Bryan Kohberger’s Secret Life? Disturbing New Docs Reveal Chilling Words to Kaylee & More

Summary

Summary of "Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield" Episode: "Bryan Kohberger’s Secret Life? Disturbing New Docs Reveal Chilling Words to Kaylee & More"

Release Date: August 15, 2025

In this compelling episode of "Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield," host Ashleigh Banfield delves deep into the haunting case of Bryan Coburger, who was convicted for the brutal murder of four University of Idaho students. Drawing from new digital forensics findings and recently unearthed police documents, Banfield unravels disturbing details that shed light on Coburger's mindset and potential connections to his victims.

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1. Reopening the Case: New Insights into Bryan Coburger's Actions

Ashleigh Banfield revisits the chilling events that transpired three years after the tragic murders at 1122 King Road. Coburger, sentenced to life without parole, is now the focus of renewed scrutiny due to groundbreaking discoveries about his behavior during and after the crime.

Key Points:

• Timing of the Crime: The murders occurred nearly three years prior, with Coburger's sentencing taking place three weeks before the podcast's release.
• Emerging Details: New information reveals Coburger's potential verbal identification of a victim during the killings and his unsettling actions immediately following the murders.

Notable Quote:

"It is all very unsettling and frankly, it is giving Norman Bates in the movie Psycho vibes through and through."
— Ashleigh Banfield [00:04]

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2. Digital Forensics: A Window into Coburger’s Inner World

The episode highlights the meticulous work of Heather Barnard and her husband, Jared Barnard, a digital forensics team tasked with examining Coburger's electronic devices. Their analysis uncovers a wealth of information about Coburger's personal life and mental state.

Key Points:

• Minimal Contacts: Coburger's phone contained only 18 contacts, starkly contrasting with the thousands most individuals maintain. Many contacts were cryptically labeled, such as "girl I ran with" or "someone with the hair."
• Formal Addressing of Parents: Unlike most, Coburger saved his parents as "Mother" and "Father" in his contacts and maintained formal communication with them.

Notable Quotes:

"Father, why didn't Mother pick up when I called her?"
— Text Message from Coburger to Father [07:07]

"It just strikes me as Norman Bates from the movie Psycho."
— Ashleigh Banfield [07:10]

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3. Disturbing Phone Activity on the Day of the Murders

A significant revelation pertains to Coburger's phone activity on the day of the crimes. Less than two hours after committing the murders, Coburger engaged in multiple lengthy phone calls with his mother, raising alarming questions about his emotional state and awareness during the aftermath.

Key Points:

• Initial Call: At 6:13 AM, Coburger called his mother but received no immediate response, prompting a call to his father shortly after.
• Extended Conversations: Two calls ensued, lasting 36 and 54 minutes respectively, with the latter overlapping with Coburger's return to the crime scene around 9 AM.
• Continuous Communication: Additional calls were made later in the day, totaling over three hours of conversation with his mother alone.

Notable Quotes:

"He called Mother first, and if she didn't answer, he'd call Father right away."
— Heather Barnard [13:12]

"What's he in need of? What comfort does this monster need from mommy or mother?"
— Ashleigh Banfield [21:54]

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4. Unveiling Connections: Possible Targeting of Kaylee Gonzalez

New police documents obtained by News Nation reveal a potential chilling connection between Coburger and one of the victims, Kaylee Gonzalez. An eyewitness account from roommate Dylan Mortensen suggests that Coburger may have directly addressed Kaylee during the attack.

Key Points:

• Eyewitness Statement: Dylan Mortensen reported hearing Coburger say, "It's okay, Kaylee. I'm here to help you," indicating a possible personal connection or specific targeting.
• Document Discrepancy: While most interviews omitted Kaylee's name, this singular instance in official documents hints at Coburger's possible intent or fixation.

Notable Quote:

"Sometime in the early morning hours... I heard a male say, 'It's okay, Kaylee. I'm here for you.'"
— Police Document [22:12]

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5. Behavioral Red Flags During Academic Pursuit

Prior to the murders, Coburger exhibited numerous concerning behaviors during his time as a criminology doctoral student at Washington State University. Professors and peers noted his domineering presence and unsettling interactions, which many deemed predatory.

Key Points:

• Dominating Conversations: Coburger consistently steered discussions toward serial killers, monopolizing conversations in academic settings.
• Uncomfortable Interactions: Female students reported feeling threatened by his persistent presence and intrusive behavior.
• Faculty Concerns: A professor expressed grave concerns, stating, "Kohberger is smart enough that in four years, we will have to give him a PhD. Mark my word, I work with predators."

