Law&Crime Sidebar - Idaho Student Murders: Community Fears Killer is Among Them

Episode Date: December 1, 2022

People are literally freaking out here," NewsNation reporter Brian Blank said describing the community's behavior in Moscow, Idaho nearly three weeks after four college students were brutally murdered in their home. "People don't go out at night. They think the killer is among them," Blank told the Law&Crime Network's Jesse Weber while breaking down what he's learned about the case so far. LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. This is a small town. People are literally freaking out here. Like, I mean, I can't, like, tell you that enough. Like, people don't go out at night. They think the killer is among them here. You know, people have put double locks on their doors. From miscommunications to new details, it's the latest in the investigation of the University of Idaho Quadruple Homicide Case. Senior National correspondent for News Nation Brian Enton joins to discuss what he's learning on the ground in Moscow, Idaho. Welcome to Cybar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm

Jesse Weber. Sir, why not tell the public who the target was you've seen. said that this was a targeted attack. Why not tell the public who was targeted? If it was multiple people, it would go a long ways to telling the public what you're looking for and who you're looking for, the type of person you're looking for. Why not do that to alleviate some of the fears out there in the community? Well, first and foremost, we have the integrity of the investigation to preserve. And we feel like that information is integral to us and how we conduct our investigation. Releasing that to the public may or may not flood us with a lot of information that's not relevant or specific to what we're looking at.

We're continuing our coverage of the University of Idaho quadruple homicide case. I'm talking about the brutal killings of four students, 21-year-old Kaylee Gonzalez, 21-year-old Madison Mogan, 20-year-old Zana Kernotal, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin. Their bodies were found in their off-campus home out in the college town of Moscow with a preliminary coroner report indicating that they had been stabbed to death. No arrests have been made. No suspects have been identified publicly. And while we are learning new details, a major issue in this case is communication, particularly by authorities.

So I want to bring in someone who can help sort all of this out and give us the latest in the investigation. I'm joined right now by senior national correspondent for News Nation, Brian Enton, who is on the ground in Moscow, Idaho, and has been doing terrific reporting on the subject. Brian, it's great. And thanks so much having you here on Sidebar. Yeah, thanks so much for having me on. I appreciate it. Can we start with this kind of weird development we're seeing about who exactly was the target of this? Because that narrative keeps changing from law enforcement to the prosecution's office. Can you walk us through briefly about what we're hearing from each side and

how confusing it is? Yeah, it's really, really confusing. Early on, police said that this was targeted. And we asked for more information about that for them to elaborate. And they said, we're not going to give you information. You're just going to have to trust us. So this was like a week ago. On Tuesday, I finally got a sit down interview here in Moscow with the prosecutor. And I asked him, what did what do you mean by targeted? Can you explain this? And he said, you know, to my knowledge with the investigation, we don't have any evidence that one of the victims specifically was targeted. But we have evidence. We believe that the residence was targeted. And so that's what we went with. And then yesterday, they basically issue a correction

and say that there has been an internal miscommunication between the prosecutor and the detectives who have been in like constant communication. You know, works differently in different places, I guess. But the prosecutor is like very involved here in the investigation. So they said there was an internal miscommunication. And now they, they cannot say that any of the victims or the residence was specifically targeted. They say that that's all still under investigation. Just from my point of view, it's sometimes every case is different, but to have the lead prosecutor come out at this point when you don't even have a suspect, I always found that a little curious. Sometimes it's different in each investigation. What's the most alarming to me,

