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00:00:00This is the police body camera video captured on November 13th, 2022, as Moscow, Idaho police
00:00:12responded to a 911 call. But nothing would prepare police or this tight-knit community
00:00:29for the shocking murders that they discover in this house on King Road.
00:00:34A murder mystery in Idaho. Four University of Idaho students were found dead in their off-campus
00:00:38apartment. It's now being investigated as a homicide. We all underestimated how interested
00:00:44the rest of the nation and the world would be in this case. Nobody was prepared.
00:00:50Roommate on scene states something about a male being in the room with them, trying to get further.
00:00:54You may think you've heard this story, but tonight, we'll take you inside the investigation.
00:01:00We'll show you body camera video from the officer who first responded to the scene, and then the
00:01:06frantic moments that one of the surviving roommates recounts a man in a mask inside the house.
00:01:11I couldn't really see much of him, but I'm almost positive. He's wearing a full-back outfit,
00:01:17and he had this mask that was just over his forehead and over his mouth.
00:01:22You'll hear from the friends who were on the scene that morning, even before police arrived.
00:01:28As soon as you get there, you know something's wrong.
00:01:32And then what happened next?
00:01:33I went into the house.
00:01:36I think I walked just right in the door, and Hunter already was like, everybody get out.
00:01:43And then he was like, somebody call 911.
00:01:48And you'll hear from investigators who launched a nationwide manhunt to unmask and arrest the
00:01:54killer who was found thousands of miles away from the crime scene.
00:01:58You interviewed Brian Koberger.
00:01:59Yes, he would try to go and ask, well, why are you guys really here?
00:02:05And we said, well, I feel like you probably know why we're here.
00:02:20But this all began in 2022.
00:02:23It was the start of a new school year, a time of anticipation, hope, promise.
00:02:28Coming back to school at the University of Idaho really starts in the middle of August.
00:02:34You're packing up your car.
00:02:36It's filled to the brim.
00:02:38You can fit your entire life into a couple of boxes in the back of a sedan.
00:02:43What a time.
00:02:47Moscow at the beginning of the semester was definitely a very happy place.
00:02:52And, like, you step on campus and it's like, okay, this feels right.
00:02:56This feels good to be here.
00:02:59Everyone's really excited.
00:03:00The new people, the new classes, things we can do, people to meet.
00:03:05You know, you raise your kids and you're, you know, you just wonder, you know, what point
00:03:11are they going to kind of feel like they're independent enough to kind of fly the, out of
00:03:16the nest, I guess, if you will.
00:03:18It's a cliche, but.
00:03:19Starting to adult.
00:03:20Yeah, starting to, you know.
00:03:25Among the students arriving here are 21-year-old seniors, Kaylee Gonsalves and Madison Mogan,
00:03:32along with Dana Kurnodal, a 20-year-old junior and 19-year-old sophomore, Ethan Chapin.
00:03:37Four students just starting out, not knowing that soon their lives would violently collide
00:03:43with a Ph.D. student in criminology at another university just across the state line.
00:03:52So on November 12th is when that iconic photo is taken, the last known photo of the four
00:03:59victims all together with their roommates Bethany and Dylan.
00:04:03All six of them before their big night on game day.
00:04:08They've had so many Saturday nights just like this.
00:04:11There was nothing out of the ordinary about this Saturday night in Moscow.
00:04:15Or so they thought.
00:04:17Hours later, friends make a horrific discovery.
00:04:23Can I know on location of your emergency?
00:04:26Hi, something is happening.
00:04:27Something happened in our house.
00:04:29We don't know what.
00:04:30What is the address of the emergency?
00:04:33What unfolds next is the stuff of nightmares.
00:04:45We saw it on our phones before they told us directly.
00:04:50It was like, what?
00:04:51Quadruple homicide?
00:04:53We're calling Kaylee.
00:04:54It's going to voicemail.
00:04:55We're calling Maddie.
00:04:56She's not picking up.
00:04:57And in our minds, it wouldn't have been Kaylee and Maddie both.
00:05:06So I think that my mind just immediately went to like, nope, nope, nope.
00:05:10The most important thing to me was, who did this?
00:05:13Why did they do it?
00:05:15This is Moscow.
00:05:20It doesn't take very long before state police, then the FBI, all join the search for this killer.
00:05:25We realized that there was a security camera right next door to our residence.
00:05:33Once we had that, we quickly realized that we had this white vehicle.
00:05:37And so that was the introduction of the white Elantra for us.
00:05:46We don't know when this person's going to strike again, if they're going to strike again.
00:05:52And the pressure on us to solve alone, our own internal pressure, was huge.
00:05:59And at the same time, you've got the public pressure to find the perpetrator.
00:06:04There's a crush of media.
00:06:06It overwhelms the tiny town of Moscow, along with the lives of everyone touched by these shocking murders.
00:06:13There were, you know, YouTubers and TikTokers outside the house, you know, that want to live stream at our front door.
00:06:21And then someone comes up, like, oh, hey, yeah, what do you have to say?
00:06:24What do you have to say?
00:06:25Like, dude, like, get out of our face.
00:06:27It just went absolutely insane, but that's how the world is now, so.
00:06:30Just trying to get through the days is really all I was doing.
00:06:33You don't feel safe in any situation like that for months.
00:06:37Like, there's no feeling secure or safe.
00:06:40I mean, after the first couple of weeks, we're like, this guy's going to get away with this.
00:06:44But then, nearly seven weeks after the murders, finally an arrest.
00:06:49And we want to get right to our breaking news.
00:06:51A specialized team of state troopers and federal agents taking Brian Koberger into custody early Friday morning.
00:06:58My mom just came into my room and she's like, hey, hey, they got him.
00:07:03They got him.
00:07:04I mean, my first thought was, who is that?
00:07:06I have no clue who you are.
00:07:07It was really shocking to learn he was a WSU student who had moved out to Washington and Pullman that summer to study at Washington State University.
00:07:17He was pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology and justice.
00:07:22For the first time, you'll see some of the hundreds of photos released by authorities just this week.
00:07:27They offer a glimpse into the secret life of Brian Koberger, and you'll hear what investigators learned from analyzing his digital life.
00:07:35He was a loner, no friends, no one really except for his parents.
00:07:40He called them mother and father, even through text message.
00:07:43He didn't take a selfie to send it to someone else.
00:07:45It was very vain.
00:07:46It was very much just him recording himself for that purpose only.
00:07:49But first, tonight, we want you to get to know Kaylee, Maddie, Zanna, and Ethan, who they were, how they lived their lives.
00:08:00And you'll hear how investigators say Koberger planned meticulously to end it all.
00:08:08Dylan had opened her door, and as she looked out, saw an individual in all dark clothing.
00:08:13Then she thought she heard a male voice say, I'm here to help you.
00:08:18And the crucial mistake he made that led authorities right to his doorstep.
00:08:23Boom, and now we have something in this house from the children.
00:08:27That was definitely the first aha moment.
00:08:30Greek life at U of I is pretty tight-knit.
00:08:49We all do things together.
00:08:51The sorority and fraternities were their own little community.
00:08:55When I joined Pi-Fi, I met Zanna, and I just felt welcomed in.
00:09:02You know how you meet some people, and they're like, don't want to talk to you?
00:09:05She would talk your ear off.
00:09:07We had an entire friend group that we were always together.
00:09:11Zanna, Maddie, Emily.
00:09:13We were attached to the hip probably the first day that we met.
00:09:16We just clicked immediately.
00:09:19And I was like, oh yeah, these are my people.
00:09:21These are going to be my people.
00:09:23Hi, my name is Zanna Kurnodal.
00:09:26I'm a marketing major here at the University of Idaho.
00:09:3020-year-old Zanna Kurnodal loved the Pittsburgh Steelers.
00:09:34She loved her friends.
00:09:36And she highlights both in this video that's posted on her sister's social media.
00:09:41And I really like just hanging out with my friends all the time and being super involved in school events.
00:09:49Zanna also really loved electronic dance music.
00:09:54We called her DJ Zan because she was always like, oh, I'm going to play music while we get ready.
00:09:59Like I have a video where she's jumping on the couch and the MacBook's jumping with her.
00:10:04Oh, okay, your laptop.
00:10:06I've never met someone like Zanna before.
00:10:13Ever.
00:10:14There was one night.
00:10:15It had snowed.
00:10:16And we see a sled.
00:10:19And we just went flying.
00:10:24Her smile was contagious.
00:10:26I don't know that I ever saw Zanna not happy.
00:10:31Cracking jokes, nonstop.
