Law&Crime Sidebar - Idaho Student Murders Suspect Arrested: Everything We Know So Far

Episode Date: December 31, 2022

Nearly seven weeks after four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their college home, police announced the arrest of 28-year-old Bryan Christopher Kohberger. Kohberger now faces extradition after being charged with four counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. The Law&Crime Network's Angenette Levy breaks down everything we know so far with veteran homicide detective Fil Waters and retired FBI Agent Bobby Chacon.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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that 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. Detective's arrested 28-year-old Brian, Christopher Colberger in Albrightville, Pennsylvania. On a warrant for murder of Ethan, Zana, Madison, and Kaylee. Nearly seven weeks after Kaylee Gonzalez, Maddie Mogan, Zana Kurnodal, and Ethan Chapin were found murdered in a home near the University of Idaho campus, an arrest is made. I'm Ann Janette Levy, and welcome to Law and Crime's Sidebar podcast. We have a special breaking news edition of the podcast for you today. The man who is under arrest is Brian Coburger. He is

charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary for entering the King Road home back in the early morning hours of November 13th and murdering Kaylee Gonsolvis, Maddie Mogan, Zana Kurnodal, and Ethan Chapin. Coburger is a 28-year-old PhD student at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, and that's really just a short distance away from Moscow, Idaho, where the murders occurred. It's about a 10-mile drive, 15 minutes to get there. He was getting is Ph.D. in criminal justice and criminology. Coburger was arrested earlier Friday morning at his home in Pennsylvania and booked into the Monroe County Jail he is being held without bail. And joining me to discuss this development is retired Houston homicide detective extraordinaire, Phil Waters, and

retired FBI agent Bobby Chacon. Phil and Bobby, welcome to Sidebar. Thanks to both of you for coming on. Phil, I'll start with you. Your thoughts. Well, I'd have to tell you, first of all, kudos to the Moscow police department, those detectives, the chief, state police and the FBI guys and all the people that helped process that evidence that's brought us to this day. This is the day we've all been looking forward to, so forward to. So I would say first kudos to those folks. Bobby, I'm thinking the FBI was involved in this arrest. There was some reporting out there that they've been tracking this guy for several days. Briefly, your thoughts. Yeah, I mean, first of all, it was great police work, lightning fast for a quadruple homicide investigation of this complexity. I mean, a lot of

people on the internet were chiding the police for moving slow. They didn't move slow. This was an amazingly fast investigation, and they got their man, as I kind of thought they would. I think that, you know, they, my reading is that they've been tracking him for a couple of days, probably likely trying to get a DNA sample, you know, like we saw in the Golden State Killer case where they followed the Angelo around for a few days to try to get some item that he touched or he drank from from his trash or from something else and match the DNA profile that they had. they did that extensive crime scene in that house. That took time to get all those blood samples separated and then develop a DNA profile.

And now that I think they have it, because, you know, part of this is a DNA genetic match to some of the material in the house. So now if you have him in that house, you have his DNA in or around the victims, I think, you know, they've got their man. Search warrants are being executed at both the apartment where Coburger lived in Pullman, Washington and at the home where he was arrested in Pennsylvania. So the white Hyundai Allantra was a clue. It was something that really seemed to break this investigation wide open. The police chief today was asked whether or not, A, they had found the white Alantra, and B, the murder weapon. Briefly, this is what he had to say. So we are still looking for all pieces of evidence, but we are still looking for the weapon.

And I will say that we have found an elatra. Bobby, I asked Moscow PD point blank yesterday on Thursday, did you find the white Elantra? And I got the same canned response that they were making progress. But we know that the arrest paperwork was filed under seal in Lataw County on Thursday. Did you think that the white Hyundai Alantra here was key? And what is the possibility of recovering the murder weapon? Well, first, I think the Alontera was key. And you kind of got that feeling when they were really saying people in this car have vital information. You know, they

really wanted this car. It wasn't just a couple of different vehicles. There was one very specific vehicle. They saw it on video. There weren't many other cars in the area moving around that night. So I think they really, really knew that that was a crucial piece. And I think they probably have the Elantra. He probably drove it back to

Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, I think that long drive from Idaho to Pennsylvania, he had ample opportunity to ditch that murder weapon, which is probably a large knife, in any number of places. And that's a thousands of miles of roadway. There's probably lots of bodies of water. I ran the FBI dive team for a number of years. You know, a lot of people like to ditch things over bridges and water. It could be anywhere unless he gives them some kind of indication of where

he deposited that murder weapon or unless he made a really amateur mistake in putting it somewhere where they'll find it, it's going to be difficult. But that's not crucial. I don't think they need particularly the murder weapon in this case to get a conviction. Phil, there was a post on Reddit that some people found where Brian Koberger, when he was getting his masters, was soliciting people on Reddit, criminals and things to talk about their thoughts and feelings, things like that. It appears this is a legitimate post and his Reddit account has now been suspended. Your thoughts on somebody who is a criminology and criminal justice PhD and with this creepy survey on Reddit being accused of these crimes. Well, this is all going to be part of a huge big psychological puzzle for

