September 17, 2025 • 38 mins
When four University of Idaho students were brutally murdered in their Moscow home, investigators faced a nightmare. DNA evidence from the crime scene pointed nowhere, leaving the case cold. Detectives turned to a surviving roommate’s eyewitness account and cutting-edge forensic DNA technology to generate new leads in real time. Could this breakthrough uncover the truth about one of the most shocking college murders in recent history?
America’s Crime Lab is a true crime podcast about how science solves cold cases, missing persons, and other unsolved cases. Hosted by journalist and clinical psychologist Elin Lantz Lesser, and powered by Othram’s forensic DNA lab, the show connects the science to the story, revealing what really happens in the lab and why it matters.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Oh As.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I was so frantic that morning and scared death, not
knowing what had happened. And when I made then I'm
a one call, I couldn't even get out the words.
And from then on I don't remember a thing. It
was like my brain wiped that whole memory. That was
the worst day of my life, and I know it
(00:38):
always will be.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
The murders of four college students in Moscow, Idaho, shocked
the community and set off a desperate man hunt for
the killer. It was a brutal crime, and investigators found
surprisingly little evidence at the scene. Authorities didn't know who
they were searching for or why the lives of the
two surviving roommates had been spared. But there was one
(01:05):
big clue left behind. Police found a key piece of
evidence with the killers DNA, but it wasn't leading them
to a suspect. Meanwhile, it seems like whoever did this
was trying to stay one step ahead of investigators. This
(01:30):
is America's crime Lab. I'm Alan Lance Lesser. This is
Part two of the Idaho student murder case. If you
missed part one, please go back and listen. I'm here
with producer Catherine Fanalosa and listening to the words of Bethany,
(01:52):
one of those surviving roommates, just now you can feel
the pain, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
You really can. And police recently really bodycam footage of
the first responding officer. I watched it a few days ago,
and Allen, I'm not even sure how to describe it.
It's just absolutely heartbreaking, and honestly, it's painful to watch.
But I think it also helped me understand the complete
(02:17):
confusion of that day. I mean, it's easy for someone
to hear about the murders on the news or read
about them and walk away with completely wrong assumptions.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, I can imagine that day. You just feel like,
is this even real? And they're just college kids. They
don't know what's going on.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
When the surviving roommates Bethany and Dylan and their friends
call nine one one, I mean they're calling to say
that one of their roommates is unresponsive and they're talking
about Xana, right, And so when the officer is responding
to this call, that's really what he thinks he's going for.
(02:58):
You know, maybe like college sudents have partied too much.
I don't know, maybe someone needs to be taken to
the hospital to like get their stomach pumped, you know
what I mean. Yeah, So he's driving there and he's
listening to country music. He pulls up to the house
by himself, and he sees the circle of friends standing
(03:19):
outside in the cold. It's November thirteenth, twenty twenty two.
There are little patches of snow around.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Dylan.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
The roommate is standing barefoot. She's got it looks like
either pajama pants or sweatpants on and a T shirt.
Some of the friends standing there are in shorts. The
officer pulls up and he, you know, is like, what's
going on? Where's the unresponsive person? They say, inside, So
he goes inside and he climbs to the second floor,
(03:54):
where the kitchen and living room are and two bedrooms.
And as he gets to the top of the stars,
he sees Xanna lying on the floor of her bedroom.
Ethan's in the bed and it's clear by the amount
of blood that's around both of them that there's been
(04:16):
a horrible crime. You can hear the officer, like his
breathing starts to become kind of choppy. You can almost
(04:38):
like feel his heartbeat like just thumping. Another officer arrives
and he's climbing the stairs to the second floor and
they're speaking to each other almost didn't half sentences, you know.
The first officers basically like, dude, slow down, we've got something.
(05:06):
I think two fatalities. Now officers start coming in and
it's pretty quiet. They go through the home with their
weapons drawn and they're essentially trying to make sure no
(05:27):
one else is there. They climb the stairs to the
third floor, where Maddie and Kayley's rooms are, and the
first officer who arrived at the scene, as he gets
to the top of the stairs, he's speechless. I mean,
it's like you can feel the horror of what he's seeing.
(05:47):
The first officer goes back outside to interview Dylan, the roommate,
and she's trying to recount what happened last night. You'll
remember that Dylan and Bethany are nineteen. They're the youngest
of this group, and they're self proclaimed scaredy cats, like
they're known to get freaked out over small things, but
(06:08):
this time it's real and they're just completely disoriented. And
Dylan says, you know, I'm not really sure what's real
and maybe what was a dream.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, I can see how she's just terrified, in total shock.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
But this is where we get some key new information
about what actually happened that night, and it's really some
of our first clues as to who murdered these four students.
So Dylan tells the officer she and Bethany were up
watching Vampire Diaries when Mattie and Kaylee came home from
the bar. You know, they were at the Corner Club
and they all hang out. They eat some mac and cheese,
(06:49):
take some selfies, and then Mattie and Bethany take Kaylee's
dog Murphy out back to pee before bed. Bethany comes
back in and she goes down to her room. Her
bedroom's on the first floor, and then at some point
Maddie asked Bethany if she brought Murphy in because she
can't find the dog. Bethany's like, no, I don't have him,
(07:14):
and she goes to bed. Dylan also goes to bed.
Her bedroom's on the second floor, and at some point
both Dylan and Bethany hear a loud noise. But Ashley Jennings,
who's a senior deputy in the Leyta County Prosecutor's Office,
says this also wasn't unusual.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
This is a house. The walls are pretty thin. There's
a lot of noise. There's you know, five six people
in the house, if not more at any time, arriving
at different hours. Always a lot of noise, and it's
a pretty noisy area of town.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Now, it kind of sounds like maybe Kayleie and Matty
have gone up to their bedrooms on the third floor
and they're dancing or they're playing with their dog. Dylan
falls back asleep.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
But she was woken by something. I don't know that
she's able to fully articulate what the noise was. She
hears a voice, but she believes she hears someone say
someone's here.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
She calls out, asking, you know, Kaylee, Mattie, something.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Doesn't hear anything, and she looks out in the hallway
and she doesn't see anyone.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
So she immediately goes back behind her bedroom door locks
it continues to kind of stand there and listen, and
at some point hears a noise like someone coming down
the stairway which is right outside her bedroom.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Now, the roommates they all wear Doc Martins. You know,
there's like heavy soled shoes. Yeah, and so she's not
sure who it is, but she thinks it's one of
her roommates running down the stairs in Doc Martin's. Then
she hears Murphy Kaylee's dog barking, which is a little
weird because he's not typically a barker.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
So Dylan, of course thinks this is just like all
the other times that you know, she's heard something and
kind of, you know, freaks herself out, and so she's
just standing there and listening, tries to figure out what's
going on. At some point, she hears some movement on
the stairway right outside her door, loud movement. She hears
(09:27):
some more voices.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
She hears someone crying, and then she hears a man's
voice that she doesn't recognize say you're going to be okay.
