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00:00:00This is the police body camera video captured on November 13, 2022, as Moscow, Idaho police
00:00:17responded to a 911 call. But nothing would prepare police or this tight-knit community for the shocking
00:00:35murders that they discover in this house on King Road. A murder mystery in Idaho, four University
00:00:41of Idaho students were found dead in their off-campus apartment. It's now being investigated
00:00:45as a homicide. We all underestimated how interested the rest of the nation and the world would be in
00:00:52this case. Nobody was prepared. A roommate on scene states something about a male being in the room
00:00:58with them, trying to get further. You may think you've heard this story, but tonight we'll take
00:01:04you inside the investigation. We'll show you body camera video from the officer who first responded
00:01:09to the scene. And then the frantic moments that one of the surviving roommates recounts a man
00:01:14in a mask inside the house. You'll hear from the friends who were on the scene that morning,
00:01:31even before police arrived. As soon as you get there, you know something's wrong. And then what
00:01:37happened next? I went into the house. I think I walked just right in the door and Hunter already
00:01:46was like, everybody get out. And then he was like, somebody call 911. And you'll hear from investigators
00:01:54who launched a nationwide manhunt to unmask and arrest the killer who was found thousands of miles away from
00:02:01the crime scene. You interviewed Brian Koberger. Yes. He would try to go and ask, well, why are you guys
00:02:09really here? And we said, well, I feel like you probably know why we're here.
00:02:15But this all began in 2022. It was the start of a new school year, a time of anticipation, hope,
00:02:32promise. Coming back to school at the University of Idaho really starts in the middle of August.
00:02:38You're packing up your car. It's filled to the brim. You can fit your entire life into a couple of
00:02:46boxes in the back of a sedan. What a time. Moscow at the beginning of the semester was definitely
00:02:54a very happy place. And like you step on campus and it's like, okay, this feels right. This feels
00:03:02good to be here. Everyone's really excited. The new people, the new classes, things we can
00:03:08do, people to meet. You know, you raise your kids and you're, you know, you just wonder,
00:03:15you know, what point are they going to kind of feel like they're independent enough to kind of fly
00:03:20the out of the nest, I guess, if you will. It's a cliche, but starting to adult. Yeah, starting to, you know.
00:03:30Among the students arriving here are 21-year-old seniors, Kaylee Gonsalves and Madison Mogan,
00:03:36along with Zana Kronodal, a 20-year-old junior and 19-year-old sophomore, Ethan Chapin.
00:03:42Four students just starting out, not knowing that soon their lives would violently collide with a
00:03:49PhD student in criminology at another university just across the state line.
00:03:54So on November 12th is when that iconic photo is taken, the last known photo of the four victims
00:04:05all together with their roommates, Bethany and Dylan, all six of them before their big night on game day.
00:04:13They've had so many Saturday nights just like this. There was nothing out of the ordinary about this
00:04:18Saturday night in Moscow, or so they thought. Hours later, friends make a horrific discovery.
00:04:26What unfolds next is the stuff of nightmares.
00:04:49We saw it on our phones before they told us directly. It was like, what, quadruple homicide?
00:04:58We're calling Kaylee, it's going to voicemail. We're calling Maddie, she's not picking up. And in our minds,
00:05:07it wouldn't have been Kaylee and Maddie both. So I think that my mind just immediately went to like,
00:05:13nope, nope, nope. The most important thing to me was, who did this? Why did they do it? This is Moscow.
00:05:25It doesn't take very long before state police, then the FBI, all joined the search for this killer.
00:05:31We realized that there was a security camera right next door to our residence.
00:05:35Once we had that, we quickly realized that we had this white vehicle. And so that was the introduction
00:05:45of the white Elantra for us.
00:05:51We don't know when this person's going to strike again, if they're going to strike again. And the
00:05:58pressure on us to solve alone, our own internal pressure was huge. And at the same time, you've
00:06:05got the public pressure to find the perpetrator.
00:06:09There's a crush of media. It overwhelms the tiny town of Moscow, along with the lives of
00:06:15everyone touched by these shocking murders.
00:06:20There were, you know, YouTubers and TikTokers outside the house, you know, that want to live
00:06:25stream at our front door. And then someone comes up, oh, hey, yeah, what do you have to say?
00:06:29What do you have to say? Like, dude, like, get out of our face.
00:06:31It just went absolutely insane, but that's how the world is now, so.
00:06:35Just trying to get through the days is really all I was doing.
00:06:38You don't feel safe in any situation like that for months. Like, there's no feeling secure or safe.
00:06:45I mean, after the first couple of weeks, we're like, this guy's going to get away with this.
00:06:48But then, nearly seven weeks after the murders, finally, an arrest.
00:06:54And we want to get right to our breaking news. A specialized team of state troopers and federal agents
00:06:59taking Brian Koberger into custody early Friday morning.
00:07:03My mom just came into my room and she's like, hey, hey, they got him. They got him.
00:07:09I mean, my first thought was, who is that? I have no clue who you are.
00:07:12It was really shocking to learn he was a WSU student who had moved out to Washington and Pullman that summer
00:07:19to study at Washington State University. He was pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology and justice.
00:07:26For the first time, you'll see some of the hundreds of photos released by authorities just this week.
00:07:32They offer a glimpse into the secret life of Brian Koberger,
00:07:36and you'll hear what investigators learned from analyzing his digital life.
00:07:40He was a loner. No friends. No one really except for his parents.
00:07:45He called them mother and father, even through text message.
00:07:48He didn't take a selfie to send it to someone else. It was very vain.
00:07:51It was very much just him recording himself for that purpose only.
00:07:56But first, tonight, we want you to get to know Kaylee, Maddie, Zanna, and Ethan.
00:08:02Who they were, how they lived their lives.
00:08:05And you'll hear how investigators say Koberger planned meticulously to end it all.
00:08:12Dylan had opened her door, and as she looked out, saw an individual in all dark clothing.
00:08:19Then she thought she heard a male voice say,
00:08:22I'm here to help you.
00:08:23And the crucial mistake he made that led authorities right to his doorstep.
00:08:28Boom, and now we have something in this house from the children.
00:08:32That was definitely the first aha moment.
00:08:35The Greek life at U of I is pretty tight-knit.
00:08:54We all do things together.
00:08:56The sorority and fraternities were their own little community.
00:09:00When I joined Pi-Fi, I met Zanna, and I just felt welcomed in.
00:09:07You know how you meet some people, and they're like, don't want to talk to you?
00:09:10She would talk your ear off.
00:09:12We had an entire friend group that we were always together.
00:09:16Zanna, Maddie, Emily.
00:09:18We were attached to the hip probably the first day that we met.
00:09:21We just clicked immediately.
00:09:24I was like, oh yeah, these are my people.
00:09:26These are going to be my people.
00:09:28Hi, my name is Zanna Kurnodal.
00:09:31I'm a marketing major here at the University of Idaho.
00:09:3520-year-old Zanna Kurnodal loved the Pittsburgh Steelers.
00:09:39She loved her friends.
00:09:41And she highlights both in this video that's posted on her sister's social media.
00:09:46And I really like just hanging out with my friends all the time
00:09:50and being super involved in school events.
00:09:54Zanna also really loved electronic dance music.
00:09:59We called her DJ Zan because she was always like, oh, I'm going to play music while we get ready.
00:10:04Like I have a video where she's jumping on the couch and the MacBook's jumping with her.
00:10:09Oh, okay, your laptop.
00:10:11I've never met someone like Zanna before, ever.
00:10:19There was one night, it had snowed, and we see a sled, and we just went flying.
00:10:26Her smile was contagious.
00:10:32I don't know that I ever saw Zanna not happy.
00:10:35Cracking jokes, nonstop.
00:10:38If you ever had a bad day, maybe, you know, had a rough day, she'll make you happy.
00:10:41Like somehow, she'll make you laugh.
