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It was a Saturday night in Moscow, Idaho, a college town on the border of Washington State, home to the University of Idaho Vandals. The football team had suffered a tough loss, falling 44-26 to UC Davis. So what better way to shake it off than with a few drinks out on the town? It seemed like everyone had a drink in their hand, from underage freshmen roaming open fields to four roommates going their separate ways for a night on the town.
While most nights ended with drunken Domino's pizza, this night ended in tragedy. In the early morning of Sunday, November 13th, 2022, U Idaho students, Kaylee Consalves, Madison Mogan, Zanna Cronodle, and Ethan Chapin were brutally murdered in their rented home. A killer armed with a knife or other sharp weapons entered through the second floor of their three-story home.
He stabbed all four vandals to death as they slept and crept back into the night, never to be seen again.
That is until December 30th, 2022, when SWAT teams arrested 28-year-old criminology student Brian Koberger at his parents' home, 2,500 miles away in the Poconos Mountains region of eastern Pennsylvania. The quadruple murder was similar to Ted Bundy's Chi Omega killings in 1978 and Danny Rawlings' 1990s college killing spree through Gainesville, Florida, which would later inspire the movie Scream.
But what drove Brian to allegedly murder four innocent college kids? As of early January, any theory you see on the internet or hear on a podcast is exactly that, just a theory. Police in Moscow, Idaho are keeping their lips sealed as the investigation unfolds. They've charged Brian with four counts of first degree murder, but he's still innocent until proven guilty.
Police Chief James Fry couldn't help but smirk when asked about the evidence against Koberger. Reporters pried him for answers, but the chief remained tight-lipped. They must have something concrete, probably hard DNA evidence linking Koberger to the crime scene.
When asked if he was 100% certain Koberger was his guy, Chief Fry said bluntly, "I am certain this is our guy." On January 5th, 2022, when Brian's arrest warrant papers were finally made public, eye-opening details emerged that painted a new picture of calculated murder. But who is Brian Koberger? What may have driven him to murder?
And why did he target these four Idaho vandals on that cold morning in November 2022? As always, the best place to start is at the beginning, as the final whistles blew to end a one-sided college football game. Part one, a night on the town. Moscow, Idaho is a small town of about 25,000 people. It's the kind of place where nothing bad happens, where it isn't a big deal if you forget to lock your doors at night.
The last time somebody was killed in Moscow was in 2015, when 29-year-old John Lee shot and killed his mother, landlord, and Arby's manager before leading police on a high-speed chase into Whitman County. Those 25,000 Moscow residents share the space with nearly 11,000 University of Idaho students.
on most nights. The 36-person police department only has a few noise complaints and underage drinkers to deal with. Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogan were lifelong friends. They were U Idaho seniors on track to graduate that year with big plans for the future. They'd met back in middle school and grew up in small towns north of Moscow.
You might call them inseparable. They'd go out together and study together, though they ended up pledging different sororities. Kaylee was an Alpha Phi. Madison was a Pi Beta Phi. Madison's boyfriend said she was excited about graduation and had plans to explore different parts of the world. She was the kind of girl who spread positivity wherever she walked and had nothing but a smile and kind words for others.
Kaylee and her friend, Jordan, were moving to Austin, Texas after graduation. She had an internship lined up with a marketing firm in the city. Jordan said Kaylee was always ready for an adventure, and both girls settled on Austin after debating between San Diego, Boston, Charlotte, and even Greece.
Kaylee recently broke up with her boyfriend, Jack, but her friends and family say the split was amicable. Her sister, Olivia, believed they'd get back together soon, as they still shared a dog like a divorced couple shares a child. Zanna Kernodle was a 20-year-old marketing major entering her junior year. She and Madison were in the same sorority and worked together as servers at Mad Greek, a local Greek restaurant.
Her father described her as strong-willed and excited to lead an independent life in college. Finally, Zanna's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, was a 20-year-old freshman and a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He was a triplet, two boys and one girl, whose siblings also attended U Idaho. He was a sports management major and a seasoned athlete. Sports always brought the siblings together, whether it was cross country, basketball, or soccer.
