One of the surviving roommates actually saw the killer.
A man police say is Bryan Kohberg,
and that's just one shocking piece of information outlined in the University of
Idaho murder's probable cause affidavit.
There have been endless questions about what the surviving roommates saw and
heard in the early morning hours of November 13th.
Now more disturbing details are being revealed about what happened that night.
Dylan Mortenson said a noise woke her up around 4:00 AM.
She thought it might be Kaylee playing with her dog upstairs.
Then Dylan thought she heard one of her roommates say,
"there's someone here." She opened her door but didn't see or hear anything
unusual. At that point,
the sound of crying from Xana Knodel's room made her open her door again.
A short time later, that's when she heard a man say something like, "it's okay.
I'm going to help you." Thinking it might be Xana's boyfriend Ethan Chapin she
closed the door again.
At 4:17 AM a security camera from a house less than 50 feet away from Xana's
exterior bedroom wall picked up some strange noises. A whimper,
a heavy thud, then sounds of a dog barking.
When Dylan opened her door for a third time,
a strange man walked past her and out the sliding glass door at the back of the
house. She stood there frozen in shock. He was dressed in black,
wearing a face mask, but she could see his bushy eyebrows.
She locked herself in her room after that.
At 4:20 AM security cameras in the neighborhood caught a
white Hyundai Elantra speeding away.
The same type of car was later spotted outside Brian's apartment building in
Pullman, Washington. Back in Moscow, Idaho the bodies of Kaylee Goncalves,
Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin lay undiscovered,
but next to Maddie was a critical clue. The killer left behind
a tan sheath for his K bar knife.
DNA on the button snap eventually led them to Bryan Kohberg.
That awful night wasn't the first time he was near the house and it wasn't
the last. According to the affidavit,
Bryan's cell phone pinged around the murder house 12 times before the
killings. And he went back again around nine 15 the morning after the slaughter.
If he was hoping to see the aftermath, he left disappointed.
The police weren't called until later that afternoon.
Who is this madman? Let's recap what we know about him.
I'm Chris. Thanks for watching True Crime Recaps.
Police were hot on Bryan's trail just days after the attacks,
but it took seven weeks for law enforcement to name a suspect in the brutal
murders. During that time, Bryan was going about his normal routine in Pullman,
Washington.
Less than 10 minutes away from the campus where the four University of Idaho
students were stabbed to death.
But his normal routine was anything but normal.
Neighbors in his quiet apartment complex say he kept strange
hours. Up all night, even vacuuming long before dawn,
he would show up to class clutching coffee.
His classmates remember him looking tired most of the time.
He kept to himself a lot, but when he spoke up,
he made sure everyone knew how smart he was.
Even getting into heated arguments with other students. After November 13th,
the murders were the main topic of discussion in his criminology classes. And
yes, Bryan was present and accounted for in the days following.
Students say he seemed more upbeat and chattier in class than usual,
but he didn't contribute any theories to the speculation. In fact,
they say he was noticeably silent. Classes ended in mid-December.
Brian's father had flown out to Washington state from Pennsylvania so he could
make the cross-country trip home for the holidays with his son.
The two of them headed for Pennsylvania in Bryan's white Hyundai Elantra.
Police believe it's the same car they've been searching for in connection with
the murders. He was pulled over twice for minor traffic stuff on the trip home,
but we now know that was no accident.
The F b I asked Indiana officers to get video of him behind the wheel
so they could see his face and hands.
The Elantra was later seized outside his parents' house when they arrested him
on December 30th. If you're wondering why he used his own car to allegedly
commit one of Idaho's most brutal murders,
well maybe lessons about citizen surveillance devices didn't come up in the
curriculum until spring semester or maybe Brian just wasn't paying attention
when they learned about criminals getting caught on camera.
After they had a few days to get over the shock,
his family released a statement saying they stand by Bryan and believe him when
he says he's innocent. And of course, he is innocent until proven guilty,
but not everyone from his early years is so quick to believe he didn't do it.
Friends from high school remember him being overweight and bullied in school,
and when he eventually lost the weight right before his senior year allegedly
due to a heroin habit, he turned into a bully himself. As for girls,
forget about it, he was flagged as a creeper even in high school.
After he turned 21 he tried his luck on servers at Pennsylvania
bars.
One brewery owner remembers him sitting at the bar alone watching the
waitresses. He was content to sit and stare until he had a few drinks.
Then according to this source,
he would get belligerent and creepy to the point where he had to be spoken to
about respecting the staff if he wanted to be allowed back.
Is this perhaps a clue to Brian's connection to the students he's accused of
killing? Xana and Maddie were both servers at a popular Moscow restaurant.
Could that be where he first spotted them?
What if any previous connection Bryan had with the victims hasn't been
released as of right now,
but other theories include everything from a possible connection on a dating app
to someone living in the Moscow area. By 2017,
he had already gone through rehab, kicked the drugs and became a militant vegan,
the kind of obsessive eater who according to his uncle's former wife,
forced his parents to throw out their pots and pans so there would be no
cross-contamination of animal byproducts. He also got a job as a security
officer at his old high school while he earned his 's and master's degrees at De
Sales University. According to the Pocono Record,
he was on the scene helping two fellow security guards save a teacher's life.
In 2018,
she was struggling to breathe after an asthma attack and Brian helped revive
her. In the spring of 2022,
he graduated with his master's in criminal justice and part of his senior
project seemed to revolve around the now infamous questionnaire he circulated
to ex-cons.
He was seeking to understand how they thought and felt before and after
they committed violent crimes.
Questions included how they prepared for the crime and how they escaped the
scene. In Pullman he was eager to take it a step further and intern with
the police department. He sent an essay along with his application.
According to the affidavit,
he was interested in helping rural law enforcement agencies collect and
analyze technological data better. Looks like they don't need your help after
all, Bryan. Many comparisons have been made between Brian,
Ted Bundy and other infamous serial killers like the B T K Killer Dennis Rader.
But how deep do the similarities go?
Police are asking people who knew Bryan to come forward with information.
Could they be trying to connect him to other unsolved cases in the Pennsylvania
area? For now,
they'll have their hands full trying to prove they have the right guy.
And Bryan, when he was arrested,
the Idaho murder house was being cleaned out to turn it back over to the
property management company. But those efforts were stopped by his defense team.
Stick with us as we keep you updated with this developing case.
And that's your recap.
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