Kohberger Told Judge Hippler WHAT About Being Forced?!

Tony Brueski (0:00)

This is The Big Breakdown, a long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden Killers Podcast and True Crime Today.

Tony Brueski (0:20)

If I were to jump on the air here and say something like, we have them, you're probably like, what do you have and why are you so excited? You think it'd be something of importance, something that you've been dying to see, something that would help move a case forward, something that would help you understand a case better. Unfortunately, some creators out there received some pictures and then got very excited about those pictures rather than projectile vomiting across the room. You see, there's two camps of True Crime creators out there, the ones that if they were to suddenly receive the unredacted images of the horrific atrocities that Bryan Kohberger committed, unredacted, full everything. Many of us would get sick and have to say, I'm going over here, I'm calling the police, I don't know how these were sent to me, but they better figure out who the fuck did this and go after them. And I will do everything in my power to make sure whoever released this shit faces justice. And then there's the camp that's like, we have them. Oh my god, Susan, did you know we have them? Oh my god, oh my god, we have the pictures. Oh my god.

That's kind of fucked up. That's a little fucked up. To be gleefully excited about getting your hands on these because some sick, twisted thought I'm going to get these from here and I'm going to send them out.

The violation of these families, the violation of these, these individuals who once lived, believe it or not, those four kids, they were alive. They weren't just names in a horror story.

The unadulterated glee that seems to be coming from some of these goblins in this world of true crime is really sickening.

We're the ones that projectile vomit, by the way, just in case you were wondering. We're not gleeful. Three simple words, uttered in a casual Monday afternoon on a live stream, a YouTuber, a YouTube creator with about 9,000 followers, looks right into her camera and tells her chat that she's somehow got her hands on completely unredacted crime scene photos of four murdered University of Idaho students, wounds clearly visible. The crime scene completely unredacted, zero reaction, zero redactions. Claims she's just holding off until she gets a few more files before dumping them online. And in the live chat, people are cheering her on. Stay tuned, she says, it's coming.

If you're part of that world of like, oh, right, I can't wait to see them. You should probably seriously think about getting mental health help, because you do not have a healthy brain. You don't. Getting mentally turned on by that sort of content, you're not one of the good ones. And by that, I mean humans. You're not one of the good ones.

By the very next day, September 15th of 2026, the Latah County Prosecutor's Office, Moscow Police and the Idaho State Police are forced to issue a joint public statement. Unredacted photos from 1112 King Road showing Kayleigh Gonzalva's Madison Mogan, Xander Carnotil and Ethan Chapin have leaked directly to journalists and online creators, prosecutor Bill Thompson didn't hold back either, calling the leak downright unconscionable. But then he omitted something even more disturbing. He isn't even sure his office has any legal authority to go after whoever leaked them. Really? I would bet you might. I mean, just let that sink in for a second. A strict court order explicitly demanded these photos be blacked out. A brand new state law banned public agencies from ever releasing them. And yet, the lead prosecutor tasked with enforcing those exact rules had to tell Fore grieving families that he might be completely powerless to stop it. Christmas season is coming up. Ho ho ho. I better get the sleigh ready. Bill fucking Thompson. You know my opinion on Bill Thompson. From day fucking one, I'm like, this ain't your fucking guy. You want to prosecute this case? Santa ain't the man to do it. And clearly he wasn't because he never did. He found the off ramp and took it.

This is what four families who spent two long agonizing years fighting against in courtrooms, in state legislative hearings and under the relentless glare of public grief, all just to keep images of their children's final moments from being turned into cheap internet content. So how did every line of defense that they built end up with a back door that was left wide open? Well, long before the new state laws and long before the court injunctions, there was a major warning sign. Back in May of 25, NBC's Dateline broadcast non-public details about the Kohberger case right before trial. They didn't broadcast the images, but they broadcast the car. They broadcast pieces of evidence that pointed directly at Bryan Kohberger being the culprit. Judge Steven Hippler stepped in fast with preservation orders. His message was loud and clear. It looked extremely likely that someone tied to law enforcement or the prosecution had violated the gag order. To figure out who was responsible, Hippler appointed a special prosecutor. Well, fast forward to May of 26, that investigation was still quietly dragging along. A full year later, zero public findings, zero accountability. The justice system got its first massive red flag that evidence was leaking out, and the official inquiry just seemed to kind of vanish into thin air. It's interesting how that happens when you have to investigate yourself, when you have to investigate your own system, your own people, and you never really find anything, and it just kind of goes off into the ether until the next drop of the document seems to just come out of nowhere. And I don't know what we can do to figure it out.