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April 10, 2025 13 mins
Welcome to Weekly Dispatch where we discuss the latest in true crime news each week! This week Jen covers the following news headlines & cases: - We're going to CRIMECON & podcast award nomination - Bryan Kohberger's Amazon records are 'catastrophic' for defense, 'smoking gun' for prosecutors - Chainsaw-Wielding Man Is Fatally Shot by Police in Illinois Nursing Home - How the murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman started the Amber Alert & how it's saving children's lives Jen and I will be at True Crime Podcast Festival in July! To purchase your ticket, use our 20 percent off code Hush20 at checkout. Visit their website https://www.truecrimepodcastfestival.com/ for more details and we hope to see you there! Sources used in today's episode: Fox 13 SeattlePeople.comNCMC Don't forget to say hi to your hosts, Jules and Jen! Instagram: @yourhostjules@jenriverainvestigates  Have a case you want us to cover? Please email us: outreach@fireeyesmedia.com Jules: jules@fireeyesmedia.com Jen: jen@fireeyesmedia.com  Help us keep telling cases by leaving a 5 star review and rating wherever you get podcasts.  True Crime and Headlines is a Fire Eyes Media LLC Network podcast and production. You're wanted You're loved and Your voice matters!
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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results make very It's time for weekly Dispatch Jewels and
Gen do you copy over?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hey everybody, it's Jen and welcome back to true Cremen
headlines With Jewles and Jen. Today, I'll be hosting weekly Dispatch.
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you're listening, so you never
miss a Tuesday True Kremin Headlines episode drop or a
Friday Weekly Dispatch drop. I'm so excited to be back
on the mic with you all after taking a short
break to attend Advocacy con. It was such an incredible experience.

(01:17):
I got to meet a lot of the families I've
had the privilege of working with, and I met some
pretty incredible people along the way. So make sure you
stay tuned because we have some really exciting collaborations coming
in the near future. Now, in addition to that, we
have a bit of our own true crime news to
share with our community here on True Kremin Headlines, and
we are so thrilled to announce that our very own

(01:37):
Jewels will be headed to London to represent Fire Eyes
Media at the twenty twenty five UK True Crime Awards.
Our first long form investigative podcast, Missing in Hushtown, about
the two thousand and four unsolved homicide of young mother
Jennifer Wicks, just twenty one and her daughter Adriana, just two,
is a finalist in the category True Crime Podcast Rookie

(01:58):
of the Year. Jewels worked along side the Wicks family
for fifteen months, conducting interviews researching theories, chasing leads, and
leading community rallies for justice. We're so excited and wishing
jewels the best of luck in the UK. Now we're
kicking off today's dispatch headline from a case whose headlines

(02:18):
we shared recently. Brian Coberger, the man on trial charged
with killing four victims in what the media has dubbed
the Idaho Murders, is back with new case information. In
March twenty first Fox thirteen Seattle article titled Brian Coberger's
Amazon records are catastrophic for defense, smoking gun for prosecutors,
experts say, so, let's dive a little bit into this

(02:41):
article to catch you up to date. The suspect, thirty
year old Brian Coburger, is accused of murdering four University
of Idaho students Madison Mogan, Hailey Gonzalvez, Xana Kernodle, and
Ethan Chaplin. A knife sheaf was recovered at the scene
of the murders under the body of victim Madison Mogan.

(03:01):
This knife sheath was then used to trace back to
former phg criminology student Brian Coburger. Hoburger was attending Washington
State University at the time which was just ten miles
away from the scene of the murders. All four of
the victims were murdered by stabbing with a large knife.
So what about the knife made authorities able to trace

(03:22):
it back to Brian Coburger. According to the article, under
Mogan's body, police found a Kobar knife sheath stamped with
the United States Marine Corps logo and allegedly containing Coburger's
DNA on the snap. Now, we shared in a previous
Weekly Dispatch episode that Coburger's defense team claims his DNA
was either planted there or it was not an absolute

