Murder trial hears about bad blood between women sleeping with Millard

A young Toronto woman who vanished five years ago had an ongoing feud with her accused murderer’s girlfriend, court heard on Friday.

Laura Babcock and Christina Noudga had both been sleeping with Dellen Millard in 2012, said Karoline Shirinian, 25, who described herself as a friend of both women.

“They would get along sometimes, but most of the time they didn’t,” she said.

Millard, 32, of Toronto, and Mark Smich, 30, of Oakville, are accused of killing Babcock in the summer of 2012 and incinerating her body. Both men have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges.

The Crown contends the pair murdered the 23-year-old because she was the odd woman out in a love triangle with Millard and his thengirlfriend, Noudga.

Shirinian said she was friends with Babcock when the two women worked together at a toy store in Toronto, but they had a falling out the summer before Babcock disappeared.

Babcock and Noudga’s troubles revolved around their feelings for Millard, she said. Then there was “an incident.”

Shirinian and Noudga were having drinks on Feb. 12, 2012, she told court, when they “thought it would be funny to send (Babcock) a catty message for her birthday.”

“Happy birthday. A year ago today was the first time I slept with Dellen,” Noudga said in a text to Babcock, according to Shirinian, who smiled and briefly laughed on the stand.

Babcock’s mother, Linda, bowed her head at the testimony.

“That’s fine, I slept with him a couple of weeks ago,” Babcock wrote back, Shirinian said.

Noudga was shocked and upset, she said.

In her opening statement earlier this week, Crown lawyer Jill Cameron told the jury about the bad blood between the two women. It became a problem that Millard promised to solve, she said.

“First I am going to hurt her. Then I’ll make her leave,” Millard allegedly said in a text to Noudga. “I will remove her from our lives.”

Babcock disappeared in early July 2012. Her body has not been found. Shirinian testified that she last spoke on the phone with Babcock on either June 30 or July 1.