Speaker 1: Plica restrictions. What's up everyone, and welcome back to the program.
Speaker 1: The Idaho Statesman has a peace out today that's detailing
Speaker 1: Brian Coberger's life and talking to some of the people
Speaker 1: that he grew up around. And it is a pretty
Speaker 1: in depth piece. So we're going to dive into it
Speaker 1: and tackle it in two parts. So let's dive in,
Speaker 1: like I said. This article is from The Idaho Statesman,
Speaker 1: the headline Brian Coberger lived here Pennsylvania Friends neighbors recall
Speaker 1: Moscow homicide suspect. This article was authored by Kevin Fixler.
Speaker 1: A dense gray cloud settled above Monroe County in the
Speaker 1: first days of February, blocking the sun's attempt to break through.
Speaker 1: More than a month since the US shifted its gaze
Speaker 1: to this rural region, A shame has fallen over its residence,
Speaker 1: the result of an incomprehensible crime on the other side
Speaker 1: of the country. Situated below the forested hillsides in Broadsheadsville
Speaker 1: lies the Pleasant Valley School District's two story brick campus,
Speaker 1: where Brian Coohberger went to school and later worked. Two
Speaker 1: weeks after Martin Luther King Junior Day, a quote from
Speaker 1: the holidays. Inspiration still featured on the district's public message board.
Speaker 1: Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.
Speaker 1: So the people who live in the town where Brian
Speaker 1: Colberger grew up, they're feeling it right, And I'm sure
Speaker 1: that there's been a bunch of reporters to descend on
Speaker 1: their town to try and get some information about who
Speaker 1: Brian Colberger is or was. In December, Coburger was taken
Speaker 1: into custody in the cover of night. Instantly, a quaint
Speaker 1: community used to the calm of its remote geography became
Speaker 1: a new epicenter in the widening investigation into November's University
Speaker 1: of Idaho homicides. The twenty eight year old alleged killer
Speaker 1: from the area's bundle of townships and was staying with
Speaker 1: his parents when law enforcement burst in and ended a
Speaker 1: seven week man hunt. Now we still haven't seen the
Speaker 1: search warrant from Brian Coberger's parents' house, and I'm very
Speaker 1: interested to see what they might have taken from this house.
Speaker 1: What did Brian Coburger have on him, what did he
Speaker 1: bring with them from Washington to his parents' house in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: and if any of those items hold any relevance to
Speaker 1: what happened, because you would think that when they enacted
Speaker 1: that search warrant that they took a bunch of stuff, right,
Speaker 1: And we haven't heard anything about what that search warrant
Speaker 1: might contain. It's still under seal. One tormented community grew
Speaker 1: to three as new surface that Coburger, a Washington State
Speaker 1: University graduate student, was arrested in eastern Pennsylvania, some twenty
Speaker 1: five hundred miles from the crime scene. Four college campuses
Speaker 1: were entangled in the tragedy, But unlike the sister cities
Speaker 1: of Osco, Idaho, and Pullman, Washington, grieving together, Coberger's hometown
Speaker 1: was made to ache in isolation. For the community here,
Speaker 1: it's devastating, said John Gress, the principle of Pleasant Valley
Speaker 1: High School, when Coburger graduated in twenty thirteen. Out of
Speaker 1: all the schools, out of all the areas. Why, it's disappointing.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if we'll ever find out why.
Speaker 1: I highly doubt we will. Brian Colberger doesn't really strike
Speaker 1: me as the kind of guy that's going to go
Speaker 1: into detail about what he did. I mean, what does
Speaker 1: he have to gain at this point besides maybe accepting
Speaker 1: some kind of plea deal so he doesn't get the
Speaker 1: death penalty. Besides that, though, I don't see what would
Speaker 1: motivate a guy like Brian Kohberger to give up the
Speaker 1: details about what happened, especially when we keep hearing that
Speaker 1: he still plans to be exonerated. That doesn't sound like
Speaker 1: a man who's ready to accept the plea deal and
Speaker 1: cop to these murders. Neighbors to the red roofed four
Speaker 1: bedroom home on an acre in nearby Effort, Pennsylvania, where
Speaker 1: Coburger was raised, were just as astounded. For years, their
Speaker 1: children took the same route to school from the same
Speaker 1: corner bus stop as him. They remembered the quiet, heavyset
Speaker 1: boy who was picked on over his weight. He sat
Speaker 1: up front and mostly kept to himself. And we've heard
Speaker 1: this time and time again that Brian Coburger, while he
Speaker 1: was overweight as a young man, was bullied. And then
Speaker 1: we've also heard on the flip side of that that
Speaker 1: Brian Cohberger engaged in some of that bullying himself later
Speaker 1: on down the road. And you know, the saying, right,
Speaker 1: hurt people, hurt people, And you see it all the
Speaker 1: time with people who were bullied, they get a little
Speaker 1: bit bigger, and then maybe they want to start bullying
Speaker 1: other people, because hell, if it happened to me, it
Speaker 1: should happen to you too. You know, if there's one
Speaker 1: thing I hate, it's a bully. Bullies are the biggest
Speaker 1: bitches in the whole entire world. And you know what's
Speaker 1: funny about the vast majority of bullies. The second you
Speaker 1: punch them in the face, that's the end of it.
