Never before revealed information is coming out about how Brian Kohberger came to murder 4 University of Idaho students in back in 2022. Now that he’s been sentenced to life behind bars, a gag order has been lifted and Amy and T.J. go through the fascinating details from the digital forensics expert who found disturbing, buried files in Kohberger’s phone. Meantime, Kohberger is claiming he’s being taunted by fellow prisoners and the Department of Corrections is responding.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, folks, it is Friday, August fifteenth, and Brian Koberger,
who is serving four life sentences for killing those four
University of Idaho students, says the other prisoners aren't being
nice to him. He's been told to stop whining. Welcome
to Amy and TJ. Robes. That's a headline making its
(00:23):
way around how he is complaining about other prisoners taunting him.
But some real headlines and real information robes that we
have never heard before that we are getting. Now that's
kind of giving us. He hasn't told us why he
did it, but we're getting a little more insight into
maybe why he did this.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yes, this is fascinating stuff because even at the sentencing hearing,
we were all hoping that Brian Coberger was going to
say something to the families of those just brutally murdered
Idaho students. He said nothing. Everyone wanted to know why.
Everyone wanted to know if there was a connection between
these students, any of these students in him. And now
(01:06):
we are starting to actually get real information because a
gag order has been lifted and one of the digital
forensics experts has been talking about what she uncovered while
investigating this trial or preparing for this trial and investigating
this crime, and what we're learning is creepy. It's like
(01:26):
stuff movies are made of. Horror movies are made of
what this man, Brian Coberger, was doing in the weeks
leading up to the murders and then in the weeks
following the murders before he was actually captured.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So to remind you all, to catch you up here, yes,
he the murders happened back in twenty twenty two. Two
were preparing for trial this year. He pleads guilty, just
sentenced last month. Yes, so this is where we are.
Even on the day of his sentencing, when all this
was finally over, a lot of the gag orders were
(02:00):
lifted and a lot of things were unsealed, and I
think immediately after, I think it was press conferences, some
officials were starting to give out a little more information publicly.
And this brings us today. This Heather Barnhardt is her name.
She's a digital forensics expert, so she is not under
any kind of gag order, but she's starting to give
some interviews. So this is why we're getting a lot
of these details. And she Robes was one of the
(02:22):
ones and she was prepared to testify, and she's telling
us what she was going to say. But she is
one of the ones who went through his phone, and
this stuff is.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Fascinating, it truly is. So she was able to find
out that he was planning this murder for quite some time.
She can see and she could tell it. Actually he
tried to cover up his searches and his research and
these PDF files and these documents he was downloading on
serial killers, multiple multiple serial killers that he was obsessed with,
(02:55):
She basically said, not just casually Google searching him them,
but actually obsessed with them. And there was a.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Study is a good way to put it. He was
studying them woo.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And that is some scary stuff when you start to
see who he was studying and who he was obsessed with.
There was actually one particular serial killer who he seemed
to be fixated on.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Danny Rawling. Now I don't know if that name. I
didn't recognize the name when I first saw at Robes,
but Danny Rawling. Some people might remember the murders in
nineteen ninety down in Florida near the University of Florida campus.
Danny Rawling was known as the Gainesville Ripper, and he
killed five students down there over a stretch of a
(03:37):
few days. Now, if that doesn't sound familiar to you,
this will. This guy served as the inspiration for one
of the greatest probably horror movie franchises of all time, Scream.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah and so yes. He was called the Gainesville Ripper,
and he would go into these college students' rooms through
a sliding glass door, an open door, and then he
killed them and posed their bodies. And so it appears
when you look and see what Coburger did in terms
of getting through in a sliding glass door. He stalked.
(04:10):
They believe he stalked this home to look and see
where he could go in, where he could enter, and
it just it was scarily similar to what if you
go back and look and see what Rolling did. It's
kind of eerily similar to what Coburger did.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And yeah, you said he I think they had a
did they say twenty? I think they said twenty serial
killers that he had research on, but this was one
in particular.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Go ahead, yeah, Well, some of the ones he was
researching are household names. He was looking into Ted Bundy,
he was looking into John Wayne Gacy. But there are
twenty names and all of these people. He It was
really interesting how this forensic experts put it. She said,
he didn't just google these cases. He downloaded full PDFs
of case files, not once, but repeatedly. He was downloading
(04:56):
detailed reports about serial killers. This wasn't casual browsing. This
was meticulous research.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I mean, so that I mean that answer is a
pretty significant question, does it not. This dude was planning
to kill somebody while he was doing this research. He
might not have even known who, but this was a plan.