00:10:43There'd be mornings I'd wake up and I would pull out of the oven a burnt pizza
00:10:48because she tried to make pizza the night before and fell asleep.
00:10:51Zanna, did you try to make pizza last night?
00:10:53And she'd be like, I guess so.
00:10:57In August of 2022, Zanna moves into 1122 King Road with several friends.
00:11:03That includes Maddie Mogan, and together, the two girls work as servers
00:11:08at the Moscow restaurant Mad Greek.
00:11:12Also spending a lot of time at their house was Zanna's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin.
00:11:17He's a triplet, starting his second year at the University of Idaho
00:11:20with his sister Maisie and brother Hunter.
00:11:24The Chapin family invited me to their Idaho home.
00:11:28They opened up their photo albums, sharing memories of the son and brother they lost.
00:11:35Was it always just assumed that the three of you would go to the same college?
00:11:39Um, yeah, pretty much.
00:11:42It would have been tough to split us up, I feel like.
00:11:51We've kind of done everything together.
00:11:52Why not do college together?
00:11:53I mean, me and Ethan joined the same fraternity, Sigma Chi.
00:11:59I just kind of followed whatever he did.
00:12:00I knew wherever we went, we were going to have a good time no matter what.
00:12:03I mean, he was kind of the dominant triplet, I would say.
00:12:08He just, he just always had these two in tow.
00:12:12The boys were always together and we met them and they were immediately funny, like great guys.
00:12:18And we were like, oh, you guys are being our friends.
00:12:21All righty, my name is Ethan Chapin.
00:12:24I grew up playing basketball and a lot of sports.
00:12:26We were a pretty athletic family, so a lot of sports, just kind of staying active.
00:12:32And, yeah, no questions, just ready to get going.
00:12:36We played every sport together, every time we went in the car, it was together, partied together, just everything we did.
00:12:48There was never a dull moment.
00:12:50It always made things interesting and exciting.
00:12:53Whenever there would be a party, we'd be singing country songs.
00:12:57Fall in Love by Bailey Zimmerman.
00:12:59That was one of the first songs that Ethan and I had memorized together.
00:13:06I appreciate Ethan just for being just a goofball.
00:13:14You know, I mean, he was, he was just funny as all hell.
00:13:17We knew Ethan and Xana liked each other.
00:13:20Me and Emily were like, they're going to be together.
00:13:23I know they like each other.
00:13:25And Xana was like, no, no, no.
00:13:28And then Xana ended up being like, oh, he's cute.
00:13:32Tell me a little bit about watching Ethan and Xana.
00:13:37They were both such similar people.
00:13:39Like, they were both very outgoing and, I don't know, just fun to be around.
00:13:45Anytime they walked in a room, it was just kind of like, everyone would be like, oh, Ethan and Xana.
00:13:49So it was kind of cool just to see them hang around.
00:13:51They always just kind of brought that same energy anywhere they went.
00:13:53It was an energy they also brought into singing a Luke Combs song.
00:13:59Beautiful, crazy.
00:14:03Or camping with their friends and spending time with Ethan's family.
00:14:07I liked her from the beginning.
00:14:11I remember one time you told Ethan that you could see him with her or something.
00:14:16Do you remember that?
00:14:17Yeah.
00:14:18I think that clicked for him.
00:14:21It's like my mom likes her.
00:14:22After visiting the triplets in early November, Stacy posts on Instagram, it's November 6th.
00:14:30She writes, best day.
00:14:32And they leave, feeling like the kids are starting to find their footing as young adults.
00:14:38It was just an amazing weekend.
00:14:40We had lunch with Xana on Friday.
00:14:43We ate at Mad Greek.
00:14:44Going to the football games and just hanging out with all those kids.
00:14:48You know, it was fun.
00:14:49And we drove away that weekend.
00:14:53We just were like, we've done it.
00:14:56We have three independent, self-sufficient kids.
00:15:02It was an amazing weekend.
00:15:03It was just an amazing weekend.
00:15:08It's just after that weekend on November 7th that according to a post on her sister's Instagram,
00:15:15Xana turns in this English essay.
00:15:17And it talks about having just seen a show with a bunch of her closest friends.
00:15:23And she wrote, it was amazing getting to experience one of my favorite songs with some of my best friends.
00:15:31That is one of the most important things you can do in life.
00:15:34Enjoy the ride, not the destination.
00:15:38She really liked living in the moment.
00:15:40She always wanted to be doing something.
00:15:42And as Xana and her friends are savoring that college life, a student just across the state line is having a very different experience.
00:15:54Koberger started to get a really bad reputation on campus.
00:15:58He was starting to really lose control of his life.
00:16:01What do we know now about the criminology student whose work went beyond the classroom?
00:16:09His eyes really opened up when he's talking about Jeffrey Dahmer or BTK or Ted Bundy.
00:16:14He was starting to be like, what's the matter, how do we know now about the game?
00:16:20He called it to be the character.
00:16:22He used to know the character.
00:16:23He used to be the character.
00:16:24And he was like, what?
00:16:25He was like, what do we know now?
00:16:26He was like, what if you do?
00:16:26He was like, what do we know now?
00:16:27Let's see.
00:16:28He spent a lot of time.
00:16:30He was going.
00:16:31So, he was going.
00:16:32I mean, I don't know how to do that.
00:16:36What do we know now?
00:16:37And this is the character.
00:16:39A character.
00:16:39I can find a character.
00:16:41He was like, what do we know now?
00:16:422,500 miles away from Moscow, Idaho, are the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania.
00:17:04This is a rural community in Pennsylvania. It's really a lot of skiing and resort-type
00:17:09communities. There's approximately 160,000 people living here, so it's a really backcountry
00:17:15sort of place in Pennsylvania. It's also where a young Brian Koberger grew up. He lived in this
00:17:22Monroe County home with his father Michael, a maintenance worker, his mother Mary Ann, who
00:17:27worked in education, and his two older sisters. What kind of household was Brian Koberger raised in?
00:17:36I would call his household an everyday, common household. His parents were extremely involved
00:17:43in his life. I think even over the course of the last three years, he spoke daily with them.
00:17:48Tell me about education for Brian. Brian went to Pleasant Valley School District. It's on the west
00:17:54end of the Poconos. He attended middle school there. He then moved on to the senior high school.
00:18:03What kind of student was he? I'd say based upon what I've learned about the case, Brian was an average
00:18:10student in middle school, and I think he advanced while he got into high school.
00:18:18On the surface, Brian appeared to have a pretty ordinary childhood, but when you talk to people
00:18:24who knew him, this quiet young man seemed to be struggling socially. Brian was an overweight kid growing
00:18:31up. It's come to light that some people that were on the same bus as him said that people would throw
00:18:38stuff at him because of his weight. They would make fun of him. We had issues being picked on when
00:18:45he was overweight, and as it progressed in the high school, he got isolated from his friends that he had
00:18:50at that time. Every information we had was socially awkward, very few relationships, you know, as far as never
00:19:00really had what I would consider to be a girlfriend. I will say though that he was kind of skittish in a
00:19:09way, like he didn't really want to talk to people, not very social. A lot of things changed in his life.
00:19:16He had gone through a transformation. And are you talking about a physical transformation? Both
00:19:21physically, mentally, and I think just generally in life. He was overweight and he had lost a
00:19:27considerable amount of weight heading into maybe his ninth grade or 10th grade year. When he started
00:19:33losing the weight and trimming down, he liked to do boxing or he worked out at the local gym. He had a
00:19:41trainer that he grew very fond of. And was that important in his life? Based upon everything that
00:19:45I've learned it was very important, it kept him losing the weight, steaming forward, better improving his life.
00:19:56But that newer, thinner, more athletic version, Brian 2.0 if you will, also masked a deeper,
00:20:04much more troubling turn in his life. We know from our investigation into him and we had looked at his
00:20:10past and we know that he had some struggles with drug use earlier in his life.