I'm going to help you. And she thinks maybe the
crying is coming from the bathroom in the hallway, but
(09:52):
she's not quite sure. Dylan says the guy's voice, he
didn't say that in like a nice way, it's more
and she says a weird tone, spooky. So now she's
really kind of freaked out. Yeah, and she starts calling
all of her roommates. She's calling Kayley, she's calling Mattie, Xanna,
(10:15):
No one's answering. She opens her door again. She sees
a man dressed in all black with a black ski
mask covering his face.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
All she can see is just the eyes and nose
area with what she describes as kind of bushy eyebrows.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
And he walks right past her and she freezes and
he looks at her. She thinks he's maybe like five
ten six feet tall, and she describes him built like
a basketball player, like he's athletic but skinny.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
What a terrifying moment. I mean, this is out of
an actual horror movie. Would wonder if I was having
a dream or something.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And the other thing I should say that's running through
her mind is that maybe this is a prank.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, I mean, if you're living near the frats, that
would probably make a lot more sense.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
And the person walks past her bedroom and exits out
that backslider kitchen area which is right outside her bedroom.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
She ducks back in her room, locks the door. She
calls Bethany, her roommate, who answers the phone.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
They're kind of discussing, like did you hear that? What
do you think's going on? We live in Moscow, We
live in a same community. Their mind does not go
to something as tragic as what occurred.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, also because I feel like the media has picked
up on this idea that quite often it's someone you
know or it's someone close to you. If you see
someone walking through this guy in a ski mask, I
mean definitely I would be scared, But also I wouldn't
necessarily jump to he's murdered a bunch of people in
(12:12):
my house and he's leaving.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
But as had occurred in the past, you know, they
kind of talk to each other, they calm each other down,
and then they go, Okay, well let's be together.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Bethany says, well, look, come down to my room. You know,
it's better than being being up there alone. So Dylan
runs out of her room and as she leaves her room,
she can see Xana lying on the floor. Now, you know,
they had all been partying that night. She's thinking, maybe
(12:47):
Xana just like passed out on the floor. She's sort
of like sleeping off the night.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Yeah, your mind, thankfully wouldn't go there to the worst scenario,
so their mine didn't.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Ailen.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I'm gonna play you a statement from Bethany at the
killer sentencing hearing. She was too emotional to read it,
so one of her friends did. She explains what she
was thinking the morning after the murders.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I thought that we were going to wake up and
go upstairs see them and tell them how they had
scared us, and that they were going to tease us
about how we're constantly scaredy cats. I make jokes about it,
as we would go to Taco Bill like always.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
But that's not what happened. The next morning, Bethany and
Dylan realized maybe it wasn't a prank. Maybe something is very,
very wrong.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I was so frantic that morning and scared death, not
knowing what had happened. And when I made then I'm
a one call, I couldn't even get out the words,
and from then on I don't remember a thing. It
was like my brain wiped that whole memory. That was
the worst day of my life, and I know it
(14:13):
always will be.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Where are we on evidence? I mean, I know the
crucial piece of evidence is the leather knife sheath, which
was found in the bed next to Maddie and Kaylee.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So we know that the Idaho State Crime Lab is
able to pull DNA off of that knife sheath and
very quickly develop a DNA profile and it's done in
just a matter of days. But when they upload the
DNA profile to codis, there are no hits. But it
did reveal some important clue, so they know that the
(15:01):
DNA belongs to just one person, and it's a man
and aileen. I can't express how chaotic and fast moving
this case was. Right from the start, Moscow police immediately
start getting flooded with tips, The FBI is brought into help,
and they actually set up a command post in the
police parking lot. David Middelman from authorm says this is
(15:25):
all unfolding in the days leading up to Thanksgiving in
twenty twenty.
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Two, and there's just this tremendous pressure from the urgency
that a bunch of kids were going home and potentially
coming back to an unsafe environment. They were struggling to
identify a direction, a person of interest, the very scary situation.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
There's also the problem that since the campus is emptying
out as student's head home for the holiday, this includes
people who might have key knowledge of the murders, and
it might also include the actual killer. I mean, with
the excuse of leaving town to go somewhere else across
the country for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Do they have any other evidence at this point they do.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Prosecutor Bill Thompson says, police canvas the neighborhood and they
find surveillance video from surrounding houses and apartment buildings.
Speaker 7 (16:17):
That footage showed a white sedan coming and going several
times earlier that early morning. Camera also showed that sedan
that was identified as a Hyundai Elantra, leaving the area
at a high rate of speed around four twenty or
so that morning. On November thirteenth of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
In Moscow, police Captain Roger Lanier says they start to
focus in on that white Hyundai Lantra and he makes
a plea to the public for help.
Speaker 8 (16:48):
We are confident that the occupant or occupants of that
vehicle have information that's critical to this investigation. Hey, maybe
your neighbor has one of the garage that they don't
drive very often. Let us So far, we have a
list of approximately twenty two thousand registered white Hondai laundriss
that fit into our criteria that we're sorting through. That's
(17:11):
an awful lot of information, So the public can help
us with that.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Okay, this is a college neighborhood. So how do we
know it doesn't belong to a neighbor or even like
a car share driver.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Well, it's driving up and down King Road starting around
three point thirty that morning, and it's odd. I mean,
it never stops to pick anyone up or drop someone off.
At one point, it drives past the apartment building next door,
turns around and goes back by the King Road house.
Then it almost looks like it's looking for parking, but
(17:44):
then it turns around again, drives back by the house,
It makes a three point turn. It's just its movements
are really strange. And then it passes by the house
for a fourth time at four four in the morning.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
That's sketchy.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
While police are trying to hunt down that Hyundai Elantra,
prosecutor Ashley Jennings says they also learned that before Xana
was attacked, she had ordered food from Jack in the
Box and it was delivered around four am.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
Investigators have a theory that she was up during the
same time, and it's possible while he was in the
residence they made contact at some point, which is what
ultimately led to help pursuing Sanna into her bedroom.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
You mentioned that Xana had defensive wounds on her hands,
so it would make sense if maybe she heard something
on the third floor and went to investigate it or something.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yeah, and the killer could have chased her down to
her bedroom where he attacks her and her boyfriend Ethan,
who was sleeping. Police also find that at four seventeen,
a security camera on a neighbor's house records some voices
and a loud thud and then the sound of a
dog barking. The surveillance footage shows that that white Hyundai Elantra,
(19:15):
which had been going up and down the street now
is speeding away from the King Road house for the
last time at four twenty.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Oh wow. So assuming that these murders happened somewhere in
that window. Again, we don't know for sure if the
car is related to what happened, but Xana had just eaten,
so she was probably awake.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
They think it's anywhere between four h four and four twenty.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
That's just sixteen minutes.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
There's another piece of video that police find. So remember
Kaylee and Maddy had gone to a local bar that
night called the Corner Club, and after they leave the bar,
they're hungry, so they go find food, and pretty much
the only place that's open is a food truck called
the grub Truck. Now, the food truck has a live stream,
(20:07):
you know, video of people standing in line waiting to
order pick up their food. And on this video you
can see Kaylee and Maddie just hours before they were killed.
