The Night of the Idaho Student Murders | Full Episode | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] be known as the scene of one of the most tragic crimes in American history
there's still sort of a Darkness whenever you talk to people it will be ever part of the University's
history and the town's history there are four very very important names in this case Kaylee Gonzalez
Madison Mogan odal and Ethan Chapin and if you're going to remember any names from this
case I ask that it be all four my name is Olivia Gonzalez and Kaylee was my little sister
everybody's going to work and you look out the window and there's kids running down the street laughing and you're just
like how can you be out there playing my daughter's dead you know Keely Gonzo and so I'm on
stop everything everybody in the whole world stop and everything just keeps going
[Music] my sister is Anna kernodle is one of the happiest funniest people I've ever met and I had the awesome
privilege of growing up with her and I still have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that it did happen
kober who's accused of stabbing these four University of Idaho students in the pre-dawn hours on November 13th 2022.
the murder weapon which was a knife has never been found this is a type of survival knife Brian coburger did not
make his own plea the judge entered a plea for him of not guilty that's my penalties life in prison for the death
penalty due to the nature of the crimes the state of Idaho is seeking the death penalty he was there to kill he came in
with the kit I believe he had a kill kit and you believe that everything right down to
the Implement of Destruction this large Marine knife that was all planned all planned it's inhumane you wouldn't
do these type of things to any living creature let alone an innocent human being
said evidence in the prosecution's case is the DNA that was found on the knife sheath that was left at the crime scene
but there's so much other evidence that's also pointing towards nobody else that we're aware of
how is Brian coburger's car spotted leaving the scene why was his cell phone seen there 12 times including the
morning after the offense the prosecution would like everyone to believe that it's an open and shut case
but I think the facts they have make the case more open than open and shut according to the defense there is no
connection whatsoever between Brian coburger and the victims and if there is no connection then there is no motive
and if there is no motive then it becomes very hard to make the case that he is the Killer and this is a graduate
student not a trained assassin it's more so about putting these pieces together because I know what the puzzle looks
like at the end I have the box in front of me but I'm missing so many pieces how did all of these pieces fall to
create what I'm living in right now where did where did this come from [Music] [Music]
thank you [Music] it was not the news Steve and Christy Gonzalez wanted to hear in August of
2023 just six weeks before the murder trial of Brian coburger was set to begin he waived his right to a speedy trial
absolutely they would have to wait indefinitely for their day in court I was really hoping that um we could get
this show on the road because uh the not knowing it just it's agony it's agony [Music]
Steve and Christy the parents of Kaylee haven't left anything to chance after the judge issued a gag order to
attorneys and law enforcement quote to preserve the right to a fair trial they drilled down on their own investigation
and are now sharing what they believe that investigation found Steve says he believes transparency is
the best path to Justice we're not going to just sit back and cross our fingers and pray that we're
going to get Justice [Music] it has been a long and painful Journey for the families of Kaylee Gonzalez
Maddie Mogan Zana kernodle and Ethan Chapin the four University of Idaho students who were savagely murdered by a
knife-wielding assailant in the wee hours of November 13 2022 as they settle down to sleep in
their off-campus house on King Road do you ever dream of your sister yeah we've had some dreams of her
there's times where I prayed and ask God to see her get another time and I did and
just gives me some peace knowing that I know she's okay [Music] Jasmine kernodle who is speaking for the
first time was a senior at Washington State University and lived only 15 minutes away from her younger sister
Zanna often mistaken as twins growing up she says they were best friends see this was
always fun she was uplifting and she took any bad situation and turned it into a good one
Jeff what did you love most about your daughter everything you cared about people
she was a people person scared about her friends just as much as like her family
for the first time in her life Zanna had fallen in love with fellow student Ethan
Chapin a triplet who loved his siblings boats and working on a tulip farm sweetest kid ever they were just two
happy people and they're just seeing the videos and photos of them you can just like tell
how happy they are they're just amazing together sadly they will now forever be linked in
death on Sunday morning November 13th zannah's friends started calling Jasmine saying
