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Episode 36 - The Boren Family

• Clare Laxton • Episode 36

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In January 2014 – ten years ago – Kelly Boren and her children Jaden and Haley and her mother Marie King were killed in Utah by husband and father – and US police officer – Joshua Boren. Having just found out that Boren had drugged and raped her multiple times Kelly confronted him the day before he decided to murder his whole family.   

This is the story of The Boren Family.  

Information and support  

References  

Clare Laxton is fundraising for Women's Aid Federation Of England (justgiving.com) 

 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joshua-boren/id1179629560?i=1000595984200 

 

5 dead after officer kills family in Spanish Fork – Deseret News 

 

Kelly Boren's loved ones pay respects to family killed by police officer dad in quadruple murder suicide | Daily Mail Online 

 

Investigation into officer's quadruple murder-suicide completed | KSL.com 

 

Boren family Utah shootings: Northampton sister talks of loss - BBC News 

 

Officer who killed family had dark side, struggled since childhood – Deseret News 

 

Northampton women killed in Utah family of five 'murder-suicide' | The Independent | The Independent 

 

Credits  

Hosted and created by Clare Laxton @ladylaxton  

Produced by: Clare Laxton   

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Speaker 1:

Hi there and welcome to Killer in the Family podcast. I'm your host, claire Laxton. Welcome to episode 36 of the pod, and I just really quickly want to say a massive thank you to all you brilliant listeners, as the pod has just reached seven and a half thousand downloads. As you know, this is a total labour of love for me. It's just me, my laptop and my mic, so the fact that you're listening week in, week out is just amazing. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

Also, in exciting news this week, canada has just voted to criminalize coercive control, which is real news, I know. As you know, I was involved in the campaign to criminalize it in England and Wales in 2015, so it's great to see other countries following suit, and I know that we have loads of Canadian listeners, so I thought you guys would be interested in that and again, keep the text and case suggestions coming in. I got a lovely text from a listener saying that they were going to continue to consider coercive control in their professional work, which is amazing. So, as I mentioned last week, this case this week also involves police perpetrated abuse and homicide and actually crosses the Atlantic, as it involves a British woman living in America In January 2014, 10 years ago, kelly Boren and her children Jaden and Hayley, and her mother Marie King, were killed in Utah by husband and father and US police officer Joshua Boren. Having just found out that Boren had drugged and raped her multiple times, kelly confronted him the day before he decided to murder his whole family. This is the story of the Boren family. This is going to be a really tough listen. There's information in the episode notes about support you can access if you need it. I know that there's lots of difficult issues that are discussed in all our episodes, but in this one, as well as the murder of children and suicide, this case also discusses childhood sexual abuse and substance addiction. So please take care if you need it and get support if you need it as well.

Speaker 1:

So the case of the Boren family has been well documented, mostly in the American media, but I couldn't find loads else out. There's sort of no documentaries or anything like that, but there is an episode by the True Crime All the Time podcast, who I met at CrimeCon in Nashville and I've linked to all my sources in the episode notes. So this case takes place in Utah and we've been here before for episode 16 about the Haight family. So Utah is a state in Western the USA. It borders Colorado and has a population of around three million people. Very depressingly, when I was searching about Utah for this episode, the news results in my Google search were about a man who just killed his wife and taken his own life. So I'm thinking about Carolyn Johnson and her family here, and it just shows that violence against women is everywhere, as we know and have discussed many times.

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Anyway, back to the Borant family. Let's start out by finding out about Kelly, marie, jaden and Hayley. So Marie McIntosh King was born on the 30th of april 1958 in north wales, so she was 55 years old when she was killed. According to the true crime all the time podcast, she was remembered as a woman who really lived her own life in her own way. She was a lovely mother and grandmother, or nana, to her kids and grandkids. Marie's sister, jeette Malpaz, who still lives in Northampton, described Marie as a party girl and a one of a kind. Now Marie married a guy called Jeff King and they had one daughter called Kelly.

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Kelly King was born in Northamptonshire in the UK to her parents, marie and Jeff. She was born on the 21st of July 1981 and was 32 years old when she was killed. Kelly was a fitness buff, apparently, and at her funeral family described her as just loving life and wanting to experience everything and take her kids to experience everything as well. Now, jeff King, her dad Kelly's dad was in the military, so the family moved about a lot, and that was part of the reason that they ended up in the USA and in Utah, and Kelly actually attended Weber State University in Ogden, utah, because they lived there. Now, the university was sort of known for its athletic teams, but I couldn't quite find out what Kelly actually studied there, but it was at Weber State where Kelly King met a man who would become her husband and killer, joshua Boren.

