Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. They
Speaker 1: were supposed to be safe. That was the unspoken truth
Speaker 1: beneath the snow, beneath the locked doors, beneath the college
Speaker 1: dreams lining the streets of Moscow, Idaho. Safety It's why
Speaker 1: parents send their children to small towns, to college towns,
Speaker 1: to places like this. But on the night of November thirteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, safety died too. It begins in fragments.
Speaker 1: A line of students shovels past a downtown bar. A
Speaker 1: white car makes a slow, measured turn on a street
Speaker 1: lined with whispering trees. A hand on a doorknob, the
Speaker 1: flick of a hallway light, a phone placed down beside
Speaker 1: a bed, a kitchen dark, a third floor window glowing
Speaker 1: faintly in the early morning haze, and somewhere in the
Speaker 1: shadows of it all, a man with a knife. This
Speaker 1: is how the Night of the University of Idaho murders unfolds,
Speaker 1: not as the singular eruption of violence, but a series
Speaker 1: of precise, almost silent ruptures for lives ended in under
Speaker 1: twenty minutes. A town shattered, a country stunned, and a
Speaker 1: mystery that would ignite a forensic and media firestorm unlike
Speaker 1: anything the State of Idaho had ever seen. To understand
Speaker 1: how it happened, we have to reconstruct the night in
Speaker 1: its entirety, not just through surveillance footage or timestamp phone pings,
Speaker 1: but through space, motion, silence, and intent. The timeline isn't
Speaker 1: just linear, it's spatial, it's architectural. This house was a
Speaker 1: box of lives, floor stack like secrets, doors separating life
Speaker 1: from death. Let's step inside. Saturday November twelfth, twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two evening and tonight, The three story house at eleven
Speaker 1: twenty two King Road sits tucked against a hill in
Speaker 1: a quiet neighborhood just off the University of Idaho campus.
Speaker 1: The property is oddly shaped, partially hidden from the road,
Speaker 1: with multiple entrances and an exterior stairwell, a classic college rental,
Speaker 1: functional lived in and fill with quiet noise of youth.
Speaker 1: Six people lived here on this particular night. Five young
Speaker 1: women and one male guest would be inside. Kayley Gonsolvis
Speaker 1: twenty one, Madison Mogan twenty one, Xana Kernodle twenty two.
Speaker 1: Surviving roommates Bethany Funk and Dylan Mortensen. And Ethan Chapin,
Speaker 1: Xana's boyfriend, who was visiting that night. The home itself
Speaker 1: was structured with basement level two bedrooms typically used by
Speaker 1: the surviving roommates, middle level of the second floor kitchen,
Speaker 1: common areas, and Xana's bedroom top level third floor bedrooms
Speaker 1: of Kaylee and Madison. At around five pm, each pair
Speaker 1: begins their evenings separately. Zana and Ethan make plans to
Speaker 1: attend a party at the nearby Sigma Kai fraternity house,
Speaker 1: located just a few minutes away on campus. Kayley and
Speaker 1: Madison are preparing to go downtown for drinks and late
Speaker 1: night food. The night feels typical for a college weekend.
Speaker 1: The town is cold, low thirties with patches of snow.
Speaker 1: The streets of Moscow or dimly lit, lined with tall
Speaker 1: trees that mute the ambient light and keeps the town
Speaker 1: in a kind of permanent twilight. After dusk, around ten PM,
Speaker 1: Kaylee and Madison arrive at the Corner Club, a small
Speaker 1: downtown bar popular with students. Surveillance cameras and witness accounts
Speaker 1: confirm their presence. They're dressed for a night out talking
Speaker 1: with friends. There's no reported confrontation no one following them,
Speaker 1: nothing to suggest that the night will turn. They stay
Speaker 1: at the bar until just before one thirty am, and
Speaker 1: then head toward the Grub Truck, a local food cart
Speaker 1: that live streams footage for entertainment. This truck, through Sheer
Speaker 1: Happenstance records what would become the final public images of
Speaker 1: Kaylee and Madison alive. In the video time stamped around
Speaker 1: one forty am, the two women appear relaxed. They laugh.
Speaker 1: Madison places in order while Kaylee scrolls through her phone.
