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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.
00:16:10He was trying to be a mystery.
00:16:11He was trying to be a little bit too.
00:16:13And he's trying to be a little bit too.
00:16:15He wanted to be a little bit too.
00:16:15It was a little bit too.
00:16:17But I have to be a little bit too.
00:16:19What do we know now about the criminology student whose work is coming from the criminologyììŽì?
00:16:24Let's see.
00:16:26Let's see.
00:16:27He wanted to be a little bit too.
00:16:29Let's see.
00:16:302,500 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.
00:17:48It'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?
00:18:00I'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.
00:18:38He 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, like he didn't really want to talk
00:19:06to 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 ninth
00:19:25grade or 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.
00:19:52But that newer, thinner, more athletic version, Brian 2.0 if you will, also masked a deeper,
00:20:00much 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 had
00:20:34recently exited a rehab center and rejoined his family.
00:20:39And while he's home from rehab, Brian took his sister's iPhone.
00:20:44He called me to come pick him up and he wanted to sell a phone.
00:20:46In 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.
00:21:02So you're saying that you were leaving a party and he called you?
00:21:07Yeah, he called me to come pick him up to go like sell a phone somewhere.
00:21:12And I was just like, okay.
00:21:14There's documents that ABC, myself included, have seen that show he stole his sister's phone.
00:21:21Oh, 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
00:21:42kind of at their wit's end for dealing with the substance abuse addiction.
00:21:45Those same police reports, again reviewed by ABC News, confirm
00:21:50that Koberger was charged with misdemeanor theft.
00:21:53But local officials told us that he didn't serve any jail time.
00:21:57And what about the family dynamics at that time?
00:21:59I think the family supported him throughout the entire process.
00:22:03His 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.
00:22:20When 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,
00:22:48which this is an individual that appeared to be highly intelligent and turned his life around.
00:22:54According to a pre-trial motion that was submitted by defense attorneys,
00:22:58the doctors had recently diagnosed Koberger as being on the autism spectrum along with OCD.
00:23:03And in the filing, they also state Mr. Koberger has met the criteria for this diagnosis since childhood.
00:23:11Brian's defense team said that he suffered from autism spectrum disorder.
00:23:18Is that something the family thought he also suffered from?
00:23:20I don't know if the family thought that he suffered from a disorder.
00:23:25So what provokes a person who appears to have overcome
00:23:30a difficult adolescence to then murder four people?
00:23:35And how did his life take a turn when Koberger left Pennsylvania
00:23:39to pursue his PhD at Washington State University?
00:23:43Professors said if we give him a PhD,
00:23:46we're going to end up seeing on the news that he's committing some kind of crime.
00:23:55We all probably wish we had a friend like Maddie and Kaylee were to each other.
00:24:08In August of 2022, five young women, including Kaylee Gonsalves and Madison Mogan,
00:24:14all move into a house together. It's just off campus, right here on King Road.
00:24:19Kaylee and Maddie met in sixth grade and they were always at each other's house or at Kaylee's sister's house.
00:24:30They were more than best friends. They were even more than sisters. They were
00:24:33absolutely each other's everything through thick and thin.
00:24:38So that's Maddie at Christmas when she was just little. She looked so excited.
00:24:44Maddie, Maddie May, we called her. She was our first and only child that we ever had.
00:24:52And she was such a happy baby, just super easy and fun and smart. And it was just the joy of all of our lives.
00:25:02Maddie'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 Murders.
00:25:19Maddie was Karen's mini me. They looked alike and they acted alike and everything.
00:25:26For a long time, she just called me Scotty, you know, and then when she got older,
00:25:32it just made me feel so proud to be called dad.
00:25:36Maddie was a very young mother. I was 22. So I was always so protective of Madison.
00:25:45This beautiful, peaceful little girl. I never let Maddie cry. Like, never.
00:25:54Kaley is the daughter of Steve and Christy Gonsalves. She's the middle child of five kids,
00:26:06including her older sister, Olivia. And they grew up together near Coeur d'Alene.
00:26:10I remember the day Kaley was born. I was about four and a half years older than Kaley.
00:26:18And you're big sister, but you also ended up being best friends. What was it like to watch her
00:26:27evolve and become a young woman?
00:26:29It was the best. From the moment Kaley was born, she was ornery, stubborn, a spitfire,
00:26:38so confident, so sure of herself. There was no timid bone in her body.
