The Idaho College Murders: Catching Kohberger (2026) Movie Script
Are you pleading guilty
because you are guilty?
Yes.
[Angenette]
Bryan Kohberger wants to
take back that guilty plea
and go to trial.
[somber tones playing]
[narrator]
With a killer on the loose,
police of Moscow, Idaho,
trying to calm
a community on edge.
[Fry] The four were stabbed
with a knife
but no weapon has been located
at this time.
[Caitlyn] There's so much blood
at the scene, it's seeping
out of the foundation
outside of the house.
[Angenette] While Moscow
searched for a killer,
he wasn't hiding at all.
Hello.
I am Officer Luengas.
I think you know
why I stopped you.
'Cause I was stuck in the middle
of the intersection?
Buried in all that data was
a completely different story.
He looked up a lot of
home invasions, burglaries,
coed killings, serial killers.
[Jared] And then starts to shop
for used cars.
[Jesse] They're denied a trial.
They're denied answers.
They're denied the opportunity
for Bryan Kohberger
to potentially get
the death penalty.
For them, life in prison is
not enough.
I have to be perfectly candid.
I don't believe that there's
anything that would come
out of his mouth
that would be the truth.
[Caitlyn] Was he stalking them?
Did he want to attack earlier?
The amount of planning that went
into this crime is a lot.
[Angenette]
Evil walked into that house
and stole their lives.
[Alivea] If you hadn't
attacked them in their sleep
in the middle of the night
like a pedophile,
Kaylee would have kicked
your [bleep] ass.
[theme music playing]
[soft music playing]
[Caitlyn]
The University of Idaho is
the heart of Moscow.
It's a college town of about
25,000 people.
Greek life runs everything.
Everybody knows everybody.
On November 12th, there's
a home game.
The Vandals are
against UC Davis.
So, of course,
everybody's partying.
All the students are out.
Think about yourself in college.
It's so much fun.
You have your whole life
ahead of you.
You're working hard.
You have your goals.
It's just a good time.
[music turns somber]
[siren wailing]
[Caitlyn]
Police in Moscow, Idaho,
get a 911 call.
-[device beeps]
-[siren wailing]
[Caitlyn] Police pull up
to this house on King Road.
It's only steps from campus.
They're expecting to find
probably a kid
passed out from drinking.
[woman] Yes, [indistinct]
[Jesse]
They go through the front door.
They go one floor up.
They find the first body
and there is blood everywhere.
On the floor is a female
with visible stab wounds.
She's deceased.
They walk over
and they go to the bed.
That's where they find
a second body.
Now this one is a male who is
also obviously deceased,
and cops say it looks like
from sharp force injuries.
Arriving at the scene,
police immediately speak
with Dylan Mortensen.
She lives at 1122 King Road.
And she tells cops
that in the middle of the night
she witnessed some
suspicious activity.
[Caitlyn] There's so much blood
at the scene, it's seeping
out of the foundation
outside of the house.
We know that these homicides
occurred in the early
morning hours of Sunday,
November 13th.
Around noon, Moscow officers
received a call
of an unconscious person.
Officers discovered the bodies
of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle,
Madison Mogen,
and Kaylee Goncalves
inside the residence
on King Road.
The four were stabbed
with a knife
but no weapon has been
located at this time.
[Caitlyn]
Xana Kernodle was the first
victim that police found.
She's 20 years old.
Friends are describing her
like she is pure sunshine.
Hi, my name is Xana Kernodle.
I'm a marketing major here
at the University of Idaho.
This is actually King Street,
where I've lived
for the past two years.
And I really like just hanging
out with my friends all the time
and being super involved
in school events
and everything else.
So yeah, that's just
a little bit about me.
[Caitlyn] Xana is a member of
Pi Beta Phi sorority.
She loves EDM music,
hanging out with friends.
Xana is energetic.
She's fun.
She's fiercely loyal.
She's everybody's best friend.
[Jesse] In the same room is
her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin,
also 20 years old, a member of
the Sigma Chi fraternity.
He was just an outgoing, likable
kid and who was a triplet
here on campus.
He had two other siblings
going to school here
at the same time.
If everybody was like
Ethan Chapin in this world,
it would be a better place.
-For sure.
[Caitlyn] Ethan was majoring in
something that he wanted to do
with sports and recreation.
He was the kid that friends
described as always having
a smile on his face.
Always a good time.
They had this unstoppable,
loving relationship.
They both would look at
each other with so much love.
Everyone knew
they were the perfect duo.
They both had this fun,
passionate, crazy,
but good energy.
They both were the kind
of people who cared about
everyone and would
help anyone.
[Caitlyn] The two other victims
that the police find are both
21 years old.
They're longtime best friends,
Kaylee Goncalves
and Madison Mogen.
[Steve] These girls were
absolutely beautiful.
They had been friends
since sixth grade.
They went to
high school together.
Then they started
looking at colleges.
They came here together,
[voice shaking]
and in the end,
they died together.
[Caitlyn]
Kaylee had already moved out.
She was only weeks
from graduating.
She was planning to
move to Austin
and had accepted a job
in marketing.
The whole reason she came back
was to show her best friend,
Maddie, her new car.
Maddie is a marketing major.
She and Xana work together
at a restaurant in town
called the Mad Greek.
Xana, Maddie
and their two friends,
Dylan and Bethany, all lived
together at 1122 King Road.
Ethan and Kaylee were just
visiting for the night.
Did anybody do
their chores today?
Let's just do my night.
Get out of here.
You're seriously gotta get out.
[Caitlyn]
They're all in sororities.
These are just
quintessential college students.
Just enjoying themselves.
They left behind hundreds
of photos and videos
of the four of them
dancing in the kitchen,
laughing in the living room.
The same house where
they'd be killed.
Given that Dylan and Bethany
are left completely unharmed
the night of the attack,
the first question is
how did they survive?
[Caitlyn] Dylan says she thought
she heard Kaylee
running downstairs,
but based on the crime scene,
it was more likely that
it was Xana
that she heard running.
I walked around that house
on King Road many times
on my trips to Moscow.
I think just the absolute
carnage is so unbelievable.
What is your opinion overall
about the autopsy reports?
[Morgan] I read a lot of autopsy
reports over the years,
and by my standards,
the brutality involved
in this case, um, you know,
exceeds some
of my understanding.
It was a destructive event.
There is no way that anyone
will ever fully appreciate,
and I hope no one ever does,
what went on
in that house that night,
relative to the brutality
that was exacted on these kids.
We believe this was an isolated,
targeted attack on our victims.
We do not have a suspect
at this time,
and that individual is
still out there.
We cannot say that there is
no threat to the community.
And as we have stated,
please stay vigilant,
report any suspicious activity
and be aware of
your surroundings at all times.
And can you also give
a little more information
on the forced entry?
There's no sign of forced entry,
but was the door --
did it seem like any
of the entries were left
unlocked by any means?
We're not 100% sure if the door
was unlocked,
but there was no damage
to anything and the door
was still open when
we got there.
So this leads us to believe
that maybe the killer had
been there before,
that he'd been in that home,
that he was acquainted with it.
Or at the very least,
he knew the victims.
[Caitlyn] So the most likely
point of entry would have been
that sliding glass door
in the backside of the house.
The back of the house is
also much darker,
and there's a parking area
back there that is just
a quick walk in the dark
straight to that door.
This was a known party house.
Back in August, police came to
the house for a noise complaint.
-[officer] How are ya?
-Good, how are you?
-[officer] Good, is this
your place?
-Yeah.
[officer] Perfect, do you know
why I'm here?
-Um, I assume noise.
-[officer] Noise, yeah.
-Yeah.
-[officer] Big speaker
right there.
Yeah.
And then Labor Day weekend,
the cops are called again
to the house.
[Caitlyn]
This time, police can't find
one person who is a renter
or resident of this home
to come and answer
the noise complaint.
So I just looked for everyone
that lived here
and they're not here right now.
-[officer] No one's here that --
-No one's here.
-[officer] At all?
-No one's here that lives here.
-So everyone here's trespassing?
Well, no one's here
that's trespassing.
But no one, no one that
lives here is here right now.
[Caitlyn]
Later that night, police are
called back a second time
for another noise complaint.
[officer] Hello, miss.
What's your name?
-Xana.
-[officer] Xana, do you
live here?
-Yes.
-[officer] This is the second
noise complaint
we've had here tonight,
within two hours, OK.
I'm sorry about that.
[Caitlyn]
Noise complaints, parties.
People coming and going.
It's a house a lot of people
had access to even
when the girls weren't home.
[investigator]
The front door code...
[Caitlyn]
The two surviving roommates,
Dylan and Bethany,
They're crucial for police to
start putting together
a timeline of what happened
leading up to
the quadruple homicides.