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Boren was born on the 11th of May 1979 to parents Kenneth Boren and Cindy Haveneck. He was 34 years old when he killed his whole family and took his own life. According to his obituary, boren was a kind and sweet child. What came out later about Boren's childhood, though, would show a much darker side to his life. Now, boren's father, kenneth, actually took his own life when Boren himself was just five years old. He also had a sister. Boren had a sister, but I couldn't find out if she was older or younger.

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Now, after his father's suicide, boren's mother apparently got involved in drugs and was bringing a lot of different men back to their house. But it gets worse than this for Boran's childhood. He was allegedly sexually abused by one of his men that his mother brought home, and he remained angry and full of rage for his mother for the rest of his life for what he saw as her failure to protect him. His sister actually talked about how Boren turned to drugs during his teenage years and became addicted to drugs, pornography and sex, and, according to a KSL website, his childhood drug addiction included him using acid, cocaine, crosstops, marijuana, meth and mushrooms. Now, I had no idea what crosstops were, but I looked it up on a drug slang website and apparently they're a type of amphetamine. So you know, this is a lot of substance use for a teenage boy, and it does make me feel sad that he was clearly let down by his parents and probably professionals around him, and I can also imagine that his childhood abuse and his childhood experiences and trauma impacted on his intimate relationships. Now, before he killed his whole family, boren was actually seeing a therapist. We'll talk a bit more about that later, but it was clear that when he killed his family and took his own life. He was working through what happened to him in childhood and how that had impacted on the rest of his life. Now, just to be clear, I am not excusing Boren for his actions at all, but it was clear that as a child he should have been better protected.

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So back to Kelly and Boren. As we said, they met at university in Utah and married on the 4th of June 2005. Just a year later, boren graduated from police academy and their first child, joshua Jaden, or Jaden, was born. Now, according to the True Crime All the Time podcast, jaden was known for his hugs and he had like a huge heart. Jaden was in the second grade and was only seven years old when he was killed by his father. Now, in 2008, the family welcomed another baby, hayley, a little sister for Jaden. She was apparently very girly and loved dressing up. She was just five years old when she was killed by her father.

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By 2014, the Boren family were seemingly happy and healthy. Kelly was working as a finance director, both kids were at school and Boren had just started at the Linden Police Department. Kelly's mother, marie, had moved in with her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren in late 2013 as well. Soon Boren's actions would mean that their lives would be changed forever, so let's take a quick break here. So this autumn, I'll be putting my money or or my running where my mouth is and have signed up to run the Royal Parks Half Marathon to raise money for women's aid. Now you know how passionate I am about women's aid and the work they do supporting survivors of domestic abuse and trying to change society, and actually at the moment they're running a campaign to highlight the risks around domestic abuse and international football game called he's Coming Home around the Euros. So definitely check that out. The link to my fundraising page is in the episode notes and on my socials. Anything you give is always gratefully received and will help Women's Aid continue to deliver life-saving support and advocate for change for women and children. If you are able to give anything, then please do share it around.

Speaker 1:

On the 16th of January 2014, around 11pm, police officers attended the Boren's house as Joshua Boren had not turned up for a night shift, so they were checking on him Through the window. The officers saw blood on the carpet and spent bullet casings. That gave them huge cause for concern and allowed them to enter the house without a warrant. What they found would stay with them for a long time. As officers walked through the Boron house, they found Marie King dead in a bedroom upstairs. She had been shot. Then, in the master bedroom, they found Kelly, jaden and Hayley all dead laying side by side. Next to them was Joshua Boren. He had taken his own life. This is going to be a tough listen team.

Speaker 1:

The police investigation into what happened that night deduced that all the family were killed downstairs in the home and then taken upstairs, with Kelly, jaden and Hayley laid out next to each other on the bed in the master bedroom, sort of purposefully. The cause of death was gunshot wounds and, according to the True Crime All the Time podcast, borin had not only shot and killed each member of his family, but he'd shot them twice. All of them were shot, once in their cheek and then once in their chest. Now this does seem like a strange way to kill someone. Why would you shoot someone in their face and then the chest To cause horrific pain, to be really sadistic. They talk about it on the podcast episode and they ask those questions too, especially for the children. I mean, what a real piece of crap here.