This wasn't just random. He didn't just happen upon a house,
happen upon some people he wanted to kill. That is terrifying,
(05:25):
and think about it.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
He also was a PhD student. He was getting his
master's degree in criminology, so he was a student of
crime and then became someone who took it to the
next level and wanted to become a serial killer. It
looked as though that was what he was researching, even academically,
(05:47):
and then in his free time was taking it even
a step further, which is just chilling.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
You said he wanted to be a serial killer. He
also didn't want to get caught. That is part of
the information that's come out again from this forensic scientist
who went through his phone, who was prepared, who was
supposed to be a witness at his trial, says here quote,
he was diligent in prep and cleanup, and he made
our job really hard. This is someone who tried really
(06:16):
hard to not be detected. What I mean, I don't
know how much they've gotten in the psych evaluation of
this guy, but he wanted to be a serial killer.
He was trying to get away with this. I mean,
I guess sometimes people are wired strangely. This is an illness.
(06:36):
This is sick.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It is sick. And even at the time where they
were trying to again build the case against him, should
it have gone to trial, but his phone, he even
knew he didn't lose signal or run out of battery
when he was at the home of those four college students.
Right before he went and committed these heinous acts, he
turned his phone off, but he also took his Wi
(07:00):
Fi off, took his like he meticulously made sure that
his phone would not link him to this crime. So
for a full two hours, his phone was completely turned off,
out of service, and unavailable for any sort of way
that they could trace where somebody was at the time
of the crime.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So this is how particular and this is what digital
forensics can do. They know exactly when his phone went
dark November thirteenth, twenty twenty two, the day of the murders.
Phone went dark two fifty four am, came back at
four forty eight am. In that stretch of time, four
kids were murdered in Idaho.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
That wasn't a coincidence. And the other interesting thing they
found on his phone was that they could go back
and see where it had logged into Wi Fi and
everyone was looking for this connection. Did Coburger know his victims,
did he stalk them? Did he watch them? Well, it
turns out two of the victims worked at a Greek restaurant,
(08:00):
the Mad Greek I believe was the name of it,
and they were able to go back and see twice
I believe his phone connected to that Wi Fi, So
it appears at least on two occasions he was in
the same restaurant where two of the victims worked. So
there is now for the first time, a real potential
connection that maybe he did watch these girls, he was
(08:21):
specifically targeting them and planning it.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
The saint that could have been totally random as well.
In a smaller town, he happens to go in there.
But at the same time they came out and said again,
did they not robes? After sentencing, they came out and
said it again. There is We have been going through
this case since twenty twenty two. We have still not
found a single connection between this guy and these kids.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
It sounds like he was studying serial killers. He was
studying criminology at school in a master's program or a
doctorate program, excuse me, he was getting his PhD. And
he was waiting for the right time, perhaps the right victims,
in the right location. And it's really chilling to think
that this was all happening. And ah, and he had
(09:09):
this one goal in mind, which is just frightening. Something
else that's extra creepy. It brings back and it hearkens
another horror movie, Psycho. Because this was also so interesting,
this digital forensic expert said the amount of times he
would text and call his parents was actually extraordinary, and
(09:31):
he had them. He only had the contacts in his
phone were mother, father, sister, and he almost had I think.
They said they found one other text chain where he
might have said one thing to a classmate, and that
was it. He did not have friends, he did not
have other contacts, but to even have his family labeled
as mother, father, sister, no names, And immediately after the
(09:53):
murders he was texting his mom before and after at
six thirteen am. And then if his mom wouldn't answer,
he'd call his father. It was as if he had
to constantly be connected to them and calling them and
texting them in a very strange ways.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Saved in your phone?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Mom, Dad?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
What about your brother Eric? How about you? Yeah? I
think I have mom, I have pop, but I'm trying to.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Think about but mother, father, sister, Sister's even the weirdest.
