The Diddy Diaries

The “Great Basin Killer” was the name investigators and the media gave to a suspected serial murderer believed to be responsible for a string of killings across Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Idaho between 1983 and 1997. At least nine women were initially grouped together as possible victims because of similarities in the cases: many were young women or hitchhikers, several had been sexually assaulted, and their bodies were dumped in remote areas near major interstate highways running through the Great Basin. Some victims were strangled, others stabbed or shot, and in several cases their bodies appeared to have been deliberately posed. The...

Cary Stayner was a motel handyman living and working near Yosemite National Park when he murdered four women in 1999, turning one of America’s most famous tourist destinations into the center of a serial-murder investigation. His first known victims were Carole Sund, her 15-year-old daughter Juli, and their 16-year-old family friend Silvina Pelosso, who disappeared while staying at the Cedar Lodge near Yosemite in February 1999. Their burned-out rental car was later found with two bodies inside, while Juli Sund’s body was discovered separately. Months later, Stayner killed 26-year-old Joie Armstrong, a Yosemite naturalist, near her cabin in the park...

In March 2023, newly unsealed search warrants showed that Moscow investigators had been intensely focused on identifying the type of knife used to kill Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. Police had recovered a tan leather Ka-Bar sheath beside Mogen’s body, stamped with “KA-BAR,” “USMC” and the Marine Corps insignia, while the actual murder weapon was still missing. Investigators obtained six separate warrants seeking sales records from Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Blue Ridge Knives and Ka-Bar itself for specific military-style knives and matching sheaths, including the Ka-Bar 1217 and 1217S sheath. The warrants had all been sought and executed b...

In April 2023, the Idaho Supreme Court rejected an effort by a coalition of 30 news organizations to immediately lift the sweeping gag order in the Bryan Kohberger case. The justices did not rule that the order itself was constitutional or that the media’s First Amendment arguments lacked merit. Instead, they said the press coalition had gone to the wrong court first and needed to challenge Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall’s order in the lower court before asking the state Supreme Court to intervene. Marshall’s January order had barred attorneys, prosecutors, law-enforcement personnel and others connected to the case from speaki...

Day one of Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing on July 6, 2026, largely centered on prosecutors beginning to construct a timeline of Charlie Kirk’s killing at Utah Valley University and establishing the authenticity of the surveillance footage and investigative records they intended to use against Robinson. Former UVU police officer Chris Bagley described the moment the gunshot rang out during Kirk’s September 10, 2025 event and the chaos that followed, while Utah State Bureau of Investigation agent David Hull walked the court through the enormous video-review effort undertaken after the shooting. Hull testified that investigators examined hundreds of hours of surveillance footage and ul...

Day one of Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing on July 6, 2026, largely centered on prosecutors beginning to construct a timeline of Charlie Kirk’s killing at Utah Valley University and establishing the authenticity of the surveillance footage and investigative records they intended to use against Robinson. Former UVU police officer Chris Bagley described the moment the gunshot rang out during Kirk’s September 10, 2025 event and the chaos that followed, while Utah State Bureau of Investigation agent David Hull walked the court through the enormous video-review effort undertaken after the shooting. Hull testified that investigators examined hundreds of hours of surveillance footage and ul...

Hillary Clinton’s February 26, 2026 deposition before the House Oversight Committee centered on how much she knew about Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Bill Clinton’s relationship with them. Clinton repeatedly testified that she had never met Epstein, never flew on his plane, never visited Little St. James and knew nothing about his crimes before they became public. She described Maxwell as no more than a “casual acquaintance,” said she did not consider her a friend and attributed Maxwell’s presence around the Clinton family largely to her relationship with longtime Clinton friend Ted Waitt. Clinton acknowledged that Maxwell attended Chelsea Cl...

Hillary Clinton’s February 26, 2026 deposition before the House Oversight Committee centered on how much she knew about Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Bill Clinton’s relationship with them. Clinton repeatedly testified that she had never met Epstein, never flew on his plane, never visited Little St. James and knew nothing about his crimes before they became public. She described Maxwell as no more than a “casual acquaintance,” said she did not consider her a friend and attributed Maxwell’s presence around the Clinton family largely to her relationship with longtime Clinton friend Ted Waitt. Clinton acknowledged that Maxwell attended Chelsea Cl...

