Dateline’s Keith Morrison reacts to Daybell guilty verdict, previews Moscow murder special

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IDAHO FALLS — Keith Morrison has been closely following the Daybell case for three and a half years so when Lori Vallow Daybell was found guilty of murder last week, the ‘Dateline NBC’ correspondent was not shocked.

“You always hold out a little possibility that there may be a wrinkle (on the jury), not necessarily because you want there to be one but you never know,” Morrison tells EastIdahoNews.com. “But when they all came down guilty, it was not terribly surprising. You could almost hear a sigh of relief. People seemed to be very glad about those verdicts.”

‘Dateline NBC’ has done several programs on the case since it broke in December 2019. While Morrison was familiar with a lot of the evidence and witnesses presented at trial, some memorable testimony stuck out to the veteran journalist.

“Some of the material was pretty extraordinary. The friend we hadn’t talked to before – Audrey Barratarrio – was riveting and disturbing, to say the least,” Morrison says. “The phone call with her sister from jail as she was waiting for events to occur, the lies she kept telling – it was quite phenomenal.”

Barratarrio testified that Daybell threatened to cut her up and kill her in 2019 after Tammy Daybell died and Daybell’s children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, vanished. They were eventually found buried on Chad Daybell’s property.

Morrison has also been busy following the murders of four University of Idaho students. Bryan Kohberger is accused of killing Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin on Nov. 13.

‘The Killings on King Road’ is scheduled to air Friday on ‘Dateline NBC’ and will reveal new information on the tragic case that has gripped the nation, according to Morrison.

“We have learned some things about this case – the background and what was going on in Bryan Kohberger’s life, what was going on in his family’s life and what may have been happening as the police were finally closing in,” Morrison explains. “All of these things are fascinating to know about but at the same time, we’re being very careful to present these bits of information with the proviso that here’s a man sitting in jail awaiting his trial before a jury of his peers and he is not guilty until proven otherwise.”

A grand jury indicted Kohberger this week and he will appear in court Monday where he will enter a plea during an arraignment.

Watch our entire interview with Morrison in the video player above.