Dateline NBC - Bryan Kohberger's sentencing. Dentist's girlfriend takes the stand. And a Wisconsin 30-year old cold case.

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

In Idaho, families of the University of Idaho students murdered in their beds confront their killer Bryan Kohberger with words of anger and defiance, paying tribute to their loved ones. In Colorado, Dr. James Craig's girlfriend takes the stand against him as his trial on charges of fatally poisoning his wife enters its second week. And in Wisconsin, an unusual traffic stop cracks open a 30 year old double murder case. Find out more about the cases covered each week here: www.datelinetruecrimeweekly.com

Janie, it's your kind of day out there. The Dateline team is gathering. Really? Tell me. Low humidity, totally sunny, glorious. It's time for the morning meeting. They've managed to get the daughter to basically turn against the mother. It does appear to be random from what we know, but they did have an arrest in that case.

I think that's a great idea. Thanks for being on top of it. Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's July 24th and here's what's on our docket. In Colorado, surprising testimony at the trial of a dentist accused of poisoning his wife's protein shakes. James said he ordered the potassium cyanide as part of a game of chicken that he had with

Angela. And 30 years after a double murder in a Wisconsin farmhouse, investigators uncover a personal connection between the victims and their alleged killer. Prosecutors are saying that Tony killed Tana and her boyfriend Tim out of some kind of emotional breakdown that was brought on by this drunken rage. But before all that, we're heading to a Boise courthouse for the sentencing of Brian Koberger and the culmination of a case that has gripped the nation. Earlier this month, Brian Koberger caught everyone off guard by taking a plea deal, admitting his guilt in the savage murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022.

Kaylee Gonzalves, Madison Mogan, Ethan Chapin, and Zana Curnodle. The agreement allowed him to avoid a lengthy trial, the death penalty, and any explanation of his motive. All right, this is the state of Idaho versus Brian Coburger, defended as president in custody. Coburger's sentencing took place on Wednesday, and it was the first time the families of the students Koberger stabbed to death had a chance to speak directly to him.

Their anguish and anger was on full display. This is Olivia, Kaylee Gonzalves' sister. I won't stand here and give you what you want. I won't offer you tears. I won't offer you trembling. Disappointments like you thrive on pain, on fear, and on the illusion of power. And I won't feed your beast.

Instead, I will call you what you are. Sociopath, psychopath, murderer. Date Line producer Shane Bishop, who has followed this case since day one, joins us now. Hey, Shane. Hi, Andrea. So, Shane, set the scene in the courtroom for us. Who was there? Who was speaking? This was such a big day for so many people. Yeah, I think the word I'd use would be a tinderbox. I mean, there was high emotion

everywhere, obviously, after two and a half years of waiting for answers in this case. People started lining up the day before for a chance to wait through the night for one of the very limited seats in the courtroom. The two roommates who survived were the first people to talk. One of them, Bethany Funk, asked a friend to read her statement for her. I woke up around seven with a terrible toothache. So I called my dad, who is a dentist. He told me to take Advil, so I did, and I went back to sleep. This is the first time we've heard any explanation why the roommates didn't call 911 earlier. The murder took place around 420 a.m. The 911 call wasn't placed until noon.

I was still out of it and still didn't know what happened. If I had known, I of course would have called 911 right away. I still carry so much regret and guilt for not knowing what had happened and not calling right away. Even though I understand it wouldn't have changed anything, not even if the paramedics had been right outside the door. And Bethany Funk talked about the lasting impact that night has had on her. I slept in my parents' room for almost a year. I made them double lock every door and still check everywhere in the room

just in case someone was hiding. And I still check my room every night and I double lock it. I have not slept through a single night since this happened. I constantly wake up in panics, terrified. Someone is breaking in or someone is here to hurt me or I'm about to lose someone else that I love. The fear never really leaves.

All right, that is really hard to hear. We also heard Shane from the other roommate who survived. Next is Dylan Mortenson. She was in tears as she read her statement. She came face to face with Coburger in that house, although she didn't mention that specifically, did she? No, she didn't. And Dylan's probably had the hardest road to hoe the two survivors.

