September 6, 2023 • 28 mins
Latah County prosecutors claim Bryan Kohberger attempted to conceal his movements in the hours around the gruesome University of Idaho murders. What exactly did he do in the hours and days after the crime? And what did he do in the days before?
Check us out online:
www.tiktok.com/@officialktstudios
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Investigators believe Coburger killed Kaylei Gansalves, Madison Mogan, Zeyner, Kernodle,
and Ethan Chapin inside of a rented home not far
from the University of Idaho campus. At the time of
the murders, Coburger was studying at Washington State University, which
is just a few miles away from the crime scene.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Outside Coberger's apartment in Pullman, Washington, detectives removing boxes and
bags from the apartment. They just kept coming out with
more and more stuff and loading it into evidence vans.
But in that list of what they brought out, they
do not list knife in that evidence list.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
This is the Idaho Massacre, a production of KT Studios
and iHeartRadio, episode five The Days After Death. Courtney Armstrong
a television producer at KT Studios with Stephanie Leidecker, Jeff Shane,
and Connor Powell. When Brian Colberger moved to Pullman, Washington
(01:08):
in early July of twenty twenty two for his pH
d program, he arrived on campus with his dad driving
a twenty fifteen white Hondi Atlantra. Within months of arriving
on campus, Coburger was pulled over by Washington State University Police.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Hello, Hi, am, officer langis stops being audio and video recorded.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
You think you know why I stopped you. As the
officer approached the driver's side window, the twenty eight year
old criminology student respectfully greeted her. Colberger explained he was
originally from a rural area in Pennsylvania and was new
to the area. He said he accidentally got caught in
the intersection before turning left on a red light.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yeah, it was a little bit of confusion with speeding
because someone had stopped.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
I wasn't sure what they were doing.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
During the nine and a half minute interaction, Coburger politely
asked the female officer to explain Washington State's traffic laws,
before he apologized for asking too many questions. Do you
have your license on you?
Speaker 6 (02:12):
You?
Speaker 7 (02:12):
Do you have the registration and insurance?
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I'm just going to this off route, Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
The traffic stop was unremarkable and Coburger was let off
with a warning, But during the brief exchange, which took
place one month before the murderers, the officer commented that
Brian Coberger's vehicle registration was set to expire in a
few months.
Speaker 7 (02:32):
Let's see expires November twenty second, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
For the next month Coburger's wife twenty fifteen, Atlantra remained
registered in his home state of Pennsylvania, But five days
after the gruesome murders, Coburger did something he hadn't done
for months. He changed his registration from Pennsylvania to Washington
and received new license plates. Was this simply a coincidence,
a last minute chore that needed to be completed but
(02:58):
had escaped Coburger's mind ring his first and very busy
fall semester. Or was this one of the many actions
Coburger took to try to cover his tracks after killing
the four University of Idaho students. Here's Stephanie and Jeff.
Speaker 8 (03:15):
It was roughly seven weeks from the time Kaylee, Madison, Zana,
and Ethan were killed to the time Brian Coburger was arrested.
Speaker 9 (03:23):
To me, the biggest question in this case is obviously
why did Coburger, if in fact he is guilty, commit
this crime?
Speaker 8 (03:29):
And maybe asking ourselves why is an impossible question. It's
kind of applying reason to an irrational situation. Whoever did
this is obviously a monster, and we're clearly not going
to be able to assign logic to that person.
Speaker 9 (03:43):
The other good question I have is what was Coburger
doing in the days and weeks leading up to the
murders exactly?
Speaker 8 (03:49):
And there are so many unanswered questions at this point,
but thanks to the Probable Cause AffA David, we do
know some of the movements and actions of Coburger.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Brian Coburger's cell phone is at the center of the
prosecution's case against the twenty eight year old in the
days and hours before and after the killings, Investigators say
Coburger's cell phone use paints a disturbing picture of a
killer stalking his victims and returning to the scene of
the crime.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Investigators say they believe the murders took place between four
and four to twenty five am.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
According to cell phone data, Coburger's phone was connected to
the cellular network near his apartment in Pulman, Washington, at
four forty two am on the morning of the murders.
His phone disappeared from the network and was switched off
between two forty seven am and four forty eight a m.
On the morning of the murders. Police say in the
Probable Cause Affidavid that this is quote consistent with Coburger
(04:48):
attempting to conceal his location during the quadruple homicide. Here's
reporter Chris Bargo.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
At two forty two in the morning. Brian Coburger's cell
phone is recorded as sort of being on the network
in Pullman, Washington, where his dormitory is on Washington State
University campus. Then a few minutes later goes off the
network and is disconnected. From that point on, there's just
counts of people seeing his white hand lantro, so his
white han day luntra scene leaving Pullman shortly after that,
(05:18):
and then around three point thirty itt scene in Moscow. Now,
the direct route from Pullman to Moscow is about fifteen
minutes tops, and this is late at night, so it's
not going to be any traffic. So it's assumed he
took some sort of way that would have gone around
that sort of main road. He would either went up
north or he went down south and took back rows
to sort of get there. Because the alleged killer is driving,
police belief from Pullman to Moscow, if it is indeed Brian,
(05:42):
that would suggest that it was targeted because that's a
very specific target. That's a very specific house he's going to.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
At four forty eight am, Coberger's phone comes back online
and pings a tower just south of Moscow. But police
say Coburger did not head straight home. Instead, he drove
a back roads route which was longer and more remote.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
That area that he drove south to where he the
road sort of goes down south about ten or twenty
miles and then it turns back up in a u.
That area at the bottom is just mountains and it's forest.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
He arrives home at five point thirty in the morning,
where the WSU campus surveillance video captures his white Atlanta
returning home. A few hours later, Coburger's phone is back
on the move. In a particularly chilling move, Coburger's phone
pings a tower near the King roadhouse.
Speaker 10 (06:34):
Ryan Coberger's saleshone allegedly shows him here at nine to
twelve am and staying for about ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Surveillance video also shows a white Sedan driving past the
scene of the murders around nine in the morning. Police
have yet to be called to the gruesome murder scene.
Stephanie and Jeff.
Speaker 8 (06:57):
It's the oldest cliche in criminal history, the killer always
returns to the scene of the crime.
Speaker 9 (07:03):
Well, actually, Steph, it's not true for most killers. Many
serial killers do actually return to the scene of the crime,
particularly ones who are compulsive or obsessed over their victims.