00:10:33If you ever had a bad day, maybe, you know, had a rough day, she'll make you happy.
00:10:37Like somehow she'll make you laugh.
00:10:38There'd be mornings I'd wake up and I would pull out of the oven a burnt pizza because she tried to make pizza the night before and fell asleep.
00:10:46Zanna, did you try to make pizza last night?
00:10:48And she'd be like, I guess so.
00:10:50In August of 2022, Zanna moves into 1122 King Road with several friends.
00:10:58That includes Maddie Mogan.
00:11:00And together, the two girls work as servers at the Moscow restaurant Mad Greek.
00:11:07Also spending a lot of time at their house was Zanna's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin.
00:11:12He's a triplet, starting his second year at the University of Idaho with his sister Maisie and brother Hunter.
00:11:18The Chapin family invited me to their Idaho home.
00:11:23They opened up their photo albums, sharing memories of the son and brother they lost.
00:11:30Was it always just assumed that the three of you would go to the same college?
00:11:35Yeah, pretty much.
00:11:37It would have been tough to split us up, I feel like.
00:11:40We've kind of done everything together, why not do college together?
00:11:50And me and Ethan joined the same fraternity, Sigma Chi.
00:11:54I just kind of followed whatever he did.
00:11:55I knew wherever we went, we were going to have a good time no matter what.
00:12:01I mean, he was kind of the dominant triplet, I would say.
00:12:03He just, he just always had these two in tow.
00:12:08The boys were always together.
00:12:10And we met them and they were immediately funny, like great guys.
00:12:13And we were like, oh, you guys are being our friends.
00:12:16Alrighty, my name is Ethan Chapin.
00:12:19I grew up playing basketball and a lot of sports.
00:12:21We were a pretty athletic family, so a lot of sports, just kind of staying active.
00:12:27And yeah, no questions, just ready to get going.
00:12:35We played every sport together, every time we went in the car it was together,
00:12:39partied together, just everything we did.
00:12:43There was never a dull moment.
00:12:45It always made things interesting and exciting.
00:12:48Whenever there would be a party, we'd be singing country songs.
00:12:52Fall in Love by Bailey Zimmerman.
00:12:54That was one of the first songs that Ethan and I had memorized together.
00:12:58Broken heart, I'm a walking testimony.
00:13:00My confession is a wisdom that I'm pulling out in this song.
00:13:05I appreciated Ethan just for being just a goofball.
00:13:09You know, I mean, he was just funny as all hell.
00:13:12We knew Ethan and Xana liked each other.
00:13:15Me and Emily were like, they're going to be together.
00:13:18I know they like each other.
00:13:20And Xana was like, no, no, no.
00:13:22And then Xana ended up being like, oh, he's cute.
00:13:27Tell me a little bit about watching Ethan and Xana.
00:13:32They were both such similar people.
00:13:34Like, they were both very outgoing and just fun to be around.
00:13:40Anytime they walked in a room, it was just kind of like, everyone would be like, oh, Ethan and Xana.
00:13:43So it was kind of cool just to see them hang around.
00:13:46They always just kind of brought that same energy anywhere they went.
00:13:49It was an energy they also brought into singing a Luke Combs song.
00:13:57Or camping with their friends and spending time with Ethan's family.
00:14:02I liked her from the beginning.
00:14:06I remember one time you told Ethan that you could see him with her or something.
00:14:11Do you remember that?
00:14:12Yeah.
00:14:13I think that clicked for him.
00:14:16It's like my mom likes her.
00:14:17After visiting the triplets in early November, Stacey posts on Instagram, it's November 6th.
00:14:25She writes, best day.
00:14:28And they leave feeling like the kids are starting to find their footing as young adults.
00:14:34It was just an amazing weekend.
00:14:35We had lunch with Xana on Friday.
00:14:38We ate at Mad Greek.
00:14:39Going to the football games and just hanging out with all those kids.
00:14:43You know, it was fun.
00:14:44And we drove away that weekend.
00:14:48We just were like, we've done it.
00:14:51We have three independent, self-sufficient kids.
00:14:57It was an amazing weekend.
00:14:58It was just an amazing weekend.
00:15:03It's just after that weekend on November 7th that according to a post on her sister's Instagram,
00:15:10Xana turns in this English essay.
00:15:12And it talks about having just seen a show with a bunch of her closest friends.
00:15:18And she wrote, it was amazing getting to experience one of my favorite songs with some of my best friends.
00:15:25That is one of the most important things you can do in life.
00:15:29Enjoy the ride, not the destination.
00:15:31She really liked living in the moment.
00:15:35She always wanted to be doing something.
00:15:37And as Xana and her friends are savoring that college life, a student just across the state line is having a very different experience.
00:15:49Koberger started to get a really bad reputation on campus.
00:15:54He was starting to really lose control of his life.
00:15:56What do we know now about the criminology student whose work went beyond the classroom?
00:16:04His eyes really opened up when he's talking about Jeffrey Dahmer or BTK or Ted Bundy.
00:16:10What do I know about the
00:16:14I'm sorry about that.
00:16:17I'm sorry for you.
00:16:19I have no promise.
00:16:21No passage at all for you.
00:16:22I don't know if you know.
00:16:32I mean, me.
00:16:33I'm sorry.
00:16:332,500 miles away from Moscow, Idaho, are the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania.
00:16:59This is a rural community in Pennsylvania.
00:17:01It's really a lot of skiing and resort-type communities.
00:17:06There's approximately 160,000 people living here, so it's a really backcountry sort of
00:17:11place in Pennsylvania.
00:17:13It's also where a young Brian Koberger grew up.
00:17:16He lived in this Monroe County home with his father Michael, a maintenance worker, his
00:17:21mother Mary Ann, who worked in education, and his two older sisters.
00:17:28What kind of household was Brian Koberger raised in?
00:17:31I would call his household an everyday common household.
00:17:37His parents were extremely involved in his life.
00:17:39I think even over the course of the last three years, he spoke daily with them.
00:17:44Tell me about education for Brian.
00:17:46Brian went to Pleasant Valley School District.
00:17:49It's on the west end of the Poconos.
00:17:51He attended middle school there.
00:17:55He then moved on to the senior high school.
00:17:58What kind of student was he?
00:18:01I'd say based upon what I've learned about the case, Brian was an average student in middle
00:18:06school, and I think he advanced while he got into high school.
00:18:13On the surface, Brian appeared to have a pretty ordinary childhood, but when you talk to people
00:18:19who knew him, this quiet young man seemed to be struggling socially.
00:18:24Brian was an overweight kid growing up.
00:18:28It's come to light that some people that were on the same bus as him said that people would
00:18:33throw stuff at him because of his weight.
00:18:36They would make fun of him.
00:18:38We had issues being picked on when he was overweight, and as it progressed into high school, he got
00:18:43isolated from his friends that he had at that time.
00:18:47Every information we had was socially awkward, very few relationships, you know, as far as
00:18:55never really had what I would consider to be a girlfriend.
00:19:02I will say though that he was kind of skittish in a way.
00:19:05He didn't really want to talk to people, not very social.
00:19:09A lot of things changed in his life.
00:19:12He had gone through a transformation.
00:19:14And are you talking about a physical transformation?
00:19:16Both physically, mentally, and I think just generally in life.
00:19:20He was overweight and he had lost a considerable amount of weight heading into maybe his 9th grade
00:19:25or 10th grade year.
00:19:28When he started losing the weight and trimming down, he liked to do boxing or he worked out
00:19:33at the local gym.
00:19:35We had a trainer that he grew very fond of.
00:19:38And was that important in his life?
00:19:40Based upon everything that I've learned, it was very important.
00:19:42It kept him losing the weight, steaming forward, better improving his life.
00:19:47But that newer, thinner, more athletic version, Brian 2.0 if you will, also masked a deeper,
00:19:59much more troubling turn in his life.
00:20:02We know from our investigation into him and we had looked at his past and we know that
00:20:06he had some struggles with drug use earlier in his life.
00:20:11We find a history of an arrest in 2014.
00:20:15So of that history of arrest, we can get police reports.
00:20:19And part of the thing that came out of the police report said that there was a heroin addiction
00:20:23at the time.
00:20:27According to police reports that were reviewed by ABC News, in February of 2014, Brian Koberger
00:20:34had recently exited a rehab center and rejoined his family.
00:20:39And while he's home from rehab, Brian took his sister's iPhone.
00:20:43He called me to come pick him up and he wanted to sell a phone.
00:20:47In July of 2023, I spoke with a former classmate of Koberger's and he says he was unwittingly
00:20:53roped in to help Koberger.
