NBC’s ‘Dateline’ and ABC’s ’20/20′ debut specials on friday evening Investigating four murders in Moscow in which four University of Idaho students were murdered in an off-campus home on King Road.
The four victims were Coeur d’Alene’s U of I senior Madison Morgen, 21, and Rathdrum’s Cary Goncalves, 21. Post Falls Junior Xana Kernodle, 20 years old. Freshman Ethan Chapin (20) from Mount Vernon, Washington.
The episode examines the lives of four students, featuring some of the victims’ parents and friends. is included. who was arrested On December 30, after detectives identified him as a suspect using DNA evidence, cell phone records, and security footage. His former classmates and students also expressed their shock to hear that Koberger was a suspect.
Below are three points from two specials.
Find out how your parents and friends heard the news
Idaho politician previously reported Three women, Kernodle, Mogen and Goncalves, lived in the King Road mansion with their two surviving roommates. Chapin was spending the night with his girlfriend Carnodol.
Kaylee Goncalves’ mother, Kristi Goncalves, told NBC’s Keith Morrison that her daughter, who recently moved out of her King Road residence, returned over the weekend of Nov. 12 to meet Mogen, her best friend since sixth grade. He said he spent time with Goncalves said she was preparing to graduate in December and was due to take a job at a tech company in Austin, Texas.
On November 13, Gonsalves’ mother said she received a phone call from a relative in Moscow. Her relatives told her that “something bad happened to Kaley.” Gonçalves then tried to call her daughter, but her daughter did not answer, so she called Morgen.
“I said, ‘You guys need to relax because Maddie called me if anything happened to Kaley last night,'” Goncalves said in an interview.
Shortly after, Gonsalves said someone from the sheriff’s office knocked on his door and broke the news of his daughter and Morgen’s deaths with his family.
Meanwhile, it was a normal Sunday for many of my classmates at the University of Idaho and friends of the victims.
Martha, a sophomore at the University of Idaho and a friend of Carnodle and Chapin, said she met with her classmates at noon on November 13th for a group project. the night before the party. A group of students were waiting for one named Hunter Chapin, Ethan Chapin’s brother.
“We called him and said, ‘Hey, are you coming?'” she said in an interview. “And he said, ‘No, I think Ethan is dead.
Martha texts Carnodle, but is later told that she has died as well.
“We didn’t know if it was because of the carbon monoxide, so we basically just stood in a big quiet circle and watched all the first things happen,” she said in the episode. Told.
Later, students at the University of Idaho received the text of a vandalism alert informing them that Moscow police were investigating a murder on King Road.
Imagination and Control: Forensic Experts Offer Insights on Suspects
Brian Coberger, 28, was arrested two weeks ago on suspicion of four counts of first-degree murder in his Pennsylvania home. his next court date Scheduled for June 26th.
A suspect is in custody, but there is one issue the authorities have yet to resolve. Why is he four students?
Forensic psychologist and host of the “Hidden True Crime” podcast, John Mathias, provided insight into the suspect’s intentions in the “Dateline” episode.
Matthias said in an interview, “I think this is someone who has had a lot of fantasies of revenge. Over the years he has been driven by violent and aggressive impulses that weigh heavily on him and create a lot of anxiety and stress.” “I think it’s a kind of release for him.”
Moscow police had previously said there were no signs of sexual assault on the victim, but that doesn’t mean there were no fantasies, Matthias said.
“The killer needed to get in and out quickly, so even if he had fantasies about sexual assault, he probably realized he couldn’t pull it off with a lot of people in the house.” He said.
According to the probable cause affidavit, detectives believe the murder occurred between 4:00 a.m. and 4:25 a.m.
Other forensic experts have spoken about the suspect’s choice of weapon. Former FBI agent and university professor Greg Rogers said in an NBC interview that the suspect was deliberately used to instill fear in his victims. said he chose a combat knife.
“If he wanted a handgun, he could have easily got one,” Rogers said. “He could have acquired it legally or illegally. He chose the knife on purpose…to really frighten and control his victims.”
Rogers said the suspect was well prepared as to what to say to the victim during the attack, including one of his surviving roommates, Dylan Mortensen, and her affidavit of probable cause. She told police she heard someone say, “It’s okay, I’m going to help you.”
“If a roommate’s remarks are accurate to what a man said to one of his roommates, then he was well practiced.” He thought about this for a long time… He is familiar with the psychological aspects of how people think and act during crime.he is trying I don’t want to calm them down and scream or alert my roommate. “
Dr. Koberger is a candidate and teaching assistant at Washington State University and has an extensive background in criminology.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, detectives found a knife sheath in the bedroom where Goncalves and Morgen were found. Rogers said leaving Sheath behind was a “huge mistake” for the suspect.
“I think he had a crush on one of these victims,” Rogers said. “It could be as simple as she served him at one of the restaurants they worked at. He might have just seen her.” He talked to one of them, did something nasty and asked for his phone number, was rejected and may have gone crazy.
‘Bullyed’, ‘Awkward’: Former Classmate, Student Describes Coberger
As news of Koberger’s arrest spread across the country, former high school classmate Casey Arntz shocked social media, revealing that she met Koberger on a school bus in eastern Pennsylvania.
Arntz told journalists “Dateline” and “20/20” that he believed Kohberger was overweight at school and that girls were bullying him.
Arntz kept in touch with Kohberger after high school, and learned in 2013 that he was undergoing heroin-supplemented rehab treatment. The next time she saw her Kohberger was at her 2017 wedding. I didn’t look comfortable in social situations.
Former undergraduate classmate from Desales UniversityMadison also told NBC that she was shocked to see Koberger lose so much weight in the mugshot.
“It was always like, ‘Oh, Brian’s answering this question,'” she said. “This takes up the whole class.”
Politicians have previously reported Coberger graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and a master’s degree in criminal justice from DeSales University in May 2022. In November, Kohberger was working toward his Ph.D. She teaches at Washington State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology.
In the “Date Line” and “20/20” episodes, one of Koberger’s students described him as awkward and quiet.
Hayden Stinchfield, a WSU junior, told journalists on Dateline and 20/20 that Coberger could not be approached as a teaching assistant.
“Probably because he had to be somewhere else, but because no one tried to talk to him, he had no reason to stay,” he said in an interview.
Stinchfield expressed frustration with how harshly Kohberger graded the assignment.
Regarding Kohberger’s feedback on the challenge, Stinchfield said: “You’re telling us how you would have done it at the PhD level, and you’re taking our points.”
The pattern of demanding grading assignments changed abruptly in the final weeks of the fall semester, Stinchfield said. Kohberger started giving everyone full marks and stopped taking notes.
“Looking back, it aligns pretty well with November 13th,” he said.