You can also see a guy in a white hoodie
and he's standing a few feet behind the girls sort
of looking at them, and as they get their food
and leave, he trails off out of the view of
(20:30):
the video camera. Now, I mean, you can see how
this could seem suspicious given what happens a few hours later,
and pretty quickly random strangers are convinced that he is
the killer. They publish his name and address online. But
it turns out this guy had absolutely nothing to do
(20:52):
with it. I mean, he's just some random college student
who's also looking for a late night snack.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
You can see how an inn in person get swept
up in misinformation that is so dangerous.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
And literally like people are trying to investigate this case
on their own. So there's YouTubers pretending to be students
to get on campus. Oh, people are driving by the
King Road House and like videoing and speculating on the
spot where they think the killer entered the home. Oh,
(21:28):
they're fake Instagram accounts that pop up, Oh my gosh,
and they start targeting other students on campus saying watch out,
like you're next.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Oh my god, that's scary. And I feel like, because
we're so connected with cameras and social media and everything,
it's like it's both a gift and a curse. We
get all this good information, we can fill out what
happened that night and information about the crime. But then
also people's lives could be ruined if their names are
(22:05):
dragged through the mud and they have nothing to do
with it. It's like, at least, can we respect some
privacy of the victims. God that pisses me off.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yeah, And also think about all of those people like
you know, the guy the grub truck, ex boyfriends, I mean,
everyone who's put under the microscope and sort of considered
possible suspects, right or wrong. But that's also what's so
interesting about this new DNA technology. I mean, if it
can locate whoever actually did this faster, you're potentially saving
(22:37):
so many people from being put under the microscope unfairly.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
So now police have some clues. We know they're looking
for a man, someone around six feet tall, skinny, with
bushy eyebrows, the guy in the ski mask, and we
know that there was this white Hyundai Lantra that was
driving in the area right around the time of the murders.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And police are pretty confident that the leather knife sheath
belongs to the killer, but so far that DNA evidence
is a total dead end. But they also know that
DNA is their best chance to find out who did this,
So it's incredibly frustrating.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
It's like the truth is there, but they have to
essentially crack the code.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
And then just days before the Thanksgiving holiday, the Idaho
State Police Forensic Services suggest that they try forensic genetic genealogy.
Maybe that would identify the male suspect from his DNA
on the knife sheath.
Speaker 9 (23:36):
We weren't having any luck up to that point. On
that Sunday night is when we first got the thought
process of send the DNA sequencing out and see if
we can't find some distant relative match that we can
then start tracing down that family tree and see if
(24:00):
we can't find somebody attached more closely to that DNA
at that point.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
In time, Moscow Police Captain Dustin Blaker was familiar with
the basic idea of genetic genealogy. He and his wife
had recently done their own family tree, and he knew
that the State Crime Lab worked with AUTHRAM using forensic
genetic genealogy to help solve cold cases.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, but on an active homicide investigation, that seems like
a whole different thing.
Speaker 9 (24:29):
For myself some of the other investigators, that was all
kind of new to us. I think we were kind
of like, Okay, legally, how is this supposed to work?
And how is all this going to play out?
Speaker 5 (24:39):
In core.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Meanwhile, Kristin Middleman of AUTHRAM says she and her husband David,
are at home watching the news.
Speaker 10 (24:47):
The case was discussed on the news, and David and
I got a phone call and they asked if we
were willing to work a high profile case in real time.
Speaker 11 (25:02):
David said, let me think about it and let me.
Speaker 10 (25:06):
Call you back, and so he got off the phone
and I said, why wouldn't we work this case?
Speaker 3 (25:13):
David is nervous. I mean, these murders are being splashed
all over the news. Author has been working on cold cases,
but this would be one of the highest profile cases.
Speaker 11 (25:24):
Yet, and I said, doesn't really matter.
Speaker 10 (25:26):
Right, there are four kids that are dead and a
perpetrator out there, and this is what we do. So
why would we ever turn this case away if the
evidence is suitable? And our daughter was a sophomore. She
just started her sophomore year in college when this happened,
and so she was literally the age of those children.
(25:47):
We knew immediately how terrifying this must have been. And
I think that's when.
Speaker 11 (25:52):
We really knew that we had to identify this guy.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Now, the Moscow police have never done this before, and
Blaker is also nervous. I mean, he knows how important
this case is to his community. So his colleague at
the state Police says, look, why don't you go visit
Authorm's lab for yourself and then decide if you want
to give them the evidence.
Speaker 9 (26:14):
He strongly suggested that we should take the sample ourself
to Houston to the lab and make sure that we
are comfortable with the way the lab was set up.
We felt that it needed to meet as far as
normal standard testing and law enforcement. So the chain of
custody is all there, It's going to be protected, it's
going to be locked up they're going to document the
(26:36):
genome sequencing and everything like that. So my agency, along
with the prosecutors, we talked about it. We decided that yes, this.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Was worth it, and before Captain Blaker knew it, he
was on a plane from Idaho to Texas.
Speaker 9 (26:53):
I left Boise around six o'clock that morning, flew straight
to Houston with the DNA sample with me. Then I
was extremely nervous that I was going to screw the
whole thing up.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Just before Thanksgiving, Captain Blaker with the Moscow Police Department
is on his way to Athram with the key piece
of DNA evidence.
Speaker 9 (27:30):
I just carried it in just a very basic backpack
with me so I could keep track of where it
was at all times. I'm nervous in the process of
don't lose this, don't let this out of my sight,
and then trying to make sure that I keep it intact.
So I want to make sure it's very protected. I mean,
we were kind of banking on this. We knew that
(27:51):
that Sheath was very vital to this case, and anything
that we got off of it we all felt had
to be our suspect.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
I've always been I'm curious how a really high profile
case like this unfolds. I mean, everything is riding on
the DNA evidence he's carrying, and they can't do anything
to tip off the killer because what if he's still
in the community.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
The whole thing is wrapped in secrecy. David and Kristen
can't tell anyone they're involved. I mean they can't even
tell the lab technicians what case this is. And they're
even in the dark. On the timing.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
We didn't know when they would be arriving at the lab,
so we were taking our holiday card photos. We had
all five kids with us. We were all color coordinated.
