September 3, 2025 • 26 mins
Newly unsealed files from the Idaho student murders reveal chilling details — from the victims’ final moments to shocking witness statements. What do these documents uncover about Bryan Kohberger’s motive, movements that night, and the mistakes that unraveled his “perfect crime”?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
The level of brutality is something I don't think that
even I was prepared for.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Did this really happen? Did I do this? Or was
this a fever dream?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I can only imagine the horror that she experienced in
those moments.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
This is the Idaho Massacre, a production of KAT Studios
and iHeartRadio, Season three, Episode three, The Unsealed Files. I'm
Courtney Armstrong, a producer at KAT Studios with Stephanie Leideger
and Gabriel Castillo. For nearly three years, much of the
(00:47):
case against Brian Coberger has remained sealed, hidden behind reactions,
legal arguments, and courtroom silence. But now that silence is breaking.
Shortly after the convicted killer was led off to begin
his life sentence, hundreds of pages of investigative documents were unsealed,
(01:10):
giving us our most detailed look yet into the case
that stunned the country. The evidence, the interviews, and more
information on the chilling timeline of what unfolded in the hours,
days and weeks surrounding the murders of Madison, Mogen, Kaylei Gonzalvez, Xanakernodle,
and Ethan Chapin. What do these newly revealed documents tell
(01:34):
us how do they change our perception of what went
on that faithful night and what questions do they raise
about motive, surveillance and intent. Today we're diving into what
investigators walked into on that faithful day and what a
camean in terms of a possible target in this case.
(01:55):
Here's forensic expert Joseph Scott Morgan with our producer Alison Bankston.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
When you were going through these documents, what stood out
the most to you and what surprised you the most?
What jumped out at you forensically level.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Of brutality for me because it sounds horribly naive, but
for me, I think I'd always hoped that it wasn't
going to be as bad as it has turned out
to be. I should have known better as an old
death investigator and a forensic scientist, given all the hundreds
and hundreds of deaths that I worked as a practitioner,
(02:30):
all the cases I've covered in the media, I was
not prepared for what was the big reveal. For an investigator,
this is one of the tough parts. You have to
be able to shield yourself from this creeping sensation that
you know you've got destroyed lives in front of you.
You cannot let your guard down in this environment relative
(02:52):
to the task that is at hand. You have to
focus like a laser. You have to be prepared before
you go into that dwelling, before you go into the
individual rooms, of what your plan is, what you're going
to do when you walk in, because if you go
in and you're out of sorts in any way, it
really has potential to train wreck the entire investigation.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Right absolutely, Joseph, Can you tell us you know about
what these investigators found that morning. Of course we knew
some of this from the affidavit and previously released documents,
but you know, these new documents give us an even
deeper glimpse into what the investigators really truly walked into.
And it's just horrifying.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
When investigators come onto any scene, Okay, you're going to
do what's referred to Traditionally, it's referred to as the walkthrough.
You're observing the scene initially to get this kind of
overview to understand what you're up against. They enter on
the ground floor. There's two bedrooms downstairs in a bath.
They usend the staircase and land on this second floor,
(03:54):
but on the second floor, you've got this kind of
great room combination of where the kitchen and the dining
area is. Xena and Ethan were on the second floor.
We learned that Xana was laying on the floor of
her room in a prone position. They see cast off
(04:17):
on the walls. Cast off means a very dynamic environment.
So when I teach I talk about blood deposition, imagine
taking a paintbrush and dipping it into a bucket of
paint and then slinging it over your shoulder, like with
a flick of the wrist. The room is not painted
in blood. However, it's almost as if you've taken an instrument,
(04:41):
dipped it into the blood, and then thrown it like this,
And so the cast off is thereabouts. That's one of
the first things that they actually notice other than the bodies.
And that's an indication of violence, but it's an indication
of the dynamics that the violence. It's not like the
individual that perpetrated this crime was simply stabbing Xana. Okay,
(05:07):
Like if you think about the motion of the sewing
machine needle going up and down, it's driving the knife
in and then with great force bringing the knife back. Okay,
So that it literally cast off blood so that it
is deposited on various surfaces. Just from that bit alone,
(05:29):
in that initial observation, they knew that there was tremendous
violence that was going on in here. She's got fifty
plus stab ones. The two to the heart, the one
to the right lung, and the rest of them are
being described as mostly defensive. If you think about what
(05:49):
she's doing and what she's going through, she's trying well.
First off, she's trying to survive, but she's putting up
a fight. She's trying to get him off of her,
trying to put as much distance between herself and him.
She knows what's happening to her. And remember, she was awake.
She was awake. I can only imagine the horror you know,
(06:10):
that she experienced in those moments.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
After Brian Coberger was sentenced, the court unsealed hundreds of
pages of investigative documents, some revealing new details about what
the police found at the scene that November morning and
the extent of the injuries each victim suffered. These files
offer a rare and chilling glimpse into the final moments
of Madison Mogan Callie Gonzalvez, Xanakernodle, and Ethan Chapin.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
After this brutality has been exacted on Xanna and they're
bearing witness to it, you move over as an investigator
and you see diametrically opposing Ethan's body in the bed. Well,
if we are to believe what has been said, he's
(07:06):
not moved, he's static in the bed. And listen, early
on there were all kinds of wild things flying about.