Can you imagine just having sister in your phone?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Pastor, I mean cousin his daughter. I have never actually
heard of this.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It's almost never. If you're you're desensitized in a way
that you are actually not even humanizing the people in
your life closest to you. You're actually just having some
formal name associated with it. Can you imagine daughter one,
daughter two instead of Ava and analyse? But that's kind
of what it's akin to. And she pointed it out
(10:53):
that it and if you look to see his texting
and calling habits, they were abnormal.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
They said. The details again, one last thing about how
he kept things hidden. They said, some things and rogues
that he was planning to get away with this, And
I guess he studied the serial killers of the things
they got right and if you will, and the things
they got wrong and got them called. But he was
trying to cover his tracks. They say. He was trying
so hard to cover his tracks that you could not
find some of the information on that phone unless you
(11:22):
had special forensic tools to use, so so a normal
person couldn't do it. So he was taking robes some
pretty significant steps to do this and get away with this.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And then after the murders, he was downloading reports incessantly
on the Idaho murders and was doing extensive searches on
each of the victims, and again buried these files in
directories like a way that you and I wouldn't even
know how to do it. But they were able to
find that he was obsessed with the crime, obsessed with
(11:57):
the coverage of it, and was monitoring it multiple times.
They said he was even on the Moscow Police Department
constantly going back and checking for updates and looking to
see what they had what they knew and it was
all uncovered through their work.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Also, the also in that batch of things he was
looking at and looking at press reports that came out
from this forensic analysis said that the day before his
arrest and the day yeah, the day before his arrest,
he was searching things like wiretapping, psychopath and paranoid was
(12:34):
in his searches the day before he was arrested.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
That's so bizarre, and it was bizarre, It really is.
I think it's it's I love the way the forensic
expert put this. She said, with what they were able
to find, there wasn't a single smoking gun, but what
they found was digital evidence that told a story of preparation.
So that was a big part of that. This was
so premeditated. This was prepared, it was analyzed, it was researched,
(13:00):
and then he was and became obsessed with what was
going if he was going to get caught.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Oh my godness. All right, well, folks, the latest thing
with him, and it's this is bizarre in a bizarre case.
Robes is that he's in prison and apparently the other
prisoners aren't being nice to him, and those reports have
been out there to the point that now the Idaho
Department of Corrections has actually had to put out a
(13:30):
statement and respond to what's happening to him. I'll summarize. Now,
shut up, Brian.
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(14:23):
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Speaker 1 (14:39):
Continuing now with what's pretty much some mom certainly never
before heard, but pretty stunning details robes about Brian Coberger,
who was convicted, of course and serving for life sentences
for the deaths for those brutal murders of those four
University of Idaho students. And we've been talking about this
forensic digital forensic expert who went through his phone and
(15:00):
was prepared to testify at his trial, but of course
he ended up pleading guilty. But we've we've shared some
of the quotes that are out there, but this one
we kind of saved because this quote, I think maybe
is the strongest one we've heard so far from this
forensic expert and maybe even from anybody to try to
(15:23):
explain the why. This is as closed as we get.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Everybody wants to know the why. But this is what
she said. This wasn't someone who just snapped. This was
someone who planned. He didn't accidentally stumbled into this house
and commit the heinous crime. It was intentional.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That's tough.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
It really is tough. And you know, she said, we're
never going to be able to give the families a
true why he did this, but they wanted to, and
their whole purpose was to at least show how he
did it, and really not make it like it wasn't
something he just decided to do on impulse. This was
(16:02):
something that was planned. It was not spontaneous, and that
was a part of understanding the why. You know, you
don't you won't be able to ever know why he
chose who he chose, but in understanding the why, he
was intentional. He was planning this. This was what he
wanted to be and become, and he wanted to do it.
(16:23):
It seems as though he wanted to do it more
than once. He wanted to build up this serial killer reputation.
It's really disturbing, you.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Know, if every story right. We learned this very early
on the who, what, when, where, why, and how? We've
answered everything, I think except the why now because really,
through some of this information that this analysis put out,
we are at least in the public understanding more of
(16:51):
the how. The how he did this was not just randomly.
How he was able to be on the run and
undetected for so long kind of makes more sense now
because he had no connection. Maybe he made sure he
had no connection to these kids. I don't perhaps, but
he covered his tracks as well as something. But this
is the why is left the How this helps.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, it does. I think that it is incredibly helpful.
I wonder what his parents knew or suspected, if anything
at all. But it did seem as though he was
so closely tied to them, at least electronically, and it
seemed as if he had a very close relationship with them.
It's hard to imagine they didn't wonder about his disposition
(17:36):
or wonder about his mindset. If he's researching all of this,
living in this a criminality criminology PhD student, would there
be signs? Were there signs? I wonder what that relationship
must be like with his family who sat in court
with him every day and the prisoner yeah, the mom cry.