For example, Gary Ridgway, who was known as the Green
River Killer and convicted of forty nine murders, regularly returned
to the spots he dumped his victims' bodies. Also the
son of Sam killer David Berkowitz. He told the FBI
(07:25):
that on nights he couldn't find a victim, he would
just go back to the scene of previous kills and masturbate.
Speaker 8 (07:30):
That's so sick, I mean, think about it. Returning to
the scene of the crime is usually part of a
pattern with killers who are extremely confident and pride themselves
on being kind of untouchable by law enforcement and basically
smarter than everybody else. Does that sound like coburger to you.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Here's Jeff speaking with Adam Wand.
Speaker 9 (07:49):
I'm not a criminology student, but I've seen enough law
in order to know, like, your cell phone is how
people track you. And he's like dumb enough to bring
the phone or turn it on on the way home,
like he didn't even get all the way home. What
do you make of his lack of good decisions?
Speaker 10 (08:02):
We have a wonderful idiom in English for his behavior,
and the idiom is a little bit of knowledge is deadly.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Adam Want is a digital forensics expert and a professor
at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He spoke to
producer Jeff Shane about how a cell phone can be
used to establish Kolberger's actions and whereabouts in the immediate
hours surrounding the killings.
Speaker 10 (08:30):
I think in this specific case, the little bit of
knowledge he had really hurt him. That little bit of
knowledge was if I bring my cell phone to the
scene of the crime, I could be identified as being
there with my cell phone. And he was right. If
he brought his cell phone there while it was on,
(08:52):
we would have much quicker figured out who he was
and had been able to arrest him. But what he
did was smart to him. He turned off his phone beforehand,
he turned it back on afterwards, And if we never
identified him as a possible suspect, we may never have
figured out it was actually him because he turned off
(09:14):
his phone. But once we realize he's a potential suspect,
and once we see he turned his phone off right
before that period of time turned it back on shortly
after that period of time. That's what we call an
overt action that he took that the jury could look
at to determine guilt. So ultimately, what he did to
(09:37):
protect himself because he didn't understand that these issues fully
actually might be one of the most important pieces of
information that she used to convict him.
Speaker 9 (09:48):
Because it looks suspicious that his phone turns off for
this window of time and then turns back on on
the border of between these two towns.
Speaker 10 (09:56):
Some people might say it looks suspicious that his phone
turned off and then back on again. I go beyond that.
It's not just suspicious. He took an action that was
recorded on his phone. His phone would have recorded him
turning it off and recorded where he was. And the
fact that he turned it off and then where he was,
(10:18):
and the fact that he turned it back on again,
and the fact that he took the time to turn
off his phone shortly before the murders and turn it
right back on shortly after the murders certainly shines a
spotlight on him that's going to be very hard to reboot.
Speaker 9 (10:36):
He did not turn his phone off at all when
he drove back any of the other times that he
had been there.
Speaker 10 (10:40):
Let's face it, a stable, emotionally mature, sane person is
not going to go kill a houseful of people. In
this particular case, if the suspect is the murderer, then
he's probably not completely sane and stable, and things that
(11:01):
he did, good or bad are going to come up
in the trial and come up in evidence, and a
lot of that evidence is going to be used by
the jury to figure out if he's guilty or not.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Did Coburger return to the house to try and gather
evidence such as the knife sheath that he allegedly left
in the house, or did he return to relive the
murders like other overconfident killers, or to admire what he'd done.
Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in
a moment. After revisiting the crime scene and returning home,
(11:42):
Brian Coberger's day was far from over. According to the
probable Cause Affidavid Coburger's cellphone data shows he drove south
from Pullman, Washington to Lewiston, Idaho. The fifty minute drive
was just the beginning of a day of strange movements.
Following the murders, six pm, Coburger arrives at an Albertson's
grocery store in Lewiston.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
Surveillance video at twelve forty nine pm shows Coburger walking
through the store and purchasing unknown items at the checkout.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
He leaves about fifteen minutes later. Here again, Jeff and Stephanie.
Speaker 9 (12:19):
So why does Brian Coburger make the long drive and
go to Lewiston, Idaho for some groceries? Polman has stores
like Safeway and Walmart. In fact, SODA's nearby Moscow. It
also has a Safeway, a Walmart, and a Target and Adulatry.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
And what does he need from the grocery store in
Lewiston that he can't get in Pullman or Moscow?
Speaker 9 (12:36):
You know what this reminds me of is Angela Wagner, who,
along with her husband and two sons, murdered eight members
of the Rodent family in twenty sixteen. When planning the murders,
she drove hours away from her house in Pike County
to get supplies for the murders. She thought she was
somehow outsmarting detectives by going far away, but thanks to
very trusty surveillance footage they caught her right handed. Could
Coburger have been buying something like bleach or other cleaning
(12:59):
supplies he didn't want copseeing and somehow thought buying it
far away from where he lived or where the murders
took place would throw them off.
Speaker 8 (13:06):
Also, Lewiston is located at the confluence of the Snake
River and the Clearwater River, so if he was trying
to maybe dispose of a murder weapon like a knife,
these big rivers would kind of be an ideal spot.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
According to the police Affidavid, Coburger's phone pins a cell
tower in Johnson, Idaho, roughly four hours later at five
point thirty pm.
Speaker 8 (13:31):
Let's unpack that a bit, because this is a really
important fact. There actually is no Johnson, Idaho.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (13:38):
Our friends Deanna Thompson and John Green from our new
podcast True Crimes pointed out that the Affidavid likely meant
nearby Johnson, Washington. The town of Johnson is just off
the highway between Lewiston, Idaho, where Coburger went shopping, and Pullman, Washington,
where he lived. It's also on the route investigator say
Coburger traveled after the murders.
Speaker 8 (13:57):
And remember, according to officials, he didn't take the shwe
direct road between Moscow and Pullman. He took the back
road country roads instead.
Speaker 9 (14:06):
Later that day, on Sunday, November thirteenth, at five point
thirty six pm, for three hours, Coburger's phone once again
was disconnected from cell service. Think about it. This was
a Sunday in November. It's cold, there's NFL on TV.
Coburger is busy with his PhD and TA work. This
is a long time to just be driving around aimlessly,
especially without your cell phone.
Speaker 8 (14:26):
What was he doing and where was he going? Could
he have been moving and trying to get rid of evidence?
