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Speaker 1: What's up everyone, and welcome back to the program. We've

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heard a lot now about Brian Cohberger and how he

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was under investigation at Washington State University prior to, during,

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and after the murders were committed in Moscow. Well, we

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have heard that from a lot of sources, and now

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The New York Times has an article out talking about

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this very thing. So let's dive right into the article

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and let's see what the New York Times is talking about.

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Headlined university investigated Idaho suspects behavior around the time of

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the killings. Brian Coberger had a verbal altercation with the

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professor and was investigated over his behavior around female students

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before he was charged in four murders. And to tell

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you the truth, it doesn't look good for Brian Colberger.

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Again circumstantial and certainly not something I'd be willing to

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convict him over if I was a jur But when

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you look at at all of this evidence that is

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being compiled for me, this is the most damning as

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far as what people have to say about Brian Coberger,

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because I really don't care what he was up to

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when he was eighteen seventeen years old. Sure it helps

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get an idea of how he became what he became.

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But I think it's much more relevant to take a

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look at how he was doing leading up to these murders,

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and if he was having altercations with his professor, and

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he was considered a creep around women. That certainly fits

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with all of the categories that we heard about previously

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to Brian Coberger being arrested, him being an inceel, somebody

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who hates women. All of it tracks. This article was

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authored by Mike Baker and Nicholas Bogel Burrows, the PhD

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student charged with murdering for University of Idaho undergraduates, displayed

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such troubling behavior in the weeks around the killings that

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his university investigated his conduct around women, counseled him over

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a verbal altercation with the professor, and ultimately fired him

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from his job as a teaching assistant, according to interviews

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and the university record. Now you want to talk about spiraling,

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You want to talk about being in an absolute freefall

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and bottoming out. This is what we're talking about. Less

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than two weeks before the killings in November, the PhD

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student Brian Colberger was called to a meeting with faculty

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members to discuss growing concerns about his behavior. According to

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the record, a timeline the university prepared in justifying its

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decision to terminate him. The meeting was part of a

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series of discussions over mister Coberger's conduct during his criminology

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studies at Washington State University, which lies about seven miles

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west of the University of Idaho. Now, if I'm the

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professor and this dude just shows up and all of

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a sudden has all of these behavioral issues right away,

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We're talking about a month into this gig, I would

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have sat him down that day and been like, buddy,

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you're done. There has to be a ton of students

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out there that would literally do anything to have this

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kind of position. And here's Brian Coohberger with his whole

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entire future set up for him and allegedly throws it

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all away and goes and commits a quadruple homicide. The

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faculty's concerns with mister Coberger grew in the weeks after

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the November thirteenth killings, though he had not yet been

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identified as a suspect. They culminated in the Criminal Justice

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department's unusual decision to terminate mister Coberger from his teaching

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assistant role in December, shortly before his arrest, According to

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three people familiar with his time at the university and

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the formal letter mister Coberger was sent to mister Coburger

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informing him that he failed to meet the conditions required

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to maintain his funding under the program. And there were

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some people out there saying, well, he lost his job.

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That doesn't mean going to go commit murder. But it

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wasn't just losing his job, right, He lost everything when

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he lost his teaching assistants job, He lost his way.

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He has no way to pay for school. Now he

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has no way to continue his studies. So it's a

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big problem for Brian Colberger and for you or I

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it would be a gigantic setback, right, But we're not

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going to go out and commit murder over it. But

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when you have the kind of mind and you're wired

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the way the government tells us Coburger is, it's a

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completely different story and it doesn't take much to launch

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you in the orbit. The faculty made the decision at

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the department's end of year meeting in December, during which

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professors were also told that some female students were reported

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that mister Coburger had made them feel uncomfortable. In one

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of those instances, mister Coberger was accused of following a

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female student to her car, according to two people familiar

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with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity

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because they we're not authorized to discuss the case. And

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once again, for people out there who are not hip

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to how this works, a lot of these journalists, a

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lot of these outlets have previous relationships with sources who

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are going to have information about this case. Whether it's

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the FBI, a local police officer, a local prosecutor, whatever,

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There's going to be information that gets leaked. And when

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you're an outlet like The New York Times, you're going

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to have some sources. Now I'm not the biggest fan

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of the way the New York Times handles their business

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these days, but when they're running something like this, chances

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are they have done their due diligence, and if not,

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all they're doing is digging their own hole deeper. Because,

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like we've said earlier, there is a big time distrust

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when it comes to the legacy media and of all

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of the allegations against Coburger. Besides obviously the homicides, I

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think following girls to their car are the biggest ones.

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What it does is that shows a pattern of behavior.