Speaker 1: They stop bullying you, and they go and find a
Speaker 1: different target. Today, Coburger is charged with first degree murder
Speaker 1: in the stabbing deaths of four college students, Madison Mogan,
Speaker 1: Kaye Gonsalvis, Xanakernodle, and Ethan Shapin, and Coberger's old neighborhood
Speaker 1: is left to try to make sense of a senseless act.
Speaker 1: No bells ever went off, said Barbara Toker, fifty eight,
Speaker 1: a nearby homeowner and mother of one of Coberger's classmates,
Speaker 1: adding that her daughter told her she never noticed any
Speaker 1: possible warning signs. It makes me sick in my stomach.
Speaker 1: You never know, You just never know. Well, when Brian
Speaker 1: Coberger was younger, he might have had some issues, right,
Speaker 1: and those issues since they weren't dealt with when he
Speaker 1: was a young man. They all continue to build, and then, eventually,
Speaker 1: according to the government anyway, Brian Coberger snapped and on
Speaker 1: a murder spree. Natory Green twenty seven, grew up four
Speaker 1: homes from the house where Coburger lived, and they both
Speaker 1: graduated from high school in twenty thirteen. She recognized the
Speaker 1: unusual nature of such national attention on the small community,
Speaker 1: where the school district remains one of the country's largest employers.
Speaker 1: You see it on the news. It's surreal, Green told
Speaker 1: The Idaho Statesman from her driveway. Since moving back with
Speaker 1: her family after college, Green said she's heard about the
Speaker 1: passing of several Pleasant Valley classmates, rattling off the list
Speaker 1: of causes drugs, car accident, drugs, military, drugs again, and
Speaker 1: I think all of us can do the same right,
Speaker 1: any of us that live in a big city anyway,
Speaker 1: or in a place that's racked by drugs. I know personally,
Speaker 1: I've lost so many people that I care about, people
Speaker 1: who are close to me, to the perversion of these
Speaker 1: drugs that have so many of our communities in a
Speaker 1: choke hold. Drug abuse is a problem in the area
Speaker 1: the region has one of the highest rates of overdose
Speaker 1: deaths in one of the worst hit states for the
Speaker 1: US opioid epidemic. Coberger had his own lengthy battle with
Speaker 1: drug addiction. Several former friends told The Statesman, well, I'm
Speaker 1: sure he did have a problem when he was younger,
Speaker 1: but I doubt he still had that itch. How are
Speaker 1: you going to get your master's degree if you're a
Speaker 1: heroin addict? Probably pretty difficult right now. I know that
Speaker 1: there are functioning drug addicts out there, and certainly functioning alcoholics,
Speaker 1: but heroin and getting your master's degree and going for
Speaker 1: your PhD. I don't see how Brian Coohberger could have
Speaker 1: done that. So my guess is he kicked that heroin addiction.
