Bate phone called Bosma and the time the Bate phone was turned off forever:
- 9:05pm - calls Bosma, pings in Ancaster (phone activity presentation)
- 9:23pm - detached by user, pings in Ancaster (Sgt. Jackson testimony, Wind Mobile records)
Both SB and WDB testified that, while they stood in the garage having a smoke, they heard Tim's phone ring inside.Then they saw two men walking up the driveway. Then Tim came outside while still on his phone to greet the men, then he hung it up. They talked briefly, did a quick inspection of the truck, and then hopped in the truck and drove off.
From the tweets of SB's testimony:
- Just after 9, Tim's phone rang. Then voices and footsteps coming down the driveway. She stepped out of garage and sees two men.
- They talk briefly. Tim said they could've parked in driveway. The guys say they got dropped off by a friend who went to Tim Hortons.
- Cell phone guy got into drivers seat, Tim ran around front of truck to get in front passenger side. He had a "really big smile on his face."
And from WDB's testimony:
- Watched the hockey game, came up around 9 for one last smoke w Sharlene. Met in the garage bay.
- Sharlene says the guys hadn't come yet (to see truck). Then she heard Tim's phone ring. They could hear Tim's voice on the phone inside.
- Then they heard a voice coming down the gravel driveway. Looked out of the garage, saw two men coming down toward house.
- Wayne could hear voices approaching down the driveway at the #Bosma house. Sees two men walking. One man just ending a phone call.
- At same time, Tim comes out of house, also ending a phone call. Tim greets the two men.
- Wayne says he heard Tim tell one of the men: "You didn't have to park up the road. You could have parked here."
- Tim and the taller man on the phone talked. They explained a friend dropped them off and had gone to Tim's for a bite to eat.
- Remembers a quick inspection and the guys hop into truck and drive off. Tall guy in drivers seat, Tim beside him. Hoodie guy in back.
Based on the evidence, DM and MS walked up the driveway around the same time they called him (9:05pm). Let's round it up to 9:06pm to be safe. How much time would you provide for a brief chat and a quick inspection of the truck before driving away? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? I would suggest less than 5 minutes, but let's round it up to 10 minutes. We're now at 9:16pm as the time at which they left the driveway.
How long does it take them to reach Book Rd? At regular driving speed it's under 30 seconds. Let's give them a full 1 minute. They reach Book Rd at 9:17pm.
How long does it take to let Smich out, pull a U-turn, and drive away again? Let's give them 1 minute. Actually, let's make it 2 minutes to give Smich lots of time to get in the Yukon and follow behind them. It's now 9:19pm that they drive away from the field.
How long does it take to reach Trinity Rd and Wilson St from Book Rd? At regular driving speed it takes about 1 minute. Let's give them 2 minutes. It's now 9:21pm that they have passed Super Sucker. Actually, let's back up by 1 minute because we've padded the time a lot, and the Super Sucker video was 9:20pm. They drive away from Ancaster for 3 minutes before DM powers down the burner phone.
DM powers down his burner phone at 9:23pm, and it pings in Ancaster. Surely it's possible that even after driving for a few minutes away from Ancaster, the cell phone might still ping off that tower back toward the Bosma's -- there are fewer Wind towers in that area after all. (Side note: would DM really pull his phone out and turn it off while driving with TB beside him?).
This seems to be the best way to fit Smich's story to the evidence. Is it likely? IMO, no. Too much padding has to be added to the time; they would have had to be moving in slow motion at every step. IMO there is a gap of 10-15 minutes in MS's story. Here's what I think is more likely:
- They met Tim around 9:05pm in the driveway and drove away a few minutes later.
- They drove north past Super Sucker and the truck was captured on video for the first time.
- 10 minutes later they are captured again on the video, but this time driving back toward Bosma's house.
- They stop in the field and grab the Yukon. Then they drive drive back toward Brantford.
- The two vehicles are caught on the Super Sucker video 5 minutes after the previous sighting.
- Millard's phone is powered off some time while they are still in Ancaster, before they have passed Super Sucker for the last time.
This fits all the testimony and lines up with all the evidence better (brief meeting in driveway, Bullman seeing two vehicles in the field, the multiple Super Sucker sightings, the cell activity, etc.). JMO.
Of course, my theory relies on the Super Sucker video being a few minutes out of sync with the Wind Mobile cell tower. I agreed with DM’s lawyers on this point (although not necessarily that it was a full 10 minutes out) and I think it is feasible because the security system was not connected to any network time sync.
Also, IMO the additional Super Sucker sightings were not brought to attention in order to pre-emptively discredit MS’s story, as some have suggested. At that early stage of the trial DM’s counsel had no idea that MS would even testify, let alone what his story might be. Rather, they were trying to highlight a potential bias in the video expert’s report since he left those additional sightings out. The time sync issues and the extra video sightings were originally brought to attention to discredit the Crown’s evidence, IMO.
From the tweets of Pillay’s closing:
- The SuperSuckers video, Pillay says, shows the truck made 3 trips down Trinity Rd.
- First, north, past the biz, alone. Second, also alone, now going south. Third time, north again, this time followed by Yukon.
- He says the time stamp on the video is clearly off and that it's a "contentious issue" in the trial.
- According to time stamp, the first one is at 6:05pm.
- Trip 2 -- the "return" he calls it -- was at 6:15pm.
- Trip 3 -- "the getaway," he calls it -- was at 6:20 pm. 5 minutes later.
- This last one was the only one included in the Plaxton report.
- Pillay now focusing on this "omission" by Plaxton in his report (of those first 2 trips).
- Pillay says Plaxton assumed the video time stamp was precisely 3 hours off, as was reported to him.
- "The omission in my submission is significant," Pillay argues.
- He says to his credit, Plaxton was candid and acknowledged he missed these first 2 trips in his examination of footage.
- He says Plaxton agreed the vehicles in first 2 trips shared characteristics of #Bosma truck, and could very well have been.
- Pillay is now comparing the vehicles seen in the 3 trips.
- "Think about that. This is the Crown's expert...who was qualified in this area...he says these could be one in the same vehicle."
- "This is the same vehicle," Pillay says. "This is the #Bosma truck. And it's leaving on a test drive."
- In second trip, he says again, this is the truck returning to the field to pick up the Yukon.
- Pillay now playing an audio clip of his cross of Plaxton. In it, Plaxton agrees these are consistent with the #Bosma truck passing 3 times.
- Pillay says this proves 2 critical things.
- First, the Crown's theory that there was only one trip past SuperSuckers that night "is wrong."
- Second, he says Smich then fabricated his story to match Plaxton's testimony.
