Law&Crime Sidebar - Idaho Murders: 5 People Who Knew Accused Student Murderer Bryan Kohberger

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

Various people who knew Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger before he was arrested have spoken out about their past interactions with him. The Law&Crime Network's Jesse Weber breaks down five personal accounts from people who knew the accused student murderer.LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&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.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. I used to be friends with Brian Cooper during my middle and high lawyers. And then before anyone comes at me and says that I'm just running for cloud, I'm not. I have pictures that I will show you. I have screenshots. that I will show you. I have a favorable picture that I show you. I went to school with the kid. I was friends with him. I wouldn't make something like this up. I am just an absolute shock right now. We review the accounts of people who know accused killer Brian Coburger. Could their interactions with him?

Tell us something about why he allegedly murdered four University of Idaho students. Welcome to Cybar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Let's talk about Brian Coburger. This is the man who's been charged with four counts of of first-degree murder and felony burglary for allegedly stabbing to death for a university of Idaho students. I'm talking about the killings of 21-year-old Kaylee Gonzalez, 21-year-old

Madison Mogan, 20-year-old Zana Kernotal, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, whose bodies were found in their off-campus home on November 13th. Now that there is a face to this crime, or maybe I should say, an alleged face, something has happened, and it's

something that happens in almost all of the cases that we cover. People who know a suspect come forward and that is what is happening here people who know brian coberger have started speaking out and that's what we want to talk about right now we're going to go over five people or maybe i should say five accounts of people who know brian coberger and their descriptions their interactions with him are very important why because we still don't know why he did this what motivated him what drove a 28 year old phd grad student studying criminology at washington State University to suddenly murder four college students, who, as of right now, seem like

complete strangers to him. There's been no established connection between Coburger and the victims, which just makes this so much more eerie. It doesn't make sense. Now, I say this again, I'll say it, I've said it before, I'll say it again, allegedly did this. He is innocent until proven guilty, but putting that to the side, we're still going to review the accounts of these people and understand a little bit more. Now, I have gone on record, and I have said that even though a lot of information has been disclosed in the probable cause affidavit, the affidavit from police that lists out the evidence that led them to a rescoberger, the DNA, the surveillance footage, the potential eyewitness in the house, the car, the cell phone records, I believe that there is a lot

more that either is known to investigators that hasn't been disclosed, or that there is more that will be learned between now and an eventual trial of Brian Coburger. And one of those critical pieces of evidence that usually comes out later on is the testimony of people who met or interacted with him. Now, I'm not saying that anyone can just testify about Brian Coburger at a trial. There are rules, of course, about what someone can testify to and for what purpose. Is it relevant? Is it overly prejudicial? But at this point, we are still in the investigation stage. We are still in the learning stage. Police are asking people who have information on Brian Koberger to come forward as this investigation continues. And I can't tell you how many times statements that are

made by a defendant, either before a crime is committed or especially after a crime is committed, how many times those end up haunting a defendant at a trial, particularly if they say something while in jail to fellow inmates. Many defense cases have been derailed by loose lips in jail. So of course the question will be, has Koberger said anything or will he say anything to anyone while locked up? And he's seemingly going to be there for a while because as we reported on law and crime, we covered Koberger's status hearing where we learned he will remain in the Laita County Jail without bail as he awaits a preliminary hearing now on June 26. Sir, you do understand and Ms. Taylor has represented here that she's advised you of your right

to have or fully discussed with you the right that you have, which is. to have your preliminary hearing within 14 days of the date that you initially appeared before this court. As you recall, when I advise you of your rights, that hearing is a probable cause hearing or the state has to establish that more likely than not, these felony offenses were committed and you were the one that committed the felony offenses. If you waive your right to a speedy preliminary hearing, it does not mean that you're giving up your right to have a preliminary hearing. It simply means that you would not be able to come back and challenge that the state did not present probable cause within 14 days.