00:26:45Kaley 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 be a little bit
00:26:53more herself, which was a little ornery and would do a prank on you or...
00:26:58Kaley was funny. Kaley is this bubbly, smiley girl. And Maddie's always been described as just
00:27:05a little bit quieter. Yeah. How did they click? I think that something in Kaley's soul recognized
00:27:12something in Maddie's and vice versa. And it was never, it was never a question. Because as quiet
00:27:20as Maddie maybe was when they first met, man, man, she blossomed. And as sharp
00:27:28and bullheaded as Kaley was, man, she softened. And they complimented each other.
00:27:40You wouldn't see Kaley without Madison. You wouldn't see Madison without Kaley.
00:27:45My name is Donna Staub. I'm an English teacher at Lake City High School.
00:27:49And I had Kaley 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. And these two girls walked in
00:28:06just talking and laughing, life of the party. Her mom made it a point too, that she was like,
00:28:12I just want her to have one friend that she can depend on. I don't care about her being super popular.
00:28:18She's just, I just, if this, if this could be the friend and it just worked out that way.
00:28:24So 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. Living near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, they were just about
00:28:3685 miles or so from the University of Idaho campus.
00:28:42It's not until 2022 that Kaley and Maddie live together. They move into that house on King Road
00:28:48with their friends. Kaley and Maddie were always at each other's houses, but this was the first time
00:28:54they'd really gotten to live together and be roommates for real. That was definitely just a house
00:28:59where we all got to hang out and feel welcome. And, 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 over.
00:29:08That usually turned into some sort of social gathering, maybe a party. But, I mean, it was a,
00:29:14it was always people that everyone knew, so everyone could just go there and feel safe.
00:29:20We were college kids. You're still innocent. You're like, nah, nothing's going to happen.
00:29:30By their senior year, Maddie and Kaley were looking forward to graduation,
00:29:34starting their next chapter. In mid-November in Moscow, it starts to get really cold.
00:29:40It's getting dark earlier. There'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 no one
00:29:55could have ever imagined. Once the cops showed up and the ambulance arrived,
00:29:59we all were, where's Kaylee and Maddie? Where's Kaylee and Maddie? We were calling them.
00:30:03We were texting them. We were, you know, no answers.
00:30:29In 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.
00:30:50My 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
00:30:59still there. So I said, hey, do you want to be my partner? And yeah, that's how we met.
00:31:04He's like, yeah, you know, my mission is to like be a cop, something I want to do.
00:31:08But he didn't delve too much into his personal life. This 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. And I'm like,
00:31:18all 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. And it's taught by the
00:31:30renowned professor of forensic psychology, Dr. Katherine Ramsland.
00:31:34My area of expertise is extreme offenders, serial killers, mass murderers, but primarily serial killers.
00:31:422020 spoke with Dr. Ramsland back in 2019 about her work studying the serial killer known as BTK.
00:31:48I think BTK is a very useful example of somebody who can grow up in a fairly normal childhood
00:31:56and become a serial killer. In that class, you study mass murders, you study serial killers,
00:32:02and she really delves into the psyche of their mind. Brian Koberger was really, really invested in
00:32:09the class. He took really quick notes and he'd ask a lot of questions. His eyes really opened up when
00:32:14he's asking a question or we're getting to the answer and talk about Jeffrey Dahmer or BTK or Ted Bundy.
00:32:22He was very proud of his intellect. While at DeSales, Koberger conducts a Reddit survey for an academic
00:32:29research project looking to understand the mind of a criminal. He put an online request to speak to
00:32:36convicted criminals to discuss the emotions they were feeling and decision-making that they went through
00:32:46when they were committing crimes. How did they choose their victims? All this stuff.
00:32:53In June of 2022, Koberger moves across the country to Pullman, Washington, pursuing a PhD in criminology
00:33:00at Washington State University. The University of Idaho and Washington State University are located just
00:33:06seven miles from each other. The student body are constantly traversing to come over to the different
00:33:12areas, whether it be for classes or social. There is definitely a crossover with the two universities.
00:33:18We're all one big community. At 27 years old, Koberger has never lived on his own before,
00:33:27and he moves across the country and lives here in this off-campus apartment complex.
00:33:33He 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. His cell phone records would later show
00:33:46that his phone pinged off a tower in that area 23 times in the months before the murders.
00:33:54He even gets pulled over one night in August.