Speaker 1: But in that part of the country, like they're saying here,
Speaker 1: it's real bad. I mean, there was a point in
Speaker 1: time where people would say that the mating call of
Speaker 1: a place like West Virginia is the shaking of a
Speaker 1: pill bottle filled with opiates. So that just gives you
Speaker 1: a little bit of an idea of how bad this
Speaker 1: issue is in this area in general. Although a number
Speaker 1: of deaths and incidents concerned past schoolmates, Coberger's situation is
Speaker 1: entirely different. Green said, it's actually very sad and there's
Speaker 1: a lot to take into mind and factor, she said,
Speaker 1: we don't know why, and it's sad to hear on
Speaker 1: both sides. Of course, it's definitely a horrible situation for
Speaker 1: the community, and people who might have known Brian Colberger
Speaker 1: in the past have to be taken aback, especially if
Speaker 1: there were no warning signs when he was younger. Right, sure,
Speaker 1: he had the drug addiction, but it's not like he
Speaker 1: was out here skinning cats and killing dogs in the
Speaker 1: local backwoods, at least that we know about. So there
Speaker 1: certainly weren't any of those telltale red flags that we
Speaker 1: always hear about with serial killers or people who are
Speaker 1: going to engage in this kind of behavior, and we've
Speaker 1: heard that from numerous people. Now, there were no big,
Speaker 1: gigantic red flags besides Brian Koberger being a bit of
Speaker 1: a bully at some point, and then of course we
Speaker 1: started to hear the reports of him creeping girls out
Speaker 1: that he was taking out on dates. So you see
Speaker 1: that whole thing starting to evolve, right, moves on from
Speaker 1: being a bully to being a creeper. Desire to be
Speaker 1: the alpha for Coberger's former circle of friends during high school.
Speaker 1: The allegations were immediately jarring and difficult to comprehend, even
Speaker 1: for those familiar with this unpleasant side. It's hard to
Speaker 1: put into words, Thomas arnts twenty seven, told The Statesman
Speaker 1: in a phone interview. I just it was the initial
Speaker 1: shock of hearing what he had been accused of. My
Speaker 1: first thought was where is he now? Are my parents safe?
Speaker 1: Because you couldn't process it all at once, and remember
Speaker 1: this is one of his friends from childhood. Imagine thinking
Speaker 1: that you have a friend that goes on an alleged
Speaker 1: murderous rampage, or an old friend, and the first thing
Speaker 1: you think is are my parents safe? That's pretty wild.
Speaker 1: Arnt remembered Coburger as similar to himself when they met
Speaker 1: in their early teens, awkward and fairly reserved. During hangouts
Speaker 1: after school on the weekends, they bonded over video games
Speaker 1: and wandering the wooded neighborhood. Arnt said he came to
Speaker 1: appreciate Coburger's sense of humor, wit and ability to observe.
Speaker 1: But Art said he hadn't spoken to Coburger in about
Speaker 1: eight years, having chosen to cut ties because he said,
Speaker 1: his friend's personality grew grating over time. Coburger would frequently
Speaker 1: play mind games with him, Arnt said, including once when
Speaker 1: he was upset after the death of his aunt. He
Speaker 1: made clear to Coburger that he wasn't in the mood,
Speaker 1: but his friend refused to relent. With what aren't called
Speaker 1: psychological mistreatment, that became more commonplace, and you see that
Speaker 1: fits the pattern of Brian Colberger's later life. He went
Speaker 1: on to become, you know, basically a criminologist, and his
Speaker 1: core study with psychology, so he was honing his craft
Speaker 1: back in the day while he was bullying his buddy.
Speaker 1: He always wanted to be dominant physically and intellectually, said Arnce,
Speaker 1: who was a year behind Coburger in school. He had
Speaker 1: to show that he was smarter and bigger than you
Speaker 1: and try to put me down and make me feel
Speaker 1: insecure about myself. So much of that was a torment,
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to be around him anymore. So
Speaker 1: I think a lot of that was probably projection from
Speaker 1: Brian Colberger as well. Right, he was being bullied, and
Speaker 1: then later on he turned that rage, that anger against
Speaker 1: his friend instead. By high school, Colberger told friends of
Speaker 1: his interest in law enforcement. His sophomore year high school
Speaker 1: yearbook features Coburger dressed in a uniform and in the
Speaker 1: midst of a push up during the law enforcement class
Speaker 1: at the county's half day technical school. Hoped to become
Speaker 1: an army ranger, The caption read, but his interest was
Speaker 1: primarily law enforcement. Arn't stead And that's a common theme
Speaker 1: we've heard over and over and over with Brian Coberger
Speaker 1: at this point. His fixation with police shows how we
Speaker 1: wanted to be a cop since he was a kid,
Speaker 1: and how we had this fascination with how the whole
Speaker 1: criminal process worked. The program helped students eventually become a
Speaker 1: police officer, firefighter, or emt, said Donna Jaswiak, Coburger's guidance
Speaker 1: counselor through most of high school. His parents, who also
Speaker 1: worked for the school district, were active in attending meetings
Speaker 1: to help steer their son. She said, I have a
Speaker 1: lot of empathy for Brian Coberger's parents here. They don't
Speaker 1: come off to me as scummy like Brian Laundry's parents
Speaker 1: came off I mean, talk about scumballs, But these folks here,
Speaker 1: the Coburgers, I have empathy for his mom and dad.
