January 6, 2026 • 11 mins
True CrimeTuesday deep dive on the University of Idaho murders, with new insight from Bryan Kohberger’s sister about troubling warning signs in the weeks before his arrest.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time for True Crime Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
The story is true? Sounds true? No, it sounds made up.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Gary and Shannon present True Crime.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
So rarely do we hear from the family members of
people who commit horrific crimes, and the questions are always there,
what did they know? A lot of recent attention has
been on the siblings of the Reiner kid who killed
his parents. What's it like? Do you know growing up
(00:35):
that your brother is a monster? Are there signs? And
rarely do we get anyone talking about that until now.
Brian Coburger is the guy who stabbed and killed four
college students at the University of Idaho, and his sister
(01:00):
is talking about what it was like growing up with
Brian Coburger and what it was like when she found
out the news of the murders, And in fact, that's
how this article starts, as the news had landed that
four college students were stabbed to death at a house
near the University of Idaho. Her name is Mel Mel Coburger.
(01:26):
Mel was preparing to start a new job as wait
for it, a mental health therapist in New Jersey, and
when she hears this, she goes, oh my god. She said,
there was a sense of alarm. She knew that her Brian,
her brother Brian, lived just fifteen minutes away from the
scene of this house of the slaughter of these students.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
There were no.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Suspects, and she knew that her brother liked to go
for late night jogs, so she said to him. She
remembers telling her brother, Brian Coburger, Brian, you're running outside
in this psycho killers on the loose by careful. He
thanked her for checking in on him and told her
don't worry, I'll stay safe.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So remember December of that year, he drives across country,
goes back to his parents' house in Pennsylvania for the holidays,
and late December, mel Cooburger gets a call from her
other sister, or from her sister, I should say, Amanda,
that law enforcement burst into the house, FBI, local cops, everybody,
(02:30):
and arrested Brian Coburger for those four murders. And she
said that she wondered if it was a prank at first,
and then this sense of nausea took over.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, I'm with the FBI.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Brian's been arrested, and she said, I'm like, for what
the Idaho murders, she was told, and that's I mean,
I feel that sense of nausea just hearing that that
your brother is responsible for this awful, heinous, the most
heinous quad murder that you had ever heard of, probably
in your entire life.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well, and remember what comes next is the descriptions of
this guy, his personality, his infatuation with crime and criminology,
and that's what he was studying, but also this very unaffected,
emotionless person.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
For the past three years, his family has kept quiet,
They have avoided interviews. He has pleaded guilty, if you
don't remember, accepted four life sentences. But she and she
the sister mal is still worried that she may say
something that's going to further traumatize her family, the family
of the parents, and the families of all the four killed.
(03:46):
And she knows her family's challenges with Brian through the
years cannot compare to what those families have endured, so
she doesn't want to make it sound like that at all,
But she does get into some of the specifics that
they grew up in the Poconos. Home life centered on
(04:06):
family readings of books like Little House on the Prairie,
lessons rooted in Mom's Catholic upbringing. They had her and
her brother had been, you know, told about the values
of loyalty, self reliance, putting the needs of others ahead
of their own. She says, some of our fondest childhood
(04:26):
memories were the nights when the parents, Marian and Michael,
would order takeout and they would lay on blankets out
on the deck. They look up at the stars. They
talk about astronomy and wonders of the world.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
There was a lot that goes into the questions around
the family when the family, if the family ever had
questions about whether Brian was responsible for it.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
It seems like things started to arrive in adolescence. We
are in the midst of true crime Tuesday. Remember Brian Koberger,
the one who was into criminology and a PhD student
in Idaho when he broke into that home and murdered
those four students there University of Idaho.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Awful, awful occurrence.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
He has, by the way, pleaded guilty, accepted four life sentences.