You know, I even heard somebody say that he was
found in the doorway. Well, we know that that's a
complete fallacy. You know, that didn't happen. He died in
that bed, in that spot. And of course, the level
(07:29):
of brutality, and I'm not saying in any what Please
don't misconstrue. I'm not saying that Ethan's death was not brutal,
because it was. But when you compare the if you're
just comparing injuries, what we saw with Xana in that
environment is completely different than what we see with Ethan
(07:49):
where he's laying in the bed. There has been an
indication that there may have been arterial spray with him,
and what that means is that if you and this
is a rather robust area where he has been stabbed.
And the reason you get the arterial sprays that the
heart is still pumping. It's tremendous force. This vessel itself,
(08:14):
the CROTD is actually what supplies the brain with blood,
and out of all the organs in the body, the
brain demands the most blood. I think that he would
probably lose consciousness relatively quickly.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
After exiting Xanna's room, investigators make their way to the
third floor, where Madison Mogan and Kelly Gonsalvez live.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
They go down to Kayley's old room and there's nobody
in there. They make their way down to Maddie's room.
They observe these two young friends covered in a pink
blanket and the blanket is super sad trade of blood.
So they had they remained under that blanket or was
(09:06):
a blanket placed on them by someone else. I don't
have an answer to that. When you look at the
injuries that have been revealed regarding Maddie, it's very brief.
She only had sharp force injuries. I mean, like sad Ones,
I don't think that she did fight back. We don't
have any evidence of defensive injuries on her at all.
(09:30):
Merely what they talked about with Maddie is that she's
got a left lung laceration and then it migrates from
a left lung laceration to a liver laceration. They're only
identifying those two injuries. I'll be fascinated to see if
something else came about. But the least amount of damage
(09:52):
I think our trauma is Maddie is right there with
I think Ethan running a close second in that cond
Kaylee bought probably equal to the level that Xana did downstairs.
(10:12):
What's so striking about Kaylee, though, is the level of
violence that was exacted upon her. She's got multiple stab
wounds all over her body. But I think the thing
that really has caught people's attention, and this is you know,
kind of borne out relative to what we're hearing now
from the Truanta documents, is that there's a tremendous amount
(10:36):
of disfigurement. He lingered with her, because you don't just
have stab wounds, you've got blunt force trauma. She was
traumatized to the point with blunt force trauma that she
had hemorrhage that is literally inside of the sack surrounding
her brain. And so you're literally bleeding out in your brain.
(10:56):
We do know that she's got signs of asphyxia, which
means some way her airway was blocked. She's struggling. She's struggling,
and she's fighting while he's trying to perhaps keep her
quiet at the same time he's trying to murder her.
She's not doing what he wants her to do, and
that is die. She's fighting back, and so that's why
(11:18):
you get this disfigurement with the knife being utilized to
stab her or the knife being utilized to punch her with.
It's in this confusion as well that we think about
depositing of the sheath that's found adjacent to her leg,
and this furious thing that's going on here. He forgets
about the sheath. All he knows is he wants to
(11:41):
extricate himself from this environment so that he can put
as much distance between himself and the horror that he
has subjected these individuals to. In total, Kaylee had twenty
plus stab wounds.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
The brutality of Kelly's wounds, you know, which are just awful.
Could this suggests that she was the target? You know,
I know there's been some speculation out there that Mattie
was the target. People think maybe Brian Colberger met her
at the Matta Greek where she worked. But after seeing
these new documents and just reading about the brutality of
Kaylee's wounds, I'm curious of being this changes.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Things between Kayley and Mattie. Guys say I'd list more
toward Kaylee because of disfigurement, brutality, blunt force, trauma, suffocation,
or occlusion of airway. However, one thing that kind of
muddies the waters here is that both these individuals were
(12:36):
occupied in the same space, allegedly in a bed together.
So you cannot completely discount that this individual who's already
being driven by sexual urges and has potential for violence,
has been studying violence. He's going to get mighty angry
if somebody's going to get in between him and his
actual target. So if you take that same logic and
(12:57):
apply it to Kaylee, suddenly she becomes not the target
of any kind of sexual motivation. That's pure anger that
you're seeing. You've got in the way of what I
wanted to do. It may have disrupted the whole damn thing.
He's made mistakes all along the way. You can see
where he's trying to commit the perfect crime, but maybe
(13:19):
his observational skills were not as keen as he thought
that they should be, or that he perceived himself to be.
He didn't expect to find her there. But I got
to tell you, I don't know that we will ever know.
People can speculate about this all they want, but these
two young ladies died in such close proximity to one
another that any kind of post mortem data like changes
(13:41):
in the body, with Roger mortis and all those sorts
of things and post mortal avidity, that data is worthless.
