20/20: Idaho Justice

26:09We all probably wish we had a friend like Maddie and Kaylee were to each other. In August of 2022, five young women, including Kaylee Gonzalez and Madison Mogan, all move into a house together. It's just off campus, right here on King Road. Kaylee and Maddie met in sixth grade and they were always at each other's house or at Kaylee's sister's house. They were more than best friends. They were even more than sisters. They were absolutely each other's everything through thick and thin. So that's Maddie at Christmas when she was just little. She looked so excited. Maddie, Maddie May we call her. She was our first and only child that we ever had and she was such a happy baby, just super easy and fun and smart and was just the joy of all of our lives.

27:09Maddie's dad Ben and her mom Karen divorced when Maddie was really little. Karen then married Scott Laramie, who raised and loved Maddie as his own. And together they appear in the Prime Video docuseries One Night in Idaho, The College Murders. Maddie was Karen's mini-me. They looked alike and they acted alike and everything. For a long time she just called me Scotty, you know. and then when she got older, it just made me feel so proud to be called Dad. I was a very young mother. I was 22. So I was always so protective of Madison. This beautiful, peaceful little girl. I'd never let Maddie cry.

28:00Like, never.

28:06Kaylee is the daughter of Steve and Christy Gonsalves. She's the middle child of five kids, including her older sister Olivia, and they grew up together near Coeur d 'Alene. I remember the day Kaylee was born. I was about four and a half years older than Kaylee. And you're big sister, but you also ended up being best friends. What was it like to watch her evolve and become a young woman. It was the best. From the moment Kaylee was born, she was ornery, stubborn, a spitfire, so confident, so sure of herself. There was no timid bone in her body. Kaylee was the middle child, and she's your classic middle child syndrome.

28:56She tried to be really sweet at first. When she knew you liked her, then she could be a little bit more herself, which was a little ornery and would do a prank on you or... Kaylee was funny. Kaylee is this bubbly, smiley girl. And Maddie's always been described as just a little bit quieter. Yeah. How did they click? I think that something in Kaylee's soul recognized something in Maddie's and vice versa, and it was never... It was never a question. Because as quiet as Maddie maybe was when they first met, man, man, she blossomed. And as sharp and bullheaded as Kaylee was, man, she softened. And they complimented each other.

29:47You wouldn't see Kaylee without Madison. You wouldn't see Madison without Kaylee. My name is Donna Staub. I'm an English teacher at Lake City High School. And I had Kaylee and Madison in an English class when they were juniors in 2017. So it was probably my second class of the day, if I remember correctly. And these two girls walked in just talking and laughing, life of the party. Her mom made it a point, too, that she was like, I just want her to have one friend that she can depend on. I don't care about her being super popular. She's just, I just, if this could be the friend, and it just worked out that way.

30:31So then when college comes, they were like, we're going to go to college together. During high school, they mentioned it early on. They were going to go off to college together. That was their plan. Living near Coeur d 'Alene, Idaho, they were just about 85 miles or so from the University of Idaho campus.

30:49It's not until 2022 that Kaylee and Maddie live together. They move into that house on King Road with their friends. Kaylee and Maddie were always at each other's houses. but this was the first time they'd really gotten to live together and be roommates for real. That was definitely just a house where we all got to hang out and feel welcome, and, you know, we would have parties. Everyone who lived there just liked to have a good time, and so they'd always invite people over. That usually turned into some sort of social gathering, maybe a party. But, I mean, it was always people that everyone knew, so everyone could just go there and feel safe.

31:27We were college kids. You're still innocent. You're like, nah, nothing's gonna happen.

31:37By their senior year, Maddie and Kaylee were looking forward to graduation, starting their next chapter. In mid-November in Moscow, it starts to get really cold. It's getting dark earlier. There's a chill in the air.

31:54And soon, the lives of everyone in that house would be forever linked by tragedy, a tragedy no one could have ever imagined. Once the cops showed up and the ambulance arrived, we all were, where's Kaylee and Maddie? Where's Kaylee and Maddie? We were calling them, we were texting them, we were, you know, no answers.

32:45In May of 2022, 27-year-old Brian Koberger graduates from DeSales University He's seen in this commencement video getting a master's degree in criminal justice. My name is Josh Ferraro. I knew Brian Koberger from our time at DeSales University. We were paired up for this long project. We were all picking partners and he was someone who was still there. So I said, hey, do you want to be my partner? And yeah, that's how we met. He's like, yeah, you know, my mission is to like be a cop, something I want to do. But he didn't delve too much into his personal life. This guy's a lonely guy, keeping him himself.