He actually spoke to her, uh, after the murders. People call me strong. They say I'm a survivor, but I don't see what my new reality looks like. They don't see the panic attacks, the hypervigilance, the exhaustion, the way I scan every room I enter, the way I flinch at sudden sounds. They don't know how heavy it is to carry so much pain and still be expected to keep going, and that's because of him. He stole parts of me I may never get back. He stole that he took the version of me who didn't constantly ask, what if it happens again? What if next time I don't

survive? It's just heartbreaking for a 19, 20-year-old kid, you know? Yeah. And we heard statement after statement from family members. You know, they had different things that they wanted to get across. Steve Gonsalves, Kaylee's dad, is a really intense human being. Anybody who's followed the case knows that. And throughout this case, he's been the most outspoken of all the victims' parents. And so there was a lot of anticipation

to see what he would do. And when his name was called, Steve got up and made what I thought was a real power move. He turned the podium away from facing the judge and turned it straight to face the defendant to address him directly. Today, we are here to finish what you started. Today, you've lost control.

Today we are here to prove to the world that you picked the wrong families. The wrong state, the wrong police officers, the wrong community. In time you will be nothing but two initials, forgotten to the wind, no visitors, nothing more than initials on an otherwise unmarked tombstone. In addition to Steve, Olivia, Kaylee's big sister, Colt Colberger, a loser. I'm going to a lot of other things, actually. And she did something brilliant and very calculated, I thought. Back when Colberger was a graduate student pursuing his master's degree at DeSales University before he moved west to Washington State

He'd put out a research project asking criminals about their feelings and how they prepared for their crimes and Olivia Gonsalves turned some of his own questions on Koberger. Where is the murder weapon? The clothes you wore that night. What did you bring into the house with you? What was the second weapon you used on Kaylee? What were Kaylee's last words? Please describe in detail the level of anxiety you must have felt when you heard the bear cat pull up to your family home on December 30th, 2022. If you were really smart, do you think you'd be here right now? There is a name for your condition though. Your inflated ego just didn't allow you to see it.

Wanna be. You act like no one could ever understand your mind, but the truth is you're basic. No one is scared of you today. No one is intimidated by you. No one is impressed by you. No one thinks scared of you today. No one is intimidated by you. No one is impressed by you. No one thinks that you are important. You want the truth? Here's the one you'll hate the most. If you hadn't attacked them in their sleep in the middle of the night

like a pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your ass. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You know, Shane, at times there was applause in the courtroom, sobs, very emotional. But Coburger, you know, didn't share, seemingly, in any of that emotion, looking very blank. You look directly at those who were speaking. The only time I saw him look around the courtroom was when the gallery burst out in applause after Olivia Goncalves's very pointed remarks to him. Otherwise, his eyes did not wander. And as far as speaking, when the judge asked him if he wanted to make any kind of statement, he said only three words, I respectfully decline. There was no surprise when it came to the sentencing though, right? We knew what was going to happen.

There wasn't. I believe that although the judge wasn't bound by the plea deal, he did stick to it. And as part of that plea, Coburger agreed to four consecutive life sentences and 10 years for burglary. So what happens to Brian Coburger now? Does he stay in Idaho? He's such a high profile inmate. Well, there's really little doubt

that he'll be sent to Idaho's toughest prison. It's called the Maximum Security Institution. It houses death row. There are 400 men there. It houses, as the saying goes, those who don't play nice with others in prison. It's doubtful he'll have any contact with anyone but staff for months.

I don't have any information about protective custody, but I'm sure he'll be pretty isolated. Let's come back to the motive. This is one of the most disappointing parts for people is that they felt like if you're going to give them this plea agreement, he should have had to given some explanation of why he did what he did, which he didn't. And he also didn't do it at the sentencing hearing. What are you hearing on that? Well, Judge Hippler touched on this before he handed down the sentence.

