The Idaho Four: How a PhD Student Became a Quadruple Murderer

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For college students in Moscow, Idaho thought they were going home to sleep off a typical

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Saturday night.

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Instead, November 12, 2022 became the night their lives ended at the hands of a criminology

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PhD student who believed he could get away with murder.

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Brian Coburger spent years claiming he was innocent before suddenly pleading guilty in

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2025.

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Today, we're covering the whole story from the investigation that caught him to why he

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finally confessed.

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Let's talk about who Zana, Ethan, Maddie and Kayleigh really were.

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November 2022 started like any other month at Moscow, Idaho.

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We know the type of college town where everyone knows everyone, where the biggest drama

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usually involves who's dating who or which fraternity through the best party last weekend.

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Then came a phone call to the police department that changed everything.

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At 11.22, King Road, four University of Idaho students had been murdered in their sleep.

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Let's talk about who these people actually were because they deserve better than becoming

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a true crime statistic.

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Hannah Kernodal was 20 years old and had that rare combination of being both academically

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driven and socially connected.

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She was studying marketing at the University while maintaining her spot on the gymnastics

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team and working part-time at a local restaurant.

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Her pie beta-fi sisters knew her as someone who could balance a full course load, athletic

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commitments, and still show up for friends when they needed her.

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Her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, was also 20 and represented everything you'd expect from

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an Idaho outdoor enthusiast.

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The eldest of triplets, he'd come to Moscow to study recreation, sport and tourism management

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after spending summers working at local resorts.

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He was a Sigma Chi brother who genuinely preferred being on the water or hitting the slopes

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over sitting in lecture halls.

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Ethan had kind of become an unofficial roommate at King Road because that's where Zanna was

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and where Zanna was, that's where Ethan wanted to be.

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The house had this constant buzz of activity.

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Someone was always coming or going, friends dropping by or people stopping over to see Murphy,

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the golden retriever who belonged to Kayley.

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Kayley Gonzávez was 21 and originally from California, but she'd made Idaho her home while

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pursuing her degree in elementary education.

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She'd brought two important things with her from California.

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Murphy, the dog, and her best friend Madison Mogan.

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These two had the kind of friendship that makes other people slightly jealous.

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They literally argued with their parents about attending the same high school together and

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now here they were enrolled at the same university, living in the same house and planning their

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futures in the same general direction.

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Madison, who went by Maddie, was also studying marketing and was a year ahead of Zanna and

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the pie beta-fice Aurora.

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She was the type of student who made the Dean's List every semester while working part-time

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and still maintaining an active social life.

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Other students looked up to her, which tells you something about the kind of person she was.

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On the evening of November 12, 2022, all six people living at the King Road House had

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been at various parties around town.

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Everyone had been drinking, everyone was in good spirits, and everyone came home expecting

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to sleep off a typical Saturday night.

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Four of them would never wake up.

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Bethany and Dylan, the other two roommates, were sleeping in the lower-level bedrooms when

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Brian Cobrager decided to make his entrance.

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They would be the only survivors of what happened next.

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Brian Cobrager was 28 years old and, on paper, seemed like someone who had his life together.

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He'd grown up in Pennsylvania, earned his bachelor's degree in psychology, then went to get his

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master's in criminal justice from DeSales University.

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At the time of the murders, he was pursuing his PhD in criminology at Washington State University.

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But here's where the facade started cracking.

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Brian had applied to be a graduate researcher with the Pullman Washington Police Department

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and had been rejected.

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Instead, he'd taken a position as a teaching assistant, which he seemed to use primarily

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as a way to interact with female students who were essentially captive audiences.

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The people who knew Brian described him as someone who made social situations uncomfortable.

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He was the guy who sat alone at parties.

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The one people made polite conversation with before finding excuses to leave.

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Brian, in particular, seemed to sense something off about Brian.

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The owners of Seven Sirens Brewing Company had actually banned him from their establishment

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after multiple incidents where he'd been inappropriate with female employees.

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The owner, Jordan, recalled having to confront Brian about his behavior.

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"I wanted to talk to you real quick and make sure you're going to be respectful this time,

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and we're not going to have any issues."

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Brian's response was predictable.

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Denial.

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"I don't know what you're talking about.

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You totally have me confused."

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He never returned to that bar.

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As a teaching assistant, Brian would critique female students spelling and grammar, offer

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unsolicited advice about how they could improve themselves, and generally make classroom interactions

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uncomfortable.

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One student was so put off by his behavior that she walked out of the class entirely.

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This was the man who decided he was going to commit, what he believed would be the perfect

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crime.

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Brian entered the house through a back-sliding door that, due to the way the house was built

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into a hill, put him on the second floor of the structure.

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Below him were Bethany and Dylan's bedrooms.

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On this level were Zana and Ethan's room.

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Above him were Maddie and Kayley.

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The sequence of events, based on evidence and investigation, appears to have started with

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Zana and Ethan's room.

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Brian attacked Ethan first, stabbing him while he slept.

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Now woke up during the attack and attempted to escape.

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She was found in the middle of her bedroom floor, and the defensive wounds on her hands indicated

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she fought for her life.

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From there, Brian went upstairs to where Maddie and Kayley were sleeping in the same bed.

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He killed them both.

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But for reasons that may never be fully understood, he focused particularly brutal attention on Kayley,

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stabbing her more than 30 times and causing facial injuries with what investigators believe

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was a second weapon.

