October 8, 2025 • 25 mins
Idaho State Police Detective Hugh Powell takes us behind the scenes of one of the most complex investigations in recent memory — the search for answers after the tragedy on King Road. From the earliest hours of the case to the painstaking weeks that followed, Powell recounts the reality of working a true “whodunit,” the emotional toll on investigators, and the breakthrough that finally brought clarity to a community in mourning.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
It became training over the weeks, like, man, we're like
week six or whatever, and we still don't have anybody.
We're all united in one common goal, and that was
to find out who had caused this horrific crime in Moscow.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
This is the Idaho Massacre a production of KAT Studios
and iHeartRadio, Season three, Episode eight, Behind the Badge. I'm
Courtney Armstrong, a producer at KAT Studios with Stephanie Leidecker,
Alison Bankston, and Gabriel Castillo. Founded in nineteen thirty nine,
(00:49):
the Idaho State Police, known as ISP, has stood at
the center of some of the state's biggest and most
difficult cases. Their mission is clear, to serve, serve, and
protect the lives, property, and constitutional rights of every person
in Idaho. To do this, they bring an arsenal of resources.
(01:11):
State of the art crime labs, critical funding, and cutting
edge equipment. These are the tools that local police departments
often don't have at their disposal. On November thirteenth, twenty
twenty two, these resources were called upon when the Moscow
Police Department faced an unimaginable crisis, the quadruple homicide at
(01:32):
one one two two King Road. Four young lives were
stolen Madison, Mogen Kayli Gonzalvez, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Shapin.
Moscow Police quickly requested backup and ISP stepped in to
provide support, expertise, and manpower. Their mission was urgent to
(01:53):
help identify who could have committed such terrific, unspeakable murders
and to bring answers to a devastated community. One of
the detectives called to the front lines was Detective Hugh Powell,
a thirteen year law enforcement veteran who has seen his
sheriff tough cases, but nothing like this. Today, he joins
(02:13):
us to share what it was really like to work
behind the scenes on one of the most shocking and
closely watched investigations in recent memory. He's joined by kti's
studios producer Alice in Bankston.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Take me back to November thirteenth, twenty twenty two. Where
were you when you got the call about what happened
at eleven twenty two King Rhade. So.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I was actually with my family at the time. We
were driving home from church when my sergeant, Darren Gilbertson
got a hold of me and said, hey, we got
a quadruple homicide. Up in Moscow and when can you
be there? Essentially, so everyone rallied together and we met
up at the office in Lewis And, Idaho, and then
traveled up to Moscow. And really we had very limited information.
(03:00):
And up to this point, I in my career, I'd
never had like a true like who done it homicide.
Usually we have a suspect already in custody or on
most of our scenes, or we have a good lead
and we're actually like on a man hunt looking for
that person or whatever because we have good witnesses or
things like that. But this one was like, we didn't
have a witness, we didn't really have any leads yet.
(03:23):
So we got called up there. When we got to
King Road, got all our stuff set up, but they
were still waiting on the search warnge to get approved,
which took a little bit of time, about an hour
or two. The detective that got assigned as primary was
Detective Jeff Talbot for processing the crime scene, and he
assigned me initially to collect some footprints in the snow
(03:45):
and by castings and stuff of that nature, And so
I went and did that, and then when I finished that,
they were just getting done with like the photographs of
the inside the crime scene. That's so that's when I
went in to assist to collect evidence, and that's when
I first got a grasp of what truly had happened
inside the house, because up to that point I hadn't
been inside the house or anything like that. Definitely, I
(04:07):
would have to say one of the worst crime scenes
I've ever seen in.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
My life as far as the crime scene goes. Can
you kind of walk me through the layout of the
house and some of the stuff that you guys had
seen when you entered that house.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So it's like three levels. There's like what I would
call like a daylight basement area that faces to the
north and when you walk in, that's where and you
go up the stairs to the living room. There's two
bedrooms down below, and then when you walk upstairs that's
the main living room. I'm in the kitchen, that's where
Zane and Ethan's bedroom were was on the main floor,
or so I would call the second floor. And then
(04:41):
when you went up the stairs kind of like Katie
corner from the kitchen, the stairwell led you up to
where Maddie's and Kaylee's room were. The one thing that
stood out to all of us is how contained most
of the stuff was. Like as far as like blood
and everything else was in Maddie's room and where Maddie
and Kayley were, and then also in Zane's room or
(05:02):
Zane and Ethan work. It was fairly well contained in
those two rooms, which was pretty shocking, especially for the
you know how gruesome the crime scene was, so I
would expect it we would have found more evidence throughout
the house, but it just wasn't the case. It was
very contained in both of those two rooms.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
What did that make you think initially about who the
killer could have been? You know, because it doesn't seem
like it was a break in where the killer took
a bunch of stuff. It doesn't seem like he messed
up a lot of things. When you're seeing to kind
of really well contained rooms, what did that suggest to
you right away?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
It just appeared like someone knew what they were doing.
