GUILTY IN - Kathy Baker, 20, Riley, 22 May 1979

Boswell has also been convicted of trying to kill the couple’s son, Ryan, who was two-and-a-half years old at the time. Searchers found him crying next to his mother’s deceased body with a fractured skull.

Click to expand...

“It is my wish that you will receive the maximum penalty that the law will allow,” Scroggins said. “It will give our family some satisfaction knowing you will never be able to hurt our family, or anyone else’s, ever again.”

Baker’s mother, Carole Monett, added that the last four-plus years “have been hell” waiting for Boswell’s jury trial. She asked that Boswell be locked up “for the rest of your natural life.”

But during the victim impact statements, it was Riley resident Les Boling who spoke most directly to Boswell, calling his life “a complete waste” and recounting that as a youngster, Boswell had tormented local children with his BB gun, terrorized women and attacked a young woman.

Click to expand...

"This is what I’m left with. A photo album with empty pages.”

Ryan Baker carefully turned the album pages as he stood near the grave site of his beloved mother, Kathy Jo.

He smiled wistfully at a few of the images, including a collection of studio photos showing him as a baby and toddler held by his mother and father, Kenny Baker. A young family thinking about a bright future.

“All I have is a few pictures. I have no memory of her,” Ryan said quietly.

Click to expand...

The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a Riley man's murder conviction and sentence in the 1979 death of a young mother and the attempted slaying of her toddler son.

In an opinion issued Wednesday, Senior Judge Ezra Friedlander found no errors in the handling of two mistrials, the third jury trial or the sentencing of Richard L. Boswell Jr. in Vigo Superior Court 6.

Click to expand...