Crime Weekly - S3 Ep286: Crime Weekly News: Idaho Four Text Messages & 911 Call Released

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Recently unsealed court documents have provided new insight into the hours following the tragic murders of four University of Idaho students. In this episode, we go over the 911 call made from the house on King Road and the text messages exchanged between the surviving roommates, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke. We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets! https://www.crimecon.com/CC25 Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod 

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Your dip is your business. McCrispy Strips at McDonald's. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. How are you, Stephanie? I'm okay. How are you? We're in rough shape. I have a sore throat. You have a broken rib. Well, it's like fractured, but yeah. We're doing great over here. Accident prone, yeah. We're definitely struggling a little bit, but we're pushing through it. We're going to get it done. And as you guys can tell from the thumbnail, we're discussing the Idaho four murders again. This is a case that's really

captured the nation for the right reasons. As parents, we're all sending our kids off to school and trusting that they're going to be okay, that they're in the right hands and they're going to be safe. But unfortunately, that's just not the reality. And this is an example of it here. And we're still learning more about this case as we move forward through the process of the trial against Brian Kohlberger, the alleged killer. And newly released text messages have shed light on the harrowing moments experienced by the two surviving roommates during the November 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students. These messages, detailed in recent court filings, are expected to play a crucial role in the prosecution's case against Brian Kohlberger, as I said, the suspect in the killings. We're also going to discuss the chilling 911 call, which was recently released as well. We've had a chance to look at some of it,

but in case you haven't seen the messages or heard the 911 call, we're going to play them here. Anything else you want to add, Stephanie? No, we were actually talking about this before we started filming, and I think I had the answer to your question. So I guess what I want to put light on here is sort of the timeline, because that's important. Because on the night of the murders, the two surviving roommates who are identified by the initials DM and BF, they exchanged frantic messages around 422. And these messages actually went on from like 422 to 424. So this would have been approximately five minutes after the intruder is believed to have left the house, I guess. So what I'm looking at here as far as timeline is 4 a.m. was when Zanna

Kernodle received a DoorDash delivery, and Zanna was one of the four victims. At 4.12 a.m., Zanna was active on TikTok. At 4.17 a.m., a nearby security camera recorded some distorted audio of voices, a whimper, a loud thud, and a barking dog. And 420 is we have a white Honda Elantra that has been connected to Brian Koberger seen departing the area at high speed. Now, the first time that surveillance footage captured this white Honda Elantra was 2.44 a.m. and he was near the vicinity of the home. So these texts were going on between the two surviving roommates. They started at 4.22 and they start with DM messaging BF saying no one is answering.

Then DM also says to BF, I'm really confused right now. And then DM messages Kaylee Goncalves and says, Kaylee, what's going on? Then BF, the other roommate, messages DM and says, yeah, dude, WTF. BF also says to DM, Zanna was wearing all black. Then DM says to BF, I'm freaking out right now. And she says to BF, no, it's like a ski mask almost, right? So when BF says Zanna's wearing all black, I think she's trying to reassure her friend almost because the other roommate's like, hey,

somebody's in here wearing all black. What's going on? Like, this is scaring me. And the other roommate's like, oh, Zanna was wearing black tonight. And she's like, no, it's like a ski mask almost. And then BF says to DM, STFU, actually? And then DM says to BF, like he had something over his head and mouth. I'm not kidding. I'm so freaked out. BF then says to DM, so am I. DM says to BF, my phone is going to die.

BF says to DM, come to my room. Run down here. So while this is happening, these two surviving roommates are texting each other. They clearly know that something's wrong. Something's going on. There's somebody in the house, especially the roommate who saw who we believe to be Brian Koberger. And that's why she's texting her other roommate. Like, you know, I saw something. This is messed up. They were wearing all black. And the other roommate's like, oh, well, Xander was wearing black. You know, it could be her.

And they're like, no, there's something going on. They had, like, a ski mask on. Something's going on. Now, the 911 call doesn't actually happen until 1158 a.m., and we're going to play that for you right now. This was just released, and it is really disturbing. 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 what's the phone number that you're calling from?