Wasn't just this crime of passion where someone just lost
their mind and just started, you know, killing people. It
was something that would seem to be more methodical and
more thought out. After we finished processing the scene, we've
turned all the evidence over to Moscow Police, department, and
(05:56):
at that point we had a briefing.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
What are some of the first things you guys do
once you have that initial briefing, and what are those
briefings look like.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Well, that briefing, we listened to the nine one one
call that came in, and then we watched the footage
from the officer's body cam from when he responded to
the scene, and then they just talked about a few
of the detectives from Moscow and Police department, their initial
(06:24):
interviews with people that responded initially, and so they talked
about all those interviews, and then of course we start
getting tips that were coming in. People were calling in
and stuff because everyone, I wouldn't say everyone, but a
lot of people knew, like Zana and Ethan, Kaylee and Maddie,
and so it started to get a little overwhelmed. And
we worked with some amazing partners down here with the FBI,
(06:45):
and so we got ahold of them and started asking
them for their assistance because we knew this thing was
going to probably grow a little bigger than we had
initially imagined.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
What is it like to chase down those tips and
you know, do these initial interviews when you don't know
who it could be.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Initially, what we were assigned to do is like area canvas.
So we're just going door to door around the neighborhood,
you know, trying to find if anybody had you know,
security footage, ring camera footage or anything like that, and
start collecting those things and start trying to put stuff together.
It was literally just door to door, just running down
all these tips. Some of them were crazy, you know,
(07:22):
to be honest with you, what were.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Some of the craziest tips that you received? Were there
any that really stood out like, oh, my goodness, there's
no way that this could be true.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
We had weird ones about the knife was buried under
a bear in the middle of the field or whatever.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
They were under a bear.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
They said it was a pack of bears had the
knife or something and it was where it's buried under
a take whatever in the middle of the field. I
remember that coming out. We kind of got a kick
out of that. So craziest tips that you could possibly
think of that people would call in. It was kind
of nuts, but they all had to be looked into,
you know, because once we get that person, you know,
you don't want to have something like the defense come
(08:00):
out and say we're like, oh, well, this can't be
the person because you guys didn't go follow up with
so and so on this tip. You know, you guys
just blew it off. But that's really the person that
you should be looking at. We just didn't want that
to be able to come back and bite us in
the end, you know, and so we really wanted to
produce a high quality case where our eyes were dotted
and our teas were crossed. So it was sixteen eighteen
(08:20):
hour days for man. I think it was the first
three weeks. I don't think any of us had a
day off. And we initially had a lot of suspects
at first that would you know, check these certain boxes
that we were looking at for one reason or another.
That's like, nope, that's not our person. And so it
became draining over the weeks. You know, It's like, man,
we're like week six or whatever, and we still don't
(08:42):
have anybody. Some of my partners that we talked to,
there was, you know, a doubt in the back of
our mind. I was like, are we really going to
find this person? You know, are we going to be
able to seek justice for these four kids?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Let's stop here. For a break. We'll be back in
a moment. Idaho State Police Detective Hugh Powell was among
those called to assist with the investigation into the brutal
murders of Madison Mogan, Kayleie Gonzalvez, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.
(09:19):
The murders happened on November thirteenth, twenty twenty two, and
for weeks, Detective Powell and his team painstakingly sifted through
hundreds of tips, leads, and pieces of evidence, each one
raising hopes, only to leave investigators searching for more. As
the days stretched on, a chilling question began to hang
in the air, would this case ever be solved? Then
(09:44):
a breakthrough at the Idaho State Police Crime Lab changed everything,
an unexpected discovery that finally pushed the investigation forward. To
walk us through that turning point, here again is Detective
Hugh Powell, joined by Katie's Studio's producer Bankston.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
We found out that our lab down in Boise had
found like a single source mail DNA off the sheet
and so that was exciting. We're like, oh sweet, And
so we were hoping we were going to find someone
fairly early, you know, but not understanding that whole process.
I mean, it was the first time I've ever worked
a case like this, you know, where you're going to
find out who your suspect is through a DNA source
(10:25):
that you collected at the crime scene. And then in
December when finally we are in the meeting with my
sergeant Darren and everybody else FBI all the way down
to the Moscow PD and with ISP and they're like,
this doesn't go anywhere. You don't talk to your wife,
you don't talk to anybody about this, you know, don't
search his name. And they talked to us how they
were able to get to the pointe we're at now
(10:46):
to where we had a suspect. When the name finally
came up, they're like, well, this Brian Coberger is like
oh lo, and behold he has this white launtra So
that was a box that it checked, you know. And
then oh, he's a student at WSU that checked a.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Box out right.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I can't imagine how exciting that must have been, just
to seeing all of these little investigative puzzle pieces finally
starting to really fit together, and.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
It was like, oh, he was a criminology student, you know,
and all these things started lining up, like, well, why
was the crime scene so clean? Well, this guy, you know,
this is what he obsessed about criminology and how criminals
reacted to when they committed these crimes, and how they
almost got you know, away with them, or how they
were able to do these things with you know, leaving
(11:29):
the least amount of evidence behind, you know. So it
was really interesting when all this stuff came out, and
then it was kind of like that Aha. I was like, oh, yeah,
we're ninety nine percent sure this is our guy. So
that was, man, you talk about a weight kind of
off everybody's shoulders, you know, even though we knew we
still had a bunch of more work to do, it
was finally we have someone to concentrate all this effort,
(11:49):
all this manpower, all this knowledge and experience into Now
we get to dig into truly who this guy is.