Following the murders people who interacted with Coburger so a
dramatic change in his personality. Before the killings, Coburger was
disliked by his students at Washington State University, who viewed
(14:48):
him as strange and remote. Here is Hayden Stinchfield, a
former student of Coburger's.
Speaker 11 (14:56):
When he came into class, he was very, you know,
not super mentally present. He would stand up the front
look at the ground. He had a lot of like
boiler plate responses he would give people rather than you know,
maybe something he had thought up on the spot. It
seemed like he would be you know, he'd come in
knowing what he was going to say to Like most interactions.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
As a teaching assistant, Coburger was disliked by undergraduates because
of his difficult grading and condescending tone. He was also
accused of being sexist and acting inappropriately towards female students.
One young woman said he creepily followed her to her car.
Following the murders, Coburger's behavior towards women did not change,
(15:32):
but his grading style did about a.
Speaker 11 (15:34):
Month before winter break, when like the murders happened. Definitely
around then he started grading everybody just a hundreds, not
like like like you pretty much if you turned something
in you were getting high marked, and he stopped leaving notes.
It was just, you know, he seemed preoccupied.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
It was much easier.
Speaker 11 (15:51):
You'd turn in whatever you wanted pretty much, and he
was just braiding them up and sending them back.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Hayden Stenfield also said around the time of the murders,
Coburger's appearance changed well.
Speaker 11 (16:00):
Around that time period. I remember him, you know, he
had like a little bit more facial hair, just like stubble,
but definitely less like well kept than he was. And
he was a little quieter, you know, he didn't he
used to stand up at the start of class and
like talk about some stuff sometimes, and this time he
didn't really do that at all.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
One of Coberger's fellow graduate students, speaking to the media
also noticed a distinct change following the murders.
Speaker 7 (16:23):
I did notice that he was, you know, he was
cowing up to class a little late sometimes. He always
had a coffee in hand. He always seemed to be
just perpetually exhausted. Like everybody in a graduate program, there's
a little bit of awkwardness. You're trying to fit in.
You're trying to find Denise and Brian cobol little fit
in that he was awkward. He was trying to fit in.
He was trying to get his inroad into this group
(16:47):
and establish these social bonds with other members of the cohort.
He did seem to get a little chattiol going into
the Lattle pul to the.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Tomb again, Stephanie and Jeff.
Speaker 9 (16:59):
Let's put us into perspective. Around this time, Coburger was
under a lot of stress from WSU. His boss was
not at him, and he was about to get fired.
Not to mention, he must have known that the cops
were circling in on him in some capacity. Could all
that stress have been catching up to him.
Speaker 8 (17:14):
Let's just go through the list. He's changing his appearance.
He's disinterested in work, he's preoccupied at school, he's behaving
very overwhelmed. Clearly some thing's going on. Is he just
overwhelmed because it's the end of the year and it's
before the holidays and that's an intense time for many
or is he behaving like somebody who's just committed mass murder.
Speaker 9 (17:36):
I agree with that, but I will also say that
the fact he was being extra chatty is so strange
to me.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
When Brian Colberger was arrested in Pennsylvania, investigators also searched
his apartment in Pullman, Washington. Here's reporter Chris Bargo.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
His apartment is certainly very cleaned out. He did leave
a few things like a TV. His storagelock grivid had
ever been used. Was completely cleaned out. There's no shower
curtain when police go their first search, and there's really
very few things inside this apartment that make it seems
like someone's living there. It almost seems like you just
left beyond some trash. Maybe are the things he didn't want,
but we're not sure. He also manages to clear it
out before authorities get any sort of search warrant or
(18:16):
any sort of identifying him as really as the suspect
of the case, so when they finally get to search
out apartment, he's cleared it out, so it's not The
potential for evidence has probably been decreased drastically because he'd
been gone more than two weeks actually by the time
they searched it.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Had Brian Coberger always lived such a bare bones existence,
or was his Washington apartment empty because he had stripped
it clean and removed anything that might have incriminated him.
Speaker 8 (18:45):
Stephanie and Jeff I remember being a student. You know
you're kind of broke, So it does stand to reason
that his place wouldn't be opulent and lavish.
Speaker 9 (18:55):
But no shower curtain, that is just odd. I'm thinking
he could have used it in his the night of
the murder to keep blood off the seats.
Speaker 8 (19:03):
Like the TV show Dexter, where he would use plastic
to keep any incriminating evidence away.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Three weeks after his arrest, the search warrant for Coberger's
apartment was unsealed by a judge. It detailed what forensic
teams had found.
Speaker 8 (19:21):
Investigators removed several items from inside that apartment.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Among the items possibly connecting Coburger to his victims were
a single black surgical type glove, the dust container from
Coburger's Bissel power force vacuum, a computer tower, a collection
of dark red spots, several strands of hair, including one
investigator's believe is from an animal, multiple store receipts, including
(19:48):
one from Walmart with the Dickey's tag, and two clippings
from a pillow that contained a reddish brown stain. Shortly
after Brian Coberger became the lone suspect in the brutal
quadruple murders, he departed on a cross country trip back
home to Pennsylvania with his father. The fall semester had
just finished and Coburger was heading home for the holidays. However,
(20:10):
after months of conflict with the faculty in the criminology
department over his behavior as a teaching assistant, Coburger's academic
career is in doubt. Just a few days after he
departed campus, Coburger would receive a letter from the school
saying that his job as a teaching assistant would be
terminated and his return to WSU was very much in doubt.
(20:32):
Here's reporter Chris Bargo, what do you make of the
car ride home with his dad?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
So we know the dad drove him out, so I
would assume that's probably always the plan. I don't understand
why you drive home though, if you're coming back, because
it seems like to have your car for four weeks
in Pennsylvania to drive all that way and then all
the way back out, that's a pain in the ass.
And that's a lot of miles on the car. That's
not really a new car. So probably just keep it
at the school. But we don't know. I mean, obviously
the dad isn't talking. We don't know when he decided
to do it. But again, that's something you could probably
(21:01):
explain away at the trial because it's dad drove him
out there, so this is sort of maybe dad just
doing that again. But it's clear that dad, I think
didn't know because when you get stopped that second time,
he's talking about how there was like, you know, this
this crime at this school. I'm like, you would never
bring that up. If you knew, you would just sort
of not even say the kid went to WSU. You
just move along. You try to keep that to yourself.