But prisoners when he was being held during right before
(17:58):
the trial after he was arrested, described him as talking
on the phone with his mom for hours. So this, Yeah,
that's just fascinating to think that they wouldn't have known
something was off.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And I have it right there, and you remind me,
I'm sorry, you don't know either. There was an uptick
they said right in uh messages to his mom, Yes,
what the morning after the killings. Then somewhere around his.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Arrest with yes, so two different times, right before he
was arrested, yes, and then right before right after the
murders were committed. So he committed the murders between somewhere
between two and four am. At six thirteen am, they
said he was just non stop texting his mom and
calling his mom and his dad, both of them, just
very like in a way that drew attention. It was abnormal,
(18:40):
is how she described it.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
All right, Well, we mentioned off the top here. Yes,
the headlines were being made that he in fact was
being taunted, is the right way to put it. Maybe
by fellow prisoners at the prison maximum security prison where
he's being held in Idaho. So those reports were getting
around rose about some pretty I think it was News
(19:01):
Nation that was first reporting. I believe they were. When
was it that they were screaming at him through the
vents or something?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
H Yeah, so he's yeah, physically he's in no danger,
but mentally they're they're torturing him deliberately. So they're banging
on the walls, yelling at him, shouting at him through
the vents, I believe is what the description was, And
that he's been complaining incessantly to the guards that he's
being tormented, and they're saying, hey, you are physically safe.
Ain't nothing else we can do. And in fact, the prison.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Statement, how often do we when do we ever get
a chance to say, hey, Department of Corrections, you nailed
it on that press release.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Department of Corrections nailed it on this statement that they said.
And they this is what they gave out to the
news outlets who were asking, hey, you know he's complaining.
He's saying he's being tortured. So here's what the what
the prison said. We are aware of Coburger's complaints about
what he considers taunting. Incarcerated individuals commonly communicate with each
(20:00):
other in prison. Brian Coberger is housed alone in a cell,
and IDoc security staff maintain a safe and orderly environment
for all individuals in our custody.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I love that you. I think you read it the
way they meant it to be read. That whoever is
on that staff, I don't know who came up with that,
but what a way to put it. They commonly communicate
with each other in prison. That was just well done. Great.
I don't think anybody cares about him not being able
to sleep, and I understand we're not suggesting any inhumane
treatment of anyone, but complaining about being taunted by fellow prisoners.
(20:36):
Well done, Idaho Department of Correction.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And I don't think anyone's shedding one tier for poor
mister Coburger who doesn't like being mentally tortured or having
to have, you know, people kicking the doors and utilizing
the event system to shout whatever they'd like at him.
I kind of want to know what they're saying, but
just I just kind of want to know.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
It's just common prison to talk common.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, I wonder what that is. I wouldn't know, but.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Well, this was one and we should remember Ethan Chappin
twenty years old, Zanna Kernodle twenty years old, Madison Mogan
twenty one years old, and Kaylee Guncalvis twenty one years old,
the four victims in all this. And I think Grove
I would really wonder what the families think about the
(21:19):
information they've gotten, because we're learning it for the first time.
They were complaining about the lack of information, so they're
learning a lot of things now as well. Wonder how
they feel about this bit of information.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
It's probably so hard to hear to know that he
had been quietly planning all of this all along, and
perhaps was even stalking and watching their loved ones before
he ended up doing just what no parent wants to
wake up and hear.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Look.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I just Annalie's literally as we're recording. This is on
her way to her college campus, where she is going
to be living in a house with six other folks,
and I have been repeatedly telling her the story. Please
lock your doors, Please like your doors. She actually yelled
at me yesterday Mom stopped talking about the idahom. But
this is something. This is every parent's worst nightmare, anyone
who's sending their kids off to college right now, this
(22:05):
is the time of year we're all doing that, and
this is just a cautionary tale, a scary one at that.
But to know that there are evil people out there.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
And yes, lock your doors. You feel safe in numbers. Right,
there's six of us living in this house.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
There are guys in our house. And I said there
was a guy in the Idaho house as well. It
doesn't make you immune to certain people who want to
do evil, who want to do something terrible, and so
locking your doors and just being aware that people like
this exist in the world It's not just in the movies.
These are, unfortunately people who are living around us and
among us, and it's just it is a cautionary.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Tale, all right. Folks will continue to keep an eye
on this case as more information does continue to trickle out.
