Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Murder In Moscow: Idaho Officials Blast Planned Release of Victims’ Unredacted Images (9/16/26)

Transcript

Murder In Moscow: Idaho Officials Blast Planned Release of Victims’ Unredacted Images (9/16/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome back to the program. When
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: it comes to the murders in Moscow, there is no
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: doubt that some of that information should remain sealed, especially
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the pictures. But unfortunately, those pictures, the autopsy pictures and
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: other pictures have been leaked. And I understand that people
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: want as much information as possible. I do too. But
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: what are we going to learn from those pictures? It
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: seems to me that All that's good for is hurting
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the family members and the loved ones of the victims.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, not for nothing, but imagine your kid got
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: killed and then you get on the internet and people
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: are looking at all of the photos that should be sealed.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: And I think that when people are in such a
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: race to get content out and get it out first,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: a lot of times those people are ignoring the impact
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: of this information. And then, of course, there is the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: quote-unquote journalist in me. who wants everything to be transparent.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: So I do understand both sides of the story, and
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I think that any sort of documentation, such as reports
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and whatnot, that should all be public. But when we're
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: talking about pictures, and we're talking about, you know, people
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: who are dead, not exactly the kind of pictures I'd
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: want out there if it was my kid. And in
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: my opinion, those families have suffered enough. So I think
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: that this leak of pictures is pretty disgusting, to be
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: honest with you. And today... We have an article from
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the Spokesman Review talking a little bit more about this
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: alleged leak. Headline, North Idaho investigators deeply troubled as content
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: creators prepare to release unredacted photos of the Moscow crime scene.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: And look, that's where the money is. If I wanted
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: to turn my shit into a business, that's the kind
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: of thing I'd have to do. But I just refuse
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: to do it. I'm not playing ball. I'm not going
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to be in some rat race. To put people's dead
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: pictures on the internet? What, to drum up some attention?
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: To get some likes? Make sure you click the like
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: button and you subscribe. Bunch of weirdos. This article was
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: authored by Alexandra Dugan. The family of four University of
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Idaho students, slain in Moscow, have said for years, they're
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: haunted by any photos depicting the murder scene. For some
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: true crime online content creators, the family's wishes to keep
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: private the last moments of the lives of Madison Mogan,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Kaylee Gonsalves, Zanna Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin appear irrelevant. Oh,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: isn't that nice? Isn't that real nice? There's some real
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: sick people out there, folks. Some real sick people who
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: have no business even in being in this realm of
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: content creation. You have to self-regulate because there's nobody that's
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: going to regulate for you. And what happens is the opposite.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: People start doing shit like this and they start getting,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: you know, Some tread. They start getting people to follow them.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: And then they expect more and more of this kind
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: of thing. But when all's said and done, what are
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: you really accomplishing if you release this stuff? What do
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: you gain by it? Some followers? Some clout? I think
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the backlash is going to be even worse. I don't
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: mind being the source and leaking stuff. People have pictures
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: of victims unredacted, of wounds unredacted. We have them, a
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: YouTuber said in a video posted Monday. We're waiting to
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: see if we can get more photos before we be
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the leakers of it. The YouTuber's name is Logan, who
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: hosts a show called Bronx Tales True Crime on the
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: video platform. Her channel has more than 9,000 subscribers. Boy,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: isn't she a gem, a real peach. Good old Logan
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: got herself a nice little crime channel, Bronx Tales True Crime.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Give me a break, dude. Her introduction video opens with
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: an electronic rap song that's edited to photos of Mogan, Gonsalves, Kernodle,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: and Chapin in the home where they were killed. The
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: photos pulsate to the beat of the music, and I'll
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: just straight up say it. What a clout goblin. Unbelievably disgusting.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Just another disconnected, disjointed, brain-rotted kid. That's really what it
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: comes down to. Pathetic as fuck. Stay tuned, she told
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: her followers as they cheered her on. In the live comments,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: it's coming. The YouTuber's comments came shortly before the Latah
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: County Prosecutor's Office issued a joint statement with the Idaho
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: State Police and Moscow Police Department on Tuesday condemning any
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: release of photos that depict the bodies of the four
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: UI students. And look, it might be disgusting and it
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: might be something I don't agree with, but if this
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: person hasn't broken any laws, then it becomes a moral issue, right?
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Do you morally agree, or don't you? Now, if she
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: broke laws, well... We collectively are deeply troubled to hear
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: of this potential release. Providing sensitive, unredacted crime scene material
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: for public dissemination is an unwarranted invasion of the victim's
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: privacy and demonstrates a profound lack of integrity and professionalism,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: the statement says. Those entrusted with access to such material
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: must safeguard it, and violating that trust and any professional...