But the dad's like, oh, we're coming from WSU and
there was this, you know, sort of big shooting there
the other day, not the crime that his son allegedly committed,
(21:23):
but there was another incident right around the holiday. So
it's just sort of the dad just seem to be
completely in the dark. And I mean, and they also
got home very quickly. They made that trip, like I
think they stopped one night maybe, and then they were
on the road. I mean, because they leave the thirteenth
and there Indiana on the fifteenth, I believe, which is
a very very fast trip. And then I stall don't
understand how I guess pulled over twice in ten minutes.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
Coberger was behind the wheel when he was stopped on
I seventy outside of Indianapolis for following too closely.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
During the two thousand, five hundred mile trip, Coburger is
pulled over twice in less than ten minutes in Indiana.
The interactions with the local police were caught on bodycam video.
Speaker 11 (22:00):
Hello, how you knowing? How y'all doing today.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Good.
Speaker 10 (22:04):
Good, Take a look your driver's lines in real quick
if I could.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Despite media reports that the FBI was tracking Coburger on
his drive home for the Christmas holiday, local police in
Indiana say they did not know who Coburger was and
that the stops were completely random and simply part of
routine drug checks. Jeff and Stephanie.
Speaker 9 (22:28):
Both times Coburger was pulled over by the local police,
he was let go with a warning for tail getting.
The interactions were very nonchalant.
Speaker 8 (22:35):
On the one hand, yes, maybe it's a sign of
his privilege, but it seems very unlikely that police would
just happen to stop a suspect in a murder investigation
twice within ten minutes.
Speaker 9 (22:47):
According to the Indiana State Police, which is where this happened,
these stops were actually just routine interstate drug trafficking prevention.
Speaker 8 (22:54):
Can you imagine if he actually did it. He's getting
stopped by police twice in ten minutes. He must have
been losing his mind. Was he nervous?
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Was he calm?
Speaker 8 (23:05):
Did he assume he was about to get arrested, or
perhaps even more disturbingly, did he assume he would get
away with it? And that he was somehow untouchable.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Let's stop here for another break. If Coburger believes he
has eluded law enforcement, he isn't taken any chances once
he returns to his parents' home in Albertsville. In the
days before Coburger is arrested, police began around the clock surveillance.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Law enforcement sources told CNN that the Hondaia Launchra that
Coburger was driving was cleaned from top to bottom by
the suspect while.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
He was under surveillance in Pennsylvania. At his parents' home,
Coburger was seen meticulously cleaning his car, with one investigator
saying that Coburger cleaned his car inside and out, not
missing an inch. He was also observed taking other protective measures,
including taking trash out in the middle of the night
and putting garbage bags in his neighbor's trash cans. He
(24:09):
was also seen wearing rubber gloves in public. Did Coburger
think police were closing in on him?
Speaker 4 (24:21):
I mean, I think the only thing that can sort
of inform that is the fact that we know when
he was arrested, he was sitting at his table, wearing
late tech gloves and putting his trash in his bi
block bags. So clearly he knew they were onto him,
Like that's obvious, Like that he knew that, So that
behavior would suggest that he was apprehensive.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Despite his best efforts to cover up his tracks, investigators
were covered Coburger's trash. They tested several items for DNA
and were able to make a definitive DNA connection through
his father. In the early morning hours of December thirtieth,
police smashed the windows and doors of the two story
Coburger home in the gated community of Indian Mountain Lake Estates.
(25:03):
Despite the raid taking place at one thirty in the morning,
the swat team found Brian Coburger wide awake and cleaning.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
Mister Coburger was found awake in the kitchen area, dressed
in shorts and a shirt and wearing latex medical type
gloves and apparently was taking his personal trash, putting it
into a separate ziploc baggie.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Among the items taken from the home were a flashlight,
medical style gloves, a large black sweatshirt, two knives, a
glock twenty two forty caliber handgun, three forty caliber magazine clips,
two black face masks, and a bag of green leafy substance.
Forensic teams also searched Coburger's twenty fifteen Balancha, taking swabs
(25:49):
from the car. They also removed the seats, the brake,
and the gas pedal, and found a shovel, boots, and
a pair of goggles. Investigators have also reportedly collected fifty
one ten pherabytes of electronic data as part of their
investigation into Brian Coberger.
Speaker 10 (26:05):
He's left quite the fingerprint online and I think that's
ultimately going to be the evidence that sinks SIMP.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Much of the data is likely content and information from
computer drives and social media accounts. While Coberger appears to
have tried to destroy or clean up much of the
physical evidence linking him to the murders, it isn't clear
how much he tried to delete or clean up any
of the electronic data that might incriminate him. Stephanie and Jeff.
Speaker 9 (26:35):
Of course, every suspect is innocent until proven guilty. But
if Coburger was actually doing what the police say he
was when he was arrested, it is not a good luck.
You bet. The jury is going to hear all about
the trash, separating, the intense car cleaning and wearing gloves
in public. It's not how normal everyday people act, and
the prosecution is going to remind the jury.
Speaker 8 (26:53):
Of that and too many It looks like Coburger was
just trying to act like a criminal mastermind, methodically covering his.
Speaker 9 (27:00):
But as we know, getting away with murder is never
that easy.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
More on that next time. For more information on the
case and relevant photos, follow us on Instagram at Kat
Underscore Studios. The Idaho Masacre is produced by Stephanie Leidecker,
Jeff Shane, Connor Powell, Chris Bargo, Gabriel Castillo, and me
Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by Jeff toa music
(27:31):
by Jared Aston. The Idaho Massacre is a production of
iHeart Radio and KAT Studios. For more podcasts like this,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
I'm Diana, you may know as Body Movin, My Friend
and I John Green were featured in the Netflix documentary
Don't f with Cats. On our new podcast True Crimes
with John and Deiana, we're turning our online investigative skills
to some of the most unexplained, unsolved, and most ignored cases.
Speaker 9 (28:05):
Police say, thirty three year old Bride Again was shot dead,
gunned down in front of his two year old daughter.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Detectives confirmed that it was a targeted attack.
Speaker 9 (28:14):
It appears to be an execution style assassination.
Speaker 5 (28:17):
This is very active, so we have to be careful.
I've heard that there's a house that has some bodies
in the basement. I knew, I just knew the move
was wrong.
Speaker 9 (28:25):
Maybe there's something more sinister at play than just one
young girl going missing.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
If you know something, heard something, please it's never too late.
Speaker 11 (28:36):
To do the right thing.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
This is true crimes with John and Deianna, the.