Former royal protection officer Paul Page said British investigators looking into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had effectively ignored evidence he was trying to provide about Andrew’s conduct at Buckingham Palace, so Page instead took the material to the FBI and also sent it to U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie. Page, who worked as a protection officer at the palace for six years, alleged that from roughly 1997 to 2007 the normal security rules around Andrew were relaxed and that women, including Ghislaine Maxwell and other young female visitors, were sometimes allowed into Buckingham Palace without their names being properly entered into official visitor lo...

FBI Director Kash Patel was shown in newly obtained internal text messages ordering aides to push back aggressively against online criticism of the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, including criticism coming from accounts that appeared to be trolls or provocateurs. According to the messages reviewed by the Daily Mail, Patel became enraged over social-media claims suggesting the FBI was hiding information or failing to deliver on promises of transparency, and he instructed staff to respond “continuously” rather than let the attacks go unanswered. The exchange offered a rare behind-the-scenes look at how personally Patel was reacting to the...

Independent journalist Tara Palmeri said she was removed from the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas and had her press credential revoked shortly after she questioned Republican congressional candidate Robert Burke about the Jeffrey Epstein files. Palmeri entered the American Airlines Center with a valid media credential, accompanied by her producer and three Epstein survivors who had been admitted with guest passes. She said the group was not protesting, carrying signs or disrupting the event. Instead, they spoke briefly with Burke, who told them he supported releasing the Epstein information and wanted to know what had happened. Roughly nine minutes after...

​In State of Idaho v. Bryan C. Kohberger (Case No. CR01-24-31665), the defense filed a motion on February 24, 2025, to preclude the death penalty and implement additional procedures, citing the prosecution's numerous disclosure violations. The defense argues that the State has failed to meet its constitutional obligations to identify, preserve, and timely disclose exculpatory evidence, which is crucial for ensuring a fair trial. They contend that such suppression of evidence hinders the defense's ability to prepare effectively and undermines the integrity of the judicial process.

Furthermore, the defense emphasizes that mitigating evidence is material when it could in...

Zulema Pastenes, who had been one of Lori Vallow Daybell’s close friends and later married Lori’s brother Alex Cox, gave jurors an inside look at the increasingly radical belief system surrounding Lori and Chad Daybell. Pastenes testified that Lori claimed to have visions, communicate with heavenly beings and occupy an unusually high spiritual position, while Chad introduced ideas about reincarnation, “light” and “dark” spirits, zombies and the need to remove evil from people. Pastenes said she initially believed much of what Lori and Chad taught because she trusted them and viewed them as spiritually gifted. She described how the grou...

The State of Idaho formally notified Bryan Kohberger in June 2023 that prosecutors intended to seek the death penalty if he were convicted of murdering Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. Prosecutor Bill Thompson said the State had reviewed the evidence then available and had not identified mitigating circumstances sufficient to take capital punishment off the table. The notice cited several statutory aggravating factors prosecutors believed could apply, including that multiple murders were committed, that the killings were allegedly especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, that the perpetrator exhibited utter disregard for human life, and that the murders...

At the time of the Newsweek report, one of the biggest missing pieces in the Bryan Kohberger case was the murder weapon itself. Investigators believed a large fixed-blade knife, likely a Ka-Bar or similar weapon, had been used to kill Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, largely because a tan leather Ka-Bar sheath had been found on the bed beside Mogen. DNA recovered from the sheath’s button snap had been linked to Kohberger, making the sheath one of the prosecution’s most important physical pieces of evidence. But police had not recovered the actual knife, and...

The “Memorandum of Points and Authorities” filed by the State on February 8, 2023 dealt with the sweeping nondissemination, or gag, order imposed in the Bryan Kohberger case. It came after attorney Shanon Gray, representing the Goncalves family, asked the court to amend or clarify the order because it restricted attorneys for victims’ families from speaking publicly about the case. Prosecutors told the court their overriding concern was protecting Kohberger’s right to a fair and impartial trial while also preserving the integrity of any eventual conviction. The memorandum collected legal authorities supporting a court’s power to restrict extrajudicial statements when publicity...