Speaker 1: A man stands nearby. Someone online sleuths would obsess over
Speaker 1: for weeks, but police later cleared them. The live stream
Speaker 1: is mundane, that's what makes it so eerie. After retrieving
Speaker 1: their food, the girls leave the area at approximately one
Speaker 1: fifty six am, picked up by a private party ride
Speaker 1: chair driver and dropped off at eleven twenty two King
Speaker 1: Road at around one fifty nine am. The driver is
Speaker 1: also cleared. Meanwhile, Xana and Ethan leave the fraternity party
Speaker 1: around the same time and returned to the King Road
Speaker 1: house just after one forty five am. All six occupants
Speaker 1: are now inside the home the silent hours two am
Speaker 1: to four am. This is the black box, no confirmed
Speaker 1: Eyewinness accounts, no confirmed interactions, no obvious disturbances, but something
Speaker 1: was happening. Cell Phone records later confirmed that Xana Kernodle
Speaker 1: was awake during this window. At four twelve am, her
Speaker 1: TikTok app was actively used. Investigators suggests this confirms she
Speaker 1: was still alive at the time. Kaylee and Madison's phones
Speaker 1: show in activity after roughly three forty five am. Their dog,
Speaker 1: Murphy was present in Kayley's room and would later be
Speaker 1: found unharmed. The only piece of recorded data during this
Speaker 1: window that raises alarms comes from a neighbour's audio surveillance,
Speaker 1: which captures a series of faint thuds, a whimper, and
Speaker 1: a sharp sound that some have described as a cry
Speaker 1: or a scream. This occurs between four seventeen and four
Speaker 1: to twenty am, a crucial timestamp. It is during this
Speaker 1: window four am to four to twenty five AM that
Speaker 1: investigators believe the murders took place. At approximately four to
Speaker 1: twenty am, a white Hondai A launtra is seen speeding
Speaker 1: away from the area on multiple surveillance cameras. The car
Speaker 1: had been circling the King Road neighborhood repeatedly between three
Speaker 1: point thirty and four to twenty am captured turning around
Speaker 1: several times in a three minute span near the house.
Speaker 1: This car will become the lynchpin of the future case
Speaker 1: and inside the house a massacre. The murders room by room.
Speaker 1: The killer entered through a sliding glass door on the
Speaker 1: second floor, an entrance easily accessible via an exterior stairwell.
Speaker 1: There were no signs of forced entry. What happened next
Speaker 1: is reconstructed through crime scene photographs, corner reports, and leaks,
Speaker 1: and the information remains partial but chilling. The second floor,
Speaker 1: Zana and Ethan. It's believed that Ethan was attacked first.
Speaker 1: He was found on the floor of Xana's bedroom near
Speaker 1: the doorway, possibly standing or getting out of bed when
Speaker 1: the killer entered. His injuries were consistent with an ambush. Xana,
Speaker 1: based on the defensive wounds on her hands, fought back.
Speaker 1: Her father would later state publicly that she had bruises,
Speaker 1: torn skin, and deep cuts on her fingers, signs of
Speaker 1: a desperate struggle. They both died on the second floor.
Speaker 1: The third floor, Madison and Kaylee, the two best friends,
Speaker 1: were found in Madison's bed. Both were killed with a knife.
Speaker 1: According to the coroner. It's widely speculated that Kaylee received
Speaker 1: more wounds than the others, particularly to the chest and neck.
Speaker 1: Her father told the press at the nature of her
Speaker 1: wounds suggested that she was the target. The killer exited
Speaker 1: the house through the same door he entered. It speculated
Speaker 1: the basement level roommates to sleep in their rooms were
Speaker 1: left untouched. One of them reported waking up to noise
Speaker 1: and opening her bedroom door sometime around four am. She
Speaker 1: later told investigator she saw a man in black clothing
Speaker 1: with a mask covering his nose and his mouth walking
Speaker 1: past her. He left through the sliding door. She locked
Speaker 1: her door and did not call nine one one. This decision, misunderstood, misrepresented,
Speaker 1: and widely criticized online, would become a source of intense scrutiny.
Speaker 1: But trauma doesn't always follow logic, and what she saw
Speaker 1: in that moment may not have registered as real discovery
Speaker 1: and the nine to one one call morning of November thirteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. The bodies were discovered just before noon.
Speaker 1: One of the surviving roommates called friends to the house
Speaker 1: because she believed someone was unconscious. Multiple people are off
Speaker 1: at eleven fifty eight am, a call was placed to
Speaker 1: nine one one from one of the roommate's phones. The
Speaker 1: dispatcher was told someone was unconscious. Officers arriving at the
Speaker 1: scene would later say the word unconscious didn't match the
Speaker 1: brutality that they found upstairs. Police entered through the front
Speaker 1: door and were met with an overwhelming stench of blood.
Speaker 1: What they found inside stunned even the most veteran officers.
Speaker 1: Blood seeped down the exterior wall of the house. The
Speaker 1: interior was a maze of violence, stab wounds, blood spatter,
Speaker 1: defensive injuries. It speculated Kaylee, Madison, Xana Ethan, all four
Speaker 1: pronounced dead at the scene. The town of Moscow had
Speaker 1: not seen a single homicide in seven years. Now it
Speaker 1: had four. Part two the victims. To talk about murder
Speaker 1: is to speak in reduction victim suspect case. But before
Speaker 1: the crime, before the autopsy, before the press conferences and
Speaker 1: legal filings, there were lives, bright, ordinary, vivid life. To
Speaker 1: understand what was lost in Moscow, Idaho, you have to
Speaker 1: understand who was taken. There were four of them, young, alive,
Speaker 1: moving through the ordinary rituals of college life, shared dinners,
Speaker 1: late nights, text chains, Snapchat updates, coffee runs, inside jokes.