We always appreciate you listening with us. Signed TJ. Holmes
alongside my partner Amy Robot. Talk to you all soon.
Hey, folks, it is Friday, August fifteenth, and Brian Koberger,
who is serving four life sentences for killing those four
University of Idaho students, says the other prisoners aren't being
nice to him. He's been told to stop whining. Welcome
to Amy and TJ. Robes. That's a headline making its
(00:23):
way around how he is complaining about other prisoners taunting him.
But some real headlines and real information robes that we
have never heard before that we are getting. Now that's
kind of giving us. He hasn't told us why he
did it, but we're getting a little more insight into
maybe why he did this.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yes, this is fascinating stuff because even at the sentencing hearing,
we were all hoping that Brian Coberger was going to
say something to the families of those just brutally murdered
Idaho students. He said nothing. Everyone wanted to know why.
Everyone wanted to know if there was a connection between
these students, any of these students in him. And now
(01:06):
we are starting to actually get real information because a
gag order has been lifted and one of the digital
forensics experts has been talking about what she uncovered while
investigating this trial or preparing for this trial and investigating
this crime, and what we're learning is creepy. It's like
(01:26):
stuff movies are made of. Horror movies are made of
what this man, Brian Coberger, was doing in the weeks
leading up to the murders and then in the weeks
following the murders before he was actually captured.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
So to remind you all, to catch you up here, yes,
he the murders happened back in twenty twenty two. Two
were preparing for trial this year. He pleads guilty, just
sentenced last month. Yes, so this is where we are.
Even on the day of his sentencing, when all this
was finally over, a lot of the gag orders were
(02:00):
lifted and a lot of things were unsealed, and I
think immediately after, I think it was press conferences, some
officials were starting to give out a little more information publicly.
And this brings us today. This Heather Barnhardt is her name.
She's a digital forensics expert, so she is not under
any kind of gag order, but she's starting to give
some interviews. So this is why we're getting a lot
of these details. And she Robes was one of the
(02:22):
ones and she was prepared to testify, and she's telling
us what she was going to say. But she is
one of the ones who went through his phone, and
this stuff is.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Fascinating, it truly is. So she was able to find
out that he was planning this murder for quite some time.
She can see and she could tell it. Actually he
tried to cover up his searches and his research and
these PDF files and these documents he was downloading on
serial killers, multiple multiple serial killers that he was obsessed with,
(02:55):
She basically said, not just casually Google searching him them,
but actually obsessed with them. And there was a.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Study is a good way to put it. He was
studying them woo.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And that is some scary stuff when you start to
see who he was studying and who he was obsessed with.
There was actually one particular serial killer who he seemed
to be fixated on.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Danny Rawling. Now I don't know if that name. I
didn't recognize the name when I first saw at Robes,
but Danny Rawling. Some people might remember the murders in
nineteen ninety down in Florida near the University of Florida campus.
Danny Rawling was known as the Gainesville Ripper, and he
killed five students down there over a stretch of a
(03:37):
few days. Now, if that doesn't sound familiar to you,
this will. This guy served as the inspiration for one
of the greatest probably horror movie franchises of all time, Scream.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah and so yes. He was called the Gainesville Ripper,
and he would go into these college students' rooms through
a sliding glass door, an open door, and then he
killed them and posed their bodies. And so it appears
when you look and see what Coburger did in terms
of getting through in a sliding glass door. He stalked.
(04:10):
They believe he stalked this home to look and see
where he could go in, where he could enter, and
it just it was scarily similar to what if you
go back and look and see what Rolling did. It's
kind of eerily similar to what Coburger did.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And yeah, you said he I think they had a
did they say twenty? I think they said twenty serial
killers that he had research on, but this was one
in particular.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Go ahead, yeah, Well, some of the ones he was
researching are household names. He was looking into Ted Bundy,
he was looking into John Wayne Gacy. But there are
twenty names and all of these people. He It was
really interesting how this forensic experts put it. She said,
he didn't just google these cases. He downloaded full PDFs
of case files, not once, but repeatedly. He was downloading
(04:56):
detailed reports about serial killers. This wasn't casual browsing. This
was meticulous research.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I mean, so that I mean that answer is a
pretty significant question, does it not. This dude was planning
to kill somebody while he was doing this research. He
might not have even known who, but this was a plan.
