William "Bo" Kirk, a 41-year-old Caucasian male, was a husband and father of three who worked as an X-ray technician. On the evening of October 22, 2016, his life was tragically cut short in a seemingly random act of violence that began with a minor road rage incident in North Idaho. While driving home from his job at Northwest Specialty Hospital in Post Falls, Kirk apparently flashed his headlights at a truck in front of him, an act that enraged the two men inside, David Hutto and Justin
Booth.
Instead of letting the moment pass, Hutto and Booth made the fateful decision to follow Kirk to his home in Coeur d'Alene. There, in the perceived safety of his own driveway, Kirk was ambushed and kidnapped at gunpoint. The two assailants forced him into his own 2015 GMC pickup truck and drove him several miles away to a remote area near the Hayden Creek shooting range in the Coeur d'Alene National Forest. It was there that Kirk was shot and killed, his body left on the side of the road. His family grew worried when he never made it home that evening, and their concern turned to alarm when they were notified of withdrawals from their bank account.
The investigation into Kirk's disappearance quickly intensified. Surveillance footage from local banks showed a masked individual driving Kirk's truck and withdrawing cash from his accounts. A second person was also visible in the truck in the surveillance videos released to the public. Kirk's pickup truck was later found engulfed in flames, a deliberate act of arson by his killers. Three days after he went missing, Kirk's body was discovered near the shooting range.
The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office, along with other local and federal agencies, launched a thorough investigation that led them to David Hutto and his roommate, Justin Booth. Hutto was arrested on October 28, 2016, and initially charged with second-degree murder, which was later amended to first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery, and arson. Booth was also taken into custody and faced similar charges. In the subsequent legal proceedings, both Hutto and Booth implicated each other in pulling the trigger.
Ultimately, both men were brought to justice for the senseless murder of Bo Kirk. David Hutto accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Justin Booth also took a plea deal, pleading guilty to first-degree murder and robbery, and received a sentence that will see him imprisoned for at least 30 years, with the possibility of a life sentence. The resolution of the case brought a measure of closure to a community shocked by the brutal and random nature of the crime.
