Fmr FBI Sniper Christopher Whitcomb: The Truth Behind the Idaho Murders - Plus Much More
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Why does Chris Whitcomb say the Idaho murders case isn’t 'open and shut'?
It's a very complex case. It's not open and shut. I swore an oath on the Constitution to protect the Constitution of the United States at the risk of my own life. They tell you how to use a gun. They tell you when you cannot use a gun, the rules of deadly force. They never, ever tell you what's going to happen if you do.
Welcome to Pod Force One, and today we're joined by Chris Whitcomb, who is the author of a new book called Broken Plea, the explosive search for the truth behind the Idaho murders. He also is a former member of the FBI's hostage rescue team, involved in a couple of pretty controversial rescues and hostage situations. So we'll talk about that and lots more. Thanks for joining us, Chris.
Miranda, nice to meet you and nice to join you.
You too. I always like meeting a former FBI agent, especially one like you who was really in the thick of things, who has turned author and successful author. I'm interested to know, this book particularly grabbed my fancy. My agent actually pointed me to it and said it was explosive research that you've done. And it's an open and shut case, I thought. Brian Kohlberger was found guilty, took a guilty plea. That's it. He's in jail for the rest of his life. Why did you start thinking that there was something odd about it?
I agree with you. I thought it was an open and shut case. I knew almost nothing about this case until shortly before the trial and then really learned most about this case after the plea agreement. I thought the same thing. Working in law enforcement as I had, I looked at the evidence that I saw. I listened to the judge. Everything seemed completely normal. I really didn't pay any attention. He pled guilty and then everything changed. Friends of mine in law enforcement who had access to various parts of the information reached out to me to try and explain how When Brian Korberger pled guilty, many, many things people wanted to know about the case went away. He's going to prison. He did not allocute or did not explain anything at the change of plea hearing.
And when that happened, we lost all hope of knowing about his motive, his means, the mechanism of the crimes, the location, or even a description of the murder weapons. And now almost a year ago, I think those things are very compelling. It's a very complex case. It's not open and shut.
No, I think we all thought it was rather peculiar that they just went straight to the plea deal because this was such a high profile case because the parents of those young victims wanted to get some closure in court. They wanted to know why did he do it? He never even said anything to the court about his motive. He just seemed to sit there smirking the whole time. It was such a... you know, unfathomable case that this one man could go into that multi-floor building and manage to kill five young people, including a young man, a strong young man. And they were all pretty active kids. And he wasn't a muscle man. So how did that happen?
You know, that's one of the first questions I asked, Miranda. It's a great question many people have asked ever since. All we know, and I don't want to talk in legal terms, but we all stipulate unequivocally that Brian Koberger pled guilty to four counts of murder and one count of burglary. that he accepted life in prison without the possibility of parole and waived a lot of his appeals. So we all know that happened. The next question, as you just said, is how? Police in their own investigation and in prosecution, in the change of plea hearing, when they reviewed the evidence, They placed the timeframe somewhere around five minutes, five minutes or less for various reasons. So you ask those questions.
He went into the house, he went to the third floor, he found two women in bed, committed two horrific murders, went downstairs, went to another part of the house, committed two more horrific murders, somehow got back to his car, drove his car around, and that's what we see in the 1112 video as a white Hyundai Elantra speeds away. So the timeline, depending on what the prosecution says at any given time during the course of this, is probably somewhere of less than five minutes, maybe less than four minutes.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Why does Chris Whitcomb say the Idaho murders case isn’t 'open and shut'?
0:00–10:11
2
What unanswered forensic questions emerged after Bryan Kohberger’s guilty plea?
10:11–29:27
3
How could hair and DNA evidence from Ethan’s body challenge the single‑assailant theory?
29:27–51:45
4
What chain‑of‑custody and knife‑sheath issues does Whitcomb highlight?
51:45–1:08:19
5
Why does Whitcomb argue parts of the crime scene blood were diluted or cleaned?
1:08:19–1:22:37