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Then he disappeared into the woods behind the house, leaving tracks in the snow that investigators

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would later find.

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Here's what's fascinating about this case from an investigative standpoint.

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Brian Coburger had no apparent connection to his victims.

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They didn't know him.

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He didn't know them beyond following some of them on Instagram.

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There should have been no trail leading back to him.

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Except, Brian made mistakes.

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The murder weapons were never recovered, but he left behind the sheath to the K-Barr

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knife he used, complete with his DNA.

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Investigators traced the purchase of this knife to a gift card transaction on Amazon that

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led directly back to him.

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Multiple witnesses had seen a car matching Brian's white Hyundai Alontera driving erratically

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in and around the area throughout the night.

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Law enforcement had already begun tracking down the owner of this vehicle.

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But here's the move that really sealed his fate.

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A few hours after committing the murders, Brian returned to King Road.

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While he was there, his mother called him, and he answered the phone.

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This placed him at the scene at a time when there was absolutely no innocent reason for

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him to be there.

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The murders sent shockwaves through the University of Idaho community and beyond.

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Parents pulled their children out of school and an estimated 40% of students stopped attending

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classes.

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The fear was palpable and justified.

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Meanwhile, Brian's family had become concerned about his increasingly erratic behavior.

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His father flew from Pennsylvania to Idaho to drive Brian back home for the holidays.

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unaware that his son's car matched the description of a vehicle that the police were seeking.

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During that cross-country drive, Brian's father sat in the passenger seat, completely unaware

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that he was traveling with a quadruple murderer.

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Once they reached Pennsylvania, Brian's behavior became even more concerning.

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His sister noticed him washing his car while wearing latex gloves and separating his garbage

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to dispose of it in neighbor's bins rather than his own family's trash can.

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His parents were apparently too frightened of what they might discover to confront him directly

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about his behavior.

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But investigators were able to collect evidence from the co-burgers family trash which provided

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the DNA match they needed.

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Brian maintained his innocence throughout his arrest and the preliminary stages of his case.

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However, in July 2025, facing the possibility of the death penalty, he suddenly changed his

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plea to guilty for all charges related to the murders of Maddie, Kaylee, Zanna, and Ethan.

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Brian co-burger was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole,

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ensuring he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

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During the sentencing, Kaylee's older sister Olivia delivered a victim impact statement

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that perfectly captured the senselessness of these murders.

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Here's a portion of that.

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Your textbook case of insecurity disguised as control.

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Your patterns are predictable.

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Your motives are shallow.

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You are not profound.

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You're pathetic.

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You aren't special or deep, not mysterious or exceptional.

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No one is scared of you today.

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No one is intimidated by you.

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No one is impressed by you.

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No one thinks that you are important.

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You orchestrated this like you thought you were God.

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Now look at you.

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Begging a courtroom for scraps.

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You spent months preparing and still all it took was my sister and a sheath.

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You work so hard to seem dangerous, but real control doesn't have to prove itself.

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The truth is, it's dumb as they come.

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Stupid, clumsy, slow, sloppy, weak, dirty.

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Let me be very clear.

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Don't ever try to convince yourself you mattered, just because someone finally said your name out loud.

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I see through you.

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You want the truth?

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Here's the one you'll hate the most.

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If you hadn't attacked them in their sleep, in the middle of the night, like a pedophile,

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Kaylee would have kicked your fucking ass.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thanks for listening to Ten Minute Murder.

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Bingeable True Crime Stories.

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My name is Joe.

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I'm the host, and I really appreciate you taking the time and of your day to listen to this

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episode.

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If you're on the way to binge on another episode, let me stop you, you keep running on going.

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But if you're a new listener, make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening right

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now.

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You can also check the show notes of this episode to find links to where you can follow

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on social media or go to Ten Minute Murder.com.

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The links for that are there as well.

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Also on the website, you can send me an email like this one from Lindsay, subject to podcast

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routine.

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Hi, Joe.

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Your show is the highlight of my dog walks.

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I love how you handle sensitive topics without getting sensational about it.

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Quick question, do you have a special routine or anything specific you do before recording

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your episodes?

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Or is it pretty much just hitting recording going for it?

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Keep up the awesome work.

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Lindsay K from Wisconsin.

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And Lindsay, really, there's no routine.

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When I find the time to record these episodes, I have a little area in my house that I've

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dedicated to nothing but doing this.

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So it's sound treated so that you don't hear a bunch of echo in the room, and I just come

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and plop down here behind my computer, and I get to it.

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Now, I do bring a drink in.

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Actually, two drinks.

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One of them is usually a diet Pepsi, and don't come at me for drinking Pepsi.

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I get it.

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You don't like Pepsi.

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That's cool.

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I love Pepsi.

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And the other one is room temperature water.

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When you talk a lot, you need to take a drink of something, and that drink that you take,

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if it's cold, it tightens your vocal cords and your voice can get too high.

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Or if it's warm, it can loosen them and your voice gets too low.

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So room temperature water seems to be about the best thing to keep it consistent from one

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thing to the next.

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So no, I don't really have a routine other than that.

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I take my shoes off because I'm more comfortable without my shoes on, usually.

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But that's it.

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Thank you for the email Lindsay, and thank you for listening to 10 Minute Murder.

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See you next time.

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