(03:43):
positive for his DNA, and that brings us up to
speed to today Amazon. So what about Amazon? Well, Coburger's
Amazon history shows he purchased the exact same make and
model of the knife sheath which was recovered at the scene.
Hoberger's team was denied by the judge to bring in
an algorithm expert to testify for the defense. However, the

(04:06):
judge has not yet made a motion to exclude the
evidence or not. But for now we have the information
available to us public. And not only did he purchase
the knife ahead of the murders. Article quotes a formal
federal prosecutor who stated the DNA connects Coburger to the
crime scene and his Amazon history undermines a defense theory

(04:27):
that it could have been planted. When we're not done
get this. According to newly released information, Brian Coburger also
searched for the exact knife and sheath after the Idaho murders,
her his Amazon click search history. This is where Coburger's
defense team is working overtime. They claim that because Amazon's

(04:47):
algorithm suggests products to a consumer based on past purchases,
it doesn't mean he went to search for a new knife.
Could it just have been a click because it popped
up as a suggestion or as a previously viewed or
pertin item. The article makes a good point that murder
by stabbings have long been considered crimes of passion. However,
this new evidence may suggest just how calculated and premeditated

(05:11):
this murder spree was. Along with the DNA evidence found
at the crime scene, prosecutors have also alleged they traced
his car, a white Hondai Elantra, to and from the
crime scene, that an eyewitness saw a masked man inside
the home just after the murders and that phone records
also corroborate their alleged timeline of events, but Coburger was

(05:33):
not identified as a suspect until more than a month
after the slaying. With the help of investigative genetic genealogy.
Once again, we have to applaud those behind the advancement
of genetic genealogy technology and their dedication to seeking justice
for victims. Coberger's trial is set for August of twenty
twenty five, and he has entered a plea of not guilty.

(05:57):
From March twenty first, twenty twenty five People Magazine online
article by Sean Newman is titled Chainsaw wielding man is
fatally shot by police in Illinois nursing home. Forty one
year old Daniel h Escallera entered the Saint Charles, Illinois
Nursing Home for the Elderly last year on December first.
It's then that he began yelling demands to see his wife.

(06:18):
Daniel did not have a wife in that facility, and
he was not even a resident of Illinois. He was
one hundred and seventy six miles away from his residence
in Indiana. So what was he doing there and why
did he do this? Gleice don't know why the individual
entered the home, nor why he entered the home with
a chainsaw. However, the toxicology report does shed light on

(06:39):
many previously unanswered questions. A toxicology report shows that Escallera
had the presence of amphetamines, meth aphetamines, and ollazapine in
his system. According to the State Attorney's Office, olanzapine is
a drug used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia. This week,
the Prosecutor's office announced that, after thorough investigation and review

(07:02):
of all files and body camera footage, that no charges
would be made against the police officers involved in the
fatal shooting. The play by play of events from that
incident show that the officers went through a tier of
least invasive detainment first before they entered the scenario to
shoot Daniel Escallera for the safety of civilians and themselves. Now,

(07:22):
let's listen to a brief excerpt from the ABC Channel
seven Chicago news report. Who obtained the body camera footage.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Hey, drop it, drop it, drop it, drop it. A
police officer threatening to use a taser on Escalaia unless
he dropped the chainsaw. Escallera didn't comply. You see, starts
the chainsaw. That's when the officer deployed his taser, hitting
Escalaira in the chest. But look what happens. He was

(07:50):
briefly knocked down, springs back up, grabs the chainsaw and
starts running toward the officer. A chase followed, leading to
a volley of gunfire.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
The article includes the state's attorney's office message that they
are acknowledging the tragic loss of life and offering condolences
to mister Escalera's family. My office has therefore closed the
investigation into this matter. Kane County State's Attorney Jamie L.
Masser says, now, let's talk about Amber Alerts. Did you

(08:22):
know that? The Amber Alert came about after January nineteen
ninety six, when nine year old Amber Hagerman was kidnapped
while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. Sadly, Amber was
not recovered alive. Her community began urging local broadcasters to
use their systems to quickly spread alerts about children in
imminent danger. The Amber Alert is not only named from