something bad had happened on King Road Jasmine rushed over to Santa's house and while you're driving that eight nine
miles over to the house are you trying to reach your sister then how many times do you call her oh I called her called
Ethan a lot her next call was to her father Jeffrey had been visiting Jasmine for Dad's weekend and was on his way
home so you answer the phone what do you hear oh you're kind of crying and just telling me to get back to Moscow and
meet me at Santa's house and you know my heart drops instantly race back down there
the house was cordoned off and swarming with investigators as soon as Jeffrey said he was Santa's father he and
Jasmine were escorted to the Moscow police department and Jasmine what does the officer say to you and your father
oh I don't remember exactly just that four people passed away and that one was Anna
the worst day of your life just your worst nightmare just happened you know what do you do
you can't do a damn thing 100 miles away the gonzalvis family also had been getting frantic calls saying
something bad had happened to their daughter Kaylee but no one knew what I just kept saying over what do I do what
do we do what do we do finally at around four in the afternoon a deputy appeared
at their door and we said what's going on I confirmed your daughters died it's passed away apparently you said there
were four victims and we and I said four and he said yes ma'am I said can you tell us if one of the victims was Manny
Logan and he said yes ma'am Maddie moken Kaylee's best friend from childhood give us a sense of just how
close uh Kaylee and Maddie were in life I think that they had a very amazing relationship
the epitome of true best friends from very early I mean they were sisters through and through
they were completely Inseparable as soon as the news hit Olivia the eldest of the five gonsalves children
and her parents went into detective mode we had zero details we just knew they were gone Olivia got into her sister's
call log and frantically started cold calling recent numbers she says a friend told her that Kaylee had been at the
corner Club bar around 107 a.m and later texted a ride share driver who Olivia managed to track down the ride share
driver said around 1 45 Kaylee had texted him requesting a ride from the grub truck which is the local
mac and cheese food truck to take her back home to 1122 King and she had with her another female
Olivia then uncovered one of the most important leads in the case the Rideshare driver told her about a camera
mounted on the grub truck so I was able to look it up and find Kaylee on the video and I saw the girl that she was
with was Maddie so at that point I knew Kaylee and Maddie were together they got
into the car to go home together and alone the driver told her the exact time Kaylee and Maddie were dropped off at
their house on King Road 1 56 a.m a timeline she says she confirmed before the police I immediately took it to the
police officers here's her phone information here's the Rideshare driver's name Olivia says
Kaylee made a call to her boyfriend at 2 56 a.m but he didn't answer the gonzalvises believe Kaylee fell asleep
shortly after according to the police affidavit Kaylee and Maddie were stabbed to death between 4 and 4 25 am
just as they had done since they were little girls they were sleeping in the same bed
those two best friends since little girls I don't think there's anything more terrifying than what they went through
I really don't the killer took four lives in a matter of minutes but he left behind two
surviving roommates one of whom would provide a key description of the Intruder it was dressed in black but
muscular build and very bushy eyebrows foreign [Music] if there is one picture that speaks to
the Idaho student murders it is this six smiling college students blissfully unaware of the Carnage to come it's
staged in a way that is almost in a strange way ominously predicting investigative journalist Howard Bloom
has written extensively on the student murders for great and Carter's online magazine airmail he is now writing a
book on the case on the ends of the picture are the two survivors in the middle are are the victims and they're
huddle together Kaylee with a beaming Maddie on her shoulders friends for life Ethan with his arm around Santa Young
Love In Full Bloom a moment that should have been a memory of their idyllic college Years would eternally be a
reminder of the gruesome murders that put them in their graves [Music] what makes it so tragic
is that forever preserved in this moment they'll never be able to leave this moment
hours after this photo was taken the four friends would be murdered their deaths so violent even the house seemed
to be bleeding there's literally blood oozing out from the home you could see it on the exterior walls CBS News
consultant Brianna Fox is a former FBI agent and professor of criminology at the University of South Florida that's
how Bloody and gruesome the crime scene is according to the affidavit which outlines law enforcement's investigation
the bodies of Zanna and Ethan who was sleeping over were found in or near her bedroom on the second floor
the bodies of Kaylee and Maddie were on the third floor in the same single bed in Maddie's room how did your daughter
