Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Murder In Moscow: DNA, Cell Data & a Crumbling Defense
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. Now,
- 0:03Speaker 1: I don't know if you've heard or not, but there
- 0:05Speaker 1: has been quite the document dump up in Moscow. And
- 0:09Speaker 1: as part of that document dump, we've already been through
- 0:12Speaker 1: some of the different orders that have been rendered by
- 0:15Speaker 1: Judge Hippler. And over the next few days, we're going
- 0:17Speaker 1: to dive into the transcripts from the IGG hearing as well.
- 0:21Speaker 1: But before we get there, why don't we dive into
- 0:24Speaker 1: this article from the Daily Mail and get an overall
- 0:27Speaker 1: look at what's currently going on up in Moscow. And
- 0:31Speaker 1: to do that, we have an article from the Daily Mail. Headline,
- 0:34Speaker 1: Bombshell Brian Koberger Court Filing Says Relative Refused to Hand
- 0:38Speaker 1: Over DNA. This article was authored by Rachel Sharp. A
- 0:43Speaker 1: relative of Brian Koberger refused to help investigators as they
- 0:46Speaker 1: worked to identify the suspect in the brutal murders of
- 0:49Speaker 1: four University of Idaho students, it has been revealed. Hell
- 0:53Speaker 1: of a person, huh? Nah, I'm not going to give
- 0:55Speaker 1: you any DNA. My relative's such a scumbag that I'm
- 0:58Speaker 1: so scared to give this DNA over because I think
- 1:00Speaker 1: he'll get nailed. I mean, what? Imagine somebody showing up
- 1:04Speaker 1: at your pad talking about four kids have been murdered
- 1:06Speaker 1: and we need some help. We're wondering if we can
- 1:08Speaker 1: get some DNA to see if your cousin Joe was involved.
- 1:12Speaker 1: That's some wild work. I would think that people would
- 1:14Speaker 1: want to get to the bottom of what happened. And honestly,
- 1:17Speaker 1: if you know your relative and you think that they're
- 1:19Speaker 1: a good person, you want to make sure that they're
- 1:21Speaker 1: not caught up in this, right? Sure, let me help out.
- 1:24Speaker 1: But no, I guess not. The distant family member, who
- 1:27Speaker 1: has not been named, was contacted by Idaho State Police
- 1:30Speaker 1: in November or December of 2022 and asked to hand
- 1:34Speaker 1: over DNA, according to newly unsealed court records. At the time,
- 1:39Speaker 1: law enforcement was desperately working to identify the individual whose
- 1:43Speaker 1: DNA was found on a knife sheath left under the
- 1:45Speaker 1: body of victim Madison Mogan. Koberger was not yet on
- 1:48Speaker 1: the radar of police or a suspect in the case.
- 1:52Speaker 1: And right here in the third paragraph of this article
- 1:55Speaker 1: is what it all comes down to. The fact that
- 1:57Speaker 1: his DNA was found on this knife sheath that was
- 1:59Speaker 1: found under a murdered girl. He has no explanation for it.
- 2:03Speaker 1: There's no excuse for it. And that's why his team
- 2:06Speaker 1: is so adamant about getting this thrown out. They know
- 2:08Speaker 1: that this is the path to victory for the prosecution.
- 2:11Speaker 1: And not only is it the path to victory, it's
- 2:14Speaker 1: strong as hell. We're not talking about a little bit
- 2:16Speaker 1: of piecemeal evidence here. We're talking about a lot of
- 2:20Speaker 1: evidence that is tied together by the strongest piece of evidence,
- 2:24Speaker 1: which is the DNA. So until you can explain that,
- 2:27Speaker 1: forget it. Now, you can attack some of the other stuff, right?
