Student was homicide victim

MOSCOW – The Latah County coroner has concluded that a 21-year-old University of Idaho student found shot to death was a homicide victim, Moscow police Chief Dan Weaver told a news conference Monday.

David Robert Boss, of Boise, was found dead early Saturday in the kitchen of his apartment near campus. He had been shot twice in the head at close range, police said. There was no evidence of forced entry into the apartment.

Weaver said a weapon had not been found. The shooting was not random, but police offered few details about the ongoing investigation.

Boss was last seen alive about 8:30 p.m. Friday and was thought to have died between midnight and 12:30 a.m. Saturday, based on reports of upstairs neighbors who said they heard a noise about that time, David Duke, assistant police chief, said Sunday.

Boss’ roommate found him on the floor about 1:45 a.m. and called for help, but medical personnel declared Boss dead at the scene, Duke said.

The roommate, also a UI student, is not considered a suspect, police said.

There was no sign of a struggle or robbery at the South Main Street apartment, Weaver said.

Boss, a history major, was to graduate in May.

University of Idaho President Timothy White said the slaying, the second involving an Idaho student in three years, angered the quiet, rural campus.

“Quite frankly, I’m mad as hell. This sort of thing has not had a foothold in our community and will not have a foothold in our community,” White said in a statement. “We are simply mad as hell that it has happened in Moscow and affected a University of Idaho student.”

Idaho football player Eric McMillan, 19, was fatally shot in his off-campus apartment Sept. 19, 2004, by two Seattle-area men apparently looking to confront a Vandals football player after a relative was involved in a nightclub fight with team members.

James Wells, 25, and Matthew Wells II, 27, were convicted of second-degree murder in 2006 and are serving 20-year sentences.