00:20:57At his request, we're only using his first name.
00:21:03So you're saying that you were leaving a party and he called you?
00:21:08Yeah, he called me to come pick him up and to go like sell a phone somewhere.
00:21:12And I was just like, OK.
00:21:14There's documents that ABC, myself included, have seen that show he stole his sister's phone.
00:21:20Oh, I didn't even know all that.
00:21:23So you thought he was trying to sell his own phone?
00:21:25Yeah.
00:21:26And at this time, did you know he had just gotten out of rehab?
00:21:29That I did not know either.
00:21:31Why do you think he was trying to sell that phone?
00:21:33Oh, we were trying to get something with it.
00:21:36That was the goal for sure.
00:21:39His father turned him in because at that point they were kind of at their wit's end for dealing
00:21:43with the substance abuse addiction.
00:21:46Those same police reports, again reviewed by ABC News, confirm that Koberger was charged
00:21:52with misdemeanor theft.
00:21:53But local officials told us that he didn't serve any jail time.
00:21:58And what about the family dynamics at that time?
00:22:00I think the family supported him throughout the entire process.
00:22:06His family would say that they believed him to be sober ever since high school.
00:22:11Obviously that evolution led to him getting higher education, doing better in schooling,
00:22:17focused more on something that he really wanted to do, which was criminology.
00:22:21When he graduated high school I think he actually got a security job right out of high school
00:22:29working for Pleasant Valley School District.
00:22:33He then transitioned after a year or two and he did attend Northampton County Community College
00:22:38where his interest in criminology grew.
00:22:40So he goes to Northampton Community College and then from there goes to DeSales?
00:22:45He goes to DeSales University to finish his degree, which this is an individual that appeared
00:22:50to be highly intelligent and turned his life around.
00:22:55According to a pre-trial motion that was submitted by defense attorneys, the doctors had recently
00:22:59diagnosed Koberger as being on the autism spectrum along with OCD and in the filing they also
00:23:05state Mr. Koberger has met the criteria for this diagnosis since childhood.
00:23:12Koberger's defense team said that he suffered from autism spectrum disorder.
00:23:18Is that something the family thought he also suffered from?
00:23:21I don't know if the family thought that he suffered from a disorder.
00:23:27So what provokes a person who appears to have overcome a difficult adolescence to then murder
00:23:33four people?
00:23:35And how did his life take a turn when Koberger left Pennsylvania to pursue his Ph.D. at Washington
00:23:41State University?
00:23:44Professors said if we give him a Ph.D. we're going to end up seeing on the news that he's
00:23:48committing some kind of crime.
00:23:49We all probably wish we had a friend like Maddie and Kaylee were to each other.
00:24:09In August of 2022, five young women, including Kaylee Gonsalves and Madison Mogan, all move
00:24:15into a house together.
00:24:17It's just off campus, right here on King Road.
00:24:21Kaylee and Maddie met in sixth grade and they were always at each other's house or at Kaylee's
00:24:28sister's house.
00:24:30They were more than best friends, they were even more than sisters.
00:24:33They were absolutely each other's everything through thick and thin.
00:24:38So that's Maddie at Christmas when she was just little and she looked so excited.
00:24:45Maddie, Maddie Mae we called her.
00:24:48She was our first and only child that we ever had and she was such a happy baby, just super
00:24:56easy and fun and smart and was just the joy of all of our lives.
00:25:03Maddie's dad Ben and her mom Karen divorced when Maddie was really little.
00:25:07Karen then married Scott Laramie, who raised and loved Maddie as his own.
00:25:13And together they appear in the Prime Video docuseries, One Night in Idaho, The College
00:25:17Murders.
00:25:18Maddie was Karen's mini me.
00:25:22They looked alike and they acted alike and everything.
00:25:27For a long time she just called me Scotty, you know.
00:25:30And then when she got older, it just made me feel so proud to be called dad.
00:25:37I was a very young mother, I was 22.
00:25:41So I was always so protective of Madison.
00:25:45This beautiful, peaceful little girl.
00:25:49I never let Maddie cry, like never.
00:26:00Kaylee is the daughter of Steve and Christy Gonsalves.
00:26:04She's the middle child of five kids, including her older sister Olivia.
00:26:08And they grew up together near Coeur d'Alene.
00:26:12I remember the day Kaylee was born.
00:26:14I was about four and a half years older than Kaylee.
00:26:20And you're a big sister, but you also ended up being best friends.
00:26:25What was it like to watch her evolve and become a young woman?
00:26:29It was the best, uh, from the moment Kaylee was born.
00:26:34She was ornery, stubborn, a spitfire, so confident, so sure of herself.
00:26:42There was no timid bone in her body.
00:26:45Kaylee was the middle child and she's your classic middle child syndrome.
00:26:49She tried to be really sweet at first, and when she knew you liked her, then she could
00:26:53be a little bit more herself, which was a little ornery and do a prank on you or...
00:26:58Kaylee was funny.
00:26:59Kaylee is this bubbly, smiley girl, and Maddie's always been described as just a little bit
00:27:05quieter.
00:27:06Yeah.
00:27:07How did they click?
00:27:08I think that something in Kaylee's soul recognized something in Maddie's and vice versa, and it
00:27:14was never...
00:27:16It was never a question.
00:27:18Because as quiet as Maddie maybe was when they first met, man, man, she blossomed.
00:27:26And they complimented each other.
00:27:36You wouldn't see Kaylee without Madison.
00:27:43You wouldn't see Madison without Kaylee.
00:27:45My name is Donna Staub.
00:27:47I'm an English teacher at Lake City High School.
00:27:50And I had Kaylee and Madison in an English class when they were juniors in 2017.
00:27:59So it was probably my second class of the day, if I remember correctly.
00:28:04And these two girls walked in just talking and laughing, life of the party.
00:28:09Her mom made it a point, too, that she was like, I just want her to have one friend that she
00:28:14can depend on.
00:28:16I don't care about her being super popular.
00:28:18She's just...
00:28:19I just...
00:28:20If this could be the friend, and it just worked out that way.
00:28:23So then when college comes, they were like, we're going to go to college together.
00:28:28During high school, they mentioned it early on, they were going to go off to college together.
00:28:32That was their plan.
00:28:34Living near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, they were just about 85 miles or so from the University
00:28:38of Idaho campus.
00:28:40It's not until 2022 that Kaylee and Maddie live together.
00:28:46They move into that house on King Road with their friends.
00:28:50Kaylee and Maddie were always at each other's houses, but this was the first time they'd
00:28:54really gotten to live together and be roommates for real.
00:28:59That was definitely just a house where we all got to hang out and feel welcome.
00:29:02And you know, we would have parties.
00:29:04Everyone who lived there just liked to have a good time, and so they'd always invite people
00:29:07over.
00:29:08That usually turned into some sort of social gathering, maybe a party.
00:29:13But I mean, it was always people that everyone knew, so everyone could just go there and feel
00:29:20safe.
00:29:21We were college kids.
00:29:22You're still innocent.
00:29:23You're like, nah, nothing's going to happen.
00:29:30By their senior year, Maddie and Kaylee were looking forward to graduation, starting their
00:29:35next chapter.
00:29:38In mid-November in Moscow, it starts to get really cold.
00:29:40It's getting dark earlier.
00:29:42There's a chill in the air.
00:29:47And soon, the lives of everyone in that house would be forever linked by tragedy, a tragedy
00:29:54no one could have ever imagined.
00:29:57Once the cops showed up and the ambulance arrived, we all were, where's Kaylee and Maddie?
00:30:02Where's Kaylee and Maddie?
00:30:03We were calling them.
00:30:04We were texting them.
00:30:05We were, you know, no answers.
00:30:07Let them know.
00:30:22In May of 2022, 27-year-old Brian Koberger graduates from DeSales University.
00:30:44He's seen in this commencement video getting a master's degree in criminal justice.
00:30:49My name is Josh Ferraro. I knew Brian Koberger from our time at DeSales University.
00:30:55We were paired up for this long project. We were all picking partners, and he was someone who was still there.
00:31:00So I said, hey, do you want to be my partner? And yeah, that's how we met.
00:31:05He's like, yeah, you know, my mission is to be a cop, something I want to do.
00:31:08But he didn't delve too much into his personal life.
00:31:12This guy's a lonely guy, keeping him himself.
00:31:15I invited him to one of my parties one time, and he's like, no, I'm good, man.
00:31:17And I'm like, all right, the offer is there, but no problem. Like, it's just trying to be nice.
00:31:23One of the classes the two men share as undergrads is psychological sleuthing.