(08:43):
victim Amber Hagerman, but it also stands for America's missing
broadcast emergency response. Her the Amber Alert website. Amber alerts
are activated in the most serious child abduction cases. The
goal of an Amber alert is to instantly galvanize the
community to assist in the search for and safe recovery
of a missing child. These alerts are broadcast through radio, TV,

(09:07):
road signs, cell phones, and other data enabled devices. The
Amber Alert system is being used in all fifty states,
the District of Columbia, Indian Country, the US Virgin Islands,
and twenty seven other countries. The US Department of Justice's
Office of Justice Programs has tasked the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children with managing the Amber Alert's secondary

(09:29):
distribution program. When law enforcement issues an Amber Alert, NICKMIK
is notified and redistributes the alert to the appropriate secondary distributors.
Did you know that there is a specific criteria that
must be met before an Amber alert is able to
be issued. On the website, visitors can search the Amber
Alert information by individual state. For example, in Maine, the

(09:53):
Amber plan should be activated only when one a child
seventeen years of age or younger is abducted, and two
there is reason to believe the victim is an imminent
danger of serious bodily injury or death, and three, there
is information available to disseminate to the general public which

(10:13):
could assist in the safe recovery of the victim and
or the apprehension of a suspect. So what is the
amber alert not for? For the site, it's meant to
alert about runaways or missing children, the key words are
imminent danger. An AMBER alert is an immediate notification sent
for people to look in that moment for the endangered child.

(10:35):
For the state of Texas, their requirement criteria is a
little different. If the child is seventeen years of age
or younger whose whereabouts are unknown and whose disappearance law
enforcement has determined to be unwilling, which poses a credible
threat to the child's safety and health, And if abducted
by a parent or legal guardian, was the abduction in

(10:55):
the course of an attempted murder or murder, or if
the child is thirteen years of age or younger who
was taking willingly or unwillingly without permission from the care
and custody of a parent or legal guardian by someone
unrelated and more than three years older, or another parent
or legal guardian who attempted or committed murder at the

(11:16):
time of the abduction. More details are provided for each criteria,
but the commonality among all states is this the child
must be in imminent danger. Amber alerts typically expire within
five hours. However, there are many missing children with Amber
alerts issued which have still not been recovered. This program

(11:36):
has enabled many children to be found safely. As of
December thirty one, twenty twenty four, one thousand, two hundred
and sixty two children have been recovered due to Amber
alerts and two hundred and twenty one are due to
WEA wireless emergency alerts. To check your state's active Amber alerts,
please go to your state's Bureau of Investigation website or

(11:59):
navigate misiakids dot org. Thank you all so much for
joining me for this episode of Weekly Dispatch. As a reminder,
Jewels will be attending Crime Con UK in June. You
can catch Jewels and I both at True Crime Podcast
Festival in Boston in July, and then we're so excited

(12:20):
to announce officially that we have been asked to be
creators on Creator Row at Crime Con Denver in September,
so you can catch us there as well. And if
you're not already following Jewels and I on Instagram. Make
sure you do. You can catch jewels at your host Jewles,
and you can connect with me at Jen Rivera Investigates.
Thanks again for joining me for today's episode, and I'll

(12:42):
catch in the next one. Fireeyes Media.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
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I used to be held back by constant bathroom trips,
with multiple wake ups during my sleep and looking for
restrooms whenever I was out. Then I discovered better Man.
After just two months, I started experiencing fewer trips to
the bathroom, less urged to go, and I even slept
through some nights. I feel a noticeable boost in my

(13:28):
overall well being, even sexual stamina. It gives me the
freedom and competence to live life on my terms. Better
Man is clinically tested and trusted by thousands of men
over twenty five years. Ready to take back control, Go
to bebetter now dot com to order your supply today.
Let's bebetter now dot com. These states have not been
evaluated by the FPA. This product is not tended to diagnosed,

(13:50):
week cure, or prevent any disease. Uses Directed individual results
me very
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