Notable Quotes:

"Some professors expressed fears that Coburger would become a predator, despite his academic prowess."
— Ashleigh Banfield [24:42]

"Kohberger dominated every conversation he was in, that he had to dominate it, that he had to take over every conversation."
— Heather Barnard [35:24]

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6. Additional Evidence: Selfies, Reddit Activity, and Criminal Intent

Further examination of Coburger's personal behavior revealed disturbing patterns, including his use of social media and personal photography, which may reflect his mental state leading up to the murders.

Key Points:

• Selfies Analysis: A selfie taken hours after the murders showed Coburger with suspiciously white knuckles and a band-aid, possibly indicating injury or residue from the crime.
• Reddit Suspension: On the day of his arrest, Coburger's Reddit account was suspended for posting violent content, coinciding with heightened media attention on his case.
• Manipulation of Alibi: Evidence from his phone contradicted his stated alibi of stargazing, revealing he was active and possibly involved in the crimes.

Notable Quotes:

"He turned his phone off at 2 AM and turned it back on later, disproving his alibi of being asleep stargazing."
— Bill Thompson [20:25]

"New message from Reddit: your account has been permanently suspended for posting violent content."
— Ashleigh Banfield [22:12]

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7. Institutional Oversight and Missed Opportunities

The episode underscores systemic failures within academic institutions to recognize and act upon warning signs exhibited by Coburger, potentially preventing the tragic outcome.

Key Points:

• Ignored Warnings: Despite multiple professors and students expressing unease, no decisive action was taken to restrict Coburger's academic progression.
• Preventative Measures Overlooked: Proposals to cut funding or remove Coburger from the program were overruled, highlighting a lapse in institutional accountability.

Notable Quote:

"They were very serious about trying to figure out ways to stop the process, roll it back, get rid of them. They talked about cutting the funding to his program so that they could kick him out."
— Ashleigh Banfield [35:26]

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8. Current Status and Reflections

In the present day, Coburger remains incarcerated at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution, where he faces ongoing harassment from other inmates. The podcast reflects on the psychological torment he endures, juxtaposed with the revelations of his premeditated actions and disturbed psyche.

Key Points:

• Incarceration Struggles: Coburger experiences relentless harassment from fellow inmates, highlighting his isolated and tormented existence behind bars.
• Psychological Analysis: The episode contemplates the profound impact of Coburger's actions on his mental state and the broader implications for understanding criminal behavior.

Notable Quote:

"How many sleepless nights Brian Coburger is having now and will have in the future."
— Ashleigh Banfield [35:26]

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Conclusion

Ashleigh Banfield's episode offers a profound and unsettling exploration of Bryan Coburger's life, behavior, and the systemic oversights that may have contributed to the tragic murders. By weaving together digital forensics, eyewitness accounts, and institutional critiques, the podcast paints a comprehensive picture of a man whose actions continue to reverberate with questions about intent, awareness, and the failures of those around him to prevent imminent tragedy.

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For those seeking a deeper understanding of Bryan Coburger's case and the intricate details that surround it, this episode serves as an essential and thought-provoking resource.

Transcript

[Heather Barnard]

Foreign.

[Ashley Banfield]