You're not going to be able to ascertain anything from that.
I don't think.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in
a moment. Welcome back to the Idaho massacre. We've been
reviewing newly released documents following Brian Coberger. Sentencing forensic expert
Joseph Scott Morgan just walked us through what investigators uncovered
(14:17):
about the injuries to all four victims. It's a disturbing
and sobering account. We're now joined by crime analyst Body Moven,
an expert in analyzing complex data, along with our producer
Alison Bankston to dive deeper into more of the documents
released in this massive evidence dump.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
So you've been through all these documents, there's just so
much to unpack, and you know there's even more to come.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
There's a lot in there actually.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Right aside from learning more about what police found that
night and the victim's injuries, I also was pretty intrigued
by getting more into on Dylan's full statement.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
I thought that was very interesting.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
As a reminder, Dylan Morton was one of the two
roommates who survived the attack. According to the Affidavid, around
four am on the night of the murders, she saw
a figure dressed in black wearing a mask that covered
his mouth and nose. He was outside of her bedroom
on the second floor, and she described him as having
(15:19):
bushy eyebrows and a slight but athletic build. Dylan froze
in shock as the man walked past her and out
of the house.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
This is so weird. This is very weird. Dylan's statement
to Moscow Police Department. She said she believed Maddie and
Kaylee arrived home around one thirty or two. She said
that nothing weird had happened during the night. She describes
being woken up around four anywhere between four and four twenty,
which of course is when the event occurs, you know,
(15:53):
in the home. Dylan is insistent, and she says it
three times that she heard Kaylee go up the stairs
with Murphy and then immediately come back down halfway down
the stairs and say someone's here, and then go back up.
The police believe Xana is the one who said someone's here.
Dylan is insisting it was Kaylee. Dylan said she opened
(16:15):
the door when she cried out to Kaylee, then closed
the door because she was scared. She said who she
thought was Kaylee, but could have been Xana crying in
the bathroom. Dylan said she then heard a man's voice
say it's okay, I'm going to help you. Dylan said
it was weird because the statement was not in a
nice way, and the voice was one she had never
(16:35):
heard before. She would have recognized it if it was Ethan. Right,
we got some leaked audio from the Dateline episode. Right
in the PCA, which is a probable Cause affidavit that
we've had for years.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
It describes the.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Leaked audio and it says, you know that there's scream,
there's like a I can't remember if it says a
whimper or scream and then a thud. And when we
got the audio from the dateline leak, of course, so
I had to listen to it over and over and
over again. And I can't help but create what I'm
hearing in my own mind. Yes, I can't help it.
(17:28):
Here Ethan help me, and then a thud. And then
weeks later we get the document dump and we learn
that he says this, don't worry, I'm going to help you,
very menacingly, and I can't help but think Ethan helped me,
and he catches up to her, don't worry, I'm going
(17:50):
to help you, and then we hear the thud and
that's Sannah hitting the floor.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I don't know it makes sense. It might not be,
it might not be, you know, but this is the chatter.
This is what people are talking about from the document ump.
But those two kind of go hand in hand. Ethan
helped me, and don't worry, I'm gonna help you. I'm
the one that's going to help you. You don't need him.
I'm the one that's gonna help you. It's very menacing
(18:17):
and I mean awful to think about and poor Xanna. Okay, so,
Dylan said when she saw the suspect, said she believed
the suspect was white, but not remember eyebrow, collar or
what his eyes looked like. He saw her and just left.
Dylan was asked how long she believed it was from
the time Kayleie said someone is here to when she
saw the suspect. Dylan said she thought it was about
(18:39):
ten or twenty minutes. Dylan said the suspect was between
her bedroom door and the kitchen, so he was kind
of like walking in that little u turn away from
Xanna's room to the kitchen. Dylan said she remembered watching
the suspect go out the kitchen door and leave. Dylan
said at this time she closed her door and locked
(19:00):
it as fast as she could.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
She said the suspect did not walk toward her or
say anything. I'm terrifying.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in
a moment. After Dylan Mortensen came face to face with
Brian Coburger, a man in black clothing, wearing a mask
and walking straight out of her house, she immediately slammed
her bedroom door shut and locked it. Terrified and Confused,
(19:36):
she texted her roommates to see if anyone else was awake.
Only Bethany Funk responded. Dylan then ran down to Bethany's
room on the first floor, still unsure of what she
had seen and not fully grasping the horror that had
unfolded just feet away. The two roommates ended up falling
asleep in the same room. Around eleven am, Dylan texted
(19:59):
her friend Emily, asking if she and her boyfriend Hunter
could come over to check on things. She said she
was scared that she'd seen a strange man inside the
house the night before and still didn't know what was happening.
What Hunter saw when he arrived would change everything. Here's
crime analyst Body Movin speaking with producer Alison Bankston about
(20:23):
what Hunter walked into that day.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Another thing we learned in the documents, the first one.
