Murder: True Crime Stories - MYSTERIOUS DEATH: Idaho Murders

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

In November 2022, four University of Idaho students — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin — were stabbed to death inside their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, after a night out with friends. For weeks, the case gripped the nation as investigators traced a circling white Hyundai Elantra and a lone DNA clue to criminology PhD student Bryan Kohberger. In this episode of Murder: True Crime Stories, Carter Roy describes the crime, the arrest, the trial, the guilty plea followed, and the questions that still remain. Head over to our Murder True Crime Stories YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@MurderTrueCrimeStories If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Murder True Crime Stories to never miss a case! For Ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios YouTube: @murdertruecrimestories To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, listeners, it's Carter Roy. Real quick before today's episode of Murder True Crime Stories, I want to tell you about another show from Crime House that I know you'll love, America's Most Infamous Crimes. Hosted by Katie Ring, each week, Katie takes on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night, and investigations that change the way. we think about justice. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes, Tuesday through Thursday

on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is Crimehouse. There's a kind of comfort we all rely on. The idea that when you come home at night, close the door behind you and turn on the lights, whatever's out there stays out there. In November of 2022, in the college town of Moscow, Idaho, five students shared a house just off campus. It was busy, social, and constantly in motion. People coming and going, late nights that all started to feel the same. That night followed the same pattern. They went out with friends, made their way home, and eventually drifted off to sleep,

expecting the next day to be like any other. By morning, their house was a crime scene. Four of them had been killed, not quietly, not quickly. Inside, there were clear signs of a struggle. Evidence that at least some of them had woken up, had realized what was happening, and had tried to fight back. And yet, from the outside,

there was no obvious sign of how anyone had gotten in. What followed was confusion, then fear. Students left town. Parents pulled their kids from campus, and investigators were left trying to piece together a case that seemed to defy explanation. There were fragments, surveillance footage, a car that kept appearing near the house in the early morning hours,

the timeline that raised as many questions as it answered, and slowly the possibility emerged that this hadn't been random at all. An arrest would eventually come. Someone would plead guilty and be sentenced. But even now, when you look closely at what happened inside that house, some parts of this story still don't sit right. This is the Idaho College murders. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon.

and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories, a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. New episodes come out every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Thank you for being part of the Crimehouse community. Please rate, review, and follow the show. And for ad-free access to every episode, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Welcome back to another episode of Murder Mystery Friday. where I'm covering cases with questions that I can't get out of my head, the ones where the evidence points in multiple directions, and every theory feels like a possibility. Today I'm revisiting a case I've covered before, but I just can't let go of. The Idaho College murders. Not only is it heartbreaking, but it's bizarre too. In November of 2022, four college students in the small town of Moscow, Idaho were killed inside their off-campus home after a night out with friends. Inside, investigators found signs of a struggle,

evidence that at least some of them had woken up and tried to fight back. And yet from the outside, there was nothing that clearly explained how the killer got in. For weeks, the case remained a mystery. The details that did emerge only made things more unsettling, leaving a community on edge and investigators under pressure. An arrest would eventually come, followed by a plea agreement and sentencing. But even now, when you take a closer look at what happened, some of the most important questions remain unanswered. All that and more coming up.

Before the crime scene, tape and the flashing lights appeared on King Road, there were four college students just trying to figure out who they were going to be. They laughed too loudly and stayed up too late. They had favorite coffee orders, inside jokes, and weekend plans. This is where their story really begins. And this is how they should be remembered. For Madison Mogan or Maddie, as her friends called her, the University of Idaho was an important stepping stone.

She was raised in Cordoise, just 90 minutes north of the university. Her parents, Karen and Scott, said she was the kind of girl who made friends the second she walked into a room. She was funny, bright, and endlessly loyal. When Maddie graduated high school in 2019, she moved to Moscow for college with plans to major in marketing. She was a little nervous, but excited to be on her own. Most of all, she was excited to join a sorority on campus. Maddie's first choice was Alpha Phi. Her second choice was Pi Beta Phi. After a week of meeting all the girls, girls in the different sorority houses, it was time for Maddie to learn where she'd spend the next four years.

She ripped open her envelope and looked inside. It said, Pi Beta Phi, otherwise known as Pi Phi Phi. Maddie was disappointed. Alpha Phi was considered a top house on campus. Pi Phi was not. But she didn't let her true motion show. She ran to the Pi Beta Phi House with her new sisters, all smiles. And once she was there, she threw herself into sorority life. She even used her marketing skills to help promote Pi-Fi on social media. She wanted them to be a top house too. She was so good at it.