00:31:29And it's taught by the renowned professor of forensic psychology, Dr. Catherine Ramsland.
00:31:34My area of expertise is extreme offenders, serial killers, mass murderers, but primarily serial killers.
00:31:412020 spoke with Dr. Ramsland back in 2019 about her work studying the serial killer known as BTK.
00:31:49I think BTK is a very useful example of somebody who can grow up in a fairly normal childhood and become a serial killer.
00:31:59In that class, you study mass murderers, you study serial killers, and she really delves into the psyche of their mind.
00:32:05Brian Koberger was really, really invested in the class.
00:32:10He took really quick notes, and he'd ask a lot of questions.
00:32:13His eyes really opened up when he's asking a question or getting to the answer, talking about Jeffrey Dahmer or BTK or Ted Bundy.
00:32:22He was very proud of his intellect.
00:32:24While at DeSales, Koberger conducts a Reddit survey for an academic research project, looking to understand the mind of a criminal.
00:32:33He put an online request to speak to convicted criminals to discuss the emotions they were feeling and decision-making that they went through when they were committing crimes.
00:32:48How did they choose their victims? All this stuff.
00:32:50In June of 2022, Koberger moves across the country to Pullman, Washington, pursuing a PhD in criminology at Washington State University.
00:33:02The University of Idaho and Washington State University are located just seven miles from each other.
00:33:09The student body are constantly traversing to come over to the different areas, whether it be for classes or social.
00:33:14There is definitely a crossover with the two universities. We're all one big community.
00:33:23At 27 years old, Koberger has never lived on his own before, and he moves across the country and lives here in this off-campus apartment complex.
00:33:31He spends the summer exploring the region, taking some of those selfies just released by authorities.
00:33:39And making several trips across the state line into Moscow.
00:33:44His cell phone records would later show that his phone pinged off a tower in that area 23 times in the months before the murders.
00:33:52He even gets pulled over one night in August.
00:33:57Hey there. I stopped you going a little fast.
00:33:59He's accused of speeding on the Pullman-Moscow Highway.
00:34:03Were you wearing your seatbelt when I stopped you?
00:34:05No.
00:34:06No?
00:34:08That's no good.
00:34:10Right.
00:34:12Just being honest with you.
00:34:13Yeah, I appreciate that.
00:34:14Um, you guys are, there's absolutely no point in not being honest.
00:34:21After the officer tells Koberger he's getting a $10 seatbelt citation, Koberger has some questions for the officer.
00:34:29I'm obviously an honest person, right? I told you I wasn't wearing my seatbelt.
00:34:32Uh-huh.
00:34:32When people lie to you about that, say I lied to you about that, right?
00:34:36Mm-hmm.
00:34:36My own knowledge.
00:34:38Mm-hmm.
00:34:38Do you honestly go back and look at that?
00:34:41Koberger accepting the citation.
00:34:43All right. Have a good night.
00:34:47Tell me what the internship was that Brian Koberger applied for.
00:34:52So it was actually part of WSU's criminal justice Ph.D. program where the student would be embedded in the police department to conduct research.
00:35:02How would you describe how he communicated with you?
00:35:05Um, just awkward. Just a little bit socially inept, perhaps.
00:35:09I didn't feel he could develop rapport and trust with my staff.
00:35:13Didn't really speak in a fluid, conversational manner.
00:35:17And so for those reasons, I didn't think he'd be a good fit for us.
00:35:20But Koberger does get a position as a teaching assistant at the university, which helps pay for his tuition.
00:35:26He was the T.A. for my Criminal Justice 420 class, which was Criminal Procedures.
00:35:33He was a little bit more strict with his grading.
00:35:36He gave several comments of feedback, you know, like saying, oh, well, this is a little bit too broad.
00:35:41This is not descriptive enough. Stuff like that.
00:35:44Brian Koberger was pretty quiet. He didn't really talk too much.
00:35:47He kind of didn't really look at us directly.
00:35:49And he just seemed really kind of awkward.
00:35:53And outside of class, Koberger doesn't appear to be very social.
00:35:57He was a loner.
00:35:59Jared and Heather Barnhart analyzed Koberger's digital life, including his cell phone and computer records for investigators.
00:36:06He had 18 total contacts in his phone.
00:36:10One person was labeled as maintenance and another was AT&T.
00:36:14There were no texts to friends. It was just his parents.
00:36:18He called them mother and father, even through text message.
00:36:22He would say, mother, where is father?
00:36:25Why isn't father answering me?
00:36:27And she would respond, your dad is in the garage, Brian. He's working.
00:36:31It was all mother and father, hours of talking, text messaging.
00:36:37And we found all those selfies.
00:36:40Like very much staged selfies, trying to catch himself in a certain manner.
00:36:46It's not weird that he was taking selfies.
00:36:48The weird part is that he never did something with it.
00:36:51He didn't take a selfie to send it to someone else.
00:36:54As the semester progresses, instructors at WSU start to raise concerns about Koberger's conduct in the program.
00:37:02Koberger started to get a really bad reputation on campus.
00:37:06Sometime in November, I remember the professor saying,
00:37:09hi, so I'm switching some of my TAs.
00:37:13He didn't get any more in-depth.
00:37:15He didn't seem to respect female professors with showing up late to class,
00:37:19having some weird social problems where like he would block doorways when students were trying to talk to him.
00:37:26They felt uncomfortable around him.
00:37:28They felt that he would try to, at times, trap them.
00:37:32And there were lots of allegations that he was bothering girls.
00:37:34And this is especially problematic when there's a power dynamic.
00:37:38There was a common complaint of he's very controlling, that he's manipulative,
00:37:43that he treated women a certain way compared to men.
00:37:48Disrespect just had an odd, strange behavior.
00:37:50The university was on to him.
00:37:53Professors said, we need to cut funding from this guy.
00:37:56If we give him a PhD, he's going to become a professor.
00:37:59And we're going to end up seeing on the news that he's stalking women or he's committing some kind of crime.
00:38:05He received an email describing that he was on a performance improvement plan with the university in this role.
00:38:10It was somewhat satisfactory, but there were some problems.
00:38:13WSU did not intend to have him back as a teaching assistant.
00:38:18He was starting to really lose control of his life, kind of spinning out.
00:38:23Away from home, isolated.
00:38:25Koberger is about to turn his PhD work into reality.
00:38:30He goes from a student to a killer.
00:38:32Is it somebody that trains and practices over and over and over and over again,
00:38:37and then at some point, do they feel like they have to execute?
00:38:41Like a sick way of carrying out his thesis.
00:38:46Right.
00:38:56Where's she at? Where's she at?
00:38:59Where at?
00:38:59We're at 34.
00:39:00Hunter Johnson came up to me and I was like, where's Ethan and Xana?
00:39:04And he's like, they're not here anymore.
00:39:07I was like, what do you mean they're not here anymore?
00:39:08He's like, I think they were murdered last night.
00:39:13He was like, yeah, all four.
00:39:17We were like, what?
00:39:19It doesn't make no sense.
00:39:21Out of the murders of those four college students from the University of Idaho.
00:39:24And now, what happened minute by minute?
00:39:28You go into Xana's room.
00:39:30What did you see?
00:39:31Stabbing is close, personal, long term.
00:39:36You've got to be committed.
00:39:38The number of times that Kaylee was stabbed.
00:39:42There's no sugarcoating it.
00:39:44The first person to find them.
00:39:46As soon as you get there, you know something's wrong.
00:39:50And a survivor who saw the killer in the house.
00:39:53The third time she opens her door, she sees a male figure.
00:39:57I just shut the door and locked in.
00:39:59I said he knew what to do.
00:40:01Now, just released inside his home and his mind.
00:40:06He was on a website called Serial Killer Timelines.
00:40:10And he just went down this list and clicked one after another after another.
00:40:15And the police body camera from the crime scene.
00:40:17I think we have a homicide.
00:40:18Secure the outside first.
00:40:20He made an absolutely critical mistake.
00:40:23What was the target?
00:40:27Just over the hill is the University of Idaho campus.
00:40:44This is Greek Row, the Sigma Chi house right there.
00:40:48And as you cross the street, you enter that off-campus housing.
00:40:51And this area in particular is really popular.
00:40:54Students sort of pass down the houses from generation to generation.
00:40:57And in August of 2022, this is where five young girls moved in together.
00:41:03They're full of optimism, excited about life.
00:41:06And they're posting videos showing all of it online.
00:41:09And I wake up and now
00:41:10Don't see your name on my phone
00:41:12It's the moment that I think that I'm better alone
00:41:16We just called it the older girls' house.