Hey, everyone, I'm Ashley Banfield and this is drop dead serious. You know, it's been almost three years since four University of Idaho students were slaughtered inside their home at 1122 King Road. And it's been almost three weeks since Brian Coburger was sent off to the Idaho Maximum Security Institution to begin serving a sentence for the rest of his natural life for committing those murders. But tonight we've got some new details about what Bryan Coburger may have said while he was inside that house as he was carrying out his slaughter. Specifically which victim he may have named. We also have some information about what Coburger was doing right after the murders. Spoiler alert, he called his mommy. He called his mother within two hours of butchering those kids. And he didn't just call her one time. Wait until you hear how many times and how many hours he spent on the phone with his mommy right after stealing those kids from their moms. And thanks to digital forensics and an expert duo who was tasked with analyzing Coburger's phone and his electronics, we have learned some very creepy details about Coburger and his relationship with his parents. It is all very unsettling and frankly, it is giving Norman Bates in the movie Psycho vibes through and through. And we've just discovered some amazing details about what these forensic analysts found and what they did not find in his electronics that the rest of us all have in ours. Like you will not believe the number of contacts Brian Coburger had saved on his phone. I don't know about you, but I have upwards of 5,000. I use my phone for everything. I use it for work. And I'm a journalist. I've got contacts coming out the Yin Yang for 35 years, 38 years, who's counting? And I'm guessing you have hundreds, maybe you have thousands as well of contacts in your phone. Brian Coburger, you could fit every one of his contacts into a sprinter van. Also new, we're learning about a book that Kohberger owned and passages that he highlighted on page 118. And let me tell you, it's very, very informative about who he was and what he was thinking. Heather Barnard and her husband, Jared Barnard are the expert duo who led the team tasked with examining Bryan Kohberger's phone and his hard drive. And they discovered that less than two hours after the murders, at 6:13am, Coburger picked up his phone and he called his mommy. But there's a twist here. There's a really weird, like I said, Norman Bates like twist here. And I'll have more on that in a minute. But remember, Coburger's white elantra was seen on surveillance video tearing out of that neighborhood where 1122 King Road sits like a bat out of hell. That was at 4:20am so again, less than two hours after he slaughters four innocent college kids, he's calling his mom. Now, we have seen some of the details in motions that were filed by the state and the defense leading up to Brian Coburger's trial, a trial that, of course, never happened because he just went ahead and pled guilty. But here's what's new. The Barnards, the digital forensics team, said that Coburger's digital breadcrumbs showed that he had a strange way of referring to his parents. For one thing, he saved them in his contacts as Mother and Father, not mom and dad, the way most of us do. And, okay, maybe that's not so weird, but what is Bizarro is that those are the same names he used to talk to them and text with them. For example, here's a text that Brian sent his dad. Father, why didn't Mother pick up when I called her? Think about that. You're texting your dad and you're calling him Father and you're referring to Mother. Why didn't Mother pick up the phone when I called? Again, it just strikes me as Norman Bates from the movie Psycho, and I don't think I'm the only one. In any case, those digital breadcrumbs also revealed that when Bryan Kohberger called mother at 6:13am he didn't get an answer. So one minute later, he called Father. And the Barnharts say that this was actually a habit of CO Burger's. He would call Mother first, and if she didn't answer, he'd call Father right away. And he would go back and forth like this. And here's another actual text. Father, why did Mother not respond? Why is she not answering the ph. It's just bizarre. Well, eventually, that morning, Mother did answer the 6am calls, and their conversation lasted 36 minutes. And not long after that call, he called Mother again. And this time they talked for 54 minutes. But here's where it gets so dark and so upsetting and just frankly, so incredibly weird. Those 54 minutes that he was on the phone with his mother the second time. Again, first time, it's just two hours after the murders. The second time, those 54 minutes overlap with the time that Coburger was driving back to Moscow Back to the King Road murder scene. Do you remember when we were in the change of plea hearing for Coburger and the Layto county prosecutor Bill Thompson said that the killer spent about 10 minutes back at the crime crime scene right around 9am right at 9am it's still real quiet. The roommates are still downstairs in the basement. They do not know what's on the second and third floor of the house. They do not know the bloodbath that has happened. They think some weird stuff happened that night, but they have no idea that a quadruple Murder happened at 9am it's quiet in the neighborhood at the house, but Coburger is back there. He's back there and I think we all know why, right? Really good bet he's back there looking for the knife sheath that he now knows he left behind. And oh, that thing is going to lead right back to me. That is a colossal mistake that is worth me risking going back to the scene of the crime in the bright and early morning hours. Wow. Talk about unbelievable balls or unbelievable fear. But he's on the phone with his.

[Jared Barnhart]

Mother.

[Ashley Banfield]