Speaker 1:

And don't forget that Boron was a trained police officer. He would know how to fire a gun and cause fatal harm. Right and interestingly, the police actually found that Boron had shot and killed his family and himself with his police-issued weapon, a .40 caliber Glock. Now that means nothing to me, as I know nothing about guns and I don't really want to, to be honest. But for and for our us listeners, police in the uk don't routinely carry guns or firearms. Some specific units do, but they're specialized firearms units. Our bobbies on the beat or frontline police officers do not carry guns. Now a toxicology report found no alcohol or drugs in Boren when he took his own life, and he left no note either. Now, as we know, the notes that family annihilators leave are generally pretty entitled and self-serving, so I'm not sure how helpful one would be, but it's interesting that he didn't leave

Speaker 1:

one. On the 16th of January 2014, oren brutally murdered his wife, children and mother-in-law. The local community, including Linden Police where Boren works, were in shock, and just imagine being Jeffff king, kelly's mother, marie's ex-husband jayden and hayley's granddad. He told deseret news about what it was like receiving this horrific news. Quote police show up at your door in the early hours and tell you your only child is dead, your grandchildren are dead, your ex-wife is dead and the son-in-law you trusted and counting on to look after your child is. You look for understanding. There is none. You can't describe how you're feeling. They were my whole world, and I think that is such a really insightful quote from Jeff, because not only has he lost his whole family, his child, his grandchildren, his ex-wife, they've been murdered, you know, taken from him quickly and violently, but actually from him quickly and violently. But actually that person, as he said that he will look to for answers his son-in-law, the person that he trusted to protect his child and grandchildren is the one who killed them. I just you know, I can't imagine how, how he he felt in that

Speaker 1:

moment. The Linden Police also put out a statement talking about Warren and how he'd served with them for three months, was selected from a group of 70 applicants. They said that they had no complaints about his work or conduct but were committed to investigating what happened. And there was lots in the media about how no one saw this coming and there were no red flags at all and the police actually said that they'd never been called out to the boron's house to deal with domestic abuse or anything. So how could they know or try and prevent this? And interestingly, and not something we see very often there was also a statement from a county sheriff in Utah which talks about how he and others in the department have changed how they view him now. Now, this is a departure from what the media response usually is and it's pretty

Speaker 1:

welcome. So Utah County Sheriff Sergeant Spencer Cannon told Deseret News wait, he was well liked and had a lot of friends in the sheriff's office. He was a big guy, just solid as a rock muscle guy, just a teddy bear is how I would have described him Just a mild-mannered personality. How we knew him suddenly fades into the distance because of the heinous nature of what he has apparently done. How do you talk about Josh as a good person and all the good things that he did and all the good work he did and the good deputy that he was, when he appears to have done something that is almost unexplainable? I mean, how do you wrap your mind around killing your wife, your two children and your mother-in-law? You just can't. Suddenly, it just seems inappropriate to talk about him as a good deputy. It would be inappropriate to talk about the good things he

Speaker 1:

does. When there is a family out there now suffering the tragic and senseless loss of a mother, daughter, cousins and grandchildren, that's where the focus needs to be, because that's where the real tragedy lies. There are four innocent victims who have died for no reason at all. I just I couldn't agree with him more and I'm so thankful for this statement that we just never, ever see in the media, especially from the police, and you know, this sergeant not only recognises the victims of familicideocide and focuses on them, but also sees you know, the inner he says inappropriateness, but actually just the callousness of talking about Joshua Borin as a good guy, a great dad and a great cop when he has just murdered his whole family. So thank you, mate. Thank you for this statement and for recognising the impact of

Speaker 1:

familicide. Now, after Boren killed his whole family, there was a police investigation, which released its 145 page report about seven months later, in July 2014. Now this report published some things that were very revealing about Boren's childhood, kelly and Boren's marriage and what really happened that night in January 2014. Firstly, it detailed the abuse and challenges that Boren had faced in his childhood, which we've already discussed. It also talked in detail about the therapy he was attending and featured some opinions and quotes from his therapist. Now, his therapist actually said that Boren was seeing them for sex addiction and marital problems, but he actually talked mostly about his hatred for his mother in their sessions and, interestingly, the therapist described Boren as a three-year-old boy trapped in a big man's body. And as part of this therapy, boren was encouraged to write a journal and, according to the police investigation, which read through many of these journals, boren talked about having a sex addiction and fantasizing of drugging and raping women, including his wife Kelly. Now, this is a huge revelation and starts to help us see into Boren's behaviour and challenges and also what might have been going on in their marriage. In fact, not only did he fantasise's a quote from a KSL news article about this

Speaker 1:

quote. Several friends of both Joshua and Kelly Boren, including the officer's therapist who had been seeing him since the fall of 2013 to try and deal with his failing marriage, reported to investigators that Joshua Boren had drugged his wife with Ambien, causing her to pass out and raped her while videotaping the event. He did this four or five times over the past two years. Several people told police. Now remember when police said earlier that they had no idea about the risks Boren posed and there were no red flags or indication that he was violent or what he was planning. Also, that they'd never been called to the Boren house for domestic abuse. Well, obviously that's strictly true, but just think about what Boren was doing and that people knew about it. And you know he was taping his wife while he drugged and raped her. Does that say no red flags or indication about how dangerous he was to you? Me