00:20:16We find a history of an arrest in 2014. So of that history of arrest, we can get police reports.
00:20:24And part of the thing that came out of the police report said that there was a heroin addiction at the
00:20:28time. According to police reports that were reviewed by ABC News in February of 2014, Brian Koberger had
00:20:39recently exited a rehab center and rejoined his family. And while he's home from rehab, Brian took
00:20:47his sister's iPhone. He called me to come pick him up and he wanted to sell a phone.
00:20:52In July of 2023, I spoke with a former classmate of Koberger's and he says he was unwittingly roped in
00:20:59to help Koberger. At his request, we're only using his first name.
00:21:05So you're saying that you were leaving a party and he called you?
00:21:12Yeah, he called me to come pick him up and to go like sell a phone somewhere. And I was just like,
00:21:17okay. There's documents that ABC, myself included, have seen that show he stole his sister's phone.
00:21:26Oh, I didn't even know all that. So you thought he was trying to sell his own phone?
00:21:30Yeah. And at this time, did you know he had just gotten out of rehab?
00:21:34That I did not know either. Why do you think he was trying to sell that phone?
00:21:38Oh, we were trying to get something with it. That was the goal for sure.
00:21:44His father turned him in because at that point they were
00:21:47kind of at their wits end for dealing with the substance abuse addiction.
00:21:51Those same police reports, again reviewed by ABC News, confirm that Koberger was charged with
00:21:57misdemeanor theft, but local officials told us that he didn't serve any jail time.
00:22:01And what about the family dynamics at that time?
00:22:04I think the family supported him throughout the entire process.
00:22:10His family would say that they believed him to be sober ever since high school.
00:22:16Obviously that evolution led to him getting higher education, doing better in schooling,
00:22:22focused more on something that he really wanted to do, which was criminology.
00:22:25When he graduated high school, I think he actually got a security job right out of high school,
00:22:34working for Pleasant Valley School District.
00:22:38He then transitioned after a year or two, and he did attend Northampton County Community College,
00:22:43where his interest in criminology grew.
00:22:45So he goes to Northampton Community College, and then from there goes to DeSales.
00:22:50He goes to DeSales University to finish his degree, which this is an individual that appeared
00:22:55to be highly intelligent and turned his life around.
00:22:59According to a pre-trial motion that was submitted by defense attorneys,
00:23:02the doctors had recently diagnosed Koberger as being on the autism spectrum along with OCD.
00:23:08And in the filing, they also state Mr. Koberger has met the criteria for this diagnosis since childhood.
00:23:16Brian's defense team said that he suffered from autism spectrum disorder.
00:23:23Is that something the family thought he also suffered from?
00:23:25I don't know if the family thought that he suffered from a disorder.
00:23:30So what provokes a person who appears to have overcome a difficult adolescence to then murder four
00:23:38people? And how did his life take a turn when Koberger left Pennsylvania to pursue his Ph.D.
00:23:45at Washington State University?
00:23:48Professors said if we give him a Ph.D., we're going to end up seeing on the news that he's committing
00:23:53some kind of crime.
00:24:07We all probably wish we had a friend like like Maddie and Kaylee were to each other.
00:24:13In August of 2022, five young women, including Kaylee Gonsalves and Madison Mogan,
00:24:19all move into a house together. It's just off campus right here on King Road.
00:24:26Kaylee and Maddie met in sixth grade and they were always at each other's house or at Kaylee's sister's house.
00:24:35They were more than best friends. They were even more than sisters. They were
00:24:38absolutely each other's everything through thick and thin.
00:24:42So that's Maddie at Christmas when she was just little. She looked so excited.
00:24:50Maddie, Maddie May, we called her. She was our first and only child that we ever had.
00:24:57And she was such a happy baby, just super easy and fun and smart. And it was just the joy of all of our lives.
00:25:06Maddie's dad, Ben, and her mom, Karen, divorced when Maddie was really little.
00:25:12Karen then married Scott Laramie, who raised and loved Maddie as his own. And together,
00:25:18they appear in the Prime Video docuseries, One Night in Idaho, The College Murders.
00:25:24Maddie was Karen's mini me. They looked alike and they acted alike and everything.
00:25:30For a long time, she just called me Scotty, you know. And then when she got older, it just made me feel so proud to be called dad.
00:25:42I was a very young mother. I was 22. So I was always so protective of Madison.
00:25:50This beautiful, peaceful little girl. I never let Maddie cry. Like, never.
00:26:00I never let Maddie cry.
00:26:04Kaylee is the daughter of Steve and Christy Gonsalves. She's the middle child of five kids,
00:26:11including her older sister, Olivia. And they grew up together near Coeur d'Alene.
00:26:17I remember the day Kaylee was born. I was about four and a half years older than Kaylee.
00:26:23And your big sister, but you also ended up being best friends. What was it like to watch her evolve and become a young woman?
00:26:34It was the best. From the moment Kaylee was born, she was ornery, stubborn, a spitfire.
00:26:42So confident, so sure of herself. There was no timid bone in her body.
00:26:49Kaylee was the middle child, and she's your classic middle child syndrome.
00:26:54She tried to be really sweet at first. And when she knew you liked her, then she could be a little bit more
00:26:59herself, which was a little ornery and do a prank on you.
00:27:02Kaylee was funny. Kaylee is this bubbly, smiley girl. And Maddie's always been described as just a
00:27:10little bit quieter. Yeah. How did they click? I think that something in Kaylee's soul recognized
00:27:17something in Maddie's and vice versa. And it was never, it was never a question. Because as quiet as
00:27:25Maddie maybe was when they first met, man, man, she blossomed. And as sharp and bullheaded as Kaylee was,
00:27:35man, she softened. And they complimented each other.
00:27:45You wouldn't see Kaylee without Madison. You wouldn't see Madison without Kaylee.
00:27:50My name is Donna Staub. I'm an English teacher at Lake City High School.
00:27:54And I had Kaylee and Madison in an English class when they were juniors in 2017.
00:28:04So it was probably my second class of the day, if I remember correctly. And these two girls walked in
00:28:11just talking and laughing, life of the party. Her mom made it a point, too, that she was like,
00:28:17I just want her to have one friend that she can depend on. I don't care about her being super popular.
00:28:23She's just, I just, if this, if this could be the friend, and it just worked out that way.
00:28:29So then when college comes, they were like, we're going to go to college together.
00:28:32During high school, they mentioned it early on, they were going to go off to college together.
00:28:37That was their plan.
00:28:39Living near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, they were just about 85 miles or so from the University of Idaho campus.
00:28:43It's not until 2022 that Kaylee and Maddie live together. They move into that house on King Road
00:28:53with their friends. Kaylee and Maddie were always at each other's houses, but this was the first time
00:28:59they'd really gotten to live together and be roommates for real. That was definitely just a
00:29:04house where we all got to hang out and feel welcome. And you know, we would have parties.
00:29:09Everyone who lived there just liked to have a good time, and so they'd always invite people over.
00:29:13That usually turned into some sort of social gathering, maybe a party. But, uh, I mean,
00:29:19it was always people that everyone knew, so everyone could just go there and feel safe.
00:29:25We were college kids. You're still innocent. You're like, nah, nothing's going to happen.
00:29:30By their senior year, Maddie and Kaylee were looking forward to graduation, starting their next chapter.
00:29:42In mid-November in Moscow, it starts to get really cold. It's getting dark earlier. There's a chill in the air.
00:29:48And soon, the lives of everyone in that house would be forever linked by tragedy. A tragedy no one
00:30:00could have ever imagined. Once the cops showed up and the ambulance arrived, we all were,
00:30:06where's Kaylee and Maddie? Where's Kaylee and Maddie? We were calling them. We were texting them. We were,
00:30:10you know, no answers.
00:30:18In May of 2022, 27-year-old Brian Koberger graduates from DeSales
00:30:48University. He's seen in this commencement video getting a master's degree in criminal justice.