At 8:57 PM, Kaylee Goncalves
posts this photo.
It is a chilling image.
You see Kaylee there, smiling.
Maddie's perched
on her shoulders.
Ethan has his arm hooked
over his girlfriend, Xana.
All four of the victims are
just there together
earlier that day.
Later in the night,
they kind of splinter off.
[Caitlyn] They all leave
Sigma Chi at different times.
By 1 AM, Bethany is back
at the house on King Road
watching TV.
Meanwhile, Kaylee and Maddie
headed out to a local bar
called The Corner Club.
1:30 rolls around, they head out
and they go to a popular
nighttime food stop
called a Grub Truck,
where they pick up some pasta.,
And we see them on this
Twitch video looking like
typical college girls.
They're laughing.
They're on their phones.
They take a private car service,
and by 2 AM, they're home.
-[Bethany] Mm-hmm.
-OK.
[Caitlyn] The girls catch up
with Bethany for a bit,
and then they decide
to get ready for bed.
[Caitlyn]
By 3:30 AM, everyone was home.
But Dylan woke up
to some commotion
in the middle of the night,
and what she heard and saw
was absolutely terrifying.
[Caitlyn] So she goes back
to her room, but she believes
she then hears someone faintly
crying and a voice saying,
"It's OK.
I'm here to help you."
We presume at this point those
are the words of the killer.
[Caitlyn] So again, she opens
the door, peeks out,
doesn't see anything,
closes the door
and gets back into bed.
Then she opens the door
a third time,
and what she sees
shakes her to her core.
[Caitlyn] This figure, clad in
black clothing and a ski mask
walks past Dylan and she stands
there, frozen in shock.
Police at this point
assume that masked person has
fled the scene.
Terrified, Dylan starts
texting and calling
everyone else in the house,
but only Bethany answers.
At first, Bethany seems
skeptical about Dylan's story,
suggesting maybe she just saw
Xana in the house.
But the more details
Dylan gives,
the more concerned Bethany gets.
We really don't know
how intoxicated
Dylan and Bethany were,
but the other kids in the house
had blood alcohol levels
between roughly 1.3
and three and a half times
the legal driving limit.
The alcohol combined
with the late hour
and the effects of fear,
it's really possible that
those factors help explain
why no one called 911.
[Caitlyn] Based on cell phone
data and the information
that they got from
Bethany and Dylan,
police are narrowing down
the timeline of the murders
from between 4 and 4:25 AM.
Something else we learned
from the cell phone data
is Xana gets a DoorDash delivery
at 4:00 in the morning,
pretty much on the button.
Then her phone reports that
she was on TikTok at 4:12 AM.
But the phones aren't
the only things that are
recording that morning.
Less than 50 ft from Xana's
bedroom wall,
a neighbor's security camera
is running,
and at 4:17 AM,
it picks up a sound.
[dog barking]
[dog barking]
Police immediately start working
to secure the crime scene
and collect evidence
in the hopes of
finding out who did this.
[Dahlinger] We had a lot to do
on the outside.
We had our initial
responding officers helping
to lock down the scene,
as they should.
And they did a great job
of cordoning off the area.
The first days were a bit
of a blur.
We were working tirelessly
from dawn till late at night.
[Caitlyn] The story starts to
captivate the nation.
Multiple victims,
two survivors in a college town
and a killer on the loose?
You can't look away.
[reporter]
With a killer on the loose,
police in Moscow, Idaho
trying to calm
a community on edge.
This stuff doesn't happen here.
We're 100 ft away.
You know.
How close was this person?
Are they still around?
Like where?
I don't know, it's so scary.
[woman]
I've walked at night in Moscow
and I haven't worried.
But this is gonna flip
a lot of that upside down.
In some ways,
this took our innocence.
You guys have said repeatedly
that there's no threat
to the public,
but we don't know
who the suspect is.
We don't know where he's at.
How is there no threat
to the public at this point?
Well, that's kind of an unknown.
The individual is still
out there, right?
We need to be vigilant.
We need to watch out
for our neighbors.
The reality is, there's still
a person out there
who committed four
horrible, horrible crimes.
So I think we gotta go back
to there is
a threat out there still.
[Wills] At this crime scene,
We collected 103 pieces
of individual evidence.
We took approximately
4000 photographs.
We've conducted multiple
3D scans of the residence,
and we have hundreds of hours
used by technicians
and investigators,
including our forensics team
and detectives
from multiple agencies.
Police are really tight-lipped
to the public, but a key piece
of evidence that they uncovered
during the investigation is
a ka-bar knife sheath that was
uncovered partially underneath
Madison Mogan's body
on the bed.
It's a ka-bar knife sheath,
which is a military style knife.
The Marine Corps insignia is
stamped on the sheath,
which is leather.
That knife wasn't from
the kitchen, which means it was
brought there by the killer,
which also means
this was planned.
The four were stabbed
with a knife,
but no weapon has been located
at this time.
What we don't know,
the identity and location
of the suspect.
The location of the knife
or any clothing that was worn
by the suspect.
And we continue looking
for what we believe to be
a fixed-blade knife used
in the murders.
[Caitlyn]
A week after the killings,
the Idaho State Police
Crime Lab locates a single
source of male DNA
on the snap of
that knife sheath.
They run the DNA through CODIS,
that's the FBI's database
of offender DNA,
and they don't get a match.
So on November 22nd,
nine days after the murders,
the Moscow Police Department
personally delivers that
male DNA to Othram Labs.
It's a Texas-based private
company that specializes
in advanced DNA testing
and forensic genealogy.
Building out a genetic
family tree takes time.
So while Othram Labs is
studying the DNA
on the knife sheath,
Moscow investigators are
scouring surveillance cameras
around the neighborhood
around the times of the murder.
And immediately, one vehicle
jumps out.
The same white sedan makes
three passes around the house
between 3:30 and 3:58 AM.
At 3:59 AM, Xana's DoorDash
order is dropped off
at the house.
And just five minutes later at
4:04 AM, that same white sedan
is seen entering the area
a fourth time.
At 4:07 AM, the sedan heads back
in the direction of the house.
Xana's phone lock reveals
she was on TikTok
from 4:12 to 4:16 AM.
And then at 4:17:32,
the security camera across
the street picks up the sound
of screaming and a thud.
This matches up with
Dylan's description of hearing
Xana say, "someone's here."
And at 4:20 AM, that white
sedan is seen peeling out
away from the house.
[Jesse] Now we're narrowing
the timeline down even more.
4:07 AM. to 4:20 AM.
That is 13 minutes for someone
to take four lives.
[Caitlyn]
So the person who entered
this home to commit these crimes
very likely knew exactly where
they were going
within the house.
Police take all the footage
of this white sedan
and they give it to FBI forensic
examiners, who come back
with a make and a model.
They say it's likely a 2011
to 2013 Hyundai Elantra,
but then that gets adjusted to
a 2014 to 2016 Hyundai Elantra.
Problem is, there are
approximately 22,000 registered
vehicles in the Moscow area
that match this description,
making this a needle
in a haystack
search for law enforcement.
Luckily, after 18 days on
December 10th, Othram Labs
finally completes their work.
It determines the DNA on
the knife sheath belongs to
an Italian-American family
in Pennsylvania.
The FBI then cross checks
the individuals on this
family tree against the 22,000
registered Hyundai Elantras
in the Moscow area.
On December 19th,
they get a match and identify
the owner of a 2015
Hyundai Elantra.
The FBI calls Moscow police
with a name,
Bryan Christopher Kohberger,
6 feet tall, 185 pounds,
and bushy eyebrows,
just like Dylan described.
Within two weeks of the murders,
police are running down
information on this
Bryan Kohberger.
They learned that he's a PhD
student at Washington State
University studying
criminology, and that he lives
off campus just eight miles
from where the murders
took place.
He's also a teaching assistant
in the criminology department.
And that's not all.
Bryan Kohberger holds
an undergraduate degree in
psychology and cloud-based
forensics from
DeSales University.
Bryan Kohberger.
[Caitlyn] At DeSales,
Kohberger surveyed former
inmates about their criminal
thought process and planning.
While he was at DeSales
University, he studied under
this renowned expert
in serial killers,
Katherine Ramsland.
She quite literally wrote
the book on the BTK killer.
For me, it was
advancing criminology,
making a contribution to
my field in forensic psychology.
[Caitlyn] It seemed Kohberger
had every intention of a career
in law enforcement.
He actually applied for
an internship with
the Pullman Police Department
in the fall of 2022.
And in his criminology classes,
of course they're going to talk
about this gruesome quadruple
homicide not 10 miles away.
Police talked to classmates
and acquaintances of Bryan's
who described him as quieter
and visibly disheveled
in the weeks
following the murders.
Kohberger's not from
the Washington or Idaho area.