So when we got the call that they had landed
in Houston and we're about to arrive at the lab, I.
Speaker 11 (28:41):
Told a photographer we have to go.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Meanwhile, Ethan Chapin, the young man killed in the King roadhouse,
his family is trying to figure out how to get
through the holiday. Ethan was a triplet and his siblings
Mazie and Hunter left campus immediately after the murders. Stacy
and his dad, Jim are obviously still in shock.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Because it is tough, you know, Oh boy, you sit
down and at a place that you spend a lot
of time with as a family and you sit at
that table and you have an empty chair.
Speaker 12 (29:17):
You know, we were eating tacos and not giving thanks
because it didn't feel right.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Those are some tough times to get through. Or a
four person family now, but it's tough.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Yeah, Well, Ethan's family is struggling. AUTHORM gets the green
light to work the case and they call pretty much
everyone into the lab.
Speaker 10 (29:47):
It was Thanksgiving day and the profile was still running,
and many of us had to cancel our plans and
be here so that we could immediately start working on
this day, immediately start the next step. And so I remember,
we couldn't talk about the case obviously that includes our families,
(30:10):
and we had to say, sorry, we can't host Thanksgiving.
Speaker 11 (30:14):
We have to move it to the weekend.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
But here's where the case really starts to move, because
DNA from the knife sheath starts to reveal some clues.
Speaker 13 (30:24):
Even before we start the forensic genetic genealogy process. We
can learn a lot by just looking at the DNA markers.
This could be essentially the geographical localization of where their
family is from or the origins to their family in Europe,
in Asia, in Africa, and what are they learning We
learned the person we're looking for has a largely European
(30:48):
background and also has this unique bio geographical ancestry tide
to Italy, and this eventually leads us to a multi
generational American family in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
That's a big break. I mean to go from a
totally unknown perpetrator to knowing this is someone with family
in Pennsylvania and with Italian ancestry.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
And police and Idaho are working to track down the
white Houndai Lantra and Allen. They notice something interesting from
the surveillance footage. They can see that the car doesn't
have a front license plate. Okay, and it turns out
that Pennsylvania doesn't require a front license plate.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Now detectives are chasing down all of these clues. They've
gone to the local stores that sell k bar knives
and they get a list of who's bought one recently,
but that leads nowhere. They're also trying to contain just
an absolute tornado of conspiracy theories and rumors, so police
start holding a number of briefings. This is Moscow Captain
(32:00):
Roger Lanier.
Speaker 8 (32:01):
I want to address several areas of speculation, conjecture, and misinformation.
That has circulated on social media platforms and otherwise. We
do not believe the following individuals are involved in this crime.
The two surviving roommates, a male scene at the Grub
(32:24):
Truck food vendor downtown, specifically wearing a white hoodie, a
private party who provided rides home to Kayley and Madison
in the early morning hour of November thirteenth.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
People think the surviving roommates are involved.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I mean, it's horrible. The roommates come under just incredible scrutiny.
People attack them for not doing anything, like how could
you not know there was a murderer in the house,
and some people suggest they're somehow complicit. This is what
Bethany shared at the sentencing, and it's read by one
(33:04):
of her friends.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
I was grieving, numb, and unsure what had happened was
even real, and at the same time, I was getting
flooded with death threats and hateful messages from people who
did not know me at all or know the dynamic
of our friendship. Social media made it so much worse.
The media harassed not just me but also my family.
(33:26):
People showed up at our house. They called my phone,
my parents' phones, and we were chased.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
I honestly don't even know what to say. It's like
people forget that Bethany and Dylan are real people.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
And it doesn't stop with the conspiracy theories. I mean,
the media wants the autopsies of the four students. Ethan
Chapin's mom, Stacy says, it feels like nothing is off limits.
Speaker 12 (33:53):
We just got a call from the university that they're
going after the transcripts of the kids and any infractions
that they had at the university. And where like you can,
as a parent of a college kid, called the university
and get your child's transcripts. We don't have Ethan's transcripts.
Why does the media get to go after his transcripts?
(34:14):
I mean, yeah, you failed math? Oh well, what they
think should be their right to the information?
Speaker 11 (34:22):
It is shocking.
Speaker 6 (34:25):
Why do you need it?
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 11 (34:26):
Why does anybody need to know it? Now?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
I don't think anyone who hasn't lost a loved one
in a horrific crime like this or in such a
public way can really understand what they're going through. I
know we've talked about this privately, but I don't want
to be part of the problem either. And it makes
you wonder where the line is.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Yeah, I mean there's the hope that by talking about
what happened and how it affects people, and you know,
obviously how this case is solved, it'll prevent it from
happening again. But also we don't want to re traumatize
these families.
Speaker 12 (35:05):
I will tell you that every day since November thirteenth,
twenty twenty two, every single day, there has been something
I don't want to call it a battle, just something
that you are fighting, something you know, call from the FBI.
I had to photograph what was in his wallet. I mean,
(35:26):
I don't feel like it's anybody's business, but that feels
like what's coming next.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
And Authorom's really working around the clock. I mean David,
he basically moves into the lab to make sure that
this is going as fast and efficiently as possible. They're
running their forensic genetic genealogy, and as soon as they're
getting information, they're relaying it back to detectives.
Speaker 10 (35:57):
We were able to tell the detectives that we believe
that the family came from Pennsylvania. They were able to
narrow their search of white Hondai lantras with Pennsylvania plates
and believe it or not, there were only a couple
(36:17):
cars that had Pennsylvania plates that actually matched a description
of the car scene At the crime scene.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
That's pretty narrowed down.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
But a few days after the murders, the killer does
something to try and throw police off his tail.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Next time on America's.
Speaker 7 (36:46):
Crime Lab, they wanted to point the finger at other
people as being responsible for this, to try to point
the finger at innocent third parties.
Speaker 9 (36:57):
Is this real or are they really telling us the truth?
Finally have a name and someone to look at.
Speaker 5 (37:02):
I will call you what you are, sociopath, psychopath, murderer.
Speaker 14 (37:09):
And when those prison doors slams shout behind you, I
hope that sound echoes in your heart for the rest
of your meaningless days.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
America's Crime Lab is produced by Rococo Punch for Kaleidoscope.