Speaker 1:

neither. And apparently some colleagues also commented on Boren's temper. According to KSL News quote his sister said he usually kept things bottled in, but when, when he snapped, he really lost control. While another mention when Josh snaps he is uncontrollable. I couldn't find anything that talked about whether his family or the brunt of his temper, but I can imagine that if his co-workers knew about his temper then his family would have known as well. Again, just another thing that police department seemed happy to ignore and in my opinion, here the police department have blood on their

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hands. Now it turned out that Kelly had actually left Boren by the time of the murders. Their marriage was failing, she was sick of his abusive behaviour and she told many friends and family about his violence and how she hated living with him and wanted to divorce. So, actually, before she was killed, she had separated from Boren and, as we know, separation is such a dangerous time for women and children, especially where there is a controlling perpetrator involved. I'm pretty sure drugging and raping your wife is controlling behaviour. The night before Boren killed his family, kelly texted him. Here are some of the texts from a KSL news article. Quote you, effing, drugged and raped me. I hate my life because of you. You killed a part of me. I don't want to live in fear and hate and anger Now at this

Speaker 1:

point. Like me, you might be reeling from Boran's behaviour and why he wasn't stopped, arrested, charged before he killed his whole family. You might also be asking how the F he got to be a police officer. Indeed, that is a great question and one that I had as well, and apparently this police investigation found that when he was hired at Linden Police Department, he did undergo a mental health assessment. I really hope that they have updated their assessment, because clearly they are not very good. Officers did not have to undergo any further mental health assessments during their time working at the department. Now Boren also discloses past drug use and visiting a sex worker when he applied to the police. I am not sure how he got in to become a police officer and get a gun, but again, I really hope that that's been looked at and I just I really can't

Speaker 1:

hear. Are we really thinking everything possible was done to try and prevent this murder? I don't even think the minimum was done here no risk assessments when Boren was drugging and raping his wife, no safeguarding for her or her children and no accountability for it. And the reality is he should never have and the reality is he should never have been a police officer. He should never have been given a gun. And the fact that he was a police officer makes this case and the story of Kelly, jaden, hayley and Marie so much more

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heartbreaking. Now we talked quite a bit in last week's episode about the Day family, about police perpetrated homicide and domestic abuse and the culture of police then and now, and that was obviously in the UK and there were some key differences with the US as well as some similarities. And on the True Crime All the Time podcast episode, they talk firstly about why Kelly might have wanted to report her husband to police for his abuse and violence. Firstly and this is something that is different in the US he has a gun and is legally allowed to carry a gun. Indeed Warren shot and killed his family with his police-issued gun, killed his family with his police-issued gun. So this is a real fear and I can imagine many women have if they are being abused by their partner, who is also a police officer in the US. Secondly, think about who will be investigating or turning up at her door if she did call the police or report the sexual violence and abuse. Yeah, that's right, his colleagues. And how will most of them react to this allegation? Now history tells us they will try and minimise and protect their colleague, not the

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victim. We saw this in episode four with the case of Carl Bluestone. Before he killed his whole family and took his own life, he was reported many times for domestic abuse against his wife, jill. Was he ever charged? No. Did he lose his job? No. Did he even face consequences at work? No, apart from being encouraged to go to counselling, he was left to continue working as a police officer, abusing his wife and eventually was left free to kill his whole family. The risk he posed was not assessed properly. Her experiences were minimised and unfortunately, I wouldn't expect anything different from the police at the moment, especially from my reading of the Casey report into the Met Police in London that we talked about in last week's episode on the Day

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family. There's a reason why women and girls have lost total confidence in the police to protect them and hold perpetrators of intimate violence to account. And, as a third and last reason, kelly didn't want Oren to lose his job. She probably just wanted the violence to stop. I know from my experience of working with survivors of domestic abuse that they often just want the violence to stop. They want from my experience of working with survivors that domestic abuse that they often just want the violence to stop. They want to have a family life with their partner. They just want him to change, and often he says he will. This is another reason why women don't leave violent relationships. They love their partner. They just want the abuse and violence to stop. And do not forget that separation is a massively dangerous time for women and children, so she probably also didn't want to make things worse for her and her kids. One thing is clear here, though Joshua Burren was left free to kill his whole family, despite his violence, and the fact that he had a police-issued weapon just gave him an easy way to carry out his horrific plan. This episode is dedicated to Kelly Jaden and Hayley Boren and Marie King, to who they were, all they achieved and the joy they brought to their friends, family and

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community. This has been Killer in the Family podcast, written and produced by me, claire Laxton, with music from the brilliant Tombox and Pixabay, taking a very short break for a holiday now, so I'll be back with another episode on Friday, the 12th of July, so please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to send me any comments or questions to my insta at killerinthefamilypod or through a text via the episode notes. Do let me know any stories you'd like me to cover as well. Until then, I've been Claire Laxton. This is Killer in the Family podcast. Until next time, take care, thank you, thank you.

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