Dateline NBC - Cases to watch in 2025: Sean "Diddy" Combs and Bryan Kohberger. Plus, safety tips for AI scams.

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

Listen to this week's special lookahead episode of the Dateline: True Crime Weekly podcast. What's next for music mogul Sean Combs? The latest on the highly anticipated trial of Bryan Kohberger, the suspected killer of four Idaho college students. Plus, tips on how to stay safe from AI scams.Find out more about the cases covered each week here: www.datelinetruecrimeweekly.comTo get new episodes every Thursday, follow here on Apple and Spotify:Apple: https://apple.co/3Vx5THGSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5utP1NZyMUlyaUUv7XNq7j

It's Andrea Canning and you're listening to Dateline True Crime Weekly. It's January 2nd, 2025, the start of a new year in courtrooms across the country and at Dateline's headquarters in 30 Rockefeller Center. There are so many trials set to start in 2025. Nicholas Rossi, we have a trial date. It's April 22nd and a Walsh case. That's going to be a a four week trial in October. This week, we're going to tell you about some cases

we'll be paying close attention to in 2025. I think it's gonna be interesting what happens with the criminal trial and to see who shows up in that courtroom to support him, if anybody. This is, you know, her high powered defense team. They will all return for the second trial. Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly's Look Ahead 2025.

Here's what's on our docket. In Idaho, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students, Brian Koberger, will finally head to trial. He can face the death penalty if convicted. In Dateline Roundup, we've got a roundup of cases to watch. From Karen Reed in Massachusetts to accused poisoner Corey Richins in Utah. I'm anxious to get the trial and I'm ready to get this one heck of a fight. We've got trial dates and details.

Plus, NBC News senior consumer investigative correspondent Vicki Nguyen will be here with tips on scams right out of the future. A lot of that content is now being generated by AI, which makes it that much easier for the bad guys to pump out that bad information. But before all that, we're headed to New York to take a look at a blockbuster case with a celebrity defendant. And it's shaping up to be what could be one

of the biggest trials of the year. The music business executive, Sean Combs, also known as Puff Daddy, Puffy, and Diddy, spent Christmas at the Federal Detention Center in Brooklyn. He's being held until his trial set to start in the spring. His charges? Sean Combs led and participated in a racketeering conspiracy that used the business empire he controlled to carry out criminal activity, including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and the

obstruction of justice. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams held a press conference the day after Combs was arrested in September, and he said Combs had accomplices. He used his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way. Combs has denied it all. And in addition to his criminal case, he is also facing over 30 civil suits accusing him of sexual violence. His lawyers continue to deny the allegations in the suits and call them cash grabs. NBC News has been on this story since Combs's ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura filed and settled within 24 hours last fall with no admission of wrongdoing.

Ventura alleges that Combs not only raped her, but over the course of a decade, physically abused her. That is frequent Dateline True Crime Weekly guest and NBC News correspondent Chloe Moloss, who's broken the recent big developments in the Combs case, a lawsuit that for the first time names another celebrity. Tonight, explosive allegations against legendary rapper and mogul Jay-Z. A new civil lawsuit is accusing him of raping a 13-year-old girl with Sean Diddy Combs, which they both deny.

We brought Chloe back and also asked NBC News senior legal correspondent Laura Jarrett to join us. She's been covering Combs as well, and they'll talk about where this case might go in 2025. Thank you both for being here. Thanks for having us. Always a pleasure. So whoever wants to dive in first, where is this story going in 2025? I'll let the lawyer take this one. Chloe has been at the tip of the spear on all of the reporting on this. But from a legal standpoint, the question in my mind

has always been, will the charges, the criminal charges, be limited to Combs alone, or will more people in the alleged conspiracy, as the government describes it, eventually get implicated? So the big question since all this started has been who else might be involved? These parties that Combs used to have over the decades were filled with celebrities and politicians and the most powerful people have been silent. What's interesting is that Tony Busby, a litigator out of Houston, Texas, he has named not just Jay-Z but he named a celebrity bee, a woman who was allegedly there watching a 13-year-old girl be sexually assaulted in the year 2000 after the MTV VMAs.