Once we found out who he was, then I was
assigned to interviewing some of the students there or people
that he had had contact phone numbers that were in
his phone that we were able to link back to
(12:12):
people in the Moscow Pullman area.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Detective HW Powell conducted dozens of interviews as part of
the Brian Coberger investigation. Many of those conversations have only
recently been made public in the Idaho State Police document release.
We're going to take a closer look at exactly what
those interviews reveal and what they can tell us about
the case.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
One of the reports that you had written that I
found especially interesting is apparently you had interviewed someone who
said that he talked with Brian Coberger about capitalism or socialism,
you know, vegetarianism.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
It was his neighbor where he lived at his apartment,
because his number was in Brian's phone, and so this
is how we were able to track this person down.
And there was like text messages between the two and
so I guess him and Brian would chat either in
the parking lot or near their like interests, to their
apartment complex or whatever, and they ended up I wouldn't say,
(13:12):
like befriending each other. I think they were just more
like acquaintances and they would talk about you know, school
and maybe similar interests and things of that nature. But
it was interesting, you know, we got to learn some
of the things about Brian Coburger and like you know
that yes, he was indeed a vegetarian, which is whatever,
that's no big deal. But then he only ate one
meal a day. And as we started to learn more
(13:34):
about Brian early on, in his early teens or whatever,
he you know, had struggled with his weight and everything else.
So that was kind of interesting to learn. And then
I think they talked about like where they like to
go hike or run or whatever, and got to learn
some things about Brian and their communications and his kind
of more daily activities.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Did he say anything about his impressions of Brian's personality,
like saying, oh, he was kind of awkward, he felt off,
he was weird. Did he say anything like that.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
He did kind of say that he was kind of
I think if it was like introverted. Yeah, they talked
about like to talk about politics, about capitalism, socialism, because
I believe the person his neighbor, he was from Iran,
so that was kind of interesting and that how Brian
Coberger thought partying was a complete waste of time. And
since you know, Brian was from America, this guy was
from Iran. I think they talked about some of the
(14:25):
more political issues between the two or the differences.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
There's another report that she did too that I thought
was interesting, where there was the famous pool party that
he attended right before the year started. It apparently you
would talk to a girl who got trapped in a
conversation with Brian Coberger, which sounds like an awful place
to be, and he just kept like going on and
on about personality tests and what they mean, and she
just didn't know how to get away. Can you tell
(14:49):
me a little bit about that interview?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
And that was interesting with her because when we first
initially contacted her, she had no idea what it was about.
And then when we asked, let go, do you remember
this person's name? And she's like, well, no, And we
had already interviewed some other people from the pool party,
and so I was just like, well, maybe he had
contacted her at the pool party. So I was like,
do you remember like attending a pool party this last
(15:12):
summer or late early fall or whatever. And she's like,
oh my gosh, and it's like a light bulb went
on in her head and she completely was like, I
remember this guy. He had came up to me and
he wanted to talk about this survey. He wanted me
to answer for him, you know, And she's like, I'm
at a party, I'm with my friends. I don't want
to be talking about this survey of people's personalities or whatever.
(15:34):
She's like, that's kind of weird, and she's just I'm
here to have a good time, and she kind of yeah,
she felt very awkward around him, and even though she
gave him his phone number so he could send her
the survey or whatever. And then I think he contacted
her later after the party and asked her if she
had had a chance to do that survey, and she
was like, no, I don't. I didn't have a chance,
(15:54):
and I don't intend to, you know, something of that nature. Yeah,
it was kind of interesting, and that was kind of like,
you know, people at the pool party kind of had
like the same general ideas like why is this guy
wanting to talk to us about these things at a party?
You know, it's not normal, you know what I mean. So,
and then as we learned more about Brian Koberger, well
he just he wasn't normal. His very awkward communicator and
(16:17):
definitely was lacking some social cues.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, right, this one is super interesting to me too.
The hotel's day back in June and July twenty twenty two,
when he had first kind of came out west with
his dad to move into college, to move into first
PhD program. They checked into a hotel together.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, so he did stay at a hotel, and I
believe his father was the one that initially had made
the reservation, and I think it was close to upon
checkout he noticed that they had overcharged him, and so
he came down and talked to the lady at the
front desk, and then they were able to work through
fixing his bill and getting it straightened out. And then
(16:55):
he got angry yet because they just didn't seem to
be able to do anything correctly, at least up to
his standard. I guess the lady's story of the event
was kind of all over the place. She wanted to
talk about that Brian wanted to show his nice collection
to her, you know, and I was talking about, you know,
the sheath, and he had this really nice leather sheath
(17:16):
he wanted to shore. And then he said he was
meeting some girl named Maddie. So it was just kind
of like all these things that she was talking about.
It was apparent that she had read the PC affidavit
for his arrest and then wanted to come and interject herself.
Into the investigation, and not to say that she didn't
have anything relevant to add to the investigation, but you
(17:39):
had to kind of sift through what was maybe fabricated
and what was true.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Detective Powell was also expected to be called to the
stand if Brian Coberger's case ever went to trial. In
the spring of twenty twenty five, Coburger's defense team pushed
to have four alternate suspects introduced as part of their strategy.