Brian, is this is not the first time we've had this, right? Wasn't when this first happened, there was a big question about, is the public at risk? Is there a public threat? And wasn't there a backtracking of that as well? Yeah, there was. They initially said that the public was not at risk and then, of course, got pushed on that because they didn't have any information about who the killer was or what happened or a motive and then had to backtrack on that also and say, well, we can't really say that. So I think they're trying to walk this line. But I mean, you know how it is. Like, this is a small town. People are literally freaking out here. Like, I mean, I can't like tell you that enough. Like people don't go out at night. They think the killer is

among them here, you know, people have put double locks on their doors. I went to the vigil last night. They have metal detectors to get in and police with binoculars up in the balconies. So I think they're walking this fine line of trying to keep the community somewhat calm, but at the same time, also being open that like they don't really know what happened. And it's understandable because they've never been in this situation before. And we'll get into kind of what the community is feeling because my understanding is Moscow's a pretty quiet area. There's no, there's nothing. like this that ever happens, from the people you've spoken to on the ground, do they have confidence in law enforcement? Do they have confidence in the investigation right now, given the right hand

doesn't know what the left hand is saying? It's sort of mixed. And I think it's also changed in the last 24 hours with this admission of an internal miscommunication. But a lot of people here do have confidence. I mean, you know, they, it's again, small town. A lot of people know the police officers, the police officers and the prosecutor work very, very closely together. And then there's also the Idaho State Police who have been brought in and the FBI. There's dozens of FBI agents working on the case behind the scenes, even though the locals are still in charge. So, you know, I think overall people have confidence. The victims' families have made some comments along the way with a bit of frustration. But I think anytime you have something like this that's not solved, you know, there's

going to be frustration. And it's been two weeks, three weeks. Again, obviously law enforcement knows more than we do. But if you're sitting in Moscow right now and you're walking the streets, like you said, people are very concerned. You mentioned going to the vigil. What was that like? It was really sad, you know, because I've been very focused on the nitty gritty of the investigation since I've been here, just trying to dig stuff up every day. Not that you don't always think of the victims, but I was at the vigil last night. It's like, oh, my gosh, you hear the stories. I mean, three of the families were there talking about these kids. And it's just heartbreaking. I mean, they were all seemed like incredible kids, you know, hard workers. One was about to graduate,

had a job lined up, you know, they were in love, a couple had boyfriends, just, just terrible. And, and again, I mean, you know, it was weird at the vigil, too, you know, it was in an indoor arena that you look up in the rafters, they had police with binoculars, they had undercovers, they had a ton of police, the metal detectors, I mentioned. There was a very real concern that the killer could show up at the vigil. I mean, even the dean of students told me that, that they were prepared for that. So, you know, all of that is going on in these people's minds as they're trying to they grieve and figure out what's going on in their town.

And it was mostly the people there. Did they know the victims personally? Is it more of a community coming together? Because we know that, and we'll get to it in a minute, members of the law enforcement is asking members of the community if you know something, if you have credible information come forward with it. The majority of the people that were there, did they personally know the people that were affected, the families, or were they are coming together as a community?

I think mostly coming together as a community. I mean, there were hundreds and hundreds. There may have been a thousand people there was pretty full. But, again, Greek life is huge here at the University of Idaho. I mean, it's really big. And all of the victims were in different sororities and fraternities. So, like, everyone in those houses knew the victims and, you know, everybody partied together. There were a lot of people crying, I noticed, the vigil, which made me think, like, I think a lot of people knew them.

The house was also known to be a party house. They had parties every weekend. So I got the sense that, you know, they had a very large social circle and a lot of them were at the vigil. I thought it was interesting that during this vigil, Kayla Gonzalez's father revealed that Kaylee and Madison were killed together in the same bed. Now, I am not sure if we knew that beforehand. What did you make of that comment?

Yeah, stunning. We did not know that beforehand. And I wasn't expecting, like, a big investigative piece to come out during the vigil. So that shocked me. Obviously, there's a sad component. I mean, they've been best friends forever, these two. You look at their social media, you know, being best friends since they were little kids. And so it was just very sad to think about that they got killed together in the bed.

