Apr 30, 2021 · Rayne said the prosecution had “the timeline wrong” but Boes’ defense team had a hard time swaying the jury. She said defense lawyer David Zessin, who had primarily done divorce cases, didn’t even...
On March 31, 2003, Karen Boes was sentenced to life in prison for killing her daughter in an arson crime she didn't commit. Despite various innocence advocacy groups’ efforts to exonerate Karen, the defense community’s steadfast belief in her innocence, and the later discrediting of the prosecution’s fire expert, her various appeals attorneys have not been successful in overturning …
Sep 08, 2017 · Holland attorney David Zessin says Boes, who repeatedly denied killing her daughter, was trying to help police figure out what happened when investigators convinced her she must have killed her....
Apr 30, 2021 · The Innocence Clinic argues prosecutors convicted Boes with a false confession and arson science that is no longer valid. “It’s not surprising to me at all that people who sat through the trial,...
In July 2002 at their home in Zeeland, investigators said, Boes used gasoline to set a fire in her daughter Robin's bedroom, killing the 14-year-old girl, then left to go shopping for shoes.Apr 30, 2021
Karen Boes was convicted of first-degree-murder for setting the fire that killed her teenage daughter, Robin, on July 30, 2002. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Knowing that she left her 14-year-old daughter alone at the house, she raced home, only to learn the unthinkable – her daughter had perished in the fire. The nightmare quickly spiraled when investigators classified the fire as arson and began to finger Karen as a suspect.
John Dehaan, the fire investigator who testified against Karen, may have written several books on fire investigation, but he has been wrong before. In a 2001 Louisiana case involving a mother allegedly killing her three children, he nearly sent a woman to be executed before being pressured to withdraw his blatantly false conclusions. An ABC special documentary on the case, Burned, can be found below.
Karen was interrogated multiple times over a six-week period. These extensive and confrontational interrogations lasted up to twelve hours each and led to no smoking guns. Minor contradictions emerged after police began to lie to Karen about the evidence they had, and Karen began to second guess her own memory. She was accused of setting the fire 193 times — she denied it 303 times.
On January 9 2001, a house fire in Pineville, Louisiana killed Amanda's three children. While Amanda sat in jail on capital charges for four years, authorities believed Dehaan's report which presented evidence of arson based on bunk data and unsound science.
This gasoline produced flammable vapors that mixed with the air causing a combustion explosion in the bedroom , which lifted a portion of the roof, pushed the door shut to the bedroom, and isolated the bedroom from the hallway.
George spent 17 years in prison before a federal judge overturned his conviction and ordered his immediate release. Learn More.
After reviewing his actions related to the Gutweiler case, the Ethics Committee of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences officially recommended that John DeHaan be expelled from the Academy on July 13, 2015.
As of today, Karen Boes has served fifteen years of her life sentence but maintains her innocence. According to Boes, her confession was coerced by the police who intentionally misled her during the interrogations and also never informed her that she was being filmed.
On March 31, 2003, Karen Boes was found guilty of first-degree murder of her daughter Robin Boes and sentenced to life in prison. Judge John Hulsing, who was the prosecuting attorney on the case, concluded that: “Twelve members of the community looked her in the eye and said, ‘We find you guilty of murdering your 14-year-old daughter,” ...
14-year-old Robin Boes was killed in a house fire in 2002 and investigators quickly discovered that this was no accident. The fire was set intentionally, either by the teenager herself or by her mother. Robin’s mother, Karen Boes, initially pled guilty to her daughter’s murder. She has since gone back on this plea and claims ...
Findagrave The grave of Robin Boes. However, according to some forensic sources, polygraph tests are often unreliable indicators of a person’s guilt. To fail one, though, can cause innocent parties to lose confidence and begin to mistrust their own memories, which can lead to false confessions.
John DeHaan, a nationally known fire investigator , confirmed findings that the fire started in the hallway and spread to the teen's bedroom. Fire investigators from Grand Rapids Fire Department, state police and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reached that conclusion.
Jon Hulsing, a former Ottawa County prosecutor, gives his closing statement at trial while an image of 14-year-old Robin Boes is projected behind him. Hulsing, now an Ottawa County Circuit Court judge, told MLive the evidence was overwhelming.
Karen Boes falsely confessed to daughter's killing: Netflix documentary. ZEELAND, MI - With her appeals exhausted, Karen Boes, in prison the last 15 years for killing her 14-year-old daughter, hopes that a Netflix documentary focused on false confessions can help prove her innocence. Boes, 61, is serving life without parole for first-degree murder ...
Karen Boes was the last to leave the house, at least five minutes before the fire was noticed. She stopped at her then-husband's body shop, got iced tea at Burger King, then took a friend shopping in the Grand Rapids area.
A gas can was found in the girl's bedroom. A defense expert said the fire originated in the bedroom then spread to clothing in the hallway before the door closed. The defense said the teen may have accidentally ignited gas. Maybe she didn't realize its volatility.
St Louis Jane Doe is one of the most infamous Jane Doe cases by far. I don’t think I need to sum it up. But she was discovered February 1983, and has never been identified.
The Washington Post reports that court documents have revealed the FBI was looking for gold in Dent's Run, Pennsylvania, and they were searching for it covertly because they were worried that Pennsylvania would try to claim it.
She lived in Challis, Idaho; a sleepy mountain town which in 1993 had a population of under 1000.
ETA 06/30/21 UPDATE: His name is Gordon Edwin Sanderson, a 26-year-old Indigenous man from Manitoba. He is survived by an older sister and a daughter. The investigation into his killing remains open. This article includes photos of Gordon: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/man-found-burned-body-septic-tank-identified-1.6086082
Two of the characters in this series, Bumblebee, who transformed into a Volkswagen Beetle, and Cliffjumper, who transformed into a Porsche 924, were released in both red and yellow to add more variety to the line. Despite this, package artwork and media always depicted Bumblebee in yellow and Cliffjumper in red.
Distraught, Martin ran to the house and attempted to push down the front door and get in through a window. His friend, with the help of police deputies, restrained him for safety. After the fire was put out, Martin was taken to a hospital in San Angelo. He was arrested for arson and murder in April 1998.
Louis Taylor was convicted of setting the 1970 Pioneer Hotel fire in Tucson, Arizona which took the lives of 29 people. On the night of the fire, 16-year-old Taylor came to the hotel to try to get into a Hughes Aircraft Christmas party. Soon after, police arrested Taylor and claimed that he had set the fire as a distraction so he could burglarize ...
The Arizona Justice Project is now focusing on the flawed fire science at the heart of the case— flawed science very similar to what was used in other questionable arson cases in Texas and elsewhere. Eric Jackson-Knight (New York)
Six firefighters were killed in the blaze. The investigation was plagued by public disputes between fire marshals and police arson investigators. Police were eventually led to Jackson by an informant. Known to police as a petty criminal, Jackson was indicted in May 1979 on arson and murder charges.