Speaker 1: From everything that we heard, they were doting parents. They
Speaker 1: were very proud of their son, and then this jerk
Speaker 1: off allegedly goes off and murders four people. I recall
Speaker 1: no problems. He was a regular kid, and thankfully his
Speaker 1: parents were involved in his education. Yaosweact told The Statesman
Speaker 1: in a phone interview, adding that she remembered Coburger as
Speaker 1: a good student. I don't recall anything that was out
Speaker 1: of the ordinary. Gress. The high school principal, until retiring
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, told The Statesman he was an administrator
Speaker 1: who made efforts to get to know students. In his
Speaker 1: two decades in the position and forty one years in
Speaker 1: the school district, he only vaguely recalled Coburger, he said,
Speaker 1: in part because Coburger was enrolled half the day at
Speaker 1: the off campus technical school and wasn't involved in any
Speaker 1: after school activities offered by the district. And look, I'm
Speaker 1: not a parent, right, I say that all the time,
Speaker 1: and I'm the last person to ever give anyone advice
Speaker 1: about how to their kid. But one thing I will
Speaker 1: tell you is that some kind of activity while they're
Speaker 1: younger is huge. Some kind of team activity. I don't
Speaker 1: care if it's a sport whatever, but team building is big,
Speaker 1: and you have to learn how to win, and you
Speaker 1: have to learn how to lose. And almost every single
Speaker 1: time we hear about one of these type of killings
Speaker 1: or these type of killers, they were never engaged in
Speaker 1: anything like that. They're all anti social. They've never really
Speaker 1: even been introduced to what it's like to working in
Speaker 1: a team. So I find it to be a crucial
Speaker 1: step when a child is young to have them involved
Speaker 1: in something. What many people do remember of Coburger from
Speaker 1: his high school years was his considerable weight loss. The
Speaker 1: dramatic change occurred between his junior and senior years. Aren't
Speaker 1: and two other former friends said Coburger started kickboxing every
Speaker 1: day after school and running in the evenings with the neighbor.
Speaker 1: Aren't said he also became hyper focused on what he ate,
Speaker 1: his friends recalled, to the point where he developed an
Speaker 1: eating disorder that required hospitalization. Jack Bayliss twenty eight, another
Speaker 1: of Coburger's inner circle at the time, told The Statesman,
Speaker 1: imagine being such a militant vegan that you end up
Speaker 1: in the hospital because of it. I mean, take it easy, buddy, Okay, relax,
Speaker 1: have a couple of pieces of broccoli and calm down.
Speaker 1: Arns estimated that Coburger weighed more than three hundred pounds
Speaker 1: and the amount he lost was as much as half
Speaker 1: his body mass, and it was so rapid that Coburger
Speaker 1: had tummy tuck surgery because he was left with so
Speaker 1: much excess skin. Arns and Bayliss said Coberger's high school
Speaker 1: yearbook photos from his sophomore through senior years, reviewed by
Speaker 1: The Statesman, showed his physical transformation. During the same period,
Speaker 1: Arnst said Coberger's personality also shifted and he became more aggressive.
Speaker 1: Arnt provided similar details in an interview with the FBI.
Speaker 1: He said, and we've heard from Arnce previously, right, we've
Speaker 1: heard a little bit of the details about Brian Colberger
Speaker 1: growing up and his friend circle and how he drifted
Speaker 1: away from them due to his behavior. But it's always
Speaker 1: good to get more context, right, and it's always good
Speaker 1: to get a deeper look at what some of these
Speaker 1: friends have to say. It almost seemed to me he
Speaker 1: had a desire to be the alpha. Arns said, for
Speaker 1: no reason, he tried to grapple me and put me
Speaker 1: in headlocks when I didn't want to. He tried to
Speaker 1: portray it as just boys being boys, but that's not
Speaker 1: the way I ever took it. I get that I
Speaker 1: wouldn't want somebody grabbing me and putting me in a
Speaker 1: headlock if I didn't want to be in that position,
Speaker 1: And I'm sure Arn's here wasn't exactly what you would
Speaker 1: call a fighter. Years later, after Arns enlisted in the
Speaker 1: US Army and was deployed overseas, Coburger sent him a
Speaker 1: Facebook message offering his congratulations, he said, and apologizing for
Speaker 1: how he treated him when they were younger. Arnt said
Speaker 1: he didn't respond, so Arrence wasn't having it right. Brian
Speaker 1: Coberger reaches out to him after their adults and what
Speaker 1: happened to him as a child was so traumatic according
Speaker 1: to mister Arnce that he wants nothing to do with
Speaker 1: Brian Colberger as an adult. So you can only imagine
Speaker 1: what Brian Coolberger's behavior was like to make mister Arnes
Speaker 1: feel like this all these years in the future. All right, folks,
Speaker 1: So that's going to do it for part one here.