But also interesting, when you think about the investigation, I was also thinking to myself, you know, we had asked police many times, can you tell us where they were in the house? Can you tell us who was in which room? And they've always said, no, that would really compromise the investigation. So I was also sort of wondering our police maybe not too pleased that that little detail came out. And it's possible that they might be sharing more information with the family than they were with the media and the public, maybe not giving everything, but giving them some sort of comfort or some sort of details to know that the investigation is progressing. There was something that I want to focus on the house for a second

because we actually did a show on this. We did a breakdown of the house. People have been speculating about, well, where were their blood stains, what was collected? We know that the cars have been towed. What is the latest you can tell us about the preservation of that crime scene and what investigators might be doing at this point? So it is still a crime scene. I was there. Last time I was there was like at midnight, and, you know, they've got the crime scene around the whole place, and there is a police car there all the time with an officer monitoring it. They towed the cars away. They said they wanted to do more investigation on the car, so they're in a secure facility. I asked the prosecutor, how long do you plan to keep it

this way with everything closed off there? And he said his advice to the detectives was keep it as long as you think you might need it. So apparently at this point, they think that there's a reason and they may need to go back in there. We've seen them go in and out a couple of times, but it's certainly not like it was in the beginning. I mean, you don't see a lot of traffic in and out of that house. It's mainly just being preserved. Something else about that house that came out.

I talked about how sometimes it's a great thing for the community come forward with information, but sometimes it could be a bit dangerous, particularly on the internet. Internet sleuths, right? They start coming up with conspiracy theories and rumors. And one of the things that's come out is about a neighbor, somebody who lived by this house, Jeremy Reagan, a third year law student. He himself describes, he describes himself as socially awkward. And he has come under particular tension by people on the internet as a suspect. My understanding is he's been

ruled out. Can you walk us through what you know about him? Because he has become a point of conversation. Yeah. So he was actually on Banfield on News Nation. I think it was last night or the night before. And basically he did an interview early on with another news agency. I can't remember which one. and says that, you know, he was sort of pulled out of context and made the sound kind of shady. And you mentioned the internet sleuth sort of zeroed in on that and suddenly sort of like targeted him as a suspect when he never really was a suspect. Mitzie lives nearby. But the internet sleuths, listen, they can be really, really great. I mean, you look at other cases, they've literally solved cases before.

And it's amazing what they can dig up, the manpower that they have. And they go back through every photo and they're on Venmo and they're everywhere, looking at every little detail. But in a situation like this, I mean, you've got to feel bad for this guy, at least from what we know. You know, it sounds like he just got, you know, called out for something that he had nothing to do with. Yeah. And that, you know, they looked at whether he had a bandage on his arm and what does that mean? And people will pick upon these things. So it's kind of this weird balance between obviously law enforcement needs the public's help.

But at the same time, only credible information they should really look at. Brian, I know you're really busy and you have to head out to cover more of this case before we do. you, I just want, if you can, to give us a snapshot of the feeling in the community. You talked about how people are really freaking out. They're scared, but they're coming together as well. If you can give us a snapshot of what it is like in that area, in that town, I think that would help a lot of us. Yeah, I mean, again, it's just, it's sad, it's eerie.

It hasn't stopped snowing for the last three days, which is like kind of another weird element to the whole thing because it was clear before and now everything is covered in snow. It's snowing right now pretty heavily. It has an eerie feel. You know, the campus is somewhat empty. The school gave the students the option of staying home and staying online if they didn't feel safe on campus.

And a lot of people are doing that. So the campus, I'm told, it just feels empty. And when I'm there, it feels empty. And I think people are just nervous. Again, this is a town. People keep asking me, well, where's all the surveillance video? I mean, like, look, I live in Miami. You live in New York.

You're used to video everywhere. Towns like this, like, they don't have cameras everywhere. They don't have crime, like, what we're used to. Around the house, it's very, very dense. There's apartment buildings, there's other houses, but none of them have cameras from what we can tell. I found two ring cameras on some neighbor's houses. I was knocking on the door the other day, and both of them told me they installed the ring cameras after the murders because they were nervous. So this is like a community that's just not at all.

No one would be used to this level of a gruesome crime, but like they're not used to this at all. And they're really, really nervous. Brian Enton, senior national correspondent for News Nation, thank you so much for coming on. And I encourage everyone, if you are interested in this case, you want to find out the latest of it. Follow Brian on Twitter or on News Nation. Really a great resource. Brian, thank you for taking the time. We really appreciate it.

Yeah, thanks for having a good senior. And thanks so much, everybody, for joining us here on Sidebar. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.