Yeah. And Laura, there's talk about tapes at these parties, tapes of sex acts. I mean, do you think when the prosecutors say that there are accomplices, do you think it's maybe coming from those tapes? It could be. And if they had their hands on any tapes, that's the kind of thing that is going to be tough for this defense. We know there's a grand jury hearing testimony right now. We know that there's an active investigation going. And I'm always curious

how many of the people that the plaintiff's lawyer has talked to have also talked to the government because talking to a plaintiff's lawyer is very different than going in and talking to the FBI. And Chloe, you interviewed Jay-Z's lawyer, Alex Spyro, who isn't attacking the accuser but is really going after her lawyer. He takes away the voices from real victims and he causes real harm. If this lawyer has any sense, he's going to dismiss this claim. I don't know whether he has any sense. Jay-Z's legal team is saying that they did not do the proper vetting, that they brought

this frivolous lawsuit and that if they had done a simple search on some of the things that she said, that they would have seen that this wasn't strong enough. To be clear, Jay-Z has vehemently denied these allegations. Is this going to be an uphill battle for his accuser? Well, I sat down with the Jane Jo at Tony Busby's offices in Houston, Texas recently. I stumbled upon Diddy's driver who told me that I was exactly what Diddy was looking for. What did you think when he said that to you? I thought it meant that I was just pretty.

She talked about having driven from Rochester, New York to Radio City Music Hall. That would have been a five-hour drive. And she says after the assault, her father picked her up from a gas station that she had ran to to seek help. And at times she seemed very credible. But on the other hand, when our investigative team really dug into her claims, she said a lot of things that just didn't add up. Her father said he could not verify the claims.

Quote, I felt like I would remember that and I don't. I have a lot going on, but I mean, that's something that would definitely stick in my mind. Tony Busby has said that he's going to polygraph his client, that she has already signed two affidavits. If this entire thing falls apart, and I'm not saying that it's going to, if it does, though, Busby has a real problem with the rest of his cases, right?

Because this is now sort of, you went for the king and you missed. If Jay-Z's attorney manages to get this Jane Doe sort of discredited, that's a strategic advantage to comms as well. Yeah, and Laura, one thing we know is the government does not bring criminal charges unless they generally have the goods to back it up because they don't want to take a loser to trial. Yeah. I don't want to make it seem like it's going to be a slam dunk though, because

he has the money and the power to fight this. I do find it odd that he has dropped his effort to get out of prison, right? I think that's curious. Yeah, why? It's a losing battle or? Well, it's definitely a losing battle, but who cares? He has all the resources in the world. I mean, he's staying behind bars until this trial is completed. That's months from now. So for 2025, there's going to be a lot happening in this case. I mean, in terms of what's next, we know that the government is building their case.

And we are expecting that Cassie Ventura will take the stand and testify. There's a lot of rumors swirling that maybe Kid Cudi will take the stand as well. There was something in the indictment about his car being allegedly blown up by combs I think it's worth pointing out that we have a new president coming. We have a new US attorney Coming all of whom can make this case go away pretty quickly

And certainly potentially gonna make other cases go away It's a it's a big enough a deal and a high-profile enough case that it's gonna get close it's a big enough deal and a high profile enough case that it's gonna get close scrutiny by the next US attorney who is not somebody who has criminal law experience, who appears to have no connection to Combs whatsoever. But Damien Williams was willing to take on very powerful people and prosecuted senators down to Combs. So it'll be interesting to see whether the change