At the time. He's going back to the place he killed the kids. All I keep thinking about, all I keep thinking about is what did mother hear in the background, right? She's on the phone and he's skulking around that property. And we all know now what he did, right? He went up the side road, parked in that back parking lot area, scrambled down the embankment and went in the back, sliding glass door at the back of the house and went out the same way he came in. So he's thinking maybe. God, I hope. Did I drop that sheath outside? Will I find it outside? God, please let it be that I dropped it outside, not inside, because there's no way in hell I can go back into that house. I left some of those girls alive. So he's skulking around, Mom's on the phone, and the leaves are crunching under his feet and the twigs are breaking. It's November. It's fall in Idaho. Snow is falling actually, you know, periodically in those days. So is mom hearing all the crunching, all the walking around? What's he telling her? What's he telling her? Where? Why are you outside? Where are you? Brian? What are you doing? Oh, I'm just out for a walk, mom in the place where I slaughtered four people. Anyway, what are you up to? What are you and Father up to? Here's what I really believe. I'm a mother. I don't think that he told her anything about what he'd done. Because as a mother and as a father, I don't think there's any way in hell they wouldn't have been on a plane that day out to get him. Instead, it was almost six weeks, I think, until dad finally flew all the way to Idaho to drive all the way back with him. And if your kid had told you anything of these horrors, you wouldn't just wait six weeks and drive out to pick him up. I really honestly believe in my heart there's no way that Mrs. Coburger was being told anything of substance. Maybe, maybe she's being told that he's feeling off or upset or he needs comforting in some way, or he's agitated or something. Whatever the bullshit is he fed her, she definitely thinks that something's wrong. Because how could you be normal? How could you be at all the same person after you commit that kind of a horror? Anyway, so the digital experts, the Barnhart, say that Coburger is still on the phone with his mother at 9am and that the call lasted another nine minutes. So he's at that house skulking around for nine minutes with mom on the phone, calls his mom within two hours of the slaughter, calls her again while returning to the crime scene in the morning. Got to imagine, like, what is, what is going through this guy's head? What's he in need of? What comfort does this monster need from mommy or mother? And that wasn't all. Two more calls came later in the day. A two minute conversation he had with his mom at 4:05pm and then another call at 5:53pm and guess how long it lasted? 96 minutes. An hour and a half. Almost 6:00 clock at night. And this call is an hour and a half. And at this point, you know the news is already broken, right? You know that the shit hit the fan in Moscow. You know that the news is all over it. You know that Pullman, Washington and Moscow, Idaho are just alive with the reporting of the Truman Capote styled in Cold Blood murders that have happened just off of campus. So, you know, it's now big news. And Brian knows it. He's seeing it. And he's calling his Mommy right before 6:00'.

[Jared Barnhart]

Clock.

[Ashley Banfield]

By the end of the day, the same day that those four young lives were cut short in the most brutal and sadistic ways, Coburger and mother had spoken for over three hours. And in case you're curious, the digital expert said they could find no text messages with friends. They found no social Plans on his phone. No chatter with anyone outside his family, just a benign group chat. That was it. Here's the really big piece. According to the digital experts, Brian Kohberger had only 18 contacts saved in his phone. 18. You just imagine that 18 is your whole social circle. And some of those contacts were people that he hardly even knew, if at all. Didn't even list them as a name, just kind of like a description, like somebody I ran with, someone with the hair. The Barnhart said that Coburger's digital data showed that he had sometimes called his mother as early as 4 o' clock in the morning. I talked with this forensics team on my News Nation show. Banfield, big shout out to News Nation and the amazing team I work with. We're on at 10pm Eastern, so if you ever get a chance, please check our show out. And here's what Heather and Jared Barnhart had to say about their work on Brian Coburger's Samsung phone and the rest of his electronics. Our conversation was absolutely fascinating to say the least. Have a listen.

[Jared Barnhart]

Heather and Jared, thank you so much.

[Ashley Banfield]

Wow.

[Jared Barnhart]

I have wanted to talk to you guys for a couple years now. So, Heather, let me start with you. He called his mother within two hours of the murders. He called his mother as he returned to the scene of the crime. Not even two hours later. He called her two more times and all told, spent three hours on the phone with her. Was this out of character? Was this a binge of calls to mom that you were able to identify on his telephone?

[Heather Barnard]

This was his normal behavior, reaching out to mother and father repeatedly. If one didn't respond, he would reach out to the other. He would constantly text them and call them starting as early as 5 or 6 in the morning. His time and his parents were Eastern and then also at night to almost talk him into going to sleep and being able to rest.

[Jared Barnhart]

So, Jared, as I was looking at some of the text messages, I was so. I don't know, I was just jarred by the way he referred to his parents. He texted them. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the wording is pretty close. Father. Why is mother not answering the phone? Why is she not picking up?

[Ashley Banfield]

Father.

[Jared Barnhart]

He called his parents formally by the names father and mother when speaking to them. Did you see that consistent throughout his text messages to his parents?

[Bill Thompson]

Yes, I did. It's eerie. It just, it stands out from, from any other case that I've worked in that just the terminology, the phrasing that he used there. I said exactly what you Said in the intro, it's Bates Motel. It is this feeling of, of that. That movie and mother and it's just super eerie.

