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<v Speaker 1>This is Later with Lee Matthews The Lee Matthews Podcast

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<v Speaker 1>More what You Hear Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive.

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<v Speaker 2>He's a New York Times bestselling author, Howard Bloom. He's

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<v Speaker 2>an American author and journalist as well, formerly a reporter

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<v Speaker 2>for The Village Voice in New York Times. He's got

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<v Speaker 2>a new book out called When the Night Comes Falling.

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<v Speaker 2>It's a requiem for the Idaho student Murders, the inside

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<v Speaker 2>story of the mysterious murders that have horrified and captivated

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<v Speaker 2>the nation. Welcome Howard Bloom.

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<v Speaker 3>Nice to speak with you.

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<v Speaker 2>You too. This is the realization I think of every

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<v Speaker 2>parent's nightmare. A group of students at the prime of

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<v Speaker 2>their life, getting ready to go on break when all

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<v Speaker 2>of a sudden their lives are cut short.

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<v Speaker 3>Yes, I mean there are videos of the police coming

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<v Speaker 3>to the house in Moscow where the murders occurred for

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<v Speaker 3>noise disturbances, and you can see just a bunch of

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<v Speaker 3>young kids, full of life, full of beauty, full of

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<v Speaker 3>exuper He's having a good time, and it makes the

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<v Speaker 3>tragedy particularly poignant when you watch those videos.

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<v Speaker 2>So what have we learned in the meantime since the

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<v Speaker 2>arrest and things have been progressing.

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<v Speaker 3>Well. The suspect is Brian Coberger, who is a criminology

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<v Speaker 3>student at a nearby university, Washington State University. He was trying,

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<v Speaker 3>I believe, to create the perfect crime, and yet there's

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<v Speaker 3>a trove of evidence that the prosecution is assembled that

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<v Speaker 3>puts him in the crosshairs of this case. There's touch

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<v Speaker 3>DNA off a button of a knife sheaf that was left.

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<v Speaker 3>There's surveillance video of a white Hondai Elantra. He drove

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<v Speaker 3>a white Hondei Lantra. There's his phone being shut off

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<v Speaker 3>for the two hours during the period while the murders occurred,

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<v Speaker 3>and he's drove by the house. All these elements build

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<v Speaker 3>a very convincing case. Again, in fact, on the night

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<v Speaker 3>when the police arrest him in the Poconos, they burst

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<v Speaker 3>into the house in the Poconos, they go into the kitchen,

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<v Speaker 3>they find him there sitting in his boxer shorts and

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<v Speaker 3>he's taking his garbage and putting it into plastic bags.

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<v Speaker 3>So he's separating his DNAs from the family so that

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<v Speaker 3>in case the police comes to grab the family's garbage,

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<v Speaker 3>he won't be caught. It didn't work out that way.

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<v Speaker 2>Though he was painstaking about his preparation. Is there any

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<v Speaker 2>thought that that may be why he became a criminology

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<v Speaker 2>student in the first place.

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<v Speaker 3>I don't know if that's why he became a criminology

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<v Speaker 3>student in the first place. But he was fascinated with crime,

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<v Speaker 3>and the more he got into it, this fascination builds

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<v Speaker 3>and builds and builds, and I think he decided to

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<v Speaker 3>He wanted to experience the real thing. He was a

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<v Speaker 3>troubled youth. He had been a heroin addict. He had

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<v Speaker 3>been a mediocre student. But he's able to find the

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<v Speaker 3>will to move on from how to become a graduate student,

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<v Speaker 3>a doctoral kind of a top university. And yet he

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<v Speaker 3>still cannot escape from who he is. I mean, biology

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<v Speaker 3>is destiny. His state is determined by who he is.

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<v Speaker 3>And he always saw himself on the periphery of events,

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<v Speaker 3>and he felt that was a constant rebuke to him

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<v Speaker 3>and his way of looking at the world. And one

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<v Speaker 3>night he decided he just had to do something about it.

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<v Speaker 2>Howard Bloom, when the Night comes Falling Arequiem for the

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<v Speaker 2>Idaho Student Murders out Now he's a New York New

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<v Speaker 2>York Times bestselling author, of Dark Invasion and the Last

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<v Speaker 2>Good Night. What was it about these students that attracted

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<v Speaker 2>them as a target. I mean, they didn't go to

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<v Speaker 2>the same school, so how did they have any interaction

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<v Speaker 2>prior to the murder?