Erica Lance is our story editor and sound design is
by David Woji. Our producing team is Catherine Finalosa, Emily Foreman,
and Jessica Albert. Our executive producers are Kate Osborne, Mangesh
Hattigadour and David and Kristin Middleman and from iHeart Katrina
(37:55):
Norville and Ali Perry. Special thanks to Connell Byrne will Pearson,
Kerrie Lieberman, Nikki Etur, Nathan Atowski, John Burbank, and the
entire team at athram i'm Alan Lance Lessor. Thanks for listening.
Oh As.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I was so frantic that morning and scared death, not
knowing what had happened. And when I made then I'm
a one call, I couldn't even get out the words.
And from then on I don't remember a thing. It
was like my brain wiped that whole memory. That was
the worst day of my life, and I know it
(00:38):
always will be.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
The murders of four college students in Moscow, Idaho, shocked
the community and set off a desperate man hunt for
the killer. It was a brutal crime, and investigators found
surprisingly little evidence at the scene. Authorities didn't know who
they were searching for or why the lives of the
two surviving roommates had been spared. But there was one
(01:05):
big clue left behind. Police found a key piece of
evidence with the killers DNA, but it wasn't leading them
to a suspect. Meanwhile, it seems like whoever did this
was trying to stay one step ahead of investigators. This
(01:30):
is America's crime Lab. I'm Alan Lance Lesser. This is
Part two of the Idaho student murder case. If you
missed part one, please go back and listen. I'm here
with producer Catherine Fanalosa and listening to the words of Bethany,
(01:52):
one of those surviving roommates, just now you can feel
the pain, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
You really can. And police recently really bodycam footage of
the first responding officer. I watched it a few days ago,
and Allen, I'm not even sure how to describe it.
It's just absolutely heartbreaking, and honestly, it's painful to watch.
But I think it also helped me understand the complete
(02:17):
confusion of that day. I mean, it's easy for someone
to hear about the murders on the news or read
about them and walk away with completely wrong assumptions.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, I can imagine that day. You just feel like,
is this even real? And they're just college kids. They
don't know what's going on.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
When the surviving roommates Bethany and Dylan and their friends
call nine one one, I mean they're calling to say
that one of their roommates is unresponsive and they're talking
about Xana, right, And so when the officer is responding
to this call, that's really what he thinks he's going for.
(02:58):
You know, maybe like college sudents have partied too much.
I don't know, maybe someone needs to be taken to
the hospital to like get their stomach pumped, you know
what I mean. Yeah, So he's driving there and he's
listening to country music. He pulls up to the house
by himself, and he sees the circle of friends standing
(03:19):
outside in the cold. It's November thirteenth, twenty twenty two.
There are little patches of snow around.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Dylan.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
The roommate is standing barefoot. She's got it looks like
either pajama pants or sweatpants on and a T shirt.
Some of the friends standing there are in shorts. The
officer pulls up and he, you know, is like, what's
going on? Where's the unresponsive person? They say, inside, So
he goes inside and he climbs to the second floor,
(03:54):
where the kitchen and living room are and two bedrooms.
And as he gets to the top of the stars,
he sees Xanna lying on the floor of her bedroom.
Ethan's in the bed and it's clear by the amount
of blood that's around both of them that there's been
(04:16):
a horrible crime. You can hear the officer, like his
breathing starts to become kind of choppy. You can almost
(04:38):
like feel his heartbeat like just thumping. Another officer arrives
and he's climbing the stairs to the second floor and
they're speaking to each other almost didn't half sentences, you know.
The first officers basically like, dude, slow down, we've got something.
(05:06):
I think two fatalities. Now officers start coming in and
it's pretty quiet. They go through the home with their
weapons drawn and they're essentially trying to make sure no
(05:27):
one else is there. They climb the stairs to the
third floor, where Maddie and Kayley's rooms are, and the
first officer who arrived at the scene, as he gets
to the top of the stairs, he's speechless. I mean,
it's like you can feel the horror of what he's seeing.
(05:47):
The first officer goes back outside to interview Dylan, the roommate,
and she's trying to recount what happened last night. You'll
remember that Dylan and Bethany are nineteen. They're the youngest
of this group, and they're self proclaimed scaredy cats, like
they're known to get freaked out over small things, but
(06:08):
this time it's real and they're just completely disoriented. And
Dylan says, you know, I'm not really sure what's real
and maybe what was a dream.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, I can see how she's just terrified, in total shock.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
But this is where we get some key new information
about what actually happened that night, and it's really some
of our first clues as to who murdered these four students.
So Dylan tells the officer she and Bethany were up
watching Vampire Diaries when Mattie and Kaylee came home from
the bar. You know, they were at the Corner Club
and they all hang out. They eat some mac and cheese,
(06:49):
take some selfies, and then Mattie and Bethany take Kaylee's
dog Murphy out back to pee before bed. Bethany comes
back in and she goes down to her room. Her
bedroom's on the first floor, and then at some point
Maddie asked Bethany if she brought Murphy in because she
can't find the dog. Bethany's like, no, I don't have him,
(07:14):
and she goes to bed. Dylan also goes to bed.
Her bedroom's on the second floor, and at some point
both Dylan and Bethany hear a loud noise. But Ashley Jennings,
who's a senior deputy in the Leyta County Prosecutor's Office,
says this also wasn't unusual.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
This is a house. The walls are pretty thin. There's
a lot of noise. There's you know, five six people
in the house, if not more at any time, arriving
at different hours. Always a lot of noise, and it's
a pretty noisy area of town.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Now, it kind of sounds like maybe Kayleie and Matty
have gone up to their bedrooms on the third floor
and they're dancing or they're playing with their dog. Dylan
falls back asleep.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
But she was woken by something. I don't know that
she's able to fully articulate what the noise was. She
hears a voice, but she believes she hears someone say
someone's here.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
She calls out, asking, you know, Kaylee, Mattie, something.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Doesn't hear anything, and she looks out in the hallway
and she doesn't see anyone.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
So she immediately goes back behind her bedroom door locks
it continues to kind of stand there and listen, and
at some point hears a noise like someone coming down
the stairway which is right outside her bedroom.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Now, the roommates they all wear Doc Martins. You know,
there's like heavy soled shoes. Yeah, and so she's not
sure who it is, but she thinks it's one of
her roommates running down the stairs in Doc Martin's. Then
she hears Murphy Kaylee's dog barking, which is a little
weird because he's not typically a barker.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
So Dylan, of course thinks this is just like all
the other times that you know, she's heard something and
kind of, you know, freaks herself out, and so she's
just standing there and listening, tries to figure out what's
going on. At some point, she hears some movement on
the stairway right outside her door, loud movement. She hears
(09:27):
some more voices.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
She hears someone crying, and then she hears a man's
voice that she doesn't recognize say you're going to be okay.
I'm going to help you. And she thinks maybe the
crying is coming from the bathroom in the hallway, but
(09:52):
she's not quite sure. Dylan says the guy's voice, he
didn't say that in like a nice way, it's more
and she says a weird tone, spooky. So now she's
really kind of freaked out. Yeah, and she starts calling
all of her roommates. She's calling Kayley, she's calling Mattie, Xanna,
(10:15):
No one's answering. She opens her door again. She sees
a man dressed in all black with a black ski
mask covering his face.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
All she can see is just the eyes and nose
area with what she describes as kind of bushy eyebrows.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
And he walks right past her and she freezes and
he looks at her. She thinks he's maybe like five
ten six feet tall, and she describes him built like
a basketball player, like he's athletic but skinny.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
What a terrifying moment. I mean, this is out of
an actual horror movie. Would wonder if I was having
a dream or something.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And the other thing I should say that's running through
her mind is that maybe this is a prank.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, I mean, if you're living near the frats, that
would probably make a lot more sense.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
And the person walks past her bedroom and exits out
that backslider kitchen area which is right outside her bedroom.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
She ducks back in her room, locks the door. She
calls Bethany, her roommate, who answers the phone.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
They're kind of discussing, like did you hear that? What
do you think's going on? We live in Moscow, We
live in a same community. Their mind does not go
to something as tragic as what occurred.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, also because I feel like the media has picked
up on this idea that quite often it's someone you
know or it's someone close to you. If you see
someone walking through this guy in a ski mask, I
mean definitely I would be scared, But also I wouldn't
necessarily jump to he's murdered a bunch of people in
(12:12):
my house and he's leaving.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
But as had occurred in the past, you know, they
kind of talk to each other, they calm each other down,
and then they go, Okay, well let's be together.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Bethany says, well, look, come down to my room. You know,
it's better than being being up there alone. So Dylan
runs out of her room and as she leaves her room,
she can see Xana lying on the floor. Now, you know,
they had all been partying that night. She's thinking, maybe
(12:47):
Xana just like passed out on the floor. She's sort
of like sleeping off the night.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Yeah, your mind, thankfully wouldn't go there to the worst scenario,
so their mine didn't.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Ailen.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
I'm gonna play you a statement from Bethany at the
killer sentencing hearing. She was too emotional to read it,
so one of her friends did. She explains what she
was thinking the morning after the murders.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I thought that we were going to wake up and
go upstairs see them and tell them how they had
scared us, and that they were going to tease us
about how we're constantly scaredy cats. I make jokes about it,
as we would go to Taco Bill like always.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
But that's not what happened. The next morning, Bethany and
Dylan realized maybe it wasn't a prank. Maybe something is very,
very wrong.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I was so frantic that morning and scared death, not
knowing what had happened. And when I made then I'm
a one call, I couldn't even get out the words,
and from then on I don't remember a thing. It
was like my brain wiped that whole memory. That was
the worst day of my life, and I know it
(14:13):
always will be.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Where are we on evidence? I mean, I know the
crucial piece of evidence is the leather knife sheath, which
was found in the bed next to Maddie and Kaylee.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So we know that the Idaho State Crime Lab is
able to pull DNA off of that knife sheath and
very quickly develop a DNA profile and it's done in
just a matter of days. But when they upload the
DNA profile to codis, there are no hits. But it
did reveal some important clue, so they know that the
(15:01):
DNA belongs to just one person, and it's a man
and aileen. I can't express how chaotic and fast moving
this case was. Right from the start, Moscow police immediately
start getting flooded with tips, The FBI is brought into help,
and they actually set up a command post in the
police parking lot. David Middelman from authorm says this is
(15:25):
all unfolding in the days leading up to Thanksgiving in
twenty twenty.
Speaker 6 (15:29):
Two, and there's just this tremendous pressure from the urgency
that a bunch of kids were going home and potentially
coming back to an unsafe environment. They were struggling to
identify a direction, a person of interest, the very scary situation.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
There's also the problem that since the campus is emptying
out as student's head home for the holiday, this includes
people who might have key knowledge of the murders, and
it might also include the actual killer. I mean, with
the excuse of leaving town to go somewhere else across
the country for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Do they have any other evidence at this point they do.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Prosecutor Bill Thompson says, police canvas the neighborhood and they
find surveillance video from surrounding houses and apartment buildings.
Speaker 7 (16:17):
That footage showed a white sedan coming and going several
times earlier that early morning. Camera also showed that sedan
that was identified as a Hyundai Elantra, leaving the area
at a high rate of speed around four twenty or
so that morning. On November thirteenth of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
In Moscow, police Captain Roger Lanier says they start to
focus in on that white Hyundai Lantra and he makes
a plea to the public for help.
Speaker 8 (16:48):
We are confident that the occupant or occupants of that
vehicle have information that's critical to this investigation. Hey, maybe
your neighbor has one of the garage that they don't
drive very often. Let us So far, we have a
list of approximately twenty two thousand registered white Hondai laundriss
that fit into our criteria that we're sorting through. That's
(17:11):
an awful lot of information, So the public can help
us with that.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Okay, this is a college neighborhood. So how do we
know it doesn't belong to a neighbor or even like
a car share driver.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Well, it's driving up and down King Road starting around
three point thirty that morning, and it's odd. I mean,
it never stops to pick anyone up or drop someone off.
At one point, it drives past the apartment building next door,
turns around and goes back by the King Road house.
Then it almost looks like it's looking for parking, but
(17:44):
then it turns around again, drives back by the house,
It makes a three point turn. It's just its movements
are really strange. And then it passes by the house
for a fourth time at four four in the morning.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
That's sketchy.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
While police are trying to hunt down that Hyundai Elantra,
prosecutor Ashley Jennings says they also learned that before Xana
was attacked, she had ordered food from Jack in the
Box and it was delivered around four am.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
Investigators have a theory that she was up during the
same time, and it's possible while he was in the
residence they made contact at some point, which is what
ultimately led to help pursuing Sanna into her bedroom.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
You mentioned that Xana had defensive wounds on her hands,
so it would make sense if maybe she heard something
on the third floor and went to investigate it or something.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Yeah, and the killer could have chased her down to
her bedroom where he attacks her and her boyfriend Ethan,
who was sleeping. Police also find that at four seventeen,
a security camera on a neighbor's house records some voices
and a loud thud and then the sound of a
dog barking. The surveillance footage shows that that white Hyundai Elantra,
(19:15):
which had been going up and down the street now
is speeding away from the King Road house for the
last time at four twenty.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Oh wow. So assuming that these murders happened somewhere in
that window. Again, we don't know for sure if the
car is related to what happened, but Xana had just eaten,
so she was probably awake.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
They think it's anywhere between four h four and four twenty.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
That's just sixteen minutes.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
There's another piece of video that police find. So remember
Kaylee and Maddy had gone to a local bar that
night called the Corner Club, and after they leave the bar,
they're hungry, so they go find food, and pretty much
the only place that's open is a food truck called
the grub Truck. Now, the food truck has a live stream,
(20:07):
you know, video of people standing in line waiting to
order pick up their food. And on this video you
can see Kaylee and Maddie just hours before they were killed.