Speaker 1: We're going to pick up with part two in the
Speaker 1: next episode. All of the information that goes with this
Speaker 1: episode can be found in the description box. It's up, everyone,
Speaker 1: and welcome back to the program. In this episode, we're
Speaker 1: going to pick up where we left off with that
Speaker 1: Idaho Statesmen article in the last episode, so let's just
Speaker 1: dive right back in. It's almost unbelievable. During the work week,
Speaker 1: regular slide into occupy one of the ten seats at
Speaker 1: the bar at Lin's Motel on State Route one point
Speaker 1: fifteen in effort, almost as soon as the doors unlatch
Speaker 1: at four pm. One of the first in on a
Speaker 1: Wednesday is a school bus eight. Just off work. She
Speaker 1: grumbled about losing a lunchtime bout with a stubborn piece
Speaker 1: of rye bread that knocked out two of her fillings,
Speaker 1: one on each side of her mouth. She's ready for
Speaker 1: her usual seagrum seven in sprite and make it a double. Yeah.
Speaker 1: If I lost a couple of fillings over some rye bread,
Speaker 1: I'm probably gonna hammer a double myself. Adorned with time
Speaker 1: worn red carpeting and wood paneled walls, the local watering
Speaker 1: hole is one of the few left in the area
Speaker 1: and patrons are all on a first name basis. A
Speaker 1: metal sign behind the bar declared the establishment a fallout
Speaker 1: shelter with a folded piece of paper beneath it, carrying
Speaker 1: a scrawled message that draws recurring laps from customers. Do
Speaker 1: your drugs elsewhere. The bar doesn't see a lot of
Speaker 1: new faces when it gets one, especially if they're visiting
Speaker 1: from Idaho. It garners the interest of the staff and
Speaker 1: the everyday clientele. They were all following the quadruple homicide
Speaker 1: case too before it probably landed on their doorstep with
Speaker 1: Coburger's arrest late last year at his parents' house just
Speaker 1: up the road along the oak lined byways. I was
Speaker 1: watching the news and saw that they caught him, bartender
Speaker 1: Amy Miltner explained, And it's in all Brightsville. What that's
Speaker 1: a mile from my home, And you have to think
Speaker 1: that's crazy for these people from these small towns. A
Speaker 1: lot of us are from big cities, and there's tragedy
Speaker 1: on a daily basis in most of the big cities,
Speaker 1: not only in America but around the world. In these
Speaker 1: small little towns and counties, very rarely are one of
Speaker 1: their own put into the light that Brian Coberger was
Speaker 1: put into overhearing word of an out of town er
Speaker 1: from Idaho. An army veteran see he did at the
Speaker 1: corner of the bar with a pencil thin mustache and
Speaker 1: a firm grip on a bottle of cors Light chimes
Speaker 1: in not from Moscow, I hope, he said. Well, welcome
Speaker 1: to the Poconos. Next Door to Linz is a roadside
Speaker 1: pizzeria formerly called New York Pizza Girl. Colberger worked there
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen and twenty fourteen. Rich Pascua, a Pleasant
Speaker 1: Valley High School graduate a few years older than the suspect,
Speaker 1: told Fox News and The New York Times last month.
Speaker 1: Pascua did not return Statesman's request for an interview. And
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people out there that just don't
Speaker 1: want to deal with it. They don't want to deal
Speaker 1: with the media. They don't want people hounding them, and
Speaker 1: they're better off just keeping their yap shut because they
Speaker 1: don't want to deal with all of the extra attention. Pasquah,
Speaker 1: thirty one, who today works as a drug rehab clinic
Speaker 1: in the area, said he and Coburger would use heroin together.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're an addict, you usually have somebody
Speaker 1: you run with, right your road dog, somebody you get
Speaker 1: high with, somebody you commit your crimes with you know, petty, theft, whatever,
Speaker 1: and that's your person that you rely on while you're
Speaker 1: out here in them streets. And Brian Coberger and this
Speaker 1: Pasqua guy that seems to be what their relationship was.
