After an intense week of searching and a massive social media campaign, the body of Tim Bosma was found this morning.

Update: Dellen Millard, 27, will be charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday, May 15th, investigators said. Police are seeking at least two more suspects.

Bosma, 32 years old, had listed his truck for sale on kijiji. Two young men arrived at his home the evening of May 6th to see the truck, and he took them for a test drive. This scene plays itself out numerous times every day because it’s a great way to sell things…no one buys a truck without driving it first. It happens. All. The. Time.

After a short test drive, everyone returns to the seller’s driveway for some tire-kicking and a look under the hood. Then a deal is made…or not…and everyone goes home.

I mean, this is North America, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Right?

Except that this time it didn’t work that way.

This time, a 32-year-old husband and father told his wife he’d be back in a few minutes and went out the door.

He took two guys for a test drive in his truck…and he never came home.

Police became involved. Search parties combed the area. Social media went wild. Posters went up. People all across Canada were reposting Tim’s picture and story in the hopes that someone would either recognize him, his truck, or his plate number.

His wife spoke to the media the day after Tim’s disappearance and offered a tearful plea to the kidnappers for her husband’s safe return. Choking back sobs, she said,

“it’s just a truck.”

With the help of a previous almost-victim who was recently selling a truck and met the two men, one of the kidnappers, Dellan Millard, was identified and arrested yesterday. He was charged with forcible confinement and theft over $5,000; he exercised his right to remain silent.

His accomplice was—and still is—at large.

Millions of people watched the news each day since the disappearance, convinced that Tim Bosma would be found alive and well…waiting to see the happy reunion take place.

Today, we mourn with the Bosma family and ask ourselves and each other the tough questions:

Why?

How?

Because in no possible way does this make any sense: we live in a world where a young father and husband can die because he was trying to sell a truck.

So, today while we are asking those tough questions, we might also think about how fragile life is. We might say a prayer for the people we love. We might reach out to others. We might offer help and hope where there is none.

Whatever we do, we have to cling to our faith and somehow keep believing that evil does not always win.

 

Terri Tremblett is a freelance writer and editor who also works in finance and dabbles in various artistic pursuits. She is equally at home walking the beach or digging in the dirt but has not yet mastered the art of walking by a book store without going in. Her education did not end when she finished university, as her life regularly proves. She can sometimes be found behind her camera, often taking pictures of her kids, which they will thank her for some day.

 

Like elephant journal on Facebook.

 

photo credit

 

Ed: Kate Bartolotta