die in that house what do you know we know the autopsy we know the means of what is officially how she died she was
assaulted and stabbed several several times her death certificate is the ugliest disgusting
piece of paper that you will ever see in your life and every line is a horror show every line because there's causes
of death and then there's contributions to death Christy and Steve spoke to coroner Kathy
Mabbitt before the gag order was issued and they say she told them how the two friends were positioned in the bed the
bed was up against the wall the headboard was touching the wall and the left side of the bed was touching
the wall and we believed that Maddie was on the outside and Kaylee was on the inside
according to coroner mabbit The Killers first victim was Maddie says Steve and then from Maddie he moved on to your
daughter you believe she had awakened at that point yes yeah there's evidence to
show that she awakened and tried to get out of that situation the way the bed was set up
is trapped she was trapped we know from the affidavit that coburger's cell phone
pinged in the vicinity of the house 12 times prior to the murders Steve says before the gag order one of
the lead investigators told him they believe coburger had been scouting out the house you believe these visits were
like he was like on an intelligence Mission a scouting Mission looking at lifestyle patterns when they came and
went who came to the house methodical yeah he had to know when people were coming people were going it makes the
Gonzalez's wonder if he'd ever gone inside the house I think that he at least had opened that door went in
tested the waters looked around Steve says the coroner told him the Killer's Rampage started on the third
floor where both Maddie and Kaylee had their bedrooms Christy thinks he wasn't expecting to find the two friends
together in the same bed I do think that his plan will awry I do think that you know he intended to kill one and killed
four Brianna FOX also believes Anna and Ethan were collateral damage according to the affidavit Zanna received a
doordash food delivery at 4 00 am then went back to her room on the second floor
it's possible says Fox that Zanna still awake came face to face with the Killer and she sees somebody that she doesn't
expect and I don't think he was expecting to see her either one of the two surviving roommates Dylan
Morton's son later told the police that she heard what she thought was crying coming from Santa's room
she heard a male voice say something to the effect it's okay I'm going to help you not something a killer would likely
say to an intended target says Fox he probably was trying to make a split second decision do I run away do I kill
her what do I do and he decided to kill her at approximately 4 17 a.m police say
an outside security camera less than 50 feet from Santa's room picked up distorted audio of what sounded like
voices or a whimper followed by a loud thud shortly after Dylan the surviving roommate whose bedroom was near zanna's
opened the door according to the police affidavit when Dylan opens the door she saw a man dressed in black with a black
mask as she says he has bushy eyebrows those bushy eyebrows become very important when the police are
making their identification the man with the bushy eyebrows kept walking to the rear of the house without
harming Dylan why was Dylan not killed again there's no definitive answer he didn't kill her because he didn't see
her he was sort of transfixed on getting out he didn't kill her because she was satiated or he was simply too depleted
to kill again says Fox even stabbing somebody for a minute and a half not only is that Overkill but it actually
would become rather exhausting the police believe the murder weapon which has not been found was a
military-style k-bar knife similar to this one the details are disturbing this is not a civilian knife
it was actually meant to tear apart bone ligaments organs so this is a extremely
brutal and something that you would never expect a person to walk in and want to commit unless they took
some pleasure out of the brutality of it after seeing the Intruder Dylan the surviving roommate told investigators
she locked herself in her room it would be almost eight hours before 9-1-1 was called causing an uproar on
social media criticizing Dylan's alleged inaction but Brianna fox says It's Not Unusual
for people to freeze or be too afraid to intervene she had no reason to you know know how
to handle herself in that moment according to the affidavit the male walked towards the backsliding glass
door and presumably left the scene but committing murder and getting away with it are two different things says Fox for
an offender to get away with a crime a murder they have to bat a thousand they have to
be absolutely perfect and they make One Singular mistake that's all it takes and that one possible mistake in this
case may have been the sheath to the k-bar knife one like this was found on the bed next to Maddie Mogan it would
lead investigators to the door of a man studying for a career in criminology Brian kohlberger the alleged killer
timeline of the case go to 48hours.com [Music] [Music] [Music] day after day and week after week pass
