Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Idaho Murders: 7 Hidden Clues Revealed in 911 Call

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

27 months after four University of Idaho students were found stabbed to death in their home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, audio of the 911 call has been released. The two surviving roommates and their friends can be heard talking with the 911 dispatcher. But they can also be heard talking in the background and those comments were not included in a transcript and offer clues about the crime scene. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through those comments in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Check Out Megyn Kelly’s Investigation On The Disappearance of Baby Lisa Now at https://youtube.com/@MegynKellyHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Jack Greiner  https://x.com/jackcgreinerCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And on what occasion of your emergency? Hi, something is happening. Something happened to my house. We don't know what. A surviving roommate calls 911 from the house on King Road asking for help. But there's more the transcript didn't pick up. I look at the clues the call reveals. I'm Anjanette Levy, and this is Crime Fix.

Really quick, before we dive into the 911 call, I want to tell you about a new channel that we're launching right here at Law & Crime. It's called Scandal. It's a place where we look into all the wildest crimes happening in Hollywood and expose the darker side of fame. Click the link in the description and subscribe to stay up to date on all the latest celebrity scandals. Now back to the very latest on the Idaho Murders 911 call. Of course, it was just before noon on November 13th, 2022, when the roommates who survived the horror on King Road called 911. We've boosted the audio so we can hear what's going on in the background.

And I'll tell you what I'm hearing and what I think is happening. Some of it is still hard to hear, and I want to know what you're hearing. So if you hear something different from what I think I'm hearing, please put it in the comments. We're also going to look at why it took more than two years for this call to be released. Now, at the beginning of the call, a neighbor said one of the roommates was passed out. That was Zanna Cronodal. It would only take a few minutes for police to arrive and realize that it was much, much worse than that. Zanna, Ethan Chapin, Maddie Mogan, and Kaylee Gonsalves had been stabbed to death. A massive police investigation unfolded, and more than six weeks later, Washington State University PhD student Brian Koberger was arrested and charged with murdering Maddie, Kaylee, Ethan, and Zanna. He faces the possibility of the death penalty if he's convicted. At this point, Koberger says he didn't commit these crimes. Now back to the 911 call. The phone was passed around quite a bit. The roommates were scared. The call starts with roommate Bethany Funk. Four people, including the

two roommates, a neighbor and a friend of Ethan's named Hunter Johnson, all talked to the 911 dispatcher, but there are also things in the background that you can hear only if you listen very closely. So let's listen, and I'm going to put text on the screen for those things in the background. November 13, 2022. 911 location of your emergency. Hi, something is happening. Something happened to my house. We don't know what. What is the address of the emergency?

112. 112. What is the rest of the address? Oh, King Road. Okay. And is that a house or an apartment? It's a house. Can you repeat the address to make sure that I have it right?

I'll talk to you guys. We live at the White, so we're next to them. I need someone to repeat the address for verification. The address, 1122 King Road. And what's the phone number that you're calling from? 3731. Tell me exactly what's going on. One of our, one of the roommates has passed out and she was drunk last night and she's

not waking up. Okay. Oh, and they saw some man in their house last night. Yeah. Hi, this is... Can I argue with the patient? Okay, I need someone to keep the phone, stop passing it around. Can I just tell you what happened, pretty much?

What is going on currently? Has someone passed out right now? I don't really know, but pretty much at 4 a.m. Okay, I need to know what's going on right now if someone has passed out. Can you find that out? Yeah, I'll come. Come on, let me go check. But we have to.

Did you just have to? Yes. Did you just have to? Did you just have to? What's wrong? Now, did you hear that? It sounds like a woman in the background is saying, I need to know. And Hunter, the friend of Ethan Chapins, who came over to the house, went up to the second floor of the house and says, Zanna, Ethan. And it sounds like he may be knocking on a door.

And to be clear, this is what it sounds like to me. The roommate, Dylan, who saw the man in the house, is the one on the phone, and it sounds like she says, please be passed out. And Hunter then says again, Zanna, wake up. I'm going to play that portion of the call again. Okay, I need to know what's going on right now if someone is passed out. Can you find that out? Yeah, I'll come. Come on, let me go check. But we have to.