00:41:20Maddie stayed there.
00:41:22And then Kaylee moved there.
00:41:24And then Zanna moved there.
00:41:26And then Bethany Dillon moved there.
00:41:28And the sixth housemate was Kaylee's golden doodle.
00:41:32His name was Murphy.
00:41:34She was really excited to have the house dog.
00:41:37That's what she called it.
00:41:38Everything I like to do with my dog.
00:41:40The King Road house was a three-story white house
00:41:45Right in the middle of Party Central.
00:41:49The house is three levels.
00:41:50It has six bedrooms.
00:41:52Two on each floor.
00:41:54Bethany's bedroom is on the first floor.
00:41:57Zanna and Dillon's bedrooms are on the second floor.
00:41:59Along with the kitchen and the sliding glass door leading out to the porch.
00:42:06Kaylee and Madison's bedrooms are on the third floor.
00:42:10And Ethan was over at the King Road house a lot.
00:42:14It was always friends of Ethan that would go over.
00:42:18Friends of Zanna.
00:42:19Friends of Kaylee and Maddie.
00:42:21There was never anybody who shouldn't have been there.
00:42:25People didn't really have any interest in going into houses where they didn't know anybody.
00:42:30It was a party neighborhood.
00:42:32Just in the sense that, like, you walked over to that area on Friday and Saturday nights
00:42:37listening for where people might be at, and then you see someone you know, you wander over.
00:42:47It's Saturday, November 12th.
00:42:50It's the last home game for the University of Idaho Vandals.
00:42:53Celebration is in the air.
00:42:54Students start tailgating early.
00:42:56We had a lot of pre-games before the football games.
00:43:01If the game was early, we would try and wake up early.
00:43:05Zanna would usually be FaceTiming me, trying to wake me up, be like, hurry up.
00:43:08Like, let's go.
00:43:09I had gotten texts from Ethan being like, why aren't you here yet?
00:43:12So I was like, okay, I won't keep you waiting any longer.
00:43:15The house on King, it was the cutest place to take pictures.
00:43:20Like, you could go on the third floor patio.
00:43:24That patio was the scene of so many happy moments.
00:43:28Maddie's mom, Karen Laramie, shared those moments in the Prime Video docuseries,
00:43:33One Night in Idaho, The College Murders.
00:43:37Kaylee texted me with the picture of Maddie on her shoulders.
00:43:41Just loving this amazing, happy moment.
00:43:45I called Maddie, and she put me on FaceTime.
00:43:48And then I was having a conversation with all of them.
00:43:52Kaylee Gonzalez posted this last photo to Instagram, writing,
00:43:56One lucky girl to be surrounded by these people every day.
00:44:02We were with our whole friend group, which was a normal weekend for us.
00:44:06We were just hanging out with our friends.
00:44:08And then from there, we all kind of split off.
00:44:11And we were like, bye, I love you.
00:44:13Gave each other a hug.
00:44:15The triplets, they went to Maisie's formal.
00:44:17I think Xana just waited for Ethan, probably.
00:44:20Ethan spent the beginning part of that night at the Betty's Ball with his sister.
00:44:25From there, he left with me back to Sigma Chi.
00:44:29The party continued after the formal.
00:44:32And Ethan really wanted you to come party.
00:44:35So he started off by texting me, I think he said,
00:44:37Dog, come hang out. We all want you here.
00:44:40And it was like spam texting me.
00:44:42And I said, I'm going to bed, I think.
00:44:44It was like nine.
00:44:45Or I'm not going to go.
00:44:47And then he said, love you.
00:44:49And I didn't even respond to that.
00:44:51I think I was asleep by then.
00:44:53And the I love you kind of stood out, though.
00:44:57Well, yeah.
00:44:57Yeah, definitely.
00:44:59Because you didn't just normally text that to each other.
00:45:02Yeah.
00:45:07After the game, Kaylee and Maddie head down to the corner club.
00:45:12It's a big hangout for college students.
00:45:15They're having some drinks, hanging out with friends.
00:45:18And then they decide they need a snack, so they head downtown.
00:45:21And they order mac and cheese from the grub truck.
00:45:25We live in this world right now where there are cameras everywhere.
00:45:31So we know that Kaylee and Maddie were at the food truck around 1.30 in the morning.
00:45:37Maddie was running around in that huge jacket, hugging people.
00:45:41Kaylee was just on her phone, just laughing at Maddie.
00:45:45And she was just smiling.
00:45:47She was, they were happy.
00:45:49They were so happy.
00:45:49Maddie and Kaylee get a ride back to the King Road house using a rideshare.
00:45:56And by 2 a.m., everyone's home.
00:45:58They're settling in for the night.
00:46:00It's like a sleepover.
00:46:01Kaylee sleeps in Maddie's bed, just like they've done since they were kids.
00:46:06But Zanna stays up.
00:46:09Zanna orders DoorDash.
00:46:11And it gets delivered to the King Road house a little after 4 a.m.
00:46:15She takes it up to the kitchen, puts some of her food onto a plate.
00:46:19And she's eating that in her bedroom.
00:46:22She's on social media, the latest of 4.12 and just shortly after that.
00:46:29Everything seemed so normal in that home on King Road.
00:46:33But by the next morning, nothing would ever be the same.
00:46:38Emily got a call from Dylan around 11-ish.
00:46:43That's when I felt like I needed to go over.
00:46:47And then what happened next?
00:46:49I went into the house.
00:46:53I don't know what location of your emergency.
00:46:56Hi, something is happening.
00:46:58Something happened to my house.
00:46:59We don't know what.
00:47:01We were in complete panic.
00:47:02It's, this is, this is real.
00:47:05By 2 a.m., all the roommates are back home and settling in for the night.
00:47:22Police say around 3 a.m., shortly after leaving his apartment and heading towards Moscow,
00:47:28Brian Koberger turns his cell phone off.
00:47:30We can see Koberger's car on footage captured by a surveillance camera that was at the neighbor's house.
00:47:41He keeps circling the area.
00:47:43He's making multiple passes at the house.
00:47:46We believe that Brian Koberger entered the house sometime shortly after his last scene on the video.
00:47:57Somewhere probably around 4.10 a.m.
00:48:00Police say Koberger entered through a sliding glass door in the back of the house.
00:48:04Investigators believe Zanna was in her room with her boyfriend, Ethan, asleep in her bed.
00:48:10Dylan's across the hall.
00:48:11Bethany downstairs.
00:48:13And on the third floor, Kaylee and Maddie had fallen asleep together in Maddie's room.
00:48:19Zanna was up.
00:48:22We see activity from her watch of just steps that were taken.
00:48:26We know that she's eating.
00:48:27She's on social media at 4.12 and just shortly after that.
00:48:31After entering the house, investigators believe Koberger walked through the kitchen
00:48:35and went upstairs to the third floor, where he found Kaylee and Maddie together asleep.
00:48:43Kaylee and Maddie were both killed very quickly, but they were stabbed repeatedly many times.
00:48:53Stabbing is close, personal, long-term, violent action.
00:48:59You've got to be committed to do a homicide.
00:49:07What investigators think happened is that Zanna heard the commotion.
00:49:11At some point, Zanna comes, we believe, up the stairs.
00:49:17Brian Koberger either hears something or he hears the stairs.
00:49:21Something alerts him and takes him away from what he's doing in that bedroom.
00:49:26Investigators say Zanna turned and ran and that Koberger followed, chasing her downstairs to her bedroom.
00:49:37Zanna, after that initial contact in the doorway, she's fighting him.
00:49:42We know that because she has defensive wounds all over herself.
00:49:45She fought like hell.
00:49:47And we think at that point, he realizes that there's a fourth person, and that's Ethan that's in the bed.
00:49:53So he reaches over and stabs Ethan and killed Ethan instantly.
00:49:59He continues to fight with Zanna and ends up on the floor, where ultimately he does finally kill her.
00:50:05At 4.17 a.m., less than 10 minutes after investigators believe Brian Koberger entered the house,
00:50:13the neighbor's surveillance camera captures what police describe as a loud thud, the sound of a whimper, and a dog barking.
00:50:22That camera is just about 50 feet from Zanna's bedroom.
00:50:26In Zanna's room, some things were pushed around, were moved around, and I think that's something that you're probably hearing on the video.
00:50:36Because she was fighting.
00:50:37Right.
00:50:39After Koberger walks out of Zanna's room, he then comes face to face with another one of her roommates.
00:50:46It's Dylan.
00:50:48Dylan was awakened by just some type of noises.
00:50:50Initially, she thought it was the dog, Murphy.