He said the crimes may just be unexplainable. And by insisting we understand why he did this, we're giving Coburger control. And it's time to end that. In my view, the time has now come to end Mr. Coburger's 15 minutes of fame. It's time that he be consigned to the ignominy and isolation of perpetual incarceration. I've been saying for a long time that we need to get comfortable with the idea

that we'll never know exactly why Koberger committed these crimes. I do believe my sources who told me they believe Koberger wanted to be a famous serial killer. I mean, don't they all wanna be famous or infamous? The families, they wanna make sure that their loved ones are not lost in all the, you know, the circus of this and all the speculation. So many of the families said their last act

to honor the victims they lost, the family members they lost, is simple, just to live. My true final act of love was to continue on without them, for them. Of course, we wish all of the families and friends the best as they go forward and try to heal people. of love was to continue on without them, for them. Of course, we wish all of the families and friends the best as they go forward and try to heal from this. Thank you, Shane.

Thanks, Andrea. Coming up, it's week two in the murder trial of Colorado dentist, James Craig. We'll tell you what his lover had to say when she took the stand. As the prosecution's case against dentist James Craig unfolds in an Arapahoe County courtroom, there has been no shortage of emotional witnesses

and stunning details. Craig is accused of killing his wife, Angela, in March 2023 by poisoning her with potassium cyanide and tetrahydrosaline, a common ingredient found in eye drops. The prosecution has been methodically laying out its case against Craig, who has pleaded not guilty, including blockbuster testimony from his former business partner, two of his six children, and a woman he was having an affair with. Dateline producer Michelle Madigan has been in court and joins us with the latest. Michelle, welcome back.

Hi, Andrea. Okay, so two of Craig's daughters have taken the stand. They are not being identified publicly because of an order from the judge. But you saw them really struggle during questioning when you were in the courtroom, Michelle. We did, Andrea. The first daughter to testify was James and Angela's oldest daughter. She recently graduated from college,

and she was tearful almost from the moment she took the stand. She choked up just at the question of what her mother's name was. Michelle, you and I know that sometimes when we do Dateline interviews, friends and family, they choke up right out of the gate in the interview, it's hard. It is, and it's happened a number of times in this trial.

You just can see the hurt and the reality that's setting in for these people who loved Angela. Yeah, it shows how much they loved her. So the defense has contended that Angela was depressed when she died and took her own life. But the testimony from Craig's oldest daughter seemed to push back against that, right? Yes. She said that there were a lot of things that Angela was looking forward to. She wanted to become a grandmother. And she said the two had planned to fix up a house together

and Angela would send her house listings. Her daughter also testified that when Angela became sick, she didn't know what was wrong with her and she really wanted to get out of the hospital, saying she needed to get back to her girls. And you know, when the defense cross-examined her about Angela's mental health, her daughter maintained that her mother struggled

like anyone else, but she did not have a mental illness. The other daughter who testified, Michelle, she was living at home at the time when Angela died. She was asked about a mysterious phone call between her and her dad. This was so interesting. She said that James calls after he's been arrested from jail. And he asked her to bail out another inmate saying that this inmate would have important information.

And she did it. She went to the jail, paid this inmate's bail, and he handed her a letter from her father. And the letter asked her to create a deep fake video of Angela saying she had asked James to order the poison. It gave her the directions to make the video, buy a burner laptop, adjust the metadata, and make these purchases on the dark web. Unbelievable.

And just to clarify, she didn't go forward with it and she handed everything over to law enforcement. Again, so strange. Michelle, we heard from James Craig's former business partner who played a key role at to law enforcement. Again, so strange. Michelle, we heard from James Craig's former business partner who played a key role at the beginning of this case. Yes, this testimony was from Dr. Ryan Redfern. He was also a dentist.

He met James during dental school. He and his wife, Michelle, who also testified, were friends with James and Angela. And when Angela became ill, Ryan was on his way to visit her in the hospital, and he gets this call from the office manager that had discovered a cyanide package had been delivered to the office. And so he is the person who pulled a nurse aside to let them know about it. And he also told Angela's brother about the cyanide. So that set off alarm bells, obviously, in the hospital. Then he testified about a conversation

that he and his wife had with James. And James is saying, Ryan, what have you done? And Ryan eventually asked him, was it true? What is this for? And James said he ordered the potassium cyanide as part of a game of chicken that he had with Angela, who he said was suicidal and unable to obtain it for herself, but that he had ordered the cyanide for her at her request. LESLIE KENDRICK Michelle, we talked last week about the fact that it was an open secret. James Craig was cheating on his wife with multiple women. This week, we heard from one of the most anticipated witnesses in this trial, the woman James Craig was seeing when Angela died. Yes, her name is Dr. Karen Kane. She's an orthodontist based in Texas. And the prosecution

had her, you know, lay out how she met James and how the affair started. They met in February 2023. So just about a month before Angela died. It was a conference in Las Vegas and they struck up a conversation waiting in line to go to dinner. She said that as she was talking to him about her divorce and her faith, she really opened up to him because he also described himself as in the same situation at the end of a hard divorce. And this relationship continued after the conference.