And now his sister is actually talking about her reaction
to what happened in the bombshell that when she heard
the news like we all did, and remember there was
quite some time we heard the news for University of
Idaho students slaughtered in their home, and then nothing. There
(05:39):
was a big vacuum and everyone was feeling it with
what the hell happened? Who was it, why, and the
whole thing. And she knew that her brother lived about
fifteen minutes away and actually told him, you know, I know,
you go on night jogs, be careful, there's a psycho
out there. I mean, that's how off guard she was
caught by the fact that it was her brother.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
That carried out on thinkable violence like this.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
She described this little house on the prairie style life
that they had. Mom's Catholic upbringing had an impact when
they grew up in the Pocono's friends described how Brian
was a bit overweight as a teenager and had sort
of a standoffish personality that the family now says was
probably a result of his autism.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
They say he endured persistent bullying that he wrote online
during those years of having no emotion, little remorse, feeling
as if he were quoting here an organic sack of
meat with no self worth. And then came the heroin problem.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I guess at one point he had stolen his sister
Mel's phone and sold it at a mall to buy
more drugs. And when he did that, that's when the
parents that crossed the line. They called the police because
Mel says they were all worried that he was on
a path to early death. I guess one of his
friends had done and there's similar circumstances.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
But then came treatment, and they said after he went
to treatment, he appeared to be on a better trajectory.
That she and her brother both shared an interest in
crime psychology. She was, as we mentioned earlier, pursuing a
career in mental health therapy at the same time he
started talking about a career in policing. He went on
(07:24):
to study psychology in Eastern Pennsylvania before getting into the
PhD program in criminology at Washington State. She said, we're
also proud of him because he had overcome so much,
and of course you would be. Here's a kid who
struggled as an overweight teenager. He was bullied all the time.
He picks up heroin and goes to a treatment center
and then suddenly is an academic.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Wow. Best case scenario, right.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
She did say that he was socially awkward, she did
say that he could be abrasive at times. I mean,
this is don't forget the dynamics of a brother sister
relationship can often with that regardless of the personalities. And
she said they did often argue, but that she never
saw him violent, and once she actually was the one
violent she tried to force him out of the house
(08:13):
during an argument. He de escalated the situation by just
holding her hands back, so that idea that he was
responsible for this horrific, barbaric, gruesome crime was something that
struck the family and they still have to deal with.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
So the murders happened and they still didn't have any
one for it. He went home for Christmas. Eventually caught
up with him at the family home, but before they
did family had gotten there for Christmas. She remembered being
thrilled to see her brother back home, giving him a
big hug. He apparently had started a strict diet, so
(08:51):
his mother had made him vegan cookies for Christmas. They
played TV party games. One night, mel the sister, was
cleaning up the kitchen and a piece of foil cut
her finger and the brother, Brian Kohburger, was too super
(09:11):
grossed out at the sight of blood, but then helped
her clean it up and covered it with a bandage.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
What just as a guy who created a bloodbath in
that house. She said that in that time, just a
couple of weeks between the murders and when he was arrested,
she recalls him only briefly mentioning the murders, just simply
saying that they're still looking for the killer at that point.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
In fact, when they released the car they were looking
for when they asked the public for help and they
described a white Hyun day of in twenty eleven, twenty thirteen,
the sister mel knew her brother had driven a white
Alantra back from and she wondered, huh, they must be
(10:03):
looking for the same model.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
But then realize, oh, no, they're looking twenty eleven to
twenty thirteen. He's driving a twenty fifteen model.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
So weird that you would just be like, oh, what
a coincidence.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
What she didn't know, what nobody in the family knew,
was that they had identified him as the primary suspect
before that, so they were already surveilling the house. So
it was December thirtieth, twenty twenty two. Brian Coberger and
his parents were the only three in the house. That's
when the police came in, guns drawn, put him in handcuffs.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Listen to this.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
She says her mom has been praying daily for the
families of the victims, and that she mel has put
the names of the victims and their birthdays into her
digital calendar so she gets reminders about them. She says,
the idea is making me so emotional. I can barely
speak to you about it.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, I can't. She just she goes on and talks
about life with her brother in the prison, in prison
and will be forever for consecutive life sentences, I believe.
And they talk about including him and holidays and things
like that, and they try to do regular calls.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Oh my god, I can't, but just the.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Wow, Yeah, that guy destroys those four lives, right.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
You don't stop loving your son or your brother.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Well, he destroys those four lives, right, Think of how
many were There's just there or three other people in
the house.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
That's four lives.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Everyone who knew those people, their lives are altered forever.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
The crime scene investigators, I mean, the people walked into
that scene before it had
Speaker 3 (11:43):
People's trajectory that didn't go to the University of Idaho
because of this, or you know, I mean, it's just
it's it's not quantifiable how much damage something like this
does to how many people you just don't ever know
It's time for True Crime Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
The story is true? Sounds true? No, it sounds made up.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Gary and Shannon present True Crime.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
So rarely do we hear from the family members of
people who commit horrific crimes, and the questions are always there,
what did they know? A lot of recent attention has
been on the siblings of the Reiner kid who killed
his parents. What's it like? Do you know growing up
(00:35):
that your brother is a monster? Are there signs? And
rarely do we get anyone talking about that until now.
