13 Complaints, Zero Action: Families of Idaho Murder Victims Sue Washington State University
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 911 Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Mark my word, I work with predators."
That's what a Washington State University professor told her colleagues about Bryan Kohberger in the fall of 2022. She warned them. She urged them to remove him from the program. They didn't.
Now, the families of all four Idaho murder victims — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin — have filed a 126-page wrongful death lawsuit against WSU. The allegations paint a picture of institutional failure at every level.
According to the complaint, 13 formal complaints were filed against Kohberger in just three months. The employee responsible for acting on those complaints reportedly never even spoke with him. Female students and staff built their own warning systems: tally boards, "911" emails, door strategies, security escorts. One undergraduate hid in a bathroom to avoid him.
Five days before the murders, WSU held mandatory discrimination training because of Kohberger's behavior. Less than two weeks before, faculty confronted him directly. The lawsuit alleges a supervisor worried that removing Kohberger could expose WSU to a lawsuit — from him.
They chose the wrong lawsuit to fear.
This episode examines the full timeline, the documented red flags, and the families' fight for transparency and accountability. The murders, they argue, were "foreseeable — and, in fact, predictable."
#BryanKohberger #WSULawsuit #IdahoMurders #KayleeGoncalves #MadisonMogen #XanaKernodle #EthanChapin #TitleIX #TrueCrime #IdahoFour
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brewski. |
| 0:03.3 | Here now, Tony Brucey. |
| 0:06.8 | Remember these words? |
| 0:08.8 | Mark my word. |
| 0:10.1 | I work with predators. |
| 0:11.9 | If we give him a Ph.D., that's the guy that in many years, when he's a professor, we will hear is harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing his students. |
| 0:22.3 | That's a direct quote from a Washington State University faculty member said to colleagues in the fall of 2022. |
| 0:32.0 | It wasn't speculation, wasn't being dramatic. |
| 0:34.7 | It was issuing a warning, urging them to cut Brian Koberger's funding and remove him from the program before it was too late. |
| 0:44.3 | They didn't listen. |
| 0:47.0 | Five days before the college students were stabbed to death in their beds, WSU held a mandatory discrimination training session for Koberger's entire doctoral cohort |
| 0:56.6 | because of him, because of the complaints that have been piling up since the day he arrived on campus. |
| 1:08.4 | And now more than three years later, the families of Kelly Gonzalezonzalez madison mogan zaner kernodal and |
| 1:13.9 | ethan jacin chapin have filed a 126 page lawsuit against washington state university the allegations |
| 1:20.6 | inside that complaint aren't just damning they're enraging because this wasn't a case of |
| 1:27.4 | warning signs being missed. |
| 1:29.3 | According to the lawsuit, those warning signs were documented, reported, tracked on a literal |
| 1:34.9 | tallyboard, and systematically ignored by an institution more concerned with liability |
| 1:41.2 | than safety. |
| 1:43.6 | Where have we seen this before? |
| 1:45.3 | Passing the trash around from place to place. |
| 1:50.3 | Between August and November of 2022, a span of just three months, at least 13 formal complaints |
... |
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