and there is no suspect that is arrested what was that time like for you that was the worst
for 47 days after the murders the families of Kaylee Maddie Zanna and Ethan and the country waited we do not
have a suspect at this time and wept and weighed in people of Idaho and those throughout our nation Who provided
information has been very impressive we've received over 19 000 tips then on December 30th 2022 Brian
coburger was arrested in albrightsville Pennsylvania at the time his attorney said coburger
looked forward to being exonerated what goes through your mind when you see the face of the alleged killer oh I
wonder who who is this why you know never heard of the person before it still is confusing why at this point the
families knew as much about coburger as the public did a PhD candidate studying criminology just 10 miles away at
Washington State University in Pullman I remember thinking I only have a few minutes to
look up this individual and to try to get any credible information before things start getting wonky some of
Olivia Gonzalez's online discoveries of coburger made her uneasy he had made a few posts on Reddit in which he was
conducting it seems like a questionnaire to people in prison or jail who had committed crimes how did you pick your
victim or your target for seven weeks the families and the country were left wondering
for this type of an investigation 47 days is actually quick criminologist and CBS News consultant
Brianna fox says the Moscow police kept things moving starting with a video canvas which
produced footage from those early morning hours showing a white car making three passes
by the girl's house starting around 3 30 A.M less than an hour later investigators
say the killer struck [Music] they noticed that this car approached King Road left came back almost at a
U-turn finally went there around 406 in the morning and that car then departed in about 25 minutes and sped off
multiple surveillance cameras then captured that white car as it traveled what appeared to be a less direct route
back to Pullman Washington arriving around 5 30 A.M that information helped investigators
identify the make and model of the vehicle and we're looking for a 2011 to a 2013
Hyundai Elantra Washington State Police find the car parked outside graduate housing they get the license plate and
they get Brian coburger's name they then get the driver's license and they see the bushy eyebrows that in the eyes of
one of the Moscow detectives must be the eyebrows of the killer now armed with a
warrant investigators retrieved cell tower data from that morning which captured coburger's phone around 2 47 am
in Pullman when it suddenly stopped connecting to the network according to the affidavit this was also
around the time cameras caught a white Elantra leaving his apartment complex there was indication that he turned off
his cell phone which is something that a lot of people do and they want to avoid
law enforcement knowing their whereabouts his cell phone signal was picked up again two hours later south of
Moscow as it traveled back toward his apartment building the affidavit described a deeper dive
into coburger's phone history that revealed this was a familiar neighborhood to him going back several
months cell phone records indicated that he has traveled past was very near the vicinity
of his crime scene on 12 separate occasions and Towers actually captured a 13th trip just hours after the murders
anecdotally a lot of killers they like revisiting the memory of the crime I won I was able to get away with this
and you guys won't catch me but they had one secret weapon to make their case they had the knife sheath and there was
a microscopic spot of DNA on this could they tie this DNA to Coburg according to
the affidavit the DNA was found on the button snap of the sheath but when investigators ran it through the
National Database there were no matches it's unclear if Brian coburger knew law enforcement was watching when he left
Washington in mid-December coburger and his father who had flown in from Pennsylvania drove back home together in
his white Elantra coburger from what I've heard tells the father that he's in trouble with his his job he's concerned
enough about his son to want to make the drive back with him on the 2500 mile Journey from Washington they are stopped
twice for traffic violations hello what's also interesting is coburger's reaction to the police is
this your car okay cool he's pretty calm and cool father and son made it home to
albrightsville Pennsylvania where Bloom says investigators initiated a stealth operation what they did is they sent a
team of Pennsylvania state troopers to coburger's family's house law enforcement recovered coburger's
father's DNA from the trash outside their home which tested as a high probability it was the biological father
of whoever left DNA on the knife sheath so that was the Eureka moment which they
decided they could get an arrest warrant at that point they made the arrest of Brian coburger and they got a separate
essentially a search warrant for his DNA and when investigators compared his DNA
to the DNA on the knife sheath they say it was a statistical match at least 5.37