33:22I invited him to one of my parties one time, and he's like, no, I'm good, man. I'm like, all right, the offer is there, but no problem. Like, it's just trying to be nice. One of the classes the two men share as undergrads is psychological sleuthing, and it's taught by the renowned professor of forensic psychology, Dr. Catherine Ramsland. My area of expertise is extreme offenders, serial killers, mass murderers, but primarily serial killers. 2020 spoke with Dr. Ramsland back in 2019 about her work studying the serial killer known as BTK. I think BTK is a very useful example of somebody who can grow up in a fairly normal childhood and become a serial killer.

34:06In that class, you study mass murders, you study serial killers, and she really delves into the psyche of their mind. Brian Koberger was really, really invested in the class. He took really quick notes and he'd ask a lot of questions. His eyes really opened up when he's asking a question or getting to the answer and talking about Jeffrey Dahmer or BTK or Ted Bundy. He was very proud of his intellect. While at DeSales, Koberger conducts a Reddit survey for an academic research project looking to understand the mind of a criminal. He put an online request to speak to convicted criminals to discuss the emotions they were feeling and decision making that they went through when they were committing crimes.

34:55How did they choose their victims? All this stuff. In June of 2022, Koberger moves across the country to Pullman, Washington, pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University. The University of Idaho and Washington State University are located just seven miles from each other. The student body are constantly traversing to come over to the different areas, whether it be for classes or social. There is definitely a crossover with the two universities. We're all one big community.

35:30At 27 years old, Koberger has never lived on his own before, and he moves across the country and lives here in this off-campus apartment complex. He spends the summer exploring the region, taking some of those selfies just released by authorities. And making several trips across the state line into Moscow. His cell phone records would later show that his phone pinged off a tower in that area 23 times in the months before the murders. He even gets pulled over one night in August. Hey there. I stopped you going a little fast. He's accused of speeding on the Pullman-Mosco Highway. Were you wearing your seatbelt when I stopped you?

36:12No. No? That's no good. Right. Just being honest with you. Yeah, I appreciate that. You guys are, there's absolutely no point in not being honest. After the officer tells Koberger he's getting a$10 seatbelt citation, Koberger has some questions for the officer. I'm obviously an honest person, right? I told you I wasn't part of my safety bill. When people lie to you about that, say I lied to you about that, right? Mm-hmm. My own knowledge. Mm-hmm. Honestly, go back and look at that. Koberger accepting the citation. All right, have a good night. You too. Tell me what the internship was that Brian Koberger applied for.

36:58So it was actually part of WSU's criminal justice PhD program, where the student would be embedded in the police department to conduct research. How would you describe how he communicated with you? Just awkward, just a little bit socially inept perhaps. I didn't feel he could develop rapport and trust with my staff. He didn't really speak in a fluid conversational manner and so for those reasons I didn't think he'd be a good fit for us. But Koberger does get a position as a teaching assistant at the University, which helps pay for his tuition. He was the TA for my Criminal Justice 420 class, which was criminal procedures.

37:40He was a little bit more strict with his grading. He gave several comments of feedback, you know, like saying, oh, well, this is a little bit too broad. This is not descriptive enough. Stuff like that. Brian Koberger was pretty quiet. He didn't really talk too much. He kind of didn't really look at us directly. And he just seemed really kind of awkward. And outside of class, Koberger doesn't appear to be very social. He was a loner. Jared and Heather Barnhart analyzed Koberger's digital life, including his cell phone and computer records for investigators. He had 18 total contacts in his phone.

38:17One person was labeled as maintenance and another was AT &T. There were no texts to friends. It was just his parents. He called them mother and father, even through text message. he would say, mother, where is father? Why isn't father answering me? And she would respond, your dad is in the garage, Brian, he's working. It was all mother and father, hours of talking, text messaging. And we found all those selfies. Like very much staged selfies, trying to catch himself in a certain manner. It's not weird that he was taking selfies. The weird part is that he He never did something with it. He didn't take a selfie to send it to someone else.

39:01As the semester progresses, instructors at WSU start to raise concerns about Koberger's conduct in the program. Koberger started to get a really bad reputation on campus. Sometime in November, I remember the professor saying, hi, so I'm switching some of my TAs. He didn't get any more in depth. He didn't seem to respect female professors, was showing up late to class, having some weird social problems where like he would block doorways when students were trying to talk to him. They felt uncomfortable around him. They felt that he would try to at times trap them. And there were lots of allegations that he was bothering girls.