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<v Speaker 3>I mean he raised a very good point. Both the

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<v Speaker 3>prosecution and the defense agree on one point, and that

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<v Speaker 3>is that the suspect never talked to any of the students,

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<v Speaker 3>that he never followed them on social media. However, I've

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<v Speaker 3>been able to theorize that coburger of the suspect was

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<v Speaker 3>a vegan. There was a vegan restaurant in town where

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<v Speaker 3>one of the students, Matty Mugen, was a waitress. I

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<v Speaker 3>believe he encountered her at that restaurant. He didn't even

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<v Speaker 3>need to speak with her. Obsessions came easily to him,

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<v Speaker 3>and for some reason, he fixated on her fondness, her exuberance,

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<v Speaker 3>her beauty, her vitality, and she was a constant reminder

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<v Speaker 3>of everything he was not. And on the night of

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<v Speaker 3>November thirteenth, he set out not to kill four students

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<v Speaker 3>I believe that I recreated in my book, but he

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<v Speaker 3>set out just to kill Matti Mogen and everyone else

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<v Speaker 3>who lost their lives, who was bludgeoned to death, was

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<v Speaker 3>grimly horrifically collateral damage.

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<v Speaker 2>When the night comes falling a requiem for Idaho's students murders,

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<v Speaker 2>Howard blooms with us and so was there any significance

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<v Speaker 2>to the time of year in which this happened.

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<v Speaker 3>In his own life, he was having problems. He had

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<v Speaker 3>been a teaching assistant at the University of Washington. He

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<v Speaker 3>was on a full scholarship which is paid for by

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<v Speaker 3>his teaching and he had gotten in trouble with the department,

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<v Speaker 3>and the department was putting him under review, and it

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<v Speaker 3>looked like he very well could lose the job. And

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<v Speaker 3>they'd pull him in about a week before the murders

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<v Speaker 3>and say, you know your job is on the line.

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<v Speaker 3>He was just too volid. All the students didn't like

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<v Speaker 3>the way he interacted with them. He seemed, according to

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<v Speaker 3>some of the female students, to be treating them as

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<v Speaker 3>a misogynistic way in the class. And when Coberger is

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<v Speaker 3>informed of this by the university officials and the supervising professor,

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<v Speaker 3>he doesn't say, Okay, I'll try to deal with things,

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<v Speaker 3>but he explodes and he tries to make his own case,

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<v Speaker 3>and so his life was in jeopardy, and losing the

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<v Speaker 3>job would be losing his chance to reinvent himself. From this,

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<v Speaker 3>a student from a hard stubble background was now going

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<v Speaker 3>to become a PhD. And I think that existential shock

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<v Speaker 3>to a system is part of what throws him off kilter.

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<v Speaker 2>Howard Bloom a requiem for the Idaho student murders. When

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<v Speaker 2>the night comes falling and was there a was there

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<v Speaker 2>any sexual assault to any of the victims, or was

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<v Speaker 2>it all just murder?

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<v Speaker 3>There was no sexual assault, that it was all just murdered.

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<v Speaker 3>The story about Coberg's sexuality in a sense I described

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<v Speaker 3>how he goes to a pool party long after he

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<v Speaker 3>goes out to Moscow, and it's all filled with kids

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<v Speaker 3>and they're having a good time, and he's sitting by

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<v Speaker 3>the pool by himself, and he suddenly gets up and

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<v Speaker 3>he approaches two young women and both of them seems

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<v Speaker 3>to be wearing black two piece bathing suits, and he

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<v Speaker 3>asks for their phone numbers and he gets it. He

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<v Speaker 3>gets both their numbers, and then he immediately leaves the party.

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<v Speaker 3>He never calls the women. I spoke with them, but

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<v Speaker 3>they started receiving hang up falls and afterwards after Coburg

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<v Speaker 3>was arrest they put the pieces together that this might

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<v Speaker 3>very well have been Coburger calling them, And I think

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<v Speaker 3>this sort of sums up his sexual relationship with other people.

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<v Speaker 3>He could never make the leap to become a fully

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<v Speaker 3>integrated person, yet he wanted to be.

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<v Speaker 2>And they very well may have been his first targets,

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<v Speaker 2>and they got by by this in the neck.

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<v Speaker 3>Yes, I think he was. You know, this idea was

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<v Speaker 3>taking hold of his mind and he wasn't quite there yet.

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<v Speaker 3>Even on the night of the Murderers, he goes by

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<v Speaker 3>the murder house not once, not twice, but three times.

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<v Speaker 3>You know, there have been some reports that he was

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<v Speaker 3>stalking the house. I don't think that's accurate, and I

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<v Speaker 3>recreated he was trying to find the whell, trying to

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<v Speaker 3>find the commitment to move into this world of becoming

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<v Speaker 3>a murderer. Each time he goes by the house he escaped,

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<v Speaker 3>he drives off into the distance, and yet he's pulled

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<v Speaker 3>back as if by a magnet, and he just can't escape.

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<v Speaker 2>Who he is when the night comes falling Requiem for

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<v Speaker 2>the Idaho Student Murders. Howard Bloom is the author of

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<v Speaker 2>the books available everywhere and thank you for joining us.

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<v Speaker 3>Howard, my pleasure speaking with you.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee

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<v Speaker 1>Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live

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<v Speaker 1>weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation