Hey, folks, it is Friday, August fifteenth, and Brian Koberger, who is serving four life sentences for killing those four University of Idaho students, says the other prisoners aren't being nice to him. He's been told to stop whining. Welcome to Amy and TJ. Robes. That's a headline making its way around how he is complaining about other prisoners taunting him. But some real headlines and real information robes that we have never heard before that we are getting. Now that's
kind of giving us. He hasn't told us why he did it, but we're getting a little more insight into maybe why he did this.
Yes, this is fascinating stuff because even at the sentencing hearing, we were all hoping that Brian Coberger was going to say something to the families of those just brutally murdered Idaho students. He said nothing. Everyone wanted to know why. Everyone wanted to know if there was a connection between
these students, any of these students in him. And now we are starting to actually get real information because a gag order has been lifted and one of the digital forensics experts has been talking about what she uncovered while investigating this trial or preparing for this trial and investigating this crime, and what we're learning is creepy. It's like
stuff movies are made of. Horror movies are made of what this man, Brian Coberger, was doing in the weeks leading up to the murders and then in the weeks following the murders before he was actually captured.
So to remind you all, to catch you up here, yes, he the murders happened back in twenty twenty two. Two were preparing for trial this year. He pleads guilty, just sentenced last month. Yes, so this is where we are. Even on the day of his sentencing, when all this was finally over, a lot of the gag orders were lifted and a lot of things were unsealed, and I think immediately after, I think it was press conferences, some officials were starting to give out a little more information publicly.
And this brings us today. This Heather Barnhardt is her name. She's a digital forensics expert, so she is not under any kind of gag order, but she's starting to give some interviews. So this is why we're getting a lot of these details. And she Robes was one of the ones and she was prepared to testify, and she's telling us what she was going to say. But she is one of the ones who went through his phone, and this stuff is.
Fascinating, it truly is. So she was able to find out that he was planning this murder for quite some time. She can see and she could tell it. Actually he tried to cover up his searches and his research and these PDF files and these documents he was downloading on serial killers, multiple multiple serial killers that he was obsessed with, She basically said, not just casually Google searching him them, but actually obsessed with them. And there was a.
Study is a good way to put it. He was studying them woo.
And that is some scary stuff when you start to see who he was studying and who he was obsessed with. There was actually one particular serial killer who he seemed to be fixated on.
Danny Rawling. Now I don't know if that name. I didn't recognize the name when I first saw at Robes, but Danny Rawling. Some people might remember the murders in nineteen ninety down in Florida near the University of Florida campus. Danny Rawling was known as the Gainesville Ripper, and he killed five students down there over a stretch of a few days. Now, if that doesn't sound familiar to you,
this will. This guy served as the inspiration for one of the greatest probably horror movie franchises of all time, Scream.
Yeah and so yes. He was called the Gainesville Ripper, and he would go into these college students' rooms through a sliding glass door, an open door, and then he killed them and posed their bodies. And so it appears when you look and see what Coburger did in terms of getting through in a sliding glass door. He stalked. They believe he stalked this home to look and see where he could go in, where he could enter, and it just it was scarily similar to what if you
go back and look and see what Rolling did. It's kind of eerily similar to what Coburger did.
And yeah, you said he I think they had a did they say twenty? I think they said twenty serial killers that he had research on, but this was one in particular.
Go ahead, yeah, Well, some of the ones he was researching are household names. He was looking into Ted Bundy, he was looking into John Wayne Gacy. But there are twenty names and all of these people. He It was really interesting how this forensic experts put it. She said, he didn't just google these cases. He downloaded full PDFs of case files, not once, but repeatedly. He was downloading detailed reports about serial killers. This wasn't casual browsing. This was meticulous research.
I mean, so that I mean that answer is a pretty significant question, does it not. This dude was planning to kill somebody while he was doing this research. He might not have even known who, but this was a plan. This wasn't just random. He didn't just happen upon a house, happen upon some people he wanted to kill. That is terrifying, and think about it.
He also was a PhD student. He was getting his master's degree in criminology, so he was a student of crime and then became someone who took it to the next level and wanted to become a serial killer. It looked as though that was what he was researching, even academically, and then in his free time was taking it even a step further, which is just chilling.
You said he wanted to be a serial killer. He also didn't want to get caught. That is part of the information that's come out again from this forensic scientist who went through his phone, who was prepared, who was supposed to be a witness at his trial, says here quote, he was diligent in prep and cleanup, and he made our job really hard. This is someone who tried really
hard to not be detected. What I mean, I don't know how much they've gotten in the psych evaluation of this guy, but he wanted to be a serial killer. He was trying to get away with this. I mean, I guess sometimes people are wired strangely. This is an illness. This is sick.
It is sick. And even at the time where they were trying to again build the case against him, should it have gone to trial, but his phone, he even knew he didn't lose signal or run out of battery when he was at the home of those four college students. Right before he went and committed these heinous acts, he turned his phone off, but he also took his Wi Fi off, took his like he meticulously made sure that
his phone would not link him to this crime. So for a full two hours, his phone was completely turned off, out of service, and unavailable for any sort of way that they could trace where somebody was at the time of the crime.
So this is how particular and this is what digital forensics can do. They know exactly when his phone went dark November thirteenth, twenty twenty two, the day of the murders. Phone went dark two fifty four am, came back at four forty eight am. In that stretch of time, four kids were murdered in Idaho.
That wasn't a coincidence. And the other interesting thing they found on his phone was that they could go back and see where it had logged into Wi Fi and everyone was looking for this connection. Did Coburger know his victims,
did he stalk them? Did he watch them? Well, it turns out two of the victims worked at a Greek restaurant, the Mad Greek I believe was the name of it, and they were able to go back and see twice I believe his phone connected to that Wi Fi, So it appears at least on two occasions he was in the same restaurant where two of the victims worked. So there is now for the first time, a real potential connection that maybe he did watch these girls, he was specifically targeting them and planning it.
The saint that could have been totally random as well. In a smaller town, he happens to go in there. But at the same time they came out and said again, did they not robes? After sentencing, they came out and said it again. There is We have been going through this case since twenty twenty two. We have still not found a single connection between this guy and these kids.
It sounds like he was studying serial killers. He was studying criminology at school in a master's program or a doctorate program, excuse me, he was getting his PhD. And he was waiting for the right time, perhaps the right victims, in the right location. And it's really chilling to think that this was all happening. And ah, and he had this one goal in mind, which is just frightening. Something else that's extra creepy. It brings back and it hearkens
another horror movie, Psycho. Because this was also so interesting, this digital forensic expert said the amount of times he would text and call his parents was actually extraordinary, and he had them. He only had the contacts in his phone were mother, father, sister, and he almost had I think. They said they found one other text chain where he might have said one thing to a classmate, and that
was it. He did not have friends, he did not have other contacts, but to even have his family labeled as mother, father, sister, no names, And immediately after the murders he was texting his mom before and after at six thirteen am. And then if his mom wouldn't answer, he'd call his father. It was as if he had to constantly be connected to them and calling them and texting them in a very strange ways.
Saved in your phone?
Mom, Dad?
What about your brother Eric? How about you? Yeah? I think I have mom, I have pop, but I'm trying to.
Think about but mother, father, sister, Sister's even the weirdest. Can you imagine just having sister in your phone?
Pastor, I mean cousin his daughter. I have never actually heard of this.
It's almost never. If you're you're desensitized in a way that you are actually not even humanizing the people in your life closest to you. You're actually just having some formal name associated with it. Can you imagine daughter one, daughter two instead of Ava and analyse? But that's kind of what it's akin to. And she pointed it out that it and if you look to see his texting and calling habits, they were abnormal.
