It's been exactly 2 months since 4
University of Idaho College students
were murdered in their off campus home.
Late last month, police arrested a suspect,
28 year old Brian Koberger,
and Tonight Dateline is airing A2
hour special about the murders
and the search for a suspect.
Our Morgan Romero spoke with Dateline
host Keith Morrison earlier this
afternoon ahead of tonight's show.
I'm joined by Keith Morrison,
correspondent with Dateline that is
airing tonight right here on KTVB.
Keith, thank you so much
for your time this evening.
We want to get right to one of
the biggest things that's been
talked about throughout this case.
Wild speculation, false theories,
misinformation spreading on social media,
places like Reddit, Facebook, Twitter.
How did that impact the
investigation into the murders?
Well, let me start with just by
saying that I've never seen a story
so attract attention as this one has.
This is amazing. Everybody in the
world wants to know about it.
And, and I've, I've talked to reporters
from all over who want to be there,
who, and there's a tremendous
amount of interest in it,
continuing interest and a
huge demand for information,
much of which is simply not accurate.
And that spreads on the Internet so fast
and it unfortunately along the way has
kind of besmirched the reputations of
several people who didn't deserve it.
You know, I I don't really know
what they were thinking about
that inside except that they.
Kept things pretty close to the vest
for as long as they possibly could.
I think that the statements
that were made were, you know,
sometimes went viral in a
way that wasn't intended.
The investigation itself proceeded,
as most investigations do.
It was, it was competently done,
but it just took a while to
figure out who this guy, this,
you know, potential suspect was.
When you think about it,
it really wasn't that long for a murder case.
They often go on for a very long time.
But the fact that they were able to,
you know,
get to the clues and eventually
get lucky in a few things.
Was great.
But they had to,
they had to keep it very secret
in order to get there,
right? Not to compromise the case.
We've all read the probable cause
affidavit that was released last week.
When you look at that and you realize
how early on investigators had their
sights on Brian Koberger and they were
tracking that white sedan that turned
out to be a white Hyundai Elantra.
There was sort of a near miss where
they knew the car and then the
individual went to a different state.
I mean, what's your take on that?
Well, that's a good deal of what you're
gonna see in the program tonight.
We were able to kind of sort all of that out.
I will say that the, you know,
the very bright cop who was in
charge of this investigation also
happens to be an English major.
It was a very well written affidavit.
So did they know early on
or did they find out later?
How did they find out later what
triggered the, the, you know,
the discoveries that would tip the case?
All of those things are fascinating
and they're what we've been able
to get into in our program tonight.
We are looking forward to that.
You mentioned how law enforcement kept
information close to the vest and they still
are with the probable cause affidavit.
We know not even giving all the evidence
that investigators say they have.
But when you look at the information that's
come out and the speculation that's gone on,
how do you think that the
evidence finally came together?
As they sifted through all that
the evidence came together?
The way evidence does,
the way good evidence does.
It has to be it has to connect with
something substantial, something you
can put your hands on and get your.
Your fingers around and see you know
something that will stand up in court.
So in this case,
the most important evidence is the DNA.
The DNA didn't arrive until much later in
the case than most people imagine it did.
That DNA didn't become
significantly important, that is.
The car, which was very famous and
everybody was seeing the car everywhere was.
Early on, more of a problem than a solution.
So again, you'll have to,
we'll unravel it all in a way
that makes sense on our program.
You touched on DNA.
We know cell phone records
and video surveillance of the
car also played key pieces.
But going back to the DNA,
what type of DNA was
really helpful in this?
Well, it it first of all,
they got where they got lucky,
of course, was finding that knife
sheath right there at the crime scene,
right beside one of the bodies.
Find a sheath for a very
specific kind of knife, AK bar.
It's a sheath that has a button
snap on it which is difficult to
open and close and you for anybody
to open and close it without
leaving their own DNA on that knife
sheath would be pretty difficult.
And sure enough they got they got it,
they sent it away to CODIS
and there was no match.
So then they sent it to a genealogical
company that does genetic genealogical DNA
and this is I think where we will discover.
That some new inroads were
made in that science.
They were able to narrow this down
to a very small group of people in a
very specific area of the country.
And that's how they got to it must
be somebody in the extended family,
not terribly extended family
of Brian Kolberger.
Once that came back,
they authorized the the garbage retrieval.
And the two matched up and there we are.
I'm sure as genealogy has progressed
in advance, you're seeing cases
that play out similarly, right?
Yes. And we, we've seen a lot of them
in recent years and it's in many,
many cold cases are being solved
now because of genealogical DNA.
Every police force has got a bunch
of them that they're working on.
This one though,
was faster than any other I've seen.
I mean they only had a fairly short
period of time to narrow everything down.
And that's a complicated task, so.
I'm looking forward to hearing
more about about that process.
Last question for you, Keith, before
we wrap up and let you get on your way.
Who can people expect to hear from tonight?
Well, you'll hear from some parents,
you'll hear from people who have
been close to the investigation.
You'll hear from friends of the victims.
You'll hear from people
who knew Brian Koberger,
some of them who knew quite well.
And you know, the people who were
associated with the investigation
intimately are unable to speak
because there is a gag order.
So we had to work around
that and we've done so.
But I would say the central part of
our program tonight is going to be a
finally an explanation of what was,
what was nonsense and what was
real and how this actually went,
which is not the way a lot
of people thought even after
they read the affidavit
and of course still a very active case.
Keith Morrison with Dateline,
we thank you so much for your time.
We are really.
Looking forward to this program tonight.
Of course, the story has great
significance on the state of Idaho.
Alright. Datelines killing in a
college town airs tonight right here
on KTVB at 8:00 PM Mountain time.