00:30:55My name is Josh Ferraro. I knew Brian Koberger from our time at DeSales University.
00:31:00We were paired up for this long project. We were all picking partners, and he was someone who was
00:31:04still there. So I said, hey, do you want to be my partner? And yeah, that's how we met. He was like,
00:31:10yeah, you know, my mission is to, like, be a cop, something I want to do. But he didn't delve
00:31:14too much into his personal life. This guy's a lonely guy, keeping him himself. I invited him to
00:31:20one of my parties one time. He's like, no, I'm good, man. I'm like, all right. The offer is there,
00:31:24but no problem. Like, it's just trying to be nice. One of the classes the two men share as undergrads
00:31:31is psychological sleuthing. And it's taught by the renowned professor of forensic psychology,
00:31:38Dr. Katherine Ramsland. My area of expertise is extreme offenders, serial killers,
00:31:43mass murderers, but primarily serial killers. 2020 spoke with Dr. Ramsland back in 2019
00:31:50about her work studying the serial killer known as BTK. I think BTK is a very useful example of somebody
00:31:58who can grow up in a fairly normal childhood and become a serial killer. In that class,
00:32:05you study mass murders, you study serial killers, and she really delves into the psyche of their mind.
00:32:10Brian Koberger was really, really invested in the class. He took really quick notes,
00:32:16and he'd ask a lot of questions. His eyes really opened up when he's asking a question or getting to
00:32:22the answer and talking about Jeffrey Dahmer or BTK or Ted Bundy. He was very proud of his intellect.
00:32:30While at DeSales, Koberger conducts a Reddit survey for an academic research project looking to
00:32:35understand the mind of a criminal. He put an online request to speak to convicted criminals
00:32:43criminals to discuss the motions they were feeling and decision making that they went through when
00:32:51they were committing crimes. How did they choose their victims? All this stuff.
00:32:58In June of 2022, Koberger moves across the country to Pullman, Washington, pursuing a PhD in criminology
00:33:05at Washington State University. The University of Idaho and Washington State University are located just
00:33:11seven miles from each other. The student body are constantly traversing to come over to the
00:33:17different areas, whether it be for classes or social. There is definitely a crossover with the
00:33:22two universities. We're all one big community. At 27 years old, Koberger has never lived on his own
00:33:32before, and he moves across the country and lives here in this off-campus apartment complex. He spends the
00:33:38summer exploring the region taking some of those selfies just released by authorities and making
00:33:45several trips across the state line into Moscow. His cell phone records would later show that his phone
00:33:52pinged off a tower in that area 23 times in the months before the murders.
00:33:59He even gets pulled over one night in August.
00:34:01Hey there. I stopped you going a little fast. He's accused of speeding on the Pullman Moscow Highway.
00:34:08Were you wearing your seatbelt when I stopped you? No. No? That's no good.
00:34:17Just being honest with you. Yeah, I appreciate that.
00:34:19Um, you guys are, there's absolutely no point. I'm not being honest.
00:34:26After the officer tells Koberger he's getting a $10 seatbelt citation,
00:34:31Koberger has some questions for the officer.
00:34:33I'm obviously an honest person, right? I told you I wasn't aware of my seatbelt.
00:34:37Uh-huh.
00:34:37When people lie to you about that, they say I lied to you about that, right?
00:34:41Mm-hmm.
00:34:41Koberger accepting the citation.
00:34:48All right. Have a good night.
00:34:52Tell me what the internship was that Brian Koberger applied for.
00:34:56So it was actually part of WSU's criminal justice PhD program where the student would be embedded in
00:35:04the police department to conduct research.
00:35:07How would you describe how he communicated with you?
00:35:09Um, just awkward. Just, uh, a little bit socially inept, perhaps. I didn't feel he could develop
00:35:16rapport and trust with my staff and didn't really speak in a, in a fluid conversational manner.
00:35:21And so for those reasons, I didn't think he'd be a good fit for us.
00:35:25But Koberger does get a position as a teaching assistant at the university,
00:35:30which helps pay for his tuition.
00:35:31He was the TA for my criminal justice 420 class, which was criminal procedures.
00:35:37He was a little bit more strict with his, his grading. He gave several comments of feedback,
00:35:44you know, like saying, oh, well, this is a little bit too broad. This is not descriptive enough.
00:35:48Stuff like that.
00:35:48Brian Koberger was pretty quiet. He didn't really talk too much. He kind of didn't really look at us
00:35:54directly. And he just seemed really kind of awkward.
00:35:57And outside of class, Koberger doesn't appear to be very social. He was a loner.
00:36:04Jared and Heather Barnhart analyzed Koberger's digital life,
00:36:08including his cell phone and computer records for investigators.
00:36:11He had 18 total contacts in his phone. One person was labeled as maintenance and another was AT&T.
00:36:19There were no texts to friends. It was just his parents.
00:36:22He called them mother and father, even through text message. He would say,
00:36:27Mother, where is father? Why isn't father answering me? And she would respond,
00:36:34Your dad is in the garage, Brian. He's working. It was all mother and father. Hours of talking, text messaging.
00:36:41And we found all those selfies.
00:36:45Like very much staged selfies, trying to catch himself in a certain manner.
00:36:51It's not weird that he was taking selfies. The weird part is that he never did something with it.
00:36:56He didn't take a selfie to send it to someone else.
00:36:59As the semester progresses, instructors at WSU start to raise concerns about Koberger's conduct
00:37:05in the program. Koberger started to get a really bad reputation on campus.
00:37:11Sometime in November, I remember the professor saying,
00:37:14Hi, so I'm switching some of my TAs. He didn't get any more in depth.
00:37:20He didn't seem to respect female professors with showing up late to class, having some weird
00:37:26social problems where like he would block doorways when students were trying to talk to him.
00:37:31They felt uncomfortable around him. They felt that he would try to, at times, trap them.
00:37:36And there were lots of allegations that he was bothering girls. And this is especially problematic
00:37:41when there's a power dynamic.
00:37:42There was a common complaint of he's very controlling, that he's manipulative,
00:37:48that he treated women a certain way compared to men. Disrespect just had an odd, strange behavior.
00:37:55The university was on to him. Professors said, we need to cut funding from this guy. If we give him a PhD,
00:38:02he's going to become a professor. And we're going to end up seeing on the news that he's stalking
00:38:07women or he's committing some kind of crime. He received an email describing that he was on
00:38:12a performance improvement plan with the university in this role. It was somewhat satisfactory, but
00:38:17there were some problems. WSU did not intend to have him back as a teaching assistant. He was starting
00:38:23to really lose control of his life, kind of spinning out. Away from home, isolated. Koberger is about to
00:38:31turn his PhD work into reality. He goes from a student to a killer. Is it somebody that trains and
00:38:39practices over and over and over and over again? And then at some point, do they feel like they have to
00:38:45execute? Like a sick way of carrying out his thesis. Right.
00:39:01Where's she at? Where's she at? Where at? We're at 34. Hunter Johnson came up to me and I was like,
00:39:08where's Ethan and Xana? And he's like, they're not here anymore. I was like, what do you mean they're
00:39:12not here anymore? He's like, I think they were murdered last night. He was like, yeah, all four.
00:39:22We were like, what? It just made no sense. Now that the murders of those four college students from the
00:39:28University of Idaho. And now what happened minute by minute, you go into Xana's room.
00:39:34What did you see? Stabbing is close, personal, long term. You've got to be committed.
00:39:45The number of times that Kaylee was stabbed, there's no sugarcoating it. The first person
00:39:50to find them. As soon as you get there, you know something's wrong. And a survivor who saw the killer
00:39:57in the house. The third time she opens her door, she sees a male figure. Now just released inside
00:40:08his home and his mind. He was on a website called serial killer timelines and he just went down this
00:40:16list and clicked one after another, after another. And the police body camera from the crime scene.