Speaker 1: He didn't have many friends, so he would do anything
Speaker 1: to fit in the squad. Told Fox News he was
Speaker 1: a big heroin addict and so was I. I work
Speaker 1: in treatment and everything, but back then I was using.
Speaker 1: And so that's how I know for a fact he
Speaker 1: was using. I got high with him a couple of times.
Speaker 1: Charles Conklin, sixty one, owns the building the pizzeria occupied,
Speaker 1: as well as the neighboring fish hatchery that includes a
Speaker 1: stock blake where people paid a fish for a variety
Speaker 1: of trout and bass. In the summer of twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: Coburger briefly worked there a few months as well, cleaning
Speaker 1: people's catch. Conklin recalled, and Coburger wrote on a school
Speaker 1: district job application obtained by The Statesman. So Brian Coberger
Speaker 1: had various jobs, like most of us, worked out at
Speaker 1: pizza place, worked at the fish hatchery, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: And while he was somebody who wasn't popular. It certainly
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like there were any red flags that people
Speaker 1: were missing. He wasn't there long, however, Conkland told The Statesman,
Speaker 1: because Coburger didn't show himself to be very personable with
Speaker 1: customers and also wasn't improving at fileting the fish, he
Speaker 1: let him go. You've got to do a good job
Speaker 1: on your cuts. You have to be friendly to people,
Speaker 1: at least try to make some eye contact. Conkland said,
Speaker 1: it just wasn't his thing. Within an hour of Coburger's
Speaker 1: arrest in December, Conkland said he got a call from
Speaker 1: a former longtime employee who reminded him of the high
Speaker 1: school kid they fired more than a decade ago. The
Speaker 1: revelation floored him. There aren't words to describe how disturbing
Speaker 1: it was, Conkland said, We're a small area, small community,
Speaker 1: so for things like that to happen shocking, totally shocking.
Speaker 1: I know, this is shocking for anyone, and for him
Speaker 1: to be from this area and actually worked here, it's
Speaker 1: almost unbelievable. And I'm sure a lot of people feel
Speaker 1: like that. You come from a little, small community and
Speaker 1: you have somebody from that community who commits a heinous
Speaker 1: crime like this, or we should say, allegedly commits a
Speaker 1: hein's crime like this, and definitely sends shock waves throughout
Speaker 1: the whole community, people who worked with them, people who
Speaker 1: hung out with them. It's almost like a punch to
Speaker 1: the gut when you hear something like that. Post recovery
Speaker 1: road reaches shocking turn. Several years after they last spoke,
Speaker 1: Baylis said he and Coburger reconnected. Bayliss said the two
Speaker 1: would exchange Facebook messages and Coburger would call him to
Speaker 1: talk every week or so. Coburger told him he no
Speaker 1: longer used drugs. When the subject came up at some point,
Speaker 1: he said, don't ever bring it up again. We're past that,
Speaker 1: Bayliss told The Statesman. In May twenty eighteen, Coburger told
Speaker 1: Bayliss in message on Facebook that he hadn't used drugs
Speaker 1: in two years, According to screenshots Bayless shared with The
Speaker 1: New York Times, I only used when I was in
Speaker 1: a deep suicidal state. The Times reported, Coburger wrote to Bayless,
Speaker 1: I have since really learned a lot. Not a person
Speaker 1: alive could convince me to use it. Well, at least
Speaker 1: for Brian Coberger's sake, he got off of the heroine.
Speaker 1: That's at least a small victory for this guy, because
Speaker 1: it's not an easy thing to do kicking those drugs,
Speaker 1: heroin especially, that is a very very hard drug to kick.
Speaker 1: Casey Arns said she ran into Coburger a year before
Speaker 1: that at a mutual friend's wedding, which was the last
Speaker 1: time she saw him. He appeared to have pulled his
Speaker 1: life together, she said, and shared that he was in
Speaker 1: college and working as a security officer for the Pleasant
Speaker 1: Valley School District. It was so good to see someone
Speaker 1: come back from that dark place, casey Arns told The Statesman,
Speaker 1: saying she gave Coburger a big hug when she greeted him.
Speaker 1: He was kind of very standoffish and not very sociable.