in the top prosecutor makes any difference for him. Yeah, Chloe and Laura, thank you so much for bringing your insight into this matter. Thank you. Always fun. Up next, an Idaho town looking for answers. Will the trial of Brian Coeberger on charges of killing four college students finally bring closure? In the early hours of November 13, 2022, four University of Idaho students, Kaylee Gonzalves, Madison Mogan, Ethan Chapin, and Zana Cronodal returned to their off-campus

house in Moscow, Idaho after a night out. Hours later, a call went into 911. Officers arrived at the scene to find the four students had been fatally stabbed. In the small town of Moscow, Idaho, the violent murders of four college students have the tight-knit University of Idaho community on edge. A manhunt ensued and 47 days after the murders, authorities across the country in Pennsylvania arrested Washington State University criminology PhD student, Brian Coburger and charged him with the stabbings.

Police, fireman, search warrant, come to the door. Brian, fireman, did you do it? Coburger has pleaded not guilty and the past two years have been painfully long for the families of the victims, as the prosecution and the defense have had major disagreements about evidence. The trial has been delayed not once, but twice. What do you think about all this time that has passed that we have not been to trial

yet? I would say that I feel like the legal system is not about the victims, and I'll leave it at that. This year, the lengthy wait is finally coming to an end. Coburger will face a jury in August. Joining us today to talk about what we can expect from one of the biggest trials of 2025 is Dateline producer Shane Bishop. Shane, thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me. You were on the ground in Idaho very shortly after these murders first happened. Tell us about that experience. Yeah, I was there the day after it happened or the day after the day after it happened. It was cold. I remember that. It was November in North Idaho.

And I would say that, like a lot of places we visit on Dateline, the town was in shock. Yeah, absolutely. I can only imagine the fear as well of the not knowing who is out there, like who did this. I think a lot of kids went home. I think their parents said, get out of there. It's almost the end of the quarter. We'll deal with it next year. That makes absolute sense. Tell us about these four victims and who we lost that day in 2022.

Well, Kaylee and Maddie were best friends. They were both 21. Kaylee had already graduated, and she was headed for a job in Austin, Texas. She had just gone down to Moscow for a final night to show Maddie her best friend her new car. Ethan and Zana were a couple. They were both 20. They'd been going out for a short period of time,

but what I heard from their friends was that they felt they were destined to get married. Oh, that's really sad. A lot has happened since Brian Koberger was arrested at the end of 2022. Where do things stand now? Well, the case has been inching its way through the court system. The big news happened back in September when the judge in Latah County in Moscow decided to grant the change of venue that the defense had requested. So they've moved it to the state's biggest town, Boise, Ada County.

A few days after that ruling, Brian Coburger, we watched as he was taken to a state police airplane and flown down to Boise, and that's where he's been ever since. Because there's a new venue in Boise, there's also a new judge who, I have to say, doesn't seem thrilled that he has been thrust into this spot. One other big ruling that the judge made is that Coburger is eligible to face the death penalty. Coburger will face a death-qualified jury, meaning all the jurors have to be okay with

voting for the death penalty if there's a conviction. What has the community's response been to these developments? I mean, I can't say that I heard the change of venue decision was popular, especially with the victims' families. I mean, you have to realize that Moscow's in North Idaho, Boise's in Southern Idaho, and it's a good eight-hour, 450-mile trip. It's a huge inconvenience for the families. Yeah, that is a long drive.

And as we know, Shane, families tend to want to be there in court for their loved ones. There's so much we don't know about this case. Do you think we'll get any answers before this trial starts, or do you think we have to wait to see what the prosecution has once they get into that courtroom? Well, there's so much we don't know about this,

because the judges have imposed a fairly restrictive gag order. I do know that a complicating factor before the trial is that the witness list will be sealed. So we won't know who's testifying. We won't know when they're testifying. There were two women who lived in the house who survived. One said she saw a figure in black clothing and a mask in the house just after the attacks. Shane, do you

expect her to testify? I'm sure she'll testify at the trial or at least be called to testify at the trial. I would assume, like some other witnesses, she will fight testifying at the trial because as people have told me, who wants to come face to face with Brian Goldberg at court? Because they're just so scared of him. Correct. Oh my goodness. I mean, these are young women in their early twenties.