00:40:22I think we have a homicide. Secure the outside first. He made an absolutely critical mistake.
00:40:28What was the target?
00:40:41Just over the hill is the University of Idaho campus. This is Greek Row, the Sigma Chi house
00:40:52right there. And as you cross the street, you enter that off-campus housing. And this area
00:40:57in particular is really popular. Students sort of pass down the houses from generation to generation.
00:41:02And in August of 2022, this is where five young girls moved in together. They're full of optimism,
00:41:09excited about life. And they're posting videos showing all of it online.
00:41:23We just called it the older girls house. Maddie stayed there. And then Kaylee moved there. And then
00:41:29Zanna moved there. And then Bethany Dillon moved there. And the sixth housemate was Kaylee's golden
00:41:36doodle. His name was Murphy. She was really excited to have the house dog. That's what she called it.
00:41:43And everything I like to do with my dog. The King Road house is a three-story white house right in the
00:41:51middle of party central. The house is three levels. It has six bedrooms, two on each floor. Bethany's bedroom is
00:42:00on the first floor. Zanna and Dillon's bedrooms are on the second floor, along with the kitchen
00:42:07and the sliding glass door leading out to the porch. Kaylee and Madison's bedrooms are on the third floor.
00:42:16And Ethan was over at the King Road house a lot. It was always friends of Ethan that would go over,
00:42:23friends of Zanna, friends of Kaylee and Maddie. There was never anybody who shouldn't have been there.
00:42:30People didn't really have any interest in going into houses where they didn't know anybody.
00:42:35It was a party neighborhood. Just in the sense that, like, you walked over to that area on Friday and
00:42:41Saturday nights, listening for where people might be at. And then you see someone you know, you wander over.
00:42:46It's Saturday, November 12. It's the last home game for the University of Idaho Vandals. Celebration
00:42:58is in the air. Students start tailgating early. We had a lot of pregames before the football games.
00:43:06If the game was early, we would try and wake up early. Zanna would usually be FaceTiming me,
00:43:11trying to wake me up, be like, hurry up, like, let's go. I had gotten texts from Ethan being like,
00:43:16why aren't you here yet? So I was like, okay, I won't keep you waiting any longer.
00:43:21The house on King. It was the cutest place to take pictures. Like, you could go on the third floor
00:43:27patio. That patio was the scene of so many happy moments. Maddie's mom, Karen Laramie, shared those
00:43:36moments in the Prime Video docuseries, One Night in Idaho, The College Murders. Kaylee texted me with the
00:43:44picture of Maddie on her shoulders. Just loving this amazing, happy moment. I called Maddie,
00:43:51and she put me on FaceTime. And then I was having a conversation with all of them.
00:43:56Kaylee Gonzalez posted this last photo to Instagram, writing,
00:44:01one lucky girl to be surrounded by these people every day.
00:44:04We were with our whole friend group, which was a normal weekend for us,
00:44:10just hanging out with our friends. And then from there, we all kind of split off.
00:44:15And we were like, bye, I love you. Gave each other a hug.
00:44:18The triplets, they went to Maisie's formal. I think Xana just waited for Ethan, probably.
00:44:25Ethan spent the beginning part of that night at the Betty's Ball with his sister.
00:44:30From there, he left with me back to Sigma Chi.
00:44:34The party continued after the formal. And Ethan really wanted you to come party.
00:44:40So he started off by texting me. I think he said, dog, come hang out. We all want you here.
00:44:45And it was like spam texting me. And I said, I'm going to bed. I think it was like nine
00:44:50or I'm not going to go. And then he said, love you.
00:44:54And I didn't even respond to that. I think I was asleep by then.
00:44:58And the I love you kind of stood out though.
00:45:02Well, yeah. Yeah, definitely.
00:45:04Because you didn't just normally text that to each other.
00:45:07Yeah.
00:45:12After the game, Kaylee and Maddie head down to the corner club.
00:45:17It's a big hangout for college students. They're having some drinks, hanging out with friends.
00:45:23And then they decide they need a snack. So they head downtown.
00:45:26And they order mac and cheese from the grub truck.
00:45:30We live in this world right now where there are cameras everywhere. So we know
00:45:38that Kaylee and Maddie were at the food truck around 1.30 in the morning.
00:45:41Maddie was running around in that huge jacket, hugging people.
00:45:46Kaylee was just on her phone, just laughing at Maddie.
00:45:50And she was just smiling. She was, they were happy. They were so happy.
00:45:54Maddie and Kaylee get a ride back to the King Road house using a rideshare.
00:46:00And by 2am, everyone's home. They're settling in for the night.
00:46:05It's like a sleepover. Kaylee sleeps in Maddie's bed, just like they've done since they were kids.
00:46:11But Zanna stays up.
00:46:14Zanna orders DoorDash and it gets delivered to the King Road house a little after 4am.
00:46:19She takes it up to the kitchen, puts some of her food onto a plate and she's eating that in her
00:46:26bedroom. She's on social media. The latest of 412 and just shortly after that.
00:46:34Everything seemed so normal in that home on King Road. But by the next morning, nothing
00:46:40would ever be the same. Emily got a call from Dylan around
00:46:4611-ish. That's when I felt like I needed to go over.
00:46:52And then what happened next? I went into the house.
00:46:58Can I not know a location of your emergency?
00:47:00Hi, something is happening. Something is happening in our house. We don't know what.
00:47:06We were complete panic. It's, this is, this is real.
00:47:16It's real.
00:47:22By 2am, all the roommates are back home and settling in for the night.
00:47:27Police say around 3am, shortly after leaving his apartment and heading towards Moscow,
00:47:32Brian Koberger turns his cell phone off.
00:47:35We can see Koberger's car on footage captured by a surveillance camera that was at the neighbor's house.
00:47:46He keeps circling the area. He's making multiple passes at the house.
00:47:51We believe that Brian Koberger entered the house sometime shortly after his last scene on the video.
00:48:02Somewhere probably around 4 10am.
00:48:06Police say Koberger entered through a sliding glass door in the back of the house.
00:48:09Investigators believe Zanna was in her room with her boyfriend, Ethan, asleep in her bed.
00:48:15Dylan's across the hall, Bethany downstairs. And on the third floor,
00:48:20Kaylee and Maddie had fallen asleep together in Maddie's room.
00:48:23Zanna was up. We see activity from her watch of just steps that were taken.
00:48:31We know that she's eating. She's on social media at 4 12 and just shortly after that.
00:48:36After entering the house, investigators believe Koberger walked through the kitchen
00:48:41and went upstairs to the third floor where he found Kaylee and Maddie together asleep.
00:48:48Kaylee and Maddie were both killed very quickly, but they were stabbed repeatedly many times.
00:48:58Stabbing is close, personal, long-term, violent action. You've got to be committed to do a homicide.
00:49:11What investigators think happened is that Zanna heard the commotion.
00:49:17At some point, Zanna comes, we believe, up the stairs. Brian Koberger either hears something
00:49:24or he hears the stairs. Something alerts him and takes him away from what he's doing in that bedroom.
00:49:33Investigators say Zanna turned and ran and that Koberger followed, chasing her downstairs to her bedroom.
00:49:41Zanna, after that initial contact in the doorway, she's fighting him. We know that because she has
00:49:48defensive wounds all over herself. She fought like hell. And we think at that point, he realizes that
00:49:54there's a fourth person and that's Ethan that's in the bed. So he reaches over and stabs Ethan and killed
00:50:02Ethan instantly. He continues to fight with Zanna and ends up on the floor where ultimately he does
00:50:08finally kill her.
00:50:11At 4.17 a.m., less than 10 minutes after investigators believe Brian Koberger entered the house,
00:50:17the neighbor's surveillance camera captures what police describe as a loud thud, the sound of a whimper,
00:50:23and a dog barking.
00:50:25That camera is just about 50 feet from Zanna's bedroom.