Speaker 1: I believe he left early as well, so again exhibiting
Speaker 1: those traits of being anti social, not being somebody who
Speaker 1: is part of the crowd, part of the group. And
Speaker 1: then those feelings festered, obviously, at least according to the government,
Speaker 1: and it helped lead us to what happened on November thirteenth,
Speaker 1: in the early morning hours at eleven twenty two King Road.
Speaker 1: Coburger started at the school district in twenty sixteen as
Speaker 1: a fill in custodian and courier before moving into security
Speaker 1: part time. According to documents the Statesmen obtained through a
Speaker 1: public records request, he was later credited in December twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen with helping save the life of an employee at
Speaker 1: the high school after a medical emergency, The Pocono Record reported.
Speaker 1: In response to the Record's request, the school district cited
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania's exemption in withholding several documents from public disclosure. Among
Speaker 1: them were those related to non criminal complaints, written criticisms
Speaker 1: of an employee, or discipline records in a personal file.
Speaker 1: Coberger resigned from his position in June twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: Records released by the district showed, so we're not going
Speaker 1: to see any of those complaints, unfortunately, if there were any,
Speaker 1: because of privacy laws, so the school district can't turn
Speaker 1: those over even if there's a public records request. The
Speaker 1: Pleasant Valley School District did not respond to The Statesman's
Speaker 1: request for comment beyond the public records request. Coberger attended
Speaker 1: Northampton Community College in eastern Pennsylvania and graduated in twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen with a major in psychology. According to a school spokesperson,
Speaker 1: the school is unwilling to say anything else about Coburger,
Speaker 1: directing all other questions to law enforcement. And you see
Speaker 1: how that works. You can't say anything to law enforcement
Speaker 1: either because of the gag order. So it's just a
Speaker 1: circular bunch of bullshit. Coburger went on to earn his
Speaker 1: bachelor's degree in twenty twenty and his master's in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two from Dsallas University, according to his statement the
Speaker 1: university released the day he was arrested. The university is
Speaker 1: about an hour from the home where Coburger's parents moved
Speaker 1: and he continued to live while in college. Public records
Speaker 1: indicated the Sallas faculty are not accepting interview requests about Coburger.
Speaker 1: A university spokesperson told The Statesman by email the university
Speaker 1: will cooperate with law enforcement's investigation however it can, she said,
Speaker 1: but declined to offer specifics. So I'm sure there's going
Speaker 1: to be requests, right any kind of discipline action or
Speaker 1: any kind of reports of Brian Koberger being an undesirable
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. You have to think that those
Speaker 1: records have already been or will be subpoenaed. By the authorities.
Speaker 1: Coburger measured in psychology for his bachelor's Boyce Jubilan, a
Speaker 1: chair of the Salas Psychology Department, told The Philadelphia Inquirer
Speaker 1: the day of his arrest. He received his Masters through
Speaker 1: the university's online Criminal Justice program. Michelle Bulger, professor in
Speaker 1: the Sallas Criminal Justice Department, told The Daily Mail last month.
Speaker 1: Katherine Ramsland, a famed forensic psychologist who teaches in the
Speaker 1: Sallas Criminal Justice Master's program and collaborated on a book
Speaker 1: with notorious serial murderer Dennis Rader, better known as the
Speaker 1: BTK Killer, confirmed The Lehigh Valley News that Coburger took
Speaker 1: at least one course with her. In an email, she
Speaker 1: declined The Statesman's request for an interview. Yeah, you know why, right,
Speaker 1: She's going to write a book. You know that, Katherine
Speaker 1: Ramsland is going to write a book about Brian Coberger.
Speaker 1: Last summer, before Coburger started in Washington State's Criminal Justice
Speaker 1: in Criminology PhD program in August, he posted a research
Speaker 1: questionnaire to Reddit seeking volunteers to discuss their decision making
Speaker 1: and behavior in the midst of committing a crime. Bulger
Speaker 1: told The Daily Mail she helped Coburger with the project,
Speaker 1: which was part of his master's thesis at Dessalus. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're going to become a murderer, become a criminal,
Speaker 1: what better cover story than being a criminologist On top
Speaker 1: of it, a customer we had to address. Jordan Cerrilneck,
Speaker 1: thirty four, owner of Seven Sirens Brewing Company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: just north of Desaalis, thinks Coburger was through his tap
Speaker 1: room a handful of times from twenty twenty to twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. Cerrilneck told NBC News in December that he
Speaker 1: approached the man he believes was Coburger to ensure he
Speaker 1: behaved while at the brewery after female patrons and staff
Speaker 1: said he previously made them feel uncomfortable and made rude comments.