That's right. She said they texted and had phone calls and during those, he said Angela and he'd been separated, he was living in his own apartment. She said James also talked about Angela's illness and in March, Dr. Cain actually came to Colorado while Angela was ill. They had dinner a couple of times while she was

in the hospital. And then even after she passed away, he came and took her to dinner. And in fact, he left her hotel at midnight and two hours later, she gets a knock on the door from a detective telling her that James had been arrested. Oh my, that's a lot. So Karen was just completely in the dark about everything. She was. The prosecution is really pointing to her as motive. He was intending to be with her and that's why he wanted to commit this alleged murder. Dr. Cain testified that she and James talked about being together in the long term. They didn't talk about logistics, but they did talk about their feelings,

and this was a very swift love affair. Yeah. The prosecution spent a lot of time reading through James Craig's and Dr. Kane's texts while she was on the stand. Was that to further bolster their idea of what the motive was? It was. They exchanged 4,000 text messages and we got to hear some of them. And during the time that Angela was in the hospital, James is writing to Dr. Cain and texting and saying, quote, she still thinks I did this to her and, quote, just for the record, I will never drug you in case that was something you were ever worried about.

Okay. It has been quite the interesting trial so far, and there's still more to come, Michelle, and I know you'll be there. So we look forward to catching up with you again as this progresses. Thank you. My pleasure. Coming up, a traffic stop cracks open a's Detective responded to a call at a house on Butternut Road in the small town of Royalton, Wisconsin. In the bedroom, he found two people and a dog stabbed to death, but no one was arrested until three years ago.

Tony Hayes, who lived just under two miles from that house on Butternut Road in 1992, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. But prosecutors say the connection between him and the victims was much deeper than how close they lived to each other. Hayes pleaded not guilty to the charges, and late last week a jury was seated in his trial. Dateline producer Marissa Meyer is in the courtroom, and she has stepped guilty to the charges and late last week a jury was seated in his trial Dateline producer Marissa Meyer is in the courtroom and she has stepped out to the parking lot to tell us how Investigators say they cracked this case and what the defense is saying they got wrong Marissa. Welcome back to the podcast Thank you so much for having me Marissa first of all tell us who are these victims?

So the victims in this case are Tana Togstad, who was 23 at the time, and her boyfriend, Tim Mumbrough. He was 34. And according to Tana's best friend, they had been dating for about six months. So what does the prosecution alleging happen that night in March 1992? The prosecution is painting a picture

of a pretty brutal murder. They haven't been clear on the exact sequence of events, but they're alleging that Tony Hayes showed up to Tana's house drunk, got into a scuffle with Tana's boyfriend. During that scuffle, he punched Tana. She was knocked out, and he repeatedly stabbed Tim. And according to the investigators' complaint, once Tana came to, Tony allegedly stabbed and killed her. Seaman was found like on top of her legs and in the midst of this, Tana's dog Scruffy was killed as well. What is the prosecution saying is the motive here? Why would he do that?

So they're saying that the motive in this case is a personal one, that Tony's dad died in a snowmobiling accident when Tony was about seven, so years and years before the murder, and Tana's father was there during this accident. So prosecutors are saying that Tony killed Tana and her boyfriend Tim out of anger and some kind of emotional breakdown that was brought on by this drunken rage. What led investigators to Tony Hayes after all this time? Because Marissa, so much time passed. So what we know so far is that the case got a fresh look in 2015 when a special agent with the Wisconsin DOJ

was assigned to look into it. And a lot of the evidence from the scene was preserved, even though back in 1992, no one was talking about DNA testing or DNA. And one of the key pieces that was preserved was semen that was collected from Tana's body. So over the years, they would try to match the sample to CODIS, didn't find a match. And then through a seven year investigation, law enforcement landed on Tony. And they set up this traffic stop in 2022 to get a DNA sample from him. And according to prosecutors, that DNA sample was a match to the DNA that was found at the scene.