It was a bold move, one designed to cast doubt
on the States case. Among those four individuals, one stood
(18:13):
out in particular that lead with Someone's Detective Powell himself
had investigated closely.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
So Kaylee's father had called in a tip to us
actually about you know, some stalkers. Potentially she had called
her dad and said, Hey, there's this guy at Winko
that was kind of stalking me. And so me and
my partner we were tasked with going to the Winco
Foods and looking at surveillance footage to see if we could,
you know, find Kaylee coing into that Winko, and we did.
(18:43):
We found Kaylee one evening entering the Winco Foods and
there was two males that were grocery shopping together and
one of the males saw Kaylee out of the corner
of his eye and he started like kind of like
following her through the store, and that we were able
to identify the person, and he kind of followed her
almost out to her car in the parking lot, but
then it looked like he got nervous and walked away
(19:05):
and walked back into the store. So we were able
to pull like his debit and credit card, so he
got his name, and then we were able to run
that through the university and are like, oh, this is
the student. So we were able to track him down
and do an interview with him, and he was wanting
to ask Kaylee out on a date and he got nervous,
but he had actually done it to a couple girls
that evening because we kept watching him through the surveillance
(19:26):
footage in the store. Anyways, we got a bugle swab
from him and everything else, collected his DNA and nothing
came of it. But for some reason or another, the
defense wanted to say, well, this is your suspect, this
is the one who did it. So then they came
and told me, you're like, this is probably what you're
going to be testifying to at the trial, you know,
so you need to prepare yourself about your interviews you
(19:48):
did with this individual.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Right, Yeah. I remember when that was all going on,
when the defense had, you know, submitted four alternative suspects,
and then the judge, I think he said they couldn't
even be brought up at trial because the evidence just
was really wasn't there are you know, no DNA.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Yep, yep. So that's what I was kind of preparing for.
But then when it came out, it's like, yeah, that's
we don't have anything. The judge wasn't going to allow
them to be named as suspects. So I think that
was like the defense is kind of like last straw.
They're like, oh man, we don't have any suspects.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
You know, let's stop here for a break. We'll be
back in a moment. On June twenty sixth, twenty twenty five,
Judge Stephen Hibler denied Brian Coberger's motion to introduce alternate
(20:40):
suspects at trial. For many, this was the final blow,
the moment his defense strategy unraveled. With their last major
move stripped away, Coburger's legal team had no choice but
to give in.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I was actually down in Boise at the time. I
didn't even know that they were having a plea hearing.
And then literally minutes before it was supposed to take place,
my sergeant who was down there for he called me
and he's like, hey, you might hear something in the news.
I just wanted to give you a heads up out
of respect for like the work and everything that you've
done and helped with this. And then literally half hour
(21:20):
later it starts hitting the news and stuff. As I
started thinking about it, It's one to get found guilty
by your peers by a jury, but it's another thing.
I think it's closure to someone that you know who
did it. They have to get up there and they
have to be like, yes, I'm guilty of these crimes,
(21:40):
you know. And I know it wasn't for like all
the family members didn't quite necessarily agree with that, But
I'll say this, I was like, any state that has
the death penalty, they're horrible about going through with it
putting somebody to death. You know, those persons are going
to be on death row for twenty thirty years during
all these appeals, and you know it's going to cost
the state tens of millions of dollars to its taxpayers,
(22:02):
and then also all every single time an appeal comes up,
that family's going to be brought to relive this whole
nightmare all over again, and it's going to keep happening
for twenty or thirty years. Well, now there's there isn't
any of that. He's guilty. He's spending his rest of
his life in prison with no chance of parole, and
he can't appeal it ever. And so I mean, I
(22:24):
think there's some closure when it comes to that.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
You know, only speculate, But do you have any theories
on what his motive could have been or do you
think it's one of those things where we just might
never know.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I think a lot of us in office have our theory.
We kind of all agree that he was wanting to
test out his own theory and thesis that he had
been studying and written about. He wanted to know what
it felt like because he's doing these surveys, you know,
like how does somebody feel after they commit a crime?
(22:59):
How did they feel before or how did they feel after?
And I think he was, you know, a very sick,
twisted person who wanted to act those things out and
find out for himself, and he found the softist, most
vulnerable people that were in college. They were there to
get an education and make new friends and make life memories.
And then he walks into that and totally ruins it
(23:20):
and destroys for families' lives.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
As you look back on it now and you've solved
it and it's the cases closed, what lessons have you learned?
And how does it feel to have worked on something
like this with so many other amazing agencies to bring
closure to these families.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I mean, it was just the satisfaction of being able
to solve the who done it? A true who done it? Case,
and be able to work with so many amazing people
and to be able to see what true teamwork can accomplish.
You know, when you all put your egos and opinions
aside and you all have a common goal that you
able to work towards and accomplish. At the FBI, Moscow
(24:03):
Police Department and just everybody, even the law enforcement out
where we were able to arrest Brian Koeberg who helped
transport him out there, I mean, just phenomenal, phenomenal interagency
cooperation and is really unfortunate that what happened happened, but
I'm super pleased with the outcome and I hope the
families realized the hard work that was put in to
(24:24):
be able to seek justice for them.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
More on that next time. For more information on the
case and relevant photos, follow us on Instagram at Kat
Underscore Studios. The Idaho Massacre is produced by Stephanie Leideker,
Alison Bankston, Gabriel Castillo, and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and
sound designed by Jeff Tooi music by Jared Aston. The
(24:52):
Idaho Masacer is a production of KAT Studios and iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts like this, visit the iHeartRadio app podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
It became training over the weeks, like, man, we're like
week six or whatever, and we still don't have anybody.