[Jared Barnhart]

Yeah, I mean, I thought maybe I'm the only one, but I'm starting to get that vibe from you, from my colleagues, from people. I've been talking throughout the day about this. Some people do use a formal name, but knowing what he's capable of now, knowing who he is, it just raises the hair on my arms. About the contacts in his phone. He called his father, father and mother, mother as contacts in his phone. But what about other contacts, Heather? What about other text chains, other communications? Did this guy have any community of his own?

[Heather Barnard]

He had 18 personal contacts.

[Ashley Banfield]

18.

[Heather Barnard]

So think about all the people you meet and the hundreds of random numbers and they were even identified as girl I ran with. Second girl I ran with a contact and end in parentheses, hair. But then there was mother and father and his sister and just a few others.

[Ashley Banfield]

18.

[Jared Barnhart]

And he's, you know, he's in his 30s.

[Ashley Banfield]

Like that's unbelievable at this, in this day and age.

[Jared Barnhart]

It is not unusual for people to have well over a thousand contacts, many.

[Ashley Banfield]

Thousands of contacts at this, at this.

[Jared Barnhart]

Stage in our lives. Everything is on our phones, everything's digital. What about text chains? Did you see any communications with other people other than mother and father?

[Bill Thompson]

Not. Not really, no. It was. I couldn't name a single person that he communicated with other than just his parents. There was some. One off communications here and there and there was some emailing and other things. But for texting, if you think of the friend that you sent a message to on a whim, there wasn't one single person like that.

[Jared Barnhart]

And I know that we learned during the final hearings before he was sent packing to the Idaho maximum security instit, that he had done quite a job at scrubbing a lot of his devices. How good a job and how were you able to get past some of.

[Ashley Banfield]

What he thought he put over on you?

[Heather Barnard]

This was one of the hardest investigations I've ever worked in. 23 years of looking at digital data, he cleaned up well. He knew how to use VPNs, he knew how to use incognito browsing where he messed up downloads on his Android device. He also didn't consider the fact that even on a PC, if you delete, every contact leaves a trace. We can see the files when you turn something off, we can see when you clear something. All of that was left behind for us.

[Jared Barnhart]

Let me ask you this. The handshakes that we now Find are so helpful in digital forensics when killers don't realize they're connecting to a WI fi where they're not supposed to be. Did he have a lot of questionable digital handshakes, like, say, at the Mad Greek restaurant where two of the victims worked? Did you see anything that was of interest or evidentially helpful with his digital handshakes?

[Bill Thompson]

Yeah, I'll break that down, sort of with two parts. So his. His WI fi connections, there were just a few. And the interesting part about this is, two days prior to the murders, he turned off WI fi for his phone. He just didn't want his device to be able to connect to WI Fi. It turned back on soon after the murders. But there was one reference to Mad Greek, and it came from a passive assist file associated with Google Maps. If you open Google Maps and you search for restaurants near me, if you're near Madrig, it would populate, and that reference was then logged on his phone.

[Ashley Banfield]

Hmm.

[Jared Barnhart]

And then the other question I have for you is, we just looked at that selfie. We had it up on the screen that he took within hours of the murders.

[Ashley Banfield]

He's freshly washed, and he's got the thumbs up. He looks like he's in a bathroom.

[Jared Barnhart]

And he looks extremely proud. Were you able to ascertain anything about that photo? Did he manipulate the photo? Did he screen grab it bigger? Did he rest on it for, you know, hours or minutes?

[Ashley Banfield]

Did he send it to anyone?

[Jared Barnhart]

Did you see anything of interest about that picture?

[Heather Barnard]

So this photo jumped out to us right away. And I remember us asking the FBI at the time, have you seen this? And they said, yes, we found that already. We're like, okay, but look at his knuckles and how white they are. To us, it looks like someone that scrubbed them and had to get something off, maybe blood or some kind of residue off his knuckles. Also, the band aid on his finger was there. In that image, you can see a shower curtain. In later images that he had taken, the shower curtain from his apartment was gone. So just small details like that. But we didn't see. He didn't have friends to send this to, and I don't think it's a photo that he would have shared with mother or father. We didn't see any manipulations or access to printing. So it's almost as if he did this and several other selfies of similar nature, but with fewer clothing for himself.