octillion times more likely to be co-bergers than anyone else [Music] [Music] where you sit today are you certain that
Brian coburger is the killer with what you know I don't trust anybody or anything so I
have to see it myself I have to see everything as the months pass Steve and Christy
Gonzalez remain a united front in wanting justice but their weight has brought different perspectives your mind
is still open to the potential of course that it could have been someone else of
course I go into that 100 yep of course that's not where you are no no that's fine
I think there's any slam dunk criminologist Brianna Fox Says with the gag order in place any hint of
coburger's Defense has come from court documents it seems that the defense is alleging there's a rush to judgment law
enforcement made an arrest too fast and they focus on their client too quickly a defense filing did reveal coburger's
Alibi for the night of the murders it simply stated Mr kohlberger was out driving alone the defense is not
necessarily having to prove that he's innocent they just have to raise doubt both Fox and Howard Bloom think the
defense can find ways to poke holes in the prosecution's case challenging some of the key evidence presented in the
affidavit including the cell phone location data and the white Elantra there's other concerns such as whether
Brian coburger's car was accurately identified at the onset or if that was revised after knowing what Brian
coburger drove the cell phone data makes one suspicious of co-burger but it's not
convincing it's not putting someone at someone's doorstep is putting someone in someone's
neighborhood if you can raise doubts about the validity and the accuracy of the cell
phone data I think your half way there to getting the case against coburger either a hung jury or a not guilty
verdict [Music] according to the defense that there is no DNA or forensic evidence found from
the crime scene Apartments car office or ombre and coburger's person so they were basically
alleging how could he have committed such a brutal murder and yet have no evidence found on him of that after
Consulting their own investigators Christy and Steve theorize that coburger likely brought what they call a kill kit
with him what do you mean by a kill kit I think he had a backpack we don't know if it was coveralls pants we don't know
a defense filing also claimed the presence of other unidentified male DNA was found on the premises three separate
and distinct male DNA profiles were found from the crime scene two were inside the house one was outside on a
glove the defense wants to know who are these people and what role could they have played in this whole story so what
the defense is doing now is trying to look for other narratives that make sense Howard Bloom has written
extensively about this case including a piece on a possible alternative defense Theory involving drugs maybe someone had
written egged on a drug payment and this was a retribution of Vengeance for people not paying for drugs they had
ordered I want you guys to respond to one thing that's out there because the speculation that somehow drugs were
involved in this attack that's just Hollywood nonsense I I just dismissed that because I I understand our society
wants to believe in some of these movies that they watch they don't have these crazy lives where they're crossing paths
with people like that that storyline of it being drugs gives people a reason to think why it happened because nobody
knows why and the reason I think it happened is because he wanted to that's what he wanted to do he wanted to
commit a murder Brian coburger's defense attorneys argue there's a lack of evidence linking their client to the
students the defense is claiming that the defendant Brian coburger and the victims have absolutely no connection
there's no motive in the minutes after Brian coburger was publicly named the Gonzalez family went online they just
told us the name and we immediately started Googling they believed they had found a possible
connection through Instagram and immediately took these screenshots from our investigation of the account it
appeared to be the real Brian coburger account among the people this account was
following were Maddie Mogan and Kaylee Gonzalez in addition to several people with the name coburger but when we
looked through theirs it appeared to have other family members that were related to him at first Steve who works
in I.T was skeptical thinking someone created a fake account immediately following coburger's arrest
but according to the family they uncovered more possible connections you would go to Maddie's Instagram account
and look at her pictures and he liked them Brian's name was under a lot of baddie's pictures like that picture and
that picture and that picture and that picture so he was actively looking at the Instagram accounts and
the importance of that is what just digital evidence that this particular account had some type of connection with
the with the victims 48 Hours has not confirmed the authenticity of this account which has
since been deleted and the gag order prevents investigators from commenting [Music]
after dedicating months looking for their own answers the gonzalvises say they are mentally prepared for trial no