00:33:56Hey 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?
00:34:04No. No? That's no good.
00:34:09Right. Just being honest with you.
00:34:13Yeah, I appreciate that.
00:34:14You guys are, there's absolutely no point not being honest.
00:34:21After the officer tells Koberger he's getting a $10 seatbelt citation,
00:34:26Koberger has some questions for the officer.
00:34:28I'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.
00:34:37Mm-hmm.
00:34:38Do you honestly go back and look at that?
00:34:40Koberger accepting the citation.
00:34:43All right. Have a good night.
00:34:48Tell me what the internship was that Brian Koberger applied for.
00:34:51So it was actually part of WSU's criminal justice PhD program where the student would be embedded in
00:35:00the police department to conduct research.
00:35:02How would you describe how he communicated with you?
00:35:04I'm just awkward, just a little bit socially inept perhaps. I didn't feel he could develop
00:35:11rapport and trust with my staff and didn't really speak in a fluid conversational manner.
00:35:16And 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,
00:35:25which helps pay for his tuition.
00:35:26He was the TA 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,
00:35:39oh, well, this is a little bit too broad. This 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. And he just seemed really kind of awkward.
00:35:53And outside of class, Koberger doesn't appear to be very social. He was a loner.
00:35:58Jared and Heather Barnhart analyzed Koberger's digital life,
00:36:03including his cell phone and computer records for investigators.
00:36:06He had 18 total contacts in his phone. One person was labeled as maintenance and another was AT&T.
00:36:14There were no texts to friends. It was just his parents.
00:36:17He called them mother and father, even through text message.
00:36:21He would say, mother, where is father? Why isn't father answering me?
00:36:27And she would respond, your dad is in the garage, Brian. He's working.
00:36:32It was all mother and father, hours of talking, text messaging.
00:36:36And 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. The 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
00:36:57start to raise concerns about Koberger's conduct in the program.
00:37:01Koberger 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. He 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. They felt that he would try to,
00:37:30at 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.
00:37:47Disrespect just had an odd, strange behavior.
00:37:51The university was on to him.
00:37:53The professor 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.
00:38:17He was starting to really lose control of his life, kind of spinning out.
00:38:22Away from home, isolated.
00:38:25Koberger is about to turn his PhD work into reality.
00:38:29He 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?
00:38:41It's like a sick way of carrying out his thesis.
00:38:46Right.
00:38:46Where's she at?
00:38:57Where's she at?
00:38:59Where at?
00:39:00We're at 34.
00:39:00Oh yeah.
00:39:01Hunter 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.
00:39:11He 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.
00:39:45As soon as you get there, you know something's wrong.
00:39:49And 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, said he knows 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?
00:40:34Just 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.
00:41:09We just called it the older girls' house.
00:41:20Maddie stayed there, and then Kaylee moved there.
00:41:24And then Zanna moved there.
00:41:25And then Bethany and Dylan moved there.
00:41:27And 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, is what she called it.
00:41:38And everything I like to do with my dog.
00:41:42The King Road house is a three-story white house right in the middle of Party Central.
00:41:49The house is three levels.
00:41:50It has six bedrooms, two on each floor.
00:41:53Bethany's bedroom is on the first floor.
00:41:57Zanna and Dylan's bedrooms are on the second floor,
00:42:00along 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.
00:42:11And Ethan was over at the King Road house a lot.
00:42:13It was always friends of Ethan that would go over, friends of Zanna, friends 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.
00:42:39And then you see someone you know, you wander over.
00:42:43It's Saturday, November 12th.
00:42:50It's the last home game for the University of Idaho Vandals.
00:42:52Celebration is in the air.
00:42:54Students start tailgating early.
00:42:58We had a lot of pregames before the football games.
00:43:01If the game was early, we would try and wake up early.
00:43:04Zanna would usually be FaceTiming me, trying to wake me up, be like, hurry up, like, 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, like you could go on the third
00:43:22floor patio.
00:43:23That patio was the scene of so many happy moments.
00:43:28Maddie's mom, Karen Laramie, shared those moments in the Prime Video docu-series,
00:43:33One Night in Idaho, The College Murders.
00:43:35Kaylee 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.
00:43:51Kaylee 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.
00:44:07And then from there, we all kind of split off.
00:44:10And we were like, bye, I love you.
00:44:13Gave each other a hug.
00:44:13The triplets, they went to Maisie's formal.