This wasn't just random. He didn't just happen upon a house,
happen upon some people he wanted to kill. That is terrifying,
(05:25):
and think about it.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
He also was a PhD student. He was getting his
master's degree in criminology, so he was a student of
crime and then became someone who took it to the
next level and wanted to become a serial killer. It
looked as though that was what he was researching, even academically,
(05:47):
and then in his free time was taking it even
a step further, which is just chilling.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
You said he wanted to be a serial killer. He
also didn't want to get caught. That is part of
the information that's come out again from this forensic scientist
who went through his phone, who was prepared, who was
supposed to be a witness at his trial, says here quote,
he was diligent in prep and cleanup, and he made
our job really hard. This is someone who tried really
(06:16):
hard to not be detected. What I mean, I don't
know how much they've gotten in the psych evaluation of
this guy, but he wanted to be a serial killer.
He was trying to get away with this. I mean,
I guess sometimes people are wired strangely. This is an illness.
(06:36):
This is sick.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It is sick. And even at the time where they
were trying to again build the case against him, should
it have gone to trial, but his phone, he even
knew he didn't lose signal or run out of battery
when he was at the home of those four college students.
Right before he went and committed these heinous acts, he
turned his phone off, but he also took his Wi
(07:00):
Fi off, took his like he meticulously made sure that
his phone would not link him to this crime. So
for a full two hours, his phone was completely turned off,
out of service, and unavailable for any sort of way
that they could trace where somebody was at the time
of the crime.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So this is how particular and this is what digital
forensics can do. They know exactly when his phone went
dark November thirteenth, twenty twenty two, the day of the murders.
Phone went dark two fifty four am, came back at
four forty eight am. In that stretch of time, four
kids were murdered in Idaho.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
That wasn't a coincidence. And the other interesting thing they
found on his phone was that they could go back
and see where it had logged into Wi Fi and
everyone was looking for this connection. Did Coburger know his victims,
did he stalk them? Did he watch them? Well, it
turns out two of the victims worked at a Greek restaurant,
(08:00):
the Mad Greek I believe was the name of it,
and they were able to go back and see twice
I believe his phone connected to that Wi Fi, So
it appears at least on two occasions he was in
the same restaurant where two of the victims worked. So
there is now for the first time, a real potential
connection that maybe he did watch these girls, he was
(08:21):
specifically targeting them and planning it.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
The saint that could have been totally random as well.
In a smaller town, he happens to go in there.
But at the same time they came out and said again,
did they not robes? After sentencing, they came out and
said it again. There is We have been going through
this case since twenty twenty two. We have still not
found a single connection between this guy and these kids.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
It sounds like he was studying serial killers. He was
studying criminology at school in a master's program or a
doctorate program, excuse me, he was getting his PhD. And
he was waiting for the right time, perhaps the right victims,
in the right location. And it's really chilling to think
that this was all happening. And ah, and he had
(09:09):
this one goal in mind, which is just frightening. Something
else that's extra creepy. It brings back and it hearkens
another horror movie, Psycho. Because this was also so interesting,
this digital forensic expert said the amount of times he
would text and call his parents was actually extraordinary, and
(09:31):
he had them. He only had the contacts in his
phone were mother, father, sister, and he almost had I think.
They said they found one other text chain where he
might have said one thing to a classmate, and that
was it. He did not have friends, he did not
have other contacts, but to even have his family labeled
as mother, father, sister, no names, And immediately after the
(09:53):
murders he was texting his mom before and after at
six thirteen am. And then if his mom wouldn't answer,
he'd call his father. It was as if he had
to constantly be connected to them and calling them and
texting them in a very strange ways.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Saved in your phone?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Mom, Dad?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
What about your brother Eric? How about you? Yeah? I
think I have mom, I have pop, but I'm trying to.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Think about but mother, father, sister, Sister's even the weirdest.