- 2:30Speaker 1: Of course. You can attack the cell phone records. You
- 2:33Speaker 1: can attack the digital records, all of that. But until
- 2:36Speaker 1: you can explain how his DNA was found on that
- 2:39Speaker 1: knife sheath underneath a dead girl, I really don't want
- 2:42Speaker 1: to hear anything else from you, honestly. Now, of course,
- 2:45Speaker 1: I don't mean in the courtroom. I'm talking about people
- 2:48Speaker 1: who are running around, running their yaps like Brian Kohlberger
- 2:51Speaker 1: is an innocent man. because you have to be smoking
- 2:54Speaker 1: mushrooms to think that the evidence that they have collected
- 2:57Speaker 1: against Kohlberger isn't strong as hell, especially in light of
- 3:01Speaker 1: these new rulings by the judge that it's all going
- 3:03Speaker 1: to be admitted. Now, if they threw this DNA stuff out,
- 3:07Speaker 1: it would be a very, very tough sell, because the
- 3:09Speaker 1: rest of this evidence, for the most part, is circumstantial.
- 3:13Speaker 1: There is no doubt about it. And if you didn't
- 3:15Speaker 1: have the DNA at the crime scene... It would be
- 3:18Speaker 1: very difficult for me to sit here and tell you
- 3:20Speaker 1: that beyond a reasonable doubt, I think it's Brian Koberger.
- 3:23Speaker 1: But that's not where we're at. We're in a position
- 3:26Speaker 1: where we've seen court documents now for years. We've heard
- 3:29Speaker 1: many stories and we've heard from many sources about Brian
- 3:33Speaker 1: Koberger and his activity within the city of Moscow, including
- 3:37Speaker 1: going to the Mad Greek where he ran into Maddie. Now,
- 3:41Speaker 1: of course, that hasn't been confirmed, but that has been
- 3:44Speaker 1: the speculation. That's been the story that's been going around
- 3:46Speaker 1: from the beginning. And I believe it 100%. Kohlberger had
- 3:51Speaker 1: to run into these girls somewhere, right? Well, bro's a vegan.
- 3:54Speaker 1: He's going to the Mad Greek to get himself some food.
- 3:57Speaker 1: Sees the girls and boom, here we go. Certainly seems
- 4:00Speaker 1: like a plausible scenario to me. Now, of course, I'm
- 4:03Speaker 1: open to whatever the evidence says, right? But as of now,
- 4:06Speaker 1: that's where I'm at. That's what I think happened. That's
- 4:08Speaker 1: where I think he was exposed to these girls. And
- 4:11Speaker 1: under my working theory... He became obsessed, and unfortunately, in
- 4:15Speaker 1: my opinion, that led directly to the massacre that we
- 4:18Speaker 1: saw at 1122 King Road. According to court records, the
- 4:22Speaker 1: unnamed relative had previously submitted his own information into a
- 4:26Speaker 1: genetic genealogy database, and investigators had found that the suspect
- 4:30Speaker 1: was part of the same family tree. But when he
- 4:33Speaker 1: was asked to share that information with law enforcement, the
- 4:35Speaker 1: relative refused and told authorities to stop contacting him. Hell
- 4:39Speaker 1: of a person this relative is, huh? Covering for your
- 4:42Speaker 1: alleged murderer. That's nice. Again, we're not talking about somebody
- 4:47Speaker 1: who didn't pay their taxes. We're not talking about somebody
- 4:50Speaker 1: who might have stole something from the store. We're talking
- 4:53Speaker 1: about a quadruple homicide. You're that sure that your relative
- 4:56Speaker 1: wasn't part of it after they contact you and say
- 4:59Speaker 1: the DNA matches? That's some wild ass work to me
- 5:03Speaker 1: and to any of my relatives out there listening. If
- 5:06Speaker 1: your dumb ass goes and murders four people, Don't expect
- 5:08Speaker 1: me to cover for you, ever. I would think that
- 5:11Speaker 1: all decent people draw the line at murder, right? I mean,
- 5:14Speaker 1: you would think anyway. The new details about the uphill
- 5:18Speaker 1: battle to identify the DNA left behind at the scene
- 5:22Speaker 1: of the shocking murders were revealed in a newly unsealed
- 5:25Speaker 1: mammoth 175-page partially redacted transcript of a closed-door hearing in
- 5:30Speaker 1: the case. And we're going to start getting to that
- 5:32Speaker 1: today a little bit, but obviously, considering the length of it,
- 5:36Speaker 1: and the other projects I have going on at the
- 5:38Speaker 1: same time, we're not going to be able to get
- 5:40Speaker 1: all 175 pages done today. So we're going to do
- 5:43Speaker 1: a few pages a day until we have the entirety
- 5:46Speaker 1: of it into the catalog. But have no fear, we're
- 5:49Speaker 1: going to be diving in because it's important that you
- 5:51Speaker 1: folks have this information. I don't know how many times
- 5:53Speaker 1: I have to say it. I'll save the salacious bullshit
- 5:56Speaker 1: for other people. I know that that, you know, gets
- 5:59Speaker 1: you all the money, gets you the clicks and the
- 6:01Speaker 1: likes and the rest of it, but I don't care
- 6:03Speaker 1: about that shit. I care about bringing you the news
- 6:06Speaker 1: and the stories as best as I can, as well
- 6:09Speaker 1: as I know them. Besides that, whatever else happens, happens.