00:44:17I think Xana just waited for Ethan, probably.
00:44:19Ethan spent the beginning part of that night at the
00:44:23Betty's Ball with his sister.
00:44:25From there, he left with me back to Sigma Chi.
00:44:30The party continued after the formal.
00:44:31Mm-hmm.
00:44:32And Ethan really wanted you to come party.
00:44:35So he started off by texting me.
00:44:36I think he said, dog, come hang out.
00:44:38We 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, yeah, definitely.
00:44:59Because you didn't just normally text that to each other.
00:45:02Yeah.
00:45:03Yeah.
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.
00:45:19So 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.
00:45:32So we know that Kaylee and Maddie were at the food truck around 1.30 in the morning.
00:45:36Maddie was running around in that huge jacket, hugging people.
00:45:40Kaylee was just on her phone, just laughing at Maddie.
00:45:44And she was just smiling.
00:45:47And she was, they were happy.
00:45:48They were so happy.
00:45:49Maddie and Kaylee get a ride back to the King Road house using a rideshare.
00:45:55And 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.
00:46:14She 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.
00:46:24The latest of 4.12 and just shortly after that.
00:46:29Everything seemed so normal in that home on King Road.
00:46:32But by the next morning, nothing would ever be the same.
00:46:36Emily 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 a location of your emergency.
00:46:55Hi, something is happening.
00:46:58Something happens in our house.
00:46:59We don't know what.
00:47:01We were in complete panic.
00:47:02It's, this is, this is real.
00:47:13And by 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,
00:47:27Brian Koberger turns his cell phone off.
00:47:32We can see Koberger's car on footage captured by a surveillance camera that was at the neighbor's
00:47:39house. He keeps circling the area. He's making multiple passes at the house.
00:47:50We believe that Brian Koberger entered the house sometime shortly after his last scene on the video.
00:47:55Somewhere probably around 4 10 a.m. Police say Koberger entered through a sliding glass door
00:48:03in the back of the house. Investigators believe Zanna was in her room with her boyfriend Ethan
00:48:08asleep in her bed. Dylan's across the hall. Bethany downstairs. And on the third floor,
00:48:15Kaylee and Maddie had fallen asleep together in Maddie's room. Zanna was up. We see activity from
00:48:23her watch of just steps that were taken. We know that she's eating. She's on social media at 4 12
00:48:29and just shortly after that. After entering the house, investigators believe Koberger
00:48:34walked through the kitchen and went upstairs to the third floor where he found Kaylee and Maddie
00:48:40Maddie were both killed very quickly, but they were stabbed repeatedly many times.
00:48:53Stabbing is close, personal, long-term, violent action. You've got to be committed to do a homicide.
00:49:05What investigators think happened is that Zanna heard the commotion.
00:49:12At some point, Zanna comes, we believe, up the stairs. Brian Koberger either hears something
00:49:19or he hears the stairs. Something 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.
00:49:38Zanna, after that initial contact in the doorway, she's fighting him. We know that because she has
00:49:43defensive wounds all over herself. She fought like hell. And we think at that point, he realizes that
00:49:49there's a fourth person and that's Ethan that's in the bed. So he reaches over and stabs Ethan. It
00:49:57killed Ethan instantly. He continues to fight with Zanna and ends up on the floor where ultimately he
00:50:03does finally kill her. At 4 17 AM, less than 10 minutes after investigators believe Brian Koberger
00:50:11entered the house. The neighbor's surveillance camera captures what police describe as a loud thud, the
00:50:17sound of a whimper and a dog barking. That camera is just about 50 feet from Zanna's bedroom.
00:50:29In Zanna's room, some things were pushed around, were moved around. And I think that's something that
00:50:34you're probably hearing on the video. Because she was fighting. Right. After Koberger walks out of
00:50:41Zanna's room, he then comes face to face with another one of her roommates. It's Dylan. Dylan was
00:50:48awakened by just some type of noises. Initially, she thought it was the dog, Murphy. Then she thought
00:50:58she heard a male voice say, I'm here to help you. We believe that is Brian Koberger saying that to
00:51:05Zanna. He's doing something to try to calm her, to make her relax of who he is and why he's in this
00:51:11residence. Dylan, as she had overheard multiple things throughout this time period, she had opened
00:51:18her door a couple different times. The 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,
00:51:33physique, and bushy eyebrows. She momentarily saw him.