Speaker 1: So this is a bit of a pattern with Brian
Speaker 1: Cohberger that we're hearing from all of these sources. Are
Speaker 1: all of them lying or is Brian Coberger the person
Speaker 1: they're telling us he is. It looked like him. His
Speaker 1: name was Brian and it was in the timeframe sarril
Speaker 1: Neck recounted to The Statesman this month, while seated at
Speaker 1: the bar, he seemed dumbfounded, finished his beer and I
Speaker 1: never seen him again. Since then, sarahl Bick said he's
Speaker 1: been hounded by members of the media and people who
Speaker 1: said he just wants he was just chasing publicity related
Speaker 1: to Coburger and the Idaho homicide case. He rejected the notion,
Speaker 1: saying he's turned down interviews with doctor phil and documentary
Speaker 1: projects under way about Coburger. I don't want anything about this,
Speaker 1: Sarolnick said. He was just a customer we had to address.
Speaker 1: It was anti climactic. I thought it would have blown
Speaker 1: over by now, but I still get calls, and a
Speaker 1: lot of that has to do with the gag order.
Speaker 1: Remember when there's no information coming out from the officials
Speaker 1: in charge of the case, that fertilizes the for all
Speaker 1: kinds of nonsense. Coburger showed similar behaviors while attending Washington
Speaker 1: State University's PhD program. Fellow graduate school classmates told The
Speaker 1: Statesman last month. During the fall semester, he was said
Speaker 1: to be increasingly condescending towards women in class discussions. In December,
Speaker 1: Coburger was fired from a teaching assistant position for failing
Speaker 1: to meet the norms of professional behavior. According to the
Speaker 1: new York Times, He had repeat altercations with the criminal
Speaker 1: justice professor under whom he worked, did not improve upon
Speaker 1: his conduct and performance, and also exhibited concerning behavior around
Speaker 1: female students, including allegations he followed one tour car. The
Speaker 1: Times reported, so certainly not a good look for Brian Cohberger,
Speaker 1: especially considering all of the other information that we have learned.
Speaker 1: What we have here is a pattern of anti social
Speaker 1: behavior and anger. Let's just call it what it is,
Speaker 1: towards women. WSU faculty at the end of the year
Speaker 1: meeting chose to pull Coburger from the role, eliminating his
Speaker 1: funding for the PhD program. According to The Times, the
Speaker 1: university sent him a termination letter on December nineteenth, three
Speaker 1: days after the end of finals for the fall semester,
Speaker 1: Coburger's first term at Washington State University. By then, Coburger
Speaker 1: was back home. He had left Pullman for winter break,
Speaker 1: driving across the country with his father in a twenty
Speaker 1: fifteen white Hondai Lantra and arriving at the family's house
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania on December sixteenth. According to a probable Cause AFFID,
Speaker 1: David Coburger was arrested at the home on December thirtieth,
Speaker 1: and on January fourth, was flown to Idaho, where he
Speaker 1: awaits his next scheduled court appearance in June, seven weeks
Speaker 1: after law enforcement extracted him from this outlying area of
Speaker 1: the northeast, community members said they remain baffled. Donna Yasweac,
Speaker 1: Coburger's high school guidance counselor, said she immediately remembered Coburger
Speaker 1: as word of the incident spread across Monroe County, where
Speaker 1: she still lives. Like many, she said she was shocked.
Speaker 1: Despite the nation's ongoing attention on the case, including the
Speaker 1: intense focus on the Poconos, Yasweac said she wants to
Speaker 1: see the judicial process play out properly. Perhaps then, she said,
Speaker 1: those impacted can begin to heal on both sides of
Speaker 1: the country. I'm watching the news as well as thousands
Speaker 1: of other people, she said. I'm just hoping that this
Speaker 1: all works out and just that the truth comes out.
Speaker 1: That's all we can hope for. And I think that's
Speaker 1: a sentiment shared by a lot of us, right we
Speaker 1: just want the truth and we want some justice. So
Speaker 1: let's hope that the authorities have the right guy and
Speaker 1: that they have the evidence to prove it. All right, folks,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it. For part two of this Idahost
Speaker 1: It's Been article and our look into Brian Kohberger's past.
Speaker 1: All of the information that goes with this episode can
Speaker 1: be found in the description box