Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 7 Disturbing Details in Bryan Kohberger WSU Doc Dump

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Bryan Kohberger's time as a PhD student and teaching assistant at Washington State University was short-lived but his tenure generated hundreds of pages of records. WSU recently released a new trove of records that includes voicemails, texts messages and emails with concerning information about the case and whether Kohberger could have been caught sooner. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the records in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/crimefix to get an extra 25 cents bonus for every gallon on your first tank of gas.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Michael Colberger in reference to Brian Coburger, Brian Christmas, Holberger, K-O-H-B-E-R-G-E. That's Brian Coburger's father in a voicemail after the murder of four University of Idaho students. It's one of a batch of new records from Washington State University where Coburger studied criminology. These records are giving us a look at what was going on at the school after the murders and after the arrest and how cops actually spotted Coburgers' car. weeks before his arrest. I'm Anjanette Levy, and this is Crime Fix. Before we get into this stuff about Brian Coburger, I want to tell you about this app that I like that I've been using. It's called Upside, and it will give you cash back on things that you buy all of the time, things like gas, groceries, and even carry out. Here's what you do. You download

upside for free. You claim an offer at one of their 100,000-plus locations. You pay like you usually do with your card and then you verify the purchase and you'll see the money you'll get back right in the app so say i need to get gas or i want take out one night i'll search for upside offers first after i spend money appears in my app that i can transfer straight into my bank upside's frequent users earn an average of two hundred fifty four dollars back a year who can beat that to start getting your cash back click the link in the description or skin the QR code that you see on your screen and use our promo code crime fix to get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas. On November 13th, 2022, a call to police in Moscow, Idaho changed everything. Four University of Idaho

students were found in a rental house on King Road, stabbed to death. It's the kind of crime that would shock people even in a big city. But this was Moscow, a college town, the kind of place where people didn't lock their doors, but that would change. Maddie Mogan, Kaylee Gonsalves, Ethan Chapin, and Zana Kronodle had been out to the big football game the day before, partying, hanging out, doing what college kids do. Hours later, they were dead, stabbed in their beds. Zana actually fought for her life. She was stabbed more than 40 times. The search was on for a murderer. Time was of the essence. Little did anyone know in those early days of the investigation that the killer was just miles away studying at Washington State University across the state line in Pullman.

His name, Brian Coburger. He was a PhD student in criminology, a teaching assistant, no less, and he was walking the halls of WSU as if nothing had happened. Since December 2020, we have requested records from WSU a number of times, looking into Brian Koberger's time there and trying to figure out more about what he was doing and whether the school administration suspected anything at all. WSU gave us a new batch of records recently. Some of it contains items we hadn't seen before, like information about two officers spotting his white elantra from a police bulletin just a couple of weeks after the murders. I'll get to that shortly. It seems like a major opportunity missed, but there were also internal discussions about the murders and concerns from

parents of students that a killer was on the loose. And the university, as far as one parent, was concerned wasn't really communicating much about it. I'm going to get into all of this, but first, let's go back to the very beginning. It was November 13th, 2022, just before noon. A 911 call came in from roommates of Maddie Kaley and Zana. A Moscow officer responded to the house on King Road. What do you remember saying? What started? I remember I was in my room and I was trying to go to bed and I heard Kaylee who ex-exed girlfriend. He was like to go through. Real fast. Which one? Is your room? Kaylee.

Which one is your room? What room are you in? You were in that room? My room, not in this room. My room. And your room is this one right here. Next to the stairs. That one is in that room.

Second floor room. Second floor. Okay. All I heard was I heard, I heard, go upstairs. Okay, I'm going to go to sleep now because she's going upstairs. And you heard who go upstairs? Kaylee and the dog Murphy. and upstairs to the very top

yeah that's where her room is walking up I heard her scream and she ran downstairs because she saw someone that's what I'm pretty sure she said someone's here and she screamed and just ran downstairs and I called for her name but I jumped up and locked my door

because I was so scared and then I heard someone in the bathroom and I heard her crying and I heard some guys say that you're going to be okay I'm going to help you and I kept calling her name but she wasn't answering and then I opened the door for a second

and I saw this guy and he was not insanely tall but he was wearing all black and like this mask which is covering his forehead and his mouth and I locked the door and I called and I didn't know what to do this is at 4 a.m. Yes. All right describe the guy that you

saw. I don't think he was a little bit taller than me and I couldn't really see much of him but I'm almost positive. He was wearing a full black outfit and he had this mask that was just over his forehead and over his mouth and he didn't say anything to me, like, at all, I just shut the door and locked it because I didn't know what to do. And I think he went out, like, the side door, the sliding door in the kitchen that goes out to the backyard. No one knew it