All four came to know each other. Zanna and Madison were coworkers and sorority sisters. Madison and Kaylee were lifelong friends. And Ethan and Zanna were boyfriend/girlfriend. They moved to a three-story off-campus home at 1122 King Road, where they lived with two other friends, Dylan and Bethany. An important feature about the house on King Road helps pull this story together. It was built on a hill,
So, you could walk through the front door and stand in the first floor hallway. Or, you could walk up the hill, go through the back sliding door, and stand in the second floor kitchen. There's nothing but dense forest behind the house. So, if a killer wanted to avoid detection, they could easily hide in the trees and sneak up to the back door. The home had six bedrooms, two on each floor.
Dylan and Bethany lived on the first floor, Zanna lived on the second floor, and Kaylee and Madison lived on the third. A sixth girl occupied the other second floor bedroom but had moved out before the murders. Eerily enough, Kaylee posted a picture of all five roommates and Ethan on Saturday the 12th. The caption read, "One lucky girl to be surrounded by these people every day." It was the last post she'd ever make.
After the football game, Ethan and Zanna went to a party around the corner at the Sigma Chi house. They arrived around 8 p.m., and we assumed they did what everyone else does at a Saturday night frat party, Kaylee and Madison being 21. Caught a ride to the Corner Club, a sports bar in downtown Moscow, and a five-minute drive from home. Dylan and Bethany also went out that night and returned home around 1 a.m.,
Zanna and Ethan walked in around 1:45 AM. Meanwhile, Kaylee and Madison stopped at the Grub Bus food truck near the bar at 1:43 AM. The Grub Bus owners like to live stream on Twitch on busy nights. Their footage was the last time anyone saw Kaylee and Madison alive. It also captured a suspicious hooded man lurking behind them for 10 long minutes. They had no idea their stream would become part of a full-fledged FBI investigation.
but we'll dive into that later on. From what we can tell, the girls got their food around 1:53 AM and jumped in a car headed back to Cape Road. They arrived home around 2:00 AM, at which point Kaylee called her ex-boyfriend, Jack, six times, but he didn't pick up. Perhaps believing Jack was ignoring her, Madison tried calling him on her phone. Still no answer. He must be asleep. Olivia said her younger sister had a habit of calling people late at night,
often calling several times until they answered to ask them a trivial question, such as, "What should I eat for a snack?" Police believe the attack occurred sometime between 3:00 AM and 5:00 AM on Sunday, November 13th. They believe the killer, allegedly Brian Koberger, snuck in through the back sliding door and entered Zanna's bedroom, where Ethan was also asleep that night.
He stabbed both of them to death and then worked his way upstairs to Kaylee and Madison's rooms. It's believed Kaylee had fallen asleep in Madison's room, and the killer stabbed both of them to death in Madison's bed. Kathy Mabbitt, the Latah County coroner, said all four were stabbed multiple times with a large knife while asleep in their beds. Some of them had defensive wounds on their body, showing they put up a fight. From there,
It's believed the killer walked down to the first floor and out the front door. Reports indicate the door was wide open when police arrived, but Dylan and Bethany didn't call the cops until noon the next day. They woke up and thought one of the victims, we're not sure which one, had passed out and wasn't coming out of their room.
Around noon, a 911 call came in about an unconscious person. Police found the door wide open and soon discovered the bodies. According to their initial report, there was no sign of forced entry or damage. Whoever killed these kids was either already in the house or walked in through an unlocked door. Thus sparked a six-week investigation full of contradicting statements and conspiracy theories, all while providing little to no information to the victims' families.
Some lost their faith in the Moscow Police Department. Believing they weren't equipped to handle a quadruple homicide, 44 FBI agents descended on their tiny town and the hunt began. Part two, the first 48. They say the first 48 hours are crucial to solving a murder investigation. In fact, the odds of cracking a case without a solid lead in the first two days can drop by 50%.
From there, it's only a matter of time before it goes cold. The suspect could be on a plane halfway around the world, or maybe just 2,500 miles away in Pennsylvania. On Monday the 15th, Moscow Mayor Art Betke told reporters that police were treating this as a homicide investigation, not a murder-suicide. He assured listeners that there wasn't any perceivable danger to the broader public.