00:50:34In Zanna's room, some things were pushed around, were moved around. And I think that's something
00:50:39that you're probably hearing on the video. Because she was fighting. Right.
00:50:44After Koberger walks out of Zanna's room, he then comes face to face with another one of her
00:50:50roommates. It's Dylan. Dylan was awakened by just some type of noises. Initially, she thought it was
00:50:59the dog, Murphy. Then she thought she heard a male voice say, I'm here to help you.
00:51:07We believe that is Brian Koberger saying that to Zanna. He's doing something to try to calm her,
00:51:13to make her relax of who he is and why he's in this residence.
00:51:17Dylan, as she had overheard multiple things throughout this time period, she had opened
00:51:23her door a couple different times. The third time she opens her door, she sees a male figure.
00:51:32The description was a thin, tall individual, wearing a mask, almost described as a basketball
00:51:37player physique and bushy eyebrows. She momentarily saw him.
00:51:43And then he turned and he left the residence.
00:51:48He knows people were awake, probably believing at some point somebody called the police.
00:51:54I've got to get out of here. The fight with Zanna could have just wiped him.
00:52:00We'll never know what made him pass that door up and head out.
00:52:04After that, Dylan is terrified. She starts texting Bethany, her roommate.
00:52:11Did you hear that? I'm trying to call the other roommates. They're not answering.
00:52:15You've got somebody who had been drinking, was in and out of slumber, and somebody walks
00:52:23through in the middle of the night and still wonders in her own mind, did she see it or did she dream it?
00:52:31She makes a mad dash for Bethany's room and decides to run downstairs and spend the rest of the night
00:52:37with Bethany. As night turns into day, everything in Moscow is still quiet.
00:52:48But investigators say that Brian Koberger is awake. He's active. That includes spending more than an
00:52:54hour and a half on the phone with his mom and posing for a selfie, giving a thumbs up.
00:52:59Police say just after 9 a.m. Koberger is on the move and he's headed back to 1122 King Road.
00:53:10He's not seeing anything on the news. I think he certainly would expect.
00:53:13This is going to be everywhere immediately. So I think that his curiosity has absolutely gotten to
00:53:20him. And so he goes back to the area. But for all this training, for all of his things that he's studied,
00:53:27the crime scene and serial killers, the PhD program for criminology, he made an absolutely critical
00:53:35mistake in that house that night.
00:53:40I woke up in the morning. It was kind of like chill Sunday. Emily and Hunter came and were hanging out in
00:54:01my bed with me. And then Dylan called Emily and asked us all to come over.
00:54:11I could overhear what was going on. She sounded freaked out. I just had a gut feeling and something
00:54:17in me told me that I need to just go. As soon as you get there, you know something's wrong.
00:54:25I walked just right in the door and Hunter already went up. And then he was like, OK, you everybody get out.
00:54:38Hunter finds Zanna and Ethan murdered, but he decides to shield his friends from that reality.
00:54:46And he tells them only that someone inside is unconscious and to call 9-1-1.
00:54:509-1-1 location of your emergency.
00:54:53Hi, something is happening. Something is happening in our house. We don't know what.
00:54:59The Dutch and Moscow law ambulance for unconsciousness, 1122 King Road.
00:55:07Where's she at? Where's she at?
00:55:08Where's she at? Up here? Up here, up here.
00:55:18OK, do that. 13, I think we have a homicide. I don't think any of us were prepared for
00:55:24that it's four young, completely innocent kids.
00:55:28Russell, please stop it.
00:55:30New college-age people. They're involved in disease. Lots of blood.
00:55:35We have two additional deceased on the third floor. Secure the outside first.
00:55:44I'll do it in the front door. There's a back entry. I was going to start taping it all off.
00:55:48OK, here. Can you guys go over to the dumpster for me, please?
00:55:55We were just placed on the street to sit down and wait. We were all cold. We were all scared. Our
00:56:03brains just started to continue to spiral. I kept calling your name and she wouldn't answer.
00:56:08And then I saw the guy.
00:56:13Outside, police speak to Dylan. She's distraught. She's the roommate who told police she saw a masked
00:56:20man in the house that night. Describe the guy that you saw.
00:56:23He's a little bit taller than me.
00:56:25I'm almost positive. He was wearing a full black outfit. And he had this mask that was just over
00:56:33his forehead and over his mouth. And he didn't say anything to me like at all. I just shut the door
00:56:38and locked it because I didn't know what to do. And I think he went out like the side door,
00:56:43the sliding door in the kitchen that goes out to the backyard.
00:56:45We have footprints coming out the back and open door.
00:56:49When we got there, that sliding glass door was left halfway open.
00:56:55You go into Zana's room. What did you see?
00:56:57Zana was there.
00:57:02She was laying on the floor. And Ethan was on the bed.
00:57:05I got woken up by my friend. We'd partied pretty hard the night before. He's like,
00:57:18there's a ton of cops over at Zana's house. I walked over there. I didn't see Ethan outside,
00:57:24so I figured he was inside helping whoever needed to be helped.
00:57:28My brother's walking up this way. Okay, do you mind hanging out here, please?
00:57:32Hunter Johnson came up to me and I was like, where's Ethan and Zana? And he's like,
00:57:36they're not here anymore. I was like, what do you mean they're not here anymore? He's like,
00:57:40I think they were murdered last night.
00:57:47And you're at the grocery store? I was at the grocery store.
00:57:51And I was talking to a friend.
00:57:53I was like, I'm fine. It's okay. And my phone kept ringing and it was Hunter on the other end.
00:58:04And he just said, he's not here. And he kept repeating it. And so I was like,
00:58:09we'll go get him, go find him. And he just kept saying it. And he goes, no, mom,
00:58:13you don't understand. Ethan and Zana are not on this earth anymore. I just was like, there's just no way.
00:58:23Um, and I drove down the road and called Jim. And you know, it makes it real when you have to repeat it.
00:58:32Right. It drives me crazy because I've always wanted to protect my family.
00:58:40And there's really nothing there that I could have done. Instantly, he was taken.
00:58:53We still didn't know where Kaylee and Maddie were. We didn't know where Murphy was.
00:59:00And then U of I sent the homicide text.
00:59:04Throughout the day, the University of Idaho sent campus-wide text messages with updates on the
00:59:10investigation about a homicide and an unknown suspect. But at 517 PM, students get a text message that says,
00:59:19for the first time, four people had been killed. That was the moment that we knew where Kaylee and Maddie were.
00:59:26The two surviving roommates, Dylan and Bethany, have received a lot of criticism for not calling
00:59:40911 immediately on the night of the murders. But they both told police they weren't certain that what
00:59:47Dylan thought she saw was real. I told her, okay, I need to come to your room because she was the only one
00:59:53that was answering me. So I just ran down there. And for a second, I stopped and I saw Zana passed out.
00:59:58And I thought maybe she was just like sleeping or something. I didn't think anything because I was so
01:00:02out of it. And we just fell asleep. And then we woke up this morning and no one was answering.
01:00:07We understand the disbelief that she's going through. What 19 year old kid is going to come
01:00:13up with and assume what actually happened was happening. Investigators now know they're a few hours
01:00:21behind the killer. But as they walk into Maddie's third floor bedroom, police get their first big break.
01:00:28The comforter's over. The girls take the comforter off. Lo and behold, there's a knife
01:00:34sheath laying right there. They find a sheath for a K-bar style knife. There's no murder weapon,
01:00:42but the sheath is there. That was definitely the first aha moment. We have something in this house
01:00:49from the job.
01:01:00Four murdered students. A panicked campus.
01:01:07And now the world's eyes on Moscow, Idaho. Now to the murders of those four college students from
01:01:12the University of Idaho. As investigators try to figure out what happened in that house
01:01:18on King Road. We've told the public very clearly from the beginning that we believe it was a targeted
01:01:23attack. They said, oh, this was a targeted attack. Nothing to worry about. And my first question was,
01:01:29but you don't have anybody. That means there's somebody still out there. How could we not worry?