Day one of Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing on July 6, 2026, largely centered on prosecutors beginning to construct a timeline of Charlie Kirk’s killing at Utah Valley University and establishing the authenticity of the surveillance footage and investigative records they intended to use against Robinson. Former UVU police officer Chris Bagley described the moment the gunshot rang out during Kirk’s September 10, 2025 event and the chaos that followed, while Utah State Bureau of Investigation agent David Hull walked the court through the enormous video-review effort undertaken after the shooting. Hull testified that investigators examined hundreds of hours of surveillance footage and ul...

Day one of Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing on July 6, 2026, largely centered on prosecutors beginning to construct a timeline of Charlie Kirk’s killing at Utah Valley University and establishing the authenticity of the surveillance footage and investigative records they intended to use against Robinson. Former UVU police officer Chris Bagley described the moment the gunshot rang out during Kirk’s September 10, 2025 event and the chaos that followed, while Utah State Bureau of Investigation agent David Hull walked the court through the enormous video-review effort undertaken after the shooting. Hull testified that investigators examined hundreds of hours of surveillance footage and ul...

Hillary Clinton’s February 26, 2026 deposition before the House Oversight Committee centered on how much she knew about Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Bill Clinton’s relationship with them. Clinton repeatedly testified that she had never met Epstein, never flew on his plane, never visited Little St. James and knew nothing about his crimes before they became public. She described Maxwell as no more than a “casual acquaintance,” said she did not consider her a friend and attributed Maxwell’s presence around the Clinton family largely to her relationship with longtime Clinton friend Ted Waitt. Clinton acknowledged that Maxwell attended Chelsea Cl...

Hillary Clinton’s February 26, 2026 deposition before the House Oversight Committee centered on how much she knew about Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Bill Clinton’s relationship with them. Clinton repeatedly testified that she had never met Epstein, never flew on his plane, never visited Little St. James and knew nothing about his crimes before they became public. She described Maxwell as no more than a “casual acquaintance,” said she did not consider her a friend and attributed Maxwell’s presence around the Clinton family largely to her relationship with longtime Clinton friend Ted Waitt. Clinton acknowledged that Maxwell attended Chelsea Cl...

The Trump administration continues to promote itself as historically transparent, but its handling of Jeffrey Epstein-related records is fueling renewed criticism as European authorities seek information for their own investigations. Officials in Poland, Norway, Latvia and Britain have pursued access to unredacted American records and investigative assistance tied to Epstein-related inquiries, while questions remain over why the United States appears far less interested in aggressively pursuing many of the same leads. The contradiction is especially striking given the millions of pages released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and the administration’s repeated insistence that the public has received unprecedented di...

The Trump administration continues to promote itself as historically transparent, but its handling of Jeffrey Epstein-related records is fueling renewed criticism as European authorities seek information for their own investigations. Officials in Poland, Norway, Latvia and Britain have pursued access to unredacted American records and investigative assistance tied to Epstein-related inquiries, while questions remain over why the United States appears far less interested in aggressively pursuing many of the same leads. The contradiction is especially striking given the millions of pages released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and the administration’s repeated insistence that the public has received unprecedented di...

French prosecutors said their investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s network had identified additional people who may have acted as recruiters, expanding the inquiry beyond the figures already publicly associated with him. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau described the network as “labyrinthine” and said investigators were following dozens of different leads, including connections stretching from New York to Saint-Tropez and Cannes. The investigation was opened after the U.S. Justice Department released a new cache of Epstein files in January, and French authorities said they had now identified 26 potential victims, including 13 who had not previously appeared in any case. Eight of those women...

Families of the four University of Idaho murder victims repeatedly complained that they were being kept too far outside the investigation and were not receiving the level of communication they believed they deserved. The Goncalves family was especially vocal, saying they were frustrated by shifting statements from police, long stretches without meaningful updates and the experience of learning important developments through the media instead of directly from investigators. Their attorney, Shanon Gray, criticized what he described as inconsistent communication and questioned whether the family was being given enough access to information about the progress of the case. The Kernodle...