Speaker 9 (28:40):
Production of KT Studios and iHeartRadio. Justice is something that
takes different shapes or formed
Investigators believe Coburger killed Kaylei Gansalves, Madison Mogan, Zeyner, Kernodle,
and Ethan Chapin inside of a rented home not far
from the University of Idaho campus. At the time of
the murders, Coburger was studying at Washington State University, which
is just a few miles away from the crime scene.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Outside Coberger's apartment in Pullman, Washington, detectives removing boxes and
bags from the apartment. They just kept coming out with
more and more stuff and loading it into evidence vans.
But in that list of what they brought out, they
do not list knife in that evidence list.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
This is the Idaho Massacre, a production of KT Studios
and iHeartRadio, episode five The Days After Death. Courtney Armstrong
a television producer at KT Studios with Stephanie Leidecker, Jeff Shane,
and Connor Powell. When Brian Colberger moved to Pullman, Washington
(01:08):
in early July of twenty twenty two for his pH
d program, he arrived on campus with his dad driving
a twenty fifteen white Hondi Atlantra. Within months of arriving
on campus, Coburger was pulled over by Washington State University Police.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Hello, Hi, am, officer langis stops being audio and video recorded.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
You think you know why I stopped you. As the
officer approached the driver's side window, the twenty eight year
old criminology student respectfully greeted her. Colberger explained he was
originally from a rural area in Pennsylvania and was new
to the area. He said he accidentally got caught in
the intersection before turning left on a red light.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yeah, it was a little bit of confusion with speeding
because someone had stopped.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
I wasn't sure what they were doing.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
During the nine and a half minute interaction, Coburger politely
asked the female officer to explain Washington State's traffic laws,
before he apologized for asking too many questions. Do you
have your license on you?
Speaker 6 (02:12):
You?
Speaker 7 (02:12):
Do you have the registration and insurance?
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I'm just going to this off route, Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
The traffic stop was unremarkable and Coburger was let off
with a warning, But during the brief exchange, which took
place one month before the murderers, the officer commented that
Brian Coberger's vehicle registration was set to expire in a
few months.
Speaker 7 (02:32):
Let's see expires November twenty second, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
For the next month Coburger's wife twenty fifteen, Atlantra remained
registered in his home state of Pennsylvania, But five days
after the gruesome murders, Coburger did something he hadn't done
for months. He changed his registration from Pennsylvania to Washington
and received new license plates. Was this simply a coincidence,
a last minute chore that needed to be completed but
(02:58):
had escaped Coburger's mind ring his first and very busy
fall semester. Or was this one of the many actions
Coburger took to try to cover his tracks after killing
the four University of Idaho students. Here's Stephanie and Jeff.
Speaker 8 (03:15):
It was roughly seven weeks from the time Kaylee, Madison, Zana,
and Ethan were killed to the time Brian Coburger was arrested.
Speaker 9 (03:23):
To me, the biggest question in this case is obviously
why did Coburger, if in fact he is guilty, commit
this crime?
Speaker 8 (03:29):
And maybe asking ourselves why is an impossible question. It's
kind of applying reason to an irrational situation. Whoever did
this is obviously a monster, and we're clearly not going
to be able to assign logic to that person.
Speaker 9 (03:43):
The other good question I have is what was Coburger
doing in the days and weeks leading up to the
murders exactly?
Speaker 8 (03:49):
And there are so many unanswered questions at this point,
but thanks to the Probable Cause AffA David, we do
know some of the movements and actions of Coburger.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Brian Coburger's cell phone is at the center of the
prosecution's case against the twenty eight year old in the
days and hours before and after the killings, Investigators say
Coburger's cell phone use paints a disturbing picture of a
killer stalking his victims and returning to the scene of
the crime.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Investigators say they believe the murders took place between four
and four to twenty five am.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
According to cell phone data, Coburger's phone was connected to
the cellular network near his apartment in Pulman, Washington, at
four forty two am on the morning of the murders.
His phone disappeared from the network and was switched off
between two forty seven am and four forty eight a m.
On the morning of the murders. Police say in the
Probable Cause Affidavid that this is quote consistent with Coburger
(04:48):
attempting to conceal his location during the quadruple homicide. Here's
reporter Chris Bargo.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
At two forty two in the morning. Brian Coburger's cell
phone is recorded as sort of being on the network
in Pullman, Washington, where his dormitory is on Washington State
University campus. Then a few minutes later goes off the
network and is disconnected. From that point on, there's just
counts of people seeing his white hand lantro, so his
white han day luntra scene leaving Pullman shortly after that,
(05:18):
and then around three point thirty itt scene in Moscow. Now,
the direct route from Pullman to Moscow is about fifteen
minutes tops, and this is late at night, so it's
not going to be any traffic. So it's assumed he
took some sort of way that would have gone around
that sort of main road. He would either went up
north or he went down south and took back rows
to sort of get there. Because the alleged killer is driving,
police belief from Pullman to Moscow, if it is indeed Brian,
(05:42):
that would suggest that it was targeted because that's a
very specific target. That's a very specific house he's going to.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
At four forty eight am, Coberger's phone comes back online
and pings a tower just south of Moscow. But police
say Coburger did not head straight home. Instead, he drove
a back roads route which was longer and more remote.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
That area that he drove south to where he the
road sort of goes down south about ten or twenty
miles and then it turns back up in a u.
That area at the bottom is just mountains and it's forest.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
He arrives home at five point thirty in the morning,
where the WSU campus surveillance video captures his white Atlanta
returning home. A few hours later, Coburger's phone is back
on the move. In a particularly chilling move, Coburger's phone
pings a tower near the King roadhouse.
Speaker 10 (06:34):
Ryan Coberger's saleshone allegedly shows him here at nine to
twelve am and staying for about ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Surveillance video also shows a white Sedan driving past the
scene of the murders around nine in the morning. Police
have yet to be called to the gruesome murder scene.
Stephanie and Jeff.
Speaker 8 (06:57):
It's the oldest cliche in criminal history, the killer always
returns to the scene of the crime.
Speaker 9 (07:03):
Well, actually, Steph, it's not true for most killers. Many
serial killers do actually return to the scene of the crime,
particularly ones who are compulsive or obsessed over their victims.
For example, Gary Ridgway, who was known as the Green
River Killer and convicted of forty nine murders, regularly returned
to the spots he dumped his victims' bodies. Also the
son of Sam killer David Berkowitz. He told the FBI
(07:25):
that on nights he couldn't find a victim, he would
just go back to the scene of previous kills and masturbate.
