Kohberger case leaks: What happens to Idaho's special investigation?

BOISE, Idaho — A controversial episode of NBC’s “Dateline” about the Bryan Kohberger student murder case, aired just before his planned trial, remains at the center of a court-ordered special investigation into suspected leaks even after the killer pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison.

The defense requested the investigation in June, with prosecutors filing a motion in response the same day, according to a case summary records log. Both documents were filed under seal, so not released to the public, and followed encouragement from the judge presiding over the case to investigate likely violations of the court’s gag order.

Fourth Judicial District Judge Steven Hippler said at a public hearing in May that he was open to appointing a special prosecutor over the alleged violations. The request would include the ability to ask for a magistrate inquiry to obtain subpoena power, Hippler said.

After Hippler lifted the gag order and Kohberger, 30, was sentenced to consecutive life terms for killing four University of Idaho students, lead case prosecutor Bill Thompson and former Moscow Police Chief James Fry confirmed in interviews with the Idaho Statesman existence of the special investigation into the evidence leaks. In the two-hour episode, “Dateline” cited sources close to the Kohberger investigation and revealed previously undisclosed details — some true, others not, a lead investigator in the Kohberger case also told the Statesman.

Thompson and Fry both said they supported efforts to discover the source — or sources — of the case information in hopes of seeing them prosecuted. That inquiry is ongoing even after prosecutors closed the case into the murders of U of I students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, Thompson said.

“There is a special prosecutor, and I can tell you that we are not included or privy to what the investigation is doing, nor is the defense, is my understanding, nor is Judge Hippler,” Thompson told the Statesman by phone. “It’s being overseen completely independently, and whatever the investigation is doing is confidential. That’s what we were instructed by the judge.”

Unless charges are eventually filed and someone prosecuted for suspected violations of the gag order, the public is not entitled to information about such sealed legal proceedings, Idaho courts spokesperson Nate Poppino told the Statesman.

Hippler indicated he believed the perceived leaks came from members of law enforcement, which fell under the prosecution’s responsibility not to violate the gag order, which prohibited statements about the case outside of court. But the judge walked back that suggestion in his order that denied the defense’s request to delay Kohberger’s trial.

It could have just as easily come from someone affiliated with Kohberger’s attorneys, Hippler wrote. That would include dozens of experts hired to assist in his defense.

“I’m having a hard time thinking that it was one of the investigators or somebody in my office who had access to all that material,” Thompson said. “I guess anything is possible, and, if nothing else, I’m hoping that the investigation will be able to shed light on either eliminating or inculpating whoever is responsible.”

Fry rebuked “Dateline” and called the decision to air the Kohberger case episode “unprofessional.” He raised concerns that disclosing previously unknown evidence on television could have changed the outcome of the case.

“No. 1, it should have never got into their hands, so somebody obviously messed up there, or didn’t mess up and did it intentionally,” Fry said in an interview with the Statesman. “But I still would like to believe that if you’re a professional organization, you’d say, ‘We’re not going to take that chance’ — even for a click or even for viewing.”

‘Dateline’ got some facts wrong, lead investigator says

The “Dateline” special, which NBC broadcast on May 9 — just seven weeks before jury selection was set to begin — included a raft of new details about Kohberger and the murder investigation. It remains available to watch on Peacock, NBC’s streaming platform.

Idaho State Police Lt. Darren Gilbertson, a lead investigator on the student murder case, told the Statesman that he watched the episode and “Dateline” got a few details right. But, he said, it also had some — including significant ones — wrong.

“There were some gross inaccuracies and just complete falsehoods,” Gilbertson said in a phone interview.

“Dateline” asserted in the episode that Kohberger’s target was Mogen. Investigators said they think Kohberger first went up to the third floor to attack Mogen and Goncalves — one of whom Thompson and Gilbertson said they believe was his intended target — but aren’t certain if one was targeted.

Kernodle then went up the stairs to the third floor and encountered Kohberger, “Dateline” reported. Gilbertson agreed, though perhaps she did not go all the way, he said, which was determined by what her second-floor roommate, Dylan Mortensen, heard and told police.

Kohberger came down after Kernodle where she fought him in her second-floor bedroom, Gilbertson said. Recently released Moscow police reports stated Kernodle was stabbed more than 50 times, including defensive wounds.

Still unclear to investigators is whether Kohberger killed Kernodle or Chapin, her boyfriend who was asleep in her bed, first. Chapin died from a single wound to his neck that severed his jugular vein, police reports said, and also had wounds to the back of his lower hamstrings but those wounds were not “carved” as “Dateline” reported, Gilbertson said.

“There was a strike to the back of his leg,” he said. “None of us believe or concluded that there was any other purpose or that he was doing (something) ritualistic or anything like that. I think it was simply a strike to make sure that Ethan was not going to come after him.”

Also, Kohberger, after fatally stabbing the four students, did not take a seat in Kernodle’s bedroom out of exhaustion, as “Dateline” purported, he said.

“Completely false, made up, no idea where that came from,” Gilbertson said. “He did not sit down in a chair anywhere in the house.”

In response to a request for comment from the Statesman, an NBC News spokesperson said the network stands by its reporting.

What the show did get right, Gilbertson said, was Kohberger had previously used his cellphone for online searches about notorious serial murderer Ted Bundy and his justifications for killing. The program also reported that he searched for pornography with the terms “sleeping,” “passed out” and “drugged.”

“All that is pretty accurate. There were searches related to pornography, but it wasn’t extensive,” Gilbertson said. “There was not anything that led us believe, ‘OK, you know, he has some type of a sexual desire behavior that’s driving this.’ But we also know that he deleted and wiped a lot of his devices, so we obviously don’t know what he wiped or what wasn’t there.”

Kohberger, a Washington State University Ph.D. student at the time, had a number of photos on his cellphone of female college students at WSU and the U of I, which he saved from social media, Gilbertson said. They were mostly WSU students, he said.

After Kohberger’s December 2022 arrest and police review of his cellphone data, which included the images, investigators contacted the women, Gilbertson said. They responded with “shock” and “disbelief,” as any of us would, he told the Statesman.

“They didn’t know him,” Gilbertson said. “They had no idea, no clue who he was or anything about him.”