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: And ethical duties required by such position of trust is unconscionable.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: And that's really the problem. Whoever leaked it, if it
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: was leaked. Now, the content creator, they have their own issues, right?
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Moral issues, maybe legal ones. I don't know. But I
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: will tell you this, the person who leaked it, they're
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: going to have big problems. If they do an investigation
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: and they find out who leaked it, that person is
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: going to suffer consequences. So my question is, is it
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: worth it? Is it really worth leaking some photos of
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: dead kids? that a crime scene? Now, we're not talking
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: about leaking classified information that shows the government spying on Americans.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Different story, right? Or if this was some kind of
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: leak that pointed to Koberger not being the person who
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: did it, okay, cool, perfect, let's see it. But I
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: just don't see the point here. And look, that doesn't
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: mean that everybody is going to agree, right? I'm just
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: telling you my personal opinion. All four students were found
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: stabbed to death in the off-campus home on November 13, 2022.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Investigators eventually zeroed in on Brian Kohlberger, a then-28-year-old Washington
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: State University graduate student, through DNA found at the scene.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: He pleaded guilty to the murders in July of 2025.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Tuesday's statement from the prosecutor's office states the unredacted photos
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: that may soon be released from True Crime Creators came
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: from an unknown source. There's going to be an investigation.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: And I think the people that end up, you know,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: getting in trouble for this are going to be the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: people that leaked. The content creator, I'm not sure. I
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: really don't know what their responsibilities are. If someone leaks
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: something like that to them, I'm not too sure how
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: that would work, right? As far as liability goes. But
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I don't even think people care about that at this point.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: The whole idea is to get that content out there
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: and get it out there first. We recognize the public's
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: legitimate interest in transparency and accountability. The dissemination of these
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: photographs does not serve that interest, the office said. These
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: unredacted images should not be published, posted, shared, or otherwise distributed.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Further dissemination would serve no legitimate public purpose and would
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: only compound the harm to the victim's families and the
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: broader community. So there's a lot of me that wonders
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: how many of these content creators are going the Candace
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Owens route. and they're going to try and set up
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: some kind of groundswell of support for Brian Kohlberger, and
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: they feel like these pictures might quote-unquote help them. Now
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: maybe that's just the cynic in me, but after what
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: we've seen recently, with Karen Reid, with Lindsay Clancy, would
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: anybody be shocked? That seems to be the new way
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: of doing things, so I certainly have my suspicions about
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: everybody involved. The only photos of the victims' bodies online
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: as of Tuesday appear to be redacted images released in
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: August 2025, and a batch of public records to an
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Idaho news outlet. Now look, I get redacted photos, and
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: there should be some, but if you're, you know, dumping
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: the whole entire file of photos of, you know, dead kids,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: not really a good look, and I don't see how
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: it advances the story. Now if you want to talk
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: about satisfying people's morbid curiosity, it'll certainly do that. The
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: families were not notified prior to that release, seeing them
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: online the same day they were published. the Chapin family
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: previously said in court records. The release of some crime
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: scene photos was a partial reason for last year's passage
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: of a new Idaho law that prevents photos of decedents
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: from going public. Well, might have ourselves a problem here.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Might have a big problem. If there's a law in
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: place and you release this information, don't be shocked if
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the state of Idaho comes calling. The law amended Idaho's
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Public Records Act to exempt from release Any photograph or
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: images of a decedent taking as part of a coroner
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: death investigation or law enforcement investigation, regardless of whether such
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: an investigation is active or not. Other photos the Bronx
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Tales channel discusses depict blood on the floor. Before showing
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the photos, the host gives a trigger warning and laughs. Well, yeah,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: it's very funny when, you know, four college kids are
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: murdered inside of their home. Exactly the kind of thing
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: you want to laugh about. She starts to speculate on
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: what a small white object in the photo could be.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: She also speculates about small, barely visible stains in other photos.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: In another photo she shares, a large empty Coors Light
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: box sits on one of the victims beds the host
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: then claims the police purposefully threw the box on top
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of the bed and later accuses police of destroying evidence
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: yep she's making the move she is trying to make
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the Candace Owens move the shit is as laughable as
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: it is transparent so many people are trying to harness
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: this now and it's bad news and I urge everybody
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: out there not to give it any sort of tread.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: There's so much better content out there than this bullshit.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, come on. Now, if you're somebody that needs
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to belong, and you want to join a team, and
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: you want to be dog-walked by another moron, hey, be