The defense has strongly criticized the traffic stop in all of this. Walk us through what they're alleging there, the defense. Right. So they're saying in July 2022, a state agent and a Wisconsin state trooper pulled Tony over for not having a front license plate on his truck. So then the trooper gives Tony a pen, a clipboard, and this warning ticket and convinces Tony to sign this traffic citation. The investigators say that they DNA tested the pen, the clipboard, and the ticket, and they say that it was a match to the semen that was found on Tana's body.

Wow. So this is like a twist on giving the suspect a water bottle or taking their McDonald's from them. Exactly. But when it comes to the DNA results, too, the defense is really saying not so fast with it. They are saying that these DNA results are unreliable, that most of the DNA evidence in the case was used up by the year 2000 from what they're saying is destructive testing. And so they're saying these DNA profiles that investigators came up with were created with insufficient evidence.

And they're also saying that this DNA test should have had a warrant, right? Yes. Yes. They're saying that it's an illegal DNA test, as you said, conducted without a warrant and without consent. There was a huge moment after Hayes was arrested in 2022, a month after that traffic stop. He ends up confessing to the murders? He does.

He does. He says that he was blackout drunk the night of the murders. There's holes in his memory and holes in his story. He doesn't remember if he brought a knife to Tana's house or if he picked up a knife at Tana's house. During the interrogation, which is quite lengthy, investigators asked him, so why didn't you come forward after this brutal crime? And he said something along the lines of, I didn't want to make it seem like I had

planned this. And that after when he had seen these news reports about the murders, he said something along the lines of like, oh my goodness, what did I do? Yeah, except he used some bad language. Yes, yes. Some worse language than oh my goodness, yes. As we know Marissa though, he's now on trial saying he didn't do it.

So why would he have confessed? What's the defense saying? The defense is saying that this is a coerced confession, that the investigators lied repeatedly to Tony, that they interrogated him for seven hours, that they used these techniques that really elicited a false confession in this case. The defense is saying jurors can't trust the DNA analysis or the confession. So what are they saying actually happened then? What is their theory? So they are saying that the person who perpetrated these murders is Tony's uncle, who actually

passed away in 1995. But according to the defense, this uncle was psychotic, had been known to kill dogs, and even though this relative had been ruled out as a suspect early on, the defense is saying that investigators didn't take the evidence against him seriously enough. SONIA DARA This story takes yet another twist. They exhumed the uncle's body back in June? Yes, they do. So the state exhumes the body, they DNA test the uncle's DNA against the DNA found on Tana's body, and they say it is not a match.

But the judge has said that the jury is not going to hear that the uncle's body was exhumed, that these DNA results did not match back to him. But it seems at least for now, the uncle will be mentioned as an alternate suspect in this trial. All right. So Marissa, the trial is expected to take what, another month or so? Yes. So there's lots of testimony, lots of witnesses to come.

Okay. Very interesting case, Marissa. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Andrea. That's it for this episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly. To get ad-free listening for all our podcasts, subscribe to Dateline Premium. And if you want to send us a message about any of the cases we cover on the podcast,

or you have questions for the Dateline team, you can reach us on social at Dateline NBC or call us at 212-413-5252. Coming up this Friday on Dateline, Josh has a classic episode. A man dies mysteriously in his brand new apartment. His girlfriend says he shot himself. His parents refuse to believe it.

I concluded that there must have been an intruder in the house that shot Jonathan. Watch Behind Door, 8.13 this Friday on NBC at 9, 8 Central. Thanks for listening. Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Frannie Kelly, Katie Ferguson and Sue Simpson. Our associate producers are Carson Cummins, Caroline Casey and Kim Flores Gaynor. Our senior producer is Liz Brown-Kurloff, production and fact checking help by Terry Dickerson.

Veronica Mazaca is our digital producer. Rick Kwan is our sound designer. Original music by Jesse McGinty. Bryson Barnes is head of audio production. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline. See everybody as we go. Bye bye.