That's with no leads, no evidence, no suspect, and a possible serial killer on the loose. The mayor called it a crime of passion, as if to say a scorned lover broke in and murdered the kids in their sleep. In response, U Idaho canceled classes on Monday, and many students left early for Thanksgiving break. Coincidentally, the Idaho murders happened on the same day as the University of Virginia shooting that killed three football players.
U, Virginia was locked down for 12 hours and police had a suspect in custody shortly after. The cops in Moscow weren't so lucky. All they knew was the victims were stabbed to death, most likely in their sleep, and the killer gained easy entry into the house. They didn't have to break in. By Tuesday the 16th, other students and their families began pushing the police for more information.
but with no leads, no murder weapon, and no suspect, there wasn't much to give. They did walk back their previous comments about this being a crime of passion, instead calling it a targeted attack against these four kids or one of the girls. Chief Fry doubled down on his department's assurance that this was no threat to the greater community. Few believed him, and more students left in droves.
By Wednesday the 17th, 72 hours into the investigation, Chief Fry said very plainly, "We do not have a suspect at this time." He also backtracked his previous statement about general safety saying, "We cannot say that there's no threat to the community." A picture of blood leaking out of the second floor bedroom began circulating on the internet.
We can assume it was either Zannah's or Ethan's blood since it leaked down the concrete foundation between the house and the hill. With hardly any information from the police, internet sleuths sank their teeth into what little information they had. This only raised more questions than answers. How did Dylan and Bethany not hear anything? Who is the hooded man outside the food truck? And what about Kaylee's boyfriend, Jack?
Could the attack be linked to another knife-related incident from a few months back? On September 12th, the university sent an emergency text message to all students and faculty, saying a man with a knife had threatened a group of students near the rec center. They described the attacker as a white male between 18 and 22 years old, wearing all black, including a black baseball cap. Part 3: The Surviving Roommates
As the story goes, Dylan and Bethany slept through the entire attack. Before Brian's arrest warrant was made public, many wondered how they never heard a sound, especially since the coroner found defensive wounds on the victims' bodies. There must have been screaming and banging, so how did they not wake up? Brian Augusta lived on the first floor of the King Road home when he was a student in 2019.
In an interview with Fox News, he said that he couldn't hear anything from the second or third floors unless his roommate had the TV blasting. Ryan also mentioned that he was never concerned about his safety while living in the college neighborhood.
Instead, he said he was concerned for everyone else's safety at 1122 because there were so many outrageous parties. 1122 King Road was a well-known party house. According to Kaylee's sister, there was a keypad lock on the front door that a lot of people had access to. There's also speculation as to whether their individual bedrooms had keypad locks.
Ryan posted an old picture from his time at the King Road house, saying each bedroom had keypad locks. He called it a community home, where each room was rented instead of the whole home. We can also assume Dylan and Bethany were out drinking Saturday night. They came home around 1:00 AM and likely passed out in their separate rooms. You remember your senior year of college, right? You remember how easy it was to fall asleep and stay asleep after a casual Saturday night.
But what if Dylan and Bethany weren't telling the whole truth to protect their own safety? What if they saw something that Moscow police wanted them to keep quiet about, at least until they had enough evidence to slap the cuffs on Koberger? Part Four: The Ex-Boyfriend The mayor's initial statement calling the murders a "crime of passion" pointed several premature fingers at Jack, Kaylee's ex-boyfriend.
They'd been together for five years when Kaylee broke things off three weeks before the murders. According to Jack's aunt, Brooke Meller, her nephew lost the love of his life, the woman he thought he might marry one day. Now, half the country thinks he's a murderer. Despite what the internet sleuths think, Moscow police cleared Jack as a suspect. Kaylee's family also stands by him 100%.
They never believed he was involved and said the split was mutual since Kaylee planned on moving away. Part five, the Carbonara effect. A few hours before they were brutally murdered, Kaylee and Madison were seen on a live Twitch feed from a food truck downtown. The footage shows them walking up to the food truck around 1:43 a.m. The manager, Joe Woodall, greets them at the window and says, "Welcome back," suggesting the girls were regulars.
Another man walks up with them, wearing a black baseball cap and hoodie. He pulls the hood up as soon as he's on camera. The girls order and pay for their food, a $10 carbonara dish to split. They walk off and wait by the order window for about 10 minutes. The hooded man follows close behind. He never interacts with the girls, nor does he take his eyes off them. They position themselves near the order window, perhaps feeling safe around the workers handing out food.