00:51:41And then he turned and he left the residence. He knows people were awake, probably believing at
00:51:46some point somebody called the police. I've got to get out of here. The fight,
00:51:52Lizanna, could have just wiped him. We'll never know what made him pass that door up and head out.
00:52:02After that, Dylan is terrified. She starts texting Bethany, her roommate. Did you hear that? I'm trying
00:52:08to call the other roommates. They're not answering. You've got somebody who had been drinking,
00:52:13who was in and out of slumber, and somebody walks through in the middle of the night and still wonders
00:52:21in her own mind. Did she see it or did she dream it? She makes a mad dash for Bethany's room and decides
00:52:30to run downstairs and spend the rest of the night with Bethany. As night turns into day,
00:52:38everything in Moscow is still quiet. But investigators say that Brian Koberger is awake. He's active. That
00:52:47includes spending more than an hour and a half on the phone with his mom and posing for a selfie,
00:52:53giving a thumbs up. Police say just after 9 a.m. Koberger is on the move and he's headed back to 1122 King
00:53:03Rev. He's not seen anything on the news. I think he certainly would expect this is going to be
00:53:09everywhere immediately. So I think that his curiosity has absolutely gotten to him. And so he goes back
00:53:17to the area. But for all this training, for all of his things that he studied, crime scene and serial
00:53:25killers, PhD program for criminology, he made an absolutely critical mistake. And that passed that night.
00:53:33I woke up in the morning just kind of like chill Sunday. Emily and Hunter came and were hanging out in my bed
00:53:57with me. And then Dylan called Emily and asked us all to come over.
00:54:06I could overhear what was going on. She sounded freaked out. I just had a gut feeling and something
00:54:12in me told me that I need to just go. As soon as you get there, you know something's wrong.
00:54:20I walked just right in the door and Hunter already went up.
00:54:29Hunter finds Zana and Ethan murdered. But he decides to shield his friends from that reality.
00:54:41And he tells them only that someone inside is unconscious and to call 911.
00:54:46And I don't know the location of your emergency.
00:54:48Hi, something is happening. Something is happening in our house. We don't know what.
00:54:54Dispatching Moscow law ambulance for unconsciousness. 1122 King Road.
00:55:02Where's she at? Where's she at?
00:55:03I don't think any of us were prepared for that. It's four young, completely innocent kids.
00:55:23Russell, please stop it.
00:55:24We have two additional deceased on the third floor.
00:55:37Secure the outside first. There's a back entry. I was going to start taping it all off.
00:55:43Okay. Here. Can you guys go over to the dumpster for me, please?
00:55:48We were just placed on the street to sit down and wait.
00:55:55We were all cold. We were all scared. Our brains just started to continue to spiral.
00:56:01I kept calling her name and she wouldn't answer. And I saw the guy.
00:56:08Outside, police speak to Dylan. She'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. I'm almost positive. He's wearing a full black outfit.
00:56:26And he had this mask that was just over his forehead and over his mouth. And he didn't say
00:56:31anything to me like at all. I 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.
00:56:44When we got there, that sliding glass door was left halfway open.
00:56:50You go into Xana's room. What did you see?
00:56:52Xana was there.
00:56:57She was laying on the floor.
00:56:58I got woken up by my friend. We'd partied pretty hard the night before. He's like,
00:57:13there's a ton of cops over at Xana's house. I walked over there. I didn't see Ethan outside,
00:57:19so I figured he was inside helping whoever needed to be helped.
00:57:26Okay, do you mind hanging out here, please?
00:57:27Hunter Johnson came up to me and I was like, where's Ethan and Xana? And he's like,
00:57:31they're not here anymore. I was like, what do you mean they're not here anymore? He's like, I
00:57:35think they were murdered last night.
00:57:42And you're at the grocery store?
00:57:44I was at the grocery store.
00:57:46And I was talking to a friend.
00:57:50Fine.
00:57:50It's okay.
00:57:51Okay. And my phone kept ringing and it was Hunter on the other end. And he just said,
00:58:01he's not here. And he kept repeating it. And so I was like, well, go get him, go find him. And he
00:58:06just kept saying it. And he goes, no, mom, you don't understand. Ethan and Xana are not on this
00:58:10earth anymore. I just was like, there's no way. Um, and I drove down the road and called Jim and you
00:58:24know, it makes it real when you have to repeat it. Right. It drives me crazy because I've always
00:58:32wanted to protect my family. And there's really nothing there that I could have done instantly.