I mean, I can't imagine. I have kids, we all have kids. You can't imagine having your kid go through something like that. No, that would be awful. Coburger has pleaded not guilty and we've yet to hear his story. But what do you know about law enforcement's theory about why he targeted this particular house and these students? The connection to the victims has always been a big question.

A long time ago, an old LAPD homicide detective told me that motive only has to make sense to one person for one second. The word that comes up over and over when you talk to investigators and also people who grow up with him was rejection. Mm. Well, he's going to have a defense.

What do we know about it? Well, he's filed a notice of an alibi defense, and his alibi was he was out driving around in his car that night looking at the moon and stars. I will tell you that he seems to feel very comfortable in the dark. He runs after dark. He hikes after dark. He is out driving after dark.

He's a night owl. I think the defense will focus on attacking the genetic genealogy. Yeah, remind us how that DNA on the knife sheath, how that then led them to Brian Coburger. So investigators very quickly found a knife sheath in the room that Maddie and Kaylee were murdered in. They submitted it to a lab. They got touched DNA off it, that DNA. They used genetic genealogy to pinpoint that DNA to a couple families in Northwestern Pennsylvania. One of them was Coburgers, and the rest is history.

Any major hearings taking place before the trial in August? So there's a very unusual hearing coming up later this month called a Frank's hearing, which is the defense asked the court to contest the truthfulness of an affidavit in support of a search warrant. This Frank's hearing is a very serious allegation that the police have played fast and loose with the facts to get search warrants and the defense has asked the judge to toss out search warrants for Apple, Google, Brian's apartment, Brian's car. And if he does grant them that,

which it's an extreme long shot, but if he does, it would hamstring the prosecution's case. And I mean, in an extreme case, they may have to go back and get a new indictment of Coburger, which you can imagine, Mike, slow things down for years. Oh, that would be not good for the families to have to wait like that. You just came back from a trip to Idaho, you know, we're over two years out from the murders.

Is it still top of mind for everyone? I mean, as far as I can tell, life just goes on, but they're all very ready to get a conclusion or at least some sort of an ending to this case or resolution. Shane, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and for sharing your personal experience being there so many times working on this story. We appreciate it. You bet, Andrea.

When we come back, we've got Dateline Roundup and details on some cases you might want to put on your calendar. Plus, we've heard of AI or artificial intelligence, but wait until you hear how much smarter AI makes the criminals. Welcome back to the show. We've got a different kind of Dateline roundup this week. Instead of bringing you up to speed on the latest headlines and true crime news, we've got a rundown of some of the cases we're keeping an eye on for 2025. Here to walk us through

it all is Dateline producer Rachel White. Rachel, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you for having me. Let's start in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. This is a story we've talked about a lot. This is where the Brazilian au pair and her employer turned lover were accused of a double murder last year. Rachel, just remind us of the story. Sure. So investigators say that Brendan Banfield plotted with the family's au pair, a woman

named Juliana Perez Magales, to kill his wife, Christine, and a man named Joseph Ryan, who they allegedly lured to the Banfield family home through a fetish website. Juliana was charged with second degree murder of that man, and Brendan was charged with the aggravated murder of both his wife and Joseph Ryan. Yeah, this, this story is straight out of a Lifetime movie, I have to say. And there was a big development in this case in late October. That's right. So, Giuliana took a plea deal. She pled guilty to manslaughter in the shooting of Joseph Ryan. And as a part of this deal, she's agreed to cooperate with prosecutors

ahead of Brendan's trial. So when is Brendan's trial scheduled to start? And because of this, are we expecting then Juliana will testify against him? So right now, Brendan's trial is on the docket for October 20th. And we don't know for sure if Juliana will take the stand, but it sounds like that's likely to happen. Up next, we're heading to a place

that is very familiar to the listeners of our podcast, Massachusetts, where round two of the blockbuster trial of Karen Reed is set to begin in April. Prosecutors say Reed hit her boyfriend with her SUV. The allegation is that she left him to die in the snow after a night of partying back in January 2022. The jury at her first trial couldn't reach a verdict, which is why we're heading back to court. Rachel, tell us what we can expect.

