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Caalarogu Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Monday, December
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twenty second, twenty twenty five. We're counting down the top
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ten crime and justice stories of twenty twenty five. Today
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number two. November thirteenth, twenty twenty two. Moscow, Idaho, a
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quiet college town in the northern Panhandle, population twenty five thousand.
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The University of Idaho hadn't seen a homicide in seven years.
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That morning, police responded to a call about an unconscious
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person at a rental house on King Road. What they
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found was a massacre. Four students stabbed to death in
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their beds, blood so thick it dripped down the foundation outside,
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faces so damaged they were unrecognizable. The worst crime scene
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any of those officers had ever witnessed. Kaylee Goncalves twenty one,
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Madison Mogan twenty one, Xana Kernodle twenty Ethan Chapin twenty
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best friends roommates, a young couple in love, all gone
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in the span of minutes. Two other roommates, asleep in
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their basement bedrooms survived. One of them saw a masked
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man with bushy eyebrows walking through the house, heard him
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say it's Okay, I'm going to help you, then watched
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him walk out the back door. She froze, didn't call
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nine one one until hours later, thought she'd imagined it.
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For six weeks, the town was paralyzed, no suspect, no motive,
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no arrest. Parents pulled their children from school, Students locked
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their doors. Everyone wondered who did this and why. December thirtieth,
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twenty twenty two, Pennsylvania FBI agents surrounded a home in
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the Pocono Mountains. Inside Brian Christopher Coberger, twenty eight years old,
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a criminology PhD student at Washington State University, eight miles
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from Moscow, studying how criminals think, while allegedly becoming one himself.
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For nine hundred sixty two days, Coburger and his lawyers
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insisted on his innocence. Said he was driving alone that night,
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said the DNA was planted, said he had nothing to
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do with the murders. Then July Tewod twenty twenty five,
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one month before his trial was scheduled to begin, everything changed.
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Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty? The judge asked, yes.
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Coburger said, did you kill Madison Mogen? Yes? Did you
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kill Kaylee Gonkhov's Yes, did you kill Zana Kernodle? Yes?
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Did you kill Ethan Chapin? Yes? Four words, four confessions,
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nine hundred sixty two days of innocence claims obliterated in minutes.
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I'm read Carter today, number two on our countdown. Brian
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Cooberger and the Idaho student murders. The investigation, the evidence,
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the guilty plea that shocked the nation, and the questions
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that may never be answered. This is celebrity trials. Let
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me paint you the picture. Saturday November twelfth, twenty twenty two,
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a typical college weekend in Moscow, Idaho. Kaylee Gone Calves
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and Madison Mogan, best friends since childhood, spent the evening
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at a sports bar called The Corner Club, drinking, dancing,
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having fun. They'd been inseparable since sixth grade. Kaylee was
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supposed to graduate in December, had already moved out of
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the King Roadhouse, but came back that weekend to see Maddie.
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Around one thirty am, they got a ride to a
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food truck called grub Wandering Kitchen ordered late night food.
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A TikTok video shows them standing at the counter laughing.
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One of the last images of them alive. Meanwhile, Zana
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Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin were at a Fraturn party.
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Ethan was one of triplets attending the university. His siblings
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were at the same party. Around one forty five am,
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Zana and Ethan left together and walked back to the
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King roadhouse. At one fifty six am, Kaylee called her
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ex boyfriend Jack seven times. He didn't answer. She and
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Mattie got a ride home from a private party they'd
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stopped at, arriving around one fifty six am. The house
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at eleven twenty two King Road was a three story
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rental six bedrooms. Kaylee and Maddie went to Mattie's room
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on the third floor. Zona and Ethan were in Xana's
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room on the second floor. Two other roommates, Dylan Mortensen
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and Bethany Funk, were in basement bedrooms. Between four am
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and four twenty five am, someone entered the house through
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the sliding glass door at the back, climbed to the
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third floor, found Kaylee and Mattie asleep in Mattie's bed.
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He killed them first, then he went down to the
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second floor. Zana had receive Eve a door dash delivery
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at four am. She may have been awake, She may
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have heard something. She may have tried to fight back.
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Defensive wounds on her hands suggested she did. He killed Zana,
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then Ethan. Around four to twelve am, Dylan Mortensen heard noises, crying,
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a voice saying there's someone here. She opened her door,
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saw nothing closed it. More sounds whimpering from Zana's room.
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A male voice, it's okay, I'm going to help you.