39:41And this is especially problematic when there's a power dynamic. There was a common complaint of he's very controlling, that he's manipulative, that he treated women a certain way compared to men. Disrespect just had an odd strange behavior. The university was on to him. The professor said, we need to cut funding from this guy. If we give him a PhD, he's going to become a professor and we're going to end up seeing on the news that he's stalking women or he's committing some kind of crime. He received an email describing that he was on a performance improvement plan with the university in this role.

40:17It was somewhat satisfactory, but there were some problems. WSU did not intend to have him back as a teaching assistant. He was starting to really lose control of his life, kind of spinning out. Away from home, isolated. Koberger is about to turn his PhD work into reality. He goes from a student to a killer. Is it somebody that trains and practices over and over and over and over again? And then at some point, do they feel like they have to execute? Like a sick way of carrying out his thesis. Right.

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42:02Where she at? Where she at? Where at? Where's the third one? Hunter Johnson came up to me and I was like, where's Ethan and Xana? And he's like, they're not here anymore. I was like, what do you mean they're not here anymore? He's like, I think they were murdered last night. He was like, yeah, all four. We were like, what? It just made no sense. Now to the murders of those four college students from the University of Idaho. And now, what happened minute by minute? You go into Zanna's room. What did you see? Stabbing is close, personal, long-term. You've got to be committed. The number of times that Kaylee was stabbed, there's no sugarcoating it.

42:49The first person to find them. As soon as you get there, you know something's wrong. And a survivor who saw the killer in the house. The third time she opens her door, she sees a male figure. I just shut the door and locked it. I said he wants to do. Now just released inside his home and his mind. He was on a website called Serial Killer Timelines, and he just went down this list and clicked one after another after another. And the police body camera from the crime scene. I think we have a homicide. Secure the outside first. He made an absolutely critical mistake. What was the target?

43:46Just over the hill is the University of Idaho campus. This is Greek Row, the Sigma Chi house right there. And as you cross the street, you enter that off-campus housing. And this area in particular is really popular. Students sort of pass down the houses from generation to generation. And in August of 2022, this is where five young girls moved in together. They're full of optimism, excited about life, and they're posting videos showing all of it online.

44:19Think that I'm better alone. We just called it the older girl's house. Maddie stayed there, and then Kaylee moved there. And then Zanna moved there, and then Bethany Dillon moved there. And the sixth housemate was Kaylee's golden doodle. His name was Murphy. She was really excited to have the house dog, is what she called it. Everything I like to do with my dog. The King Road house is a three-story white house right in the middle of Party Central. The house is three levels. It has six bedrooms, two on each floor. Bethany's bedroom is on the first floor. Zanna and Dylan's bedrooms are on the second floor, along with the kitchen and the sliding glass door leading out to the porch.

45:11Kaylee and Madison's bedrooms are on the third floor and Ethan was over at the King Road house a lot it was always friends of Ethan that would go over friends of Zanna friends of Kaylee and Maddie there was never anybody who shouldn't have been there people didn't really have any interest in going into houses where they didn't know anybody it was a party neighborhood just in the sense that like you walked over to that area on Friday and Saturday nights listening for where people might be at and then you see someone you know you wander over.

45:53It's Saturday November 12th it's the last home game for the University of Idaho Vandals. Celebration is in the air. Students start tailgating early. We had a lot of pregames before the football games. If the game was early we would try and wake up early. Santa would usually be FaceTiming me, trying to wake me up, be like, hurry up, like, let's go. I had gotten texts from Ethan being like, why aren't you here yet? So I was like, okay, I won't keep you waiting any longer. The house on King, it was the cutest place to take pictures. Like you could go on the third floor patio. That patio was the scene of so many happy moments.

46:34Maddie's mom, Karen Laramie, shared those moments in the Prime Video docuseries one night in Idaho, the college murders. Kaylee texted me with the picture of Maddie on her shoulders. Just loving this amazing happy moment. I called Maddie and she put me on FaceTime. And then I was having a conversation with all of them. Kaylee Gonzalez posted this last photo to Instagram writing, one lucky girl to be surrounded by these people every day. We were with our whole friend group, which was a normal weekend for us, just hanging out with our friends. And then from there, we all kind of split off. And we were like, bye, love you.

47:18Gave each other a hug. The triplets, they went to Maisie's formal. I think Xana just waited for Ethan, probably. Ethan spent the beginning part of that night at the Betty's Ball with his sister. From there, he left with me back to Sigma Chi. The party continued after the formal. And Ethan really wanted you to come party. So he started off by texting me. I think he said, dog, come hang out. We all want you here. And was like spam texting me. And I said, I'm going to bed, I think. It was like 9. Or I'm not going to go. And then he said, love you. And I didn't even respond to that. I think I was asleep by then.

