Former boyfriend of slain Toronto woman Laura Babcock continues testimony today

Flag of Toronto (Photo By Pedro Sánchez – Own work, CC BY 2.5)

TORONTO — The trial of two men accused of killing a Toronto woman and burning her body is expected to hear more testimony from her ex-boyfriend today.

Shawn Lerner told court Monday he last heard from Laura Babcock in a text on July 1, 2012, and says he filed a missing persons report with police two weeks after that text.

Dellen Millard, 32, of Toronto, and Mark Smich, 30, of Oakville, Ont., are charged with first-degree murder in Babcock’s death. The body of the 23-year-old has not been found.

Both have pleaded not guilty.

Lerner testified he reviewed Babcock’s cellphone bill with her family and her last eight phone calls were to Millard.

The Crown contends Babcock was killed at Millard’s home for being the odd woman out in a love triangle and her remains were burned a few weeks later in an incinerator at his farm near Waterloo, Ont.