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: my guest. Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dollinger did not respond
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: to requests for comment on Tuesday. People see a video
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: or see something out of context, and it looks one
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: way to them, but it may not be the facts
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: at all, said Daniel Slakoff, a criminal justice professor, at
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: California State University, Sacramento. Slakoff specializes in studying true crime
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and recently published a comprehensive study interviewing well-known crime victim
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: family members. The study showed true crime media is often sensationalized, re-traumatizing,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: and exploitative of the victim's families and their pain. Oh,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: there is no doubt about it. And it's really turning
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: me off of the whole genre, to be honest with you. Like,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I thought people talked about these stories... because they wanted
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: to see justice, because they wanted a cold case cracked.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: But now, it's become something completely different. And I find
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: it all very disturbing and very disgusting. I think that
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: people have been emboldened to speculate because it's a way
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: to drive attention to their pages, Slakoff said. Sometimes the
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: loudest and most negative voices get the most attention. Well,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: that's true. Everybody wants to be part of the hardy
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: fucking boys. Oh, we're great investigators. We're gonna crack it.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: when they can't even crack the court documents and furthermore
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: what makes you some kind of expert why should I
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: listen to you what are your sources what have you
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: done previously that I can look back on and say
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: hey look this person knows what they're talking about they're
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: serious and they produce content that actually hits because what
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: I've seen lately is a lot of people showing up
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and they don't even know what the fuck they're talking
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: about pizza delivery guys only fangirls people laughing when they're
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: looking at crime scene photos like what are we doing
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: here folks What exactly is it that we're doing? Slakoff
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: is a supporter of keeping the photos of the victims'
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: bodies out of the public eye. When photos like that
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: are released, she said, it becomes a ripple effect. For one,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Slakoff said, it brings the crime back into focus and
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: makes true crime consumers feel like they know the family personally.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: That can lead to a more invasive behavior, like reaching
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: out or approaching them on the street, she said. It
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: can also place more eyes on the killer. sensationalizing the tragedy,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: can possibly make a hero status out of the perpetrator,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Slakoff said. That's the goal. Okay, that's the goal here.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: And go ahead and bookmark this episode. Because I'm telling
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: you exactly what's going to happen. And I'm telling you
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: what's on the way. The families, too, must face the
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: worst day of their lives all over again. Ethan Chapin's mother,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Stacey Chapin, posted the agency's joint news release on her
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Instagram story Tuesday afternoon. For the love of whatever, stop
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: with the photos, she wrote. They have absolutely nothing to
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: do with transparency and are so incredibly hurtful. Rest in peace,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: beautiful kids. But it doesn't matter, right? As long as
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Clout Goblin over on YouTube gets some clicks and a
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: bunch of weirdos who want to follow her. The same
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: people who thought that Lindsay Clancy's husband killed those kids.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Same kind of people. The potential release is all but
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: surprising to Slakoff. Who believes true crime creators care more
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: about themselves and their followers than they do their victims?
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I agree. The whole entire thing has been so monetized. Oh,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: buy my merch, buy this, buy that. Whatever happened to
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: just talking about shit that interested you? I don't get it.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: I just don't understand. Maybe I'm just old, right? I
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: guess that might be it too. Mr. Gen X over here,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: get the fuck off my lawn. I feel really horrible
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: for the families that they're bracing themselves for this, Slakoff said.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: It says a lot about how we treat victims and
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: their families. When we talk about true crime, we're talking
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: about the commodification of murder. And look, there's no doubt
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: about it. And I'm not going to sit here and
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: tell everybody how they should act or how they should behave.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: But me personally, I find it off-putting in growth. Let's
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: talk about cases that are happening, right? Cases that haven't
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: been solved. And then when it gets to a point
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: where there is somebody who's indicted, let's follow along with
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: the process and make sure everybody's getting a fair deal.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: But guess what? That's boring. That's not adventurous enough for
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: people who have been programmed now to find a conspiracy
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: everywhere they look. And I'm not telling you that there
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: aren't conspiracies. There are. There's a lot going on out
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: there that the government's lying about, 1,000%. But every single
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: murder now has to become some gigantic government cover-up. And frankly,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: it gets boring after a while. I think we deserve
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: better conspiracy theorists and way better conspiracies. But instead, we're
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: stuck with slop like this. So we'll keep an eye
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: on it and we'll see what happens if the pictures
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: are released. And if there's any blowback, if that happens,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: we'll definitely get it added to the catalog. Until then,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: that's going to do it for this one. All the
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: information that goes with this episode can be found... in
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the description box.