47:57And the I love you kind of stood out though. Well yeah, definitely. Because you didn't just normally text that to each other. Yeah.

48:12After the game, Kaylee and Maddie head down to the corner club. It's a big hangout for college students. They're having some drinks, hanging out with friends, and then they decide they need a snack so they head downtown. and they order mac and cheese from the grub truck. We live in this world right now where there are cameras everywhere. So we know that Kaylee and Maddie were at the food truck around 1.30 in the morning. Maddie was running around in that huge jacket, hugging people. Kaylee was just on her phone, just laughing at Maddie. And she was just smiling and she was, they were happy. They were so happy.

48:56Maddie and Kaylee get a ride back to the King Road house using a rideshare. And by 2 a.m., everyone's home. They're settling in for the night. It's like a sleepover. Kaylee sleeps in Maddie's bed, just like they've done since they were kids. But Zanna stays up. Zanna orders DoorDash, and it gets delivered to the King Road house a little after 4 a.m. She takes it up to the kitchen, puts some of her food onto a plate, and she's eating that in her bedroom. She's on social media, the latest of 4-12, and just shortly after that. Everything seemed so normal in that home on King Road. But by the next morning, nothing would ever be the same.

49:43Emily got a call from Dylan around 11-ish. That's when I felt like I needed to go over. And then what happened next? I went into the house. I don't know what location of your emergency. Hi, something is happening. Something's happening to my house. We don't know what. We were in complete panic. It's, this is, this is real.

50:22By 2 a.m., all the roommates are back home and settling in for the night. Police say around 3 a.m., shortly after leaving his apartment and heading towards Moscow, Brian Koberger turns his cell phone off. We can see Koberger's car on footage captured by a surveillance camera that was at the neighbor's house. He keeps circling the area. He's making multiple passes at the house.

50:55We believe that Brian Koberger entered the house sometime shortly after his last scene on the video. Somewhere probably around 410 a.m. Police say Koberger entered through a sliding glass door in the back of the house. Investigators believe Zanna was in her room with her boyfriend Ethan asleep in her bed, Dylan's across the hall, Bethany downstairs, and on the third floor, Kaylee and Maddie had fallen asleep together in Maddie's room. Zanna was up. We see activity from her watch of just steps that were taken. We know that she's eating. She's on social media at 412 and just shortly after that. After entering the house, investigators believe Koberger walked through the kitchen and went upstairs to the third floor where he found Kaylee and Maddie together asleep.

51:48Kaylee and Maddie were both killed very quickly, but they were stabbed repeatedly many times.

51:58STABBING IS CLOSE, PERSONAL, LONG-TERM VIOLENT ACTION. YOU 'VE GOT TO BE COMMITTED TO DO A HOMICIDE. WHAT INVESTIGATORS THINK HAPPEN IS THAT ZANA HEARD THE COMMOTION. AT SOME POINT, ZANA COMES, WE BELIEVE, UP THE STAIRS. Brian Koberger either hears something or he hears the stairs. Something alerts him and takes him away from what he's doing in that bedroom. Investigators say Zanna turned and ran and that Koberger followed, chasing her downstairs to her bedroom. Zanna, after that initial contact in the doorway, she's fighting him. We know that because she has defensive wounds all over herself.

52:50She fought like hell and we think at that point he realizes that there's a fourth person and that's Ethan that's in the bed. So he reaches over and stabs Ethan. It killed Ethan instantly. He continues to fight with Santa and ends up on the floor where ultimately he does finally kill her. At 4 17 a.m. less than 10 minutes after investigators believe Brian Koberger entered the house. The neighbor's surveillance camera captures what police describe as a loud thud, the sound of a whimper, and a dog barking. That camera is just about 50 feet from Zana's bedroom. In Zana's room, some things were pushed around, were moved around, and I think that's something that you're probably hearing on the video.

53:41Because she was fighting. Right. after koberger walks out of zanna's room he then comes face to face with another one of her roommates it's dylan dylan was awakened by just some type of noises initially she thought it was the dog murphy then she thought she heard a male voice say i'm here to help you we believe that is brian and Koberger saying that to Zana. He's doing something to try to calm her, to make her relax of who he is and why he's in this residence. Dylan, as she had overheard multiple things throughout this time period, she had opened her door a couple different times. The third time she opens her door, she sees a male figure.

