TIMOTHY BOSS - 8 yo - (2000) / Convicted: Adoptive parents, Donald Boss and Lisa Boss Green - Remsen, IA

Boy's Body Found Beneath Basement Floor
Father Reveals Location In Court

POSTED: 6:24 a.m. CST February 26, 2002
UPDATED: 5:38 p.m. CST February 26, 2002

REMSEN, Iowa -- The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and local authorities in northwest Iowa conducted a grim search early Tuesday morning in the basement of a home in Remsen.

The search followed a surprising revelation in court by Donald Boss, who was accused of killing his adopted son two years ago. Boss was having a routine bond review hearing Monday when he told the court that he knows the location of his son's body. He revealed that the body could be found under the basement floor of the family home in Remsen.

Shocked investigators went to the home Monday night and found fresh concrete.

Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Oterloo said, "What we were told by the statement is that the spot is in the basement underneath the floor."

Reporters asked if it looked like the floor had been freshly re-done. "Yes, it does," Sheriff Van Oterloo told KCCI NewsChannel 8's Geoff Greenwood at the scene.

Investigators brought in a jackhammer to remove the floor. At about 2 a.m. Tuesday, they found human remains that are
presumed to be the body of 10-year-old Timothy Boss. The remains were taken to Sioux City, Iowa, and will be brought to Des Moines, Iowa, later Tuesday for an autopsy.

Timothy Boss is thought to have been murdered about two years ago but was undetected by anybody.

He was one of four special needs children adopted by Donald Boss and his wife Lisa. They had seven children of their own. Friends became suspicious when they had not seen Timothy for a while. Donald Boss fled Iowa and was later arrested and charged with first-degree murder. But the boy's body had never been found.

Monday's statement by Boss in court caught law officers off guard. "I was surprised, yes," said Sheriff Van Oterloo. "It's a surprising revelation at this time."


www.theiowachannel.com/Ne...etail.html

Mother pleads guilty in killing

Lisa Green admits charges of aiding her ex-husband in the death of their son, Timothy Boss.
By MARK SIEBERT
Register Staff Writer
11/11/2003

Le Mars, Ia. - The former Lisa Boss on Monday admitted helping beat her 10-year-old son, Timothy, who was buried in the family's basement.

She pleaded guilty to charges that will put her in prison until 2020.

The 35-year-old Remsen mother had been charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and child endangerment and faced the possibility of life in prison - the sentence pronounced on her ex-husband, Donald Boss. Her trial was scheduled to start next month.

But she pleaded guilty of attempted murder, voluntary manslaughter, child endangerment and willful injury. The maximum sentence on those charges is 50 years, but she will be eligible for parole after 171/2 years.

She was remarried last week to a fellow Plymouth County Jail inmate and changed her name to Lisa Green.

On Monday, Green seemed at times hesitant and confused as she sat between her two court-appointed attorneys, listening to Judge Duane Hoffmeyer.

"Your honor," she said at one point, "I'm pleading guilty to aiding and abetting to these charges, is that correct?"

Timothy Boss was one of four adopted children who lived with Donald Boss and Green and their seven biological children in the small northwest Iowa town of Remsen. The couple moved there from Michigan, where child welfare officials were beginning to ask questions about the treatment of the adopted children. All had emotional or psychological problems.

Prosecutors allege that Timothy died Feb. 23, 2000, in Remsen after being tied to a chair and beaten by Donald Boss. Green admitted Monday that she assisted in that beating, handed the boy over to her husband and then did not get medical attention for Timothy.

Donald Boss eventually buried the boy's remains under the concrete floor in a basement playroom. Timothy's disappearance went unnoticed until relatives in Michigan began asking questions about his whereabouts.

Plymouth County Attorney Darin Raymond declined comment Monday on Green's plea, saying he would wait until sentencing Dec. 8.

Defense attorney Robert Sikma said his client wanted to avoid the trauma of a trial and the risk of a life sentence. She signed the plea agreement Saturday.

"I guess it's the end or near-end of an extremely tragic situation - the case of an overburdened fam- ily," he said.

Sikma said Green had never before been charged with a crime and had been described as a caring, attentive mother.

Lisa Green met Joseph Dale Green, 27, of Oakdale, Neb., in the Plymouth County Jail. Joseph Green, who was shot and then arrested by Woodbury County deputies after a high-speed chase in April, was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison last week for several crimes, including assaulting a peace officer.