We're all united in one common goal, and that was
to find out who had caused this horrific crime in Moscow.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
This is the Idaho Massacre a production of KAT Studios
and iHeartRadio, Season three, Episode eight, Behind the Badge. I'm
Courtney Armstrong, a producer at KAT Studios with Stephanie Leidecker,
Alison Bankston, and Gabriel Castillo. Founded in nineteen thirty nine,
(00:49):
the Idaho State Police, known as ISP, has stood at
the center of some of the state's biggest and most
difficult cases. Their mission is clear, to serve, serve, and
protect the lives, property, and constitutional rights of every person
in Idaho. To do this, they bring an arsenal of resources.
(01:11):
State of the art crime labs, critical funding, and cutting
edge equipment. These are the tools that local police departments
often don't have at their disposal. On November thirteenth, twenty
twenty two, these resources were called upon when the Moscow
Police Department faced an unimaginable crisis, the quadruple homicide at
(01:32):
one one two two King Road. Four young lives were
stolen Madison, Mogen Kayli Gonzalvez, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Shapin.
Moscow Police quickly requested backup and ISP stepped in to
provide support, expertise, and manpower. Their mission was urgent to
(01:53):
help identify who could have committed such terrific, unspeakable murders
and to bring answers to a devastated community. One of
the detectives called to the front lines was Detective Hugh Powell,
a thirteen year law enforcement veteran who has seen his
sheriff tough cases, but nothing like this. Today, he joins
(02:13):
us to share what it was really like to work
behind the scenes on one of the most shocking and
closely watched investigations in recent memory. He's joined by kti's
studios producer Alice in Bankston.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Take me back to November thirteenth, twenty twenty two. Where
were you when you got the call about what happened
at eleven twenty two King Rhade. So.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I was actually with my family at the time. We
were driving home from church when my sergeant, Darren Gilbertson
got a hold of me and said, hey, we got
a quadruple homicide. Up in Moscow and when can you
be there? Essentially, so everyone rallied together and we met
up at the office in Lewis And, Idaho, and then
traveled up to Moscow. And really we had very limited information.
(03:00):
And up to this point, I in my career, I'd
never had like a true like who done it homicide.
Usually we have a suspect already in custody or on
most of our scenes, or we have a good lead
and we're actually like on a man hunt looking for
that person or whatever because we have good witnesses or
things like that. But this one was like, we didn't
have a witness, we didn't really have any leads yet.
(03:23):
So we got called up there. When we got to
King Road, got all our stuff set up, but they
were still waiting on the search warnge to get approved,
which took a little bit of time, about an hour
or two. The detective that got assigned as primary was
Detective Jeff Talbot for processing the crime scene, and he
assigned me initially to collect some footprints in the snow
(03:45):
and by castings and stuff of that nature, And so
I went and did that, and then when I finished that,
they were just getting done with like the photographs of
the inside the crime scene. That's so that's when I
went in to assist to collect evidence, and that's when
I first got a grasp of what truly had happened
inside the house, because up to that point I hadn't
been inside the house or anything like that. Definitely, I
(04:07):
would have to say one of the worst crime scenes
I've ever seen in.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
My life as far as the crime scene goes. Can
you kind of walk me through the layout of the
house and some of the stuff that you guys had
seen when you entered that house.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So it's like three levels. There's like what I would
call like a daylight basement area that faces to the
north and when you walk in, that's where and you
go up the stairs to the living room. There's two
bedrooms down below, and then when you walk upstairs that's
the main living room. I'm in the kitchen, that's where
Zane and Ethan's bedroom were was on the main floor,
or so I would call the second floor. And then
(04:41):
when you went up the stairs kind of like Katie
corner from the kitchen, the stairwell led you up to
where Maddie's and Kaylee's room were. The one thing that
stood out to all of us is how contained most
of the stuff was. Like as far as like blood
and everything else was in Maddie's room and where Maddie
and Kayley were, and then also in Zane's room or
(05:02):
Zane and Ethan work. It was fairly well contained in
those two rooms, which was pretty shocking, especially for the
you know how gruesome the crime scene was, so I
would expect it we would have found more evidence throughout
the house, but it just wasn't the case. It was
very contained in both of those two rooms.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
What did that make you think initially about who the
killer could have been? You know, because it doesn't seem
like it was a break in where the killer took
a bunch of stuff. It doesn't seem like he messed
up a lot of things. When you're seeing to kind
of really well contained rooms, what did that suggest to
you right away?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
It just appeared like someone knew what they were doing.