- 6:13Speaker 1: So if people want to talk about, you know, Bigfoot
- 6:15Speaker 1: or they want to talk about cartels or whatever the
- 6:17Speaker 1: fuck they want to talk about up here in Moscow, hey,
- 6:20Speaker 1: they can have at it. But here on the podcast,
- 6:22Speaker 1: we're going to be diving deep and we're going to
- 6:24Speaker 1: be continuing to do that deep dive into the court
- 6:27Speaker 1: documents because that's where the real story is happening. During
- 6:32Speaker 1: the hearing held back on January 23rd, 2025, Kohlberger's defense
- 6:36Speaker 1: attorney sought to undermine the credibility of investigative genetic genealogy,
- 6:41Speaker 1: a method which ultimately led to the arrest of the
- 6:43Speaker 1: 30-year-old criminology PhD student. And this is wild work considering Othram,
- 6:49Speaker 1: which is the industry standard when it comes to DNA,
- 6:52Speaker 1: was the one that was involved in doing this case
- 6:54Speaker 1: as well. So are you really going to tell me
- 6:56Speaker 1: that Othram had no idea what they were doing and
- 6:59Speaker 1: they missed the boat, they screwed up? I don't buy
- 7:01Speaker 1: that for a minute. Last week, Atta County Judge Stephen
- 7:04Speaker 1: Hippler responded to a series of motions which were argued
- 7:07Speaker 1: in the hearing, turning down the defense request to have
- 7:10Speaker 1: the critical IgG evidence thrown out of the case and,
- 7:13Speaker 1: in turn, dealing a series of blows to Kohlberger's team.
- 7:17Speaker 1: A series of blows? We're talking about big-time body shots
- 7:20Speaker 1: to the liver. Like no recovery from it. And there's
- 7:25Speaker 1: people out there that actually believe that this dude's getting railroaded.
- 7:29Speaker 1: It is wild to me to think that anyone could
- 7:31Speaker 1: look at what's going on in Moscow and think that
- 7:34Speaker 1: Brian Koberger is getting anything but a fair shake. And
- 7:37Speaker 1: even with all these things going in his favor, there
- 7:40Speaker 1: are still going to be people out there that say
- 7:42Speaker 1: that Brian Koberger is getting a raw deal. But the
- 7:45Speaker 1: truth is, he's not getting a raw deal, and he's
- 7:47Speaker 1: getting treated better than a lot of people in his position.
- 7:50Speaker 1: And I've said from the very beginning, the reason this
- 7:52Speaker 1: is happening is not because, you know, they want to
- 7:55Speaker 1: give him special treatment. It's because they know that there's
- 7:58Speaker 1: an appeal on the way, no matter what, and they
- 8:00Speaker 1: want to make sure everything's on the up and up
- 8:02Speaker 1: for that appeal. So they're going to go through the steps.