00:58:41He was taken.
00:58:48We still didn't know where Kaylee and Maddie were. We didn't know where Murphy was.
00:58:56And then U of I sent the homicide text. Throughout the day, the University of Idaho sent campus-wide
00:59:03text messages with updates on the investigation about a homicide and an unknown suspect. But at
00:59:105 17 PM, 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 9-1-1
00:59:36immediately on the night of the murders. But they both told police they weren't certain that what
00:59:42Dylan thought she saw was real. I told her I need to come to your room because she was the only one that
00:59:48was entering me. So I just ran down there and for a second I stopped and I saw Xana passed out and I
00:59:54thought maybe she was just sleeping or something. I didn't think anything because I was so out of it.
00:59:58And we just fell asleep and then we woke up this morning and no one was answering.
01:00:02We understand the disbelief that she's going through. What 19-year-old kid is going to come up with and
01:00:09assume what actually happened was happening. Investigators now know they're a few hours behind
01:00:16the killer. But as they walk into Maddie's third floor bedroom, police get their first big break.
01:00:23The comforter's over. The girls take the comforter off. Lo and behold, there's a knife sheath laying
01:00:30right there. They find a sheath for a K-bar style knife. There's no murder weapon, but the sheath is there.
01:00:39That was definitely the first aha moment. We have something in this house from the killer.
01:00:53Four murdered students. A panicked campus. And 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.
01:01:19They said, oh, this was a targeted attack, nothing to worry about. And my first question was,
01:01:24but you don't have anybody. That means there's somebody still out there. How could we not worry?
01:01:37We don't want to put our investigation in jeopardy by releasing what we have.
01:01:41The investigation grew massively. We were trying to get every piece of video footage from that day,
01:01:50from every surveillance camera in town, captured from that night.
01:01:56Right across the street from Zanna's bedroom is a house. They have surveillance footage of a white
01:02:01Hyundai 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.
01:02:27So 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.
01:02:54A 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.
01:03:15But there was no matches in CODIS for that DNA.
01:03:18Once 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.
01:03:54Kristin was adamant that we get these folks answers.
01:03:56I can't imagine that being my child and knowing that there's someone out there that could help.
01:04:05We have to help. How fast can we get this DNA?
01:04:08It was a sergeant from the Moscow Police Department who got on a plane in Boise.
01:04:15And 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. It was not a trace amount of DNA. It was 500
01:04:32times 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
01:04:44which search for people who are connected to that unknown DNA.
01:04:49In this particular case, there was a unique biogeographical ancestry
01:04:53that 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
01:05:00based in Pennsylvania, genetic relatives that were related to the person we were looking for.
01:05:06While there's a massive, multi-faceted investigation working to find him,
01:05:11Ryan 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.
01:05:20So 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 you all work at the university there?
01:05:36I actually do work there.
01:05:38And he's pulled over for following a vehicle too closely, both times.
01:05:44By the time the Koberger's arrived back in Pennsylvania,
01:05:47the FBI had taken over that genetic genealogy search from Othram.
01:05:51And 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. He goes, I have a first name for you. It's Brian.
01:06:04And he goes, Hey, we also have a last name for you. Koberger.
01:06:06And he drives a white Hyundai Elantra.
01:06:10Once we had his name at that point,
01:06:13immediately we knew that he was in Pennsylvania.
01:06:15When did the surveillance on him start?
01:06:18Immediately.
01:06:21He 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.
01:06:29They need a way to test that DNA. So 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. They found an item in the trash that had male DNA that comes
01:06:50back and says, we 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.
01:07:00From a Q-tip specifically.
01:07:02Yeah. We 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.
01:07:16The big story on Action News tonight is a major break in the murder of four Idaho college students.
01:07:23People in this sleepy Poconos community are stunned.
01:07:27We got live feed.
01:07:30We 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. The arrest of a 28-year-old
01:07:49man in Pennsylvania in connection with the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students.
01:07:54Nearly seven weeks after the brutal murders, an arrest is finally made.
01:08:00Pennsylvania State Police make that arrest. We've got live feed coming from the helicopter
01:08:05from Pennsylvania State Police. We're getting constantly updated on what's going on, telling us,
01:08:10yes, they've got Brian in the house. We saw the armored vehicles roll in,
01:08:14then make entry, and we get the call out in custody.