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Dylan opened her door again. This time she saw him,
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A man in black masked walking toward her, then passed
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her toward the backsliding door. She described him as having
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bushy eyebrows. She stood frozen, watched him leave, then went
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back to her room, locked her door, did not call
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nine one one. She thought she'd imagined it. Thought her
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roommates would explain everything in the morning. She went back
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to sleep. Hours later, around noon, Dylan and Bethany called
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friends over because they couldn't reach their roommates. One of
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those friends called nine to one one to report an
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unconscious person. Police arrived found the bodies four students, stabbed
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multiple times. A tan leather knife sheath with a k
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bar military insignia left on the bed next to Maddie's body.
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The murder weapon, a k bar style hunting knife, was gone.
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The killer had been in the house for approximately fifteen
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to twenty minutes, killed four people, left two alive. Why
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didn't he kill Dylan? Why didn't he kill Bethany? Former
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Moscow Police Chief James Frye asked that question after the sentencing, said,
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there are a lot of theories, including that he may
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have been exhausted from the stabbings or felt he'd been
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in the house too long. Only he has that answer,
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and Brian Koberger has never given it. The investigation was massive,
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hundreds of law enforcement officers, over twenty thousand tips, more
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than nine thousand vehicles examined, the FBI, Idaho State Police,
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Moscow Police Department, all working together, and for six weeks
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nothing But investigators had one crucial lead, a white car.
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Surveillance footage from a business on the highway between Pullman
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and Moscow showed a white sedan entering Moscow around three
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two am on November thirteenth. Around three thirty am, cameras
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caught the same car circling the neighborhood near King Road
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three times. At four oh four am. It appeared again
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at four to twenty am. It was seen leaving the
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area at a high rate of speed. An FBI expert
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identified the vehicle as a twenty eleven to twenty sixteen
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Hundai Elantra. November twenty fifth, Moscow police asked the public
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for help finding a white Hyundai Elantra seen near the
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crime scene. Tips flooded in. Three days later, a Washington
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State University police officer ran a query for white Elantras
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on campus. One came back Pennsylvania plates registered to Brian
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Christopher Coburger. Within thirty minutes, another officer located the vehicle
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at Coburger's apartment complex, but something was different. The plates
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were now Washington State, not Pennsylvania. Coburger had reregistered his
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car five days after the murders. Investigators dug deeper found
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that Coburger had been pulled over by a Lata County
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Sheriff's deputy in August twenty twenty two while driving the Elantra.
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He'd provided his name, phone number, and address. His driver's
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license photo showed a man matching the surviving roommate's description,
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six feet tall, one hundred eighty five pounds, bushy eyebrows.
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Cell phone records revealed something even more damning. Coburger's phone
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had pinged cell towers near the King Road house at
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least twelve times before the murders, including as early as
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August twenty first, the day before his classes began at
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Washington State. Most of those pings were late at night
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or early in the morning. He'd been watching that house,
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stalking it for months. On the night of the murders,
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his phone went dark around two forty seven am, right
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when the white Elantra was captured entering Moscow. It didn't
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reappear on the network until four forty eight am, pinging
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along highways south of Moscow, then west into Washington, then
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north toward Pullman. The disappearance was consistent, investigators said, with
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an effort to conceal his location during the quadruple homicide,
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but they needed DNA. December twenty seventh, twenty twenty two,
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Pennsylvania investigators conducted a trash pull at the Coburger family
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residence in all Wrightsville. Collected garbage that had been set
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out for collection, found a Q tip. The Idaho State
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Crime Lab tested it determined the DNA came from the
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biological father of whoever left DNA on the knife sheath
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button snap found at the crime scene, at least ninety
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nine point nine nine nine eight percent of the male
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population would be excluded from being the suspect's biological father.
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Coburger is an only child. Three days later, December thirtieth,
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FBI agents and Pennsylvania State Police surrounded the Coburger home.
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Brian was inside with his parents, home for the holidays
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after finishing his first semester of doctoral work. He was
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arrested without incident, waived extradition to Idaho. Faced four counts
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of first degree murder and one count of felony burglary.
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After his arrest, investigators obtained a cheek swab. The DNA
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was a direct match to the sample found on the
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knife sheath, and here's the kicker. In March twenty twenty two,
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eight months before the murders, Coberger had purchased a k
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bar knife on Amazon using a gift card. Evidence showed
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he later tried to delete his purchase history, smart enough
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to plan quadruple murder, too stupid to realize Amazon keeps records,
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But the murder weapon itself was never found Coburger cleaned
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his car meticulously after the killings. Whatever knife he used
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is still out there somewhere. Brian Coburger was indicted in
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May twenty twenty three pleaded not guilty. A strict gag
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order was imposed, preventing both sides from speaking publicly for
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two and a half years. The case proceeded in near silence.