He actually grew up in eastern
Pennsylvania near the Poconos.
He's one of three.
He's got two sisters.
Back in high school,
Kohberger was described as being
pretty overweight
and that he was bullied
and that sometime between
his junior and his senior year
he dropped like 100 pounds,
and there was a switch
in his personality
when suddenly he kind of
became the bully.
Kohberger had some small brushes
with law enforcement
prior to the murders,
but nothing really seemed
alarming at the time.
When he gets pulled over
three months prior,
Kohberger seems calm, friendly,
maybe a little awkward.
He's asking
the officer questions.
He uses the stop to almost
kind of pump the officer
for information.
One month before the murders,
Kohberger's pulled over
a second time, this time
for running a red light.
Again, he's peppering
the officers with questions.
[Caitlyn] Now remember, we're
one month after the murders.
The public still has no idea
who he is.
They've never heard his name.
They're still gripped with fear
because no suspect has
been named.
Law enforcement has established
several key points connecting
Bryan Kohberger to
the quadruple homicide.
He owns a white Hyundai Elantra.
He lives in Pullman,
Washington, which is only miles
from the crime scene.
DNA found at the scene has been
linked to his family,
and his appearance matches
the one that Dylan gave police
of the intruder that night.
Kohberger is a strong suspect,
but it's not enough.
Investigators still need
more evidence,
stronger evidence,
in order to make an arrest.
The cellphone data
for Bryan Kohberger's phone
comes back and it shows that
on the night of the murders,
his phone is kind of near
his apartment
at about 2:42 in the morning
and then it is traveling
towards Moscow.
But at 2:47, the phone goes
completely offline.
It just vanishes and police
believe that he either turned
his phone off or put it
in airplane mode in an effort
to conceal his location.
Then the phone doesn't ping
a cellphone tower
until 4:48 AM.
and it pings the tower
located south of Moscow.
Later that morning,
Bryan's seen running errands
at Albertsons and Costco.
Bryan doesn't have
a Costco card though,
so they won't let him
in the door.
He doesn't seem anxious
or disheveled at all.
So just five days after
the murder, records show that
Kohberger gets a new
license plate.
He registers his car
in Washington state.
Before, he had
Pennsylvania plates.
Inside the DMV, Kohberger is
kind of calm, chatty.
It's the same sort of demeanor
he displayed with
the police officer.
Even a little curious.
[Caitlyn] Then, on December 7th,
Moscow police announced
they're searching for
a white Hyundai Elantra.
While Moscow police search
for the car, word hasn't quite
reached other local police
departments nationwide.
On December 13th,
a license plate reader picks up
Bryan's new Washington plate
in Loma, Colorado.
And two days later,
Bryan Kohberger is going to have
yet another encounter
with law enforcement.
So when he's pulled over in
Indiana on December 15th,
it's totally random.
It has nothing to do
with the case,
and to Indiana police,
he's just another tailgater.
Kohberger's father had come out
to Washington for a pre-planned
trip where they were going
to drive his car back
to Pennsylvania
for the holidays.
The officer lets him off
on the warning.
[Caitlyn] Nine minutes later,
they are pulled over
a second time.
[indistinct chatter over radio]
[Caitlyn]
They are let off a second time
with a verbal warning.
On December 16th,
Bryan and his father arrive
at the Kohberger family home in
Albrightsville, Pennsylvania.
And within a week, police are
surveilling this place
round the clock.
Pretty much every time
Kohberger exits the home,
he's wearing rubber
surgical gloves.
They witnessed him cleaning
his white Hyundai Elantra
top to bottom.
Law enforcement grabs a used
Q tip from the Kohberger's
family's trash, and from it,
they're able to extract
a male DNA sample.
Testing them reveals
with a 99.99% certainty
that the DNA from
the Q tip belongs
to the biological father
of whoever left the DNA
on that knife sheath.
This essentially confirms that
Michael Kohberger is the father
of the person who killed Xana,
Maddie, Ethan, and Kaylee.
It's enough to make an arrest
on Bryan Kohberger.
[reporter] Breaking news.
A suspect has been arrested
in the murders
of the four university students.
An arrest in connection to
the murders of four
University of Idaho students.
A suspect has been arrested
in Pennsylvania...
...in connection with
the November murders
of four University
of Idaho students.
[Fry] Detectives arrested
28-year-old
Bryan Christopher Kohberger
on a warrant for murder
of Ethan,
Xana, Madison, and Kaylee.
[Caitlyn] Police also impound
the white Hyundai Elantra
from in front of the house.
It's basically a mobile
crime scene.
Four days later, Kohberger makes
his first court appearance
in Pennsylvania.
-[reporter #1] Hey, Bryan.
-[reporter #2] Bryan,
why did you do it?
[reporter #3] How you feeling?
[reporter #1]
How you feeling, Bryan?
[reporter #2]
Bryan, why did you do it?
[reporter #3]
Are you ready to go to Idaho?
[reporter #2]
Why did you do it?
[Caitlyn]
And after being charged,
Bryan Kohberger is extradited
back to Idaho to
face his charges.
So now, Bryan Kohberger makes
his first court appearance
in Idaho.
He does not enter
any kind of plea.
The same day Kohberger is
arrested, investigators search
Bryan's Pullman apartment.
They find kind of nothing.
It's pretty much stripped bare.
There aren't a lot of
personal belongings.
DNA, surveillance footage,
cellphone data.
The prosecution has
a very strong case.
Law enforcement starts
analyzing Bryan Kohberger's
cellphone data immediately
after his arrest,
and they discover that he was
within 100 yards of
1122 King Road 23 times
between July and November
of 2022.
Was he stalking them?
Did he want to attack earlier?
I mean, the amount of planning
that went into this crime
is a lot.
After Bryan Kohberger arrives
in Idaho, he's charged
with four counts of first-degree
murder and one count
of felony burglary.
His attorneys plead not guilty
on his behalf.
And so starts
the two-and-a-half-years
process of the prosecution
and the defense
preparing for trial.
Prosecutors hired digital
forensic experts
Heather and Jared Barnhart
to look through Bryan's phone.
They searched for any telling
digital fingerprints that can
help bolster the state's case
against Bryan.
It was late spring of 2023
when the FBI reached out seeing
if I was interested
in assisting.
[Caitlyn] What they found wasn't
just what was there,
it's what had clearly
been erased.
Ultimately, he used
incognito mode in Google Chrome
to try to sort of obscure
the records that could be
recorded about his web history.
He turned off his Wi-Fi.
But as you start to build this
profile of all of the behaviors
that he did, especially around
the time of the crime,
he set up his device to be dumb.
Minimally collecting data.
The erasure had a very
specific timestamp,
and it's important because
it links to Bryan's behavior
leading up to the crime.
[Heather] He turned off Wi-Fi
two days prior to the murder.
He powered off his phone.
It was at 100% battery.
We're going to testify
with 100% certainty
that's what he did.
-That was preparation.
That was him doing an action
that he thought would help him
get away with it.
[Dahlinger]
We had the data that this
phone had been in the area
of the home many, many times.
That whole timeline that's
been put out there,
but now we have
the actual device.
We actually have the phone
and could match that up.
That was -- that was
a big piece of it.
But buried in the data itself
was an entirely
different story.
One That gives investigators
a look into
who Bryan Kohberger is.
There didn't seem to be
another person in his life,
based on the evidence
we looked at,
that filled any of his time.
There's not a friend that got
consistent messages.
There was pretty much nothing,
except for his communication
with his parents.
-Mother and father.
That's what he called them.
[Caitlyn]
Kohberger's search history
truly paints a picture
of an evil mind.
[Heather] He looked up a lot of
home invasions, burglaries,
co-ed killings, serial killers.
There was one search,
Danny Rolling,
the Gainesville Ripper.
He's a co-ed killer,
same knife.
Like, there were a lot
of details there that
were just too eerie.
And then as Jared dove into
the phone, there's even more.
[Jared] On Christmas 2022,
so after the crime,
late at night and into the early
morning of the 26th,
he was just like working
through serial killers
and the site was specifically
serial killer timelines.
And so it just basically has
this list of a bunch
of serial killers.
And it seemed, based on
the timing of it, that he was
just clicking one,
scanning-reading,
and then going back
and clicking the next one.
How they were raised,
what their childhood was like
with their parents.
It wasn't only violence that
he was drawn to.
[Jared] The consistent nature
of the searches were
non consensual sex acts.
Seeing pornography is not
weird, but the fact that
this person had non consensual,
specifically only that,
not one other thing that was
a consensual sex act.
They were all, like,
aggressive or drugged.
-Or sleeping.
-Voyeurism.
It was all consistently
non consensual things.
And in the days after,
that same sense of nerve showed
up again and again and again.
And this was something that
investigators couldn't ignore.
[Jared] Yeah, this thumbs up
with sort of the Band Aid.