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It doesn't prove anything definitively, but it shows that pattern

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of behavior that jurors are going to look for in

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the case of the female students. The university's investigation did

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not find mister mister Coburger guilty of any wrongdoing, two

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people said, and it was other matters that prompted the

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decision to eliminate his funding and remove him from the

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teaching assistant job. That decision, they said, was based on

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his unsatisfactory performance as a teaching assistant, including his failure

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to meet the norms of professional behavior and his interactions

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with faculty. Basically, what they're saying is Brian Cohberger sucked

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at his job and he couldn't get along with people.

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Mister Coburger began having trouble about a month into the

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fall semester, his first at Washington State. He had an

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altercation on September twenty third with John Snyder, the WSU

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professor he was assisting. According to the termination letter, a

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copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.

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Then on November two, department leaders met with mister Coberger

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to discuss an improvement plan. The letter accounts eleven days later,

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the four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death

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overnight in a home just off campus in Moscow, Idaho.

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So take from that what you will, and there's going

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to be people that are going to look at it

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and say, no, big deal, doesn't mean anything. But for me,

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I'm trying to look at it in the whole, entire

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entirety of what we know. And when you do it

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like that, things lead into each other. And a lot

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of times for killers, there's an incident in their life

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that sparks their murders free. And for Coburger, this definitely

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could have been it, and this whole situation with the

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job certainly could have been that turning point where it

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went from fantasy to reality. In the termination document, officials

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described a second altercation that mister Coburger had with the

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professor after the killings on December ninth. Later that month,

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the department decided to remove him from his position as

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a teaching assistant, cutting off his pay and saying that

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he had not made progress regarding professionalism. Phil Wheeler, a

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vice president and spokesman for Washington State University said a

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federal student privacy law prohibited him from commenting in detail

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on mister Coberger's history with the university. He said only

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that mister Colberger was no longer enrolled in the university.

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Mister Coberger's lawyer did not respond to a message seeking

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comment on Friday. I don't know why they continue to

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ask the lawyer for any comment. It's not going to happen.

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She is not going to send any kind of information

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to you. There is a gag Orderly Coburger is being

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held in jail after being charged with four counts of murder.

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He has said through his lawyer that he looks forward

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to being exonerated. The Times previously reported that students had

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complained about mister Cole's harsh grading in his teaching assistant role,

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resulting in a classroom discussion in which he sought to

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defend the feedback he provided the students. Mister Coberger had

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entered the program at Washington State University after earning a

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master's degree in June at Tasallas University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania,

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not far from where he spent his teenage years struggling

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with emotional problems and drug addiction record show. After the

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initial altercation with the professor, on September twenty three, mister

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Coburger met with a university official to discuss the norms

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of professional behavior. You mean to tell me a guy

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with a master's degree that's going for a PhD doesn't

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know the norms of professional behavior? What are you twelve?

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What are you in the back of the room picking

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your nose and talking shit while the teachers teaching you

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remedial math? What does that even mean? Professional behavior? By

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October twenty first, a professor emailed him about the way

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in which you had failed to meet your expectations as

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a TA thus far in the semester. Some of the

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details of mister Coberger's troubles and eventual firing were first

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posted online by an Arkansas woman who has closely followed

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the case. What what does that even mean? How does

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some woman in Arkansas get this information? This case gets

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weirder and weirder by the minute, folks. The Idaho students

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were found stabbed to death in two bedrooms of the

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home on November thirteenth. Madison Mogan and Kaylee Gonsalves were

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both found in one room, while Xana Kernodle and Ethan

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Chapin were found in another. According to a police affet David,

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the three women all lived in the home, the police

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have said, and mister Chapin was visiting Miss Kernodle, his girlfriend.

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The police said the killings took place around four am.

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Four weeks after the killings, investigators did not identify as suspect.

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Records show that mister Coberger was still worse working in

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his teaching assistant job at the time, and was continuing

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to grade undergraduate student papers. About a week after his

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second altercation with the professor, as the semester was drawing

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to a close in December, mister Coburger began driving across

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country with his father to the family's home in Pennsylvania.

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I'm convinced that Coburger knew what was coming down the

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pipe at this point, and he wanted to put as

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much distance between himself, the murders, and what had happened

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at Washington State University. Officials notified mister Coburger of his

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termination on December nineteenth, According to the university timeline, he

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was arrested at the end of the month. The authorities

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cited DNA that appeared to link him too a knife.

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Sheath found that the crime scene video showing a white

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car in the neighborhood of the crime scene that resembled

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mister Coberger's car, and phone records indicating that mister Coburger's

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phone disconnected from the cell network during those key early

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more hours. A judge is scheduled a June preliminary hearing

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where prosecutors are set to lay out more of their evidence.

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All right, Well, I wanted to add a little more

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clarification about this letter, and we had heard about it

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from News Nation and other outlets, But with the New

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York Times writing up this piece, I figured we throw

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that bad boy in the catalog as well. That way

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we continue to build up that context, and the best

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way to do that is to be armed with as

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much information as possible. All Right, folks, that's going to

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do it for this one. All of the information that

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goes with this episode can be found in the description box.