The sorority asked her to manage their official Instagram account. It was impressive, but the rejection still stung, especially because Maddie's best friend, Kaylee Gonzalez, had come to the University of Idaho and gone through the sorority recruitment process. with her. But Kaylee had gotten into Alpha Feet. It was the first time since sixth grade that they'd ever done anything apart. For most of their lives, where you saw one, you saw the other. Kaylee had the bigger personality. She was a bit of a jokester, always recording funny videos of herself for social media. Maddie was quieter, but just as confident. Together, they balanced each other out perfectly.

Their families joked that they were like sisters who just happened to have different last names. Real sisters, not sorority ones. But when they joined separate houses, Kaylee and Maddie had to make new friends on their own for the first time. But then COVID hit their sophomore year and everything changed. The girls moved back home to northern Idaho, where they were both from. By the time they got back to campus, things felt different. They weren't as jazzed about sorority life as they used to be. They didn't like the rules and restrictions.

And they didn't want to live in their sorority houses anymore. So the summer before senior year in 2022, they moved in together. By then, 21-year-old Kaylee was about to graduate a semester early. She just landed a job with an IT company in Texas. Maddie, also 21, was still finishing her degree in marketing. But she was incredibly proud of her best friend for already getting her foot in the door. And she would soon follow in her footsteps and strike out on her own. According to Maddie's boyfriend, she wanted to explore the world.

But Maddie knew that no matter what they did or how many miles were between them, nothing would ever separate her and Kaylee. And in the meantime, they were determined to have a great senior year, especially now that they lived off campus. Their house at 1122 King Road was a rental with five bedrooms. The entrance was on the ground floor, which had two bedrooms. There was another bedroom in the basement below and two more upstairs. And that's where Maddie and Kaylee lived.

Kaylee also brought along her golden doodle, Murphy, who she shared with her ex-boyfriend. Besides that, there were three other women who lived there. Bethany Funk was in the basement while Dylan Mortensen and Zana Kernodal were on the ground floor. 20-year-old Zana was majoring in marketing and working part-time at a local restaurant. She was also one of Maddie's sorority sisters in Pi-Fi. Friends described her as funny, sharp, and refreshingly herself. She was the group's de facto DJ, and she didn't care much for appearances. She'd show up to a party in an oversized sweatshirt, hair and a messy bun, no makeup, and still steal the show.

Unlike the other women in the house, Zana didn't have any specific plans for the future when she came to the University of Idaho. But things had been slowly shifting for her. She was dating a guy named Ethan Chapin. The 20-year-old was majoring in recreation, sport, and tourism management. They'd met at a frat party the year before. It wasn't instant fireworks, but they ran in the same circles, we're always hanging out together, and their connection just grew naturally. Zana had just spent the summer with his family, and now he was spending almost every night at the King Roadhouse with her.

Ethan was a triplet, born just minutes apart from his brother Hunter and his sister, Maisie. They'd grown up in Mount Vernon in Washington State, and had been incredibly close their entire. our lives. So when it came time for college, they all decided to go to the University of Idaho together. Ethan and Hunter joined Sigma Kai, and that's actually how Ethan met Zana at a party hosted by his frat. And while he and his brother were both tall, athletic and easygoing, Ethan stood out as the kind of guy who could make anyone feel welcome. His siblings said he was magnetic and a natural leader. when his parents, Jim and Stacey, came to visit for parents' weekend in early November 2022. They were thrilled to see how well their kids had adjusted to college life.

They tailgated at the football game, met their kids' friends, and spent time with Zana. It was clear that she and Ethan were getting serious. As they left Moscow to drive back home, Stacy turned to Jim and said she felt proud. like they'd made it through the hardest part of raising their kids, and now they were all thriving. But just one week later, all of that would change. And four young lives, full of promise and plans, would come to a devastating end.

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Like actually effortless. Simply press, brew, and explore. Nispresso, what else? Keep exploring at nespresso.com. Think about some of the cases that defined true crime in America. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, the Karen retrial. Some crime cases are so shocking, they don't just make headlines they forever change a country. I'm Katie Rang, host of America's most infamous crimes. Each week,

I take on one of the most notorious criminal cases, whether it's unfolding now or etched into American history, revealing not just what happened, but how it forever changed our society. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that kept detectives up at night, and investigations that change the way we think about justice. Each case unfolds across multiple episodes, released every Tuesday through Thursday, from the first sign that something was wrong to the moment the truth came out or didn't. These are the stories behind the headlines. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes available now wherever you get your podcast. November 12th, 2022 was a Saturday in Moscow, Idaho.

That evening, the University of Idaho's football team played a home game. and the students were out in full force, tailgating all day before the game. Even after the team lost, the party didn't stop. That night, music spilled from fraternity houses, and the streets were alive with clusters of students walking from one party to the next. At 1122 King Road, all five roommates got ready to go out and join the fun. Kaley and Maddie headed to a local sports bar called The Corner Club. It was a long time Moscow staple with neon lights and affordable drinks.