Brian Coburger is the guy who stabbed and killed four
college students at the University of Idaho, and his sister
(01:00):
is talking about what it was like growing up with
Brian Coburger and what it was like when she found
out the news of the murders, And in fact, that's
how this article starts, as the news had landed that
four college students were stabbed to death at a house
near the University of Idaho. Her name is Mel Mel Coburger.
(01:26):
Mel was preparing to start a new job as wait
for it, a mental health therapist in New Jersey, and
when she hears this, she goes, oh my god. She said,
there was a sense of alarm. She knew that her Brian,
her brother Brian, lived just fifteen minutes away from the
scene of this house of the slaughter of these students.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
There were no.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Suspects, and she knew that her brother liked to go
for late night jogs, so she said to him. She
remembers telling her brother, Brian Coburger, Brian, you're running outside
in this psycho killers on the loose by careful. He
thanked her for checking in on him and told her
don't worry, I'll stay safe.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So remember December of that year, he drives across country,
goes back to his parents' house in Pennsylvania for the holidays,
and late December, mel Cooburger gets a call from her
other sister, or from her sister, I should say, Amanda,
that law enforcement burst into the house, FBI, local cops, everybody,
(02:30):
and arrested Brian Coburger for those four murders. And she
said that she wondered if it was a prank at first,
and then this sense of nausea took over.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, I'm with the FBI.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Brian's been arrested, and she said, I'm like, for what
the Idaho murders, she was told, and that's I mean,
I feel that sense of nausea just hearing that that
your brother is responsible for this awful, heinous, the most
heinous quad murder that you had ever heard of, probably
in your entire life.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well, and remember what comes next is the descriptions of
this guy, his personality, his infatuation with crime and criminology,
and that's what he was studying, but also this very unaffected,
emotionless person.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
For the past three years, his family has kept quiet,
They have avoided interviews. He has pleaded guilty, if you
don't remember, accepted four life sentences. But she and she
the sister mal is still worried that she may say
something that's going to further traumatize her family, the family
of the parents, and the families of all the four killed.
(03:46):
And she knows her family's challenges with Brian through the
years cannot compare to what those families have endured, so
she doesn't want to make it sound like that at all,
But she does get into some of the specifics that
they grew up in the Poconos. Home life centered on
(04:06):
family readings of books like Little House on the Prairie,
lessons rooted in Mom's Catholic upbringing. They had her and
her brother had been, you know, told about the values
of loyalty, self reliance, putting the needs of others ahead
of their own. She says, some of our fondest childhood
(04:26):
memories were the nights when the parents, Marian and Michael,
would order takeout and they would lay on blankets out
on the deck. They look up at the stars. They
talk about astronomy and wonders of the world.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
There was a lot that goes into the questions around
the family when the family, if the family ever had
questions about whether Brian was responsible for it.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
It seems like things started to arrive in adolescence. We
are in the midst of true crime Tuesday. Remember Brian Koberger,
the one who was into criminology and a PhD student
in Idaho when he broke into that home and murdered
those four students there University of Idaho.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Awful, awful occurrence.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
He has, by the way, pleaded guilty, accepted four life sentences.
