Three cases — a missing woman, an apparent suicide and a murder that captivated an international audience for months — have now been linked to one Toronto man in what could be the biggest multiple murder case since disgraced military killer Col. Russell Williams.

Dellen Millard, 28, the heir to an aviation dynasty who has been charged with killing Tim Bosma, an Ancaster man who was trying to sell his truck online, is now charged with the first-degree murder of both his former girlfriend, Laura Babcock, and his own father, Wayne Millard.

By some definitions, the cases, drawn together, could make Millard the country’s newest alleged serial killer.

Two other suspects — Mark Smich, co-accused in Bosma’s death, and Millard’s once-girlfriend, Christina Noudga — have now been dragged further under a microscope with additional charges

Millard’s lawyer, Deepak Paradkar, was quick to challenge the new charges, casting doubt on any claims the cases are linked. Millard will plead not guilty, he said.

“We will defend them zealously,” Paradkar said. “There doesn’t seem to be a common link.”

Police were silent on details of the charges Thursday. After a news release was sent out by the OPP — who are overseeing the investigation dubbed “Project Capella” as part of major case management between several forces — Toronto police held a news conference where they took no questions.

The case against Millard began last May after Bosma’s disappearance, which sparked international attention and launched a major co-ordinated effort between forces from Hamilton, Toronto, Brantford and Waterloo.

Smich, 26, accused of being Millard’s accomplice in Bosma’s death, is now also charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Babcock, who lived in Toronto.

Noudga was newly charged Thursday as an accessory after the fact in Bosma’s death. It is not yet clear how police allege she was involved.

Millard was arrested on May 11, just days after Bosma’s disappearance. Police say Bosma, the father of a young daughter, posted his black Dodge Ram pickup truck online for sale. Two men arrived at his Ancaster home for a test drive after responding to the ad. Bosma’s wife, Sharlene, watched him go. He never returned.

On May 14, Hamilton police announced they had found Bosma’s burned remains on a sprawling Ayr, Ont., farm, a rural property with just a dilapidated barn registered to Millard. His charges were upgraded to first-degree murder. (Millard has already pleaded not guilty to those charges.)

On Thursday, Sharlene Bosma was reliving the moment when she first learned her husband was dead.

“It just puts you right back to the beginning,” she told the Hamilton Spectator. “We had a lot to take in today. But this isn’t all about us . . . there’s (another) family that received horrible news today that they never wanted to hear.”

After Bosma’s death, investigators, journalists and online web sleuths looked for answers in Millard’s life and two other cases quickly came to light.

In July 2012, Babcock, 23, was reported missing to Toronto police. Her last reported sighting was by Shawn Lerner, a friend and former boyfriend, on June 26, 2012.

At the time, Babcock had graduated from the University of Toronto but was drifting between friends’ places after clashing with her parents at home. She asked Lerner for help, he earlier told the Star. Lerner took Babcock out for dinner and returned her to a hotel in the Queen St. W. and Roncesvalles Ave. area

Babcock’s phone bill, however, showed she continued to make calls after June 26, including with Millard, a friend with whom, Lerner believed, she had started a relationship.

Back then, Lerner said they took what they knew about Millard to Toronto police. But Paradkar said his client was never questioned about Babcock’s disappearance.

The case was taken over by Toronto’s homicide squad, which soon announced Babcock had advertised escort services online. Investigators would not say if that lifestyle, which police often call “high risk,” had anything to do with her disappearance.

It’s unclear if police have found Babcock’s remains. Various police forces, including Toronto’s, returned to Millard’s farm with search warrants following his arrest and the discovery of Bosma’s body.

After a search in September, Staff Insp. Greg McLane, who heads Toronto’s homicide squad, said they made no “significant” discoveries. Forensics officers were seen carting items from the scene.

On Thursday, neither McLane nor the OPP would confirm if a body has been found. Police do not need a body to lay murder charges, although it is unusual to do so in the absence of one.

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“I’m not aware of how this went from a missing person case to a homicide,” said Paradkar. “I don’t see the link.”

Babcock’s parents also don’t seem sure.

“There’s always a glimmer of hope,” her father, Clayton Babcock, said Thursday after police advised them of the charges. “Even though it may seem far-fetched.”

The death of Wayne Millard, operator of the family aviation company Millardair, was originally declared a suicide. Toronto police discovered his body, reportedly shot in the left side of his head, at his Etobicoke home in November 2012, four months after Babcock’s disappearance.

Dellen Millard, who grew up and lived in the Maple Gate Ct. bungalow with his father, was interviewed in that case and wrote an effusive obituary that appeared in the Star.

Police were called to the house that November night before 7 p.m. from within the neighbourhood block, according to an ambulance report obtained by the Star. But it is not clear who made the call. That information was censored from the report and the Star was denied access to police records in the case.

The elder Millard had just finished building a massive million-dollar hangar at the Region of Waterloo International Airport and was planning a grand opening at the time of his death.

After Dellen Millard was arrested in Bosma’s death, Toronto police reopened his father’s case, assigning it to homicide detectives. Few details were ever released on what leads were being followed and who, if anyone, were considered suspects.

Since last summer, many questions for details in any of the cases have been met with silence from investigators.

OPP spokesman Sgt. Pierre Chamberland said there was little that could be said with all the charges now before the courts.

But he said, the work of the co-ordinated police team continues.

“The investigation’s ongoing and every lead and every piece of information will be followed to its logical conclusion,” he said.

Chamberland said an “investigative link” was made in July when the major case management system came into effect. On whether that link was Millard, Chamberland wouldn’t say.

“With all due respect, I have to say stay tuned and follow the case.”

With files from Robert Cribb

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