As soon as I saw it,
it catches your eye,
you know, because his knuckles
look just so white.
And like it reminded me of like
scrubbing your hands for days
to try to get something off.
And then there's this like
Band Aid that's visible
that's, you know, like just
barely visible in the picture.
The hoodie picture as well.
It's been like sort of
a popular one
in the case as well.
The general behavior.
He read something on the news
that said, "Police still looking
"for Hyundai Elantra, white in
color, this year to this year,
make and model."
Within minutes, he searches
for a car detailing place
and then starts to shop
for used cars.
About a year and a half
into trial prep,
Bryan's defense team
discloses his alibi.
He finally said what he was
doing on the night of
the quadruple murders and how
he was not there and he is not
the one responsible.
And take a guess what
he was doing.
Driving in the night
by himself looking at
the moon and the stars.
Mm... no.
[Caitlyn]
We know Xana was awake
at the time Bryan entered
the house because of her phone
log and her DoorDash order.
Investigators believe Xana
heard Murphy barking
and that she heard the commotion
upstairs in Maddie's room,
so she came out of her bedroom
to see what was going on.
We know how intense
the struggle was.
It was evidenced by all
of those defensive wounds
on Xana's body.
Ultimately, she collapsed in
the doorway of her bedroom.
You've got people that
are reactive.
You've got individuals
that are fighting back.
You've got a perpetrator that
is in the midst of a massacre.
During the two and a half
years of preparing for trial,
some of the victim's families
expressed their frustration
at just how long the judicial
process is taking.
There's countless delays.
Then, just weeks
before this trial is set
to begin, bombshell.
There is going to be no trial
in the Bryan Kohberger case.
This is breaking news,
just came in an hour ago.
I am not gonna lie,
I did not expect this.
If the defendant wants to
avoid trial, he only has
one option, and that's to plead
guilty as charged to all
five felonies, waive appeal,
so it's final and conclusive,
and it won't go on for years,
as capital cases are want to do,
and know that he was
going to be spending
the rest of his life in prison.
[Caitlyn] Even when Judge
Steven Hippler delivers
this emotional statement,
this moment in the courtroom,
the only thing
Bryan Kohberger can offer is
a blank stare.
We were asked if we had
ever been offered a plea deal
or gave one.
We're not in it.
We're in it for
the death penalty.
The choice is he could be fired
at or he could take a shot.
Those are the two options
that we would agree to.
[Caitlyn] Kaylee and Xana's
families are furious.
They're denied a trial,
they're denied closure,
they're denied explanation.
It looks like the Goncalves
family is the first to come out
of the Ada County Courthouse
right there.
Let's take a look and a listen
to see what they have to say.
The negotiation wasn't...
It wasn't justice, it was just
a, it was a shortcut.
And we said from the very
beginning, we're not interested
in a shortcut for our daughter.
When the prosecution followed
the same path we've seen
before, closed doors,
limited input, and a plea deal
handed down without our voice,
it became painfully clear that
Kaylee was being treated
just like another case.
Madison and Ethan's families,
they support the plea deal
as much as you can
in a situation like this,
just for the sake of closure.
We love you, Maddie.
And we miss you.
We support the plea
agreement 100%.
While we know there are
some who do not support it,
we ask that they respect
our belief that this is
the best outcome
possible for the victims,
their families,
and the state of Idaho.
We have closure.
We embark on a path
of hope and healing.
[Caitlyn] The social media
response is also divided
and just as passionate
as it has been the whole time.
Undoubtedly, the most
heartbreaking part of
the sentencing are
the emotional impact statements
given by the family members.
They're gut wrenching
and they're scathing against
Bryan Kohberger.
On November 13th, 2022,
a piece of my heart was
ripped away.
There's no way to ever fully
describe the weight of losing
my sister and my best friend.
She truly did live every day
to the fullest.
Yet her story was cut short
by an act of evil.
I believe in a God whose justice
is not bound by this courtroom.
I find peace knowing that
judgment ultimately belongs
to him.
Maddie was my first grandchild.
When the four kids
were murdered,
the foundation fell out
of our world.
[Kristi] A dead killer doesn't
kill again.
So while I'm disappointed
the firing squad won't get
to take their shots at you,
I'm confident that the men
in prison will have their way
with you in more ways than one.
Disappointments like you
thrive on pain, on fear,
and on the illusion of power.
And I won't feed your beast.
Instead, I will call you
what you are.
Sociopath.
Psychopath.
Murderer.
You didn't win.
You just exposed yourself
as the coward you are.
You're a delusional,
pathetic, hypochondriac loser
who thought you were so much
smarter than everybody else.
If you hadn't attacked them
in their sleep,
in the middle of the night,
like a pedophile,
Kaylee would have kicked
your [bleep] ass.
They are everything that
you could never be.
Loved, accepted,
vibrant, accomplished,
brave, and powerful.
Today, we are here to finish
what you started.
Today, we are here to prove
to the world that you picked
the wrong families,
the wrong state,
the wrong police officers,
the wrong community.
You tried to break
our community apart.
Instead, your actions have
united everyone,
in their disgust for you.
[Jesse] Even though it's been
years since the deaths of Kaylee
and Madison and Ethan and Xana,
there is an overwhelming
feeling of closure.
This case reminds us why
we answer that call,
why we stand for victims,
why we fight.
In this case,
why we fight pure evil
and why we keep going.
On behalf of the FBI,
we offer our deepest
condolences to the families
of Madison Mogen,
Kaylee Goncalves,
Xana Kernodle,
and Ethan Chapin.
The culmination of this case
was a long time coming,
and we hope the victims'
families and friends have
some sense of peace in knowing
that Bryan Kohberger is
being held responsible
and accountable
for his heinous actions.
[Dahlinger] You know, especially
during the sentencing,
my mind and my heart was
with the families.
It's absolutely unimaginable
what they have gone through
and will continue to go
through, because this isn't
over for them.
It never will be.
I cannot imagine losing
someone, especially a child,
and especially in that manner.
I just, I can't fathom it.
Without a trial,
without a statement
from Bryan Kohberger,
there are still
so many questions in this case.
The evidence suggested that
there was a reason that this
particular house was chosen.
What that reason is,
we don't know.
I have to be perfectly candid.
I don't believe that there is
anything that would come out of
his mouth that would
be the truth.
[Dahlinger]
It is a part of our history.
It'll never go away.
I'd just like to reiterate how
absolutely blown away and proud
I was of all of the law
enforcement and investigators
that were involved
in this case.
Their efforts truly got us
to where we are today.
[voice shaking]
She was a beautiful girl.
Xana, you will not be forgotten.
You have impacted so many lives
and have given people
so much love.
Maddie was my best friend.
She was the first person
I talked to every morning
and the last person
I talked to before bed.
I love you so much,
E, and Xana.
[Caitlyn]
This case has become one of
the defining true crime stories
of our time because it violates
everything that we think
and believe about safety
in our modern world.
We live in an era
of doorbell cameras,
cellphone records,
DNA databases,
and near constant
digital surveillance.
And yet, in the middle of
a busy college town on
a Saturday night, four young
students were slaughtered
in a matter of minutes
inside their home.
Even after an arrest,
a guilty plea,
and a life sentence,
a major question still haunts
this case.
It's the simplest one.
Why?
Ultimately,
the public's connection,
their fascination
with this case,
it shouldn't be about
Bryan Kohberger.
It needs to be about those four
lives who were lost that night.
Kaylee, Madison,
Xana, and Ethan are familiar.
We all know them
or someone liked them.
They're any young person doing
any ordinary thing,
going to school, falling
in love, going to parties,
making friends,
having a good time.
They're imagining the life
they still have ahead of them.
[Jesse]
Most murders are committed by
somebody who knows the victim.
A friend, a partner,
an acquaintance,
a family member.
Not here.
What happened here is
something far rarer.
These victims weren't targeted
because of something
that they had done.
They didn't knowingly put
themselves in danger in any way.
They were simply at home.
This is one of the more
heinous and senseless crimes
that I have ever seen.
Bryan Kohberger had a period of
time in which he could go back
to the court and change
his mind about his guilty plea.
And now he wants to withdraw
his plea and go to trial.
And I'm not surprised
in the very least.
I've been saying for a long
time that I could feel it
in my bones that this was
not the last
that we would hear
of Bryan Kohberger.
Right after the news broke,
the Goncalves family issued
a scathing statement.
[Jesse]
Maybe that's why this case is
so difficult to look away from.
Because beyond the evidence
and the defendant
and the speculation
and the rumors
and the questions,
there is a fear that is almost
impossible to dismiss.
That there are at times
no warning,
that there's no mistake
to learn from.
That there is no simple way
to reassure ourselves
that this can never
happen to us.