- 8:05Speaker 1: They're going to jump through the hoops. That way, later on,
- 8:07Speaker 1: when Brian Kohlberger goes and cries to the appeals board
- 8:11Speaker 1: about how he didn't get a fair shake, well, we
- 8:13Speaker 1: all know the deal. We all know the truth. So
- 8:16Speaker 1: have no doubt that the prosecution is very much aware
- 8:18Speaker 1: of that, and they're looking forward to that occurring. They
- 8:22Speaker 1: know what's coming, they know what Brian Kohlberger's team's doing,
- 8:25Speaker 1: and they know exactly what sort of strategy is being
- 8:27Speaker 1: used by Ann Taylor. She knows she's not going to
- 8:30Speaker 1: win this case. They all know that. So they're setting
- 8:33Speaker 1: it up for the appeal later on. Just days after
- 8:37Speaker 1: the ruling were handed down, the defense team then underwent
- 8:40Speaker 1: a major shakeup, bringing on board an attorney known for
- 8:43Speaker 1: specializing in forensic DNA evidence. Kohlberger is facing the death
- 8:48Speaker 1: penalty if convicted of the murders of Madison Mogan, Kaylee Gonsalves,
- 8:51Speaker 1: Zanna Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin. The four University of Idaho
- 8:55Speaker 1: students were brutally stabbed to death inside an off-campus home
- 8:59Speaker 1: in the college town of Moscow in the early hours
- 9:02Speaker 1: of November 13, 2022. Kohlberger, who was a Ph.D. student
- 9:06Speaker 1: just over the border at Washington State University at the time,
- 9:10Speaker 1: was arrested around six weeks later at his parents' home
- 9:13Speaker 1: in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania. A key part of the case against
- 9:16Speaker 1: Kohlberger centers on a K-bar knife sheath, which was found
- 9:19Speaker 1: underneath Mogan's lifeless body. Touch DNA found on the sheath
- 9:23Speaker 1: was found to be a match to the 30-year-old suspect,
- 9:26Speaker 1: according to prosecutors. The judge's ruling now paves the way
- 9:31Speaker 1: for the state to present this key evidence when the
- 9:33Speaker 1: case goes to trial this August. The newly unsealed court
- 9:37Speaker 1: transcript reveals new details about the lengthy IgG process and
- 9:42Speaker 1: how it ultimately led investigators to hone in on Kohlberger
- 9:45Speaker 1: as the alleged mass killer who sent shockwaves across America.
- 9:50Speaker 1: Kohlberger's lead public defender Ann Taylor had argued that the
- 9:53Speaker 1: evidence should be tossed from the case, claiming the use
- 9:56Speaker 1: of IgG violated his constitutional rights and that the state
- 10:00Speaker 1: neglected to document its use of the investigative method in
- 10:04Speaker 1: the search warrants. So that was their big contention, right?
- 10:07Speaker 1: That they didn't put all of this information into the affidavit,
- 10:12Speaker 1: that they didn't give all this information over to the judge,
- 10:15Speaker 1: over to the magistrate, And because they didn't do that,
- 10:18Speaker 1: Brian Kohlberger's constitutional rights were being stepped on. Well, we
- 10:22Speaker 1: all know that that's not the case. And we all
- 10:24Speaker 1: know that that's not true. Especially now that Judge Hippler
- 10:27Speaker 1: has made his ruling. According to witness testimony, the DNA
- 10:30Speaker 1: profile on the sheath was identified by November 22, 2022,
- 10:35Speaker 1: nine days after the murders. But both the Idaho State
- 10:39Speaker 1: Police Crime Lab and Forensic DNA Lab, OTHRUM, were unable
- 10:42Speaker 1: to determine who it belonged to. Matthew Gemetti, the Laboratory
- 10:46Speaker 1: Systems Director for Idaho State Police Forensic Services, testified in
- 10:50Speaker 1: the January 23rd hearing that Othram found several individuals that
- 10:54Speaker 1: had the potential to be of interest in this investigation.