Did she pass out? She's not waking up. Okay, one moment. I'm getting help started that way. Okay, thank you. What's wrong? Forty-six. Forty-six. okay and how old is she um she's 20. I want to tell you about something that Megyn Kelly has out right now. It's a truly gripping and incredible investigative documentary on her YouTube channel. The disappearance of baby Lisa Irwin has been a mystery for more than a decade. Who took her from her crib in the middle of the night?

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So earlier in the call, you had heard Dylan say, we have to go check on them. So this is what I'm thinking may have happened based on what we heard. It sounds like Hunter went to the second floor and possibly Zanna Kernodle's bedroom door was closed. Hunter calls for Zanna and Ethan and they don't respond. He possibly knocks on that door and says, Zanna, wake up. Dylan says what sounds like, please be passed out. Then there's heavy breathing and what sounds like, poor Kaylee. Finally, Hunter says, get out, get out, let's get out. I'm going to pick it up from there. Okay. And how old is she? She's 20. 20, you said?

Yes, 20. Okay. Hello? Hello? Okay, I need someone to stop passing the phone around because I've talked to four different people. Okay, sorry, they just gave me the phone. Is she breathing? Hello?

Is she breathing? No. Okay. Bethany, the line needs you to talk to them, okay? I can't talk to them, but they need you to talk to them. Hello? Okay. I have already sent the ambulance and law enforcement.

Stay on the line. If there is a defibrillator available, send someone to get it now and law enforcement. Stay on the line. If there is a defibrillator available, send someone to get it now and tell me when you have it. Say that again? There's a police here right now. Okay, if there is a defibrillator available, send someone to get it now and tell me when you have it. Do you have a defibrillator? Yes, we have one. Are you talking to the officer?

Yes. Okay, I'm going to let you go since he's there with you and can help you. Okay, thank you. Bye. Okay. Now, from what I can gather from the 911 call, it does not sound like Hunter went to the third floor where Kaylee Gonsalves and Maddie Mogan were found dead in Maddie's bed. Kaylee's father, Steve Gonsalves, spoke to News Nation about the audio of the call and what Hunter Johnson told him. I talked to Hunter directly and it sucks. He had a broken soul. This is a man who's seen his best

friend dead, you know, like dying, like gone. So we exchanged a moment and i talked to him and he was trying to protect everyone in that house to not go through what was overwhelming him at the moment so i don't know about the details of upstairs downstairs door open door not but in the bigger picture doesn it doesn't really matter. He was literally just responding to what he probably thought was a prank, thinking his friend, his best buddy, had these girls rolling.

And he showed up there, and he seen the opposite of our prank. And I seen it in his eyes. He was broken. He was very prank, and I've seen it in his eyes. He was broken. He was very broken from what he had seen. Well, did Hunter tell you that he was able to open the door to Zanna's room and witness Zanna and Ethan in there? He told me that he was having, he went to the door,

and he was trying to go through that door, and he was trying to figure out what was going on in there. It's kind of like what you're hearing with that audio. He announced himself. He said, hey, I'm here. What's going on? But they didn't respond. And he went in there. He seen something. Steve Gonsalves also talked about dealing with the reality

that this even happened in the first place and wanting to protect his family and the survivors. My emotions are really my children and my wife. So I would say they feel like they're slowly drowning and I'm the guy that's trying to help them stay from drowning. And these slow leaks, this torturous process that we're going through, they've done a better job. They've responded to our feedback.

We have said, hey, the 911 call is not something that we want to turn on TV and actually see. So they have responded. They have done a better job of, like, this is a community that doesn't know what murder is. They don't have any clue how to handle, you know, public relations. It doesn't really exist. So we're getting through it together, and it's getting, it's hard to say it's getting better, but they are communicating and we're trying to like protect our children and protect all

the families and protect the survivors to make sure that we don't have these trolls that are attacking them for no reason. Steve Gonsalves is referring to people on social media who've questioned whether the surviving roommates had something to do with the murders. They've also been scrutinized for not calling 911 sooner when they were texting about Dylan seeing a man walking through the house, which Bethany didn't seem to believe if you read their texts. The Gonsalveses issued a long statement on Facebook about the 911 call. It reads,