Do you understand? Yes. Have you had enough time to speak with Ms. Taylor about your decision to waive your right to a speedy preliminary hearing? Yes. Do you need any additional time to do so? No. Then I will ask at this time, as to the five counts, felony counts that were charged

in the criminal complaint that was filed in December 29th of 2022, are you waiving your right to a speedy preliminary hearing and agreeing that that hearing can be held outside the 14-day period. Yes. Okay, so let's get into the people that know Coburger, and we're going to start with Josh Ferraro. So Josh Ferraro actually went to school with Brian Coburger.

And as the news broke about Coburger's arrest, Ferraro went on TikTok and explained this. Guys, what's going on, Josh Ferraro here? I went to college with Brian Coburger. I've been looking at his picture all day. I've been saying the name all day in my head. And I was like, I know this guy. I know this guy.

And then he went to the sales university. I'm like, I know I had a class with him. I know it. I know it. The name sounds so familiar. And he looked very familiar. But I just couldn't, I couldn't put a point on it. And he lost so much weight.

When I knew him, he was a pudgy guy. He was really friendly. He led my biology project at DeSales University. and he was a pretty smart guy and he was interested in criminal justice and I remember having classes with him and for this guy to do that is beyond me. I mean, he was a really nice guy

and he does not look like that nice guy anymore. I mean, the guy that I'm seeing on the news looks like a cold-blooded killer. The guy that I went to college with, that dude was nice. He was a nice guy. We studied criminal justice together. He was a real,

really nice guy. And I'm devastated and heartbroken that I knew this guy and that he did this. I'm devastated for those families. I never thought that it would be someone close to home. From the Lehigh Valley at the Salis University.

And here is the biology project. And from 2018 we are studying Daphnea. And how it if there he is and he led this project 11, 16, 18

Now I want to make it clear I This was not a close friend This was a guy I did a project with And my first impression of him was He's a little odd but he's a nice guy You know Does not stand out

But you know Is it is a He blended in Like he was a pretty normal guy and he does not look like a normal guy now. He looks so skinny and so threatening. It's, I'm shocked. And this is not uncommon in these kinds of cases, right?

That shock. You know someone that's accused of committing a heinous crime. It comes out of left field. We see it all the time on the trials that we cover on long crime. People cannot believe that the defendant is accused of doing what he or she is accused of doing. But what is very interesting is how he explains that Coburger was this nice, normal guy. So as we try to understand what may have led Coburger to allegedly do this, you have to wonder, was Coburger always harboring these feelings? Or did something happen?

Was there a change? Was there a snap? The weight loss is notable, too, because there have been reports from people who went to high school with Coburger that he was overweight and that he was bullied, but then dramatically lost a ton of. of weight and he doesn't look the same as he used to. And it's been reported that Coburger was a drug addict back in the day that he abused heroin. In fact, a former friend of Coburgers also took to TikTok to talk about her experience with the accused killer. She called me and asked me about the murders. I didn't know where she was going with it until she said that it was Brian Coburger and naturally I freaked out and called about eight of my friends. My brother was really, you know,

good friends with him. My other friend, Brandon, was really good friends with him. I'm going to have a picture of him with him on the green screen as well. I'm shaking still. But anyway, let me show you. This is back. This is Brandon. The one I was talking about. It's his wife, Mariana. That's me. This is back in 2017. Obviously, that's Brian. Still has the dead face that it's thighs. I don't know. But when I spoke to him back in 2017, he was clean. He was a heavy heroin user back in high school, and it was just nice to see the kid clean up. And at that time, he said he was doing security detail. I believe it was out of school is what he told me. But he seemed like he was better. Obviously, that wasn't true. Here's another picture from a party that we had at Brandon's house. That's Brian there.

He used to be a bigger kid as well. But again, that's him. At the same wedding, I'm here, but he's back there. He was sitting at the same table as me and my mother, but he is back there enjoying a drink. I was sitting right next to him. We talked. He seemed fine. My mom sent me the old school year book.