00:50:57Then she thought she heard a male voice say, I'm here to help you.
00:51:02We believe that is Brian Koberger saying that to Zanna.
00:51:06He's doing something to try to calm her, to make her relax of who he is and why he's in this residence.
00:51:13Dylan, as she had overheard multiple things throughout this time period, she had opened her door a couple different times.
00:51:20The third time she opens her door, she sees a male figure.
00:51:26The description was a thin, tall individual wearing a mask, almost described as a basketball player physique and bushy eyebrows.
00:51:36She momentarily saw him.
00:51:40And then he turned and he left the residence.
00:51:44He knows people were awake, probably believing at some point somebody called the police.
00:51:47I've got to get out of here.
00:51:51The fight with Zanna could have just wiped him.
00:51:55We'll never know what made him pass that door up and head out.
00:52:02After that, Dylan is terrified.
00:52:04She starts texting Bethany, her roommate.
00:52:06Did you hear that?
00:52:07I'm trying to call the other roommates.
00:52:09They're not answering.
00:52:10You've got somebody who had been drinking, was in and out of slumber, and somebody walks through in the middle of the night and still wonders in her own mind, did she see it or did she dream it?
00:52:24She makes a mad dash for Bethany's room and decides to run downstairs and spend the rest of the night with Bethany.
00:52:33As night turns into day, everything in Moscow is still quiet.
00:52:42But investigators say that Brian Koberger is awake.
00:52:46He's active.
00:52:47That includes spending more than an hour and a half on the phone with his mom and posing for a selfie, giving a thumbs up.
00:52:54Police say just after 9 a.m., Koberger is on the move, and he's headed back to 1122 King Road.
00:53:04He's not seen anything on the news.
00:53:06I think he certainly would expect this is going to be everywhere immediately.
00:53:11So I think that his curiosity has absolutely gotten to him.
00:53:15And so he goes back to the area, but for all of his training, for all of his things that he's studied, crime scene and serial killers, PhD program for criminology, he made an absolutely critical mistake in that house that night.
00:53:45I woke up in the morning, just kind of like chill Sunday.
00:53:53Emily and Hunter came and were hanging out in my bed with me.
00:53:58And then Dylan called Emily and asked us all to come over.
00:54:06I could overhear what was going on.
00:54:08She sounded freaked out.
00:54:10I just had a gut feeling, and something in me told me that I need to just go.
00:54:15As soon as you get there, you know something's wrong.
00:54:23I walked just right in the door, and Hunter already went up.
00:54:30And then he was like, okay, everybody get out.
00:54:34Hunter finds Zanna and Ethan murdered.
00:54:37But he decides to shield his friends from that reality.
00:54:41And he tells them only that someone inside is unconscious and to call 9-1-1.
00:54:469-1-1, location of your emergency.
00:54:48Hi, something is happening.
00:54:50Something's happening in our house.
00:54:52We don't know what.
00:54:54Just watching Moscow Law Ambulance for unconsciousness, 1122 King Road.
00:54:59I don't think any of us were prepared for that it's four young, completely innocent kids.
00:55:22We have two additional deceased on the third floor.
00:55:38Secure the outside first.
00:55:39There's a back entry.
00:55:41I was going to start taping it all.
00:55:42Here, can you guys go over to the dumpster for me, please?
00:55:50We were just placed on the street to sit down and wait.
00:55:55We were all cold.
00:55:57We were all scared.
00:55:58Our brains just started to continue to spiral.
00:56:01I kept calling her name if she wouldn't answer, and then I saw the guy.
00:56:08Outside, police speak to Dylan.
00:56:10She's distraught.
00:56:12She's the roommate who told police she saw a masked man in the house that night.
00:56:17Describe the guy that you saw.
00:56:19He's a little bit taller than me.
00:56:22I'm almost positive.
00:56:23He's wearing a full black outfit.
00:56:26And he had this mask that was just over his forehead and over his mouth.
00:56:30And he didn't say anything to me, like, at all.
00:56:32I just shut the door and locked it, because I didn't know what to do.
00:56:36And I think he went out, like, the side door, the sliding door in the kitchen that goes out to the backyard.
00:56:42We have footprints going out the back and open door.
00:56:45When we got there, that sliding glass door was left halfway open.
00:56:50You go into Zanna's room.
00:56:52What did you see?
00:56:53Zanna was there.
00:56:57She was laying on the floor.
00:56:58And Ethan was on the bed.
00:57:08I got woken up by my friend.
00:57:11We'd partied pretty hard the night before.
00:57:13He's like, there's a ton of cops over at Zanna's house.
00:57:17I walked over there.
00:57:18I didn't see Ethan outside, so I figured he was inside helping whoever needed to be helped.
00:57:23Okay, do you mind hanging out here, please?
00:57:28Hunter Johnson came up to me, and I was like, where's Ethan and Zanna?
00:57:31And he's like, they're not here anymore.
00:57:33I was like, what do you mean they're not here anymore?
00:57:35He's like, I think they were murdered last night.
00:57:38And you're at the grocery store?
00:57:44I was at the grocery store.
00:57:46Mm-hmm.
00:57:47And I was talking to a friend.
00:57:50Fine.
00:57:50It's okay.
00:57:51And my phone kept ringing, and it was Hunter on the other end.
00:57:59And he just said he's not here, and he kept repeating it.
00:58:03And so I was like, well, go get him.
00:58:05Go find him.
00:58:06And he just kept saying it.
00:58:07And he goes, no, Mom, you don't understand.
00:58:09Ethan and Zanna are not on this earth anymore.
00:58:12I just was like, there's just no way.
00:58:20And I drove down the road and called Jim, and, you know, it makes it real when you have to repeat it.
00:58:28Right.
00:58:29It drives me crazy because I've always wanted to protect my family.
00:58:35And there's really nothing there that I could have done instantly.
00:58:39He was taken.
00:58:48We still didn't know where Kaylee and Maddie were.
00:58:52We didn't know where Murphy was.
00:58:55And then U of I sent the homicide text.
00:59:00Throughout the day, the University of Idaho sent campus-wide text messages with updates on the investigation
00:59:06about a homicide and an unknown suspect.
00:59:09But at 5.17 p.m., students get a text message that says, for the first time, four people have been killed.
00:59:18That was the moment that we knew where Kaylee and Maddie were.
00:59:22The two surviving roommates, Dylan and Bethany, have received a lot of criticism for not calling 911 immediately on the night of the murders.
00:59:38But they both told police they weren't certain that what Dylan thought she saw was real.
00:59:45I told her, Kaylee, I need to come to your room because she was the only one that was answering me.
00:59:49So I just ran down there.
00:59:51And for a second I stopped and I saw Zana passed out.
00:59:54And I thought maybe she was just, like, sleeping or something.
00:59:56I didn't think anything because I was so out of it.
00:59:58And we just fell asleep.
00:59:59And then we woke up this morning and no one was answering.
01:00:02We understand the disbelief that she's going through.
01:00:05What 19-year-old kid is going to come up with and assume what actually happened was happening.
01:00:13Investigators now know they're a few hours behind the killer.
01:00:17But as they walk into Maddie's third floor bedroom, police get their first big break.
01:00:23The comforter's over.
01:00:25The girls take the comforter off.
01:00:27Lo and behold, there's a knife sheath laying right there.
01:00:30They find a sheath for a K-bar-style knife.
01:00:35There's no murder weapon, but the sheath is there.
01:00:39That was definitely the first aha moment.
01:00:42We have something in this house from the joke.
01:00:55Four murdered students.
01:00:58A panicked campus.
01:01:00And now the world's eyes on Moscow, Idaho.
01:01:05Now to the murders of those four college students from the University of Idaho.
01:01:10As investigators try to figure out what happened in that house on King Road.
01:01:14We've told the public very clearly from the beginning that we believe it was a targeted attack.
01:01:20They said, oh, this was a targeted attack, nothing to worry about.
01:01:23And my first question was, but you don't have anybody.
01:01:26That means there's somebody still out there.
01:01:32How could we not worry?
01:01:34We don't want to put our investigation in jeopardy by releasing what we have.
01:01:43The investigation grew massively.
01:01:46We were trying to get every piece of video footage from that day from every surveillance camera in town captured from that night.
01:01:54Right across the street from Zana's bedroom is a house.
01:01:59They have surveillance footage of a white Hyundai Elantra circling the house in the early morning hours of November 13th.
01:02:05We quickly realized that we had this white vehicle during this time, leaving at a very fast, high rate of speed.
01:02:17You can see it is burning out of that neighborhood.