[Bill Thompson]

Yeah, it was normal for him to take place and do nothing with them. They weren't sent to a person.

[Jared Barnhart]

Sorry to interrupt, but Let me be clear. We've only seen this selfie on the morning of the murders. Did you find other selfies that he took of himself either in the bathroom or elsewhere, the morning of the murders or that day?

[Bill Thompson]

No, not the morning of the murders. Just in general. His selfies that he would take, he would often take, like flexing his muscles and shirtless. But again, we have no idea what he did with them. It was just a photo that was taken, and there's no evidence that he was sending them to anyone, just kind of for himself.

[Jared Barnhart]

Well, the bandages that you noticed on his left, I think that's his left hand, unless the photo's reversed. But someone in the class also said in police documents today that they noticed he came to class shortly after the murders. And of course, they don't know about the murders. They're just looking back in hindsight to October, late October, and they said he came in with his two middle fingers bandaged and said, oh, he had just had some accident inside his one last aha moment that the two of you had. Heather and Jared, he said that his alibi was that he was going to be out stargazing that night. You know, out in the middle of the night stargazing. But you found something about the phone that would have absolutely obliterated the alibi. Can you explain that?

[Bill Thompson]

Sure, yeah. It seems silly to even write it, but on the night of the murders, he physically pressed the side button and turned his phone off. And that might not seem too significant, but it really is because it proves that this human was awake at two, whatever, in the morning and turning his phone off and then later powering it back on. And the crazy part was writing in a report that a phone can't take photos while it's powered off. But just to prove that his alibi was ridiculous, but he turned his phone off, and then these people were murdered. And then he turned it back on. That's what happened.

[Jared Barnhart]

Well, and also, he turned the phone off at 100%, so he could never.

[Ashley Banfield]

Say the phone just died.

[Jared Barnhart]

Phone was fully, fully battered up. Heather and Jared Barnhart, I cannot thank you enough for this interview. I could talk to you for hours and hours. I'm going to have you back as well. Thank you for helping us sort of sort through a lot of this.

[Ashley Banfield]

Really appreciate it. And something else that these digital experts have not shared before. On December 30, that was the day that Coburger was arrested. On that same day, his phone pinged with an email notification, and that notification read, new message From Reddit, your account has been permanently suspended for posting violent content. The account name, Criminology underscore student Heather Barnard said that Brian had been posting in forums for ex cons and prison inmates looking for volunteers to interview about their crimes. One user even messaged him directly, quote, saw your post on Reddit, still looking for volunteers. It's not that we hadn't heard this before, right? We knew that as a criminology student he was out soliciting all sorts of creepy questions about tell me what it felt like when you're committing your crimes. Uh, what was very odd about it was that he was no longer a student when he was putting out that questionnaire. So was he just a student of life at that point? A student of taking lives at that point. But what a coincidence, right? That Reddit booted him off the platform the very day that his family home in Pennsylvania was raided and Bryan Coburger was led away in cuffs. It makes me wonder if the news was so bad, Big, cuz I remember those headlines. I remember being on vacation and being ripped into a studio in Florida somewhere to, to do this news endlessly all day long that there's been an arrest in the Idaho murders. Who the hell is this Coburger guy? I remember it so well. But since it was wall to wall news, maybe Reddit did a quick look. Maybe they said, yikes, let's make sure we don't have him on our platform. And maybe they found him real fast and pinged him off even faster because I can't imagine that it's just a coincidence on December 30th that, oh, we just, you know, weirdly found these very violent, you know, postings. Bye. And interestingly, they weren't that violent. They were just, you know, the musings and questions of what would be considered.

[Jared Barnhart]

A normal criminology study.

[Ashley Banfield]