That was him. Brian Coburger, that's him. He went to Pleasant Valley. I graduated with, I think, my friend Christopher, a year older. Sorry, younger than me. This is when he nonchalantly decided to make me drive. him around the polka no one and i had no idea i thought i was just doing a nice d because he needed something and it turns out that he was getting heroin now like mr ferraro it is important in this

case for her to show the receipt she's showing the evidence that she actually knows coburger with pictures and text messages text messages because in high profile cases like these there are those who might claim that they know him and they really don't but so far these are people who said that they only knew him as a nice kid. Maybe he had some problems. He looked like he had a normal look. Maybe he had these dead eyes. But then he never said or didn't anything to indicate to them that he would commit a quadruple homicide. So that brings me now to someone else. Someone who had a strange encounter with Coburg or before the killings. A woman has come forward and indicated that she went on a date with Brian Coburg. Now this is 26 year old, now 26 year old, Haley Willett. And she told

the Daily Beast that she went on a date with Koeberger in 2015 when she was in college. They met on Tinder. They went to the movies. And then after the movies, according to her, things got weird. She says he drove her back to her dorm and she says, quote, started being really pushy about coming up to her room. So she lets him up and said that while he was, quote, very polite and nice on the date, he quote completely changed gears she said quote definitely felt uncomfortable when he decided he needed to wait outside of the bathroom from me so she ends up pretending like she's throwing up in the

bathroom and he ultimately leaves and then later on in the night he messages her that she has good birthing hips and they never speak again i was so lucky that i was never her i was never raped um by anyone I went on a Tinder date with. However, it could have been me. I could have been the one hurt. I could have been killed. I could have been raped. And I did not take any precautions to prevent that from happening to me.

So I am very fortunate that none of that happened to me. Obviously, her account is eerie, and she describes very odd behavior. And look, I don't think that this is someone who would testify in Koberger's trial. I don't think that what she has to say is particularly relevant that ties to the killings. Why this is interesting is because it goes back to Koberger's psyche. You see, according to reporting by several outlets, Koberger was bullied in high school by girls and that he would act creepy towards women. In fact, NBC News reported that according to the owner of a brewery, which Koberger had frequented,

female employees would complain about it. He would sit by himself and he would observe and he would watch and he would ask women who were at the bar who they were there with and where they lived. And if they refused to engage with him, he would allegedly get visibly upset. Now, I will tell you, I am no criminal profiler in any sense. But in a case where you have three young women savagely murdered along with a boyfriend of one of them and the cell phone evidence indicating that he was near the crime scene 12 times. prior to the night of the murder and maybe was stalking them, you have to wonder, did he have some particular hatred towards women, an obsession, was something a trigger for him? If you go back to the probable cause affidavit, it states that DM, who is one of the surviving

roommates, thought that she heard crying coming from Kurnodal's room, and then she said she heard a male voice saying, quote, it's okay, I'm going to help you. We don't know if this was what was actually said. We don't know if this was even Kohlberger, but now that we are learning more of his backstory and the way he allegedly behaved towards women, taking this statement is true that does make you wonder what may have happened here. I am completely shocked, but rotten hell, if it was you. Okay, now let's get into the people that not only know Brian Koeberger, but those that have come forward and said he either made strange comments. comments to them or acted differently after the killings. First, we have a neighbor of Coburgers who spoke with CBS News.

Now, this neighbor claims that only a few days after the killings, when all of us had very limited information about the crime, Coburger allegedly, quote, asked if this neighbor had heard about the murders, and then Coburger allegedly said, quote, yeah, it seems like they have no leads. seems like it was a crime of passion. So, of course, the question is, why would Koberger say that? Why would he say that at that point, making conclusions based on information that maybe only the killer would know?