Zana met up with Ethan, and they went to a party at Sigma Kai just a few blocks away. They danced the night away amongst friends. Dylan and Bethany went out separately. They were doing their own thing, but they said they would probably end up at the Sigma Kai party. After they'd gotten their fill of the corner club, Kaylee and Maddie wanted a late-night snack, So they stopped by a popular food truck called the Grub Truck. For some reason, the Grub Truck live streamed their late night rush on Twitch. So anyone who came to order was caught on camera.

And anyone could tune in online and watch if they wanted to. Kaley and Maddie showed up around 1.30 a.m. The live stream didn't capture their audio, but they were seen smiling and chatting with each other. then at one point a man in a hoodie appeared nearby they chatted for a bit then turned and walked away a few seconds later he followed in their direction the exchange would become a point of contention later but for now Kaylee and Maddie called an Uber and went home meanwhile Zana and Ethan continued to party but around 1.45 a.m., they decided to call it a night and head home. Dylan and Bethany, who also stopped by the party, got back to the house soon after.

By about 2 a.m., all five roommates, plus Ethan, were back under the same roof. The lights inside the King Roadhouse flicked off one by one. Outside, the rest of the town was winding down. Normal, except for one thing. Around 3.30 a.m., a white Hyundai Alontera began appearing on security cameras from nearby homes. It drove past the King Roadhouse once, then again, and again. Over the next half hour, it circled the block several times before finally stopping near the home. Inside, Zana was still awake, hungry after a night of drinking, she ordered DoorDash. The delivery guy arrived around 4 a.m.

off her order at the front door. She took it back to her room on the ground floor where Ethan was already asleep and began scrolling through TikTok. She didn't hear when minutes later the sliding glass door in the kitchen opened and a masked figure stepped inside. The intruder moved quietly through the house. He went right to the stairs heading to the second floor where Maddie and Kaylee were cuddled together in Maddie's bed. Meanwhile, on the ground floor, Dylan stirred when she heard a sound. She thought it must have been Kaylee playing with her dog upstairs, but then she heard something else. Kaylee's voice saying softly, there's someone here. Dylan cracked open her bedroom door, listening. She didn't see anyone, so she closed it again, assuming she'd imagined it. She couldn't have known

that just above her, the intruder had unsheathed a knife and was stabbing Maddie and Kaylee to death. Back in her room, Dylan heard more strange noises than a man's voice say, it's okay, I'm going to help you. Dylan opened her door again just a crack, but still she didn't see anything. She was thoroughly freaked out at that point, especially when she heard crying. She thought it might be Zana and then there was a thud. After that, Kaylee's dog, Murphy, started barking upstairs. So Dylan looked out her door a third time. That was when she saw him. A masked man dressed in black walking toward her. The only distinguishing feature she noticed was his bushy eyebrows and his height, roughly five feet, ten inches. She froze in panic,

It seemed like the intruder hadn't noticed her. He walked right past her room, down the hallway, toward the sliding glass door in the kitchen. Dylan couldn't make sense of it. What was going on? She went back into her bedroom, locked her door, and grabbed her phone. She started texting her roommates. Nothing from Kaylee or Maddie or Zana or Ethan.

The only person who responded was Bethany, who was in the basement bedroom. Dylan told her she'd seen someone in a ski mask and that she was terrified. Bethany said she hadn't heard anything but told Dylan to run to her room. So Dylan did. She and Bethany huddled together for the next few hours. Later that morning, Bethany and Dylan still hadn't heard back from any of their roommates, so Dylan reached out to some friends for help. Hunter Johnson and his girlfriend, Emily Alon.

Dylan said something weird had happened during the night, and she was scared. She asked if they could come check out the house. Apparently this wasn't the first time Dylan had called her friends in a panic. But in the past, it had been for small things, like a strange noise, that ended up just being a pan falling off a shelf. So even though Dylan sounded frightened, Hunter and Emily weren't super alarmed. Still, they agreed to come by. Hunter arrived at the house first, just ahead of Emily and a few other friends who had come with them.

Dylan and Bethany met them outside and waited while Hunter went in. He headed straight to Zana's room. What he saw made him sick to his stomach. Zana and Ethan lay lifeless with what appeared to be stab wounds. He searched for a pulse but felt nothing. Hunter was in shock, but he still wanted to protect his friends, so he turned back and told the others that someone needed to call 911 because there was an unconscious person in the house. He didn't say what he already knew to be true. Zana and Ethan were dead.