I think Reddit knew exactly who this guy was and wanted them the hell gone. I should tell you, we also learned a whole lot more new information from about 600 pages of new police documents that News Nation just obtained. And buried within those documents something we had never heard before. You might remember one of the surviving roommates, Dylan Mortensen. She did over a half dozen interviews with the police about what she saw and what she heard the night of the murders, when she was the only eyewitness to the shadowy figure, all dressed in black with the mask and the bushy eyebrows. I have read all of her interviews with the police and Dylan was remarkably consistent in all of them. But there was one statement to Police that contained something different, something extraordinarily revealing. If Dylan's memory is correct. Dylan Mortensen told police that she heard Brian Coburger say the following. It's okay, Kaylee. I'm here to help you. When I read that, I had. I had to look again. I thought, that's a mistake. That's typo. That's not what. That's not what. What's been in all the documents leading up to now. But that reference in that interview to the police on that day, it's an actual reference to one of the murder victims, Kaylee Gonzalez. And the first time we're ever hearing that Coburger might have even known one of the students he killed. Maybe it means that Kaylee was the target for maybe at least one of the targets. Here's what the document actually said, verbatim, quote. Sometime in the early morning hours, redacted, meaning Dylan was awoken and opened her room door and heard a male say, quote, it's okay, Kaylee. I'm here for you. End quote. And crying, she then shut the door. A short while later, she opened her door again and saw someone approximately 5 foot 10 inches tall, dressed in black with a ski mask, standing in the kitchen. End quote. Now, this could be a mistake, right? It could be a mistake that she made that was corrected in her later interviews. Because every other version of her interview that she gave, we've heard her. We've heard Dylan saying that she heard a voice saying, quote, it's okay. I'm here to help you. But no name, certainly no reference to Kaylee. It's okay. I'm here to help you. It's okay, Kaylee. I'm here for you. Maybe the okay got mixed up with Kaylee, but the fact that Kaylee's name appears in a police document at all, that Dylan once told them she heard the killer mention Kaylee's name. I mean, it's nothing short of jaw dropping, because otherwise we have no connection between Coburger and these kids. The police found nothing. That was the biggest revelation. When the documents and the gag order, you know, the gag order fell, the documents started to drop. We thought for sure we'd learn why. What was it? Why did he do this? Why'd he pick them? Why'd he go to that house? Those kids? But they said they could find nothing. He was just too good at scrubbing. Something else we found out today. There's a piece of evidence that's been quietly stashed in the police evidence lockup. A book, the Idaho State Police. The lead investigator, Lt. Darren Gilbertson, says that the book that they seized after raiding Brian Coburger's properties was heavily highlighted on page 118. Up until now, we never knew what the book was. We knew a book had been seized, but we didn't know what the book was called or what kind of book it was.

[Jared Barnhart]

And some of us had theorized, I.

[Ashley Banfield]

Certainly did, that it was the manifesto of Elliot Roger, an incel spree killer who espoused misogyny in his writings and maybe was the inspiration for Papa Roger, although the police say no, no connection, just awfully coincidental. But the book they seized was actually a book called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. It's a book authored by Susan Jeffers, an author who's now deceased. It's a self help book about turning anger and indecision into action. Lt. Darren Gilbertson told the Idaho Statesman that he doesn't know what Coburger underlined or what he marked in that book on page 118, but that the book is still in evidence. So we looked at the book and we turned to page 118 and we found an interesting summary at the top of that page. And here's what it the knowledge that you can handle anything that comes your way is the key to allowing yourself to take risks. This is from a self help book about turning anger and indecision into action. So was this was this Coburger trying to improve his life in a positive way? Or was this Bryan Coburger working up the nerve to slaughter unsuspecting victims while they slept? One thing we can tell you for sure, Coburger was on a quest to learn as much as he could about pulling off the perfect crime. And there's a trove of new information about that in this new batch of documents obtained by News Nation. The documents show that even before the quadruple murders at the University of Idaho, Bryan Coburger was already setting off alarm bells in Pullman, Washington. That's where he was, of course, a doctoral student in criminology at Washington State University, fellow grad students of his and the professors who were there. They've described Kohberger as difficult in the past. We knew that. But this new information in these documents takes it to a whole other level. It turns out that the red flags were actually a crimson tide when it came to Coburger. One professor says that staff actually pulled her aside and asked her to check in on a female grad student because Kohberger had been hanging around her in an Uncomfortable way. Sometimes he would physically block the office door where several women were inside working. That professor said that more than once, she'd hear a female student say, quote, I really need to get out of here. And that that professor would then step in the room, walk right into that office, and give that student kind of an opening, you know, to leave and to get. To get out the door. And in class, Coburg was fixated, laser focused on burglars, and not just any burglars. He was obsessed with separating the regular kind of burglar from the sexually motivated kind of burglar. And then, almost like clockwork, he'd steer the conversation back to serial killers over and over and over again. Students and teachers all told the police that Coburger dominated every conversation he was in, that he had to dominate it, that he had to take over every conversation, that he made it uncomfortable for everybody around him, that he mansplained all the topics, even to men, even to teachers, even to people who he would explain the research that they were actually doing. Apparently, he was so off putting, people said they avoided being around him. He had three courses in his PhD program, two of them taught by women, one of them taught by a man. And obviously a pattern started to develop with Bryan Kohberger that all the kids got together and decided to do a little survey because they noticed a pattern. Kohberger was routinely late to the female taught classes, but never once late to the male professor's classes. So when they actually ran the numbers, it bore out. Never once late to the male professor, late all the time to the women who taught classes. Some of the female grad students even reported to that same professor that when Kohberger was not in class, they said, quote, oh, my God, class was so much better today. It's just easier to navigate when he wasn't there. The classroom was set up in a circle formation, and Kohberger would always take the seat right next to the professor. Always. That professor later told colleagues that she was genuinely worried that if he ever got his PhD, quote, he would be a predator. Let me just repeat that. One of Brian Kohberger's professors was so worried that if this Guy got his PhD, he would be a predator. And the other scary thing is, is that she said, there's no way he can't get his PhD. He's way too smart. We have to give him that PhD at the end of this program and in a faculty meeting right before Christmas break, this professor flat out said these words. Kohberger is smart enough that in four years, we will have to give him a PhD. Mark my word, I work with predators. If we give him a PhD, that's the guy that years from now will hear is harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing his students. End quote. Just imagine this. This is what they were talking about. The professors were meeting about this together, fearing we're teaching this guy and he's going to be a predator. Look, they talked amongst themselves. They were very serious about trying to figure out ways to stop the process, roll it back, get rid of them. They talked about cutting the funding to his program so that they could kick him out. Not everybody agreed because, let's be frank, he's weird, he's an asshole. Nobody thinks he's a quadruple murderer. So in the end, that didn't happen. What is remarkable about a group of.