- 10:58Speaker 1: He testified that the lab recommended police contact these individuals,
- 11:02Speaker 1: described only as four brothers, to see if they would
- 11:05Speaker 1: contribute information into the database that they were using in
- 11:09Speaker 1: order to further the family tree building and further the
- 11:12Speaker 1: geological work. The brothers did not have the last name
- 11:16Speaker 1: Kohlberger and, as Gamet testified, really had nothing to do
- 11:19Speaker 1: with anything in the case. Idaho State Police Detective Vicky
- 11:23Speaker 1: Gooch tracked down one of the brothers, Gamet testified. The
- 11:27Speaker 1: brother was believed to have previously submitted his information into
- 11:31Speaker 1: a genealogical database and was asked to put his DNA
- 11:34Speaker 1: into a database that law enforcement would then be able
- 11:37Speaker 1: to search. The man was skeptical of Gooch's request, so
- 11:41Speaker 1: Gamet said he joined a second call between Gooch and
- 11:44Speaker 1: the man for purposes of trying to validate this was
- 11:47Speaker 1: indeed a law enforcement investigation. This was indeed a legitimate request. Now,
- 11:53Speaker 1: that's a little different. I didn't realize that the guy
- 11:55Speaker 1: wasn't somebody related to Kohlberger, like, directly. So, yeah, if
- 11:59Speaker 1: somebody showed up and they were like, you have a
- 12:00Speaker 1: cousin named Bombino who is... Maybe, you know, involved in
- 12:05Speaker 1: a murder. Can we get your DNA? I don't know
- 12:07Speaker 1: how quick I turned it over. I was thinking that
- 12:09Speaker 1: maybe it was like a first cousin, shared last name,
- 12:12Speaker 1: that kind of thing, right? Because you show up and
- 12:14Speaker 1: somebody has the last name Cappucci and they're my relative
- 12:17Speaker 1: and you're looking at them for murder. Yep. Where do
- 12:19Speaker 1: I sign up? Where do you swab me? Let's get
- 12:21Speaker 1: this show on the road. But this is kind of
- 12:23Speaker 1: a different situation, honestly. You don't even share a last name.
- 12:27Speaker 1: You don't know the dude. I could see why somebody
- 12:30Speaker 1: would be reticent to hand over their info here. but
- 12:33Speaker 1: the man refused. At that point, that individual requested not
- 12:37Speaker 1: to be contacted again, was not interested in participating, Gamet testified.
- 12:42Speaker 1: On around December 10th, the FBI took over from Othram,
- 12:46Speaker 1: and following its own investigation of the DNA found at
- 12:49Speaker 1: the scene, the Bureau was able to identify Kohlberger as
- 12:52Speaker 1: someone investigators should look into. Moscow Police Detective Brett Payne,
- 12:56Speaker 1: who was assigned lead investigator on the case, testified in
- 13:00Speaker 1: the hearing. that the first time he had heard Kohlberger's
- 13:02Speaker 1: name was December 19, 2022, during a call with the FBI.
- 13:08Speaker 1: While Taylor sought to argue that the use of IGG
- 13:11Speaker 1: was intentionally left out of the affidavit used to obtain
- 13:14Speaker 1: search warrants in the case, Payne insisted that the IGG
- 13:17Speaker 1: evidence was only a tip from the FBI to look
- 13:20Speaker 1: into Kohlberger. And so this is where a lot of
- 13:22Speaker 1: people have a problem, right? They think that the FBI
- 13:26Speaker 1: was cutting corners here, And they might have stepped on
- 13:29Speaker 1: Kohlberger's constitutional rights, but I don't agree. And that's coming
- 13:33Speaker 1: from somebody who is not exactly a friend to the FBI.
- 13:37Speaker 1: If you've listened to this podcast, you know I'm not
- 13:39Speaker 1: a big fan of the way they go about things usually.
- 13:42Speaker 1: But in this instance, I don't think they did anything wrong.
- 13:46Speaker 1: In fact, I think they were doing everything on the
- 13:47Speaker 1: up and up. And looking at the documents, the ones
- 13:50Speaker 1: I've looked at so far, there's nothing in those court
- 13:52Speaker 1: documents to make me think that we were on the
- 13:55Speaker 1: wrong path here. The only thing that was given to
- 13:57Speaker 1: us was Brian Kohlberger's name. That was it. It was
- 14:00Speaker 1: conveyed to us by the FBI that it was to
- 14:02Speaker 1: be taken as no more than a tip. That was it,
- 14:05Speaker 1: he said, per the court transcript. So once we received
- 14:08Speaker 1: his name, we set about doing basically an independent verification
- 14:12Speaker 1: of whether or not he was involved in this crime.