Another group of three, two men and one woman, wait for their orders. One of the three, a heavy-set bearded man, begins talking to Hoodie Guy, as he's been dubbed by internet sleuths. Moments before their orders arrive, the girls appear to get in a verbal altercation with Hoodie Guy and Beard Guy. They point and gesture toward each other, but we can't hear most of what they're saying.
Enhanced audio from Inside Edition shows Madison pointing back at Hoodie Guy and saying, "Fuck you, sir." Moments later, the girls get their food and slip away, while Hoodie Guy is distracted. He gestures as if to say, "Where are they going?" Then, he leaves in a different direction without saying goodbye to anybody. Many people rushed to call Hoodie Guy "creepy," but security footage from outside Corner Club shows all three leaving together.
They look somewhat friendly. In the video, you can hear Kaylee ask Madison, "What did you say to Adam?" Madison replies, "I told Adam everything." According to reports, Adam is a local bartender and is not considered a suspect. Another eyewitness came forward after the murders to fill in some missing timeline details and clear Hoodie Guy's name.
Joe Vidot, aka the man with the beard talking to hoodie guy, is a local who was 100% sober the night he met Kaylee and Madison at the food truck. He said the girls drew attention from several men at Corner Club and that Kaylee was visibly drunk. He remembers saying "Ew" as they stumbled through the bar. Joe left Corner Club and met up with his new neighbor who had just moved to Moscow.
he wanted to show her Grub Bus, a popular late night destination for drunk college kids. That's when Kaylee and Madison showed up with Hoodie Guy and ordered their food. According to Joe, "I saw Hoodie Guy show up with them. The vibe I got from him is that he's super nice. He was trying to help them get home safe." Joe called him funny and nice, saying he was just there to make sure nothing bad happened to Kaylee and Madison. That's not to say he had pure intentions,
Joe just didn't think he was malicious. That's when a dark four-door sedan pulled up next to the grub bus. The driver got out and yelled to the girls, "Let's go!" Does that sound like any Uber you've ever been in? They grabbed their food and hopped in the car, ditching Hoodie Guy on the sidewalk. Joe turned to Hoodie Guy and said, "Bro, they're leaving." Hoodie Guy allegedly responded with, "What the fuck?" and then walked away.
Moscow police quickly eliminated the driver and hoodie guy as potential suspects. Some think they were ruled out too early, but all that changed on December 30th, 2022, when news broke about Koberger's arrest. Part six, who is Brian Koberger? Brian Koberger was a 28-year-old grad student pursuing his PhD in criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, a stone's throw from Moscow.
He'd recently graduated with a master's degree in criminal justice from DeSalles University in Center Valley, Pennsylvania. Needless to say, Brian was fascinated by crime and law enforcement. Police spent the weeks leading up to Koberger's arrest looking for a white Hyundai Elantra spotted near the crime scene. They eventually tracked one to Koberger's parents' house in Pennsylvania. However,
DNA found at the crime scene allegedly linked Koberger to the murders. A former DeSalle's classmate described Koberger as very intelligent and well-spoken, though seemingly detached. He always wore this intense stare and was somewhat imposing.
While working on a research project in May 2022, Koberger posted on Reddit, reaching out to ex-cons over 18 years old. He wanted to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime. So he asked participants questions about how they approached their targets, how they gained entry, and if they struggled or fought with their victims. The survey has since been taken offline.
Koberger's adolescent years were marked by constant bullying due to his weight. He escaped through his deep interest in criminology and went through a transitional phase of drastic weight loss.
Now on the other side, former friends say Koberger became the bully. Nick McLaughlin told the Daily Beast, "Brian always wanted to fight somebody. He was bullying people. We cut off from our friend group because he was 100% a different person." Nick said their friendship officially ended when Koberger began hitting on his girlfriend, texting her things like, "I can get us a bottle and we can hang out tonight."
Another friend, Tom Arntz, confirmed Koberger's descent into bullying. "He would go after my intelligence," Tom said. "Brian would insinuate that I'm kind of slow-witted and forgetful, and that I lack the intelligence to be his friend." Another friend told the New York Post that Koberger was a heavy heroin user back in high school, which may have contributed to his rapid weight loss.