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Motions filed, hearings held, trial dates set and postponed. Coburger's
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defense team, led by public defender Ann Taylor, maintained his
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innocence throughout. In June twenty twenty three, they filed a
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motion suggesting Coburger had an alibi. He was out driving
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alone that night, just dry, looking at the moon and stars.
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This prior notice of alibi indicates the defendant intends to
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offer an alibi defense. The filing stated the defendant was
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out driving during the late night and early morning hours
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of November twelfth to thirteen. They never specified where he was,
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just that he was somewhere else. The defense also suggested
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the DNA might have been planted, that investigators desperate for
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a suspect may have contaminated the evidence, that the knife
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sheath found at the scene could have been touched by
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someone else. June twenty twenty five, prosecutors sought the death
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penalty given the aggravating circumstances multiple victims, their vulnerability while asleep,
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the premeditation involved. November twenty twenty four, a judge denied
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the defense's motion to remove the death penalty as a
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possible sentence. January twenty twenty five, the trial was moved
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from Moscow to Boise, three hundred miles south because of
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pre trial publicity. Judge Stephen Hipler from Ada County would preside.
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April twenty twenty five, Judge Hipler denied a defense motion
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seeking to argue that four alternate perpetrators could have committed
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the murders. He called the argument rank speculation, with nothing
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linking those individuals to the crimes. The trial was set
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to begin August fourth, twenty twenty five, with opening arguments
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on August eighteenth. Then in late June everything changed. Coburger's
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defense team approached prosecutors asked for a plea offer. After
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nine hundred sixty two days of insisting their client was innocent,
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they wanted a deal. Prosecutors met with the victim's families,
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weighed the options, made a formal offer. July first, twenty
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twenty five, a letter went out to the families informing
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them Brian Coberger had agreed to plead guilty to all
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five counts in exchange for life in prison instead of execution.
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The Gonkhov's family was furious. They wanted a trial, wanted answers,
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wanted the death penalty. They asked prosecutors to amend the deal,
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require a full confession, require Coburger to reveal where the
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murder weapon was hidden. Prosecutors said no, an offer already
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accepted by the defendant could not ethically be changed. The
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Chapin family, Ethan's parents, and his triplet siblings, supported the deal.
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July second, twenty twenty five, Brian Koberger walked into the
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Ada County Courthouse wearing a button down shirt, tie and khakis.
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Greeted his defense team and his parents with a wide smile.
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Then he admitted to murder. The courtroom was packed families
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of all four victims, media from around the world, everyone
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who had followed this case for nearly three years. Judge
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Stephen Hipler asked Coburger a series of questions. Was he
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thinking clearly yes? Had he been promised anything? In exchange
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for his plea beyond what was in the agreement? No,
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did he understand the consequences? Yes? Then the judge named
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each victim asked Coburger directly if he had killed them.
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Did you kill and murder Madison Mogen Yes? Did you
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kill and murder Kaylee Goncalves Yes? Did you kill and
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murder Zana Kernodle Yes? Did you kill and murder Ethan
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Chapin Yes. It was the first time since his arrest
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that Coburger had spoken during court proceedings. Four words, four admissions,
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delivered with what his defense attorneys later attributed to flat
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affect from autism spectrum disorder. Family members wept, some looked down,
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others stared at the man who had destroyed their lives.
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Prosecutor Bill Thompson then delivered a summary of the evidence
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that would have been presented at trial, the surveillance footage,
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the cell phone data, the DNA, the Amazon purchase of
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the k Bar knife eight months before the murders. Thompson
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revealed that Coburger entered the house through the sliding glass door,
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went to the third floor, first killed Maddie and Kaylee,
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then worked his way down. He encountered Zana, who may
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have been awake, and killed her, then killed Ethan. But
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Thompson admitted something. Prosecutor still didn't know whether Coburger entered
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the home intending to kill all four students. We will
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not represent that he intended to commit all of the
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murders that he did that night, Thompson said, appearing to
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choke up as he read the victim's names. But we
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know that is what resulted. Sentencing was set for July
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twenty third. Three weeks later, the families returned to court.