Melanie Gibb’s testimony was some of the most damaging evidence against Lori Vallow because she described, from inside Lori and Chad Daybell’s circle, how their increasingly radical belief system developed alongside the deaths of people they considered obstacles. Gibb testified that Lori and Chad believed people could become “dark,” possessed by evil spirits or transformed into “zombies,” and she identified Charles Vallow, Tylee Ryan, JJ Vallow and Tammy Daybell as people who had been given those labels before they died. She said Lori believed she and Chad had been married in past lives, were spiritually chosen to lead the 144...

The media covering the Bryan Kohberger case fought aggressively for courtroom access because they argued that one of the most closely watched murder prosecutions in the country should remain open and visible to the public. A coalition of roughly 20 news organizations, including the Associated Press, The Idaho Statesman, The New York Times, The Washington Post, television stations and journalism groups, formally intervened in the case and challenged restrictions on both press access and public discussion. When Judge John Judge began reconsidering whether cameras should remain in the courtroom, the coalition argued that video and still photography were essential to...

​Investigative genetic genealogist CeCe Moore has commented on the FBI's use of Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) in the Bryan Kohberger case, emphasizing the importance of ethical practices to maintain public support for this investigative tool. Moore noted that while the FBI's actions did not violate the law, they did breach the terms of service of certain genealogy databases, raising privacy concerns. She stressed that the continued success of IGG relies on public trust, which can be undermined if investigators do not adhere to ethical standards.


Moore highlighted that the effectiveness of IGG depends on public participation and th...

In the weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were murdered, the Idaho case developed an enormous and often disturbing online ecosystem filled with amateur detectives, Reddit threads, Facebook groups and conspiracy theories. Thousands of people tried to solve the case from afar, producing theories about drug deals, fraternity disputes, revenge, bullying and secret relationships, while large social-media communities dissected every photograph, video and rumor connected to Moscow. Some users genuinely tried to help and forwarded possible tips to police, but the volume of speculation also created serious problems. Innocent people, including the man seen...

Day one of Tyler Robinson’s preliminary hearing on July 6, 2026, largely centered on prosecutors beginning to construct a timeline of Charlie Kirk’s killing at Utah Valley University and establishing the authenticity of the surveillance footage and investigative records they intended to use against Robinson. Former UVU police officer Chris Bagley described the moment the gunshot rang out during Kirk’s September 10, 2025 event and the chaos that followed, while Utah State Bureau of Investigation agent David Hull walked the court through the enormous video-review effort undertaken after the shooting. Hull testified that investigators examined hundreds of hours of surveillance footage and ul...

JPMorgan Chase’s memorandum of law opposed Jes Staley’s effort to dismiss the bank’s third-party claims against him in the Epstein litigation, arguing that Staley’s own conduct was central to why JPMorgan faced massive legal exposure in the first place. The bank portrayed Staley as far more than an executive who happened to know Jeffrey Epstein, alleging that he was Epstein’s principal internal advocate at JPMorgan, maintained an extraordinarily close personal relationship with him and repeatedly supported keeping Epstein as a client despite mounting internal concerns. JPMorgan argued that Staley had access to information about Epstein th...

JPMorgan Chase’s memorandum of law opposed Jes Staley’s effort to dismiss the bank’s third-party claims against him in the Epstein litigation, arguing that Staley’s own conduct was central to why JPMorgan faced massive legal exposure in the first place. The bank portrayed Staley as far more than an executive who happened to know Jeffrey Epstein, alleging that he was Epstein’s principal internal advocate at JPMorgan, maintained an extraordinarily close personal relationship with him and repeatedly supported keeping Epstein as a client despite mounting internal concerns. JPMorgan argued that Staley had access to information about Epstein th...

JPMorgan Chase’s memorandum of law opposed Jes Staley’s effort to dismiss the bank’s third-party claims against him in the Epstein litigation, arguing that Staley’s own conduct was central to why JPMorgan faced massive legal exposure in the first place. The bank portrayed Staley as far more than an executive who happened to know Jeffrey Epstein, alleging that he was Epstein’s principal internal advocate at JPMorgan, maintained an extraordinarily close personal relationship with him and repeatedly supported keeping Epstein as a client despite mounting internal concerns. JPMorgan argued that Staley had access to information about Epstein th...