Speaker 1: In the hours before they were murdered, they were doing
Speaker 1: exactly what they were supposed to be doing. Living. Each
Speaker 1: of the four students killed in the early morning hours
Speaker 1: of November thirteenth, twenty twenty two had their own trajectory,
Speaker 1: their own story, their own relationships, and when the violence struck,
Speaker 1: it did not just stop time, it ruptured futures. To
Speaker 1: understand the gravity of what happened, you have to see
Speaker 1: them not as a statistic, but as a series of
Speaker 1: unfinished stories. Let's begin with the one who was supposed
Speaker 1: to be gone already, Kay Gonsalves, age twenty one, major
Speaker 1: General Studies, planning a tech career. Kayley Gonsalves had already
Speaker 1: left Moscow. At least that was the plan. She had
Speaker 1: just completed her coursework ahead of schedule and was set
Speaker 1: to graduate early from the University of Idaho. She landed
Speaker 1: a position with a Texas based technology firm and was
Speaker 1: preparing to move to Austin. She wasn't even supposed to
Speaker 1: be in town the weekend she died, but something pulled
Speaker 1: her back, something as simple as human as friendship. Kayley
Speaker 1: had returned to Moscow to spend the weekend with her
Speaker 1: best friend and roommate, Madison Mogan. Before her official departure,
Speaker 1: she brought her new Range Rover with her, proud and
Speaker 1: excited to show it off. The vehicle would later become
Speaker 1: a landmark detail in case photos. By all accounts, Kaylee
Speaker 1: was magnetic. Friends described her as fire and light, a
Speaker 1: confident extrovert who wasn't afraid to speak her mind, but
Speaker 1: who always brought levity to a room. She had an
Speaker 1: ambitious streak. Tech was the path she had chosen. She
Speaker 1: wanted independence, growth and excitement of a new city. She was,
Speaker 1: in the eyes of those who knew her, on the
Speaker 1: cusp of something great. She had grown up in Rathstrom, Idaho,
Speaker 1: the third of five children in a close knit family.
Speaker 1: Her father, Steve Gonsalvez, would become one of the most
Speaker 1: vocal and visible figures following the murders, determining to keep
Speaker 1: her name in the headlines and the pressure on the investigation.
Speaker 1: Kaylee and Madison weren't just housemates. Their history stretched back
Speaker 1: to childhood. They had grown up together, gone to school together,
Speaker 1: and made a deliberate decision to attend the same university
Speaker 1: and even live together as upperclassmen. That choice, the decision
Speaker 1: to spend one more night in town with her best
Speaker 1: friend would be her last. Madison Mogan, aged twenty one,
Speaker 1: marketing Cordelay and Idaho. Where Kaylee was the spark, Mattie
Speaker 1: was the compass, according to friends. Friends described her as grounded, loyal,
Speaker 1: and quietly assertive. She was a planner, a protector. If
Speaker 1: Kaylee was the wind, Mattie was the anchor. The two
Speaker 1: had formed a bond early in life, inseparable through high
Speaker 1: school roommates, throughout college, best friends to the end. That
Speaker 1: night they had gone out together, just like they had
Speaker 1: hundreds of times before. Kaylee had come back to see her.
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be a reunion, a goodbye. Instead
Speaker 1: it became a tragedy. Madison was a senior at the
Speaker 1: university and was just months away from graduating with a
Speaker 1: degree in marketing. She had worked part time at a
Speaker 1: local restaurant and was known among her co workers as
Speaker 1: someone who always picked up extra shifts and never showed
Speaker 1: up late. Born in Eugene, Oregon and raised in Courtelaine,
Speaker 1: Madison was close with her parents and her extended family.
Speaker 1: Her Instagram was filled with snapschats of vacations, friendships, and
Speaker 1: campus life. Nothing extraordinary, and that's what made it resonate.
Speaker 1: She was a twenty one year old woman building a
Speaker 1: future one step at a time. Those close to her
Speaker 1: say she had been considering her next steps job applications,
Speaker 1: career moves, maybe even a move to Boise or Seattle.
Speaker 1: She had a boyfriend at the time, someone she had
Speaker 1: dated seriously and who was questioned and cleared in the
Speaker 1: early days of the investigation. When the killer entered the
Speaker 1: home that night, Madison and Kaylee were asleep in the
Speaker 1: same bed. Whether it was comfort, routine, or just fatigue,
Speaker 1: they had ended the night together as they had lived
Speaker 1: it side by side. All right, we're gonna wrap up
Speaker 1: episode one right here, and in the next episode we're
Speaker 1: gonna pick up with part two. All of the information
Speaker 1: that goes with this episode can be found in the
Speaker 1: description box. What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program.
Speaker 1: In this episode, we're going to pick up where we
Speaker 1: left off with our comprehensive review of how we got
Speaker 1: where we are when it comes to the murders at Moscow.
Speaker 1: Xana Kernodle Age twenty Major Marketing Xana was a fighter,
Speaker 1: not in the combative sense, but in the quiet, determined
Speaker 1: way that people notice only in hindsight. She had moved states,
Speaker 1: changed schools, juggle work and classes, and built a life
Speaker 1: for herself that was uniquely her own. Born in Avondale, Arizona,
Speaker 1: Xana moved to Post Falls, Idaho, where she graduated high
Speaker 1: school and enrolled at the University of Idaho. Like Madison,
Speaker 1: he was a marketing major, and she had worked part
Speaker 1: time as a server to support herself. Xana was known
Speaker 1: for her sharp sense of humor, harse, sarcasm, and her athleticism.