01:08:18Detectives arrested 28-year-old Brian Christopher Koberger in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania.
01:08:26Koberger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
01:08:35Authorities have not revealed a possible motive just yet.
01:08:41People in this sleepy Poconos community are stunned that one of their own
01:08:45has 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. We do know there was conversation among the family about,
01:09:02hey, Brian does drive a car like that. Brian, do you think, you know, and it was immediately
01:09:08quashed. There's no way Brian could do this. Nobody can comprehend that their child is capable
01:09:15of something like this.
01:09:18What was his reaction to the national media attention?
01:09:21He was very surprised, actually. He didn't realize that it would garner national media news,
01:09:28I would say.
01:09:29Really?
01:09:29Yeah, it actually was. It was surprising,
01:09:33because 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.
01:09:47And in these just released photos, you can see the Spartan place he left behind. One of the few
01:09:53personal items they found is a birthday card from his parents.
01:10:00He was taken back to the Pennsylvania state police barracks immediately upon being arrested
01:10:06and had given what turned out to be about a two and a half, three hour statement. It was a
01:10:10significantly 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. I didn't want to know a lot about the case,
01:10:22because 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. I had zero doubt.
01:10:42Brian Koberger agreed to be extradited and he was flown across the country to the Moscow
01:10:46Pullman Airport and then brought here to the Latak County Jail to face murder charges while the world
01:10:52watched on.
01:10:53When they brought him off the plane, people were like,
01:10:57we got him. Thank God he wasn't a local. He wasn't one of us.
01:11:02Koberger's attorneys enter a not guilty plea for him, insisting that he's innocent. But prosecutors
01:11:09decide to pursue the death penalty. And as they prepare for trial, they dig into every part of
01:11:15Koberger's life, particularly his digital life, sifting through his Amazon purchase history that
01:11:21showed he bought a K bar knife and sharpener back in Pennsylvania. And they look at his cell phone
01:11:27and computer searches right up until the days before his arrest.
01:11:33On Christmas night, the 11 o'clock hour heading into the very early morning of the 26th,
01:11:38he was on a rudimentary website called serial killer timelines, just a list of hyperlinked names.
01:11:45And he just went down this list and clicked one after another after another for like two hours.
01:11:53December 27th, there's some sort of a show that he watched. It's a YouTube and it's Ted Bundy
01:12:01sort of standing facing forward with a hood pulled up and over the front. And on 1229,
01:12:07just two days later, he's taking a picture of himself looking like Ted Bundy.
01:12:11And although investigators weren't able to make a direct link between Brian Koberger and any of the
01:12:18victims, those digital forensic experts did find something interesting on his phone.
01:12:24The FBI gave us keywords and said, okay, search for these things. We needed victim names. We needed,
01:12:30what did they call their Wi-Fi? So all these things, we searched for it. And I remember saying
01:12:34to Jarrett, I have a hit for Mad Greek. Remember, Mad Greek is that Moscow restaurant
01:12:39where Maddie and Xana both worked. This search for Mad Greek, however he arrived at it, was done
01:12:46through the Google Maps app. What we can say is that Mad Greek was presented to him on his phone.
01:12:52It 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. After insisting his innocence
01:13:03for nearly three years, defendant Brian Koberger today pleading guilty to fatally stabbing four
01:13:09students. Koberger had maintained his innocence the entire time, but he decided to change his plea
01:13:15from innocent to guilty. That was huge. And as part of that plea deal, prosecutors agree
01:13:21to take the death penalty off the table. We got what we wanted, uh, and we got what the law...
01:13:27When you say we got what we wanted though, that we does not include all of the victims' families.
01:13:33There are victims' families that have been very public about wanting more, perhaps a taped confession,
01:13:39the location of the murder weapon. You don't felt like you, you didn't feel like you could have
01:13:43asked for those things. There was no legal way we could have compelled those. And quite frankly,
01:13:49there is nothing that he could have said that I think would have been credible or believable.
01:13:56And the minimizing and the lies that would have even been more damaging and frustrating to everybody.
01:14:06You've seen it. Thank you. Without a trial, Koberger moves right to a sentencing hearing.
01:14:12And the loved ones for the victims finally get their own day in court.
01:14:18All right. So with that, let's start with the impact statements.
01:14:22I just wanted to reclaim their power.
01:14:26The truth is, as dumb as they come, sloppy, weak, dirty.