We stand together with all the victims of Idaho, both those we have lost and those who remain forever marked by a tragedy that no passage of time will ever erase. The 911 call? It is not the neatly rehearsed dialogue of a well-crafted story, not the polished performance you might expect from a Hollywood script. No, it is raw. It is jagged, a searing, unvarnished truth that no camera could ever hope to capture. Every breath, every cry, every tremor in the voice reveals a reality so cruel, so brutally honest, it cuts deeper than anything fiction could devise. After hearing that call, one thing is clear. Hunter, with his quiet, stoic resolve, protected those girls from a nightmare that no one should ever be forced to witness. He stepped into the abyss, shielding them from horrors that will haunt him forever. For that, the Gonsalves family owes him a debt that words cannot repay. If you were expecting a neat cinematic conclusion, something palatable, something that offers closure, let me make this clear. The real world does not operate on such terms.

The terror of that night cannot be cleanly packaged, wrapped in a bow, or distilled into a simple digestible narrative. It is ugly. It is painful. It is the kind of horror that shakes you to your deepest core. These were not adults. They were children still clinging to the fragile threads of innocence when the world was violently torn from them in an instant. In closing, let us face the uncomfortable truth. Had the 911 call been made the moment the accused left that house, it would not have saved anyone. Nothing would have changed.

Now, you might be asking yourself, who released the call and why now? Well, we obtained it through a public records request from the 911 call center, WITCOM. In a letter, WITCOM lawyers wrote, by way of background on January 3rd, 2023, prosecution and defense attorneys in the case of State of Idaho v. Brian C. Koberger filed a stipulation for non-dissemination order. That same day, the Latah County District Court issued a non-dissemination order. On January 18, 2023, the Latah County District Court amended its January 3, 2023 non-dissemination order. The January 3, 2023 and January 18, 2023 non-dissemination orders prohibited the release of public records

responsive to your request. So WICOM lawyers are saying that this non-dissemination order agreed to by the parties was amended and prohibited the release of the call. And I remember very early in January of 2023 when I was in Moscow, I had been told prior to that that the call would be released soon, then it didn't happen. Whitcom lawyers also wrote, on January 30th, 2023, Whitcom 911 filed a declaratory action in Whitman County Superior Court seeking a determination as to whether Whitcom 911 was required to disclose, pursuant to the PRA, the requested public record in light of the non-dissemination orders issued by the Latah County District Court. That case remains pending. On June 23, 2023, the Latah County District Court issued its revised amended non-dissemination order,

which clarified the court's position and continued to prohibit the release of the public records responsive to your request. The court further clarified its order on June 23, 2023. So WICOM felt it still couldn't release the call since that case was pending, but things changed once the transcript of the call was filed with the court in Brian Koberger's case more than a week ago. On or about March 6, 2025, the Ada County District Court released a transcript of the 911 call recording. We have determined the non-dissemination order, as revised and amended, no longer prevents release of the 911 call recording in its redacted form and consistent with the transcript released by the Ada County District Court. Accordingly, please find enclosed a public record that is responsive to your request for the 911 call recording. So I want to talk now about why it took so long, 27 months to release this call. I want to bring in Jack Greiner. He is a First

Amendment attorney who's dealt with this type of thing many times. He works at the Faruqi Law Firm in Cincinnati, Ohio. So Jack, you read the letter that the law firm for WITCOM, the 911 Center, put out. And they were basically saying, there's no reason to hold this back anymore because the transcript was filed with the court. So why do you think that it took so long for this to come out? I think that in a lot of high profile cases like this one, courts and prosecutors tend to overreact and feel unnecessarily concerned about public dissemination of information. There is probably some things that could impact the investigation, but those would be in my mind and in a lot of states. I don't practice in Washington state, but certainly in the states that I practice in, there are similar public records acts and investigatory materials themselves. That is once a crime, once there's a charge of the crime, once there's an indictment or an identified suspect, even