Within minutes of receiving the call from 1122 King Road, officers from the Moscow Police Department arrived. They were followed by the Idaho State Police Forensic Team. Inside, they discovered four bodies. But outside, no one told the group of friends waiting in the driveway what had really happened. As far as the friends knew, only Zana and Ethan had been targeted. After the officers realized the scope of the violence, they called for backup. Corporal Brett Payne from the Moscow Police Department was brought in to help secure and processed the scene. Officer Smith, one of the first responders, walked him through the

house. They started on the second floor in Zana's bedroom. Zana lay on the floor with what appeared to be stab wounds. Ethan was nearby with similar injuries. Both were dead. Then Payne followed Smith upstairs to the third floor where Kaylee's dog Murphy was unharmed. But the horror was in the next Mady's bedroom. Kaylee and Maddie were in the bed together with visible stab wounds. Next to them, Corporal Payne noticed something that would soon become key evidence. A tan leather, K-bar military-style hunting knife sheaf, embossed with a Marine Corps insignia. Outside, the police taped off the scene, the friends gathered on the sidewalk began to realize that something truly terrible had happened.

Then at 104 p.m., the University of Idaho sent out a campus alert that there was an ongoing homicide investigation on King Road. It warned other students to stay away and shelter in place. Then, not long after that, a second alert followed. This time it confirmed that four people were dead. The group outside the King Road House struggled to process what they were reading. No one from law enforcement had told them anything. And now they were learning from a university text message that four of their friends had been murdered. In the same house,

some of them had slept in that night. It didn't feel real. The friends got in touch with Ethan's siblings, Hunter, and Maisie and told them the news. The two surviving triplets were the ones who had to call their parents and tell them that Ethan was gone. Their mom had been grocery shopping when they called, and she couldn't understand what they were telling her at first, but she knew one thing. Whatever had happened, she and her husband needed to get to the campus right away. They needed to be there for their kids. So they started the six-hour drive to Moscow. Meanwhile, the news reached Zana's sister, who was studying at Washington State University. university 10 miles away, she called their father.

She didn't tell him the details over the phone. She just told him to come to Moscow. In northern Idaho, Kaylee and Maddie's families were both starting to get concerning messages from the girl's friends, but no one could get a hold of either Kaylee or Maddie. So Kaylee's parents called Maddie's mom to see if she knew what was going on. she said she was already on her way to the campus she promised to bring both girls home once she found them the confusion lasted until late afternoon when police finally confirmed the worst for the families all four of their kids had been killed and no one knew why as the families

tried to process everything corporal pain began interviewing anyone who might help fill in the blanks Rumors were spreading among students, that drugs had been involved, maybe even a cartel, or that there was some love triangle that had gone wrong. But the police weren't inclined to believe any of that just yet. They needed to get the facts straight first. Corporal Payne spoke to Kaylee's ex-boyfriend, Jack Ducor, who said he was Murphy's co-owner, but he didn't have much else to add. Payne also talked to the surviving roommates.

Dylan told him about the masked man she'd seen. She described him as wearing all black, standing around 5'10, and having an athletic build. She also added that he had bushy eyebrows. It wasn't a lot to go on, but it was something. Bethany, the other surviving roommate, said she hadn't heard or seen anything that night, all she knew was what Dylan had told her. Meanwhile, forensic investigators processed the crime scene inside the King Road House. They had found the knife sheath in Maddie's room, which seemed to be left behind by the killer.

They sent it off for further testing. They also found a partial visible shoe print outside of Dylan's bedroom door. It had a pattern of repeated diamond shapes, similar to what you'd find on the sole of the sole of, a vans type shoe. The print was directly in the path Dylan had described the intruder taking as he left the house, so it seemed likely it was his footprint. They were solid clues, but they needed to find a suspect first, so detectives began combing through nearby surveillance footage from neighborhood ring cameras. That's when they found something chilling. A video of a white Hyundai along Mantra circling the King Road Street multiple times in the early morning hours of November 13th.

Then at around 4.20 a.m., the same car was seen speeding away from the area. It was the best lead they had. If they could find the vehicle, they could find the driver. And maybe they would find their killer. Hi, listeners. It's Carter Roy. I wanted to take a moment to tell you about another. show from Crime House that I know you'll love. America's most infamous crimes. Hosted by Katie Ring, each week Katie takes on a notorious crime, whether unfolding now or etched into American history, revealing not just what happened, but how it forever changed

our society. Serial killers who terrorize cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night, and investigations that change the way we think about justice. Each case unfolds across multiple episodes, released every Tuesday through Thursday, from the first sign that something was wrong to the moment the truth came out or didn't. These are the stories behind the headlines. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes Tuesday through Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