Wasn't just this crime of passion where someone just lost
their mind and just started, you know, killing people. It
was something that would seem to be more methodical and
more thought out. After we finished processing the scene, we've
turned all the evidence over to Moscow Police, department, and
(05:56):
at that point we had a briefing.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
What are some of the first things you guys do
once you have that initial briefing, and what are those
briefings look like.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Well, that briefing, we listened to the nine one one
call that came in, and then we watched the footage
from the officer's body cam from when he responded to
the scene, and then they just talked about a few
of the detectives from Moscow and Police department, their initial
(06:24):
interviews with people that responded initially, and so they talked
about all those interviews, and then of course we start
getting tips that were coming in. People were calling in
and stuff because everyone, I wouldn't say everyone, but a
lot of people knew, like Zana and Ethan, Kaylee and Maddie,
and so it started to get a little overwhelmed. And
we worked with some amazing partners down here with the FBI,
(06:45):
and so we got ahold of them and started asking
them for their assistance because we knew this thing was
going to probably grow a little bigger than we had
initially imagined.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
What is it like to chase down those tips and
you know, do these initial interviews when you don't know
who it could be.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Initially, what we were assigned to do is like area canvas.
So we're just going door to door around the neighborhood,
you know, trying to find if anybody had you know,
security footage, ring camera footage or anything like that, and
start collecting those things and start trying to put stuff together.
It was literally just door to door, just running down
all these tips. Some of them were crazy, you know,
(07:22):
to be honest with you, what were.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Some of the craziest tips that you received? Were there
any that really stood out like, oh, my goodness, there's
no way that this could be true.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
We had weird ones about the knife was buried under
a bear in the middle of the field or whatever.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
They were under a bear.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
They said it was a pack of bears had the
knife or something and it was where it's buried under
a take whatever in the middle of the field. I
remember that coming out. We kind of got a kick
out of that. So craziest tips that you could possibly
think of that people would call in. It was kind
of nuts, but they all had to be looked into,
you know, because once we get that person, you know,
you don't want to have something like the defense come
(08:00):
out and say we're like, oh, well, this can't be
the person because you guys didn't go follow up with
so and so on this tip. You know, you guys
just blew it off. But that's really the person that
you should be looking at. We just didn't want that
to be able to come back and bite us in
the end, you know, and so we really wanted to
produce a high quality case where our eyes were dotted
and our teas were crossed. So it was sixteen eighteen
(08:20):
hour days for man. I think it was the first
three weeks. I don't think any of us had a
day off. And we initially had a lot of suspects
at first that would you know, check these certain boxes
that we were looking at for one reason or another.
That's like, nope, that's not our person. And so it
became draining over the weeks. You know, It's like, man,
we're like week six or whatever, and we still don't
(08:42):
have anybody. Some of my partners that we talked to,
there was, you know, a doubt in the back of
our mind. I was like, are we really going to
find this person? You know, are we going to be
able to seek justice for these four kids?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Let's stop here. For a break. We'll be back in
a moment. Idaho State Police Detective Hugh Powell was among
those called to assist with the investigation into the brutal
murders of Madison Mogan, Kayleie Gonzalvez, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.
(09:19):
The murders happened on November thirteenth, twenty twenty two, and
for weeks, Detective Powell and his team painstakingly sifted through
hundreds of tips, leads, and pieces of evidence, each one
raising hopes, only to leave investigators searching for more. As
the days stretched on, a chilling question began to hang
in the air, would this case ever be solved? Then
(09:44):
a breakthrough at the Idaho State Police Crime Lab changed everything,
an unexpected discovery that finally pushed the investigation forward. To
walk us through that turning point, here again is Detective
Hugh Powell, joined by Katie's Studio's producer Bankston.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
We found out that our lab down in Boise had
found like a single source mail DNA off the sheet
and so that was exciting. We're like, oh sweet, And
so we were hoping we were going to find someone
fairly early, you know, but not understanding that whole process.
I mean, it was the first time I've ever worked
a case like this, you know, where you're going to
find out who your suspect is through a DNA source
(10:25):
that you collected at the crime scene. And then in
December when finally we are in the meeting with my
sergeant Darren and everybody else FBI all the way down
to the Moscow PD and with ISP and they're like,
this doesn't go anywhere. You don't talk to your wife,
you don't talk to anybody about this, you know, don't
search his name. And they talked to us how they
were able to get to the pointe we're at now
(10:46):
to where we had a suspect. When the name finally
came up, they're like, well, this Brian Coberger is like
oh lo, and behold he has this white launtra So
that was a box that it checked, you know. And
then oh, he's a student at WSU that checked a.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Box out right.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I can't imagine how exciting that must have been, just
to seeing all of these little investigative puzzle pieces finally
starting to really fit together, and.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
It was like, oh, he was a criminology student, you know,
and all these things started lining up, like, well, why
was the crime scene so clean? Well, this guy, you know,
this is what he obsessed about criminology and how criminals
reacted to when they committed these crimes, and how they
almost got you know, away with them, or how they
were able to do these things with you know, leaving
(11:29):
the least amount of evidence behind, you know. So it
was really interesting when all this stuff came out, and
then it was kind of like that Aha. I was like, oh, yeah,
we're ninety nine percent sure this is our guy. So
that was, man, you talk about a weight kind of
off everybody's shoulders, you know, even though we knew we
still had a bunch of more work to do, it
was finally we have someone to concentrate all this effort,
(11:49):
all this manpower, all this knowledge and experience into Now
we get to dig into truly who this guy is.
Once we found out who he was, then I was
assigned to interviewing some of the students there or people
that he had had contact phone numbers that were in
his phone that we were able to link back to
(12:12):
people in the Moscow Pullman area.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Detective HW Powell conducted dozens of interviews as part of
the Brian Coberger investigation. Many of those conversations have only
recently been made public in the Idaho State Police document release.