What's your phone number? And tell me exactly what's going on. One of the roommates has passed out, and she was was drunk last night and she's not waking up. Okay. Oh, and they saw some man in their house last night. Yeah. Hi, just to see if I can... 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 is going on currently? Is 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, but then you gotta go

check. But we have to. She's not waking up. Okay, one moment. I'm getting help started that way. Okay, thank you. She's not waking up. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, one moment. I'm getting help started that way. Okay, thank you. Okay. Okay.

What's wrong?. Okay, and how old is she? She's 20. 20, you said? Yes, 20. You're 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.

I need you to talk to them, okay? I can't talk to them. I need you to talk to them. Okay. Hello? Okay. Hello? Hello?

Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? I can't talk to them. I 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 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. Okay, that's tough to hear. We've obviously heard worse 911 calls, but do you want to talk about this call a little bit, kind of break down what we hear in conjunction with the text messages that you read before that? I mean, first I want to ask, like, do they train these 911 dispatchers to be absolute robots,

robots who are completely frustrated with people calling? Because I just, I feel like we've run into this so much and I feel like if the person the first person that these people are talking to on the phone had some like a ability to be more like compassionate and calming and not act like you know like customer service during the busy season of Christmas who just is done and doesn't want to do their job anymore it would probably be easier to get information out of these people if there was just some, I don't know, humanity exhibited. It's very frustrating.

And I know that's not the point, but it's very frustrating because, yes, the dispatcher doesn't know what's happening. It could just be a drunk kid or whatever. But the fact is this roommate is seeing her friend dead in front of her, and she's like, please stop passing the phone around. I've talked to like four people right now. This is like, it's just, it's infuriating to hear and knowing what these poor girls went through

and like what they have to live with now. And this person that they're talking to to get help can't even summon up like any kind of bedside manner. McCrispy strips are now at McDonald's. I hope you're ready for the most dippable chicken in McDonald's history. Dip it in all the'm sure a lot of people feel the way you do. And I haven't been in law enforcement in a long time. So I think as I've become more separated, I also forget how it was when I was on the job because I've had to work as a dispatcher. You know, when the dispatchers are on their breaks

or there's one unavailable, we have to work dispatch that day. And I think the first thing we can point out is obviously the dispatcher on the other end doesn't know what's transpiring. They don't know what's going on at the, on the other end of that phone. And as a dispatcher, and I'm going to talk about this call specifically, of that phone. And as a dispatcher, and I'm going to talk about this call specifically, but just in general, as a dispatcher, our number one responsibility is to gather as much information as possible, make sure it's as accurate as possible for a multitude of reasons. One, we want to make sure that we send the right services, ambulance, law enforcement, et cetera. We also want to do our best to make sure we understand

the dangers that might be present for the officers when they arrive. Is there someone with a gun? Is there someone with a knife? Like what are the circumstances that they're dealing with? And we also want to know what's going on at the call currently, because that can increase the sense of urgency. There's a code one call, a code two call, code three call. Obviously someone not breathing is going to be a code three. You want to get their lights and sirens as fast as possible. And in that there's also danger for the officers and the firefighters and the EMTs because now they're traveling at a high rate of speed on small roads. And you're not only putting the officers at danger, but also the civilians that are driving to work or driving wherever they're going. So it's a big decision for the dispatcher to make that call to say, Hey,

I'm sending you guys code three, because God forbid that officer strikes and hurts a passenger vehicle that can come back on that police department in the dispatcher. Now with this call in mind, there's some things as a father, as a, as a, as a civilian, I've been spoken to this way by officers and by dispatchers. It's unpleasant as an adult. Nobody likes to be spoken to like that. I didn't completely understand why she was so frustrated about multiple people speaking to her, I would want the most articulate person on the phone. So, so like the male that got on the phone, I could, I can understand him the best. So personally, I would have liked him on the phone because it's like, Hey man, you seem like you're calm right now. Tell me what's going on. So I didn't understand that part of it, but there is, I think you described it perfectly kind of like this robotic approach to it. And I do think there could be some more emotion with it and maybe a little bit more humanity as you described it in these calls. But I can see over

time how these individuals get desensitized to these types of calls. So they do become robotic because this is probably her 30th call that day. So I think at best, the way she handled it, that's what we can hope for. Although in a perfect world, I would like to see a little bit more empathy, a little bit more emotion, a little bit more, like you said, just humanity is the best way to describe it, where it sounds like you and I like, Hey, what's going on? Do I think in hindsight, without knowing this person realizing what was going on on the other end. Maybe she would have been a little bit more sympathetic, but there's no way of her knowing that. So I see both sides to it. I'm not trying

