‘Dateline NBC’ to air two-hour special focused on Moscow murders
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IDAHO FALLS — ‘Dateline NBC’ will air an all-new two-hour program Friday called ‘Killings in a College Town’ that will focus on the University of Idaho murder investigation.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary for the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Kaylee Goncalves. He made his second appearance in court Thursday morning in Moscow.
“It’s a terrible case and the fact that it has caught the world’s attention as much as it has is a bit of a surprise to me,” ‘Dateline NBC’ correspondent Keith Morrison told EastIdahoNews.com in a Zoom interview Thursday.
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Morrison spoke with friends and family members of the victims, as well as former acquaintances and classmates of Kohberger. They said the suspected killer was overweight and bullied as a child but as he went through his high school years, he lost weight and slimmed down.
They were stunned when their former classmate was arrested on murder charges.
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“You have a tendency to look back and see things with new eyes when something like this happens,” Morrison explains. “Those who have known him in the past have told us they did notice he had trouble in social situations…One young woman who went to a wedding with him – she spoke with him…but he didn’t speak to anybody else in the wedding party or anybody at all the entire evening. He was very uncomfortable in crowds.”
Martha, a University of Idaho student who was friends with Ethan and Xana, told Morrison that one of the “toughest” things during the investigation has been dealing with internet sleuths on social media.
“It was odd because you’d be with people that you’re literally actively grieving with and then you’d open Facebook or open TikTok and then it would be how the person sitting next to you is the one that did it (committed the crimes),” Madison said. “The independent TikTok sleuths and (other) people made out the people that I love and know into monsters online. There was some really awful things written on the internet.”
Morrison spoke more about the episode and what viewers can expect. Watch our entire interview in the video player above.
‘Dateline NBC’ airs Friday at 8 p.m. on KPVI.