We're going to take a closer look at exactly what
those interviews reveal and what they can tell us about
the case.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
One of the reports that you had written that I
found especially interesting is apparently you had interviewed someone who
said that he talked with Brian Coberger about capitalism or socialism,
you know, vegetarianism.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
It was his neighbor where he lived at his apartment,
because his number was in Brian's phone, and so this
is how we were able to track this person down.
And there was like text messages between the two and
so I guess him and Brian would chat either in
the parking lot or near their like interests, to their
apartment complex or whatever, and they ended up I wouldn't say,
(13:12):
like befriending each other. I think they were just more
like acquaintances and they would talk about you know, school
and maybe similar interests and things of that nature. But
it was interesting, you know, we got to learn some
of the things about Brian Coburger and like you know
that yes, he was indeed a vegetarian, which is whatever,
that's no big deal. But then he only ate one
meal a day. And as we started to learn more
(13:34):
about Brian early on, in his early teens or whatever,
he you know, had struggled with his weight and everything else.
So that was kind of interesting to learn. And then
I think they talked about like where they like to
go hike or run or whatever, and got to learn
some things about Brian and their communications and his kind
of more daily activities.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Did he say anything about his impressions of Brian's personality,
like saying, oh, he was kind of awkward, he felt off,
he was weird. Did he say anything like that.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
He did kind of say that he was kind of
I think if it was like introverted. Yeah, they talked
about like to talk about politics, about capitalism, socialism, because
I believe the person his neighbor, he was from Iran,
so that was kind of interesting and that how Brian
Coberger thought partying was a complete waste of time. And
since you know, Brian was from America, this guy was
from Iran. I think they talked about some of the
(14:25):
more political issues between the two or the differences.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
There's another report that she did too that I thought
was interesting, where there was the famous pool party that
he attended right before the year started. It apparently you
would talk to a girl who got trapped in a
conversation with Brian Coberger, which sounds like an awful place
to be, and he just kept like going on and
on about personality tests and what they mean, and she
just didn't know how to get away. Can you tell
(14:49):
me a little bit about that interview?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
And that was interesting with her because when we first
initially contacted her, she had no idea what it was about.
And then when we asked, let go, do you remember
this person's name? And she's like, well, no, And we
had already interviewed some other people from the pool party,
and so I was just like, well, maybe he had
contacted her at the pool party. So I was like,
do you remember like attending a pool party this last
(15:12):
summer or late early fall or whatever. And she's like,
oh my gosh, and it's like a light bulb went
on in her head and she completely was like, I
remember this guy. He had came up to me and
he wanted to talk about this survey. He wanted me
to answer for him, you know, And she's like, I'm
at a party, I'm with my friends. I don't want
to be talking about this survey of people's personalities or whatever.
(15:34):
She's like, that's kind of weird, and she's just I'm
here to have a good time, and she kind of yeah,
she felt very awkward around him, and even though she
gave him his phone number so he could send her
the survey or whatever. And then I think he contacted
her later after the party and asked her if she
had had a chance to do that survey, and she
was like, no, I don't. I didn't have a chance,
(15:54):
and I don't intend to, you know, something of that nature. Yeah,
it was kind of interesting, and that was kind of like,
you know, people at the pool party kind of had
like the same general ideas like why is this guy
wanting to talk to us about these things at a party?
You know, it's not normal, you know what I mean. So,
and then as we learned more about Brian Koberger, well
he just he wasn't normal. His very awkward communicator and
(16:17):
definitely was lacking some social cues.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, right, this one is super interesting to me too.
The hotel's day back in June and July twenty twenty two,
when he had first kind of came out west with
his dad to move into college, to move into first
PhD program. They checked into a hotel together.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, so he did stay at a hotel, and I
believe his father was the one that initially had made
the reservation, and I think it was close to upon
checkout he noticed that they had overcharged him, and so
he came down and talked to the lady at the
front desk, and then they were able to work through
fixing his bill and getting it straightened out. And then
(16:55):
he got angry yet because they just didn't seem to
be able to do anything correctly, at least up to
his standard. I guess the lady's story of the event
was kind of all over the place. She wanted to
talk about that Brian wanted to show his nice collection
to her, you know, and I was talking about, you know,
the sheath, and he had this really nice leather sheath
(17:16):
he wanted to shore. And then he said he was
meeting some girl named Maddie. So it was just kind
of like all these things that she was talking about.
It was apparent that she had read the PC affidavit
for his arrest and then wanted to come and interject herself.
Into the investigation, and not to say that she didn't
have anything relevant to add to the investigation, but you
(17:39):
had to kind of sift through what was maybe fabricated
and what was true.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Detective Powell was also expected to be called to the
stand if Brian Coberger's case ever went to trial. In
the spring of twenty twenty five, Coburger's defense team pushed
to have four alternate suspects introduced as part of their strategy.
It was a bold move, one designed to cast doubt
on the States case. Among those four individuals, one stood
(18:13):
out in particular that lead with Someone's Detective Powell himself
had investigated closely.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
So Kaylee's father had called in a tip to us
actually about you know, some stalkers. Potentially she had called
her dad and said, Hey, there's this guy at Winko
that was kind of stalking me. And so me and
my partner we were tasked with going to the Winco
Foods and looking at surveillance footage to see if we could,
you know, find Kaylee coing into that Winko, and we did.