this guy. I don't know when I was investigating homicide that we would do a psychological profile or a psychological autopsy on the person that was our suspect. And this is all going to be part of a huge puzzle for this for this character. I think it's interesting that he has got this background in criminal justice, so forth and so on. So you wonder if maybe the answers will come out is that a lot of this was just a progression of events that he wanted to see if he could get away with a crime like this. And he became fascinated with the workings and the mechanics. of this type of an event is kind of a strange and looking at the guy's picture into his eyes. I mean, I've looked into the eyes of evil before and I've got to say that just the picture

appears to me that he's kind of above at all at this point. He's not remorseful in any way. He's a little bit arrogant as a matter of fact. And he's he's kind of waiting to see that now, okay, the story is that. Let's see what these police officers do. And to what Bobby was talking about, you know, they're doing the due diligence. They're executing search warrants at his apartment and Pullman. I'm assuming they're going to execute a search warrant at the parents' house in Pennsylvania on the vehicle itself. And they'll be executing search warrants on the cell phone if they got one. I agree with Bobby.

I don't know that it's important necessarily in the string of evidence to get the murder weapon. It would be nice icing on the cake. But he may be one of these guys that he may have kept it as a trophy. So we'll just have to see how that plays out. When police announced the arrest at a press conference on Friday afternoon, they were notoriously tight-lipped. I felt like they almost wanted to tell us, but they say that they can't. And they've played everything close to the vest the entire time. They've been very tight-lipped, which led to a lot of complaints.

Let's listen to Lataw County prosecutor Bill Thompson, talk about the next steps in this case and why he says they can't tell us anything right now. There is a pending case now in court. and I in my office and the investigators have to live with the restrictions that are a Supreme Court places on pretrial publicity. That said, I promise you we will share with you through the court process or otherwise whatever we are allowed to. I just appreciate your patience on that. The factual basis for the charges are summarized in what's called a probable cause affidavit that is on file with the court. according to the rules of the Idaho Supreme Court that is sealed until Mr. Colberger is physically back in Laetoc County and has been served with the Idaho arrest warrant.

At that time, we expect that that affidavit will be available to you. So you can share the true facts with all of your readers and your watchers and your listeners and all the people who are interested and really need to know what's going on. Bobby, the prosecutor, Bill Thompson, said, we can't release the complaint in the affidavit until this guy is back in Idaho, until Brian Koberger has been extradited and he served with the paperwork. So it's been very frustrating for everybody to not have that information, but it seems like to me that they're dotting all the eyes and crossing all of the teas. Yeah, and I'm sure you're right that they want to tell us what they've

had because they've worked really hard in this case and they've done a really great job. And they've been nothing but, you know, tried it on the internet by amateur sleuths who think they can do it better. And And the police are making all these mistakes, which is ridiculous. And so I think they want to come out and show the fruits of their labors. They're very, very intense labors over the past six weeks. And I think that, you know, and they'll have every right to be lauded and applauded for the work that they've done. Because like I said, this is a lightning fast investigation in a quadruple homicide

homicide with a very complex crime scene. So I think they want to say it. They want it to come out. But as the prosecutor said, everybody's going to hold the reins. We will not get every answer when that affidavit is unsealed. It's a very minimal document. They just put enough in there to meet the probable cause threshold. So I think that there'll be still more questions, but that'll come out in the pretrial hearings

and ultimately at the trial if he does go to trial. And Phil, I'm wondering if that probable cause affidavit, Bobby is saying he thinks there's just enough in there to get over the probable cause hurdle. But I've seen some affidavits where they were pretty lengthy and laid out a lot of detail. Well, Bobby is correct. That's all an affidavit is. It's probable cause. Sometimes the case itself will determine the amount of probable cause, but the prosecution is not going to divulge all of their evidence in a probable cause affidavit.

They're going to be keeping that back and they just want enough in there to do that. Now, there may be a little bit more in this affidavit than normal because of the circumstances, but for them to hold back, whatever they're holding back, of course they want to tell us, however, look, the whole point now is that we have a successful prosecution. And the death penalty case, death penalty is on the table in this case. These prosecutors are not going to do anything that's going to compromise the ultimate outcome of this successful outcome of this prosecution. Brian Coburger is being held in the Monroe County Jail in Pennsylvania awaiting extradition. There's a hearing on January 3rd about that. And he, as I said, is being held without bond, four counts of first degree murder. And I speak, I think, for all of us when I say our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims at this time.

because this has to be a relief for them, but also it won't bring their loved ones back, sadly. Bobby and Phil, thank you so much for being on. Thank you. Happy new year, Enjointed. Happy new year. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. It is produced by Sam Goldberg and Michael Dininger. Bobby Zoki is our YouTube manager.

Alyssa Fisher handles our bookings and Kiera Bronson does our social media. You can download and listen to Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. and, of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and we will see you next time.