Now, you could say, well, this story went viral. Everyone across the nation was following it. Everyone was coming up with theories as to what happened, even with a lack of information, especially people online. So is it a big deal that Koberger said this? would say in and of itself probably no. But do not be surprised if this neighbor is subpoenaed to testify in an upcoming trial. I think you couple that statement with the other evidence, the DNA, the cell phone, the car, the surviving roommate account. Statements like these

could add up to be very bad for Brian Koberger, just part of the prosecution's case. This is important because as I mentioned, defendants slip up. They say things that they shouldn't say. They do things that they shouldn't do. They make statements at the time that could be benign, but now looking back, could be highly incriminating. And that is what I believe the prosecution needs next in this case. In fact, the prosecution is looking for more information about Koberger in building their case against him. Did he say something? Did he do something? In fact, here is Laita County prosecutor, Bill Thompson, asking for help from the public after police arrested Koberger. This is not the end of this investigation. In fact, this is a

new beginning. Y'all now know the name of the person who has been charged with these offenses. Please get that information out there. Please ask the public anyone who knows about this individual to come forward, call the tip line, report anything you know about him to help the investigators and eventually our office and the court system understand fully everything there is to know about not only the individual, but what happened and why. And by the way, and Jeanette Levy, my co-host here on Sidebar, actually spoke with another one of Koeberger's neighbors, too.

Did you ever hear anything up there or anything like that? Yeah, we heard, you know, we heard loud sounds during the night. Yeah. A lot of many times. Yeah. Not just one sentence. So it seemed like he's a night person, not do a lot of things during the day, but during night, he got active. Right.

to like clean the flaw sometimes it's vacuum it's very loud sounds yeah yeah it's that's that's the thing you know I keep telling the journalists and reporters that is what you heard from the upstairs yeah but it was just he was a night person vacuuming or whatever yeah yeah even sometimes like in the bathroom wash and very late it's a Not like what was a regular time. Yeah. Very late night he would do this kind of stuff. Yeah.

So we cut stuff, yeah, and many times. Did you ever ask him to quiet down or anything? I actually wanted, but I didn't try. Yeah. Once when I met him, we just see, Hello. I just want to see, could you please keep it quiet because we'll wake up during night and have kids in it. But I didn't do that.

I think maybe because he doesn't move. because he doesn't move to move to in August, maybe he needs time to get used to. Sure. In keeping with this theme of people who know Koberger, let's finish it off with his classmates at Washington State University.

So I'll say this is not, you know, the fifth person to come out, but this is more a fifth account we'll talk about. So the Idaho statesman interviewed two classmates, and they indicated that they had several classes with Koberger and explained how Koeberger would talk during every class. He would participate. He was very vocal. He was social. Ben Roberts, a criminal justice grad student, said, quote, he seemed gregarious and alcohol. That was really the only impression

that I got. He was making the rounds. He definitely seemed a little more eager than some of the others that were present to go around and introduce himself. Another classmate, who chose to remain anonymous, explained, quote, Brian only talked about his interest in forensic psychology. He was an incredibly strong student and talked during class every time. He sat front and center and was not hiding or tucking back in the back. They go on to say he was right there in the middle of it. Now, this is consistent with what we know about Brian Coburger and that he had this interest in criminology. In fact, in the probable cause affidavit, it indicated that Coburger applied for an internship with a police department. And also, he curiously posted a Reddit

survey that asked participants to provide information to, quote, understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime. Now, there has been speculation, and there have been theories that his interest in crime and murder and the feeling and psychology behind it is maybe what drove him to commit these killings. Perhaps he wanted to know what it felt like to kill. obviously we don't know but the observations from his classmates may further that narrative now here is what is key according to this classmate of coburgers this social talkative energetic guy quote became completely silent when it came to discussing the idaho murders i could be wrong

but again don't be surprised if these classmates end up testifying against bryan co2 Berger in a larger trial. And don't also be surprised as time goes on if more people come forward to discuss their interactions with Brian Koberger as well. And that's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber.

I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.