at the time, but that person, wearing all black, would turn out to be Washington State University Ph.D. student Brian Coburger. These selfies of him wearing all black were later extracted from his cell phone. Less than three hours after finding out about the homicides, WSU's police chief, Gary Jenkins, was in touch with Moscow's police chief. Jenkins wrote in a text, I discovered I do not have Tyson's cell number, so if you or Tyson could give me a call, I would appreciate it. Tyson was one of the higher-ups in the department. Fry and Jenkins remained in contact throughout the investigation. By 3 p.m. that afternoon, Chief Jenkins was texting with someone at WSU about posting an alert to students and staff to notify them about the murders

in Moscow. The text alert stated Moscow Police Department investigating homicide near University of Idaho campus not aware of any threat to the WSU Pullman community. Now that person Jason Samson later questioned the information they were putting out to the WSU community. Just after 6 p.m. on November 13th, Samson wrote to Chief Jenkins, both sites updated, quote, Question, given what I have read, how come it is considered not an ongoing threat? Does that mean it doesn't appear random if we knew the evidence? Just curious. Chief Jenkins responded, yes, that's pretty much it. Samson responded, that was for personal knowledge, didn't want details just trying to understand logic in how we sent message.

Chief Jenkins then wrote, I don't know much myself. I have to rely on my contacts at Moscow PD to give me accurate information. While all of this is going on, Brian Koberger, we now know, have been to Costco and a grocery store that day. On November 16th, three days after the murders, Chief Jenkins wrote a letter to students and staff at WSU. It read to the Washington State University Pullman campus community. The deaths this past weekend of four University of Idaho students have shocked and saddened the WSU community. While the case is under active investigation by the Moscow Police Department, few details. have been released about how and why it occurred and who committed these horrific acts. If there were any threat to the public, our department and the Moscow Police Department

would proactively warn the public. However, I have been assured by the Moscow Police Department that based on information from their preliminary investigation, investigators believe this was an isolated, targeted attack, and there is no imminent threat to the community at large. Now this letter was three days into the investigation, and from my review of all the police reports, Moscow PD, they didn't have any suspects. They were investigating people as any department would. There was only one real suspect they came up with, and that person was later eliminated through DNA testing. Meanwhile, the entire time, Brian Koberger was walking around WSU. And after Koberger pleaded guilty and was sentenced, investigators said they could find no connection between him and

any of the victims and they still don't know why he targeted that house on King Road. Nine days after the murders, one concerned parent wrote to WSU with questions. The mother wrote, I have four questions I am needing answers to as soon as possible as to make the best choice for the safety of our daughter. Number one, what is WSU's prevention plan for WSU students? Number two, what is the new safety plan for WSU outside of? Look up while walking and stay vigilant. Number three, What options do students have with WSU to continue the semester if we feel it is unsafe for our student to be there? And number four, how does WSU consider campus slash Pullman safe when the police have been up front that they cannot ensure anyone's safety up in the poloose?

Lastly, with this happening yesterday, it seems that the situation continues to decline in safety. What are WSU's thoughts? As parents, we have not seen much communication from WSU. We do not feel a five-minute, five-mile difference between campuses makes one safe and the other not. The University of Idaho is releasing daily what they are doing for their students and families. We and Boise are being interviewed by the news on if we are going to let our kids go back. It's a hard decision to make when WSU is not supplying information. Thank you for taking the time to answer.

I hope to hear from you before Saturday when our daughter is supposed to return. I appreciate your time and answering my questions. The email was forwarded to an administrator to handle, and that wasn't the only communication WSU received. Here's a voicemail. My daughter's name is, I don't want her returning to Washington State University for the quarter semester because of the situation in Moscow.

And can you please call me back? My name is The suspect has not been apprehended. And my daughter is living in a rental house with five other girls. And what are our options for finishing the semester at home? I absolutely don't feel safe.

And I would like to go with her, but I can't. I really need to. your help and this is the only number I can think of. Thank you so much and please call me back. Now we don't know the date that that voicemail was left, but it had to be before Christmas break. By late November, police had a lead, video of a white car driving around the King Road neighborhood at the time of the murders. The FBI identified it as a white Hyundai Alontera between the years of 2011 and 2013. In fact, two weeks after the murders. This bullo went out to WSU police, Moscow PD and Pullman PD,

asking officers to look for that white Hyundai Allantra. It was marked law enforcement sensitive, do not distribute, and do not stop the vehicle or make contact with the driver. Moscow police didn't really set information to the public until December 6th. They did, however, send it out to those law enforcement agencies as a confidential Bolo saying, call us if you see this. These records from WSU show the university had Brian Koberger's vehicle information on file. In fact, within hours of receiving that Bolo, two WSU officers had searched for it. After Koberger's arrest, Moscow Police Corporal Brett Payne wrote in an affidavit, Washington State University Police Officer Daniel Tiango queried white alantras, registered at WSU as a