I think that the focus
should now be on
those beautiful kids
and the lives that were lost.
because you are guilty?
Yes.
[Angenette]
Bryan Kohberger wants to
take back that guilty plea
and go to trial.
[somber tones playing]
[narrator]
With a killer on the loose,
police of Moscow, Idaho,
trying to calm
a community on edge.
[Fry] The four were stabbed
with a knife
but no weapon has been located
at this time.
[Caitlyn] There's so much blood
at the scene, it's seeping
out of the foundation
outside of the house.
[Angenette] While Moscow
searched for a killer,
he wasn't hiding at all.
Hello.
I am Officer Luengas.
I think you know
why I stopped you.
'Cause I was stuck in the middle
of the intersection?
Buried in all that data was
a completely different story.
He looked up a lot of
home invasions, burglaries,
coed killings, serial killers.
[Jared] And then starts to shop
for used cars.
[Jesse] They're denied a trial.
They're denied answers.
They're denied the opportunity
for Bryan Kohberger
to potentially get
the death penalty.
For them, life in prison is
not enough.
I have to be perfectly candid.
I don't believe that there's
anything that would come
out of his mouth
that would be the truth.
[Caitlyn] Was he stalking them?
Did he want to attack earlier?
The amount of planning that went
into this crime is a lot.
[Angenette]
Evil walked into that house
and stole their lives.
[Alivea] If you hadn't
attacked them in their sleep
in the middle of the night
like a pedophile,
Kaylee would have kicked
your [bleep] ass.
[theme music playing]
[soft music playing]
[Caitlyn]
The University of Idaho is
the heart of Moscow.
It's a college town of about
25,000 people.
Greek life runs everything.
Everybody knows everybody.
On November 12th, there's
a home game.
The Vandals are
against UC Davis.
So, of course,
everybody's partying.
All the students are out.
Think about yourself in college.
It's so much fun.
You have your whole life
ahead of you.
You're working hard.
You have your goals.
It's just a good time.
[music turns somber]
[siren wailing]
[Caitlyn]
Police in Moscow, Idaho,
get a 911 call.
-[device beeps]
-[siren wailing]
[Caitlyn] Police pull up
to this house on King Road.
It's only steps from campus.
They're expecting to find
probably a kid
passed out from drinking.
[woman] Yes, [indistinct]
[Jesse]
They go through the front door.
They go one floor up.
They find the first body
and there is blood everywhere.
On the floor is a female
with visible stab wounds.
She's deceased.
They walk over
and they go to the bed.
That's where they find
a second body.
Now this one is a male who is
also obviously deceased,
and cops say it looks like
from sharp force injuries.
Arriving at the scene,
police immediately speak
with Dylan Mortensen.
She lives at 1122 King Road.
And she tells cops
that in the middle of the night
she witnessed some
suspicious activity.
[Caitlyn] There's so much blood
at the scene, it's seeping
out of the foundation
outside of the house.
We know that these homicides
occurred in the early
morning hours of Sunday,
November 13th.
Around noon, Moscow officers
received a call
of an unconscious person.
Officers discovered the bodies
of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle,
Madison Mogen,
and Kaylee Goncalves
inside the residence
on King Road.
The four were stabbed
with a knife
but no weapon has been
located at this time.
[Caitlyn]
Xana Kernodle was the first
victim that police found.
She's 20 years old.
Friends are describing her
like she is pure sunshine.
Hi, my name is Xana Kernodle.
I'm a marketing major here
at the University of Idaho.
This is actually King Street,
where I've lived
for the past two years.
And I really like just hanging
out with my friends all the time
and being super involved
in school events
and everything else.
So yeah, that's just
a little bit about me.
[Caitlyn] Xana is a member of
Pi Beta Phi sorority.
She loves EDM music,
hanging out with friends.
Xana is energetic.
She's fun.
She's fiercely loyal.
She's everybody's best friend.
[Jesse] In the same room is
her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin,
also 20 years old, a member of
the Sigma Chi fraternity.
He was just an outgoing, likable
kid and who was a triplet
here on campus.
He had two other siblings
going to school here
at the same time.
If everybody was like
Ethan Chapin in this world,
it would be a better place.
-For sure.
[Caitlyn] Ethan was majoring in
something that he wanted to do
with sports and recreation.
He was the kid that friends
described as always having
a smile on his face.
Always a good time.
They had this unstoppable,
loving relationship.
They both would look at
each other with so much love.
Everyone knew
they were the perfect duo.
They both had this fun,
passionate, crazy,
but good energy.
They both were the kind
of people who cared about
everyone and would
help anyone.
[Caitlyn] The two other victims
that the police find are both
21 years old.
They're longtime best friends,
Kaylee Goncalves
and Madison Mogen.
[Steve] These girls were
absolutely beautiful.
They had been friends
since sixth grade.
They went to
high school together.
Then they started
looking at colleges.
They came here together,
[voice shaking]
and in the end,
they died together.
[Caitlyn]
Kaylee had already moved out.
She was only weeks
from graduating.
She was planning to
move to Austin
and had accepted a job
in marketing.
The whole reason she came back
was to show her best friend,
Maddie, her new car.
Maddie is a marketing major.
She and Xana work together
at a restaurant in town
called the Mad Greek.
Xana, Maddie
and their two friends,
Dylan and Bethany, all lived
together at 1122 King Road.
Ethan and Kaylee were just
visiting for the night.
Did anybody do
their chores today?
Let's just do my night.
Get out of here.
You're seriously gotta get out.
[Caitlyn]
They're all in sororities.
These are just
quintessential college students.
Just enjoying themselves.
They left behind hundreds
of photos and videos
of the four of them
dancing in the kitchen,
laughing in the living room.
The same house where
they'd be killed.
Given that Dylan and Bethany
are left completely unharmed
the night of the attack,
the first question is
how did they survive?
[Caitlyn] Dylan says she thought
she heard Kaylee
running downstairs,
but based on the crime scene,
it was more likely that
it was Xana
that she heard running.
I walked around that house
on King Road many times
on my trips to Moscow.
I think just the absolute
carnage is so unbelievable.
What is your opinion overall
about the autopsy reports?
[Morgan] I read a lot of autopsy
reports over the years,
and by my standards,
the brutality involved
in this case, um, you know,
exceeds some
of my understanding.
It was a destructive event.
There is no way that anyone
will ever fully appreciate,
and I hope no one ever does,
what went on
in that house that night,
relative to the brutality
that was exacted on these kids.
We believe this was an isolated,
targeted attack on our victims.
We do not have a suspect
at this time,
and that individual is
still out there.
We cannot say that there is
no threat to the community.
And as we have stated,
please stay vigilant,
report any suspicious activity
and be aware of
your surroundings at all times.
And can you also give
a little more information
on the forced entry?
There's no sign of forced entry,
but was the door --
did it seem like any
of the entries were left
unlocked by any means?
We're not 100% sure if the door
was unlocked,
but there was no damage
to anything and the door
was still open when
we got there.
So this leads us to believe
that maybe the killer had
been there before,
that he'd been in that home,
that he was acquainted with it.
Or at the very least,
he knew the victims.
[Caitlyn] So the most likely
point of entry would have been
that sliding glass door
in the backside of the house.
The back of the house is
also much darker,
and there's a parking area
back there that is just
a quick walk in the dark
straight to that door.
This was a known party house.
Back in August, police came to
the house for a noise complaint.
-[officer] How are ya?
-Good, how are you?
-[officer] Good, is this
your place?
-Yeah.
[officer] Perfect, do you know
why I'm here?
-Um, I assume noise.
-[officer] Noise, yeah.
-Yeah.
-[officer] Big speaker
right there.
Yeah.
And then Labor Day weekend,
the cops are called again
to the house.
[Caitlyn]
This time, police can't find
one person who is a renter
or resident of this home
to come and answer
the noise complaint.
So I just looked for everyone
that lived here
and they're not here right now.
-[officer] No one's here that --
-No one's here.
-[officer] At all?
-No one's here that lives here.
-So everyone here's trespassing?
Well, no one's here
that's trespassing.
But no one, no one that
lives here is here right now.
[Caitlyn]
Later that night, police are
called back a second time
for another noise complaint.
[officer] Hello, miss.
What's your name?
-Xana.
-[officer] Xana, do you
live here?
-Yes.
-[officer] This is the second
noise complaint
we've had here tonight,
within two hours, OK.
I'm sorry about that.
[Caitlyn]
Noise complaints, parties.
People coming and going.
It's a house a lot of people
had access to even
when the girls weren't home.
[investigator]
The front door code...
[Caitlyn]
The two surviving roommates,
Dylan and Bethany,
They're crucial for police to
start putting together
a timeline of what happened
leading up to
the quadruple homicides.
At 8:57 PM, Kaylee Goncalves
posts this photo.