Speaker 1: She's the type to crack a joke in a tense room,
Speaker 1: to speak up when someone needed defending, and she had
Speaker 1: a strong presence in every space she entered, visible, direct,
Speaker 1: and magnetic, according to everyone who knew her. In the
Speaker 1: weeks leading up to the murders, Xana was spending increasing
Speaker 1: time with Ethan Chapin, a fellow student and Sigma Kai
Speaker 1: fraternity member. The two had been dating for several months
Speaker 1: and were described as inseparable by their friends. That night,
Speaker 1: Ethan had stayed over at Xana's house, located on the
Speaker 1: second floor of the King Road House, Xana's father, Jeffrey Kernodle,
Speaker 1: would later speak publicly about his daughter's final moments. According
Speaker 1: to the coroner and law enforcement, Xana had defensive wounds,
Speaker 1: suggesting she was awake, aware, and fought back against her killer.
Speaker 1: It's believed she was the last to die that night.
Speaker 1: Her phone was still in use around four to twelve am.
Speaker 1: She had likely she heard something, she had likely tried
Speaker 1: to respond, and in doing so, she had likely died fighting.
Speaker 1: Ethan Chapin, age twenty, major recreation, sport and tourism management.
Speaker 1: Ethan wasn't supposed to be there. He didn't live at
Speaker 1: the house. He wasn't a full time resident. He was
Speaker 1: there that night because he was spending time with his girlfriend.
Speaker 1: He had gone to the Sigma Kay party earlier, walked
Speaker 1: home with Xana, and stayed the night. It was unremarkable
Speaker 1: casual routine. Ethan was a triplet, one of three siblings,
Speaker 1: attending the University of Idaho at the same time. He
Speaker 1: had a twin brother and a twin sister. The Chapin
Speaker 1: family had raised them to be close, competitive, and loyal
Speaker 1: to one another. They were used to sharing everything, sports, birthdays, classes.
Speaker 1: Now they had to share grief. Ethan was a gentle giant,
Speaker 1: over six feet tall, with a wide smile and goofy streak.
Speaker 1: Friends described him as someone who made things better just
Speaker 1: by being around. He was studying recreation in sports management,
Speaker 1: and he was also active in Greek life and intramurals.
Speaker 1: Unlike the other three victims, Ethan was not a permanent
Speaker 1: resident of the house. This detail his presence at night
Speaker 1: would later become the subject of speculation. Was he in
Speaker 1: the wrong place at the wrong time, or did his
Speaker 1: presence alter the killer's plans. He was found near the
Speaker 1: doorway of Xana's bedroom, as if he had gotten up
Speaker 1: to confront something. There are unconfirmed reports that he was
Speaker 1: killed first, likely before he could fully respond to the intrusion.
Speaker 1: He died within inches of his girlfriend, both of them
Speaker 1: slaughtered on the second floor. Two other young women lived
Speaker 1: in the King Road house and survived the night physically unscathed.
Speaker 1: Their identities were initially withheld to protect them from public scrutiny,
Speaker 1: but as the case unfolded, their role became more complex
Speaker 1: and controversial. One roommate reportedly woke up in early morning
Speaker 1: hours and opened the door to find a man in
Speaker 1: black clothing with a mask covering his nose and mouth
Speaker 1: walking past her. She later locked her door and went
Speaker 1: back to sleep. Hours nothing happened. Then she called friends,
Speaker 1: then nine to one one. This timeline puzzled many. How
Speaker 1: could someone see a masked intruder and not call for help?
Speaker 1: Why didn't she check down the others? But trauma doesn't
Speaker 1: follow a script, and either this fear, that moment, frozen
Speaker 1: in confusion, disbelief, terror became part of the cases of enigma.
Speaker 1: The survivor became a lightning rod online, accused, interrogated, defended,
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, she was a
Speaker 1: nineteen year old who saw something no person should ever see,
Speaker 1: and she lived or remember it. She carries that burden
Speaker 1: now every day. Four lives lost, countless more shattered. Kaylee Madison,
Speaker 1: Zana Ethan. They weren't symbols, they were not sound bites.
Speaker 1: There were people, and then the cold silence of that
Speaker 1: Sunday morning. Someone stole everything from them, their futures, their plans,
Speaker 1: their relationships, their very breath, and they left behind a mess,
Speaker 1: a forensic puzzle, a city and more, and a man
Speaker 1: soon to be accused of it all in a murder investigation.
Speaker 1: The most dangerous period isn't when the killer is on
Speaker 1: the run. It's in the hours right after the bodies
Speaker 1: are discovered. That's when facts are scarce, memories unreliable, evidence vanishing,
Speaker 1: and the weight of the world descends on a department
Speaker 1: with no margin for error. A Moscow, Idaho law enforcement
Speaker 1: wasn't just chasing a killer. They were already fighting to
Speaker 1: keep control of the crime scene that had started slipping
Speaker 1: through their fingers before their first patrol ever even arrived
Speaker 1: eleven fifty eight am. The call that changed everything. It
Speaker 1: came through the local dispatch center at eleven fifty eight am,
Speaker 1: a nine to one one call made from a surviving
Speaker 1: roommate's phone. The phrasing was clinical, even routine. An unconscious person.