investigators had a few puzzle pieces to work with but they couldn't see the big picture yet they believe that mattie had been a target the killer had gone into her room first where she and cayley had fallen asleep together it wasn't clear if cayley was collateral damage or if the murderer had always planned on killing her as well the same went for zana it was possible the killer only went after her because she'd come out into the hallway after hearing the commotion upstairs. It would make sense if he had been trying to get rid of witnesses, but it still didn't explain why he targeted Ethan, too. He was asleep in Zana's bed at the time. No one could make sense of the killer's motives. The victim's family and friends were left shocked and confused, and in the following days, they didn't get any more clarity, not even when the autopsy reports came out. On November 16th, three days after the murders, the medical examiner confirmed that all four had been stabbed multiple times. Some bore defensive wounds, which suggested they were awake at the time of the attack and fought back. The others who didn't have defensive wounds were likely asleep

when they were killed. There was no evidence of sexual assault, just the stab wounds. These details only deepened the mystery. Clearly, the killer had fixated on these particular students, but why? Detectives began canvassing local stores, asking if anyone had recently purchased a knife that would fit the sheath they'd found. They scoured dumpsters near King Road, looking for evidence, but came up empty. Meanwhile, the governor of Idaho allocated up to $1 million in state emergency funds to support the ongoing investigation. By then, the crime was national news and the tips were pouring in. Detectives received thousands of calls and emails from across the country. Most led nowhere, but investigators tried to follow everyone. Then a tip came in that stood out. On November 29th,

16 days after the murders, a Washington State University police officer, called the Moscow PD. He'd been working on the university's Pullman campus, approximately eight to nine miles west of Moscow, when he spotted a white Hyundai Alontera, the same type of car that had been spotted circling King Road. It was registered to a 28-year-old PhD student named Brian Coburger, who was studying criminology. The Moscow police ran Coburgers' driver's driver's license. They noticed that his photo matched Dylan's description of the masked man she saw. He had an athletic build, was about 5'10, and had bushy eyebrows. They also discovered that Coburger had recently changed his license plates. He had been pulled over in August while driving a white

Hyundai Allantra. At the time, he had Pennsylvania plates, which were set to expire on November 30th. He'd got new Washington plates on November 18th, just five days after the murders. It could have been a coincidence. His plates were set to expire, or it could have been an attempt to cover his tracks. Detectives filed a warrant for Koberger's phone records. They wanted to build a profile and see if he had any connection to the murdered Idaho students. At the same time, though, they continued. to chase every credible lead, and they didn't want to get tunnel vision until they had clear evidence pointing to the killer.

It was a good strategy, and the problem was they couldn't tell the community about it. If they did, Koberger could get spooked and try to flee or destroy evidence. But as the weeks dragged on, the lack of arrests and information created another issue. The murders hadn't just shocked Moscow. They shocked the entire country, and it seemed like everyone had an opinion about what happened. Armed-chair detectives began trading theories online. First, there was Dylan and Bethany, the surviving roommates. People wondered why they waited so long to call 911.

The attacks took place around 4 a.m., but the police weren't notified until nearly noon. Some even accused the women of being involved. Then there was the guy in the hoodie. Kaley and Maddie had stopped at the food truck called the Grub Truck around 1.30 a.m. on November 13th. The Grub truck live streamed their late-night rush, and the video of Kaylee and Maddie ordering food had gone viral after it was posted on TikTok. And the video showed a man in a hoodie speaking to them for a few moments. Soon after the murders, other students recognized the guy. He was a student in a fraternity.

People quickly began accusing him of being the murderer. Similarly, the Uber driver who took Kaylee and Maddie home that night came under suspicion. So did the DoorDash driver who had delivered food to Zana just after 4 a.m. only minutes before her murder. These theories were understandable, but dangerous, desperate for answers. The public was scrutinizing innocent people who had absolutely no involvement in the case. So on December 12th, almost a month since the murders, the Moscow police department released a statement. The grub truck guy, the Uber and DoorDash drivers, Dylan and Bethany, and several other people who had been accused, were all cleared of any involvement.

The Moscow community was grateful for the clarity, but the relief was short-lived. Citizens wanted to know who did this, and they wanted that person. off their streets. Behind the scenes, investigators were getting closer. They had a strong hunch about their suspect, but they needed more evidence to ensure the charges stuck. Publicly, all they said was that they were looking for the driver of a white 2011, 2012, or 2013, Hyundai Alontera.

Although later data revealed the model might have been as late as 2016. And at the time, the authorities didn't know that the person they were searching for was having his own run-in with a law several states away in Indiana. Just a few days after the Moscow police's statement on December 15th, Brian Coburger and his father were driving home to Pennsylvania for the holidays. That day, Coburger was pulled over twice in Indiana, once by a sheriff's deputy for speeding, and then less than 10 minutes later by a state trooper for following the car in front of him too closely.