01:02:20So we believed at that point this was the vehicle of our subject.
01:02:25So we narrowed it down to a 2011 to 2016 Elantra.
01:02:31Believe it or not, when we ran Idaho registrations and just looking local, we had over 25,000.
01:02:37The search to track down that car has no limits.
01:02:40We are just wanting to talk to the individuals who are in that vehicle.
01:02:46Investigators also have a crucial piece of evidence found at the crime scene left behind by the killer.
01:02:52A sheath for a K-Bar knife.
01:02:56This knife sheath was found under Matty's body in the bed.
01:03:01Immediately it stood out because it was in stark contrast to the entire house.
01:03:07About four days in, the lab came back and said they had a sole source male DNA found on the button of the knife sheath.
01:03:14But there was no matches in CODIS for that DNA.
01:03:17Once we know we had the DNA from the sheath, then we flew that to Othrum, and then they started to develop and work their part of it.
01:03:29Othrum is a company in which we build technology to basically bring certainty to investigations.
01:03:36Forensic genetic genealogy is a tool that we use to identify someone or find the nearest relative.
01:03:43So, I got a call, and I was asked, what is the fastest that we could produce a result?
01:03:53Kristen was adamant that we get these folks' answers.
01:03:57I can't imagine that being my child and knowing that there's someone out there that could help.
01:04:05We have to help.
01:04:06How fast can we get this DNA?
01:04:08It was a sergeant from the Moscow Police Department who got on a plane in Boise, and they flew directly to Texas and hand-delivered it to Othrum.
01:04:21They brought us down a tube of DNA that was remaining from that knife sheath.
01:04:27That DNA extract contained a lot of DNA.
01:04:30It was not a trace amount of DNA.
01:04:31It was 500 times more DNA than we generally see in our low-quantity DNA cases.
01:04:38The technology at Othrum is then able to build a profile that's uploaded to genealogy databases, which search for people who are connected to that unknown DNA.
01:04:48In this particular case, there was a unique biogeographical ancestry that allowed us to kind of narrow the search even early on.
01:04:56And what we found is that there was a multi-generational American family based in Pennsylvania, genetic relatives that were related to the person we were looking for.
01:05:07While there's a massive, multifaceted investigation working to find him, Ryan Koberger leaves Washington and heads home to Pennsylvania for winter break.
01:05:15He drives across the country with his father in that white Hyundai Elantra.
01:05:20Hello.
01:05:21How you doing?
01:05:22How y'all doing today?
01:05:23So it's a long trip from Moscow, Idaho, all the way to Pennsylvania.
01:05:28Koberger's pulled over twice during this time.
01:05:31Right up on the back end of that van, pulled you over for tailgating.
01:05:34So y'all work at the university there?
01:05:37I actually do work there.
01:05:38And he's pulled over for following a vehicle too closely, both times.
01:05:43By the time the Koberger's arrived back in Pennsylvania, the FBI had taken over that genetic genealogy search from Othram.
01:05:52And just over a month after the murders, investigators get a name.
01:05:57On December 19th, the investigative genealogy team leader calls in and he says,
01:06:01Hey, Darren.
01:06:02He goes, I have a first name for you.
01:06:03It's Brian.
01:06:04And he goes, hey, we also have a last name for you.
01:06:06Koberger.
01:06:07And he drives a white Hyundai Elantra.
01:06:08Once we had his name at that point, immediately we knew that he was in Pennsylvania.
01:06:15When did the surveillance on him start?
01:06:18Immediately.
01:06:20He only left the house three times.
01:06:23And he was noticed to be wearing rubber gloves all the times he had left the house.
01:06:28They need a way to test that DNA.
01:06:31So they pull the trash.
01:06:33The agent on scene had made contact with the trash company to be able to ride the truck to collect the trash.
01:06:44They sort anything that could contain DNA.
01:06:47They found an item in the trash that had male DNA that comes back and says,
01:06:51We have DNA in this trash that is the father of the DNA left on the knife sheet.
01:06:56Once we had the DNA paternity match from the trash pole.
01:07:01From a Q-tip specifically.
01:07:02Yeah.
01:07:03We knew at that point that we had the person whose DNA was on that sheath.
01:07:08At that point, you have what you need to get an arrest warrant for Brian Koberger.
01:07:14And news of an arrest spreads fast.
01:07:17The big story on Action News tonight is a major break in the murder of four Idaho college students.
01:07:22People in this sleepy Poconos community are stunned.
01:07:27We got live feed.
01:07:29We saw the armored vehicles roll in, then make entry, and we get the call out in custody.
01:07:35And we want to get right to our breaking news as we come on the air.
01:07:47The arrest of a 28-year-old man in Pennsylvania in connection with the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students.
01:07:55Nearly seven weeks after the brutal murders, an arrest is finally made.
01:08:00Pennsylvania State Police make that arrest.
01:08:03We've got live feed coming from the helicopter from Pennsylvania State Police.
01:08:07We're getting constantly updated on what's going on, telling us, yes, they've got Brian in the house.
01:08:12We saw the armored vehicles roll in, then make entry, and we get the call out in custody.
01:08:18Detectives arrested 28-year-old Brian Christopher Koberger in Albrightesville, Pennsylvania.
01:08:26Koberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
01:08:31Authorities have not revealed a possible motive just yet.
01:08:41People in this sleepy Poconos community are stunned that one of their own has been arrested in connection with this grisly crime.
01:08:48Agents from the Scranton office of the FBI, after the arrest, interviewed Brian's parents.
01:08:54They were, you know, aghast.
01:08:56We do know there was conversation among the family about, hey, Brian does drive a car like that?
01:09:04Brian, do you think, you know, and it was immediately quashed.
01:09:09There's no way Brian could do this.
01:09:10No way.
01:09:10Nobody can comprehend that their child is capable of something like this.
01:09:17What was his reaction to the national media attention?
01:09:22He was very surprised, actually.
01:09:24He didn't realize that it would garner national media news, I would say.
01:09:29Really?
01:09:30Yeah, it actually was.
01:09:31It was surprising.
01:09:32Because he inquired as to which outlets were actually circling.
01:09:41Police department, search warrant, come to the door.
01:09:44After the arrest, police in Washington searched Koberger's apartment.
01:09:48And in these just-released photos, you can see the Spartan place he left behind.
01:09:53One of the few personal items they found is a birthday card from his parents.
01:09:57He was taken back to the Pennsylvania State Police Barrett's immediately upon being arrested
01:10:06and had given what turned out to be about a two-and-a-half, three-hour statement.
01:10:10It was a significantly long time that he interviewed until he asked for an attorney.
01:10:14What did he tell you about that interview?
01:10:17He was very limited.
01:10:18I didn't want to know a lot about the case
01:10:21because he was going to have an attorney that would represent him on the murder charges.
01:10:27I want to make sure he's aware of how the process is going to play out.
01:10:31I want to make sure he understands that the death penalty may be considered in the case.
01:10:35You thought right away it would be a death penalty case?
01:10:37Oh, absolutely.
01:10:38I had zero doubt.
01:10:42Brian Koberger agreed to be extradited,
01:10:44and he was flown across the country to the Moscow Pullman Airport
01:10:47and then brought here to the Latak County Jail
01:10:49to face murder charges while the world watched on.
01:10:53When they brought him off the plane, people were like,
01:10:57we got him.
01:10:58Thank God he wasn't a local.
01:11:01He wasn't one of us.
01:11:03Koberger's attorneys enter a not guilty plea for him,
01:11:06insisting that he's innocent.
01:11:08But prosecutors decide to pursue the death penalty.
01:11:11And as they prepare for trial, they dig into every part of Koberger's life,
01:11:16particularly his digital life,
01:11:19sifting through his Amazon purchase history that showed he bought a K-bar knife
01:11:23and sharpener back in Pennsylvania.
01:11:25And they look at his cell phone and computer searches
01:11:29right up until the days before his arrest.
01:11:33On Christmas night, the 11 o'clock hour,
01:11:35heading into the very early morning of the 26th,
01:11:38he was on a rudimentary website called Serial Killer Timelines,
01:11:43just a list of hyperlinked names.
01:11:45And he just went down this list and clicked
01:11:47one after another after another for like two hours.
01:11:52December 27th, there's some sort of a show that he watched.
01:11:58It's a YouTube, and it's Ted Bundy sort of standing facing forward
01:12:03with a hood pulled up and over the front.
01:12:06And on 1229, just two days later,
01:12:08he's taking a picture of himself looking like Ted Bundy.