result of that query, he located a 2015 white elantra with a Pennsylvania license plate. This vehicle was registered to Brian Koberger. But there is something really peculiar about this, because not only did Tiengo search for this vehicle and find it, we know another officer actually drove to the apartment complex and put his eyes on the vehicle. He saw it, but neither called into the Moscow police to report it. I asked Chief Jenkins about this in July of 2025. Take a look. Ebola went out in November, a couple of weeks after the homicides, to law enforcement only. And there were a couple of Washington State University officers who actually noticed that there was a white Hyundai Alontra owned by Brian Koberger on campus.

It was a different, you know, year than they were looking for. But can you explain to me what happened with that? Because it's mentioned in the probable cause affidavit, but I feel like a lot, there's a lot of confusion about that because people think, oh, well, they were looking at him that early. But that's really not the case, I don't think, because, you know, they then made that a public blow on December 7. Right. The, the, the, BOLO that we got was, I think, identical to the one that eventually went out to the public. But this was on November 28th. They sent a BOLO out to the local law enforcement agencies with a vehicle of interest that they labeled as law enforcement sensitive,

meaning that we should not share it beyond the law enforcement community. And the description of the vehicle was a white Hyundai Alantra with the, between the years of 2011 and 23, And so one of our officers within 16 hours of receiving that BOLO was checking our parking database that includes information about vehicles that have parking permits or that pay to park on campus and found a White Hyundai Allantra that was with Pennsylvania plates registered to Brian Koeberger, but it was a 2015. So the Bolo was very specific about the vehicle make, the vehicle model and the vehicle year parameters and the color. So he didn't submit that as a tip. And then later, that was on graveyard shift. And then later on day shift, one of our officers

was driving around and saw that same vehicle parked in graduate student housing. And again, it was not within the date parameters. So those two officers didn't end up sending that information over to Moscow PD because of the date discrepancy or the model year discrepancy? That's correct. Yeah, it was not sent over to their tip line. So Officer Tiango and Sergeant Whitman, they discovered a white Hyundai Alontra belonging to Coburger on campus two weeks after the murders, and they didn't call it in. Had they called that into Moscow PD, it's possible that Coburger could have been ID as a possible suspect, much earlier. earlier than December 19th when his name came back from the FBI's genetic genealogy testing.

I asked Chris McDonough, host of the interview room, about this recently. Well, I think you and I talked about it, and Jeanette, on a previous show with you. That was, in my opinion, a huge investigative mistake. And it wasn't just a mistake in terms of, yeah, we didn't call it over, okay? The officers did their job. They found the car. They went to the car. Somebody made a command decision that said,

well, don't contact the owner of that car. And then they tied into that decision, in my opinion, a nonsensical excuse for, well, it was the wrong year. Okay. Well, okay, then what did the BOL get correct. We're looking for a white Hyundai in the area, anything in the area, okay, around the

potential time of the crime. We're to presuppose that Washington State University didn't also look for video about that car on the night of the crime in that email. Okay. And so what is the, what's the chief doing, in my opinion. He knows they made not only a huge mistake, but they blew it because they could have had, and I hate to say this about any law enforcement. You know, I'm, you know, I back the blue when we're right, and I also tell it when we're wrong.

That's our responsibility to the public. And this chief owes it to the public and to the family to say, you know what, not only did we make them a mistake, mistake, you're right. We should have gone and knocked on that guy's door who was registered to that vehicle living in that apartment complex because, God forbid, after that night, if he would have killed somebody else, that chief would have been really in big trouble in the long run. And so somebody made a command decision that said, okay, you got the car, you got a car that matches, yeah, is it white? Yeah, where is it? It's here. Okay, find out.

who owns it, interview that person and send it to Moscow. That was the appropriate protocol. We know that after the murders that Brian Koberger was cleaning out his car meticulously, and it was torn apart by the FBI for processing, and they did not find any DNA belonging to the victims in it. So some precious time may have been lost there. After Co-Burger's arrest on December 30th, 2022, Chief Jenkins set an email out about the mention of the officers in the affidavit. The email states the affidavit describes the great work Officer Tiango and Sergeant Whitman did in tracking down a possible suspect vehicle, which was, as it turned out, the suspect vehicle. Note that the timeline for locating the vehicle is not entirely correct in the affidavit. The affidavit indicates that the area law enforcement.