BK Norton, a fellow student in Koberger's graduate program, said Brian kept coming to class after the killings. He seemed more animated than his normally quiet and reserved self. Ms. Norton also mentioned how Brian sort of creeped people out because he stared and didn't talk much. When he did, it was very intelligent. He needed everyone to know he was smart.
Others say Brian would often find the most complicated way of explaining something to put his own intelligence on display. Compared with Tom's comments, Brian seems like the kind of guy who thinks he's smarter than everybody else. The kind of guy who can never do anything wrong. It's not uncommon for students from Washington State and U Idaho to intermingle, seeing how the two colleges are only 15 minutes apart.
It's unknown at this time if Brian knew any of the victims. A local vape shop owner said the girls would often travel in packs because Kaylee was afraid of a potential stalker. To the owner, it seemed like the girls were trying to keep their friend safe. Kaylee's family said they were unaware of this so-called stalker.
but it sounds like the kind of thing a college girl might not want her parents to worry about. Three weeks before the murder, Kaylee told the vape shop owner how the stalker would follow her from the bars at night. According to the owner, it was something she had tons of issues with. Could Brian be this mysterious stalker? We'll have to wait and see. Part 7, The Coburger Papers.
After his arrest and extradition to Idaho, Moscow police finally unsealed their probable cause affidavit. The documents reveal all the evidence they kept close to the chest since mid-November, including some shocking new details about Dylan and Bethany. The following is all according to the probable cause affidavit written by Corporal Brett Payne of the Moscow Police Department. Upon entering Madison's room,
Payne found a tan leather knife sheath on the bed next to Madison's body. When they processed the sheath, the forensics team found a sample of male DNA under the button snap. According to Dylan and Bethany, everyone was home around 2:00 AM and in their respective rooms by 4:00. Zanna ordered food through DoorDash around the same time, pushing the timeline for the murder to after 4:00 AM instead of 3:00 AM as previously estimated.
Here's where Dylan's story changes from what was reported by every news organization across the county. A little after 4:00 AM, Dylan woke up to what she assumed was Kaylee playing with her dog upstairs. Moments later, she heard Kaylee say something like, "There's someone here." Police believe Zanna may have said this. As cell phone data shows, she was up and using her phone, scrolling through TikTok.
It also makes more sense since Kaylee was on the third floor. Dylan peeked out her bedroom door but didn't see anything. She tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. That's when she thought she heard someone crying in Zanna's room. A male voice said, "It's okay, I'm going to help you." Police don't know if this male voice belonged to Ethan, Brian, or someone else. She closed her door again.
A neighbor's security camera, less than 50 feet from the west wall of Zanna's room, picked up what sounded like whimpering, followed by a loud thud. You can also hear a dog barking in the footage. Whether it was Kaylee's dog or not, we can't say for sure. Dylan opened her door a third time after she definitely heard someone crying. That's when she came face to face with a man dressed in all black and a mask covering his mouth and nose.
According to her statement, she stood in shock as he stormed past her and walked out the sliding back door. The story suggests that Dylan walked up to the second floor to inspect the crying as Brian, allegedly, walked downstairs after killing Kaylee and Madison. He walked out and Dylan ran back to her room and locked the door. She described him as a young man, about five feet, 10 inches, athletic, but not muscular, with bushy eyebrows.
Brian Koberger is 28 years old, about 6 feet, weighs 185 pounds, and has bushy eyebrows. While performing what's called a video canvas, Moscow police noticed a white Hyundai Elantra driving suspiciously around the area. Several angles from different videos show the Elantra passing the King's Road house three times between 3:30 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.
It drives by a fourth time around 4:04 and is seen leaving again at 4:20 at a high rate of speed. Footage showed the Elantra heading back towards Pullman, Washington and the university where Brian lived, taught and studied. Sure enough, footage from campus showed the Elantra leaving around 2:44 a.m.
A series of cameras tracked the car from Pullman to Moscow and back to Pullman within a timeframe consistent with the murders. That's when they discovered the car belonged to Brian Koberger. His phone records tell a similar story. His cell phone pinged with towers serving the area around the King's Road house 12 times in the weeks leading up to the murders. Police believe he was canvassing the area, trying to learn everything he could about the house and plan his escape route.
