TORONTO — A man accused of killing a young Toronto woman who disappeared five years ago has told the jury in his Closing Arguments that he believes the woman is alive.

Dellen Millard, who is representing himself, says several witnesses have seen or heard from Laura Babcock after July, 4 2012.

The Crown alleges Millard and his co-accused, Mark Smich, killed Babcock on July 3 or 4, 2012 because she was the odd woman out in a love triangle with Millard and his girlfriend.

Both Millard, 32, of Toronto, and Smich, 30, of Oakville, Ont., have pleaded no guilty to the first-degree murder of Babcock, whose body has not been found.

Prosecutors believe the pair burned the 23-year-old woman’s remains in a large animal incinerator that was later found on Millard’s farm near Waterloo, Ont.

Millard says he understands that members of the jury might not approve  of the way he’s lived his life, or treated certain people, but he’s asking them to put all that aside.

He told the jury Babcock is not dead, pointing to one witness who testified he saw Babcock at a nut store in Toronto in October 2012.

He also pointed to Babcock’s best friend, Megan Orr, who told court she talked to Babcock on the phone on July 4. Phone records, however, showed Babcock’s last phone call was to voice mail at 7:03 p.m. the day before.

“Laura must have changed her phone, must have had another phone,” Millard said.

“I don’t think you’ll come to that conclusion that Laura is dead. Then you have to get into how did she die? Where did she die? When did she die,” he said. “These all have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The Canadian Press