It mentions how Hunter arrives un scene at one one
two two King Road the morning the victims were discovered,
and he entered the code into the front door and
went in and he found Dylan and Bethany in Bethany's
room right there at the bottom floor, right where the
(20:47):
door is. Hunter said he went up the stairs and
immediately went to Zana's room. Hunter said he approached the door,
it was only partially open. Hunter said he then opened
it and he saw Xana in the room. Hunter said
he thought at first they had been drunk and left
a mess. Hunter said when he stood there for a moment,
(21:07):
he began to realize what he was seeing. Bethany and
Dylan were uncontrollably crying. Hunter said he told them to
get out of the house and call law enforcement, something
that was massively traumatic. First of all, he took on
all of this alone. Ethan was his best friend, and
Emily and Xanna were very close, and they all they
were like the the you know double date crew, right,
(21:30):
they were always like the couple like Ethan and Xana
and Hunter and Emily. I mean, can you imagine finding
your best friend in the condition and her girlfriend, who
you're your girlfriend is like best friends with. It's just
it's tragic.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
But Hunter.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Hunter really kept Ethan's dignity intact, do you know what
I mean? Like he has really respected Ethan and he's
never given any graphic details, and I really respect that
from him.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
He's never come out and said.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Oh, yeah, you know, there's blood everywhere. You know, he
was never he's iver done that. He's really respected at
Ethan's integrity, and I think that's he's a friend for forever.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
That's so true. He really truly is such a hero.
His strength is amazing. His account that that morning also
brings up another interesting document.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Right, Yes, when Hunter arrives around eleven am, he said
he entered the code to get into the house. But
we learned that a witness was walking his dog, and
it appears that he works at the University of Idaho
because they went to the University of Idaho to interview him.
He was walking his dog that morning and it was
around eight or nine am, and he saw the front
(22:36):
door wide open, and he walked his dog for about
an hour, and when he passed the house again closer
to eleven am, the door was still wide open. And
it's interesting because we know Brian Coberger went back into
the vicinity of the house that morning.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Yes, at around nine am, his phone was pinging in
that area.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
He was there for nine minutes. Where was he We
don't know did he get out. I can't imagine that
he got out of his car in broad daylight and
walked to that front door, and he doesn't have the
coat anyway, so how would he have opened it?
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Right?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Right?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
But did he go through the slider and come out
the front door and leave it open?
Speaker 5 (23:12):
I who knows? We do know that he didn't go
get the sheet, though, we do know that.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I mean, the timing works there. I think you're right
that I can't really like imagine him because he was
really stupid of him to go back in the first place,
But to get out of the car is like next level.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah. I mean a lot of people think he went
back that morning to just look at police activity. We
know that he was monitoring police activity on the scanner
from the documents. We know that, you know, and he
wasn't hearing anything like nothing's going on? Did this did
I did this really happen? Did I do this? Or
was I was this a fever dream? Did he go
(23:47):
back to the house to see if he really had
done it? And did he actually go into the home? Wow?
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Yeah? And another document made it seem like he maybe
had even been in the area before, right, that someone
may have seen someone who looks like him there before.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
We also learned from the documents that a woman who
lives very near the home, saw somebody lurking at her backyard,
and it was interesting because of the clothing he was wearing.
He was like kind of dressed up a little bit.
And we know that Brian Coburger at WSU when he
was a teaching aid kind of you know, buttoned up
his shirt all the way, you know, from that thumbs
(24:25):
up photo exactly.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Yes, as a reminder, Brian Coburger, he took a selfie
at around ten thirty am on the morning of the
murders and he's all dressed up and he has his
thumb up and he's taken his selfie in the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, and she was She's pretty convinced it was him.
She's pretty convinced it was him, and she chased him off.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
It kind of creepy. Additionally, we learned.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
That Kaylee saw a dark figure staring at her from
the tree line when she took her dog Murphy out
to pete. This occurred about a month prior to the murders.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Ah, it's so creepy because we know his cellphone was
in the area twenty three times before the murders. But
I always just kind of assumed that he staked his
car kind of drove around, but these new stories about
him being out and about they'd make it so much.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Cleepier, I know, and it's so terrifying to think that
the literal Boogeyman broke into this home.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Throughout this season, we'll continue digging into these documents piece
by piece to see what they reveal, what they suggest,
and what they can tell us about how Brian Koberger
took four innocent lives. Next time, we're turning to newly
released records about his time as a teaching assistant at
Washington State University and the unusual ways he crossed paths
(25:41):
with law enforcement while the investigation was still unfolding, and
if these documents are any indication, the story is far
from over. More on that next time. For more information
on the case and relevant photos, follow us on Instagram
at Case Underscore Studios. The Idaho Massacre is produced by
(26:04):
Stephanie Leideker, Alison Bankston, Gabriel Castillo, and me Courtney Armstrong.
Editing and sound designed by Jeff Toois. Music by Jared Aston.
