The Family Left Behind: Bryan Kohberger's Sister Speaks for the First Time About Life After the Idaho Murders
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mel Kohberger was training to become a mental health therapist when her brother was arrested for murdering four University of Idaho students. In one phone call, her entire life changed. Her job offer evaporated. Tabloids camped outside her parents' house. Online sleuths picked apart every detail of her family's history — including her sister Amanda's appearance in a 2011 horror film that featured stabbings.
For three years, the Kohberger family stayed silent out of respect for the victims' families. Now, in a new interview with The New York Times, Mel is finally telling her side of the story.
She reveals the last normal Christmas the family spent together — just days before the FBI raid. She describes her brother's struggles with bullying, autism, and heroin addiction, and the pride the family felt when he seemed to turn his life around. She explains the drawing Bryan held during his sentencing — not a "creepy" symbol, as tabloids claimed, but a colorful heart she made to remind him he was still loved.
This isn't a defense of Bryan Kohberger. He pleaded guilty. He's serving four life sentences. This is about what happens to the people connected to someone who commits an unthinkable act — and what the true crime obsession costs the people we never think about.
Featuring reporting from The New York Times, CBS News, and ABC News.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brewski. |
| 0:03.2 | Here now, Tony Brewski. |
| 0:06.9 | In November of 2022, Mel Koberger, Mel Koberger, yes, that's Brian Kovberger, |
| 0:14.3 | picked up the phone and called her brother Brian. |
| 0:19.6 | She was in New Jersey, training to start a new job as a mental health therapist. |
| 0:25.8 | Yes, the irony's not lost in any of us. |
| 0:28.9 | He was in Washington State, finishing his Ph.D. in criminology. |
| 0:32.6 | And four college students had just been found stabbed to death in a house about 15 minutes |
| 0:39.6 | from where he lived. |
| 0:42.9 | No suspects, no arrests, just a town full of terrified people, and a killer who at that moment |
| 0:49.6 | in time vanished into the night. |
| 0:54.7 | Brian, are you running outside and this psycho killer is on the loose? |
| 0:59.1 | She told him. |
| 1:01.3 | According to a new interview with the New York Times, she said, |
| 1:06.7 | be careful. |
| 1:08.6 | Concern for her brother who liked to go run outside. |
| 1:13.8 | Be careful. |
| 1:15.8 | He thanked her for checking on him. |
| 1:17.7 | He assured her that he would stay safe. |
| 1:22.9 | Here's what Melkoburger didn't know. |
| 1:26.2 | Her brother wasn't in danger from the killer. |
| 1:29.4 | Her brother was the killer. |
... |
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