They said. The details again, one last thing about how he kept things hidden. They said, some things and rogues that he was planning to get away with this, And I guess he studied the serial killers of the things they got right and if you will, and the things they got wrong and got them called. But he was
trying to cover his tracks. They say. He was trying so hard to cover his tracks that you could not find some of the information on that phone unless you had special forensic tools to use, so so a normal person couldn't do it. So he was taking robes some pretty significant steps to do this and get away with this.
And then after the murders, he was downloading reports incessantly on the Idaho murders and was doing extensive searches on each of the victims, and again buried these files in directories like a way that you and I wouldn't even know how to do it. But they were able to find that he was obsessed with the crime, obsessed with the coverage of it, and was monitoring it multiple times.
They said he was even on the Moscow Police Department constantly going back and checking for updates and looking to see what they had what they knew and it was all uncovered through their work.
Also, the also in that batch of things he was looking at and looking at press reports that came out from this forensic analysis said that the day before his arrest and the day yeah, the day before his arrest, he was searching things like wiretapping, psychopath and paranoid was in his searches the day before he was arrested.
That's so bizarre, and it was bizarre, It really is. I think it's it's I love the way the forensic expert put this. She said, with what they were able to find, there wasn't a single smoking gun, but what they found was digital evidence that told a story of preparation. So that was a big part of that. This was so premeditated. This was prepared, it was analyzed, it was researched, and then he was and became obsessed with what was going if he was going to get caught.
Oh my godness. All right, well, folks, the latest thing with him, and it's this is bizarre in a bizarre case. Robes is that he's in prison and apparently the other prisoners aren't being nice to him, and those reports have been out there to the point that now the Idaho Department of Corrections has actually had to put out a statement and respond to what's happening to him. I'll summarize. Now, shut up, Brian.
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Continuing now with what's pretty much some mom certainly never before heard, but pretty stunning details robes about Brian Coberger, who was convicted, of course and serving for life sentences for the deaths for those brutal murders of those four University of Idaho students. And we've been talking about this forensic digital forensic expert who went through his phone and was prepared to testify at his trial, but of course
he ended up pleading guilty. But we've we've shared some of the quotes that are out there, but this one we kind of saved because this quote, I think maybe is the strongest one we've heard so far from this forensic expert and maybe even from anybody to try to explain the why. This is as closed as we get.
Everybody wants to know the why. But this is what she said. This wasn't someone who just snapped. This was someone who planned. He didn't accidentally stumbled into this house and commit the heinous crime. It was intentional.
That's tough.
It really is tough. And you know, she said, we're never going to be able to give the families a true why he did this, but they wanted to, and their whole purpose was to at least show how he did it, and really not make it like it wasn't something he just decided to do on impulse. This was something that was planned. It was not spontaneous, and that was a part of understanding the why. You know, you don't you won't be able to ever know why he chose who he chose, but in understanding the why, he
was intentional. He was planning this. This was what he wanted to be and become, and he wanted to do it. It seems as though he wanted to do it more than once. He wanted to build up this serial killer reputation. It's really disturbing, you.
Know, if every story right. We learned this very early on the who, what, when, where, why, and how? We've answered everything, I think except the why now because really, through some of this information that this analysis put out, we are at least in the public understanding more of the how. The how he did this was not just randomly. How he was able to be on the run and undetected for so long kind of makes more sense now because he had no connection. Maybe he made sure he
had no connection to these kids. I don't perhaps, but he covered his tracks as well as something. But this is the why is left the How this helps.
Yeah, it does. I think that it is incredibly helpful. I wonder what his parents knew or suspected, if anything at all. But it did seem as though he was so closely tied to them, at least electronically, and it seemed as if he had a very close relationship with them. It's hard to imagine they didn't wonder about his disposition or wonder about his mindset. If he's researching all of this, living in this a criminality criminology PhD student, would there
be signs? Were there signs? I wonder what that relationship must be like with his family who sat in court with him every day and the prisoner yeah, the mom cry. But prisoners when he was being held during right before the trial after he was arrested, described him as talking on the phone with his mom for hours. So this, Yeah, that's just fascinating to think that they wouldn't have known something was off.