Speaker 1: That's what was reported, not a stabbing, non multiple deaths,
Speaker 1: just someone wouldn't wake up. The truth would be infinitely worse.
Speaker 1: The Moscow Police department arrived within minutes. It was a
Speaker 1: basic welfare check, or so they thought. First officers through
Speaker 1: the front door would later say the smell hit them
Speaker 1: before the visuals did. Blood thick, metallic, unmistakable, a pungent
Speaker 1: scent that had soaked into the floorboards, the dry wall,
Speaker 1: the furniture. They didn't need long to realize what they
Speaker 1: were dealing with. Four victims brutally stab multiple times, no
Speaker 1: obvious signs of a struggle in the lower parts of
Speaker 1: the house, no evidence of a forced entry, no weapon.
Speaker 1: At that moment, Moscow, home to fewer than thirty thousand people,
Speaker 1: with only seven homicides were recorded over the past two decades,
Speaker 1: had just become the site of a quadruple homicide with
Speaker 1: no immediate suspect and no clear motive. The air turned
Speaker 1: coal fast. The scene they stepped into, eleven twenty two
Speaker 1: King Road, was a split level house built into a
Speaker 1: hillside with three floors. The top two levels were used
Speaker 1: primarily as bedrooms, while the bottom floor, accessible by a
Speaker 1: separate entrance, was occupied by to other roommates. When the
Speaker 1: officers cleared the scene, they found two bodies in the
Speaker 1: second floor bedroom, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. Ethan was
Speaker 1: found near the doorway, likely the first to be attacked.
Speaker 1: Xana's injuries were consistent with the struggle, bruising, defensive wounds,
Speaker 1: deep gashes on her hands and arms. Two more victims upstairs,
Speaker 1: Kally gonsolve in Madison Mogan. They were found in the
Speaker 1: same bed, likely asleep when the attack began. Madison is
Speaker 1: believed to have been attacked first, but Kaylee suffered what
Speaker 1: her father would later call significantly more brutal wounds, details
Speaker 1: that would ignite speculation about her being the killer's intended target.
Speaker 1: No signs of forced entry, broken glass, or disturbed furniture
Speaker 1: Beyond the rooms where the victims were found. A fixed
Speaker 1: blade knife sheath lying next to Madison's body, stamped with
Speaker 1: the United States Marine corn insignia. Blood spatter across multiple surfaces,
Speaker 1: including an exterior wall where it seeped out of the
Speaker 1: second floor onto the foundation. In one of the downstairs bedrooms,
Speaker 1: a roommate had reportedly opened her door around four am
Speaker 1: after hearing sounds crying, loud dump, a man's voice saying
Speaker 1: it's okay, I'm going to help you. What she saw
Speaker 1: next would haunt the investigation. A man in black clothing
Speaker 1: and a mask walking past her and out the sliding door.
Speaker 1: She didn't call police, not then, not even after locking
Speaker 1: her door. She didn't know what she saw. Trauma, confusion
Speaker 1: fear locked her in place the first twenty four hours shock, chaos,
Speaker 1: and a gaping void. By the afternoon of November thirteenth,
Speaker 1: Moscow PD knew they were in over their heads. The
Speaker 1: crime scene was expansive and delicate, the victims were high profile.
Speaker 1: The media was already descending. The killer, whoever they were,
Speaker 1: had vanished into thin air. Police quickly moved to secure
Speaker 1: the scene. Barriers were erected, a mobile command center was
Speaker 1: set up. Uniformed officers with rifles stood outside the perimeter,
Speaker 1: but internally things were already becoming unstable. Multiple civilians had
Speaker 1: already entered the house before officers arrived. Friends had been called,
Speaker 1: some had even attempted to rouse the victims. Evidence had
Speaker 1: already been disrupted, potential DNA, shoe prints, and even digital
Speaker 1: devices had been touched by multiple individuals before the first
Speaker 1: detective even arrived. The crime scene was not processed forensic
Speaker 1: First patrol officers entered the house before crime scene technicians,
Speaker 1: a necessity given the welfare check nature of the nine
Speaker 1: one one call, but one that could have potentially compromised
Speaker 1: trace evidence. Despite these challenges, the Moscow Police Department called
Speaker 1: in reinforcements from the Idaho State Police and the Federal
Speaker 1: Bureau of investigation. The joint task force included sixty plus investigators,
Speaker 1: forensic texts and digital analysts. This would soon become one
Speaker 1: of the largest collaborative investigations in Idaho history. The first
Speaker 1: public statement and the mistake that backfired. On November fourteenth,
Speaker 1: less than twenty four hours after the discovery of the
Speaker 1: crime scene, Chief James Fry stepped to the podium and
Speaker 1: gave the public their first update. With reporters packed shoulder
Speaker 1: to shoulder and news cameras capturing every breath, Fry made
Speaker 1: a fateful choice. At this time, we do not believe
Speaker 1: there is an ongoing threat to the community. That sentence,
Speaker 1: just fifteen words, shattered public trust. How could there be
Speaker 1: no ongoing threat when four people were dead and no
Speaker 1: one was in custody. How could they assure safety when
Speaker 1: they hadn't even identified a suspect, motive, or a method
Speaker 1: of entry. Public backlash was swift. Students fled campus in droves.