agencies were asked to be on the lookout for the suspect vehicle on November 25th, when in fact, they did not ask for that until the morning of November 28th. Shortly after receiving the email from Moscow PD, I sent out an email with the vehicle description on November 28th at 824 hours, and Tiango queried Coburger's license plate on November 29th at 0.028 hours, approximately 16 hours later, not three days. And Sergeant Whitman observed the vehicle, at Coburger's apartment complex at 0.058 hours on November 29th. Outstanding work. Jenkins then talks about how he's been partnering with all of these departments in the WSU community to work with students and staff to help them with anything they might need. He then writes, from the WSU PD

perspective, we are offering reassurance that we are here for their safety, and we are here to help them with any perceived safety and threats or disruptions, including harassment from the press. As we move from 2022 to 2023, I ask that you all reflect back on this past year, and remember the difficult times this department has endured, and then look at where we are now. You've all proven to be resilient and committed to your profession to WSU, and to WSUPD. We should now all look to embrace opportunities that reframe how others view WSUPD. The difficulties in the past will not define us. It is the great work of Tiango and Whitman that puts WSUPD in a favorable light on a national stage.

It is the professional and disciplined work of the members of the regional SWAT team who did what needed to be done to save lives. Again, it's very possible that Koberger could have been identified as a suspect in late November, had those officers called in the information about the Alantra, despite the difference in the model year. Hours after Coburger's arrest in Pennsylvania on December 30th, 2022, WSU's interim assistant vice president of student affairs wrote this letter to let Coburger know that WSU was issuing an emergency suspension. Jennifer Hyatt wrote that she was imposing an emergency suspension because Coburger had been charged with murdering Kaylee Gonsolvis, Maddie Mogan, Zana Kurnodal, and Ethan Chapin, and had in fact been arrested earlier that morning. Hyatt said,

charged with these crimes was certainly a violation of the standard of conduct for WSU students because the allegations involve abuse of others or disruption or interference with the university community and a violation of the law. Hyatt wrote that Coburger had 10 days to challenge the decision, but we know that didn't happen because he was in jail. On that same date, and with that letter, Coburger was notified that he was barred from returning to campus. Police Chief Jenkins wrote in a trespass admonition. This admonition is to inform you that you have been trespassed from all areas of Washington State University campuses.

This includes all buildings, sidewalks, breezeways, courtyards, access roads, and parking lots, and any other Washington State University campus property. This admonition is effective immediately and will continue until pending student conduct charges have been resolved and you have been given permission in writing to return to campus. Following Coburger's arrest, his father, Michael, actually called the university asking about his son's apartment. Take a listen. Michael Colberger, in reference to Brian Coburger, Brian Christopher Colberger, K-O-H-B-E-R-G-E-R. Our home phone number here is Brian did reside at, what I like to know is about his apartment and the status.

That's number one. Number two, if you cannot answer that question, I understand. if you could redirect us, Brian's phone is not access it or his email. Now, after the arrest, there was also concern that Brian Coburger might still have keys to buildings on campus. Chief Jenkins believed the keys were in Coburgers' apartment, and he was going to try to figure out the best way to get the keys back. A photo of the key Coburger should have had was included in an email. The records from WSU also show, an email that was sent to the school community in January 2023. It stated, the last few months

have been trying and the announcement of the arrest of Brian Christopher Koberger, a former WSU PhD student as a suspect in the depths of four University of Idaho students, has shocked our communities. First and foremost, I want to reiterate my heartfelt sympathies to the families and friends of Ethan, Kaylee, Madison, and Zana. The tremendous loss of these young lives has left all of us deeply saddened. I encourage all of our faculty, staff, and students to take advantage of the support resources available to you listed at the end of this email. If you have concerns about a student's well-being, please share the information with the Student Care Network. I am hopeful that the coming days and weeks will provide all of us with additional answers and information about the nature

of this incident. Over the next few weeks, I anticipate that many members of our Cougar family, particularly those familiar with Mr. Koberger may be contacted by law enforcement, the media, and concerned citizens. I strongly encourage everyone to cooperate with the investigative process as much as they are able. The email also encouraged tips and information to be shared with the Moscow Police Department. Police interviewed faculty, students, and staff at WSU who worked with Koberger. They learned he spoke a lot about his field of study, sexual burglary. He also talked about Ted Bundy and said whoever committed the Moscow murders must have been pretty good. Investigative records showed WSU had received 13 complaints about Koberger,

making students feel uncomfortable, particularly women. The families of the four victims are now suing WSU for wrongful death. WSU has denied any wrongdoing in that lawsuit. Brian Koeberger is serving four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Maddie, Kaley, Ethan, and Zana, in Idaho's maximum security institution that follows his guilty plea in July of 2025. And that does it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.