Can you imagine just having sister in your phone?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Pastor, I mean cousin his daughter. I have never actually
heard of this.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It's almost never. If you're you're desensitized in a way
that you are actually not even humanizing the people in
your life closest to you. You're actually just having some
formal name associated with it. Can you imagine daughter one,
daughter two instead of Ava and analyse? But that's kind
of what it's akin to. And she pointed it out
(10:53):
that it and if you look to see his texting
and calling habits, they were abnormal.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
They said. The details again, one last thing about how
he kept things hidden. They said, some things and rogues
that he was planning to get away with this, And
I guess he studied the serial killers of the things
they got right and if you will, and the things
they got wrong and got them called. But he was
trying to cover his tracks. They say. He was trying
so hard to cover his tracks that you could not
find some of the information on that phone unless you
(11:22):
had special forensic tools to use, so so a normal
person couldn't do it. So he was taking robes some
pretty significant steps to do this and get away with this.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And then after the murders, he was downloading reports incessantly
on the Idaho murders and was doing extensive searches on
each of the victims, and again buried these files in
directories like a way that you and I wouldn't even
know how to do it. But they were able to
find that he was obsessed with the crime, obsessed with
(11:57):
the coverage of it, and was monitoring it multiple times.
They said he was even on the Moscow Police Department
constantly going back and checking for updates and looking to
see what they had what they knew and it was
all uncovered through their work.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Also, the also in that batch of things he was
looking at and looking at press reports that came out
from this forensic analysis said that the day before his
arrest and the day yeah, the day before his arrest,
he was searching things like wiretapping, psychopath and paranoid was
(12:34):
in his searches the day before he was arrested.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
That's so bizarre, and it was bizarre, It really is.
I think it's it's I love the way the forensic
expert put this. She said, with what they were able
to find, there wasn't a single smoking gun, but what
they found was digital evidence that told a story of preparation.
So that was a big part of that. This was
so premeditated. This was prepared, it was analyzed, it was researched,
(13:00):
and then he was and became obsessed with what was
going if he was going to get caught.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Oh my godness. All right, well, folks, the latest thing
with him, and it's this is bizarre in a bizarre case.
Robes is that he's in prison and apparently the other
prisoners aren't being nice to him, and those reports have
been out there to the point that now the Idaho
Department of Corrections has actually had to put out a
(13:30):
statement and respond to what's happening to him. I'll summarize. Now,
shut up, Brian.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
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(14:23):
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Speaker 1 (14:39):
Continuing now with what's pretty much some mom certainly never
before heard, but pretty stunning details robes about Brian Coberger,
who was convicted, of course and serving for life sentences
for the deaths for those brutal murders of those four
University of Idaho students. And we've been talking about this
forensic digital forensic expert who went through his phone and
(15:00):
was prepared to testify at his trial, but of course
he ended up pleading guilty. But we've we've shared some
of the quotes that are out there, but this one
we kind of saved because this quote, I think maybe
is the strongest one we've heard so far from this
forensic expert and maybe even from anybody to try to
(15:23):
explain the why. This is as closed as we get.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Everybody wants to know the why. But this is what
she said. This wasn't someone who just snapped. This was
someone who planned. He didn't accidentally stumbled into this house
and commit the heinous crime. It was intentional.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That's tough.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
It really is tough. And you know, she said, we're
never going to be able to give the families a
true why he did this, but they wanted to, and
their whole purpose was to at least show how he
did it, and really not make it like it wasn't
something he just decided to do on impulse. This was
(16:02):
something that was planned. It was not spontaneous, and that
was a part of understanding the why. You know, you
don't you won't be able to ever know why he
chose who he chose, but in understanding the why, he
was intentional. He was planning this. This was what he
wanted to be and become, and he wanted to do it.
(16:23):
It seems as though he wanted to do it more
than once. He wanted to build up this serial killer reputation.
It's really disturbing, you.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Know, if every story right. We learned this very early
on the who, what, when, where, why, and how? We've
answered everything, I think except the why now because really,
through some of this information that this analysis put out,
we are at least in the public understanding more of
(16:51):
the how. The how he did this was not just randomly.
How he was able to be on the run and
undetected for so long kind of makes more sense now
because he had no connection. Maybe he made sure he
had no connection to these kids. I don't perhaps, but
he covered his tracks as well as something. But this
is the why is left the How this helps.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, it does. I think that it is incredibly helpful.
I wonder what his parents knew or suspected, if anything
at all. But it did seem as though he was
so closely tied to them, at least electronically, and it
seemed as if he had a very close relationship with them.
It's hard to imagine they didn't wonder about his disposition
(17:36):
or wonder about his mindset. If he's researching all of this,
living in this a criminality criminology PhD student, would there
be signs? Were there signs? I wonder what that relationship
must be like with his family who sat in court
with him every day and the prisoner yeah, the mom cry.