In both cases, he was let go with a warning. At the time, no law enforcement alerts had been issued linking his vehicle or name to the Moscow investigation. So the Indiana officers had no idea. They'd just come face to face with a murder suspect. But when the Moscow police finally got... got Coburger's cell phone data a few days later, while they found more than enough evidence. Not only did that information point to him being the killer, but it also showed that he'd been planning this attack for months. On the night of the murders, Coburger's phone had traveled from

Holman, Washington, toward Moscow, Idaho, about nine miles away, but then at 2.45 a.m., it was powered off for roughly two hours. At 4.48 a.m., the phone came back online. By then, it was heading away from Moscow back toward Pullman. Later that morning, the phone pinged again in Moscow, right near the King Road house. It seemed like Coburger had returned to the scene, maybe to see what was happening,

or to retrieve something he'd left behind. something like a knife sheath. Coburger's phone had also been in Moscow near the victim's home 23 times before the murders. The pings in the area started back in early July four months earlier. To Payne and his fellow investigators, it looked like Coburger had been casing the house. They still didn't know why that house or why those kids

but it looked like he'd been stocking them for months. As the evidence mounted, the FBI quietly began surveilling Koberger at his family home in Pennsylvania. On December 27th, agents collected trash from outside the residence and managed to find a used Q-tip. They sent it off for DNA testing.

When the results came back, they were clear. Whoever left the DNA, on the knife sheath at the crime scene was a close relation. They were the biological son of whoever used the Q-tip. In other words, the killer's father had used the Q-tip. It confirmed through the same kind of genetic genealogy that helped catch the Golden State killer that the DNA on the sheath belonged to Brian Coburger.

At around 3 in the morning, December 30th, 2022. 40 members of the Pennsylvania State Police SWAT team surrounded the Koeberger family home. It had been more than six weeks since the murders of Kaylee, Maddie, Zana, and Ethan. Brian Koberger had driven across the country just before Christmas. His white Hyundai Alantra, the same car police had spent weeks tracking, was parked in the driveway outside. The SWAT team blew through the Coburgers' first.

front door. They thought the occupants would all be asleep. They found 28-year-old Koeberger in the kitchen wearing latex gloves. He was methodically sealing his trash into separate ziplocks apart from the rest of the family's garbage. After all, he was a criminology student. He knew his DNA could give him away, but apparently he didn't realize his father's DNA could too. As the SWAT team zip tied Koberger's wrists, he started speaking to them as if they were guest lecturers at one of his classes. First, he asked whether anyone else had been arrested, then he spoke to one of them about being a criminology student. He even suggested they get a coffee after all of this. He was stunningly calm about the arrest and didn't seem to have any

remorse or any emotion, really. The SWAT officers didn't engage with him. They just put him in the back of a police car and took him down to the station. Coburger was charged with four counts of first degree murder and one count of burglary. Within days, FBI agents began the process of extraditing him back to Idaho to face trial. On January 4th, 2003, Coburger was escorted onto a police aircraft in Pennsylvania. When he landed in Moscow, reporters lined the streets waiting to catch a glimpse of him. Cameras followed his every move. To many, it felt like the story was finally reaching an end. But the more people learned about Brian Koberger, the stranger and darker the picture became. Brian Koberger grew up in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. As a teenager, he was quiet, awkward, and often kept

to himself. Classmates said he could be unpredictable and sometimes started fights without warning. He also struggled with visual snow, a neurological condition where a person's vision is obscured by scattering dots. It isn't a well-studied condition, but according to some neurologists, it can be debilitating. There's no direct causation between visual snow and mental illness, but one research team found that people who experience visual snow also reported high levels of anxiety, depression, and depersonalization. This was true for Coburger. He claimed he developed visual snow around the same time he noticed his lack of emotions. When Coburger was 16, he wrote about feeling detached from reality in an online forum, like he was trapped inside his own body, watching life,

unfold through a screen. He felt little emotion or remorse, and he struggled to connect with anyone at all. It only got worse when he added drugs to the mix. Koberger started using heroin in high school when he was deeply depressed and suicidal. At some point, it seemed like he got a handle on his visual snow, but the heroin used didn't stop. His father sent into rehab more than once until eventually Koberger claimed. he'd gotten clean. By his mid-20s, Koberger seemed to have turned things around. He was studying psychology at DeSales University, a small Catholic school in Pennsylvania. During that time, he became fascinated with the criminal mind in particular. He wanted to understand what made people commit

violent acts. He even told a friend that he hoped to work with high-profile offenders one day. He earned his bachelor's degree in 2020, then went on to a master's program also at DeSales. As a graduate student, he was known for being meticulous, highly analytical, and deeply focused on methodology and data. He was especially interested in collecting data about violent criminals. For example, in the months before the Idaho murders, he posted a survey on Reddit. He introduced himself as a student investment. working with two professors at DeSales. He wanted to find former inmates who would be willing to answer some questions.