Speaker 1: Parents pulled their children out of housing in classes, Online
Speaker 1: forums exploded, Local businesses started locking their doors early. The
Speaker 1: message from law enforcement, intended to reassure, had the opposite effect.
Speaker 1: It stoked fear, and worse, it implied that police knew
Speaker 1: more than they were saying. The truth is they didn't.
Speaker 1: All right, we're going to wrap up right here, and
Speaker 1: in the next episode, we're going to pick up where
Speaker 1: we left off. All of the information that goes with
Speaker 1: this episode can be found in the description box. What's
Speaker 1: up everyone, and welcome back to the program. In this episode,
Speaker 1: we're going to pick up where we left off with
Speaker 1: a deep dive into the murders in Moscow, building a
Speaker 1: profile in the dark. In most high profile murders, police
Speaker 1: begin with their inner circle, friends, lovers, recent arguments, known stalkers,
Speaker 1: suspicious exes. But in this case, everyone close to the
Speaker 1: victims had an alibi. The ride share driver who picked
Speaker 1: up Kaylee and Madison cleared, Ethan's fraternity brothers cleared, the
Speaker 1: ex boyfriend Madison had been texting earlier in the evening cleared.
Speaker 1: There were no signs or revenge, no sexual assault, no
Speaker 1: digital threats. But there was one glaring anomaly. The knife
Speaker 1: sheath k bar is a military grade brand fixed blade
Speaker 1: Marine Corps issue. It's not a common household item. Whoever
Speaker 1: left the sheath behind wasn't just ca airless. They were brazen,
Speaker 1: or they were fast, or they were falling apart. The
Speaker 1: sheath was submitted for DNA testing. What came back wasn't
Speaker 1: a full profile, but it was a start, a single
Speaker 1: source of mal DNA enough to begin building a genetic fingerprint,
Speaker 1: but it didn't match anything in CODIS that combined DNA
Speaker 1: index system. Whoever this was had never been arrested for
Speaker 1: a violent crime. No fingerprint, no entry, so they had
Speaker 1: to go old school. Investigators began compiling behavioral profiles based
Speaker 1: on scene layout, entry, an exit path, victim locations, time
Speaker 1: of attack, and forensic analysis of wounds. They determined the
Speaker 1: killer knew the layout of the house or had studied it.
Speaker 1: He entered from the second floor via the sliding glass door.
Speaker 1: He likely carried the weapon on his person and removed
Speaker 1: it after the murders, but for god or dropped the
Speaker 1: sheath in the process. He killed in a methodical control fashion,
Speaker 1: indicating premeditation. In short, this wasn't a crime of opportunity.
Speaker 1: It was a mission, and whoever had carried it out
Speaker 1: had thought or tried to think of everything. Surveillance footage
Speaker 1: and the white car that changed everything. In parallel with
Speaker 1: the DNA analysis, a second investigative team was pouring through
Speaker 1: surveillance footage from gas stations, traffic cameras atm kiosks, and
Speaker 1: university buildings near King Road. That's when they saw it.
Speaker 1: A white Hondai A Lantra, captured at least six times
Speaker 1: between three twenty nine am and four twenty am, circling
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. The car performed three passes by the house,
Speaker 1: slowed down near the driveway, then vanished After four twenty AM.
Speaker 1: It became Priority number one. A national bolow was issued
Speaker 1: for all twenty eleven twenty thirteen Hondai A Lantras in
Speaker 1: the state of Idaho alone. There were one hundreds nationwide thousands,
Speaker 1: but once stuck out a twenty fifteen Hondai A Lantra
Speaker 1: registered to a student at Washington State University. The walls
Speaker 1: close in the man's name. Brian Coberger, twenty eight years old, criminology,
Speaker 1: PhD Student, teaching assistant, loner, sharp eyed, unnervingly academic. When
Speaker 1: police began to cross references name with cell phone towered data,
Speaker 1: a pattern emerged. Coburger's cell phone at ping near the
Speaker 1: King Road house at least twelve times in the months
Speaker 1: leading up to the murders, always late at night, always
Speaker 1: brief visits, no known connection to the victims. On the
Speaker 1: night of the murders, no ping from two forty seven
Speaker 1: am to four to forty eight am, Brian Colberger's phone
Speaker 1: went dark. That alone was suspicious, even more damming a
Speaker 1: single ping after nine twelve am, just a few hours
Speaker 1: after the killings. Back near the crime scene, investigators began
Speaker 1: trailing them. Surveillance confirmed as behavior matched their suspect profile,
Speaker 1: nocturnal movements, obsessive cleaning, and by late December, across country
Speaker 1: drive back to Pennsylvania with his father. On December twenty seventh,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, FBI agents rated Colberger's parents trash in
Speaker 1: all Brightsville, Pennsylvania. They found a genetic sample from his father.