01:14:40Brian Koberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder.
01:14:43But he still has to sit and face the families of his victims.
01:14:48All right. So with that, let's start with the impact statements.
01:14:52The first statement comes from one of the two surviving roommates, Bethany Funk. She's unable to
01:14:58be in the courtroom herself. So her statement is read by her friend and also one of the first people
01:15:03to arrive at the house that day. Emily Alon.
01:15:06I was so frantic that morning and scared to death, not knowing what had happened.
01:15:12And when I made the 911 call, I couldn't even get out the words.
01:15:18And from then on, I don't remember a thing.
01:15:20I wish more than anything I could hug them one last time. And I wish I could tell them how much I love them.
01:15:29I will keep living for them as long as I am lucky enough to still be here.
01:15:32And then it's the second surviving roommate, Dylan Mortenson.
01:15:39Dylan, just take your time, all right?
01:15:51I was barely 19 when he did this. I was forced to learn how to survive the unimaginable.
01:15:56I couldn't be alone. Then there are the panic attacks. The kind that slam into me like a tsunami
01:16:06out of nowhere. I can't breathe. I can't think. I can't stop shaking. Living is how I honor them.
01:16:17Speaking today is to help me find some sort of justice for them.
01:16:21He may have taken so much from me, but he will never get to take my voice.
01:16:32One after another, family members describe the loved ones they lost.
01:16:40And notably among them is Kaylee's sister, Olivia Gonsalves.
01:16:44My sister Kaylee and her best friend Maddie were not yours to take.
01:16:49They were not yours to study, to stalk, or to silence.
01:16:56The whole time I just wanted to reclaim their power, reclaim their voice,
01:17:02especially in a way that, you know, really was the end to this chapter.
01:17:06You got under his skin.
01:17:07Absolutely.
01:17:10Disappointments like you thrive on pain,
01:17:13on fear, and on the illusion of power.
01:17:15The truth is, the scariest part about you is how painfully average you turned out to be.
01:17:22The truth is, as dumb as they come, stupid, clumsy, slow, sloppy, weak, dirty.
01:17:34Did you say everything that you wanted to say?
01:17:36For the most part, yes.
01:17:39I didn't want to break eye contact.
01:17:41So that gaze was so intense, and it really did feel like, like a standoff.
01:17:49You want the truth? Here's the one you'll hate the most.
01:17:53If you hadn't attacked them in their sleep, in the middle of the night, like a pedophile,
01:17:58Kaylee would have kicked his ass.
01:18:09The Chapin family was not at the sentencing.
01:18:13They chose instead to honor Ethan, privately.
01:18:18Hi!
01:18:20The Chapins recently got to visit that DNA lab that played such a crucial role in solving this case.
01:18:26It came after a chance meeting a few years back.
01:18:29This stranger, who I did not know, came up and she just wrapped her arms around me and hugged me.
01:18:34And she just said, we are working on your case and 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 in the outcome.
01:18:42I mean, that was what I was trying to relay.
01:18:44Right. And that's how it felt.
01:18:46Jim and I would rely on that information to, you know, in your toughest days,
01:18:50you were like, Kristen told us not to worry. And we, and we use that.
01:18:55The Chapins now want to help advocate for the work being done at this lab.
01:18:59Maybe our, our family could become a face for the victim side of what these people do.
01:19:05If we can make a positive impact for the future on some level, it's important.
01:19:12I miss him every day.
01:19:14When you lose your son at 20, it's a different loss.
01:19:18And I miss him every single day.
01:19:26All righty.
01:19:27It's nice that, you know, when we have so many different photographs and videos,
01:19:30and we can still hear their voices.
01:19:33They were some really, really cool people.
01:19:34It helps to remember them and not what happened to them.
01:19:42Hopefully one day they're just seen as who they are and not what happened to them.
01:19:46And just as college is starting again, there's now a memorial garden at the University of Idaho
01:19:56with a plaque bearing the name of each of the four victims.
01:19:59A touching tribute. As for Brian Koberger, David, he received four life sentences,
01:20:03one for each of his victims, and an additional 10 years for burglary.
01:20:07As part of that plea deal, he waived his right to an appeal.
01:20:11That's our program for tonight.
01:20:12Thanks so much for watching.
01:20:14I'm Deborah Roberts.
01:20:14And I'm David Muir.
01:20:15From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, goodnight.
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