However, on the night of the murders, Brian's phone was nowhere near the crime scene. It's safe to argue that his background in criminal justice came in handy. He knew if he turned his phone off, it wouldn't ping on the towers, thus casting doubt that he was there. On November 13th at 2:42 a.m., about an hour and 20 minutes before the murders, Brian's phone pinged at his home in Pullman, Washington.
It pings once more about five minutes later, southeast of his house. Here's where police believe Brian turned his phone off. It doesn't report back to a network until 4:48 AM when it pings south of Moscow en route to Pullman. Those phone pings line up with footage of the Elantra, meaning the driver, allegedly Brian, had his phone and turned it off during their joyride to Moscow.
On December 27th, police in Pennsylvania obtained trash from outside Brian's parents' house. The Idaho Crime Lab confirmed that DNA from the trash belonged to the biological father of the DNA found on the knife's sheath. Based on Dylan's statement, phone records, footage of the white Elantra, and DNA evidence, Corporal Payne submitted an arrest warrant on December 29th, 2022.
Brian was arrested 24 hours later at his parents' home in Pennsylvania. Part Eight: Moving Forward. Brian Koberger's arrest laid a calming blanket over the victim's families and the town of Moscow. But is this just the calm before the storm? Speaking through his public defender, Jason Labar, Koberger maintains his innocence and is eager to be exonerated.
But if Brian did commit this crime, as Police Chief Fry believes he did, the burning question is why. Is he just some copycat killer looking to replicate Ted Bundy's Chi Omega slaying from 1978? His crimes share some similarities with Bundy, but not enough to call him a copycat. Bundy sexually assaulted some of his victims in the Chi Omega slayings. He strangled them to death and beat them with a thick piece of firewood.
Koberger allegedly stabbed all four of his victims with no signs of sexual assault. Brian's friends tell the story of a man who had bad luck with women. He was socially awkward, but we wouldn't call him asocial. Instead, Brian struggled to connect with people personally, often saying things deemed offensive or downright strange.
Consider Brian's multiple incidents at the Seven Sirens Brewing Company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. According to owner Jordan Sorulnik, Brian would ask inappropriate questions of female customers and staff. He'd ask who they were with, where they lived, and what their work schedule looked like. And while those might come off as casual questions from someone who knows how to talk to people, they felt odd coming out of Brian's mouth.
The staff complained to Jordan, who says Brian stopped showing up after being confronted. Brian had a history of rejection. Perhaps he was crushing on Kaylee, Zanna, or Madison without them knowing. It's not uncommon for Washington students to drive across the border into Moscow. He may have spotted them at a bar and taken something out of context. Perhaps unknowingly ignoring him triggered his deep-seated issues with rejection.
They say Kaylee's injuries were more severe than the others. Could Brian have been targeting her the entire time? Or is there something more to Brian Koberger than what's visible on the surface? One interesting theory is that he was planning the perfect manner. Consider his research project, the one asking convicted criminals how they felt while committing their crimes. What if Brian didn't get the answer he was looking for?
What if the only way to understand how a killer feels was to become the killer himself? His peers, classmates, and students share similar stories. That Brian saw himself as infallible. He could never do anything wrong. He believed he was smarter than everyone else. Armed with years of study in the criminal justice field, perhaps Brian thought he could plan and execute the perfect crime. He knew the kind of stories that got national attention.
So he targeted four attractive white college students, mostly female, and killed them violently. He was careful not to leave any evidence to maintain the allure of mystery. Every newspaper, blog, and true crime podcast loves a good mystery. But unless you're the Zodiac Killer, you can't live in infamy if you never get caught. What if this was Brian's way of being remembered forever, given his post-arrest statements?
Brian plans on drawing his legal proceedings out as long as possible. It'll likely be years until we know everything that happened on the cold November night. If his plan centers around infamy, he'll likely get what he wants. His name will make headlines as the case moves forward. He'll likely sit down for interviews and TV specials. Netflix, Hulu, HBO, take your pick. One of them might release a multi-part documentary on his life.
the name Brian Koberger will trend for years to come. Probably more than the names of those he killed. Kaley Gonsalves, Madison Mogan, Zanna Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.