Terrifying Bodycam Footage Shows Teen Calmly Confesses to Murdering Decapitated Unhoused Man

In February 2023, 21-year-old Brian Cohee was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the grisly death, after attempting to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. Cohee was previously diagnosed with major depressive disorder, ADHD and being on the autism spectrum, but a jury decided he could distinguish between right and wrong at the time of the horrific crime.

Last week, the true crime YouTube channel Explore With Us released a new documentary about the Cohee slaying, which included previously unseen bodycam footage and interrogation room video from the case. The nearly-two-hour video has racked up more than 11 million views in the week since it went live, horrifying viewers in the process.

We've embedded the video below, but it must be viewed on YouTube:

The doc breaks down how police eventually found out about the crime, starting with a car mishap involving Cohee on the night of February 28, 2021.

Initially, the then 19-year-old man told cops he "needed to get out" to "relax and think" and wound up parking his family's car on a boat ramp on the Colorado River. The vehicle, however, got stuck, and authorities were called to the scene. At the time, both authorities and Cohee's own parents got a laugh out of the situation as they all wondered how the hell the car wound up in the river.

After it was pulled out of the water, police noticed "a lot of red" dripping down the back of the car, which left them wondering whether Cohee had been injured in the incident. He, however, said he was fine and had no idea why there may be blood on the vehicle. Authorities wouldn't learn until the next day that it was, in fact, blood -- and it belonged to Barnes.

The next morning, Cohee's father found Barnes' wallet in the vehicle, as well as a card for PeopleReady, an agency which helps others find temporary work. He called PeopleReady to report the wallet and eventually Barnes was reported missing by a pair of local women in the community who saw him daily. One of the women said he never would have been in the area where the car got stuck in the river.

Cohee's father then found a "very large knife" in the glovebox of the vehicle, before the teens' mother made an even more horrifying discovery in his closet. Inside a Rubbermaid container, she found something wrapped in a plastic bag, telling police in an interview she saw "maggots covering something." She pulled it out, put the bag in the kitchen sink and opened it -- saying, "I saw old blood ... and I saw his head."

Her frantic 9-1-1 call was also heard in the doc, as she told police, "I think it's a human head. It looks like it, I saw an ear."

When police arrived on the scene, Cohee calmly approached them as authorities said, "So, parents have some concerns of some stuff they may have found in your room."

"Yeah, I believe so. A human head and hands," he said, before confirming they belonged to "that fellow who went missing recently," mistakenly calling him, "Warren Brown." Cohee then said, "I murdered him" with a knife, because he "always wondered what murder felt like."

While his mother was seen crying hysterically, authorities went into to home and confirmed there were human remains in the bag. Cohee was then placed in handcuffs, telling police, "I'm not feeling too well. These past two days, I've been very, very anxious." While driving to the sheriff's department, he also said, "It was under this bridge" as they drove over the area authorities would later learn was the crime scene.

The police interrogation is chilling to watch, as Cohee lays out exactly what happened the night of the murder. He said he was in a "bad state of mind at that time" and said he stopped taking his medication.

While driving around in his car, he wound up under the bridge near the sheriff's department and spotted what looked like a homeless encampment. Cohee told police he had been thinking about murder for "a year" or at least "six months," believing authorities didn't care about the homeless community or sex workers and admitting, "I was deliberately looking for someone who lived that type of life."

He then told them he put on three layers of gloves, before pulling back the canvas covering Barnes and stabbing him in the neck repeatedly. Per Cohee, the man began shouting, "What are you doing? Why? Why?!" -- before he then asked if it was "okay" to give authorities "a demonstration" of how he continued to stab the victim.

"It was actually surprisingly easy, I was barely breaking a sweat," he recalled. "I thought, oh, this guy, he's gonna be tough. I was growling, making animalistic noises."

He then went into the truly grisly details of how he cut open Barnes' body, before dismembering him -- first but cutting off his head, which he then put into "a leftover pizza box" he had in his car, and then the arms and hands.

"I was just doing everything I thought of at the moment. I gave him the Glasglow smile, a Joker smile," he claimed, saying he told Barnes he was killing him because he'd "been wanting to do this for a long f--king time." Added Cohee, "I decapitated him partially just for the hell of it."

He said he tossed the arms around the crime scene, but took the head and hands home with him. Cohee also drew authorities a map showing where he threw the discarded body parts, which bodycam footage also showed police finding at the scene.

During the interrogation, he compared himself to serial killer Ed Kemper, before explaining why he wore a blue jumpsuit on the night of the murders.

"You know the movie Halloween, Michael Myers, he wears one of those and for Halloween last year, I bought that as a costume. you'll find the mask in my room. I just associated that piece, that article of clothing with violence. That's why I was wearing it," he said.

The Michael Myers mask was found in his home. While Cohee also told authorities he was wearing a mask during the killing, it's unclear whether he meant the costume or a medical mask for Covid.

Cohee went on to admit that he threw more of Barnes' body parts into the river the night his car got stuck, laughing as he said he thought he was going to drown during the incident.

"I'm panicking a bit at this point. I'm gonna be like, 'This is what I'm gonna be remembered for, dying of hypothermia in a botched attempt at hiding a body,'" he recalled. "I'm just like, 'f--k, f--k, f--k."

During the interrogation, Cohee admitting to considering "taking out his heart," as well as taking pictures of the crime scene before deleting them "because they were evidence." Authorities were later able to extract the photos from his phone.

When asked why he was in a bad headspace, Cohee said it was partially because he didn't "take my medicine."

"Plus, for years, I would wonder what murder would feel like. Because you read like s--t like Ted Bundy and the Zodiac, they all say murder is the best feeling in the world," he confessed. "I'm like, I'm gonna try that. I've always wondered what murder felt like."

But the killing didn't have the intended outcome for Cohee, who said he felt "sort of neutral about the whole thing" after the fact.

"I didn't enjoy it, but I didn't hate it," he said. "If I could go back to that night, I probably wouldn't have done it. Knowing what it felt like, knowing how this will turn out, I wouldn't have done it. I thought it would be the best feeling in the world."

Following his death, a memorial was erected where Barnes used to sit and read in Grand Junction. According to the Colorado Sun, the sculpture is a replica of the chair he sat in, alongside a stack of his favorite books.