54:32The description was a thin, tall individual wearing a mask, almost described as a basketball player, physique and bushy eyebrows. She momentarily saw him. And then he turned and he left the residence. He knows people were awake, probably believing at some point somebody called the police. I've got to get out of here. The fight, Lizana, could have just wiped him. We'll never know what made him pass that door up and head out. After that, Dylan is terrified. She starts texting Bethany, her roommate. Did you hear that? I'm trying to call the other roommates. They're not answering. You've got somebody who had been drinking, was in and out of slumber, and somebody walks through in the middle of the night and still wonders in her own mind, did she see it or did she dream it?

55:31She makes a mad dash for Bethany's room and decides to run downstairs and spend the rest of the night with Bethany. As night turns into day, everything in Moscow is still quiet. But investigators say that Brian Koberger is awake. He's active. That includes spending more than an hour and a half on the phone with his mom and posing for a selfie, giving a thumbs up. Police say just after 9 a.m. Koberger is on the move and he's headed back to 1122 King Road. He's not seen anything on the news. I think he certainly would expect this is going to be everywhere immediately. So I think that his curiosity has absolutely gotten to him.

56:20And so he goes back to the area. But for all this training, for all of his things that he's studied, crime scene and serial killers. PhD program for criminology. He made an absolutely critical mistake in that house that night.

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58:24I woke up in the morning, just kind of like chill Sunday. Emily and Hunter came and were hanging out in my bed with me. And then Dylan called Emily and asked us all to come over.

58:41I could overhear what was going on. She sounded freaked out. I just had a gut feeling, and something in me told me that I need to just go. As soon as you get there, you know something's wrong.

58:59I walked just right in the door, and Hunter already went up. And then he was like, okay, everybody get out. Hunter finds Zanna and Ethan murdered. But he decides to shield his friends from that reality. And he tells them only that someone inside is unconscious and to call 911.

59:43Where at? Up here? Up here.

59:49Okay, do that. 13, I think we have a homicide. I don't think any of us were prepared for that it's four young, completely innocent kids. Russell, please comment. Two college-age people, they're involved in the city deceased. Lots of blood. Please comment. We're on 34. We got another. We have two additional deceased on the third floor. Secure the outside first. I'm going to move to the front door. There's a back entry. I was going to start taping it all off. Okay. Here. Can you guys go over to the dumpster for me, please? We were just placed on the street to sit down and wait. We were all cold.

1:00:32We were all scared. Our brains just started to continue to spiral. I kept calling her name and she wouldn't answer. And then I saw the guy.

1:00:43Outside, police speak to Dylan. She's distraught. She's the roommate who told police she saw a masked man in the house that night. Describe the guy that you saw. He's a little bit taller than me. I'm almost positive. He's wearing a full black outfit. And he had this mask that was just over his forehead and over his mouth. and he didn't say anything to me, like, at all. I just shut the door and locked it because I didn't know what to do. And I think he went out, like, the side door, the sliding door in the kitchen that goes out to the backyard. We have footprints going out the back and open door.

1:01:21When we got there, that sliding glass door was left halfway open. You go into Zana's room. What did you see? Zana was there.

1:01:32She was laying on the floor. and Ethan was on the bed.

1:01:44I got woken up by my friend. We'd partied pretty hard the night before. He's like, there's a ton of cops over at Zana's house. I walked over there. I didn't see Ethan outside, so I figured he was inside helping whoever needed to be helped. His brother's walking up this way. Okay, do you mind hanging out here, please? Hunter Johnson came up to me and I was like, where's Ethan and Xana? And he's like, they're not here anymore. I was like, what do you mean they're not here anymore? He's like, I think they were murdered last night.

1:02:18And you're at the grocery store? I was at the grocery store. And I was talking to a friend. Fine. It's okay. And my phone kept ringing. and it was Hunter on the other end and he just said he's not here and he kept repeating it and so I was like we'll go get him go find him and he just kept saying it and he goes no mom you don't understand Ethan and Xanah are not on this earth anymore I just was like there's just There's no way.

1:02:55And I drove down the road and called Jim, and, you know, it makes it real when you have to repeat it. Right. It drives me crazy because I've always wanted to protect my family. And there was really nothing there that I could have done. Instantly, he was taken.

1:03:24We still didn't know where Kaylee and Maddie were. We didn't know where Murphy was. And then U of I sent the homicide text. Throughout the day, the University of Idaho sent campus-wide text messages with updates on the investigation about a homicide and an unknown suspect. But at 5.17 p.m., students get a text message that says, for the first time, four people have been killed. That was the moment that we knew where Kaylee and Maddie were.