to, you know, kind of skirt the fence here. It's tough. It's such a difficult situation, but the number one thing is to get the, the accurate details of what's being reported for everybody involved. Yeah. I just feel like if you hear somebody, if you hear somebody and they're clearly distressed, you know, distressed and, and can't even focus and they're crying and they're breathing heavy, like they're panicking, the human in you would be like, okay, calm down. Like everything's going to be fine to want to get them to be calmer so that they can give you accurate information and not sound completely frustrated and pissed off at them,

which is if somebody is already in that situation, going to just cause them more because now they're like, oh, I'm not doing this right, but they can't make their brain do something when they're in, you know, they can't make their brain be logical and calm and give, you know, very detailed, factual, calm information when they're in such a heightened state.

So not helping them get down from that heightened state doesn't seem to be helping the dispatcher get what she needs to get. So, and like you said, she doesn't know what's going on. Stephanie, and I don't disagree with you, by the way, I don't, because I do think this can have an adverse effect where you're trying to gather as much information as possible. And you want to be accurate by you talking to someone like this. it can, it can actually cause them to kind of clam up and not say anything because now they're frustrated with you. Now, fortunately, in this case, you have young adults on the other end. So they're

more willing to be spoken to like this. But I can tell you right now, if you're an adult on the other end and you have, and you have an adult speaking to you like this, it absolutely can frustrate you. Yeah, yeah. And you're like, who are you talking to right now? And then now they don't even want to speak to you. And if there had been nobody else there, like a neighbor or that guy, there might not have been as easy of a way of getting, because the guy's the one that was like, no, she's not breathing, right? Right. He was the one who was able to do it. But let's actually talk about that because,

well, first off, you have the text messages and you kind of weighed in on that. And I agree with you. And like you said, the question I had had was, it seems like the conversation kind of transitions where they're talking about Zanna. But then you hear Dylan say that it was him, he. And we had talked before the recording that clearly, and I'm going to say Brian Koberger because I do believe it's Brian Koberger. That's just my professional opinion based on everything I've seen. I believe that he covered himself basically head to toe.

And I had described as basically like a ninja mask almost, where you could only see his eyes. And that would make sense. He knew what he was going there to do. He went in there with these intentions. He wanted to avoid detection, apprehension, and identification as much as possible. So if you know you're going into someone's home, you're going to try to cover yourself as much as possible. And you can see it going back and forth here. And obviously, they're putting it together. And I believe when we originally covered this case,

we talked about this. We were realist about it where you have four young women, college age, living in a house. There's no secret. We've seen some of the video camera footage from previous incidents where officers have responded to this address for parties. There's nothing wrong with it. They're doing what every single one of us did in college. There's people coming in and out throughout the night and you see some crazy shit at college. So when this is all going down, initially, your first thought is one of my roommates are having a crazy night. Something's going on.

But then there are things that occur like a dude being dressed head to toe in all black and having a freaking ski mask on where you start to realize this isn't like those other things that I've experienced. So I know there were a lot of people initially who were saying that the two surviving witnesses, something wasn't right with them. Something wasn't lining up. Were they involved? And I pushed back pretty heavy on that initially. I'll push back on it even more right now. Clearly, this is two young individuals who have never had their friends murdered in their home. This isn't something that a normal person should have to experience. So as they're processing it, like you said, with the 911 call,

this is all happening for the first time. And what was interesting to transition to that 911 call is from some of the photos that we have seen, one in particular, the blood dripping out from under the vinyl siding, that must have been the other room and not Zanna because to me it looks like at least it sounds like I should say there wasn't as much blood as I would have expected because initially they thought she just was unconscious yeah exactly that's also something that got me which is like it appears there's a lot of people at least more than one person observing this body right now. And they continue saying she's not waking up. She passed out. There's no sign of what happened to her. Yeah. Or maybe she was covered. Maybe the room, even though it's later in the morning,

it's still dark in the room. You know, you have those room darkening shades. Maybe there's only one window. And so they're more seeing an outline of a person and, you know, they can see him a little bit, but it isn't until you pop the lights on that you actually see more. Now, me and you are sitting here and we could say, well, why wouldn't they turn the lights on? Again, in a moment of trauma, you do things that you wouldn't normally do. So we don't know the exact circumstances, but. Maybe she, cause she was in bed.