JPMorgan Chase’s memorandum of law opposed Jes Staley’s effort to dismiss the bank’s third-party claims against him in the Epstein litigation, arguing that Staley’s own conduct was central to why JPMorgan faced massive legal exposure in the first place. The bank portrayed Staley as far more than an executive who happened to know Jeffrey Epstein, alleging that he was Epstein’s principal internal advocate at JPMorgan, maintained an extraordinarily close personal relationship with him and repeatedly supported keeping Epstein as a client despite mounting internal concerns. JPMorgan argued that Staley had access to information about Epstein th...

The jury that convicted Ghislaine Maxwell in December 2021 spent several days deliberating after a monthlong federal trial and ultimately found her guilty on five of six counts, including sex trafficking of a minor and multiple conspiracy charges. Jurors repeatedly asked to review testimony and evidence as they worked through the case, including material connected to Jeffrey Epstein’s pilots and the movements of Maxwell and Epstein over the years. Their verdict was a sweeping rejection of Maxwell’s central defense that prosecutors had turned her into a substitute for the dead Epstein and were relying on unreliable memories from events deca...

Chad Daybell was an Idaho author and self-styled religious visionary whose apocalyptic beliefs became central to the case involving Lori Vallow Daybell and the deaths of her children, Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, as well as Chad’s wife, Tammy Daybell. Before the murders, Daybell wrote books about near-death experiences, the end times and preparing for societal collapse, and he claimed to receive spiritual visions and revelations. After meeting Lori in 2018, the two developed an increasingly extreme belief system involving reincarnation, “light” and “dark” spirits and the idea that some people had become “zombies” after evil spirits displaced their souls. Prosecu...

Lori Vallow Daybell’s road to radicalization appeared to unfold gradually, moving from conventional religious belief into an increasingly extreme apocalyptic worldview that eventually placed her inside Chad Daybell’s orbit. Daybell was already immersed in doomsday theology, near-death experiences and claims of supernatural insight, and after the two met, Vallow increasingly embraced his ideas about spiritual warfare, reincarnation and the imminent end of the world. Together they began categorizing people as “light” or “dark,” and according to testimony, those judged sufficiently dark could be described as possessed or as “zombies” whose spirits had been displaced. Friends and family later described Vallow...

At CrimeCon in 2025, Ethan Chapin’s mother, Stacy Chapin, spoke emotionally about the moment she learned her son had been killed and about what life had looked like for her family ever since. She described receiving the devastating news while grocery shopping and said the reality that “Ethan’s not here” remained something the family had to live with every day. Chapin emphasized Ethan’s personality, his role as one of triplets and the importance of keeping his memory centered rather than allowing the case to become entirely about Bryan Kohberger. She also discussed the investigative technology that eventually helped ide...

Bethany Funke did not simply wake up and independently “discover the bodies” in the way the earliest public narrative sometimes suggested. Evidence released later showed that she had been awake during the early morning hours and had exchanged frightened messages with Dylan Mortensen after Mortensen said no one else in the house was answering and described seeing a masked man dressed in black. Funke herself called Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves between roughly 4:21 and 4:31 a.m., but none of them answered. Mortensen eventually went downstairs to Funke’s room, and the two remained together for hours. Later...

Shortly after the University of Idaho murders, investigators learned that Bryan Kohberger had changed the license plate on his white Hyundai Elantra, a detail that quickly drew attention because police were already searching for a white Elantra seen near 1122 King Road. Kohberger’s vehicle had been registered in Pennsylvania, which required only a rear license plate, but on November 18, 2022, just five days after the murders, he obtained Washington registration and new plates after moving to the state for his doctoral program at Washington State University. The timing looked suspicious on its face because it occurred so soon after the killings, bu...

In January 2023, former NYPD inspector Paul Mauro argued that five pieces of evidence outlined in the probable cause affidavit had already created a potentially powerful circumstantial case against Bryan Kohberger. At the center was DNA recovered from the snap of a Ka-Bar-style knife sheath found beside Madison Mogen’s body, which investigators initially connected to Kohberger through a familial comparison involving his father. Mauro also pointed to surveillance footage of a white Hyundai Elantra traveling near the King Road residence before and after the murders, noting that the vehicle’s movements appeared to correspond with Kohberger’s cellphone activity. Phone record...