It's a long way away,
but this part of eastern Pennsylvania
feels a deep connection with
the Idaho College murders.
That's because the suspect,
Brian Koberger,
spent his teenage years here and
most of his adult life before he
moved to Washington state last summer.
In December, people here were
hit by a fact as cold and
hard as steel, the once towering industry
that fueled this part of Pennsylvania.
One of their own was charged in
a mass murder 2500 miles away.
So I looked it up.
I typed, you know, Idaho murderers.
And then, like, holy crap, that's Brian.
You know, that's, that's right.
I know, I know Brian, you know,
that's wild to me. It's a shock.
You know, seeing someone you,
you, you've known on TV.
Jack Baylis met Brian Koberger in 8th grade.
When the two of them ran with a
group of boys in this neighborhood
near Albrightsville, Pennsylvania,
I wanna say he wanted to be
a cop since she was younger.
What kind of teenager was he?
He was pretty normal.
He was. He was used.
He was definitely heavier set
and that that caused issues
in school apparently. But
in high school, dramatic changes
washed over coburger, according to
several friends, including Bayless.
I believe it was the weight loss first.
We lost first. And I was, you know,
I want to say 14 to maybe 16
between there was the the big
way that could be wrong on this,
but I'm pretty sure it was.
And then it was the drugs.
How did he get started in drugs?
He got in drugs via an acquaintance of his.
It was it was definitely heroin.
It was pretty. Darnley
Bayless doesn't know exactly
when Koberger got clean.
That's that saw him.
He was he was pretty lucid.
But the two reconnected after
Coburger enrolled at Desales
University in Center Valley,
right around the corner from Bayles's Home,
Co burgers major criminology.
It's always been kind of fascinated
with with kind of how the how the
brain works and how people think
and why they do what they do. And
so my senior year, I ended up in a
biology class, which is where I met
and interacted with Brian Koberger.
What were your first impressions of the guy?
Brian seemed normal enough,
but that opinion did not last for Bernard
James at a sales film student in 2018
when he attended a class with Coburg,
one of the big parts of that
biology class that we were in.
We had a group project as
a part of our final grade
with four Desales classmates on the project,
Koberger was chosen as team leader.
Not surprising for the student to
sales professor Michelle Bolger,
called Brilliant and one
of the best students ever,
according to an article in the Daily Mail.
Doctor Bolger declined to comment to King 5.
But to some classmates at
the Christian University,
Koberger seemed more like a know it all
the way that he came across in his speech.
You know, kind of person who
has to use big words, you know,
the one always raising his hand
in class and what happened then
towards the end of this whole thing?
We're approaching the due date and I
was feeling like I was left out to dry.
Bernard James says Coburger completed
the class project without including him,
resulting in a failed class.
In Bernard's final year to sales,
he confronted Coburger in
the University Library.
I remember him being very straight faced,
very like, almost emotionless.
With this you kind of like a.
A small smile on his face,
like there's more to him than it seems.
Very intense stare.
I remember that.
I'll never forget that.
Of looking right into my soul.
Almost. You know,
as we were having this back and forth.
Yeah, manipulative.
Cold. Was he witnessing an odd
personality trait or something
more after koberger's arrest?
Fernard can't be sure.
I mean, it's not everyday you expected
to come into contact with someone who is
accused of something like that, you know?
But I see it in some ways, you know,
I see the the calculated side of him.
We're talking about four
vicious stabbings here.
Could your friend have done this?
I I hope you didn't do it.
You know, I'm a big
believer into proven guilty,
so I I hope someone I know
didn't do that. You know,
here in Pennsylvania, we've been unable
to reach anyone from Koberger's family.
A public defender here who represented
him during extradition proceedings
has said that Coburger looks forward
to being exonerated in Idaho.
In Bethlehem, PA Chris Engles, KING5 news.