You can also see a guy in a white hoodie
and he's standing a few feet behind the girls sort
of looking at them, and as they get their food
and leave, he trails off out of the view of
(20:30):
the video camera. Now, I mean, you can see how
this could seem suspicious given what happens a few hours later,
and pretty quickly random strangers are convinced that he is
the killer. They publish his name and address online. But
it turns out this guy had absolutely nothing to do
(20:52):
with it. I mean, he's just some random college student
who's also looking for a late night snack.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
You can see how an inn in person get swept
up in misinformation that is so dangerous.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
And literally like people are trying to investigate this case
on their own. So there's YouTubers pretending to be students
to get on campus. Oh, people are driving by the
King Road House and like videoing and speculating on the
spot where they think the killer entered the home. Oh,
(21:28):
they're fake Instagram accounts that pop up, Oh my gosh,
and they start targeting other students on campus saying watch out,
like you're next.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Oh my god, that's scary. And I feel like, because
we're so connected with cameras and social media and everything,
it's like it's both a gift and a curse. We
get all this good information, we can fill out what
happened that night and information about the crime. But then
also people's lives could be ruined if their names are
(22:05):
dragged through the mud and they have nothing to do
with it. It's like, at least, can we respect some
privacy of the victims. God that pisses me off.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yeah, And also think about all of those people like
you know, the guy the grub truck, ex boyfriends, I mean,
everyone who's put under the microscope and sort of considered
possible suspects, right or wrong. But that's also what's so
interesting about this new DNA technology. I mean, if it
can locate whoever actually did this faster, you're potentially saving
(22:37):
so many people from being put under the microscope unfairly.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
So now police have some clues. We know they're looking
for a man, someone around six feet tall, skinny, with
bushy eyebrows, the guy in the ski mask, and we
know that there was this white Hyundai Lantra that was
driving in the area right around the time of the murders.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And police are pretty confident that the leather knife sheath
belongs to the killer, but so far that DNA evidence
is a total dead end. But they also know that
DNA is their best chance to find out who did this,
So it's incredibly frustrating.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
It's like the truth is there, but they have to
essentially crack the code.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
And then just days before the Thanksgiving holiday, the Idaho
State Police Forensic Services suggest that they try forensic genetic genealogy.
Maybe that would identify the male suspect from his DNA
on the knife sheath.
Speaker 9 (23:36):
We weren't having any luck up to that point. On
that Sunday night is when we first got the thought
process of send the DNA sequencing out and see if
we can't find some distant relative match that we can
then start tracing down that family tree and see if
(24:00):
we can't find somebody attached more closely to that DNA
at that point.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
In time, Moscow Police Captain Dustin Blaker was familiar with
the basic idea of genetic genealogy. He and his wife
had recently done their own family tree, and he knew
that the State Crime Lab worked with AUTHRAM using forensic
genetic genealogy to help solve cold cases.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, but on an active homicide investigation, that seems like
a whole different thing.
Speaker 9 (24:29):
For myself some of the other investigators, that was all
kind of new to us. I think we were kind
of like, Okay, legally, how is this supposed to work?
And how is all this going to play out?
Speaker 5 (24:39):
In core.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Meanwhile, Kristin Middleman of AUTHRAM says she and her husband David,
are at home watching the news.
Speaker 10 (24:47):
The case was discussed on the news, and David and
I got a phone call and they asked if we
were willing to work a high profile case in real time.
Speaker 11 (25:02):
David said, let me think about it and let me.
Speaker 10 (25:06):
Call you back, and so he got off the phone
and I said, why wouldn't we work this case?
Speaker 3 (25:13):
David is nervous. I mean, these murders are being splashed
all over the news. Author has been working on cold cases,
but this would be one of the highest profile cases.
Speaker 11 (25:24):
Yet, and I said, doesn't really matter.
Speaker 10 (25:26):
Right, there are four kids that are dead and a
perpetrator out there, and this is what we do. So
why would we ever turn this case away if the
evidence is suitable? And our daughter was a sophomore. She
just started her sophomore year in college when this happened,
and so she was literally the age of those children.
(25:47):
We knew immediately how terrifying this must have been. And
I think that's when.
Speaker 11 (25:52):
We really knew that we had to identify this guy.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Now, the Moscow police have never done this before, and
Blaker is also nervous. I mean, he knows how important
this case is to his community. So his colleague at
the state Police says, look, why don't you go visit
Authorm's lab for yourself and then decide if you want
to give them the evidence.
Speaker 9 (26:14):
He strongly suggested that we should take the sample ourself
to Houston to the lab and make sure that we
are comfortable with the way the lab was set up.
We felt that it needed to meet as far as
normal standard testing and law enforcement. So the chain of
custody is all there, It's going to be protected, it's
going to be locked up they're going to document the
(26:36):
genome sequencing and everything like that. So my agency, along
with the prosecutors, we talked about it. We decided that yes, this.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Was worth it, and before Captain Blaker knew it, he
was on a plane from Idaho to Texas.
Speaker 9 (26:53):
I left Boise around six o'clock that morning, flew straight
to Houston with the DNA sample with me. Then I
was extremely nervous that I was going to screw the
whole thing up.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Just before Thanksgiving, Captain Blaker with the Moscow Police Department
is on his way to Athram with the key piece
of DNA evidence.
Speaker 9 (27:30):
I just carried it in just a very basic backpack
with me so I could keep track of where it
was at all times. I'm nervous in the process of
don't lose this, don't let this out of my sight,
and then trying to make sure that I keep it intact.
So I want to make sure it's very protected. I mean,
we were kind of banking on this. We knew that
(27:51):
that Sheath was very vital to this case, and anything
that we got off of it we all felt had
to be our suspect.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
I've always been I'm curious how a really high profile
case like this unfolds. I mean, everything is riding on
the DNA evidence he's carrying, and they can't do anything
to tip off the killer because what if he's still
in the community.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
The whole thing is wrapped in secrecy. David and Kristen
can't tell anyone they're involved. I mean they can't even
tell the lab technicians what case this is. And they're
even in the dark. On the timing.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
We didn't know when they would be arriving at the lab,
so we were taking our holiday card photos. We had
all five kids with us. We were all color coordinated.
So when we got the call that they had landed
in Houston and we're about to arrive at the lab, I.