1:04:02What time do you think he'll see? The two surviving roommates, Dylan and Bethany, have received a lot of criticism for not calling 911 immediately on the night of the murders. but they both told police they weren't certain that what Dylan thought she saw was real.

1:04:37We understand the disbelief that she's going through. What 19-year-old kid is going to come up with and assume what actually happened was happening. Investigators now know they're a few hours behind the killer, but as they walk into Maddie's third-floor bedroom, police get their first big break. The comforter's over. The girls take the comforter off. Lo and behold, there's a knife sheath laying right there. They find a sheath for a K-Bar-style knife. There's no murder weapon, but the sheath is there. That was definitely the first aha moment. We have something in this house from a joke.

1:05:28Four murdered students. A panicked campus. And now the world's eyes on Moscow, Idaho. Now to the murders of those four college students from the University of Idaho. As investigators try to figure out what happened in that house on King Road. We've told the public very clearly from the beginning that we believe it was a targeted attack. They said, oh this was a targeted attack, nothing to worry about. And my first question was, but you don't have anybody. That means there's somebody still out there. How could we not worry?

1:06:10We don't want to put our investigation in jeopardy by releasing what we have. The investigation grew massively. We were trying to get every piece of video footage from that day, from every surveillance camera in town, captured from that night. Right across the street from Zanna's bedroom is a house. they have surveillance footage of a white Hyundai Elantra circling the house in the early morning hours of November 13th. We quickly realized that we had this white vehicle during this time leaving at a very fast high rate of speed. You can see it is burning out of that neighborhood. So we believed at that point this was the vehicle of our subject.

1:07:00So we narrowed it down to a 2011 to 2016 Elantra. Believe it or not, when we ran Idaho registrations and just looking local, we had over 25 ,000. The search to track down that car has no limits. We are just wanting to talk to the individuals who are in that vehicle. Investigators also have a crucial piece of evidence found at the crime scene, left behind by the killer. a sheath for a k-bar knife this knife sheath was found under matty's body in the bed immediately it stood out because it was in stark contrast to the entire house about four days in the lab came back and said they had a sole source male dna found on the button of the knife sheath but there was no matches in codis for that dna once we know we had the dna from the sheath, then we flew that to Othrum and then they started to develop and work their part of it.

1:08:02Othrum is a company in which we build technology to basically bring certainty to investigations. Forensic genetic genealogy is a tool that we use to identify someone or find the nearest relative. so i got a call and i was asked what is the fastest that we could produce a result kristen was adamant that we get these folks answers i i can't imagine that being my child and knowing that there's someone out there that could help we have to help how fast can we get It was a sergeant from the Moscow Police Department who got on a plane in Boise. And they flew directly to Texas and hand-delivered it to Othram.

1:08:54They brought us down a tube of DNA that was remaining from that knife sheath. That DNA extract contained a lot of DNA. It was not a trace amount of DNA. It was 500 times more DNA than we generally see in our low-quantity DNA cases. The technology at Othram is then able to build a profile that's uploaded to genealogy databases, which search for people who are connected to that unknown DNA. In this particular case, there was a unique biogeographical ancestry that allowed us to kind of narrow the search even early on. And what we found is that there was a multi-generational American family based in Pennsylvania, genetic relatives that were related to the person we were looking for.

1:09:39While there's a massive, multifaceted investigation working to find him, Ryan Koberger leaves Washington and heads home to Pennsylvania for winter break. He drives across the country with his father in that white Hyundai Elantra. Hello. How you doing? How y 'all doing today? So it's a long trip from Moscow, Idaho, all the way to Pennsylvania. Koberger's pulled over twice during this time. Right up on the back end of that van, pulled you over for tailgating. So y 'all work at the university there? I actually do work there. And he's pulled over for following a vehicle too closely, both times. By the time the co-workers arrived back in Pennsylvania, the FBI had taken over that genetic genealogy search from Othram.

1:10:25And just over a month after the murders, investigators get a name. On December 19th, the investigative genealogy team leader calls in and he says, Hey, Darren, I have a first name for you. It's Brian. And he goes, hey, we also have a last name for you. Koberger. And he drives a white Hyundai Elantra. Once we had his name at that point, immediately we knew that he was in Pennsylvania. When did the surveillance on him start? Immediately. He only left the house three times, and he was noticed to be wearing rubber gloves all the times he had left the house. They need a way to test that DNA. So they pull the trash.