matter when it begins I think he's done he's going to feel all of us just staring at the back of his head and he's
going to know that we are the Gonzalez family and he knows what he did to our daughter
[Music] [Music] um foreign how could this happen to a group of kids that are doing everything the way
they're supposed to do to not known is what keeps you awake at night and it's every day all day it never
stops why why why there is no why [Music] it is as unexplainable today as it was
the day Kaylee Gonzalez Maddie Mogan Zannah kernodle and Ethan Chapin were murdered
I wish they wish me knew they were all four of them were just such a great people and I made such an
impact on the lives around them for now the families are left with thoughts of what might have been
Kaylee Jade Gonzalez has been recommended to receive a posthumous bachelor's degree
her family will receive the diploma of the University of Idaho on May 13 2023 exactly six months from
the day of the murders an occasion that would have been a cause for celebration graduation was instead another reminder
of what was lost those graduation photos it just graduation is just one of many Milestones that will be missed
[Music] honor and I probably would have been hers and [Music] to have to go through those live moments
without her Jasmine kernodle planned to work side by side with her sister Zanna creating
their own marketing business so it's not the same without her because she just brought like such a crazy
different energy than anybody else I've ever met Kaylee Gonzalez's future was in sight
she had accepted a job in Austin working for an I.T firm Kaylee not only pushed herself say her parents but pushed them
we lost that person that would force us to make new memories and force us to go and take on something that seems a
little daunting at first guys for the gonsalveses amid all the loss there was an addition to the family when
in February Olivia gave birth to a baby girl so her name is Theodora Maddie k obviously Maddie K is after Maddie and
Kaylee and if one were to believe in signs they're worse as Olivia several with Theodora Maddie K's arrival
in the hospital her room number 1113 was the same as the date of the murders November 13th
and eerily the time of birth 4 21 am is in the time frame that Kaylee and Maddie
are believed to have been killed life and firsts first Giggles first walks that they
would be there somehow you know even if it's just in namesake this is the Gonzales family Matty has
truly been a blessing in our lives I'm Santa's sister the families of Kaylee Maddie Zanna and Ethan have all searched
for ways sometimes together to cope with a horrible New Normal we all are always
going to be there for each other and it's just difficult we all we're all going through it in our own ways
for Ethan's parents Stacy and Jim Chapin one way of coping involves creating a foundation Ethan's smile isn't just that
a great smile and I smile all the time raising money for scholarships by selling tulips planted in honor of Ethan
who had worked at a tulip farm so Ethan will live on through the foundation that's what motivates us to
to do this how do you live with this Jeff it's not easy [Music] just gotta keep going you know
I think just like living our lives like Zana would want us to I know that she would want us to talk about the life
that she lived and to be her voice right now she had a beautiful smile her and Maddie
the memories that we shared we don't do it lightly because they are very private
memories and sometimes it feels like I'm giving away a part of them but I do it for the importance to
realize how great of a loss it is because nothing's gonna bring them back [Music]
laughs [Music] married to death one of 48 Hours correspondent Aaron Moriarty's most
controversial cases her two husbands dead was this Widow a killer her final trial listen to the original 48 Hours
podcast now available wherever you get your podcasts [Music]

The family of murdered student Kaylee Goncalves says they may have uncovered a connection between the suspect, their daughter, and Madison "Maddie" Mogen. "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

Case update: On July 23, 2025, Bryan Kohberger was sentenced to four life sentences without the possibility of parole after he pleaded guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

Brief Summary

Families of Idaho murder victims seek justice as trial approaches.

Key points

Tragic Crime in Idaho. The case involves the tragic murders of four University of Idaho students.
Olivia Gonzalez's Heartbreak. Olivia shares her pain over the loss of her sister Kaylee.
The Killer's Methodology. Details emerge about the killer's planning and execution of the crime.
The Agony of Waiting. Families endure a painful wait for justice as the trial is delayed.
Survivor's Description. A surviving roommate provides a key description of the intruder.
The DNA Connection. Investigators found a DNA match on the knife sheath, linking Coburger to the crime.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's agony.

A family member expresses the pain of waiting for justice

5:04WatchSep 22, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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