Speaker 11 (28:41):
Told a photographer we have to go.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Meanwhile, Ethan Chapin, the young man killed in the King roadhouse,
his family is trying to figure out how to get
through the holiday. Ethan was a triplet and his siblings
Mazie and Hunter left campus immediately after the murders. Stacy
and his dad, Jim are obviously still in shock.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Because it is tough, you know, Oh boy, you sit
down and at a place that you spend a lot
of time with as a family and you sit at
that table and you have an empty chair.
Speaker 12 (29:17):
You know, we were eating tacos and not giving thanks
because it didn't feel right.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Those are some tough times to get through. Or a
four person family now, but it's tough.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Yeah, Well, Ethan's family is struggling. AUTHORM gets the green
light to work the case and they call pretty much
everyone into the lab.
Speaker 10 (29:47):
It was Thanksgiving day and the profile was still running,
and many of us had to cancel our plans and
be here so that we could immediately start working on
this day, immediately start the next step. And so I remember,
we couldn't talk about the case obviously that includes our families,
(30:10):
and we had to say, sorry, we can't host Thanksgiving.
Speaker 11 (30:14):
We have to move it to the weekend.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
But here's where the case really starts to move, because
DNA from the knife sheath starts to reveal some clues.
Speaker 13 (30:24):
Even before we start the forensic genetic genealogy process. We
can learn a lot by just looking at the DNA markers.
This could be essentially the geographical localization of where their
family is from or the origins to their family in Europe,
in Asia, in Africa, and what are they learning We
learned the person we're looking for has a largely European
(30:48):
background and also has this unique bio geographical ancestry tide
to Italy, and this eventually leads us to a multi
generational American family in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
That's a big break. I mean to go from a
totally unknown perpetrator to knowing this is someone with family
in Pennsylvania and with Italian ancestry.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
And police and Idaho are working to track down the
white Houndai Lantra and Allen. They notice something interesting from
the surveillance footage. They can see that the car doesn't
have a front license plate. Okay, and it turns out
that Pennsylvania doesn't require a front license plate.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Now detectives are chasing down all of these clues. They've
gone to the local stores that sell k bar knives
and they get a list of who's bought one recently,
but that leads nowhere. They're also trying to contain just
an absolute tornado of conspiracy theories and rumors, so police
start holding a number of briefings. This is Moscow Captain
(32:00):
Roger Lanier.
Speaker 8 (32:01):
I want to address several areas of speculation, conjecture, and misinformation.
That has circulated on social media platforms and otherwise. We
do not believe the following individuals are involved in this crime.
The two surviving roommates, a male scene at the Grub
(32:24):
Truck food vendor downtown, specifically wearing a white hoodie, a
private party who provided rides home to Kayley and Madison
in the early morning hour of November thirteenth.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
People think the surviving roommates are involved.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I mean, it's horrible. The roommates come under just incredible scrutiny.
People attack them for not doing anything, like how could
you not know there was a murderer in the house,
and some people suggest they're somehow complicit. This is what
Bethany shared at the sentencing, and it's read by one
(33:04):
of her friends.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
I was grieving, numb, and unsure what had happened was
even real, and at the same time, I was getting
flooded with death threats and hateful messages from people who
did not know me at all or know the dynamic
of our friendship. Social media made it so much worse.
The media harassed not just me but also my family.
(33:26):
People showed up at our house. They called my phone,
my parents' phones, and we were chased.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
I honestly don't even know what to say. It's like
people forget that Bethany and Dylan are real people.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
And it doesn't stop with the conspiracy theories. I mean,
the media wants the autopsies of the four students. Ethan
Chapin's mom, Stacy says, it feels like nothing is off limits.
Speaker 12 (33:53):
We just got a call from the university that they're
going after the transcripts of the kids and any infractions
that they had at the university. And where like you can,
as a parent of a college kid, called the university
and get your child's transcripts. We don't have Ethan's transcripts.
Why does the media get to go after his transcripts?
(34:14):
I mean, yeah, you failed math? Oh well, what they
think should be their right to the information?
Speaker 11 (34:22):
It is shocking.
Speaker 6 (34:25):
Why do you need it?
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 11 (34:26):
Why does anybody need to know it? Now?
Speaker 1 (34:32):
I don't think anyone who hasn't lost a loved one
in a horrific crime like this or in such a
public way can really understand what they're going through. I
know we've talked about this privately, but I don't want
to be part of the problem either. And it makes
you wonder where the line is.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Yeah, I mean there's the hope that by talking about
what happened and how it affects people, and you know,
obviously how this case is solved, it'll prevent it from
happening again. But also we don't want to re traumatize
these families.
Speaker 12 (35:05):
I will tell you that every day since November thirteenth,
twenty twenty two, every single day, there has been something
I don't want to call it a battle, just something
that you are fighting, something you know, call from the FBI.
I had to photograph what was in his wallet. I mean,
(35:26):
I don't feel like it's anybody's business, but that feels
like what's coming next.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
And Authorom's really working around the clock. I mean David,
he basically moves into the lab to make sure that
this is going as fast and efficiently as possible. They're
running their forensic genetic genealogy, and as soon as they're
getting information, they're relaying it back to detectives.
Speaker 10 (35:57):
We were able to tell the detectives that we believe
that the family came from Pennsylvania. They were able to
narrow their search of white Hondai lantras with Pennsylvania plates
and believe it or not, there were only a couple
(36:17):
cars that had Pennsylvania plates that actually matched a description
of the car scene At the crime scene.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
That's pretty narrowed down.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
But a few days after the murders, the killer does
something to try and throw police off his tail.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Next time on America's.
Speaker 7 (36:46):
Crime Lab, they wanted to point the finger at other
people as being responsible for this, to try to point
the finger at innocent third parties.
Speaker 9 (36:57):
Is this real or are they really telling us the truth?
Finally have a name and someone to look at.
Speaker 5 (37:02):
I will call you what you are, sociopath, psychopath, murderer.
Speaker 14 (37:09):
And when those prison doors slams shout behind you, I
hope that sound echoes in your heart for the rest
of your meaningless days.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
America's Crime Lab is produced by Rococo Punch for Kaleidoscope.
Erica Lance is our story editor and sound design is
by David Woji. Our producing team is Catherine Finalosa, Emily Foreman,
and Jessica Albert. Our executive producers are Kate Osborne, Mangesh
Hattigadour and David and Kristin Middleman and from iHeart Katrina
(37:55):
Norville and Ali Perry. Special thanks to Connell Byrne will Pearson,
Kerrie Lieberman, Nikki Etur, Nathan Atowski, John Burbank, and the
entire team at athram i'm Alan Lance Lessor. Thanks for listening.
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