1:11:07The agent on scene had made contact with the trash company to be able to ride the truck to collect the trash. They sort anything that could contain DNA. They found an item in the trash that had male DNA that comes back and says, we have DNA in this trash that is the father of the DNA left on the knife sheet. Once we had the DNA paternity match from the trash pole. From a Q-tip specifically. Yeah, we knew at that point that we had the person whose DNA was on that sheath. At that point, you have what you need to get an arrest warrant for Brian Koberger. And news of an arrest spreads fast. The big story on Action News tonight is a major break in the murder of four Idaho college students.

1:11:56People in this sleepy Poconos community are stunned. We got lied feed. We saw the armored vehicles roll in, them make entry, and we get the call out in custody.

1:12:15And we want to get right to our breaking news as we come on the air. The arrest of a 28-year-old man in Pennsylvania in connection with the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students. Nearly seven weeks after the brutal murders, an arrest is finally made. Pennsylvania State Police make that arrest. We've got live feed coming from the helicopter from Pennsylvania State Police. We're getting constantly updated on what's going on, telling us, yes, they've got Bryan in the house. We saw the armored vehicles roll in, then make entry, and we get the call out in custody. Detectives arrested 28-year-old Bryan Christopher Koberger in Albrightesville, Pennsylvania.

1:12:56Koburger faces four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary.

1:13:09Authorities have not revealed a possible motive just yet. People in this sleepy Poconos community are stunned that one of their own has been arrested in connection with this grisly crime. Agents from the Scranton Office of the FBI, after the arrest, interviewed Brian's parents. They were, you know, aghast. We do know there was conversation among the family about, hey, Brian does drive a car like that. Brian, do you think, you know, and it was immediately quashed. There's no way Brian could do this. No way. Nobody can comprehend that their child is capable of something like this. What was his reaction to the national media attention?

1:13:52He was very surprised, actually. He didn't realize that it would garner national media news, I would say. Really? Yeah, it actually was. It was surprising. Because he inquired as to which outlets were actually circling. Police department, search warrant, come to the door. After the arrest, police in Washington searched Koberger's apartment. And in these just-released photos, you can see the Spartan place he left behind, one of the few personal items they found is a birthday card from his parents. He was taken back to the Pennsylvania State Police Barrett immediately upon being arrested and had given what turned out to be about a two and a half, three hour statement, but was a significantly long time that he interviewed until he asked for an attorney.

1:14:45What did he tell you about that interview? He was very limited. I didn't want to know a lot about the case because he was going to have an attorney that would represent him on the murder charges. I want to make sure he's aware of how the process is going to play out. I want to make sure he understands that the death penalty may be considered in the case. You thought right away it would be a death penalty case. Oh, absolutely. I had zero doubt. Brian Koberger agreed to be extradited, and he was flown across the country to the Moscow Pullman Airport and then brought here to the Latak County Jail to face murder charges while the world watched on.

1:15:25When they brought him off the plane, people were like, we got him. Thank God he wasn't a local. He wasn't one of us. Koberger's attorneys enter a not guilty plea for him, insisting that he's innocent. But prosecutors decide to pursue the death penalty. And as they prepare for trial, they dig into every part of Koberger's life, particularly his digital life, sifting through his Amazon purchase history that showed he bought a K-bar knife and sharpener back in Pennsylvania. And they look at his cell phone and computer searches right up until the days before his arrest. On Christmas night, the 11 o 'clock hour, heading into the very early morning of the 26th, he was on a rudimentary website called Serial Killer Timelines, just a list of hyperlinked names.

1:16:16And he just went down this list and clicked one after another after another for like two hours. December 27th, there's some sort of a show that he watched. It's a YouTube, and it's Ted Bundy sort of standing facing forward with a hood pulled up and over the front, and on 12-29, just two days later, he's taking a picture of himself looking like Ted Bundy. And although investigators weren't able to make a direct link between Brian Koberger and any of the victims, Those digital forensic experts did find something interesting on his phone. The FBI gave us keywords and said, okay, search for these things.

1:16:59We needed victim names. We needed, what did they call their Wi-Fi? So all these things, we searched for it. And I remember saying to Jared, I have a hit for Mad Greek. Remember, Mad Greek is that Moscow restaurant where Maddie and Zana both worked. This search for Mad Greek, however he arrived at it, was done through the Google Maps app. What we can say is that Mad Greek was presented to him on his phone. It doesn't necessarily draw a hard line to these victims. Now to the sudden and stunning turn in the Idaho College murders case. After insisting his innocence for nearly three years, defendant Brian Koberger today pleading guilty to fatally stabbing four students.