And now his sister is actually talking about her reaction
to what happened in the bombshell that when she heard
the news like we all did, and remember there was
quite some time we heard the news for University of
Idaho students slaughtered in their home, and then nothing. There
(05:39):
was a big vacuum and everyone was feeling it with
what the hell happened? Who was it, why, and the
whole thing. And she knew that her brother lived about
fifteen minutes away and actually told him, you know, I know,
you go on night jogs, be careful, there's a psycho
out there. I mean, that's how off guard she was
caught by the fact that it was her brother.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
That carried out on thinkable violence like this.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
She described this little house on the prairie style life
that they had. Mom's Catholic upbringing had an impact when
they grew up in the Pocono's friends described how Brian
was a bit overweight as a teenager and had sort
of a standoffish personality that the family now says was
probably a result of his autism.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
They say he endured persistent bullying that he wrote online
during those years of having no emotion, little remorse, feeling
as if he were quoting here an organic sack of
meat with no self worth. And then came the heroin problem.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I guess at one point he had stolen his sister
Mel's phone and sold it at a mall to buy
more drugs. And when he did that, that's when the
parents that crossed the line. They called the police because
Mel says they were all worried that he was on
a path to early death. I guess one of his
friends had done and there's similar circumstances.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
But then came treatment, and they said after he went
to treatment, he appeared to be on a better trajectory.
That she and her brother both shared an interest in
crime psychology. She was, as we mentioned earlier, pursuing a
career in mental health therapy at the same time he
started talking about a career in policing. He went on
(07:24):
to study psychology in Eastern Pennsylvania before getting into the
PhD program in criminology at Washington State. She said, we're
also proud of him because he had overcome so much,
and of course you would be. Here's a kid who
struggled as an overweight teenager. He was bullied all the time.
He picks up heroin and goes to a treatment center
and then suddenly is an academic.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Wow. Best case scenario, right.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
She did say that he was socially awkward, she did
say that he could be abrasive at times. I mean,
this is don't forget the dynamics of a brother sister
relationship can often with that regardless of the personalities. And
she said they did often argue, but that she never
saw him violent, and once she actually was the one
violent she tried to force him out of the house
(08:13):
during an argument. He de escalated the situation by just
holding her hands back, so that idea that he was
responsible for this horrific, barbaric, gruesome crime was something that
struck the family and they still have to deal with.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
So the murders happened and they still didn't have any
one for it. He went home for Christmas. Eventually caught
up with him at the family home, but before they
did family had gotten there for Christmas. She remembered being
thrilled to see her brother back home, giving him a
big hug. He apparently had started a strict diet, so
(08:51):
his mother had made him vegan cookies for Christmas. They
played TV party games. One night, mel the sister, was
cleaning up the kitchen and a piece of foil cut
her finger and the brother, Brian Kohburger, was too super
(09:11):
grossed out at the sight of blood, but then helped
her clean it up and covered it with a bandage.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
What just as a guy who created a bloodbath in
that house. She said that in that time, just a
couple of weeks between the murders and when he was arrested,
she recalls him only briefly mentioning the murders, just simply
saying that they're still looking for the killer at that point.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
In fact, when they released the car they were looking
for when they asked the public for help and they
described a white Hyun day of in twenty eleven, twenty thirteen,
the sister mel knew her brother had driven a white
Alantra back from and she wondered, huh, they must be
(10:03):
looking for the same model.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
But then realize, oh, no, they're looking twenty eleven to
twenty thirteen. He's driving a twenty fifteen model.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
So weird that you would just be like, oh, what
a coincidence.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
What she didn't know, what nobody in the family knew,
was that they had identified him as the primary suspect
before that, so they were already surveilling the house. So
it was December thirtieth, twenty twenty two. Brian Coberger and
his parents were the only three in the house. That's
when the police came in, guns drawn, put him in handcuffs.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Listen to this.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
She says her mom has been praying daily for the
families of the victims, and that she mel has put
the names of the victims and their birthdays into her
digital calendar so she gets reminders about them. She says,
the idea is making me so emotional. I can barely
speak to you about it.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah, I can't. She just she goes on and talks
about life with her brother in the prison, in prison
and will be forever for consecutive life sentences, I believe.
And they talk about including him and holidays and things
like that, and they try to do regular calls.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Oh my god, I can't, but just the.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Wow, Yeah, that guy destroys those four lives, right.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
You don't stop loving your son or your brother.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Well, he destroys those four lives, right, Think of how
many were There's just there or three other people in
the house.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
That's four lives.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Everyone who knew those people, their lives are altered forever.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
The crime scene investigators, I mean, the people walked into
that scene before it had
Speaker 3 (11:43):
People's trajectory that didn't go to the University of Idaho
because of this, or you know, I mean, it's just
it's it's not quantifiable how much damage something like this
does to how many people you just don't ever know
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