Speaker 8 (07:30):
That's so sick, I mean, think about it. Returning to
the scene of the crime is usually part of a
pattern with killers who are extremely confident and pride themselves
on being kind of untouchable by law enforcement and basically
smarter than everybody else. Does that sound like coburger to you.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Here's Jeff speaking with Adam Wand.
Speaker 9 (07:49):
I'm not a criminology student, but I've seen enough law
in order to know, like, your cell phone is how
people track you. And he's like dumb enough to bring
the phone or turn it on on the way home,
like he didn't even get all the way home. What
do you make of his lack of good decisions?
Speaker 10 (08:02):
We have a wonderful idiom in English for his behavior,
and the idiom is a little bit of knowledge is deadly.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Adam Want is a digital forensics expert and a professor
at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He spoke to
producer Jeff Shane about how a cell phone can be
used to establish Kolberger's actions and whereabouts in the immediate
hours surrounding the killings.
Speaker 10 (08:30):
I think in this specific case, the little bit of
knowledge he had really hurt him. That little bit of
knowledge was if I bring my cell phone to the
scene of the crime, I could be identified as being
there with my cell phone. And he was right. If
he brought his cell phone there while it was on,
(08:52):
we would have much quicker figured out who he was
and had been able to arrest him. But what he
did was smart to him. He turned off his phone beforehand,
he turned it back on afterwards, And if we never
identified him as a possible suspect, we may never have
figured out it was actually him because he turned off
(09:14):
his phone. But once we realize he's a potential suspect,
and once we see he turned his phone off right
before that period of time turned it back on shortly
after that period of time. That's what we call an
overt action that he took that the jury could look
at to determine guilt. So ultimately, what he did to
(09:37):
protect himself because he didn't understand that these issues fully
actually might be one of the most important pieces of
information that she used to convict him.
Speaker 9 (09:48):
Because it looks suspicious that his phone turns off for
this window of time and then turns back on on
the border of between these two towns.
Speaker 10 (09:56):
Some people might say it looks suspicious that his phone
turned off and then back on again. I go beyond that.
It's not just suspicious. He took an action that was
recorded on his phone. His phone would have recorded him
turning it off and recorded where he was. And the
fact that he turned it off and then where he was,
(10:18):
and the fact that he turned it back on again,
and the fact that he took the time to turn
off his phone shortly before the murders and turn it
right back on shortly after the murders certainly shines a
spotlight on him that's going to be very hard to reboot.
Speaker 9 (10:36):
He did not turn his phone off at all when
he drove back any of the other times that he
had been there.
Speaker 10 (10:40):
Let's face it, a stable, emotionally mature, sane person is
not going to go kill a houseful of people. In
this particular case, if the suspect is the murderer, then
he's probably not completely sane and stable, and things that
(11:01):
he did, good or bad are going to come up
in the trial and come up in evidence, and a
lot of that evidence is going to be used by
the jury to figure out if he's guilty or not.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Did Coburger return to the house to try and gather
evidence such as the knife sheath that he allegedly left
in the house, or did he return to relive the
murders like other overconfident killers, or to admire what he'd done.
Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in
a moment. After revisiting the crime scene and returning home,
(11:42):
Brian Coberger's day was far from over. According to the
probable Cause Affidavid Coburger's cellphone data shows he drove south
from Pullman, Washington to Lewiston, Idaho. The fifty minute drive
was just the beginning of a day of strange movements.
Following the murders, six pm, Coburger arrives at an Albertson's
grocery store in Lewiston.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
Surveillance video at twelve forty nine pm shows Coburger walking
through the store and purchasing unknown items at the checkout.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
He leaves about fifteen minutes later. Here again, Jeff and Stephanie.
Speaker 9 (12:19):
So why does Brian Coburger make the long drive and
go to Lewiston, Idaho for some groceries? Polman has stores
like Safeway and Walmart. In fact, SODA's nearby Moscow. It
also has a Safeway, a Walmart, and a Target and Adulatry.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
And what does he need from the grocery store in
Lewiston that he can't get in Pullman or Moscow?
Speaker 9 (12:36):
You know what this reminds me of is Angela Wagner, who,
along with her husband and two sons, murdered eight members
of the Rodent family in twenty sixteen. When planning the murders,
she drove hours away from her house in Pike County
to get supplies for the murders. She thought she was
somehow outsmarting detectives by going far away, but thanks to
very trusty surveillance footage they caught her right handed. Could
Coburger have been buying something like bleach or other cleaning
(12:59):
supplies he didn't want copseeing and somehow thought buying it
far away from where he lived or where the murders
took place would throw them off.
Speaker 8 (13:06):
Also, Lewiston is located at the confluence of the Snake
River and the Clearwater River, so if he was trying
to maybe dispose of a murder weapon like a knife,
these big rivers would kind of be an ideal spot.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
According to the police Affidavid, Coburger's phone pins a cell
tower in Johnson, Idaho, roughly four hours later at five
point thirty pm.
Speaker 8 (13:31):
Let's unpack that a bit, because this is a really
important fact. There actually is no Johnson, Idaho.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (13:38):
Our friends Deanna Thompson and John Green from our new
podcast True Crimes pointed out that the Affidavid likely meant
nearby Johnson, Washington. The town of Johnson is just off
the highway between Lewiston, Idaho, where Coburger went shopping, and Pullman, Washington,
where he lived. It's also on the route investigator say
Coburger traveled after the murders.
Speaker 8 (13:57):
And remember, according to officials, he didn't take the shwe
direct road between Moscow and Pullman. He took the back
road country roads instead.
Speaker 9 (14:06):
Later that day, on Sunday, November thirteenth, at five point
thirty six pm, for three hours, Coburger's phone once again
was disconnected from cell service. Think about it. This was
a Sunday in November. It's cold, there's NFL on TV.
Coburger is busy with his PhD and TA work. This
is a long time to just be driving around aimlessly,
especially without your cell phone.
Speaker 8 (14:26):
What was he doing and where was he going? Could
he have been moving and trying to get rid of evidence?
Following the murders people who interacted with Coburger so a
dramatic change in his personality. Before the killings, Coburger was
disliked by his students at Washington State University, who viewed
(14:48):
him as strange and remote. Here is Hayden Stinchfield, a
former student of Coburger's.
