Why Was Madison Mogen The Target of Kohberger? Howard Blum Explains
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 10 July 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
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Summary
Description:
Among the most chilling questions in the Bryan Kohberger case is why Madison Mogen — of all the victims — may have been the primary target. In this deeply unsettling episode, investigative journalist Howard Blum joins Hidden Killers to unpack his exclusive theory: that Maddie Mogen didn’t just symbolize something to Kohberger — she represented everything he believed he was denied.
Blum explores the alleged fixation Kohberger may have developed on Maddie: her appearance, her joy, her effortless connection to others — all of it, a rebuke to his own social alienation. She was the kind of person he could never be close to. And, in Blum’s words, he believed if he couldn’t exist in her world, she shouldn’t be allowed to either.
We retrace the alleged events of that night — Kohberger circling the King Road house not once, but three times, before finally working up the will to approach. Blum details how Kohberger appeared fixated on entering Maddie’s room, passing other sleeping victims on the way — and how everything unraveled when he found not one, but two people inside: Maddie and Kaylee. The attack that followed was violent, unrestrained, and ultimately left behind the knife sheath that became the smoking gun.
Joined by Robin Dreeke, we also explore whether this was truly a single-target fantasy turned spree, or whether Kohberger was already walking the path of serial escalation — and what Maddie’s symbolic power in his mind says about the dark psychology behind targeted murder.
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#MaddieMogen #BryanKohberger #HowardBlum #TrueCrimeToday #IdahoFour #KohbergerTarget #MoscowMurders #TrueCrimePodcast #HiddenKillers #ForensicPsychology
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The weather. Tomorrow, expect a biting cold front. Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be |
| 0:06.9 | wearing or taking off. The night will be wild and untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain that'll soak you |
| 0:13.8 | to the skin. By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching their peak in the afternoon. |
| 0:21.3 | Not in the mood for miserable weather? |
| 0:23.5 | Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express. |
| 0:26.3 | Sun Express, non-stop sunshine. |
| 0:30.5 | The weather. Tomorrow, expect a... |
| 0:33.3 | Biting cold front. |
| 0:34.6 | Mmm, how naughty. |
| 0:36.0 | I wonder what I'll be wearing or taking off. |
| 0:39.1 | The night will be wild and untamed. |
| 0:41.2 | Expect heavy, lashing rain that'll soak you to the skin. |
| 0:45.0 | By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching their peak in the afternoon. |
| 0:51.2 | Not in the mood for miserable weather? |
| 0:53.4 | Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express. |
| 0:56.3 | Sun Express, nonstop sunshine. |
| 0:59.8 | This is the Hidden Killers podcast with Tony Bruske and continuing coverage of the case against |
| 1:05.8 | Brian Koberger. |
| 1:07.8 | You know, in most murder cases, we're chasing the question, who did it? |
| 1:12.0 | In the Brian Coburger case, we've known the who for a long time. |
| 1:15.8 | The real question now, the one that keeps people up at night is, why did he do it? |
| 1:21.4 | And maybe the most unsettling, what did he hope to gain from it? |
... |
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