[Jared Barnhart]

Professors deciding amongst themselves if they should.

[Ashley Banfield]

Pull funding and get rid of a student is that at Washington State University, according to one professor, in all of her time there, it had never been on the table before for a grad student to be kicked out like that. They had never before, in her experience, pulled funding to get rid of a student that they thought was dangerous. And the reason is they believe that he was already stalking people, but they couldn't be completely sure. One professor reported that he had followed her while walking to her car. Apparently it frightened her so much that the next time she asked for an escort to walk her to her car. And a grad student even reported that somebody had broken into her apartment and stolen intimate items like perfume and underwear. And she was scared. Another grad student remembered meeting Kohberger at a faculty barbecue before classes even started. She said he was instantly off putting, spoke in a robotic tone, and then tried to lecture her about her own research. After that, she avoided him, only making the bare minimum of hallway small talk. And then there was the student who said Coburger would follow people to the parking garage or just linger, standing there uncomfortably after conversations. Things got so concerning. The department actually held a mandatory discrimination and harassment training for all grad students just because of Bryan Kohberger. But again, you gotta put yourself in the headspace of back then, freaky, weird, odd man splains, domineering, rude to women. But was it enough to get rid of them? So 600 pages of documents and an interview with these forensics experts who, you know, reamed his phone and his electronics, and I am overloaded with stuff. I never knew about this case. The fact that he called his parents, mother and father. I just remember back to the sentencing where he mouthed to his mother, it's okay, Mother. But then ended up leaving the courtroom ignoring both his mother and his sister, who traveled across the country to be there for him, didn't even look their way. The fact that a professor believed in the future he was going to become a predator, that they just kept teaching him more and more information to become a PhD level predator. The fact that we heard it's possible Dylan Mortensen heard Bryan Coburger say, it's okay, Kaylee. I'm here to help you. Maybe she changed her mind later in the interviews, but that interview's on paper and she said it. All of this we're processing as I keep thinking about how many sleepless nights Brian Coburger is having now and will have in the future. At the Idaho Maximum Security Institution. They're banging on the doors, they're yelling through the ducts, they're taking turns and shifts to make sure the harassment of Brian Coburger goes on all day and all night. The inmates organized this themselves. They knew he was coming and they planned it themselves. And Co Burger's asking the guards for help, but doesn't look like the guards are doing anything for him and the institution. When News Nation called to ask, is it true what's happening? They said, we're aware of Brian Coburger's complaints about the way the other inmates are communicating with him. But inmates communicate like that. But he's safe, meaning unless you're getting physically assaulted, you're good deal. And Brian mother cannot help you in there. I'm Ashley Banfield. Thank you so much everyone for watching and listening. And remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead serious.