Speaker 11 (14:56):
When he came into class, he was very, you know,
not super mentally present. He would stand up the front
look at the ground. He had a lot of like
boiler plate responses he would give people rather than you know,
maybe something he had thought up on the spot. It
seemed like he would be you know, he'd come in
knowing what he was going to say to Like most interactions.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
As a teaching assistant, Coburger was disliked by undergraduates because
of his difficult grading and condescending tone. He was also
accused of being sexist and acting inappropriately towards female students.
One young woman said he creepily followed her to her car.
Following the murders, Coburger's behavior towards women did not change,
(15:32):
but his grading style did about a.
Speaker 11 (15:34):
Month before winter break, when like the murders happened. Definitely
around then he started grading everybody just a hundreds, not
like like like you pretty much if you turned something
in you were getting high marked, and he stopped leaving notes.
It was just, you know, he seemed preoccupied.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
It was much easier.
Speaker 11 (15:51):
You'd turn in whatever you wanted pretty much, and he
was just braiding them up and sending them back.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Hayden Stenfield also said around the time of the murders,
Coburger's appearance changed well.
Speaker 11 (16:00):
Around that time period. I remember him, you know, he
had like a little bit more facial hair, just like stubble,
but definitely less like well kept than he was. And
he was a little quieter, you know, he didn't he
used to stand up at the start of class and
like talk about some stuff sometimes, and this time he
didn't really do that at all.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
One of Coberger's fellow graduate students, speaking to the media
also noticed a distinct change following the murders.
Speaker 7 (16:23):
I did notice that he was, you know, he was
cowing up to class a little late sometimes. He always
had a coffee in hand. He always seemed to be
just perpetually exhausted. Like everybody in a graduate program, there's
a little bit of awkwardness. You're trying to fit in.
You're trying to find Denise and Brian cobol little fit
in that he was awkward. He was trying to fit in.
He was trying to get his inroad into this group
(16:47):
and establish these social bonds with other members of the cohort.
He did seem to get a little chattiol going into
the Lattle pul to the.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Tomb again, Stephanie and Jeff.
Speaker 9 (16:59):
Let's put us into perspective. Around this time, Coburger was
under a lot of stress from WSU. His boss was
not at him, and he was about to get fired.
Not to mention, he must have known that the cops
were circling in on him in some capacity. Could all
that stress have been catching up to him.
Speaker 8 (17:14):
Let's just go through the list. He's changing his appearance.
He's disinterested in work, he's preoccupied at school, he's behaving
very overwhelmed. Clearly some thing's going on. Is he just
overwhelmed because it's the end of the year and it's
before the holidays and that's an intense time for many
or is he behaving like somebody who's just committed mass murder.
Speaker 9 (17:36):
I agree with that, but I will also say that
the fact he was being extra chatty is so strange
to me.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
When Brian Colberger was arrested in Pennsylvania, investigators also searched
his apartment in Pullman, Washington. Here's reporter Chris Bargo.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
His apartment is certainly very cleaned out. He did leave
a few things like a TV. His storagelock grivid had
ever been used. Was completely cleaned out. There's no shower
curtain when police go their first search, and there's really
very few things inside this apartment that make it seems
like someone's living there. It almost seems like you just
left beyond some trash. Maybe are the things he didn't want,
but we're not sure. He also manages to clear it
out before authorities get any sort of search warrant or
(18:16):
any sort of identifying him as really as the suspect
of the case, so when they finally get to search
out apartment, he's cleared it out, so it's not The
potential for evidence has probably been decreased drastically because he'd
been gone more than two weeks actually by the time
they searched it.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Had Brian Coberger always lived such a bare bones existence,
or was his Washington apartment empty because he had stripped
it clean and removed anything that might have incriminated him.
Speaker 8 (18:45):
Stephanie and Jeff I remember being a student. You know
you're kind of broke, So it does stand to reason
that his place wouldn't be opulent and lavish.
Speaker 9 (18:55):
But no shower curtain, that is just odd. I'm thinking
he could have used it in his the night of
the murder to keep blood off the seats.
Speaker 8 (19:03):
Like the TV show Dexter, where he would use plastic
to keep any incriminating evidence away.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Three weeks after his arrest, the search warrant for Coberger's
apartment was unsealed by a judge. It detailed what forensic
teams had found.
Speaker 8 (19:21):
Investigators removed several items from inside that apartment.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Among the items possibly connecting Coburger to his victims were
a single black surgical type glove, the dust container from
Coburger's Bissel power force vacuum, a computer tower, a collection
of dark red spots, several strands of hair, including one
investigator's believe is from an animal, multiple store receipts, including
(19:48):
one from Walmart with the Dickey's tag, and two clippings
from a pillow that contained a reddish brown stain. Shortly
after Brian Coberger became the lone suspect in the brutal
quadruple murders, he departed on a cross country trip back
home to Pennsylvania with his father. The fall semester had
just finished and Coburger was heading home for the holidays. However,
(20:10):
after months of conflict with the faculty in the criminology
department over his behavior as a teaching assistant, Coburger's academic
career is in doubt. Just a few days after he
departed campus, Coburger would receive a letter from the school
saying that his job as a teaching assistant would be
terminated and his return to WSU was very much in doubt.
(20:32):
Here's reporter Chris Bargo, what do you make of the
car ride home with his dad?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
So we know the dad drove him out, so I
would assume that's probably always the plan. I don't understand
why you drive home though, if you're coming back, because
it seems like to have your car for four weeks
in Pennsylvania to drive all that way and then all
the way back out, that's a pain in the ass.
And that's a lot of miles on the car. That's
not really a new car. So probably just keep it
at the school. But we don't know. I mean, obviously
the dad isn't talking. We don't know when he decided
to do it. But again, that's something you could probably
(21:01):
explain away at the trial because it's dad drove him
out there, so this is sort of maybe dad just
doing that again. But it's clear that dad, I think
didn't know because when you get stopped that second time,
he's talking about how there was like, you know, this
this crime at this school. I'm like, you would never
bring that up. If you knew, you would just sort
of not even say the kid went to WSU. You
just move along. You try to keep that to yourself.