It is a chilling image.
You see Kaylee there, smiling.
Maddie's perched
on her shoulders.
Ethan has his arm hooked
over his girlfriend, Xana.
All four of the victims are
just there together
earlier that day.
Later in the night,
they kind of splinter off.
[Caitlyn] They all leave
Sigma Chi at different times.
By 1 AM, Bethany is back
at the house on King Road
watching TV.
Meanwhile, Kaylee and Maddie
headed out to a local bar
called The Corner Club.
1:30 rolls around, they head out
and they go to a popular
nighttime food stop
called a Grub Truck,
where they pick up some pasta.,
And we see them on this
Twitch video looking like
typical college girls.
They're laughing.
They're on their phones.
They take a private car service,
and by 2 AM, they're home.
-[Bethany] Mm-hmm.
-OK.
[Caitlyn] The girls catch up
with Bethany for a bit,
and then they decide
to get ready for bed.
[Caitlyn]
By 3:30 AM, everyone was home.
But Dylan woke up
to some commotion
in the middle of the night,
and what she heard and saw
was absolutely terrifying.
[Caitlyn] So she goes back
to her room, but she believes
she then hears someone faintly
crying and a voice saying,
"It's OK.
I'm here to help you."
We presume at this point those
are the words of the killer.
[Caitlyn] So again, she opens
the door, peeks out,
doesn't see anything,
closes the door
and gets back into bed.
Then she opens the door
a third time,
and what she sees
shakes her to her core.
[Caitlyn] This figure, clad in
black clothing and a ski mask
walks past Dylan and she stands
there, frozen in shock.
Police at this point
assume that masked person has
fled the scene.
Terrified, Dylan starts
texting and calling
everyone else in the house,
but only Bethany answers.
At first, Bethany seems
skeptical about Dylan's story,
suggesting maybe she just saw
Xana in the house.
But the more details
Dylan gives,
the more concerned Bethany gets.
We really don't know
how intoxicated
Dylan and Bethany were,
but the other kids in the house
had blood alcohol levels
between roughly 1.3
and three and a half times
the legal driving limit.
The alcohol combined
with the late hour
and the effects of fear,
it's really possible that
those factors help explain
why no one called 911.
[Caitlyn] Based on cell phone
data and the information
that they got from
Bethany and Dylan,
police are narrowing down
the timeline of the murders
from between 4 and 4:25 AM.
Something else we learned
from the cell phone data
is Xana gets a DoorDash delivery
at 4:00 in the morning,
pretty much on the button.
Then her phone reports that
she was on TikTok at 4:12 AM.
But the phones aren't
the only things that are
recording that morning.
Less than 50 ft from Xana's
bedroom wall,
a neighbor's security camera
is running,
and at 4:17 AM,
it picks up a sound.
[dog barking]
[dog barking]
Police immediately start working
to secure the crime scene
and collect evidence
in the hopes of
finding out who did this.
[Dahlinger] We had a lot to do
on the outside.
We had our initial
responding officers helping
to lock down the scene,
as they should.
And they did a great job
of cordoning off the area.
The first days were a bit
of a blur.
We were working tirelessly
from dawn till late at night.
[Caitlyn] The story starts to
captivate the nation.
Multiple victims,
two survivors in a college town
and a killer on the loose?
You can't look away.
[reporter]
With a killer on the loose,
police in Moscow, Idaho
trying to calm
a community on edge.
This stuff doesn't happen here.
We're 100 ft away.
You know.
How close was this person?
Are they still around?
Like where?
I don't know, it's so scary.
[woman]
I've walked at night in Moscow
and I haven't worried.
But this is gonna flip
a lot of that upside down.
In some ways,
this took our innocence.
You guys have said repeatedly
that there's no threat
to the public,
but we don't know
who the suspect is.
We don't know where he's at.
How is there no threat
to the public at this point?
Well, that's kind of an unknown.
The individual is still
out there, right?
We need to be vigilant.
We need to watch out
for our neighbors.
The reality is, there's still
a person out there
who committed four
horrible, horrible crimes.
So I think we gotta go back
to there is
a threat out there still.
[Wills] At this crime scene,
We collected 103 pieces
of individual evidence.
We took approximately
4000 photographs.
We've conducted multiple
3D scans of the residence,
and we have hundreds of hours
used by technicians
and investigators,
including our forensics team
and detectives
from multiple agencies.
Police are really tight-lipped
to the public, but a key piece
of evidence that they uncovered
during the investigation is
a ka-bar knife sheath that was
uncovered partially underneath
Madison Mogan's body
on the bed.
It's a ka-bar knife sheath,
which is a military style knife.
The Marine Corps insignia is
stamped on the sheath,
which is leather.
That knife wasn't from
the kitchen, which means it was
brought there by the killer,
which also means
this was planned.
The four were stabbed
with a knife,
but no weapon has been located
at this time.
What we don't know,
the identity and location
of the suspect.
The location of the knife
or any clothing that was worn
by the suspect.
And we continue looking
for what we believe to be
a fixed-blade knife used
in the murders.
[Caitlyn]
A week after the killings,
the Idaho State Police
Crime Lab locates a single
source of male DNA
on the snap of
that knife sheath.
They run the DNA through CODIS,
that's the FBI's database
of offender DNA,
and they don't get a match.
So on November 22nd,
nine days after the murders,
the Moscow Police Department
personally delivers that
male DNA to Othram Labs.
It's a Texas-based private
company that specializes
in advanced DNA testing
and forensic genealogy.
Building out a genetic
family tree takes time.
So while Othram Labs is
studying the DNA
on the knife sheath,
Moscow investigators are
scouring surveillance cameras
around the neighborhood
around the times of the murder.
And immediately, one vehicle
jumps out.
The same white sedan makes
three passes around the house
between 3:30 and 3:58 AM.
At 3:59 AM, Xana's DoorDash
order is dropped off
at the house.
And just five minutes later at
4:04 AM, that same white sedan
is seen entering the area
a fourth time.
At 4:07 AM, the sedan heads back
in the direction of the house.
Xana's phone lock reveals
she was on TikTok
from 4:12 to 4:16 AM.
And then at 4:17:32,
the security camera across
the street picks up the sound
of screaming and a thud.
This matches up with
Dylan's description of hearing
Xana say, "someone's here."
And at 4:20 AM, that white
sedan is seen peeling out
away from the house.
[Jesse] Now we're narrowing
the timeline down even more.
4:07 AM. to 4:20 AM.
That is 13 minutes for someone
to take four lives.
[Caitlyn]
So the person who entered
this home to commit these crimes
very likely knew exactly where
they were going
within the house.
Police take all the footage
of this white sedan
and they give it to FBI forensic
examiners, who come back
with a make and a model.
They say it's likely a 2011
to 2013 Hyundai Elantra,
but then that gets adjusted to
a 2014 to 2016 Hyundai Elantra.
Problem is, there are
approximately 22,000 registered
vehicles in the Moscow area
that match this description,
making this a needle
in a haystack
search for law enforcement.
Luckily, after 18 days on
December 10th, Othram Labs
finally completes their work.
It determines the DNA on
the knife sheath belongs to
an Italian-American family
in Pennsylvania.
The FBI then cross checks
the individuals on this
family tree against the 22,000
registered Hyundai Elantras
in the Moscow area.
On December 19th,
they get a match and identify
the owner of a 2015
Hyundai Elantra.
The FBI calls Moscow police
with a name,
Bryan Christopher Kohberger,
6 feet tall, 185 pounds,
and bushy eyebrows,
just like Dylan described.
Within two weeks of the murders,
police are running down
information on this
Bryan Kohberger.
They learned that he's a PhD
student at Washington State
University studying
criminology, and that he lives
off campus just eight miles
from where the murders
took place.
He's also a teaching assistant
in the criminology department.
And that's not all.
Bryan Kohberger holds
an undergraduate degree in
psychology and cloud-based
forensics from
DeSales University.
Bryan Kohberger.
[Caitlyn] At DeSales,
Kohberger surveyed former
inmates about their criminal
thought process and planning.
While he was at DeSales
University, he studied under
this renowned expert
in serial killers,
Katherine Ramsland.
She quite literally wrote
the book on the BTK killer.
For me, it was
advancing criminology,
making a contribution to
my field in forensic psychology.
[Caitlyn] It seemed Kohberger
had every intention of a career
in law enforcement.
He actually applied for
an internship with
the Pullman Police Department
in the fall of 2022.
And in his criminology classes,
of course they're going to talk
about this gruesome quadruple
homicide not 10 miles away.
Police talked to classmates
and acquaintances of Bryan's
who described him as quieter
and visibly disheveled
in the weeks
following the murders.
Kohberger's not from
the Washington or Idaho area.
He actually grew up in eastern
Pennsylvania near the Poconos.
He's one of three.