For starters, there will be a new prosecutor that's leading the case. And Karen Reed's defense team is also going to be a little bit different this time. They've added a new lawyer, and this is all according to a motion that was filed late in November. Interesting, so Alan Jackson,

her lead attorney out of Los Angeles, he made such an impression at the first trial. That ladies and gentlemen, is how you frame someone. That's how you rip a person's life apart and sleep like a baby while doing it. Is he still a part of her team? Yes, he's going to be back. Her first high powered defense team,

they will all return for this second trial. This trial is set to start on April 1st. Certainly one to watch. There is another high profile trial in Norfolk County, Massachusetts that we've got our eye on taking place in late October. And this is the case of Brian Walsh. He is accused of murdering his wife, Anna, a real estate executive who disappeared on New Year's Day back in 2023. Her body has never been found. Rachel, walk us through what we know about this case. So this all kicked off back when Brian and Anna's colleagues reported her missing in January of 2023. Police said that Brian Walsh was cooperative initially,

and that they did a search of the home where they found knives and they also found blood in the basement. There were also some disturbing Google searches that investigators found. Right, and they found those on Anna and Brian's six-year-old son's iPad. At 4.55 a.m. on January 1st, he searched how long before a body starts to smell. At 4.58 a.m., how to start the body from decomposing. Ultimately, after more investigation, Brian was charged with first degree murder, misleading the police, and improper transport of a human body. He's pleaded not guilty to all of those charges and he's set to go to trial on October

20th, 2025. For our last story, we're heading to Summit County, Utah. And you may remember Corey Richens. She is the mom of three who wrote the children's book about grief after her husband died back in March of 2022. She was arrested on charges of poisoning him. Prosecutors say she laced his drink with fentanyl. Richins has pleaded not guilty and last year on the podcast we played exclusive jailhouse recordings that Richins sent to Dateline from jail. I'm anxious to get to trial and I'm ready to get this one heck of a fight. This year we'll finally see that fight play out in court. How long can we expect this trial to go for us?

Is it going to be a long one? It's looking like it's going to be pretty long. It's currently scheduled to begin on April 28th, and it's expected to go through May 22nd. So 2025 is shaping up to be another busy year in true crime. We didn't even scratch the surface with all the cases that Dateline will be watching. Rachel, thank you so much for joining us and giving us a preview of what's to come this year. Great to be here. While artificial intelligence may seem like a concern for the future, it's already an integral part of our daily lives. Ride-sharing apps like Uber, streaming services like Netflix or Peacock,

and digital assistants like Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant. AI is all around us in good ways and bad. Law enforcement agencies and consumer advocates are raising the alarm about scams powered by AI. Here to help us understand how AI may already be a part of your life and what to watch out for in 2025 is NBC News Senior Consumer Investigative Correspondent Vicki Nguyen. Hey, Vicki, thank you for coming back. Hey, Andrea, always great to be with you. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year. Yeah. So Vicki, explain artificial intelligence and how it is all around us, even when you might not know it is. At the most basic level, Andrea, think of it as technology that allows computers to do the kinds of tasks that would normally require us to tell them and require some sort of human intervention and decision making. Now the computers can do some of this on their own and then they can predict what they're

supposed to do next. And that's considered learning, which is where the intelligence part comes in. AI is used all the time in things that we take for granted, like when your phone unlocks using your face or when you're sending an email, and that predictive texting comes up saying, is this how you wanna finish your sentence? That's all AI.