The Idaho Massacre is a production of Kat Studios and iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts like this, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts,
(26:24):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
The level of brutality is something I don't think that
even I was prepared for.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Did this really happen? Did I do this? Or was
this a fever dream?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I can only imagine the horror that she experienced in
those moments.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
This is the Idaho Massacre, a production of KAT Studios
and iHeartRadio, Season three, Episode three, The Unsealed Files. I'm
Courtney Armstrong, a producer at KAT Studios with Stephanie Leideger
and Gabriel Castillo. For nearly three years, much of the
(00:47):
case against Brian Coberger has remained sealed, hidden behind reactions,
legal arguments, and courtroom silence. But now that silence is breaking.
Shortly after the convicted killer was led off to begin
his life sentence, hundreds of pages of investigative documents were unsealed,
(01:10):
giving us our most detailed look yet into the case
that stunned the country. The evidence, the interviews, and more
information on the chilling timeline of what unfolded in the hours,
days and weeks surrounding the murders of Madison, Mogen, Kaylei Gonzalvez, Xanakernodle,
and Ethan Chapin. What do these newly revealed documents tell
(01:34):
us how do they change our perception of what went
on that faithful night and what questions do they raise
about motive, surveillance and intent. Today we're diving into what
investigators walked into on that faithful day and what a
camean in terms of a possible target in this case.
(01:55):
Here's forensic expert Joseph Scott Morgan with our producer Alison Bankston.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
When you were going through these documents, what stood out
the most to you and what surprised you the most?
What jumped out at you forensically level.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Of brutality for me because it sounds horribly naive, but
for me, I think I'd always hoped that it wasn't
going to be as bad as it has turned out
to be. I should have known better as an old
death investigator and a forensic scientist, given all the hundreds
and hundreds of deaths that I worked as a practitioner,
(02:30):
all the cases I've covered in the media, I was
not prepared for what was the big reveal. For an investigator,
this is one of the tough parts. You have to
be able to shield yourself from this creeping sensation that
you know you've got destroyed lives in front of you.
You cannot let your guard down in this environment relative
(02:52):
to the task that is at hand. You have to
focus like a laser. You have to be prepared before
you go into that dwelling, before you go into the
individual rooms, of what your plan is, what you're going
to do when you walk in, because if you go
in and you're out of sorts in any way, it
really has potential to train wreck the entire investigation.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Right absolutely, Joseph, Can you tell us you know about
what these investigators found that morning. Of course we knew
some of this from the affidavit and previously released documents,
but you know, these new documents give us an even
deeper glimpse into what the investigators really truly walked into.
And it's just horrifying.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
When investigators come onto any scene, Okay, you're going to
do what's referred to Traditionally, it's referred to as the walkthrough.
You're observing the scene initially to get this kind of
overview to understand what you're up against. They enter on
the ground floor. There's two bedrooms downstairs in a bath.
They usend the staircase and land on this second floor,
(03:54):
but on the second floor, you've got this kind of
great room combination of where the kitchen and the dining
area is. Xena and Ethan were on the second floor.
We learned that Xana was laying on the floor of
her room in a prone position. They see cast off
(04:17):
on the walls. Cast off means a very dynamic environment.
So when I teach I talk about blood deposition, imagine
taking a paintbrush and dipping it into a bucket of
paint and then slinging it over your shoulder, like with
a flick of the wrist. The room is not painted
in blood. However, it's almost as if you've taken an instrument,
(04:41):
dipped it into the blood, and then thrown it like this,
And so the cast off is thereabouts. That's one of
the first things that they actually notice other than the bodies.
And that's an indication of violence, but it's an indication
of the dynamics that the violence. It's not like the
individual that perpetrated this crime was simply stabbing Xana. Okay,
(05:07):
Like if you think about the motion of the sewing
machine needle going up and down, it's driving the knife
in and then with great force bringing the knife back. Okay,
So that it literally cast off blood so that it
is deposited on various surfaces. Just from that bit alone,
(05:29):
in that initial observation, they knew that there was tremendous
violence that was going on in here. She's got fifty
plus stab ones. The two to the heart, the one
to the right lung, and the rest of them are
being described as mostly defensive. If you think about what
(05:49):
she's doing and what she's going through, she's trying well.
First off, she's trying to survive, but she's putting up
a fight. She's trying to get him off of her,
trying to put as much distance between herself and him.
She knows what's happening to her. And remember, she was awake.
She was awake. I can only imagine the horror you know,
(06:10):
that she experienced in those moments.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
After Brian Coberger was sentenced, the court unsealed hundreds of
pages of investigative documents, some revealing new details about what
the police found at the scene that November morning and
the extent of the injuries each victim suffered. These files
offer a rare and chilling glimpse into the final moments
of Madison Mogan Callie Gonzalvez, Xanakernodle, and Ethan Chapin.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
After this brutality has been exacted on Xanna and they're
bearing witness to it, you move over as an investigator
and you see diametrically opposing Ethan's body in the bed. Well,
if we are to believe what has been said, he's
(07:06):
not moved, he's static in the bed. And listen, early
on there were all kinds of wild things flying about.