They, there was blankets, covers on her or something. Yeah. Yeah. If Brian attacks her, she might, he might've left the covers on, but it does appear without them saying it, that the male student that goes in there, he gets a little bit more up close and personal. And I think that moment where there's a little silence and then you hear him saying, get out, get out, get out. He is now realizing what has transpired here and And he wants everybody out of the room. Now, that could be because he doesn't want to contaminate a crime scene or be held responsible for something. It could also be that he knows the killer or killers could still be in the area. He wants to get out of there. I don't know what his thought process is. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, you could tell from that when he realizes the gravity of the situation. Right. And maybe, you know, the roommate was too kind of like just stressed out.

Yeah. She seems very stressed out to just think that maybe her roommate's not. I think there was something in her head that was like there was a guy in here last night. Everything was clicking. We heard some weird noises. Everything was clicking but not processing yet. She wanted to get it out to the dispatcher. And the dispatcher wouldn't let her, which, by the way, that part of it, I don't have an issue with.

That's why she's saying, tell me about what's going on right now. McCrispy Strips are now at McDonald's. I hope you're ready for the most dippable chicken in McDonald's history. Dip it in all the sauces. Dip it in that hot sauce in your bag. Dip it in your McFlurry. Your dip is your business. McCrispy Strips at McDonald's history. Dip it in all the sauces. Dip it in that hot sauce in your bag. Dip it in your McFlurry. Your dip is your business. McCrispy strips at McDonald's. It goes back to what I was saying is important for the dispatcher. The actual moment they're in, is there a threat to someone at the scene? Is there a threat to officers? What type of services do they need

now? The officers will get the report from what happened at 4 a.m. in the morning. And also, you don't really want them going through that with a dispatcher, even though it's recorded. You'd rather them give their first version with detectives on scene. Yeah, she's trying to process, I think, in real time, and that's hard. But I think you're completely right. In that moment for Dylan, it's all clicking. Oh my God, she's unconscious now. I saw someone in the morning. Why didn't I, why didn't I respond to that? You know, all that's coming back to her where she wants to get it out. And it's just unfortunate because regardless of what happens

here, I'm sure for Dylan and everyone else involved, they're always going to have those what ifs. Oh yeah. But the reality is at that point when Dylan saw Brian Koberger, it was already too late. Yes. What had happened had already happened. Yeah. With the door dash coming at four. Yes. The TikTok activity at 412. Yes. And so I think it's interesting. Did she get the door dash? Did she forget to lock the door after getting the door dash? Was she kind of, they'd been drinking so she's eating her door dash she's scrolling through her phone and and she's you know caught by surprise well isn't it believed that he came maybe through the slider slider doors yeah i don't think that they i mean he's obviously claiming that he and you know he's claiming he's innocent and that he's been set up

yeah please claim look at you doing the qualifying statements here yeah i'm proud of you i'm trying uh he's claiming he's claiming he's innocent and that he's being set up. I think that's it. You know, he was out looking at the moon and the stars. Yeah. And it just so happened

to be in the wrong place, wrong time. He's trying to get that bushy brows evidence suppressed. You know, he's saying, oh, we're relying on the eyewitnesses testimony, which could be flawed. Maybe the intruder

didn't have bushy brows. Well, just because you have bushy brows, dude, you're. Maybe the intruder didn't have bushy brows. Well, just because you have bushy brows, dude, you're saying that because if you didn't, you'd let that bushy brows evidence stand. This is a very transparent. To me, I'm like, why is this still going on? Why is this? It's been over two years. I know. Why is this dude like at some point doesn't some higher authority have to be like, all right, enough, Brian, we're going to trial. All right. You and your lawyers are wasting the taxpayers money. You're wasting everybody's time. You're delaying justice for the parents of these four students. Enough is enough. We we've let you, you know, get your attention and play your little games and it's time to go to trial. This has been going on long enough. I'm with you. I'm not going

to add anything to that because I think for me, it can be sound almost a little bit cop bias, you know, because we always think we got it right. And I think hearing that from a civilian like yourself, I think holds more weight because I agree completely. Oh, the longer you get, right, the more eyewitness testimony is going to be less reliable in a court. A lot, the more that this physical evidence is going to be less reliable and could become degraded. Like, it's just like they're killing time, killing time, killing time. Well, that's, this is what the defenses do. I mean, and everyone has a right to due process. Everyone has a right to a defense. So I know for the people that, you know, start to come in our

comments, like, oh my God, he has a right. You know, he could be innocent. I get all that. But as Stephanie saying, it's not about whether or not he has a right to due process. How long, man? Yeah. How long do we wait? As you said, the victims, their family members, their friends, they have to, there's no resolution. There's no ability to move on because they're still going to have to relive all of this during trial.