01:01:42We don't want to put our investigation in jeopardy by releasing what we have.
01:01:46The investigation grew massively. We were trying to get every piece of video footage from that day,
01:01:54from every surveillance camera in town, captured from that night.
01:02:01Right across the street from Zanna's bedroom is a house. They have surveillance footage of a white
01:02:06Hyundai Elantra circling the house in the early morning hours of November 13th.
01:02:10We quickly realized that we had this white vehicle during this time leaving at a very fast,
01:02:19high rate of speed. You can see it is burning out of that neighborhood.
01:02:25So we believed at that point this was the vehicle of our subject.
01:02:30So we narrowed it down to a 2011 to 2016 Elantra. Believe it or not, when we ran Idaho registrations
01:02:40and just looking local, we had over 25,000. The search to track down that car has no limits.
01:02:45We are just wanting to talk to the individuals who are in that vehicle.
01:02:49Investigators also have a crucial piece of evidence found at the crime scene left behind by the killer.
01:02:58A sheath for a K-Bar knife.
01:03:01This knife sheath was found under Matty's body in the bed.
01:03:06Immediately it stood out because it was in stark contrast to the entire house.
01:03:11So about four days in, the lab came back and said they had a sole source male DNA
01:03:17found on the button of the knife sheath. But there was no matches in CODIS for that DNA.
01:03:24Once we know we had the DNA from the sheath, then we flew that to Othrum,
01:03:30and then they started to develop and work their part of it.
01:03:34Othrum is a company in which we build technology to basically bring certainty to investigations.
01:03:41Forensic genetic genealogy is a tool that we use to identify someone or find the nearest relative.
01:03:51So I got a call and I was asked what is the fastest that we could produce a result.
01:03:58Kristin was adamant that we get these folks answers.
01:04:01I can't imagine that being my child and knowing that there's someone out there that could help.
01:04:09We have to help. How fast can we get this DNA?
01:04:14It was a sergeant from the Moscow Police Department who got on a plane in Boise.
01:04:20And they flew directly to Texas and hand-delivered it to Othrum.
01:04:26They brought us down a tube of DNA that was remaining from that knife sheath.
01:04:32That DNA extract contained a lot of DNA. It was not a trace amount of DNA. It was 500 times more DNA
01:04:39than we generally see in our low-quantity DNA cases.
01:04:43The technology at Othrum is then able to build a profile that's uploaded to genealogy databases,
01:04:49which search for people who are connected to that unknown DNA.
01:04:53In this particular case, there was a unique biogeographical ancestry that allowed us to
01:04:58kind of narrow the search even early on. And what we found is that there was a
01:05:03multi-generational American family based in Pennsylvania, genetic relatives that were
01:05:09related to the person we were looking for.
01:05:11While there's a massive, multifaceted investigation working to find him,
01:05:16Ryan Koberger leaves Washington and heads home to Pennsylvania for winter break.
01:05:20He drives across the country with his father in that white Hyundai Elantra.
01:05:25Hello. How you doing? How y'all doing today?
01:05:28So it's a long trip from Moscow, Idaho, all the way to Pennsylvania.
01:05:33Koberger's pulled over twice during this time.
01:05:36Right up on the back end of that van, pulled you over for tailgating.
01:05:39So y'all work at the university there?
01:05:42I actually do work there.
01:05:43And he's pulled over for following a vehicle too closely, both times.
01:05:49By the time the co-workers arrived back in Pennsylvania,
01:05:52the FBI had taken over that genetic genealogy search from Othrum.
01:05:56And just over a month after the murders, investigators get a name.
01:06:02On December 19th, the investigative genealogy team leader calls in and he says,
01:06:06Hey, Darren. He goes, I have a first name for you. It's Brian. And he goes,
01:06:09Hey, we also have a last name for you. Koberger. And he drives a white Hyundai Elantra.
01:06:15Once we had his name at that point, immediately we knew that he was in Pennsylvania.
01:06:20When did the surveillance on him start?
01:06:22Immediately.
01:06:23He only left the house three times and he was noticed to be wearing rubber gloves all the times
01:06:31he had left the house.
01:06:34They need a way to test that DNA. So they pulled the trash.
01:06:38The agent on scene had made contact with the trash company to be able to ride the truck to collect
01:06:47the trash. They sort anything that could contain DNA. They found an item in the trash that had male DNA
01:06:54that comes back and says, we have DNA in this trash that is the father of the DNA left on the knife sheet.
01:07:01Once we had the DNA paternity match from the trash pole.
01:07:06From a Q-tip specifically.
01:07:07Yeah. We knew at that point that we had the person whose DNA was on that sheath.
01:07:13At that point, you have what you need to get an arrest warrant for Brian Koberger.
01:07:19And news of an arrest spreads fast.
01:07:22The big story on Action News tonight is a major break in the murder of four Idaho college students.
01:07:27People in this sleepy Poconos community are stunned.
01:07:32We got live feed. We saw the armored vehicles roll in,
01:07:37then make entry and we get the call out in custody.
01:07:49And we want to get right to our breaking news as we come on the air. The arrest of a 28 year old
01:07:54man in Pennsylvania in connection with the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students.
01:08:00Nearly seven weeks after the brutal murders, an arrest is finally made.
01:08:05Pennsylvania State Police make that arrest. We've got live feed coming from the helicopter from
01:08:10Pennsylvania State Police. We're getting constantly updated on what's going on, telling us yes,
01:08:15they've got Brian in the house. We saw the armored vehicles roll in,
01:08:19them make entry and we get the call out in custody. Detectives arrested 28 year old Brian
01:08:26Christopher Koberger in Albright'sville, Pennsylvania.
01:08:31Koberger faces four counts of first degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
01:08:43Authorities have not revealed a possible motive just yet.
01:08:46People in this sleepy Poconos community are stunned that one of their own has been arrested in
01:08:51connection with this grisly crime. Agents from the Scranton Office of the FBI,
01:08:56after the arrest interviewed Brian's parents, they were, you know, aghast. We do know
01:09:03there, there was conversation among the family about, hey, Brian does drive a car like that, right?
01:09:09Do you think, you know, and it was immediately quashed. There's no way Brian could do this,
01:09:15no way. Nobody can comprehend that their child is capable of something like this.
01:09:23What was his reaction to the national media attention?
01:09:26He was very surprised, actually. He didn't realize that it would garner national media news,
01:09:33I would say. Really? Yeah, it actually was. It was surprising. Um, because he inquired as to
01:09:41which outlets were actually circling. Police department, search warrant, come to the door.
01:09:49After the arrest, police in Washington searched Koberger's apartment. And in these just released
01:09:54photos, you can see the Spartan place he left behind. One of the few personal items they found
01:10:00is a birthday card from his parents. He was taken back to the Pennsylvania state police
01:10:09barracks immediately upon being arrested and had given what turned out to be about a two and a half,
01:10:14three hour statement. It was a significantly long time that he interviewed until he asked for an
01:10:18attorney. What did he tell you about that interview? Uh, he was very limited. I didn't want to know a lot
01:10:25about the case because he was going to have an attorney that would represent him on the murder
01:10:31charges. I want to make sure he's aware of how the process is going to play out. I want to make sure
01:10:36he understands that the death penalty may be considered in the case. You thought right away
01:10:41it would be a death penalty. Oh, absolutely. I had zero doubt.
01:10:47Brian Koberger agreed to be extradited and he was flown across the country to the Moscow Pullman
01:10:52airport and then brought here to the Latak County jail to face murder charges while the world watched
01:10:58on. When they brought him off the plane, people were like, we got him. Thank God he wasn't a local.
01:11:06He wasn't one of us. Koberger's attorneys enter a not guilty plea for him, insisting that he's innocent.