He's got two sisters.
Back in high school,
Kohberger was described as being
pretty overweight
and that he was bullied
and that sometime between
his junior and his senior year
he dropped like 100 pounds,
and there was a switch
in his personality
when suddenly he kind of
became the bully.
Kohberger had some small brushes
with law enforcement
prior to the murders,
but nothing really seemed
alarming at the time.
When he gets pulled over
three months prior,
Kohberger seems calm, friendly,
maybe a little awkward.
He's asking
the officer questions.
He uses the stop to almost
kind of pump the officer
for information.
One month before the murders,
Kohberger's pulled over
a second time, this time
for running a red light.
Again, he's peppering
the officers with questions.
[Caitlyn] Now remember, we're
one month after the murders.
The public still has no idea
who he is.
They've never heard his name.
They're still gripped with fear
because no suspect has
been named.
Law enforcement has established
several key points connecting
Bryan Kohberger to
the quadruple homicide.
He owns a white Hyundai Elantra.
He lives in Pullman,
Washington, which is only miles
from the crime scene.
DNA found at the scene has been
linked to his family,
and his appearance matches
the one that Dylan gave police
of the intruder that night.
Kohberger is a strong suspect,
but it's not enough.
Investigators still need
more evidence,
stronger evidence,
in order to make an arrest.
The cellphone data
for Bryan Kohberger's phone
comes back and it shows that
on the night of the murders,
his phone is kind of near
his apartment
at about 2:42 in the morning
and then it is traveling
towards Moscow.
But at 2:47, the phone goes
completely offline.
It just vanishes and police
believe that he either turned
his phone off or put it
in airplane mode in an effort
to conceal his location.
Then the phone doesn't ping
a cellphone tower
until 4:48 AM.
and it pings the tower
located south of Moscow.
Later that morning,
Bryan's seen running errands
at Albertsons and Costco.
Bryan doesn't have
a Costco card though,
so they won't let him
in the door.
He doesn't seem anxious
or disheveled at all.
So just five days after
the murder, records show that
Kohberger gets a new
license plate.
He registers his car
in Washington state.
Before, he had
Pennsylvania plates.
Inside the DMV, Kohberger is
kind of calm, chatty.
It's the same sort of demeanor
he displayed with
the police officer.
Even a little curious.
[Caitlyn] Then, on December 7th,
Moscow police announced
they're searching for
a white Hyundai Elantra.
While Moscow police search
for the car, word hasn't quite
reached other local police
departments nationwide.
On December 13th,
a license plate reader picks up
Bryan's new Washington plate
in Loma, Colorado.
And two days later,
Bryan Kohberger is going to have
yet another encounter
with law enforcement.
So when he's pulled over in
Indiana on December 15th,
it's totally random.
It has nothing to do
with the case,
and to Indiana police,
he's just another tailgater.
Kohberger's father had come out
to Washington for a pre-planned
trip where they were going
to drive his car back
to Pennsylvania
for the holidays.
The officer lets him off
on the warning.
[Caitlyn] Nine minutes later,
they are pulled over
a second time.
[indistinct chatter over radio]
[Caitlyn]
They are let off a second time
with a verbal warning.
On December 16th,
Bryan and his father arrive
at the Kohberger family home in
Albrightsville, Pennsylvania.
And within a week, police are
surveilling this place
round the clock.
Pretty much every time
Kohberger exits the home,
he's wearing rubber
surgical gloves.
They witnessed him cleaning
his white Hyundai Elantra
top to bottom.
Law enforcement grabs a used
Q tip from the Kohberger's
family's trash, and from it,
they're able to extract
a male DNA sample.
Testing them reveals
with a 99.99% certainty
that the DNA from
the Q tip belongs
to the biological father
of whoever left the DNA
on that knife sheath.
This essentially confirms that
Michael Kohberger is the father
of the person who killed Xana,
Maddie, Ethan, and Kaylee.
It's enough to make an arrest
on Bryan Kohberger.
[reporter] Breaking news.
A suspect has been arrested
in the murders
of the four university students.
An arrest in connection to
the murders of four
University of Idaho students.
A suspect has been arrested
in Pennsylvania...
...in connection with
the November murders
of four University
of Idaho students.
[Fry] Detectives arrested
28-year-old
Bryan Christopher Kohberger
on a warrant for murder
of Ethan,
Xana, Madison, and Kaylee.
[Caitlyn] Police also impound
the white Hyundai Elantra
from in front of the house.
It's basically a mobile
crime scene.
Four days later, Kohberger makes
his first court appearance
in Pennsylvania.
-[reporter #1] Hey, Bryan.
-[reporter #2] Bryan,
why did you do it?
[reporter #3] How you feeling?
[reporter #1]
How you feeling, Bryan?
[reporter #2]
Bryan, why did you do it?
[reporter #3]
Are you ready to go to Idaho?
[reporter #2]
Why did you do it?
[Caitlyn]
And after being charged,
Bryan Kohberger is extradited
back to Idaho to
face his charges.
So now, Bryan Kohberger makes
his first court appearance
in Idaho.
He does not enter
any kind of plea.
The same day Kohberger is
arrested, investigators search
Bryan's Pullman apartment.
They find kind of nothing.
It's pretty much stripped bare.
There aren't a lot of
personal belongings.
DNA, surveillance footage,
cellphone data.
The prosecution has
a very strong case.
Law enforcement starts
analyzing Bryan Kohberger's
cellphone data immediately
after his arrest,
and they discover that he was
within 100 yards of
1122 King Road 23 times
between July and November
of 2022.
Was he stalking them?
Did he want to attack earlier?
I mean, the amount of planning
that went into this crime
is a lot.
After Bryan Kohberger arrives
in Idaho, he's charged
with four counts of first-degree
murder and one count
of felony burglary.
His attorneys plead not guilty
on his behalf.
And so starts
the two-and-a-half-years
process of the prosecution
and the defense
preparing for trial.
Prosecutors hired digital
forensic experts
Heather and Jared Barnhart
to look through Bryan's phone.
They searched for any telling
digital fingerprints that can
help bolster the state's case
against Bryan.
It was late spring of 2023
when the FBI reached out seeing
if I was interested
in assisting.
[Caitlyn] What they found wasn't
just what was there,
it's what had clearly
been erased.
Ultimately, he used
incognito mode in Google Chrome
to try to sort of obscure
the records that could be
recorded about his web history.
He turned off his Wi-Fi.
But as you start to build this
profile of all of the behaviors
that he did, especially around
the time of the crime,
he set up his device to be dumb.
Minimally collecting data.
The erasure had a very
specific timestamp,
and it's important because
it links to Bryan's behavior
leading up to the crime.
[Heather] He turned off Wi-Fi
two days prior to the murder.
He powered off his phone.
It was at 100% battery.
We're going to testify
with 100% certainty
that's what he did.
-That was preparation.
That was him doing an action
that he thought would help him
get away with it.
[Dahlinger]
We had the data that this
phone had been in the area
of the home many, many times.
That whole timeline that's
been put out there,
but now we have
the actual device.
We actually have the phone
and could match that up.
That was -- that was
a big piece of it.
But buried in the data itself
was an entirely
different story.
One That gives investigators
a look into
who Bryan Kohberger is.
There didn't seem to be
another person in his life,
based on the evidence
we looked at,
that filled any of his time.
There's not a friend that got
consistent messages.
There was pretty much nothing,
except for his communication
with his parents.
-Mother and father.
That's what he called them.
[Caitlyn]
Kohberger's search history
truly paints a picture
of an evil mind.
[Heather] He looked up a lot of
home invasions, burglaries,
co-ed killings, serial killers.
There was one search,
Danny Rolling,
the Gainesville Ripper.
He's a co-ed killer,
same knife.
Like, there were a lot
of details there that
were just too eerie.
And then as Jared dove into
the phone, there's even more.
[Jared] On Christmas 2022,
so after the crime,
late at night and into the early
morning of the 26th,
he was just like working
through serial killers
and the site was specifically
serial killer timelines.
And so it just basically has
this list of a bunch
of serial killers.
And it seemed, based on
the timing of it, that he was
just clicking one,
scanning-reading,
and then going back
and clicking the next one.
How they were raised,
what their childhood was like
with their parents.
It wasn't only violence that
he was drawn to.
[Jared] The consistent nature
of the searches were
non consensual sex acts.
Seeing pornography is not
weird, but the fact that
this person had non consensual,
specifically only that,
not one other thing that was
a consensual sex act.
They were all, like,
aggressive or drugged.
-Or sleeping.
-Voyeurism.
It was all consistently
non consensual things.
And in the days after,
that same sense of nerve showed
up again and again and again.
And this was something that
investigators couldn't ignore.
[Jared] Yeah, this thumbs up
with sort of the Band Aid.
