Law&Crime Sidebar - Idaho Student Murders: Runners Seen Near Home Around Time of Killings Causes Speculation

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

A group of runners seen in the background of a Moscow police officer's bodycam video from the night of the Idaho student murders is causing speculation from internet detectives as investigators continue their search for the occupants of a white Hyundai Elantra. The Law&Crime Network's Jesse Weber and NewsNation senior national correspondent Brian Entin have the latest on this story.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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will 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. Come on guys. Stumbled down the driveway like that, that's more in a couple of beers. Be honest, I haven't been drinking or anything like a month and a half. It's the Idaho murders investigation from newly released police body cam footage in the early morning hours of the killings to an update on a search for a car to a warning to the online community. We break it all down with News Nation senior national correspondent Brian Enton who's been covering the case from Moscow, Idaho. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

There's been a lot of questions about the white car. that we've been interested in. We're looking for that car because we believe through our investigation that that car was in the area during the time of the murders. And we also believe that the occupant or occupants may have seen something. They may not know they have seen something. So we specifically want to talk to them and we want to know who they are and what they might know or might be able to contribute to the investigation. We continue to follow the University of Idaho quadruple murder case. I'm talking about the killings of 21-year-old Kaley-Gunce. Salves, 21-year-old Madison Mogan, 20-year-old Zaner-Kernodal, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin.

Their bodies found and they're off-campus home out in the college town of Moscow. These killings happen now four weeks ago, and at the time of this recording, no arrests have been made, no suspect identified, no murder weapon recovered. But we do have a few updates for you that we want to tackle. So let me bring in right now News Nation senior national correspondent, Brian Enten, who has been on the ground and covering this case. out of Moscow, Idaho. Brian, it's good to see you.

I want to jump right into this, and I want to start with the body cam footage because police released this full 45-minute body cam footage from the early morning hours on the day of the killings. I believe it's from plainclose officers who are basically issuing citations to minors for alcohol. What is this video? What does this video exactly show?

And what have police said about it? Because a lot of people have made a lot about this video. Yeah, so the video is super eerie because it's from around the same time as when we believe the murders were happening. It's body cam video from an area called Band Field. That's a field next to the Sigma Chi fraternity house, which is literally, I would say, a 30 to 45 second walk from the house where the murders happened. Basically, around 3 a.m. Moscow police were called to Band Field, which is this big field, for an alcohol-related call, which obviously isn't unusual in a college town here at the frat and sorority houses.

Apparently there were like some drunk people there or something. So it's all on body cam. They go out there. They talk to the kids. They're walking around. Police say that this incident has absolutely nothing to do with the murders. But again, what's so creepy about it is that it's happening around the same time that the murders are happening. And it's so close.

So we've been and all the online sleuths have been analyzing this body. as I'm sure police have because you can see houses in the background, you can see the general area of where the house where the murder happened is in the background and the timing is just really, really strange. Do you have any idea of why they say this is not connected in any way? Because one of the things that people have made a lot of is they say they can see four people jogging away from the murder house. Do you see that?

I mean, what's your take on that aspect? Because people online have said they see the joggers. They ask, why are they running at 3 a.m.? Could it be possible? There are four killers that make more sense than one or two. What's your take on that? So this is like when you're there, you understand it better when you're in that area. This is a very busy area because the fraternity and sorority houses are there.

And because on the other side of Taylor Street, which is the street in the background of the body camera video, is where the, like all the off-campus housing is, these big apartment buildings, also where the house is where the murder happened. It's all a very dense, busy area with kids walking around, going to and from parties at night, going to and from class during the day. So, you know, I'm not convinced that those people that are seen in the background are somehow connected. I mean, of course, everything should be looked into. But, you know, I take police at their word that they don't think anything. And, you know, they didn't say that nothing in the video is connected.

They just said that the incident that the video was recording with it with the drunk kids, the alcohol-related call was not connected. So I'm sure they're looking at everything in the background. There's also like some cars that go by. At first, you know, they released the info about the Hyundai Alontra they're looking for. My thought was perhaps they saw that in the body cam video. We went through it frame by frame. You can't really identify a Hyundai Alontra in the video. And then they later said that that's not where they came up with this car that they're looking for.

So I think it's more a strange coincidence that this video was taken right around the time that the murders happened. But it doesn't seem like it's at all connected. We'll get to the car in a second. And do you know why they released the body cam video? I mean, do you plan on asking follow-up questions about this in terms of who, have you identified all of the people in the video? Do we know who the joggers are? Do we know anything more about the people that were stopped by police officers? I imagine people have more questions about this.

And I wonder if the police is willing to share more information about it because they seem to be okay with releasing the body cam footage for whatever purpose. Yeah. So they released it because we put in a public records. Freedom of Information Act for it. We went back through, so like online, you can go through all the police calls in Moscow. And they're very generic entries, but you can see them all. So we went back through, of course, the night and early morning of the murders to see like what else was going on in Moscow, saw this call that happened at banned field, which is right next to, not next to, but very, very close to where the murders happened. So we really zeroed in on that, reported on it,

only had limited information that it was an alcohol call, put in the, um, you know, the records request, and that's how the body cam ended up getting released. And again, like, they are being so careful about what they release when it, with it related to the murder investigation. Like, we put in all sorts of requests and we get nothing right now. The fact that they even release this body cam, I think, shows that they really believe it is not part of the investigation. But you're right. I mean, we should ask more questions about it. We haven't really had the opportunity. They haven't been doing very many on-camera interviews. today, we're told we'll be able to talk to them in person.

So that is something that we can bring up. That would be great. And you mentioned the 2011-2013 Hyundai Alantra that police asked for more information about they want to speak to the documents of this car. As you mentioned, it wasn't in the video. What's the latest on that? Have the police received a lot of tips about this car? Or, you know, have they said we have a good lead on it?