In the survey, he asked them to describe their, quote, thoughts, emotions, and actions from the beginning to end of the crime commission process. At the time, it sounded academic. But in hindsight, it read like something else entirely. a step-by-step guide to committing a crime. Even so, Koberger did so well in his graduate program that one of his professors recommended him for a Ph.D. in criminal justice at Washington State University.

Kovberger was accepted and moved to Pullman in the fall of 2022. The campus was about nine miles away from the University of Idaho in Moscow. At Washington State, he began to pursue. pursuing a doctorate in criminology. He also worked as a teacher's assistant, grading papers and teaching undergraduate courses. Classmates later said he was brilliant, but strange. He didn't go to parties or socialize. He seemed mechanical like he was observing people rather than engaging with them.

Just days before the murders, Koberger had been unusually animated during a discussion about forensics, and how prosecutors use DNA evidence to win convictions, or alternatively, how they could lose if there was no DNA left behind. It must have seemed obvious to his peers. Of course, prosecutors needed evidence. That wasn't really a hot take. But in retrospect, it seemed like Koberger was speaking to himself, because by that point, he'd already been casing the house on King Road.

and if he wanted to get away with murder, he had to make sure it went off without a hitch. A few days later on November 13, 2022, Coburger drove to Moscow in the middle of the night and crept into the King Roadhouse around 4 a.m. He fatally stabbed Kaylee, Maddie, Zana, and Ethan. Then he drove back to Pullman as if nothing had happened. In the days that followed, Koberger continued to go to class and grade papers. The semester came to a close without the police even questioning Koberger.

He must have thought he was in the clear. So he drove back home to Pennsylvania for the holidays without a care in the world. He didn't know that FBI agents had started surveilling him, and that by the end of December, they would have enough evidence to arrest him. Nearly five months after Brian Coburger was extradited to Idaho, he appeared in court for his arraignment. When the judge asked for his plea, Coburger stood silent. By law, that meant the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. The four first-degree murder charges made him eligible for the death penalty.

But his lawyers would spend the next months fighting to take that off the table. and as the case made its way through the courts, the focus in Moscow shifted to a different kind of battle for closure. The owner of 1122 King Road, the house where the murders had occurred, donated the rental to the University of Idaho. The school then announced plans to tear it down. Plenty of people in the community cheered the decision, but not everyone agreed. Kaley Gonzalez and Zanekernodl's families were, adamantly opposed. They argued that tearing it down could destroy one of the most critical pieces of evidence in the case, and they were doing it before a trial date had even been set. A university president

Scott Green responded with a statement that read, quote, while we appreciate the emotional connection some family members of the victims may have to this house, it is time for its removal and to allow the collective healing of our community to continue. It was a bold move to prioritize collective healing over the victim's family's wishes. And despite their protests, the plan went forward. On December 28, 2003, just over a year after the murders, the demolition began. At sunrise, heavy machinery clawed through the walls of the house, tearing it down to its foundation. Less than two hours later, the King Roadhouse was gone. For some, it was a symbol of

healing, but for others, it felt like erasing the truth before justice had even been served. The case against Brian Coburger moved slowly through Idaho's courts in September, 24, nearly two years after the murders. A judge ruled that Coburger's trial would be moved out of Leitaw County where the crime took place. The local media had been publicizing the case nonstop, and the judge believed Coburger wouldn't get a fair trial. So it was moved to Boise, nearly 300 miles away. Courts tend to move slowly, especially in death penalty cases,

but this one kept getting delayed. Coburger's trial had originally been scheduled for June 2025, but it was pushed back two months to August. During that time, Coburger's defense team filed motion after motion on his behalf. They challenged the DNA evidence. They asked the court to consider his mental health. And perhaps most importantly, they sought to take the death penalty off the table. Coburgers' lawyers revealed that he'd been diagnosed with a full. form of autism. They argued that pursuing the death penalty would violate a Supreme Court ruling from

2002 that banned states from executing anyone with an intellectual disability. However, autism is considered a developmental disability, not an intellectual one. Still, Coburger's lawyers tried to argue that his diagnosis should be treated similarly. The judge denied that request. When that didn't work, the defense tried to suppress the DNA evidence. They argued that the genetic genealogy technique used to match Coburger's father's DNA to the knife sheath had been unconstitutional. The judge denied that, too, the evidence would stand.

The back and forth seemed never ending. But then, just weeks before the long-awaited trial, the proceeding suddenly went into hyper-speed. In return for dropping the death penalty, Coburger agreed to plead guilty. The plea deal wasn't entirely unexpected. It was no secret that Coburger wanted to avoid the death penalty. Prosecutors had even met privately with victims' families to prepare them for the decision.