1:17:41Koberger had maintained his innocence the entire time, but he decided to change his plea from innocent to guilty. That was huge. And as part of that plea deal, prosecutors agree to take the death penalty off the table. We got what we wanted. And we got what the law... When you say we got what we wanted, though, that we does not include all of the victims' families. There are victims' families that have been very public about wanting more, perhaps a taped confession, the location of the murder weapon. You don't feel like you... you didn't feel like you could have asked for those things. There was no legal way we could have compelled those.

1:18:18And quite frankly, there is nothing that he could have said that I think would have been credible or believable. And the minimizing and the lies that would have even been more damaging and frustrating to everybody.

1:18:37You've seen it. Thank you. Without a trial, Koberger moves right to a sentencing hearing. And the loved ones for the victims finally get their own day in court. All right, so with that, let's start with the impact statements. I just wanted to reclaim their power. The truth is, as dumb as they come, sloppy, weak, dirty.

1:19:08Brian Koberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder. but he still has to sit and face the families of his victims. All right, so with that, let's start with the impact statements. The first statement comes from one of the two surviving roommates, Bethany Funk. She's unable to be in the courtroom herself, so her statement is read by her friend and also one of the first people to arrive at the house that day, Emily Alon. I was so frantic that morning and scared to death, not knowing what had happened. And when I made the 911 call, I couldn't even get out the words. And from then on, I don't remember a thing.

1:19:49I wish more than anything I could hug them one last time. And I wish I could tell them how much I love them. I will keep living for them as long as I am lucky enough to still be here. And then it's the second surviving roommate, Dylan Mortenson. Dylan, just take your time, all right?

1:20:18I was barely 19 when he did this. I was forced to learn how to survive the unimaginable. I couldn't be alone. Then there are the panic attacks. The kind that slammed into me like a tsunami out of nowhere. I can't breathe. I can't think. I can't stop shaking. Living is how I honor them. Speaking today is to help me find some sort of justice for them. He may have taken so much from me, but he will never get to take my voice.

1:21:00One after another, family members describe the loved ones they lost. And notably among them is Kaylee's sister, Olivia Gonsalves. My sister Kaylee and her best friend Maddie were not yours to take. They were not yours to study, to stalk, or to silence. The whole time I just wanted to reclaim their power, reclaim their voice, especially in a way that really was the end to this chapter. You got under his skin. Absolutely. Disappointments like you thrive on pain, on fear, and on the illusion of power. The truth is, the scariest part about you is how painfully average you turned out to be. The truth is, as dumb as they come.

1:21:55Stupid, clumsy, slow, sloppy, weak, dirty. Did you say everything that you wanted to say? For the most part, yes. I didn't want to break eye contact. So that gaze was so intense, and it really did feel like a standoff. You want the truth? here's the one you'll hate the most. If you hadn't attacked them in their sleep, in the middle of the night, like a pedophile, Kaylee would have kicked your ass.

1:22:37The Chapin family was not at the sentencing. They chose instead to honor Ethan privately. Hi! The Chapins recently got to visit that DNA lab that played such a crucial role in solving this case. It came after a chance meeting a few years back. This stranger, who I did not know, came up and she just wrapped her arms around me and hugged me. And she just said, we are working on your case and you don't have to worry. Everything will be okay. Everything's going to be okay. That there will be justice in the outcome. I mean, that was what I was trying to relay. Right. And that's how it felt. Jim and I would rely on that information to, you know, in your toughest days, you were like, Kristen told us not to worry, and we use that.

1:23:23The Chapins now want to help advocate for the work being done at this lab. Maybe our family could become a face for the victim side of what these people do. If we can make a positive impact for the future on some level, it's important. I miss him every day. When you lose your son at 20, it's a different loss. And I miss him every single day.

1:23:54Alrighty. It's nice that, you know, when we have so many different photographs and videos, and we can still hear their voices. They were some really, really cool people. It helps to remember them and not what happened to them. Hopefully one day they're just seen as who they are and not what happened to them.

1:24:19And just as college is starting again, there's now a memorial garden at the University of Idaho with a plaque bearing the name of each of the four victims. A touching tribute. As for Brian Koberger, David, he received four life sentences, one for each of his victims and an additional 10 years for burglary. As part of that plea deal, he waived his right to an appeal. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts. And I'm David Muir from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News. Good night. 20th Century Studios presents Springsteen, Deliver Me From Nowhere. Baby, we're a monster.

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