So this is November of 2022. This happened in 2022. 2022 yeah this is crazy it's gonna be well three years this fall but yeah we're going on like two and a half years now it's crazy because he was he was arrested a month after it's not like it took a year to arrest him he was he's two and a half years dude's been arrested and sitting here every other day in the news brian coberg his lawyer say this brian coberg and his lawyer i don't give a shit what brian coberg and his lawyer say anymore save it for the trial and let's see that let's see what you got to say because there's

no more preparation you already had the house destroyed already now we have we have a site we can't bring the jury to we we can't like you know integrate them into that night that it happened because that that crime scene's gone and so much time is passing that the I think what the the lawyers are hoping is that the emotional response dies down but I'm gonna be honest with you for me it's just getting worse because now I see what you're doing not only did you you kill these four young people but now you're just keeping everyone hostage with your stupid legal tactics that are transparent while we all sit here and wait for some justice to happen. And I'm getting more aggravated.

Well, in his defense, this is a win for him, right? He has nothing but time. So he's going to prolong this as much as possible because there's no incentive to go to trial. But there has to be a cutoff point. Yeah, I agree. And in the defense, they're going to try to get every little thing thrown out because they realize how strong this case is against Brian Kohlberger. Now, I will quickly, quickly say, and I don't know all the specifics, but I did see something that came across my feed where there was some DNA that was extracted or taken from under the

fingernails of either Kaylee or Zanna. I apologize. I don't remember who, but I don't believe it belonged to Brian Koberger. Now to me, as someone who's done these cases a million times, that really doesn't matter. You're expecting DNA to be under the fingernails of these victims from other people. There's DNA everywhere. You know how much DNA is under my fingernails right now? The DNA of everybody I've touched, the DNA of my children, like the bank teller whose hand I shook. Come on, man. Ryan's peers agree that that's enough reasonable doubt to basically say he's not guilty. Let's go with it. That's fine.

But let's not play this case out in the court of public opinion. Let's go to trial. Let's get a resolution. Either he's guilty or he's not. And let's move on. I know that I think last month, was it last month? They said his trial was slated to begin in the summer, but they haven't given a date yet, right? And based on what he's doing, I think that he's going to try, he and his legal team are going to try to

even push that back. So I wouldn't doubt it. I wouldn't doubt it. But look, fingers crossed this summer. Yeah. Well, we'll stay up to date on it. Obviously we're waiting for that resolution to, for the families, they deserve it uh the whole community they deserve it and i am sick of seeing brian coberger's face at this point uh he's not the only one but we've talked about that in previous episodes actually last week so any final words from you before we move on from this one and start our new episode for this week no no i mean we could talk about this forever there's so many stupid things that that co's defense has used, like, oh, we have to limit the use of the word murder at trial. We have to limit that, okay?

Like, come on, man. This is, it's a murder trial. Your client, whether he pleaded guilty or not guilty, he is on trial for murder. What happened to those four students is murder. And you don't want the word murder to be used? Get the hell out of here. So yeah, I have nothing else to say. I have tons to say, but I won't.

And we'll save that for next time. And hopefully when the trial starts, we will get some more insight. But yeah, that's all for now. We want to hear what you have to say. So weigh in down in the comments below. Let us know what you think about this case. What do you think about the 911 call? What do you think about the text messages? We want to hear your thoughts. We will be back later this week with a new series. It's going to be the Jennifer

and Adriana Wicks case. Fascinating story. We can't wait to share it with you. Until then, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you soon. McCrispy strips are now at McDonald's. I hope you're ready for the most dippable chicken in McDonald's history. Dip it in all the sauces. Dip it in that hot sauce in your bag. Dip it in your McFlurry. Your dip is your business.

McCrispy strips at McDonald's.