You know, I even heard somebody say that he was
found in the doorway. Well, we know that that's a
complete fallacy. You know, that didn't happen. He died in
that bed, in that spot. And of course, the level
(07:29):
of brutality, and I'm not saying in any what Please
don't misconstrue. I'm not saying that Ethan's death was not brutal,
because it was. But when you compare the if you're
just comparing injuries, what we saw with Xana in that
environment is completely different than what we see with Ethan
(07:49):
where he's laying in the bed. There has been an
indication that there may have been arterial spray with him,
and what that means is that if you and this
is a rather robust area where he has been stabbed.
And the reason you get the arterial sprays that the
heart is still pumping. It's tremendous force. This vessel itself,
(08:14):
the CROTD is actually what supplies the brain with blood,
and out of all the organs in the body, the
brain demands the most blood. I think that he would
probably lose consciousness relatively quickly.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
After exiting Xanna's room, investigators make their way to the
third floor, where Madison Mogan and Kelly Gonsalvez live.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
They go down to Kayley's old room and there's nobody
in there. They make their way down to Maddie's room.
They observe these two young friends covered in a pink
blanket and the blanket is super sad trade of blood.
So they had they remained under that blanket or was
(09:06):
a blanket placed on them by someone else. I don't
have an answer to that. When you look at the
injuries that have been revealed regarding Maddie, it's very brief.
She only had sharp force injuries. I mean, like sad Ones,
I don't think that she did fight back. We don't
have any evidence of defensive injuries on her at all.
(09:30):
Merely what they talked about with Maddie is that she's
got a left lung laceration and then it migrates from
a left lung laceration to a liver laceration. They're only
identifying those two injuries. I'll be fascinated to see if
something else came about. But the least amount of damage
(09:52):
I think our trauma is Maddie is right there with
I think Ethan running a close second in that cond
Kaylee bought probably equal to the level that Xana did downstairs.
(10:12):
What's so striking about Kaylee, though, is the level of
violence that was exacted upon her. She's got multiple stab
wounds all over her body. But I think the thing
that really has caught people's attention, and this is you know,
kind of borne out relative to what we're hearing now
from the Truanta documents, is that there's a tremendous amount
(10:36):
of disfigurement. He lingered with her, because you don't just
have stab wounds, you've got blunt force trauma. She was
traumatized to the point with blunt force trauma that she
had hemorrhage that is literally inside of the sack surrounding
her brain. And so you're literally bleeding out in your brain.
(10:56):
We do know that she's got signs of asphyxia, which
means some way her airway was blocked. She's struggling. She's struggling,
and she's fighting while he's trying to perhaps keep her
quiet at the same time he's trying to murder her.
She's not doing what he wants her to do, and
that is die. She's fighting back, and so that's why
(11:18):
you get this disfigurement with the knife being utilized to
stab her or the knife being utilized to punch her with.
It's in this confusion as well that we think about
depositing of the sheath that's found adjacent to her leg,
and this furious thing that's going on here. He forgets
about the sheath. All he knows is he wants to
(11:41):
extricate himself from this environment so that he can put
as much distance between himself and the horror that he
has subjected these individuals to. In total, Kaylee had twenty
plus stab wounds.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
The brutality of Kelly's wounds, you know, which are just awful.
Could this suggests that she was the target? You know,
I know there's been some speculation out there that Mattie
was the target. People think maybe Brian Colberger met her
at the Matta Greek where she worked. But after seeing
these new documents and just reading about the brutality of
Kaylee's wounds, I'm curious of being this changes.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Things between Kayley and Mattie. Guys say I'd list more
toward Kaylee because of disfigurement, brutality, blunt force, trauma, suffocation,
or occlusion of airway. However, one thing that kind of
muddies the waters here is that both these individuals were
(12:36):
occupied in the same space, allegedly in a bed together.
So you cannot completely discount that this individual who's already
being driven by sexual urges and has potential for violence,
has been studying violence. He's going to get mighty angry
if somebody's going to get in between him and his
actual target. So if you take that same logic and
(12:57):
apply it to Kaylee, suddenly she becomes not the target
of any kind of sexual motivation. That's pure anger that
you're seeing. You've got in the way of what I
wanted to do. It may have disrupted the whole damn thing.
He's made mistakes all along the way. You can see
where he's trying to commit the perfect crime, but maybe
(13:19):
his observational skills were not as keen as he thought
that they should be, or that he perceived himself to be.
He didn't expect to find her there. But I got
to tell you, I don't know that we will ever know.
People can speculate about this all they want, but these
two young ladies died in such close proximity to one
another that any kind of post mortem data like changes
(13:41):
in the body, with Roger mortis and all those sorts
of things and post mortal avidity, that data is worthless.
You're not going to be able to ascertain anything from that.
