Prosecutor: Chances of convicted killer Karen Boes’ getting a retrial remain unknown

OTTAWA COUNTY — More than two decades after a fatal house fire led to a life sentence for an Ottawa County woman, a circuit court judge is weighing whether advancements in fire science and interrogation research warrant a new trial. 

Ottawa County Prosecutor Sarah F. Matwiejczyk confirmed Monday, June 22, that there have been no updates in the case against Karen Boes, 69, as the court awaits a definitive ruling from Circuit Court Judge Karen Miedema.

The defense and prosecution recently submitted supplemental written briefs summarizing their arguments following a pivotal four-day evidentiary hearing split into two blocks in February.

“We are still waiting for the judge to issue an opinion on the February hearing after attorneys submitted supplemental briefs,” Matwiejczyk said. “There is no new information at this time.”

Matwiejczyk reiterated that the hearing relied on information previously presented to and decided by the court, supplemented by in-person testimony based on that evidence.

The Michigan Innocence Clinic, which is affiliated with the University of Michigan Law School and represents Boes, secured the evidentiary hearing following a July 2025 Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that overturned a 2023 ruling by Miedema, who had previously declared that new evidence was unlikely to change the original verdict.

A long history 

The long-running case began on the morning of July 30, 2002, when a fire engulfed Boes’ Zeeland home less than an hour after she left the residence. Her 14-year-old daughter, Robin Boes, was inside and died of smoke inhalation.

In 2003, Boes was convicted of first-degree felony murder. At the trial, prosecutors argued Boes intentionally poured gasoline in the hallway and her daughter’s bedroom, pointing to a tumultuous relationship between the mother and daughter as a motive.

Read more: Pleading her case: Convicted killer Karen Boes granted hearing for potential retrial

The recent February hearing focused heavily on challenging the two pillars of the state's original case: the forensic fire investigation and statements Boes made to police.

During the first portion of the hearing, fire investigation consultant John Lentini testified that the methods used by the prosecution’s original experts relied on outdated science. Lentini specifically challenged the "negative corpus" method used in 2003, where investigators concluded an accelerant must have been used in the hallway despite a complete absence of physical or chemical trace evidence.

At the original trial, John DeHaan, then-president of Fire-Ex Forensics Inc., testified that the fire originated in the hallway, basing his conclusions on burn patterns and fire dynamics. Forensic testing on Boes’ clothing, shoes and vehicle found no traces of gasoline.

DeHaan’s professional credibility later faced scrutiny in 2015 when the Ethics Committee of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences recommended his expulsion following a failure to correct testimony in an unrelated Louisiana case, where he later admitted a fatal house fire was not arson.

The defense also noted that the 2003 trial utilized alerts from an accelerant-detection police dog to indicate gasoline on a chair. The use of such alerts as primary evidence is no longer permissible in Michigan courts.

The second half of the February hearing turned to the psychological tactics used during Boes’ hours-long interrogation, during which she eventually stated she “could have” set the fire.

James Trainum, a former Washington, D.C., Metropolitan police detective and false confession consultant, testified that Zeeland Police and the FBI used highly accusatory techniques. Investigators lied about the strength of their evidence and minimized Boes' involvement, Trainum said.

The prosecution countered with testimony from Matthew DeLisi, a criminologist and professor at Iowa State University, who asserted that Boes was not prone to a false confession, highlighting that she actively denied setting the fire more than 300 times during the interrogation.

Throughout the appeals process, the Ottawa County Prosecutor’s Office has maintained that Boes is guilty, pointing to her statements to police and trial testimony from multiple witnesses who described a violent streak and animosity between Boes and her daughter in the days leading up to the fire.

What happens next

Matwiejczyk said Miedema is expected to issue her ruling after reviewing the final briefs.

— Heather VanDyke covers northern Ottawa County for the Ottawa News Network. Contact her at hvandyke@ottawanewsnetwork.org.