But prisoners when he was being held during right before
(17:58):
the trial after he was arrested, described him as talking
on the phone with his mom for hours. So this, Yeah,
that's just fascinating to think that they wouldn't have known
something was off.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And I have it right there, and you remind me,
I'm sorry, you don't know either. There was an uptick
they said right in uh messages to his mom, Yes,
what the morning after the killings. Then somewhere around his.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Arrest with yes, so two different times, right before he
was arrested, yes, and then right before right after the
murders were committed. So he committed the murders between somewhere
between two and four am. At six thirteen am, they
said he was just non stop texting his mom and
calling his mom and his dad, both of them, just
very like in a way that drew attention. It was abnormal,
(18:40):
is how she described it.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
All right, Well, we mentioned off the top here. Yes,
the headlines were being made that he in fact was
being taunted, is the right way to put it. Maybe
by fellow prisoners at the prison maximum security prison where
he's being held in Idaho. So those reports were getting
around rose about some pretty I think it was News
(19:01):
Nation that was first reporting. I believe they were. When
was it that they were screaming at him through the
vents or something?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
H Yeah, so he's yeah, physically he's in no danger,
but mentally they're they're torturing him deliberately. So they're banging
on the walls, yelling at him, shouting at him through
the vents, I believe is what the description was, And
that he's been complaining incessantly to the guards that he's
being tormented, and they're saying, hey, you are physically safe.
Ain't nothing else we can do. And in fact, the prison.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Statement, how often do we when do we ever get
a chance to say, hey, Department of Corrections, you nailed
it on that press release.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Department of Corrections nailed it on this statement that they said.
And they this is what they gave out to the
news outlets who were asking, hey, you know he's complaining.
He's saying he's being tortured. So here's what the what
the prison said. We are aware of Coburger's complaints about
what he considers taunting. Incarcerated individuals commonly communicate with each
(20:00):
other in prison. Brian Coberger is housed alone in a cell,
and IDoc security staff maintain a safe and orderly environment
for all individuals in our custody.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I love that you. I think you read it the
way they meant it to be read. That whoever is
on that staff, I don't know who came up with that,
but what a way to put it. They commonly communicate
with each other in prison. That was just well done. Great.
I don't think anybody cares about him not being able
to sleep, and I understand we're not suggesting any inhumane
treatment of anyone, but complaining about being taunted by fellow prisoners.
(20:36):
Well done, Idaho Department of Correction.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And I don't think anyone's shedding one tier for poor
mister Coburger who doesn't like being mentally tortured or having
to have, you know, people kicking the doors and utilizing
the event system to shout whatever they'd like at him.
I kind of want to know what they're saying, but
just I just kind of want to know.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
It's just common prison to talk common.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, I wonder what that is. I wouldn't know, but.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Well, this was one and we should remember Ethan Chappin
twenty years old, Zanna Kernodle twenty years old, Madison Mogan
twenty one years old, and Kaylee Guncalvis twenty one years old,
the four victims in all this. And I think Grove
I would really wonder what the families think about the
(21:19):
information they've gotten, because we're learning it for the first time.
They were complaining about the lack of information, so they're
learning a lot of things now as well. Wonder how
they feel about this bit of information.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
It's probably so hard to hear to know that he
had been quietly planning all of this all along, and
perhaps was even stalking and watching their loved ones before
he ended up doing just what no parent wants to
wake up and hear.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Look.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I just Annalie's literally as we're recording. This is on
her way to her college campus, where she is going
to be living in a house with six other folks,
and I have been repeatedly telling her the story. Please
lock your doors, Please like your doors. She actually yelled
at me yesterday Mom stopped talking about the idahom. But
this is something. This is every parent's worst nightmare, anyone
who's sending their kids off to college right now, this
(22:05):
is the time of year we're all doing that, and
this is just a cautionary tale, a scary one at that.
But to know that there are evil people out there.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
And yes, lock your doors. You feel safe in numbers. Right,
there's six of us living in this house.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
There are guys in our house. And I said there
was a guy in the Idaho house as well. It
doesn't make you immune to certain people who want to
do evil, who want to do something terrible, and so
locking your doors and just being aware that people like
this exist in the world It's not just in the movies.
These are, unfortunately people who are living around us and
among us, and it's just it is a cautionary.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Tale, all right. Folks will continue to keep an eye
on this case as more information does continue to trickle out.
We always appreciate you listening with us. Signed TJ. Holmes
alongside my partner Amy Robot. Talk to you all soon.
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