Speaker 1: It matched the DNA on the knife sheath at a
Speaker 1: ninety nine zero point nine nine to nine eight percent
Speaker 1: certainty level. On December thirtieth, they made their move. What
Speaker 1: makes a killer? There are those who kill in rage,
Speaker 1: others in fear, some for profit. But what about a
Speaker 1: man who studies murder, A man who dissects the criminal
Speaker 1: mind in sterile academic terms and then walks into a
Speaker 1: quiet home and puts the blade to use. Brian Colberger
Speaker 1: wasn't just a suspect. He was a student of the
Speaker 1: very crime he now stood accused of committing. This wasn't
Speaker 1: a coincidence. It was a collision. When the name Brian
Speaker 1: Colberger first appeared in headlines on December thirtieth, twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: it didn't scream monster. It didn't conjure the face of
Speaker 1: a killer, not at first. Instead, what people saw was
Speaker 1: a peard candidate in criminology, a pel lean, slightly awkward,
Speaker 1: twenty eight year old man from Pennsylvania with thinning hair,
Speaker 1: a sharp jawline, and the unreadable look of someone who'd
Speaker 1: never quite fit in. A man whose eyes darted rather
Speaker 1: than met. A man who seemed more likely to write
Speaker 1: a thesis on serial killers than to become one. But
Speaker 1: appearances lie. As authorities dug deeper, the picture that emerged
Speaker 1: was one of cold duality, a man obsessed with understanding
Speaker 1: the mind of murderers while allegedly planning and executing one
Speaker 1: of the most surgically executed mass homicides in the digital age.
Speaker 1: This is the profile of Brian Coberger. Brian Colberger was
Speaker 1: born in November of nineteen ninety four. In eastern Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: The only son of Michael and Mary Anne Coberger, he
Speaker 1: grew up in the Lehigh Valley, a quiet suburb an
Speaker 1: hour north of Philadelphia. His parents worked modest jobs. His
Speaker 1: mom was a paraprofessional in the public school system, other
Speaker 1: worked in maintenance and building services. From the outside, it
Speaker 1: was an unremarkable upbringing, no abuse reports, no police incidents,
Speaker 1: But inside the walls of that home something was simmering.
Speaker 1: Colberger's teenage years were marked with extreme isolation, social anxiety,
Speaker 1: and a battle with obsessive, compulsive behaviors. According to former
Speaker 1: classmates and friends, he was reportedly bullied in high school,
Speaker 1: ridicule for his appearance, his weight, his awkwardness. He struggled
Speaker 1: with compulsive cleaning rituals, even wearing gloves at times because
Speaker 1: of his aversion to germs. He was described as intense
Speaker 1: analytical and always watching others, studying their behavior, their speech patterns,
Speaker 1: their reactions. At seventeen, he began a dramatic physical transformation.
Speaker 1: He lost over one hundred pounds in less than a year,
Speaker 1: adopting a rigid diet and exercise regimen. The newfound appearance
Speaker 1: gave him confidence, but not connection. One classmate described at best,
Speaker 1: he came back seen your year looking like a different person,
Speaker 1: but the eyes were the same, still empty, still cold.
Speaker 1: Coburger enrolled in Northampton Community College, earning an associate degree
Speaker 1: in psychology. From there, he transferred to Dessilles University, where
Speaker 1: he completed both a bachelor's and later a master's degree
Speaker 1: in criminal justice. It was at the sales where his
Speaker 1: academic obsession took shape and where some of the most
Speaker 1: disturbing red flags emerged. In twenty twenty one, Coburger began
Speaker 1: working under doctor Katherine Ramsland, a forensic psychology professor with
Speaker 1: national recognition. Ramsland is best known for her prolific research
Speaker 1: on serial killers and her biographical collaboration with Dennis Rader,
Speaker 1: also known as the BTK Killer. Yes you heard that correctly,
Speaker 1: Coburger's master thesis adviser was the woman who wrote the
Speaker 1: definitive book on one of America's most infamous serial killers.
Speaker 1: He was reading, researching, and writing about murder under the
Speaker 1: tutelage of someone who had spent years interviewing one of
Speaker 1: the most calculating statists of the twentieth century. More troubling
Speaker 1: still was a now public survey Coburger posted on Reddit
Speaker 1: as part of his graduate research. The post, titled Understanding
Speaker 1: how Emotions and psychological traits influenced decision making when committing
Speaker 1: a crime, asked participants to answer questions about their thoughts
Speaker 1: and feelings before, during, and after committing a crime. There
Speaker 1: are strategies for selecting victims. There are feelings of remorse
Speaker 1: if any, their planning and preparation process. The survey wasn't graphic,
Speaker 1: it wasn't illegal, but it was surgical in its tone, detached, cold, methodical.