But the dad's like, oh, we're coming from WSU and
there was this, you know, sort of big shooting there
the other day, not the crime that his son allegedly committed,
(21:23):
but there was another incident right around the holiday. So
it's just sort of the dad just seem to be
completely in the dark. And I mean, and they also
got home very quickly. They made that trip, like I
think they stopped one night maybe, and then they were
on the road. I mean, because they leave the thirteenth
and there Indiana on the fifteenth, I believe, which is
a very very fast trip. And then I stall don't
understand how I guess pulled over twice in ten minutes.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
Coberger was behind the wheel when he was stopped on
I seventy outside of Indianapolis for following too closely.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
During the two thousand, five hundred mile trip, Coburger is
pulled over twice in less than ten minutes in Indiana.
The interactions with the local police were caught on bodycam video.
Speaker 11 (22:00):
Hello, how you knowing? How y'all doing today.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Good.
Speaker 10 (22:04):
Good, Take a look your driver's lines in real quick
if I could.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Despite media reports that the FBI was tracking Coburger on
his drive home for the Christmas holiday, local police in
Indiana say they did not know who Coburger was and
that the stops were completely random and simply part of
routine drug checks. Jeff and Stephanie.
Speaker 9 (22:28):
Both times Coburger was pulled over by the local police,
he was let go with a warning for tail getting.
The interactions were very nonchalant.
Speaker 8 (22:35):
On the one hand, yes, maybe it's a sign of
his privilege, but it seems very unlikely that police would
just happen to stop a suspect in a murder investigation
twice within ten minutes.
Speaker 9 (22:47):
According to the Indiana State Police, which is where this happened,
these stops were actually just routine interstate drug trafficking prevention.
Speaker 8 (22:54):
Can you imagine if he actually did it. He's getting
stopped by police twice in ten minutes. He must have
been losing his mind. Was he nervous?
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Was he calm?
Speaker 8 (23:05):
Did he assume he was about to get arrested, or
perhaps even more disturbingly, did he assume he would get
away with it? And that he was somehow untouchable.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Let's stop here for another break. If Coburger believes he
has eluded law enforcement, he isn't taken any chances once
he returns to his parents' home in Albertsville. In the
days before Coburger is arrested, police began around the clock surveillance.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Law enforcement sources told CNN that the Hondaia Launchra that
Coburger was driving was cleaned from top to bottom by
the suspect while.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
He was under surveillance in Pennsylvania. At his parents' home,
Coburger was seen meticulously cleaning his car, with one investigator
saying that Coburger cleaned his car inside and out, not
missing an inch. He was also observed taking other protective measures,
including taking trash out in the middle of the night
and putting garbage bags in his neighbor's trash cans. He
(24:09):
was also seen wearing rubber gloves in public. Did Coburger
think police were closing in on him?
Speaker 4 (24:21):
I mean, I think the only thing that can sort
of inform that is the fact that we know when
he was arrested, he was sitting at his table, wearing
late tech gloves and putting his trash in his bi
block bags. So clearly he knew they were onto him,
Like that's obvious, Like that he knew that, So that
behavior would suggest that he was apprehensive.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Despite his best efforts to cover up his tracks, investigators
were covered Coburger's trash. They tested several items for DNA
and were able to make a definitive DNA connection through
his father. In the early morning hours of December thirtieth,
police smashed the windows and doors of the two story
Coburger home in the gated community of Indian Mountain Lake Estates.
(25:03):
Despite the raid taking place at one thirty in the morning,
the swat team found Brian Coburger wide awake and cleaning.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
Mister Coburger was found awake in the kitchen area, dressed
in shorts and a shirt and wearing latex medical type
gloves and apparently was taking his personal trash, putting it
into a separate ziploc baggie.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Among the items taken from the home were a flashlight,
medical style gloves, a large black sweatshirt, two knives, a
glock twenty two forty caliber handgun, three forty caliber magazine clips,
two black face masks, and a bag of green leafy substance.
Forensic teams also searched Coburger's twenty fifteen Balancha, taking swabs
(25:49):
from the car. They also removed the seats, the brake,
and the gas pedal, and found a shovel, boots, and
a pair of goggles. Investigators have also reportedly collected fifty
one ten pherabytes of electronic data as part of their
investigation into Brian Coberger.
Speaker 10 (26:05):
He's left quite the fingerprint online and I think that's
ultimately going to be the evidence that sinks SIMP.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Much of the data is likely content and information from
computer drives and social media accounts. While Coberger appears to
have tried to destroy or clean up much of the
physical evidence linking him to the murders, it isn't clear
how much he tried to delete or clean up any
of the electronic data that might incriminate him. Stephanie and Jeff.
Speaker 9 (26:35):
Of course, every suspect is innocent until proven guilty. But
if Coburger was actually doing what the police say he
was when he was arrested, it is not a good luck.
You bet. The jury is going to hear all about
the trash, separating, the intense car cleaning and wearing gloves
in public. It's not how normal everyday people act, and
the prosecution is going to remind the jury.
Speaker 8 (26:53):
Of that and too many It looks like Coburger was
just trying to act like a criminal mastermind, methodically covering his.
Speaker 9 (27:00):
But as we know, getting away with murder is never
that easy.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
More on that next time. For more information on the
case and relevant photos, follow us on Instagram at Kat
Underscore Studios. The Idaho Masacre is produced by Stephanie Leidecker,
Jeff Shane, Connor Powell, Chris Bargo, Gabriel Castillo, and me
Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by Jeff toa music
(27:31):
by Jared Aston. The Idaho Massacre is a production of
iHeart Radio and KAT Studios. For more podcasts like this,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
I'm Diana, you may know as Body Movin, My Friend
and I John Green were featured in the Netflix documentary
Don't f with Cats. On our new podcast True Crimes
with John and Deiana, we're turning our online investigative skills
to some of the most unexplained, unsolved, and most ignored cases.
Speaker 9 (28:05):
Police say, thirty three year old Bride Again was shot dead,
gunned down in front of his two year old daughter.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Detectives confirmed that it was a targeted attack.
Speaker 9 (28:14):
It appears to be an execution style assassination.
Speaker 5 (28:17):
This is very active, so we have to be careful.
I've heard that there's a house that has some bodies
in the basement. I knew, I just knew the move
was wrong.
Speaker 9 (28:25):
Maybe there's something more sinister at play than just one
young girl going missing.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
If you know something, heard something, please it's never too late.
Speaker 11 (28:36):
To do the right thing.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
This is true crimes with John and Deianna, the.
Speaker 9 (28:40):
Production of KT Studios and iHeartRadio. Justice is something that
takes different shapes or formed
Hosts And Creators
Courtney Armstrong
Stephanie Lydecker
Jeff Shane
Popular Podcasts
1. Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
2. Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
3. Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.