And I have it right there, and you remind me, I'm sorry, you don't know either. There was an uptick they said right in uh messages to his mom, Yes, what the morning after the killings. Then somewhere around his.
Arrest with yes, so two different times, right before he was arrested, yes, and then right before right after the murders were committed. So he committed the murders between somewhere between two and four am. At six thirteen am, they said he was just non stop texting his mom and calling his mom and his dad, both of them, just very like in a way that drew attention. It was abnormal, is how she described it.
All right, Well, we mentioned off the top here. Yes, the headlines were being made that he in fact was being taunted, is the right way to put it. Maybe by fellow prisoners at the prison maximum security prison where he's being held in Idaho. So those reports were getting around rose about some pretty I think it was News Nation that was first reporting. I believe they were. When was it that they were screaming at him through the vents or something?
H Yeah, so he's yeah, physically he's in no danger, but mentally they're they're torturing him deliberately. So they're banging on the walls, yelling at him, shouting at him through the vents, I believe is what the description was, And that he's been complaining incessantly to the guards that he's being tormented, and they're saying, hey, you are physically safe. Ain't nothing else we can do. And in fact, the prison.
Statement, how often do we when do we ever get a chance to say, hey, Department of Corrections, you nailed it on that press release.
Department of Corrections nailed it on this statement that they said. And they this is what they gave out to the news outlets who were asking, hey, you know he's complaining. He's saying he's being tortured. So here's what the what the prison said. We are aware of Coburger's complaints about what he considers taunting. Incarcerated individuals commonly communicate with each
other in prison. Brian Coberger is housed alone in a cell, and IDoc security staff maintain a safe and orderly environment for all individuals in our custody.
I love that you. I think you read it the way they meant it to be read. That whoever is on that staff, I don't know who came up with that, but what a way to put it. They commonly communicate with each other in prison. That was just well done. Great. I don't think anybody cares about him not being able to sleep, and I understand we're not suggesting any inhumane treatment of anyone, but complaining about being taunted by fellow prisoners. Well done, Idaho Department of Correction.
And I don't think anyone's shedding one tier for poor mister Coburger who doesn't like being mentally tortured or having to have, you know, people kicking the doors and utilizing the event system to shout whatever they'd like at him. I kind of want to know what they're saying, but just I just kind of want to know.
It's just common prison to talk common.
Yeah, I wonder what that is. I wouldn't know, but.
Well, this was one and we should remember Ethan Chappin twenty years old, Zanna Kernodle twenty years old, Madison Mogan twenty one years old, and Kaylee Guncalvis twenty one years old, the four victims in all this. And I think Grove I would really wonder what the families think about the information they've gotten, because we're learning it for the first time. They were complaining about the lack of information, so they're
learning a lot of things now as well. Wonder how they feel about this bit of information.
It's probably so hard to hear to know that he had been quietly planning all of this all along, and perhaps was even stalking and watching their loved ones before he ended up doing just what no parent wants to wake up and hear.
Look.
I just Annalie's literally as we're recording. This is on her way to her college campus, where she is going to be living in a house with six other folks, and I have been repeatedly telling her the story. Please lock your doors, Please like your doors. She actually yelled at me yesterday Mom stopped talking about the idahom. But
this is something. This is every parent's worst nightmare, anyone who's sending their kids off to college right now, this is the time of year we're all doing that, and this is just a cautionary tale, a scary one at that. But to know that there are evil people out there.
And yes, lock your doors. You feel safe in numbers. Right, there's six of us living in this house.
There are guys in our house. And I said there was a guy in the Idaho house as well. It doesn't make you immune to certain people who want to do evil, who want to do something terrible, and so locking your doors and just being aware that people like this exist in the world It's not just in the movies. These are, unfortunately people who are living around us and among us, and it's just it is a cautionary.
Tale, all right. Folks will continue to keep an eye on this case as more information does continue to trickle out. We always appreciate you listening with us. Signed TJ. Holmes alongside my partner Amy Robot. Talk to you all soon.