Lisa Green was granted a divorce from Donald Boss in late October. She and Joseph Green were married Nov. 3.

The ceremony was performed by a judge over closed-circuit video because jail policies prohibit visitation or contact between men and women inmates. Similar rules apply in the Iowa prison system.

Fred Scaletta, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections, said no conjugal visits between inmates are allowed.

"We have a program where kids can spend a little time with their mothers, but that's all," Scaletta said.

Most of the Boss children - ages 3 to 17 years - are in foster care in Iowa.

One lives in residential care in Michigan and another is at a state hospital.

DesMoinesRegister

Woman Sought Help After Son's Death, But Not Before
Lisa Boss Green Claims State Did Not Help Family With Abuse

POSTED: 12:20 PM CST January 12, 2004
UPDATED: 12:33 PM CST January 12, 2004

DES
MOINES, Iowa -- Iowa officials say Lisa Boss Green did not seek help
from the state until after the death of her 10-year-old adopted son.

Green
was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the death of Timothy Boss. She
told a judge last month that the state didn't provide help when she
reported that her then-husband Donald Boss was abusive.

But state
human service records obtained by The Des Moines Register show that
Green didn't contact officials until after Timothy's death in February
of 2000.

The records also show that the Bosses refused numerous offers of family care services.

Green
pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, attempted murder, child
endangerment and willful injury in the Timothy's death. But she claims
she didn't kill the boy and had only assisted her ex-husband.

Copyright
2004 by TheIowaChannel.com. The Associated Press contributed to this
report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

www.theiowachannel.com/ne...etail.html

Woman Sought Help After Son's Death, But Not Before
Lisa Boss Green Claims State Did Not Help Family With Abuse

POSTED: 12:20 PM CST January 12, 2004
UPDATED: 12:33 PM CST January 12, 2004

DES
MOINES, Iowa -- Iowa officials say Lisa Boss Green did not seek help
from the state until after the death of her 10-year-old adopted son.

Green
was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the death of Timothy Boss. She
told a judge last month that the state didn't provide help when she
reported that her then-husband Donald Boss was abusive.

But state
human service records obtained by The Des Moines Register show that
Green didn't contact officials until after Timothy's death in February
of 2000.

The records also show that the Bosses refused numerous offers of family care services.

Green
pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, attempted murder, child
endangerment and willful injury in the Timothy's death. But she claims
she didn't kill the boy and had only assisted her ex-husband.

Copyright
2004 by TheIowaChannel.com. The Associated Press contributed to this
report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

www.theiowachannel.com/ne...etail.html

Iowa Supreme Court denies Donald Boss' appeal


Posted:

Nov 16, 2010








DES MOINES, Iowa (KTIV) -
The Iowa Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of a Remsen, Iowa,
man convicted of killing his son... then burying the body under his
home.

Donald Boss claimed prosecutorial misconduct, and ineffective counsel at both his trial and appeal.

One example? Boss says he was advised by his trial attorney, Michael
Williams, to give the location of Timothy's body during a bond hearing.
Williams testified that disclosing the body was part of the defense
strategy to blame Boss' wife, Lisa.
http://www.ktiv.com/story/13515876/iowa-supreme-court-denies-donald-boss-appeal

Judge: Disclosing site of slain child wasn't error

May 06, 2013 11:25 am

SIOUX CITY,
Iowa (AP) — A judge says that a defense lawyer's decision to reveal the
location of a murdered child's body was a risky strategy but not an
erroneous one.

U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett rejected a new
trial Friday for Donald Boss, who was convicted in 2002 of killing his
10-year-old son and burying his body beneath the family's home in
Remsen.

Boss was charged with murder after the boy went missing.

During a bond hearing, his attorney stunned prosecutors by handing them a signed statement revealing where the body was located.

The attorney had advised Boss to disclose the location to try to gain favor with prosecutors and the public.
Bennett
says the strategy was "extremely dangerous, like walking a tightrope
over the Grand Canyon," but wasn't unreasonable given the circumstances.

http://globegazette.com/news/iowa/judge-disclosing-site-of-slain-child-wasn-t-error/article_97584c06-b669-11e2-bd14-0019bb2963f4.html