I don't think.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in
a moment. Welcome back to the Idaho massacre. We've been
reviewing newly released documents following Brian Coberger. Sentencing forensic expert
Joseph Scott Morgan just walked us through what investigators uncovered
(14:17):
about the injuries to all four victims. It's a disturbing
and sobering account. We're now joined by crime analyst Body Moven,
an expert in analyzing complex data, along with our producer
Alison Bankston to dive deeper into more of the documents
released in this massive evidence dump.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
So you've been through all these documents, there's just so
much to unpack, and you know there's even more to come.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
There's a lot in there actually.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Right aside from learning more about what police found that
night and the victim's injuries, I also was pretty intrigued
by getting more into on Dylan's full statement.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
I thought that was very interesting.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
As a reminder, Dylan Morton was one of the two
roommates who survived the attack. According to the Affidavid, around
four am on the night of the murders, she saw
a figure dressed in black wearing a mask that covered
his mouth and nose. He was outside of her bedroom
on the second floor, and she described him as having
(15:19):
bushy eyebrows and a slight but athletic build. Dylan froze
in shock as the man walked past her and out
of the house.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
This is so weird. This is very weird. Dylan's statement
to Moscow Police Department. She said she believed Maddie and
Kaylee arrived home around one thirty or two. She said
that nothing weird had happened during the night. She describes
being woken up around four anywhere between four and four twenty,
which of course is when the event occurs, you know,
(15:53):
in the home. Dylan is insistent, and she says it
three times that she heard Kaylee go up the stairs
with Murphy and then immediately come back down halfway down
the stairs and say someone's here, and then go back up.
The police believe Xana is the one who said someone's here.
Dylan is insisting it was Kaylee. Dylan said she opened
(16:15):
the door when she cried out to Kaylee, then closed
the door because she was scared. She said who she
thought was Kaylee, but could have been Xana crying in
the bathroom. Dylan said she then heard a man's voice
say it's okay, I'm going to help you. Dylan said
it was weird because the statement was not in a
nice way, and the voice was one she had never
(16:35):
heard before. She would have recognized it if it was Ethan. Right,
we got some leaked audio from the Dateline episode. Right
in the PCA, which is a probable Cause affidavit that
we've had for years.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
It describes the.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Leaked audio and it says, you know that there's scream,
there's like a I can't remember if it says a
whimper or scream and then a thud. And when we
got the audio from the dateline leak, of course, so
I had to listen to it over and over and
over again. And I can't help but create what I'm
hearing in my own mind. Yes, I can't help it.
(17:28):
Here Ethan help me, and then a thud. And then
weeks later we get the document dump and we learn
that he says this, don't worry, I'm going to help you,
very menacingly, and I can't help but think Ethan helped me,
and he catches up to her, don't worry, I'm going
(17:50):
to help you, and then we hear the thud and
that's Sannah hitting the floor.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I don't know it makes sense. It might not be,
it might not be, you know, but this is the chatter.
This is what people are talking about from the document ump.
But those two kind of go hand in hand. Ethan
helped me, and don't worry, I'm gonna help you. I'm
the one that's going to help you. You don't need him.
I'm the one that's gonna help you. It's very menacing
(18:17):
and I mean awful to think about and poor Xanna. Okay, so,
Dylan said when she saw the suspect, said she believed
the suspect was white, but not remember eyebrow, collar or
what his eyes looked like. He saw her and just left.
Dylan was asked how long she believed it was from
the time Kayleie said someone is here to when she
saw the suspect. Dylan said she thought it was about
(18:39):
ten or twenty minutes. Dylan said the suspect was between
her bedroom door and the kitchen, so he was kind
of like walking in that little u turn away from
Xanna's room to the kitchen. Dylan said she remembered watching
the suspect go out the kitchen door and leave. Dylan
said at this time she closed her door and locked
(19:00):
it as fast as she could.
Speaker 5 (19:02):
She said the suspect did not walk toward her or
say anything. I'm terrifying.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in
a moment. After Dylan Mortensen came face to face with
Brian Coburger, a man in black clothing, wearing a mask
and walking straight out of her house, she immediately slammed
her bedroom door shut and locked it. Terrified and Confused,
(19:36):
she texted her roommates to see if anyone else was awake.
Only Bethany Funk responded. Dylan then ran down to Bethany's
room on the first floor, still unsure of what she
had seen and not fully grasping the horror that had
unfolded just feet away. The two roommates ended up falling
asleep in the same room. Around eleven am, Dylan texted
(19:59):
her friend Emily, asking if she and her boyfriend Hunter
could come over to check on things. She said she
was scared that she'd seen a strange man inside the
house the night before and still didn't know what was happening.
What Hunter saw when he arrived would change everything. Here's
crime analyst Body Movin speaking with producer Alison Bankston about
(20:23):
what Hunter walked into that day.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Another thing we learned in the documents, the first one.