01:11:13But prosecutors decide to pursue the death penalty. And as they prepare for trial, they dig into every
01:11:19part of Koberger's life, particularly his digital life, sifting through his Amazon purchase history
01:11:26that showed he bought a K bar knife and sharpener back in Pennsylvania. And they look at his cell phone
01:11:32and computer searches right up until the days before his arrest. On Christmas night, the 11 o'clock
01:11:40hour heading into the very early morning of the 26th, he was on a rudimentary website called serial killer
01:11:47timelines, just a list of hyperlinked names. And he just went down this list and clicked one after
01:11:53another after another for like two hours. December 27th, there's some sort of a show that he watched.
01:12:03It's a YouTube and it's Ted Bundy sort of standing facing forward with a hood pulled up and over the
01:12:10front. And on 1229, just two days later, he's taking a picture of himself looking like Ted Bundy.
01:12:18And although investigators weren't able to make a direct link between Brian Koberger and any of the
01:12:23victims, those digital forensic experts did find something interesting on his phone. The FBI gave us
01:12:30keywords and said, okay, search for these things. We needed victim names. We needed what did they call
01:12:36their Wi-Fi. So all these things we searched for it. And I remember saying to Jared, I have a hit for
01:12:40Mad Greek. Remember, Mad Greek is that Moscow restaurant where Maddie and Xana both worked.
01:12:46This search for Mad Greek, however, he arrived at it, was done through the Google Maps app.
01:12:52What we can say is that Mad Greek was presented to him on his phone. It doesn't necessarily draw a hard
01:12:59line to these victims. Now to the sudden and stunning turn in the Idaho College murders case.
01:13:07After insisting his innocence for nearly three years, defendant Brian Koberger today pleading guilty
01:13:12to fatally stabbing four students. Koberger had maintained his innocence the entire time,
01:13:17but he decided to change his plea from innocent to guilty. That was huge. And as part of that plea deal,
01:13:25prosecutors agree to take the death penalty off the table. We got what we wanted and we got what the
01:13:32law. When you say we got what we wanted though, that we does not include all of the victims' families.
01:13:38There are victims' families that have been very public about wanting more, perhaps a taped confession,
01:13:44the location of the murder weapon. You don't felt like you, you didn't feel like you could have asked
01:13:48for those things. There was no legal way we could have compelled those. And quite frankly, there is
01:13:56nothing that he could have said that I think would have been credible or believable. And the minimizing
01:14:02and the lies that would have even been more damaging and frustrating to everybody.
01:14:11You've seen it, thank you. Without a trial, Koberger moves right to a sentencing hearing,
01:14:17and the loved ones for the victims finally get their own day in court.
01:14:23All right, so with that, let's start with the impact statements.
01:14:27I just wanted to reclaim their power.
01:14:30The truth is, as dumb as they come, sloppy, weak, dirty.
01:14:36Brian Koberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder.
01:14:50But he still has to sit and face the families of his victims.
01:14:53All right, so with that, let's start with the impact statements.
01:14:57The first statement comes from one of the two surviving roommates, Bethany Funk.
01:15:02She's unable to be in the courtroom herself. So her statement is read by her friend,
01:15:06and also one of the first people to arrive at the house that day, Emily Allant.
01:15:11I was so frantic that morning and scared to death, not knowing what had happened.
01:15:17And when I made the 911 call, I couldn't even get out the words.
01:15:23And from then on, I don't remember a thing.
01:15:25I wish more than anything, I could hug them one last time.
01:15:30And I wish I could tell them how much I love them.
01:15:34I will keep living for them as long as I am lucky enough to still be here.
01:15:39And then, it's the second surviving roommate, Dylan Mortenson.
01:15:44Dylan, just take your time, all right?
01:15:46I was barely 19 when he did this. I was forced to learn how to survive the unimaginable.
01:16:03I couldn't be alone. And then there are the panic attacks.
01:16:08The kind that slammed into me like a tsunami out of nowhere. I can't breathe.
01:16:16I can't think. I can't stop shaking.
01:16:20Living is how I honor them.
01:16:22Speaking today is to help me find some sort of justice for them.
01:16:27He may have taken so much from me, but he will never get to take my voice.
01:16:36One after another, family members described the loved ones they lost.
01:16:42And notably among them is Kaylee's sister, Olivia Gonsalves.
01:16:49My sister Kaylee and her best friend Maddie were not yours to take.
01:16:55They were not yours to study, to stalk, or to silence.
01:16:58The whole time I just wanted to reclaim their power, reclaim their voice, especially in a way that,
01:17:09you know, really was the end to this chapter.
01:17:11You got under his skin.
01:17:12Absolutely.
01:17:15Disappointments like you thrive on pain, on fear, and on the illusion of power.
01:17:20The truth is, the scariest part about you is how painfully average you turned out to be.
01:17:28The truth is, you're as dumb as they come.
01:17:32Stupid, clumsy, slow, sloppy, weak, dirty.
01:17:39Did you say everything that you wanted to say?
01:17:41For the most part, yes.
01:17:44I didn't want to break eye contact.
01:17:46So that gaze was so intense, and it really did feel like, like a standoff.
01:17:54You want the truth?
01:17:56Here's the one you'll hate the most.
01:17:58If you hadn't attacked them in their sleep, in the middle of the night, like a pedophile,
01:18:04Kaylee would have kicked your ass.
01:18:13The Chapin family was not at the sentencing.
01:18:18They chose instead to honor Ethan privately.
01:18:23Hi!
01:18:24Hi!
01:18:24Hi!
01:18:24The Chapins recently got to visit that DNA lab that played such a crucial role in solving this case.
01:18:31It came after a chance meeting a few years back.
01:18:34This stranger, who I did not know, came up and she just wrapped her arms around me and hugged me.
01:18:39And she just said, we are working on your case and you don't have to worry.
01:18:43Everything will be okay.
01:18:44Everything's going to be okay, that there will be justice in the outcome.
01:18:47I mean, that was what I was trying to relay.
01:18:49Right. And that's how it felt.
01:18:51Jim and I would rely on that information to, you know, in your toughest days,
01:18:55you were like, Kristen told us not to worry, and we, and we used that.
01:18:59The Chapins now want to help advocate for the work being done at this lab.
01:19:04Maybe our, our family could become a face for the victim's side of what these people do.
01:19:10If we can make a positive impact for the future on some level, it's important.
01:19:17I miss him every day.
01:19:18When you lose your son at 20, it's a different loss.
01:19:24And I, I miss him every single day.
01:19:27All righty.
01:19:32It's nice that, you know, when we have so many different photographs and videos,
01:19:35and we can still hear their voices.
01:19:38They were some really, really cool people.
01:19:41It helps to remember them and not what happened to them.
01:19:47Hopefully one day they're just seen as who they are and not what happened to them.
01:19:51And just as college is starting again, there's now a memorial garden at the University of Idaho
01:20:01with a plaque bearing the name of each of the four victims.
01:20:04A touching tribute.
01:20:05As for Brian Koberger, David, he received four life sentences,
01:20:08one for each of his victims and an additional 10 years for burglary.
01:20:12As part of that plea deal, he waived his right to an appeal.
01:20:16That's our program for tonight.
01:20:17Thanks so much for watching.
01:20:18I'm Deborah Roberts.
01:20:19And I'm David Muir from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News.
01:20:23Good night.
01:20:49I'm David Muir from all of us here at the University of Idaho.
01:20:53I'm David Muir from all of us here at the University of Idaho.
01:20:55I'm David Muir from all of us here at the University of Idaho.
01:20:57I'm David Muir from all of us here at the University of Idaho.
01:20:59I'm David Muir from all of us here at the University of Idaho.
01:21:01I'm David Muir from all of us here at the University of Idaho.
01:21:03I'm David Muir from all of us here at the University of Idaho.
01:21:05I'm David Muir from all of us here at the University of Idaho.
01:21:07I'm David Muir from all of us here at the University of Idaho.
01:21:09I'm David Muir from all of us here at the University of Idaho.
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