- 14:15Speaker 1: Payne told the court that Kohlberger... had not been on
- 14:18Speaker 1: the police radar prior to that, and that based on
- 14:21Speaker 1: that tip, investigators followed several lines of inquiry into him. Well,
- 14:25Speaker 1: that's what you do. You build your investigation, it mushrooms,
- 14:28Speaker 1: it blooms, and you go from there. Among them, police
- 14:32Speaker 1: learn Kohlberger drove a white Elantra, matching the car scene,
- 14:35Speaker 1: leaving the crime scene at the time of the murders.
- 14:39Speaker 1: After Kohlberger was named a person of interest, items were
- 14:42Speaker 1: taken from the trash at his parents' home and tested
- 14:44Speaker 1: for comparisons to the DNA found on the knife sheath.
- 14:48Speaker 1: He was taken into custody on December 30th, 2022, and
- 14:51Speaker 1: extradited to Idaho to face charges. Well, here's an idea, Mr.
- 14:55Speaker 1: Criminology Student. Don't put your DNA in the trash can
- 14:59Speaker 1: where anyone can rifle through it. Thanks for coming to
- 15:02Speaker 1: my TED Talk. Judge Hipler ruled on the motion about
- 15:06Speaker 1: IgG evidence and several other motions last week, around a
- 15:10Speaker 1: month after the closed-door hearing. The judge dismissed the defense
- 15:14Speaker 1: arguments that the use of IgG was unconstitutional and that
- 15:17Speaker 1: investigators should have obtained warrants to analyze the DNA on
- 15:21Speaker 1: the sheath. After the rulings were handed down, Kohlberger's defense
- 15:24Speaker 1: team underwent a major shakeup. Yeah, they got hammered. They
- 15:28Speaker 1: knew they got hammered. They knew they had to change
- 15:30Speaker 1: it up. So they got rid of Jay Logsdon and
- 15:33Speaker 1: they brought over a Becca Barlow. Public defender Jay Logsdon
- 15:39Speaker 1: has been removed as trial counsel and will only continue
- 15:42Speaker 1: as consulting counsel according to a court order. He will
- 15:45Speaker 1: be replaced by Bica Barlow, a California attorney who is
- 15:49Speaker 1: known for her work on forensic DNA evidence. No reason
- 15:53Speaker 1: was given for the upheaval coming just months before the
- 15:56Speaker 1: trial is set to begin, but Barlow's expertise might suggest
- 16:00Speaker 1: that the defense plans to continue to attack the DNA
- 16:02Speaker 1: evidence in the case. That is all they have. Loopholes, technicalities.
- 16:09Speaker 1: There's nothing Brian Kohlberger can bring to the table that's
- 16:11Speaker 1: going to change it. So unless they get their Hail
- 16:14Speaker 1: Mary prosecutorial misconduct, forget it. Bro is cooked. Barlow has
- 16:20Speaker 1: previously been called as a defense witness in the case
- 16:23Speaker 1: during a past hearing, which argued against the use of IGG.
- 16:27Speaker 1: At his arraignment, Kohlberger stayed silent, leading the judge to
- 16:30Speaker 1: enter a not guilty plea on his behalf. In court filings,
- 16:34Speaker 1: he has claimed to have an alibi for the night
- 16:35Speaker 1: of the murders, that he was driving around looking at
- 16:38Speaker 1: the moon and the stars. Kohlberger is next due in
- 16:41Speaker 1: court in April. So look, that's where things stand, and
- 16:45Speaker 1: I had no doubt that this was going to be
- 16:47Speaker 1: the decision rendered by the judge. People can live in
- 16:50Speaker 1: fantasy land all they want, but I prefer to remain
- 16:52Speaker 1: anchored here in reality, and here in reality, the case
- 16:56Speaker 1: against Brian Kohlberger is strong as hell. All right, folks,
- 17:01Speaker 1: that's going to do it for this one. If you'd
- 17:03Speaker 1: like to contact me, you can do that at bobbycapucci
- 17:05Speaker 1: at protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. Or if you prefer,
- 17:13Speaker 1: you can find me on X at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I.
- 17:19Speaker 1: All of the information that goes with this episode can
- 17:21Speaker 1: be found in the description box.