I'm not sure they would say that. But what do we know about how the investigation into that car is going? So we know that they've received a lot. of tips, like a ton of tips. So many tips that they say they've now routed all the calls away from the Moscow Police Department to the official FBI like tip line call center just because there's so many coming in and the FBI has the resources to sort of categorize them more quickly. And it's a somewhat common car. So I'm sure people all over the place, every time they see a Hyundai Alontra now they're calling it in, which is great because maybe one of those will be connected.

We still don't know exactly like why they're looking for this car. I mean, we know that they say it was in the immediate area of the house around the time of the murders. We don't know how they know that. I mean, they've said it's not because of the body cam video. So maybe it was a witness or some piece of video. We don't know about some surveillance video. And we don't know, you know, if they believe that the people in the car were somehow involved and up to no good. Or were they literally just people driving by and they really just want to talk to them because they were in the area that time.

those are things we still don't know. Yeah, and I read that agents at the U.S. Canada border also keeping a lookout if this car should pop up. Again, I guess the idea would be that whoever's driving that car may be trying to leave the country. But I wanted to ask you something else that I think is important in this case. I will tell you right now, I got attacked online about my comments about this in the sense that we have to be very careful about what is shared online and what information comes out online. I think it's a dual-edged sword, right? If people have credible, really strong information. You go to the authorities, but there is a danger with conspiracy theories. There is a danger with relying on misinformation. The reason I say that, and I got

attacked online, because there were people who are online sleuths and said that I'm going after online sues. We don't have to get into that. The point that I wanted to make is, haven't the police come out and said, we are looking at people who are engaging in online harassment, and have they signaled possible legal liability or criminal charges against the? people. So they haven't gone that into detail into it, but they did say that like they're looking into online harassment. If you're a victim of online harassment related to the case to notify them. And you're right. I mean, I think that the online sleut thing is, you know, it's sort of like a tightrope. I mean, I love the online sleuths overall. I think they do great work. In other cases

I've covered, you know, a lot of them are really, really responsible and they can go through like every social media post, you know, and really dig into it. Like, you can't, I mean, and there's like, you know, thousands, hundreds of thousands of them, whereas I'm sure, you know, they can find things that the police just don't have the time to do. So they're great in that way. But I think it crosses the line when people start contacting family members of victims, when they start contacting people who they classify as suspects, who aren't suspects,

when they start showing up at their houses. I mean, that's where it just clearly, you know, goes too far and it can interfere. So, I mean, I find that the majority of them are just interested in the case and, you know, doing their thing. But then there's always those few that, you know, that go too far and kind of give everybody a bad rap. Yeah, I think that's entirely fair. And, you know, particularly when you have more eyeballs on the case, I think that's a good thing. People can see it from different angles. And maybe they, again, they can ask the right questions.

And we try to answer those questions here on these kinds of shows. It's now four weeks, Brian, right? And I'm curious in your experience covering these kinds of cases, where do you stick with this? Are you concerned at this point about where the investigation is headed? Are there things maybe it's just too early to know? Where do you see this case going? Maybe this upcoming week, because we have hit the four week mark. And as I mentioned, no suspects identified publicly, no arrests have been made, no murder weapon has been recovered.

What do you think as we've hit the four week mark? Yeah, I think, like I, you know, it's funny, I woke up this morning in Idaho. I went home for the weekend to Miami and I came back last night. And I had this feeling this morning. And this is like, I've no evidence. I just, I just had this feeling like this was a really pivotal week. Like, four weeks in, you know, people are trying to be patient. But like, I just feel like for that there's got to be some piece of new info this week that's hopefully released.

I, you know, I think it's interesting that there's not a reward. I wonder, do police know more than they're letting on? I really don't know. I think, you know, we've gotten some heat. I'm sure you too, it's like, oh, you keep covering it. You know, it's like when's enough is enough. But, you know, it's like for these victims, if we leave, if we stop doing these podcasts and we stop doing this on News Nation, you know, the pressure is on the police.

Like the pressure is on with us all doing this every day to not to be forgotten about. And, you know, what's going to happen is if there's no updates, long crime, news We'll stay on it, but like these big networks will start pulling out. And that's a, I mean, to me, that's like a really bothersome thing because that's how the cases go cold. And, you know, I think it is that constant pressure that the cops know that we're on it every day and they've got, you know what I mean? And I just, I worry about that at the four week mark, like that I just hope that things don't start to slow down. I think that's a really important point. And it's a really important point because the more information that could be shared with the public, particularly the community of Moscow, whoever did this, their window becomes smaller and smaller and smaller. The room gets smaller and smaller and smaller because you have people on the lookout. They're updated about the case. They know what to look out for. And I think that becomes critical at this point because it's still early. It's still early. I know it's four weeks, but it's just four weeks ago that these lives were taken and these families destroyed. So we don't plan to slow down

anytime soon. And I know you don't either. So Brian, I really think you're doing tremendous work out there. I appreciate you taking the time to come on sidebar, speak to our listeners and our viewers about this. And as the week progresses, hopefully we do have more information and we can have you back on, Brian. Yeah, thanks for having me. And hopefully, I just hope this is a week where the victims, families will get some more information that there'll be some progress. Again, just, I hate to drag on about it, but it's like, it's frustrating for us covering it. But imagine being those family members. Like, I mean, how do you start to grieve? I mean, some of them won't even have funerals because the killer hasn't been caught.

So, yeah, we'll just hope for some advancement this week. Yep, possible situation for them, and hopefully they get more information. Brian Enten, thank you so much. You can follow Brian on News Nation and also for his updates on Twitter as well. Brian, thank you. And that's all we have for you, everybody here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. 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 long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.