It mentions how Hunter arrives un scene at one one
two two King Road the morning the victims were discovered,
and he entered the code into the front door and
went in and he found Dylan and Bethany in Bethany's
room right there at the bottom floor, right where the
(20:47):
door is. Hunter said he went up the stairs and
immediately went to Zana's room. Hunter said he approached the door,
it was only partially open. Hunter said he then opened
it and he saw Xana in the room. Hunter said
he thought at first they had been drunk and left
a mess. Hunter said when he stood there for a moment,
(21:07):
he began to realize what he was seeing. Bethany and
Dylan were uncontrollably crying. Hunter said he told them to
get out of the house and call law enforcement, something
that was massively traumatic. First of all, he took on
all of this alone. Ethan was his best friend, and
Emily and Xanna were very close, and they all they
were like the the you know double date crew, right,
(21:30):
they were always like the couple like Ethan and Xana
and Hunter and Emily. I mean, can you imagine finding
your best friend in the condition and her girlfriend, who
you're your girlfriend is like best friends with. It's just
it's tragic.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
But Hunter.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Hunter really kept Ethan's dignity intact, do you know what
I mean? Like he has really respected Ethan and he's
never given any graphic details, and I really respect that
from him.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
He's never come out and said.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Oh, yeah, you know, there's blood everywhere. You know, he
was never he's iver done that. He's really respected at
Ethan's integrity, and I think that's he's a friend for forever.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
That's so true. He really truly is such a hero.
His strength is amazing. His account that that morning also
brings up another interesting document.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Right, Yes, when Hunter arrives around eleven am, he said
he entered the code to get into the house. But
we learned that a witness was walking his dog, and
it appears that he works at the University of Idaho
because they went to the University of Idaho to interview him.
He was walking his dog that morning and it was
around eight or nine am, and he saw the front
(22:36):
door wide open, and he walked his dog for about
an hour, and when he passed the house again closer
to eleven am, the door was still wide open. And
it's interesting because we know Brian Coberger went back into
the vicinity of the house that morning.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Yes, at around nine am, his phone was pinging in
that area.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
He was there for nine minutes. Where was he We
don't know did he get out. I can't imagine that
he got out of his car in broad daylight and
walked to that front door, and he doesn't have the
coat anyway, so how would he have opened it?
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Right?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Right?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
But did he go through the slider and come out
the front door and leave it open?
Speaker 5 (23:12):
I who knows? We do know that he didn't go
get the sheet, though, we do know that.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I mean, the timing works there. I think you're right
that I can't really like imagine him because he was
really stupid of him to go back in the first place,
But to get out of the car is like next level.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah. I mean a lot of people think he went
back that morning to just look at police activity. We
know that he was monitoring police activity on the scanner
from the documents. We know that, you know, and he
wasn't hearing anything like nothing's going on? Did this did
I did this really happen? Did I do this? Or
was I was this a fever dream? Did he go
(23:47):
back to the house to see if he really had
done it? And did he actually go into the home? Wow?
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Yeah? And another document made it seem like he maybe
had even been in the area before, right, that someone
may have seen someone who looks like him there before.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
We also learned from the documents that a woman who
lives very near the home, saw somebody lurking at her backyard,
and it was interesting because of the clothing he was wearing.
He was like kind of dressed up a little bit.
And we know that Brian Coburger at WSU when he
was a teaching aid kind of you know, buttoned up
his shirt all the way, you know, from that thumbs
(24:25):
up photo exactly.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Yes, as a reminder, Brian Coburger, he took a selfie
at around ten thirty am on the morning of the
murders and he's all dressed up and he has his
thumb up and he's taken his selfie in the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, and she was She's pretty convinced it was him.
She's pretty convinced it was him, and she chased him off.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
It kind of creepy. Additionally, we learned.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
That Kaylee saw a dark figure staring at her from
the tree line when she took her dog Murphy out
to pete. This occurred about a month prior to the murders.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Ah, it's so creepy because we know his cellphone was
in the area twenty three times before the murders. But
I always just kind of assumed that he staked his
car kind of drove around, but these new stories about
him being out and about they'd make it so much.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Cleepier, I know, and it's so terrifying to think that
the literal Boogeyman broke into this home.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Throughout this season, we'll continue digging into these documents piece
by piece to see what they reveal, what they suggest,
and what they can tell us about how Brian Koberger
took four innocent lives. Next time, we're turning to newly
released records about his time as a teaching assistant at
Washington State University and the unusual ways he crossed paths
(25:41):
with law enforcement while the investigation was still unfolding, and
if these documents are any indication, the story is far
from over. More on that next time. For more information
on the case and relevant photos, follow us on Instagram
at Case Underscore Studios. The Idaho Massacre is produced by
(26:04):
Stephanie Leideker, Alison Bankston, Gabriel Castillo, and me Courtney Armstrong.
Editing and sound designed by Jeff Toois. Music by Jared Aston.
The Idaho Massacre is a production of Kat Studios and iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts like this, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts,
(26:24):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Stephanie Lydecker
Courtney Armstrong
Jeff Shane
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