Speaker 1: Looking back, it reads less like an academic curiosity and
Speaker 1: more like a mental rehearsal. In August of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: Coburger moved across the country to attend Washington State University
Speaker 1: in Pullman, Washington, just ten miles from the University of Idaho.
Speaker 1: He began his PhD in criminology, quickly secure a teaching
Speaker 1: assistant position. By fall semester, he was leading classroom discussions,
Speaker 1: creating undergraduate papers, and working directly with professors in the
Speaker 1: criminal justice department. Students described them as abrasive, grading harshly,
Speaker 1: but clearly intelligent. He was fixated on crime theories, particularly
Speaker 1: those that emphasized control, power, and motive, but others noticed
Speaker 1: something darker. He asked unusually probing questions about means and opportunity.
Speaker 1: He sometimes inserted himself into classroom hypotheticals, replacing the killer
Speaker 1: with I when describing a scenario. According to sources, he
Speaker 1: bragged about his ability to understand what killers really think.
Speaker 1: According to others, some wrote it off as dark academic flair.
Speaker 1: Others felt it was more Coberger lived alone in an
Speaker 1: off campus apartment in Pullman, near Washington State University. He
Speaker 1: was nocturnal. Observers noted his habit of walking late at night.
Speaker 1: He was seen cleaning his car meticulously. He often wore
Speaker 1: gloves while shopping months before his arrest, most notably his
Speaker 1: phone ping near the King Roade House at least twelve
Speaker 1: times before the murders, starting in August of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: always late at night, always brief. He had no confirmed
Speaker 1: connection to the victims, no known social link, and yet
Speaker 1: his digital footprint placed them within feet of the house
Speaker 1: over and over again. Was he studying them? Whether he
Speaker 1: followed them online, saw them in public, or selected them
Speaker 1: at random, remains unclear, But what is certain he visited
Speaker 1: the area repeatedly, likely to build a mental map, understand
Speaker 1: traffic patterns, and perfect an entry strategy. Then, on the
Speaker 1: morning of the murders, his phone went dark for two
Speaker 1: critical hours between two forty seven am and four forty
Speaker 1: eight a m. At nine twelve am, it pinged again
Speaker 1: back near the crime scene. Following the murders, Coberger's behavior shifted.
Speaker 1: He returned to class, reportedly appearing relaxed. He grated student papers,
Speaker 1: but comments became vague and generic. He engaged in classroom
Speaker 1: discussions about the Idaho murders, reportedly questioning why the killer
Speaker 1: left the knife sheath behind. He cleaned his car inside
Speaker 1: and out. According to investigators, he wore gloves in public,
Speaker 1: even while grocery shopping. Then he drove across country with
Speaker 1: his father for winter break. During the trip, they were
Speaker 1: pulled over twice by Indiana police, once for tailgating, once
Speaker 1: for speeding. Coburger appeared calm, if socially stiff, all the
Speaker 1: while the FBI was trailing them. Why him, Why them?
Speaker 1: That's the question that haunts this case. Was it rage?
Speaker 1: Was it curiosity? Did Coburger want to test a theory
Speaker 1: or was it a fantasy? Turned real. The best working theory,
Speaker 1: based on prosecution filings and behavioral evidence, is this Coburger
Speaker 1: was a man obsessed with dominance and intellectual control. His
Speaker 1: weight loss, academic accolades, and fixation on criminology were all
Speaker 1: attempts to reclaim power he had long felt deprived of,
Speaker 1: but they weren't enough. He didn't just want to understand killers.
Speaker 1: He allegedly wanted to become one. He allegedly planned it.
Speaker 1: He allegedly picked the time, the location, the entry, the path.
Speaker 1: He left no fingerprints, he brought no phone, he took
Speaker 1: no trophies. He killed four people in under twenty minutes,
Speaker 1: then he vanished. One thing went wrong, the knife sheath.
Speaker 1: That single mistake unraveled the entire plan. To understand Brian
Speaker 1: Colberger is to understand clinical narcissism wrapped in academic prestige.
Speaker 1: He spoke with professors like peers. He saw undergrads as
Speaker 1: beneath them. He was calculating. Watching one student described his
Speaker 1: presence in class like this, you could tell he thought
Speaker 1: he was the smartest guy in the room, but he
Speaker 1: was empty, like he was acting out what he thought
Speaker 1: a person was supposed to be. And if Brian Coburger
Speaker 1: is the man that the government is telling us he is,
Speaker 1: then that's the horror of Brian Cohberger was a mimic,
Speaker 1: a hollow, a man who studied behavior or replicate it,
Speaker 1: but who never felt it. A man who may have
Speaker 1: chosen his victims not for who they were, but for
Speaker 1: how perfectly they fit into a plan he thought he
Speaker 1: had perfected. But murder is never perfect. And the man
Speaker 1: who studied killers may have finally been caught because in
Speaker 1: the end, he thought he was smarter than everyone else.
Speaker 1: Turns out, it turns out he wasn't. All right, we're
Speaker 1: gonna wrap up right here, and in the next episode
Speaker 1: we're going to pick up with the evidence against Coolberger.
Speaker 1: All of the information that goes with this episode can
Speaker 1: be found in the description box.