They believed it was the surest path to justice. A way to guarantee Coburger would never walk free again. Madison Mogan and Ethan Chapin's family, supported the idea, but Kaylee Gonzalez's family felt blindsided, mostly because they still didn't know why Koeberger had done what he did. They needed that information to make sense of their daughter's death and find closure. But this deal meant they never would. On July 2nd, 2025, Brian Coburger, now 30, returned to court for the first time since his arrest, he spoke briefly, when the judge read each victim's name, Kaylee Gonzalez, Madison Mogan, Zana Kurnodal, Ethan Chapin.

He was asked the same question. Did you murder this person? Each time, Coburger replied, yes, he was guilty. guilty. His voice never changed, and his face remained expressionless, according to his defense attorneys, that flat effect was a symptom of his autism. For many in the room, though, it seemed like he simply lacked any remorse for what he'd done. Three weeks later came to sentencing. The families of the four students faced Coburger one final time, giving victim impact statements. Kaylee's sister, Olivia, looked him right in the eye and said, quote,

My sister Kaylee and her best friend Maddie were not yours to take. They were not yours to study, to stalk, or to silence. They're everything you could never be. Loved, accepted, vibrant, accomplished, brave, and powerful. Zana's aunt took a different approach. She told Coburger that she could no longer. longer live with the hate she felt for him, and so she forgave him. She said that if he ever wanted to tell her what had happened that night, why he'd done what he did. She would listen. Dylan Mortensen,

one of the surviving roommates, sobbed as she spoke. She described her panic attacks, how she sometimes dropped to the floor, her heart racing, as she relive that day over and over again. She said that he took away her ability to trust the world around her. She said, quote, what he did shattered me in places I didn't know could break. As each person spoke, Coburger sat silent and when he was given the chance to respond, he declined to speak. With that, the case was officially closed. Coburger was sentenced to four consecutive. life sentences plus 10 years, as outlined in the plea deal. He would not live to see the outside of a prison ever again.

But even though justice had been served, there were still so many questions. The murder weapon was never found. Koberger's motive was never revealed. And police still don't know which of the students, if any, was the intended target. In the absence of a clear motive, theories have filled the gaps. Some believe Coburger studied criminology not to understand criminals, but to become one. At DeSales University, classmates remembered how he fixated on violent offenders asking about their emotions, motives, and how they felt before and after killing. Others point to something darker.

The possibility that Coburger identified with the In-Cell community, short for involuntary. fairly celibate. And it's a movement of men who feel rejected by women and turn that resentment into hatred and violence toward them. The group's most infamous figure, Elliot Roger, killed six people near the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014. He targeted a sorority house of women who he felt had rejected him. At DeSales, the students recalled Koeberger studying Roger's case closely. He seemed fascinated by it. And according to Liz Garbis,

co-director of the docu-series One Night in Idaho, it did seem like either Maddie or Kaylee were the intended victims of Coburger's rampage. Coburger went straight to their room and they were the first ones killed. Some theorized that maybe Coburger had crossed paths with one or both of them

before the murders. Maybe he had felt rejected by them, or maybe he just became obsessed. It was hard to say, but Koberger may have left some clues behind online. Before Koberger's arrest, thousands of internet sleuths gathered in Facebook groups trading theories about the case, but one user in particular stood out. He went by the name Papa Roger. His profile picture was an old sepia tone. photo of a soldier and his posts were odd. He asked questions about how the killer might have held the knife, which hand, which grip. He even mentioned the knife sheath before that was public

knowledge. And for some reason, he kept saying that the white Hyundai Alontera was a red herring. Then Koberger was arrested. And when the Facebook group's administrators saw his photo, chills went down their spines. The resemblance between Koberger and Papa Rogers profile pick was uncanny, and the username sounded like a reference to Elliot Roger, the UCSB shooter. Most suspicious of all, once Koberger was arrested, Papa Rogers never made another post in the group. Authorities later said they found no evidence linking the account to Koberger, but many still believe it was him that he'd been trying to insert himself into the investigation.

Even with a conviction, there's something unsatisfying about this case. Koberger never gave a confession or any kind of explanation. And for the families, friends, and even the online sleuth, that missing piece is incredibly hard to reconcile. We want answers. We believe that if we can make sense of crimes like this, we can protect ourselves from the same fate. If we know someone's motives, we can be on the lookout.

But in the end, Coburger isn't the one we should remember. It's the lives he took. Kaley's fierce loyalty, Maddie's easy laugh, Zana's quiet confidence, Ethan's big-hearted charm. There's no neat ending here. But when you strip away all the theories, all the fear and anger, what's left are four names, four faces and a town that will never forget.

Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder, True Crime Stories. Come back next time for the story of another murder and all the people it affected. Murder True Crime Stories is a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crimehouse, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media at Crime House on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow, murder, true crime stories, wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference.

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