01:12:13And although investigators weren't able to make a direct link
01:12:16between Brian Koberger and any of the victims,
01:12:19those digital forensic experts did find something interesting on his phone.
01:12:25The FBI gave us keywords and said,
01:12:27OK, search for these things.
01:12:28We needed victim names.
01:12:29We needed, what did they call their Wi-Fi?
01:12:32So all these things, we searched for it.
01:12:34And I remember saying to Jared,
01:12:35I have a hit for Mad Greek.
01:12:36Remember, Mad Greek is that Moscow restaurant
01:12:39where Maddie and Zanna both worked.
01:12:41This search for Mad Greek, however he arrived at it,
01:12:45was done through the Google Maps app.
01:12:47What we can say is that Mad Greek was presented to him on his phone.
01:12:53It doesn't necessarily draw a hard line to these victims.
01:12:58Now to the sudden and stunning turn in the Idaho College murders case.
01:13:02After insisting his innocence for nearly three years,
01:13:05defendant Brian Koberger today pleading guilty
01:13:08to fatally stabbing four students.
01:13:10Koberger had maintained his innocence the entire time,
01:13:13but he decided to change his plea from innocent to guilty.
01:13:16That was huge.
01:13:19And as part of that plea deal,
01:13:20prosecutors agree to take the death penalty off the table.
01:13:24We got what we wanted.
01:13:26And we got what the law...
01:13:27When you say we got what we wanted, though,
01:13:30that we does not include all of the victims' families.
01:13:33There are victims' families that have been very public
01:13:36about wanting more, perhaps a taped confession,
01:13:39the location of the murder weapon.
01:13:41You don't feel like you could have asked for those things.
01:13:45There was no legal way we could have compelled those.
01:13:48And quite frankly, there is nothing that he could have said
01:13:52that I think would have been credible or believable.
01:13:54And the minimizing and the lies
01:13:58that would have even been more damaging
01:14:01and frustrating to everybody.
01:14:06You've seen it. Thank you.
01:14:09Without a trial,
01:14:10Koberger moves right to a sentencing hearing.
01:14:13And the loved ones for the victims
01:14:14finally get their own day in court.
01:14:18All right, so with that,
01:14:19let's start with the impact statements.
01:14:22I just wanted to reclaim their power.
01:14:26The truth is,
01:14:27as dumb as they come,
01:14:29sloppy, weak, dirty.
01:14:39Brian Koberger pleaded guilty
01:14:41to four counts of first-degree murder.
01:14:43But he still has to sit and face the families.
01:14:48of his victims.
01:14:49All right, so with that,
01:14:50let's start with the impact statements.
01:14:53The first statement comes
01:14:54from one of the two surviving roommates,
01:14:56Bethany Funk.
01:14:57She's unable to be in the courtroom herself.
01:14:59So her statement is read by her friend
01:15:01and also one of the first people
01:15:03to arrive at the house that day,
01:15:05Emily Alon.
01:15:06I was so frantic that morning
01:15:07and scared to death,
01:15:08not knowing what had happened.
01:15:12And when I made the 911 call,
01:15:14I couldn't even get out the words.
01:15:18And from then on,
01:15:19I don't remember a thing.
01:15:21I wish more than anything
01:15:22I could hug them one last time.
01:15:25And I wish I could tell them
01:15:26how much I love them.
01:15:29I will keep living for them
01:15:30as long as I am lucky enough
01:15:31to still be here.
01:15:34And then,
01:15:35it's the second surviving roommate,
01:15:37Dylan Mortenson.
01:15:39Dylan, just take your time, all right?
01:15:41I was barely 19 when he did this.
01:15:53I was forced to learn
01:15:55how to survive the unimaginable.
01:15:58I couldn't be alone.
01:16:00And then there are the panic attacks.
01:16:03The kind that slam into me
01:16:05like a tsunami out of nowhere.
01:16:07I can't breathe.
01:16:10I can't think.
01:16:13I can't stop shaking.
01:16:15Living is how I honor them.
01:16:18Speaking today
01:16:18is to help me find
01:16:19some sort of justice for them.
01:16:22He may have taken so much from me,
01:16:24but he will never
01:16:25get to take my voice.
01:16:26One after another,
01:16:34family members describe
01:16:35the loved ones they lost.
01:16:40And notably, among them
01:16:42is Kaylee's sister,
01:16:43Olivia Gonsalves.
01:16:45My sister Kaylee
01:16:46and her best friend Maddie
01:16:47were not yours to take.
01:16:50They were not yours to study,
01:16:52to stalk, or to silence.
01:16:54The whole time,
01:16:57I just wanted to
01:16:58reclaim their power,
01:17:01reclaim their voice,
01:17:02especially in a way that,
01:17:04you know, really was
01:17:05the end to this chapter.
01:17:06You got under his skin.
01:17:08Absolutely.
01:17:10Disappointments like you
01:17:11thrive on pain,
01:17:12on fear,
01:17:13and on the illusion of power.
01:17:16The truth is,
01:17:17the scariest part about you
01:17:19is how painfully average
01:17:21you turned out to be.
01:17:22The truth is,
01:17:24as dumb as they come,
01:17:27stupid, clumsy,
01:17:29slow, sloppy,
01:17:31weak, dirty.
01:17:34Did you say everything
01:17:35that you wanted to say?
01:17:37For the most part, yes.
01:17:39I didn't want to break eye contact.
01:17:41So that gaze was so intense,
01:17:45and it really did feel like,
01:17:47like a standoff.
01:17:49You want the truth?
01:17:50Here's the one you'll hate the most.
01:17:53If you hadn't attacked them
01:17:55in their sleep,
01:17:56in the middle of the night,
01:17:57like a pedophile,
01:17:59Kaylee would have kicked
01:18:00your f***ing ass.
01:18:01The Chapin family was not
01:18:11at the sentencing.
01:18:13They chose instead
01:18:14to honor Ethan,
01:18:15privately.
01:18:18Hi!
01:18:20The Chapins recently got to visit
01:18:22that DNA lab
01:18:23that played such a crucial role
01:18:24in solving this case.
01:18:26It came after a chance meeting
01:18:27a few years back.
01:18:28This stranger,
01:18:30who I did not know,
01:18:31came up and she just
01:18:32wrapped her arms around me
01:18:34and hugged me.
01:18:34And she just said,
01:18:35we are working on your case
01:18:36and you don't have to worry.
01:18:38Everything will be okay.
01:18:39Everything's going to be okay.
01:18:40That there will be justice
01:18:41in the outcome.
01:18:43I mean, that was what I was
01:18:43trying to relay.
01:18:44Right.
01:18:45And that's how it felt.
01:18:46Jim and I would rely on that information
01:18:48to, you know,
01:18:49in your toughest days,
01:18:50you were like,
01:18:51Kristen told us not to worry
01:18:53and we, and we use that.
01:18:55The Chapins now want to help advocate
01:18:57for the work being done
01:18:58at this lab.
01:18:59Maybe our,
01:19:00our family could become a face
01:19:01for the victim's side
01:19:03of what these people do.
01:19:05If we can make a positive impact
01:19:06for the future
01:19:08on some level,
01:19:10it's important.
01:19:10I miss him every day.
01:19:14When you lose your son
01:19:15at 20,
01:19:17it's a different loss.
01:19:19And I miss him
01:19:20every single day.
01:19:26Alrighty.
01:19:27It's nice that, you know,
01:19:28when we have so many
01:19:29different photographs
01:19:29and videos
01:19:30and we can still hear
01:19:32their voices.
01:19:33They were some really,
01:19:34really cool people.
01:19:36It helps to remember them
01:19:39and not what happened to them.
01:19:42Hopefully one day
01:19:43they're just seen as
01:19:44who they are
01:19:45and not what happened to them.
01:19:51And just as college
01:19:52is starting again,
01:19:53there's now a memorial garden
01:19:55at the University of Idaho
01:19:56with a plaque bearing the name
01:19:57of each of the four victims.
01:19:59A touching tribute.
01:20:00As for Brian Koberger,
01:20:01David,
01:20:01he received four life sentences,
01:20:04one for each of his victims
01:20:05and an additional
01:20:0610 years for burglary.
01:20:08As part of that plea deal,
01:20:09he waived his right
01:20:10to an appeal.
01:20:11That's our program for tonight.
01:20:12Thanks so much for watching.
01:20:14I'm Deborah Roberts.
01:20:15And I'm David Muir
01:20:15from all of us here
01:20:16at 20, 20 and ABC News.
01:20:18Good night.
01:20:39We'll see you then.
01:20:46I'll see you then.
01:20:47The next time.
01:20:50You
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