before indictment, the materials that are gathered by the detectives and the police usually are shielded from production. I think that makes sense. But a 911 call is what we're dealing with here, is a public record. It is the, it's a call that's made before there's even knowledge of a crime necessarily, certainly before there's any suspect. It is not work product of police. It's just an eyewitness account of something. And the notion that that should be withheld from the public for 27 months or for a week is a little hard to understand. But I think it's a knee-jerk reaction in these high-profile cases where, again, prosecutors and courts often overreact and

impose orders that are far broader than they need to be. The only thing that I can think of to hold this call back, at least during the investigation, before a suspect was identified and apprehended, was this one fact about they saw a man in their house last night, because that was something nobody knew that the roommate, one of the surviving roommates had seen a man walking through her house, walking toward her. Nobody knew that until after the arrest had been made. And it was in the probable cause affidavit filed with Brian Koberger for his arrest for the murder charges. So that I can see, OK, we need to keep that close to the vest. We have a suspect on

the loose. We have a killer on the loose and we have an eyewitness, a survivor who's saying they saw a man in their house. So that to me, I'm like, okay, you have to keep that secret until an arrest is made. But then after the arrest is made, that's out. That's in the probable cause affidavit. So to me, that's the only thing you keep secret. And then I hear nothing else in that 911 call, Jack, and you listen to it as well,

that would hurt the investigation. I mean, we hear Hunter in the background saying, Zanna, Ethan, you know, trying to rouse them. It sounds like he's knocking on the door if you turn it up and really listen to it closely. It doesn't sound like there's anything that would hurt the investigation or that is, you know, proprietary to the investigation in that call. No, I agree. And I follow your same logic. And I think, obviously, if the 911 call were released pre-arrest while the suspect was at large, you could redact that portion of the 911 call,

but the call should still be released. And as you say, once there's a probable cause affidavit that says that, then that ought not be redacted anymore either. I mean, I do think that, and I don't know if the thinking was that, I think you indicated to me, Adinette, that the transcript was filed with the court, but the audio was still withheld. Is that right? At some point? The transcript was filed with the court. The prosecution filed a motion in limine with the court saying, we want to introduce this

911 call it trial, which I feel like that's always basically the first witness is a 911 dispatcher or somebody saying, yes, this is authentic. And they play the 911 call. And it was the transcript was filed with the court. But here's the catch, Jack. It was so bizarre. I think you'll think this is bizarre, too. They filed the audio on the thumb drive or whatever under seal, but have the transcript there. That makes no sense. That makes no sense to me. I do say, and I think there's an argument to be made because sometimes, and I handled a case

a number of years ago in Ohio where there was a murder or a homicide, I guess, on, I think it was either on Mother's Day or Easter, one or the other, and they had a 911 call of the, ultimately the perpetrator calling 111 saying, I killed my dad, I killed my dad. But I think that, and there was an effort there, I think the prosecution said, well, we'll let you have the transcript, but we're not going to let you have the audio. And our view was, we want to hear the audio because I think there's just added context,

you know, and just a dry transcript. I think there would be things that if all you saw was having listened to that call, if all you saw was the transcript of the call, you know, there was, like you said, at one point there sounded like there was knocking on the door. There's just, you know, who's emotional, who's not. The woman, you know, one of the, who's not. The woman, you know, one of the things that I found interesting was the 911 dispatcher kept saying, stop handing the phone around because I think she wound up talking to four different people. And you have very

distraught young woman. And then I think a woman who lived next door who was more in control than some guy gets on the call. And, you know, you just wouldn't be able to get a sense of the emotion from the transcript. So I think, so, and like you say, you don't learn anything, you know, the audio doesn't disclose anything separate apart from the transcript. So the idea that the transcript is made publicly available and the audio is not, it's really hard to explain. There's no good explanation for that. You know, the only thing is, I mean, it's just heartbreaking. You hear these young women. I mean, Jack, you're a dad. I'm a mom. I mean, these young women, they sound like, you know, they're college age women, you know, they sound like kids and that's heartbreaking.