(18:43):
We found Kaylee one evening entering the Winco Foods and
there was two males that were grocery shopping together and
one of the males saw Kaylee out of the corner
of his eye and he started like kind of like
following her through the store, and that we were able
to identify the person, and he kind of followed her
almost out to her car in the parking lot, but
then it looked like he got nervous and walked away
(19:05):
and walked back into the store. So we were able
to pull like his debit and credit card, so he
got his name, and then we were able to run
that through the university and are like, oh, this is
the student. So we were able to track him down
and do an interview with him, and he was wanting
to ask Kaylee out on a date and he got nervous,
but he had actually done it to a couple girls
that evening because we kept watching him through the surveillance
(19:26):
footage in the store. Anyways, we got a bugle swab
from him and everything else, collected his DNA and nothing
came of it. But for some reason or another, the
defense wanted to say, well, this is your suspect, this
is the one who did it. So then they came
and told me, you're like, this is probably what you're
going to be testifying to at the trial, you know,
so you need to prepare yourself about your interviews you
(19:48):
did with this individual.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Right, Yeah. I remember when that was all going on,
when the defense had, you know, submitted four alternative suspects,
and then the judge, I think he said they couldn't
even be brought up at trial because the evidence just
was really wasn't there are you know, no DNA.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Yep, yep. So that's what I was kind of preparing for.
But then when it came out, it's like, yeah, that's
we don't have anything. The judge wasn't going to allow
them to be named as suspects. So I think that
was like the defense is kind of like last straw.
They're like, oh man, we don't have any suspects.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
You know, let's stop here for a break. We'll be
back in a moment. On June twenty sixth, twenty twenty five,
Judge Stephen Hibler denied Brian Coberger's motion to introduce alternate
(20:40):
suspects at trial. For many, this was the final blow,
the moment his defense strategy unraveled. With their last major
move stripped away, Coburger's legal team had no choice but
to give in.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I was actually down in Boise at the time. I
didn't even know that they were having a plea hearing.
And then literally minutes before it was supposed to take place,
my sergeant who was down there for he called me
and he's like, hey, you might hear something in the news.
I just wanted to give you a heads up out
of respect for like the work and everything that you've
done and helped with this. And then literally half hour
(21:20):
later it starts hitting the news and stuff. As I
started thinking about it, It's one to get found guilty
by your peers by a jury, but it's another thing.
I think it's closure to someone that you know who
did it. They have to get up there and they
have to be like, yes, I'm guilty of these crimes,
(21:40):
you know. And I know it wasn't for like all
the family members didn't quite necessarily agree with that, But
I'll say this, I was like, any state that has
the death penalty, they're horrible about going through with it
putting somebody to death. You know, those persons are going
to be on death row for twenty thirty years during
all these appeals, and you know it's going to cost
the state tens of millions of dollars to its taxpayers,
(22:02):
and then also all every single time an appeal comes up,
that family's going to be brought to relive this whole
nightmare all over again, and it's going to keep happening
for twenty or thirty years. Well, now there's there isn't
any of that. He's guilty. He's spending his rest of
his life in prison with no chance of parole, and
he can't appeal it ever. And so I mean, I
(22:24):
think there's some closure when it comes to that.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
You know, only speculate, But do you have any theories
on what his motive could have been or do you
think it's one of those things where we just might
never know.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I think a lot of us in office have our theory.
We kind of all agree that he was wanting to
test out his own theory and thesis that he had
been studying and written about. He wanted to know what
it felt like because he's doing these surveys, you know,
like how does somebody feel after they commit a crime?
(22:59):
How did they feel before or how did they feel after?
And I think he was, you know, a very sick,
twisted person who wanted to act those things out and
find out for himself, and he found the softist, most
vulnerable people that were in college. They were there to
get an education and make new friends and make life memories.
And then he walks into that and totally ruins it
(23:20):
and destroys for families' lives.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
As you look back on it now and you've solved
it and it's the cases closed, what lessons have you learned?
And how does it feel to have worked on something
like this with so many other amazing agencies to bring
closure to these families.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I mean, it was just the satisfaction of being able
to solve the who done it? A true who done it? Case,
and be able to work with so many amazing people
and to be able to see what true teamwork can accomplish.
You know, when you all put your egos and opinions
aside and you all have a common goal that you
able to work towards and accomplish. At the FBI, Moscow
(24:03):
Police Department and just everybody, even the law enforcement out
where we were able to arrest Brian Koeberg who helped
transport him out there, I mean, just phenomenal, phenomenal interagency
cooperation and is really unfortunate that what happened happened, but
I'm super pleased with the outcome and I hope the
families realized the hard work that was put in to
(24:24):
be able to seek justice for them.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
More on that next time. For more information on the
case and relevant photos, follow us on Instagram at Kat
Underscore Studios. The Idaho Massacre is produced by Stephanie Leideker,
Alison Bankston, Gabriel Castillo, and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and
sound designed by Jeff Tooi music by Jared Aston. The
(24:52):
Idaho Masacer is a production of KAT Studios and iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts like this, visit the iHeartRadio app podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Stephanie Lydecker
Courtney Armstrong
Jeff Shane
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