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On March 31, 2007 the University of Idaho campus was shocked by reports of the murder of student David Boss. After the initial shock, attention shifted to the strange and sensational story of his alleged murderer and childhood friend, John Delling.
One year later, his parents, Rick and Debbie Boss, reflect on the life their son lived and how, with Delling’s trial now postponed, they are moving on.
The Boss family lives in a quiet home in Boise. The clean, familiar surroundings reflect a place that one can imagine a college student coming home to after a long week of midterms or finals.
The last time Rick and Debbie saw their son was during Spring Break in 2007, not long before his death. David played golf with his father and went to church with his family.
“It was nice to have such a good kid,” Rick said.
Growing up, David had a good amount of interests. He snowboarded, golfed, played lacrosse and loved soccer.
“’Real football,’ as he called it,” Debbie remembered.
Later he became interested in music, heavy metal in particular, and even had his own show on UI’s student radio station KUOI.
“It was kind of neat to see how he had … started to branch out and do different things,” Rick said.
Because KOUI broadcasts in Moscow and Rick and Debbie were in Boise, they weren’t able to listen to his show. After his death a friend who had gotten David involved with the radio station gave the family CDs of his show to listen to.
“Dave was just — in a lot of ways he wasn’t this remarkable kid, he didn’t accomplish a lot of things, but he was just a really nice guy,” Rick said.
David was a history major at UI and his parents said he liked Moscow and attending UI.
“He never looked back and he always liked it,” Rick said.
They joked that they wouldn’t want to shock the UI community, but they were worried about UI’s reputation as kind of a party school. Despite the reputation, they were always proud of the way their son handled himself while at school.
Rick said it was nice to see his son intellectually challenged and grow while at UI.
“I’m reading a book right now that he gave me the Christmas before he died,” Rick said.
He said he is enjoying sharing that intellectual pursuit by reading a book that meant something to him and sharing in that experience.
Rick and Debbie also remember the touching way that the Moscow community remembered their son, after his death. UI President Tim White and many of Boss’ professors met with his parents. It showed Debbie that Boss had been maturing and getting comfortable with who he was.
“You could see that in how much his professors really liked him,” Debbie said.
She said it “was kind of like the last parent teacher conference.”
Now, one year after the death of their son, the family is moving forward, but the trial of Delling is not. Delling’s trial for the alleged murder of Bradley Morse was set to begin in April. In an agreement with the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office, the Ada County Prosecutor’s office would proceed with the Ada County charges first. Instead, Delling has been found to not be mentally competent to face trial at this time. Proceedings have been suspended until Delling is mentally able to continue.
“My initial response was a little bit of disappointment,” Debbie said.
The family would like to see things wrapped up, but Rick said “it will just take some time, unfortunately.”
Despite the delays, the Boss family is trusting in their faith in a higher power to give them peace.
“We miss him a lot but … you can let the anger and bitterness and all of the stuff overwhelm you,” Rick said. “We’ve chosen not to do that.”
He said that every day he thinks of his son and misses him.
“You don’t want to stop doing that.”
Now he appreciates the small things.
“It would be nice to have him back and appreciate him the way we do now,” he said.
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