As soon as I saw it,
it catches your eye,
you know, because his knuckles
look just so white.
And like it reminded me of like
scrubbing your hands for days
to try to get something off.
And then there's this like
Band Aid that's visible
that's, you know, like just
barely visible in the picture.
The hoodie picture as well.
It's been like sort of
a popular one
in the case as well.
The general behavior.
He read something on the news
that said, "Police still looking
"for Hyundai Elantra, white in
color, this year to this year,
make and model."
Within minutes, he searches
for a car detailing place
and then starts to shop
for used cars.
About a year and a half
into trial prep,
Bryan's defense team
discloses his alibi.
He finally said what he was
doing on the night of
the quadruple murders and how
he was not there and he is not
the one responsible.
And take a guess what
he was doing.
Driving in the night
by himself looking at
the moon and the stars.
Mm... no.
[Caitlyn]
We know Xana was awake
at the time Bryan entered
the house because of her phone
log and her DoorDash order.
Investigators believe Xana
heard Murphy barking
and that she heard the commotion
upstairs in Maddie's room,
so she came out of her bedroom
to see what was going on.
We know how intense
the struggle was.
It was evidenced by all
of those defensive wounds
on Xana's body.
Ultimately, she collapsed in
the doorway of her bedroom.
You've got people that
are reactive.
You've got individuals
that are fighting back.
You've got a perpetrator that
is in the midst of a massacre.
During the two and a half
years of preparing for trial,
some of the victim's families
expressed their frustration
at just how long the judicial
process is taking.
There's countless delays.
Then, just weeks
before this trial is set
to begin, bombshell.
There is going to be no trial
in the Bryan Kohberger case.
This is breaking news,
just came in an hour ago.
I am not gonna lie,
I did not expect this.
If the defendant wants to
avoid trial, he only has
one option, and that's to plead
guilty as charged to all
five felonies, waive appeal,
so it's final and conclusive,
and it won't go on for years,
as capital cases are want to do,
and know that he was
going to be spending
the rest of his life in prison.
[Caitlyn] Even when Judge
Steven Hippler delivers
this emotional statement,
this moment in the courtroom,
the only thing
Bryan Kohberger can offer is
a blank stare.
We were asked if we had
ever been offered a plea deal
or gave one.
We're not in it.
We're in it for
the death penalty.
The choice is he could be fired
at or he could take a shot.
Those are the two options
that we would agree to.
[Caitlyn] Kaylee and Xana's
families are furious.
They're denied a trial,
they're denied closure,
they're denied explanation.
It looks like the Goncalves
family is the first to come out
of the Ada County Courthouse
right there.
Let's take a look and a listen
to see what they have to say.
The negotiation wasn't...
It wasn't justice, it was just
a, it was a shortcut.
And we said from the very
beginning, we're not interested
in a shortcut for our daughter.
When the prosecution followed
the same path we've seen
before, closed doors,
limited input, and a plea deal
handed down without our voice,
it became painfully clear that
Kaylee was being treated
just like another case.
Madison and Ethan's families,
they support the plea deal
as much as you can
in a situation like this,
just for the sake of closure.
We love you, Maddie.
And we miss you.
We support the plea
agreement 100%.
While we know there are
some who do not support it,
we ask that they respect
our belief that this is
the best outcome
possible for the victims,
their families,
and the state of Idaho.
We have closure.
We embark on a path
of hope and healing.
[Caitlyn] The social media
response is also divided
and just as passionate
as it has been the whole time.
Undoubtedly, the most
heartbreaking part of
the sentencing are
the emotional impact statements
given by the family members.
They're gut wrenching
and they're scathing against
Bryan Kohberger.
On November 13th, 2022,
a piece of my heart was
ripped away.
There's no way to ever fully
describe the weight of losing
my sister and my best friend.
She truly did live every day
to the fullest.
Yet her story was cut short
by an act of evil.
I believe in a God whose justice
is not bound by this courtroom.
I find peace knowing that
judgment ultimately belongs
to him.
Maddie was my first grandchild.
When the four kids
were murdered,
the foundation fell out
of our world.
[Kristi] A dead killer doesn't
kill again.
So while I'm disappointed
the firing squad won't get
to take their shots at you,
I'm confident that the men
in prison will have their way
with you in more ways than one.
Disappointments like you
thrive on pain, on fear,
and on the illusion of power.
And I won't feed your beast.
Instead, I will call you
what you are.
Sociopath.
Psychopath.
Murderer.
You didn't win.
You just exposed yourself
as the coward you are.
You're a delusional,
pathetic, hypochondriac loser
who thought you were so much
smarter than everybody else.
If you hadn't attacked them
in their sleep,
in the middle of the night,
like a pedophile,
Kaylee would have kicked
your [bleep] ass.
They are everything that
you could never be.
Loved, accepted,
vibrant, accomplished,
brave, and powerful.
Today, we are here to finish
what you started.
Today, we are here to prove
to the world that you picked
the wrong families,
the wrong state,
the wrong police officers,
the wrong community.
You tried to break
our community apart.
Instead, your actions have
united everyone,
in their disgust for you.
[Jesse] Even though it's been
years since the deaths of Kaylee
and Madison and Ethan and Xana,
there is an overwhelming
feeling of closure.
This case reminds us why
we answer that call,
why we stand for victims,
why we fight.
In this case,
why we fight pure evil
and why we keep going.
On behalf of the FBI,
we offer our deepest
condolences to the families
of Madison Mogen,
Kaylee Goncalves,
Xana Kernodle,
and Ethan Chapin.
The culmination of this case
was a long time coming,
and we hope the victims'
families and friends have
some sense of peace in knowing
that Bryan Kohberger is
being held responsible
and accountable
for his heinous actions.
[Dahlinger] You know, especially
during the sentencing,
my mind and my heart was
with the families.
It's absolutely unimaginable
what they have gone through
and will continue to go
through, because this isn't
over for them.
It never will be.
I cannot imagine losing
someone, especially a child,
and especially in that manner.
I just, I can't fathom it.
Without a trial,
without a statement
from Bryan Kohberger,
there are still
so many questions in this case.
The evidence suggested that
there was a reason that this
particular house was chosen.
What that reason is,
we don't know.
I have to be perfectly candid.
I don't believe that there is
anything that would come out of
his mouth that would
be the truth.
[Dahlinger]
It is a part of our history.
It'll never go away.
I'd just like to reiterate how
absolutely blown away and proud
I was of all of the law
enforcement and investigators
that were involved
in this case.
Their efforts truly got us
to where we are today.
[voice shaking]
She was a beautiful girl.
Xana, you will not be forgotten.
You have impacted so many lives
and have given people
so much love.
Maddie was my best friend.
She was the first person
I talked to every morning
and the last person
I talked to before bed.
I love you so much,
E, and Xana.
[Caitlyn]
This case has become one of
the defining true crime stories
of our time because it violates
everything that we think
and believe about safety
in our modern world.
We live in an era
of doorbell cameras,
cellphone records,
DNA databases,
and near constant
digital surveillance.
And yet, in the middle of
a busy college town on
a Saturday night, four young
students were slaughtered
in a matter of minutes
inside their home.
Even after an arrest,
a guilty plea,
and a life sentence,
a major question still haunts
this case.
It's the simplest one.
Why?
Ultimately,
the public's connection,
their fascination
with this case,
it shouldn't be about
Bryan Kohberger.
It needs to be about those four
lives who were lost that night.
Kaylee, Madison,
Xana, and Ethan are familiar.
We all know them
or someone liked them.
They're any young person doing
any ordinary thing,
going to school, falling
in love, going to parties,
making friends,
having a good time.
They're imagining the life
they still have ahead of them.
[Jesse]
Most murders are committed by
somebody who knows the victim.
A friend, a partner,
an acquaintance,
a family member.
Not here.
What happened here is
something far rarer.
These victims weren't targeted
because of something
that they had done.
They didn't knowingly put
themselves in danger in any way.
They were simply at home.
This is one of the more
heinous and senseless crimes
that I have ever seen.
Bryan Kohberger had a period of
time in which he could go back
to the court and change
his mind about his guilty plea.
And now he wants to withdraw
his plea and go to trial.
And I'm not surprised
in the very least.
I've been saying for a long
time that I could feel it
in my bones that this was
not the last
that we would hear
of Bryan Kohberger.
Right after the news broke,
the Goncalves family issued
a scathing statement.
[Jesse]
Maybe that's why this case is
so difficult to look away from.
Because beyond the evidence
and the defendant
and the speculation
and the rumors
and the questions,
there is a fear that is almost
impossible to dismiss.
That there are at times
no warning,
that there's no mistake
to learn from.
That there is no simple way
to reassure ourselves
that this can never
happen to us.
I think that the focus
should now be on
those beautiful kids
and the lives that were lost.