And of course, as you mentioned, there's really sophisticated types of AI, like what we saw with the chat bot where you're entering in conversational language and it seems like this computer is responding to you in a human way. Really, all it's doing is using all of the information and data that's been put into it

from previous human conversations and predicting that this is the response that will make the most sense to you. In December, the FBI issued a public service announcement warning that criminals are using AI to generate scams on a larger scale that are more believable and that AI actually cuts down the time and effort it takes for criminals to come up with scams. What kind of things are they talking about?

I was just talking to the cybersecurity experts at Human Security about the holidays where a lot of online shopping sites pop up that are totally bogus. They're just designed to tell you, this is where you can get the hottest item at the lowest price, hoping that that's going to be enough bait for you to enter in your credit card or your banking information. Well, back in the day, Andrea, humans had to make those websites. Now bots and AI powered computers can create those websites. Now, bots and AI-powered computers

can create those websites very quickly. They can also send out phishing and smishing messages. That's when you get an email or a text sent to your phone saying, hey, there's been a problem with your package delivery, or hey, this is the government. We need you to check on your taxes. Click here.

A lot of that content is now being generated by AI, which makes it that much easier for the bad guys to pump out that bad information. And that brings us to deep fakes, which is getting harder for people to tell what is legit and what isn't. Because the deep fake technology is becoming so good, but it's basically referring to a type of artificial intelligence that generates audio, images, and now even videos that make it appear that someone is doing something or saying something that they aren't. We've seen this used

in some of the most disgusting and creepy ways from generating nude images, celebrity images, to endorse products. People have to be very careful when they're on social media. Is this something that this celebrity would actually be doing? And also, be on the lookout for deep fakes when it comes to law enforcement or people impersonating government officials. So according to a recent article by Forbes, global deep fake-related identity fraud attempts are forecasted to reach 50,000 this year. So how can you spot the deep fake? So a lot of times these deep fakes are spread on social media like Instagram, Snapchat,

Facebook. When it comes to these deep fakes with video, face swapping is a very common way this is done. So if you're carefully looking at the video and you think, gosh, this face is too perfect and this message isn't in character with who you are seeing this from, or if the messaging is very extreme or shocking or unbelievable, These are moments where you've got to take a step back, look at the context, and decide is this actually credible? So with AI always evolving, do we have any idea what's next?

According to a Google Cloud 2025 cybersecurity forecast, AI is going to be going up against AI. And it makes sense. You need powerful technology to help you to be going up against AI. And it makes sense. You need powerful technology to help you detect AI scams, defend against them. So we're seeing this shift in AI tools being used at the corporate level to improve response to AI threats. So 2025 for us, be mindful, be aware that this technology exists. Vicki, thank you for warning us about these pitfalls and what to expect with this new frontier we're facing. We appreciate it.

Great conversation with you as always. Thanks, Andrea. That's it for this episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly, our first episode of 2025. Coming up this Friday on Dateline, a Fitbit captured the last moments of a woman's life and helped investigators capture her killer. Starting up this Friday on Dateline, a Fitbit captured the last moments of a woman's life and helped investigators capture her killer.

Watch my classic two-hour mystery, The Secrets of Birchview Drive, airing this Friday at 9-8 Central on NBC, or stream it starting Saturday on Peacock. To get ad-free listening for all our podcasts, subscribe to Dateline Premium. Thanks for listening. Say, thank you for listening. Thank you for listening. No, say it nice. Thank you for listening. To Dateline Premium. Thanks for listening. Say thank you for listening. Thank you for listening. No, say it nice.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to Dateline True Crime Weekly. Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Frannie Kelly and Katie Ferguson. Our associate producers are Carson Cummins and Caroline Casey. Our senior producer is Carson Cummins and Caroline Casey. Our senior producer is Liz Brown-Kuruloff. Production and fact-checking help by Sara Kadir.

Veronica Mazaka 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 Kuhl is senior executive producer of Dateline.