And maybe, you know, they wanted to shield them and they're going to be traumatized for the rest of their lives. It's horrible. It's absolutely horrible. All of those kids that were on that call are going to be traumatized for the rest of their lives. for WICOM, the 911 Center, basically said, we were prohibited from releasing this because of the non-dissemination order, the gag order that the Latah County District Attorney or the prosecutor agreed to in this case. So we couldn't release this. But really, I mean, that typically covers, that type of thing typically covers, you know, prosecutors and defense attorneys standing on the courthouse steps making extrajudicial statements. So, you know, and saying whatever and tainting the jury pool. So this says nothing about Brian Koberger.

Right. Well, it's fact. I mean, you know, it's not it's not the the persuasive argument of some defense lawyer, like you say, standing on the courthouse steps and kind of trying the case in the media. This is a record of what happened that night, what people observed that night. It just isn't, A, it's not typically included in a gag order that I've ever seen. And B, it's not the type of thing that a gag order is trying to protect against. The gag order is trying to protect against tainting the jury pool, that sort of thing. I don't think that, but as you say, that that, that audio is going to be played probably as exhibit one at the trial. So a jury is going to, you know, hear it pretty much day one of trial

anyway. And so the idea that this is going to somehow unfairly taint the jury pool, I think, is a stretch to say the least. Yeah, I feel the same way. I mean, these are pretty, this is how investigations start with a 911 call. And it's really sad to listen to this, but it's important and it is a public record. And it's just it's awful to hear these kids on the call. And it's so sad. And this is obviously one of the saddest things I think I've ever covered. It's just terrible. But we have the call now and we hear what it reveals. And I just hope all of these kids are getting help, like psychological help that they need. Jack Reiner, thank you so much, as always, for your time and your expertise.

All right. Thanks, Adjunet. Take care. Bye-bye. And here's that entire 911 call again. 11-55-AM-42, 2nd November, 13-2022. 911 location of your emergency. Hi, something is happening. Something happened in our house. We don't know what. What is the address of the emergency?

112. What is the rest of the address? Oh, Kings Road. Okay. What is the rest of the address? Oh, Kings Road. Okay. And is that a house or an apartment? It's a house. Can you repeat the address to make sure that I have it right? I'll talk to you guys. We live at the White, so we're next to them.

I need someone to repeat the address for verification. The address? 1122 King Road. And tell me exactly what's going on. One of our, one of the roommates has passed out and she was drunk last night and she's not waking up. Okay. Oh, and they saw some man in their house last night. Yeah.

Can I argue with the patient? Okay, I need someone to keep the phone. Stop passing it around. Can I just tell you what happened, pretty much? What is going on currently? Has someone passed out right now? I don't really know, but pretty much at 4 a.m. Okay, I need to know what's going on right now if someone has passed out. Can you find that out? Yeah, I'll come. Come on, let me go check.

But we have to. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm find that out? Yeah, I'll come. Come on, let me go check. But we have to. Is she passed out? Is she passed out?

She's passed waking up. Okay, one moment. I'm getting help started that way. Okay, thank you. What's wrong? Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, and how old is she?

Um, she's 20. 20, you said? Yes, 20. Here's one for you. Okay. Hello? Hello? Okay, I need someone to stop passing the phone around because I've talked to four different people. Okay, sorry, they just gave me the phone.

Is she breathing? Hello? Is she breathing? No. Okay. Bethany, our, the line needs you to talk to them, okay? I can't talk to them, they need you to talk to them. Okay.

Hello? Okay. I have already sent the ambulance and law enforcement, stay on the line. If there is a defibrillator available, send someone to get it now and tell me when you have it. Okay. Bethany, are you still on the line? Yes.

Okay. Bethany, are you still on the line? Yes. Okay. Bethany, are you still on the line? Yes. Bethany, are you still on the line? Yes.

Bethany, are you still on the line? Yes. Bethany, are you still on the line? Yes. Beth and law enforcement. Stay on the line. If there is a defibrillator available, send someone to get it now and tell me when you have it. Say that again? There's a police here right now. Okay. If there is a defibrillator available, send someone to get it now and tell me when you have it. We don't have it. We're not conscious. Not breathing. Do you have a defibrillator? Yes, we have one.

Are you talking to the officer? Yes. Okay, I'm going to let you go since he's there with you and can help you. Okay, thank you. Bye. Okay. 11-59-AM-49-2-N-13-2022. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy.

Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.