Suspect in killing 4 students in Idaho was a psychologist specializing in criminal minds

Eleven days before four University of Idaho students were found stabbed to death in a home near campus, Bryan Kohberger was attending an in-person criminology class at a nearby college, contributing to a discussion about forensic evidence, DNA and other types of evidence. evidence used by prosecutors to secure convictions.

The 28-year-old graduate appeared to be highly involved in the discussion, recalled a former classmate. It was a subject that had long fascinated Kohberger, who had researched the mindset of criminals, studied with a Pennsylvania professor known for her expertise in serial killers, and, in recent months, had been preparing for a doctorate in criminology at Washington State University. about 10 miles from the Idaho crime scene.

Less than two months later, Kohberger himself would be the subject of a criminal investigation, having been arrested on December 30, accused of murdering the four Idaho students.

Investigators have yet to come up with a possible motive, but the details that are coming to light about Kohberger’s deep interest in the psychology of criminals have opened up yet another layer of mystery in a case that traumatized the university city of Moscow, prompting countless theories proposed by people in across the country who followed the case with horror and fascination.

Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Effort, Pennsylvania, and instructed to appear for a hearing on Tuesday. Jason LaBar, the Monroe County public defender who is representing him, said Kohberger had been following the case with interest but was shocked when he was detained.

“He hopes and predicts that he will be cleared, that’s what he said,” LaBar said. According to the attorney, Kohberger will not contest the effort to return him to Idaho to be indicted. On Sunday LaBar released a statement from Kohberger’s parents and two sisters, expressing love and support for him and saying they cooperated with police to “promote his presumption of innocence.” In addition, they said they were praying for the victims.

Kohberger grew up in a suburban town in eastern Pennsylvania and attended Pleasant Valley High School in Brodheadsville, where former classmates recalled that he had an analytical mind but sometimes acted ruthlessly. Thomas Arntz became friends with Kohberger as they went back and forth on the school bus in 2009. He said the friendship ended in 2014 when harmless banter between friends turned nasty and Kohberger began to sometimes have his neck in a headlock.

“Over time it got so bad that I just shut down when I was around him,” said Arntz, who is now 26. “I ended up having to cut ties with him.”

Kohberger’s friends in Pennsylvania said that early in high school he was addicted to heroin, but in recent years he seems to have overcome the addiction.

Jack Baylis, who befriended Kohberger in eighth grade, said he was fascinated by understanding what made people act the way they did and that he seemed to enjoy working as a security guard for the Pleasant Valley School District, which he did for several years. until 2021.

The last time Baylis saw Kohberger was in 2021, when they practiced airsoft (games in which practitioners simulate police operations with weapons that fire non-lethal projectiles). At the time, Baylis said, Kohberger was driving a white Hyundai Elantra vehicle, the same model of car that Moscow police said was seen near the Idaho victims’ home on the night of the attacks. “I’m praying he’s innocent,” Baylis said.

After earning a psychology degree from community college in 2018, Kohberger went to DeSales University, a Catholic institution in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, to study psychology and criminal justice. One of her teachers was Katherine Ramsland, a well-known forensic psychologist whose books include “The Mind of a Murderer” and “How to Catch a Killer”. Ramsland declined to comment.

Kohberger was a man who said little but was seen as intelligent, said Brittany Slaven, who taught him several courses at DeSales. She recalled an instance in one of Ramsland’s classes where students had to look at crime scene photos and deduce what happened, saying Kohberger readily proposed ideas.

He had a special interest in crime scenes and serial killers, Slaven said. “At the time it just seemed like he was an inquisitive student. If questions from him seemed odd, it didn’t get our attention, because it was in the context of the curriculum.”

In a post on Reddit seven months ago, a user who identified himself as Bryan Kohberger asked people who had spent time in prison to participate in a survey about the crimes they committed. Kohberger was identified in the research as a student researcher who was working with two professors at DeSales University. Participants were asked to describe their “thoughts, emotions and actions from the beginning to the process of committing the crime”.

DeSales University said Kohberger graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the institution in 2020 and completed his master’s degree in June 2022. A university spokesperson said the lead researcher on the crime research — Michelle A. Bolger, whose name appears on the university’s website as an associate professor—and her colleagues will not be giving interviews about their experiences working with Kohberger. The assistant professor named as the lead co-investigator, Jeffrey E. Clutter, did not respond to multiple messages.

Kohberger then moved to Pullman, Washington, where he started the August semester in the graduate criminology program at Washington State University.

On the morning of November 13, after a Saturday night filled with college parties and a University of Idaho football game, four students were found stabbed to death in the rented Moscow home where three of them resided.

Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Gonçalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were attacked in at least two separate bedrooms, presumably while they were sleeping, according to investigators. The three women lived in the house. Chapin was spending the night with Kernodle, his girlfriend.

The brutality of the deaths –according to the medical examiner, the four students were stabbed with a long knife— and the absence of any suspect created a climate of fear in Moscow, a city that had not registered a homicide for seven years.

Students began walking in groups. Residents began checking the locks on their doors and windows. A delivery woman said more people had started ordering takeout to avoid going out after dark. And the police began to receive numerous calls from angry residents: a suspicious-looking man, a driver accelerating his car, noises in the night.

Police have taken security measures on both university campuses, adding additional patrols and holding self-defense workshops.

At Washington State, Kohberger was continuing his education, his classmates said. BK Norton, who took the same courses as Kohberger, said Kohberger’s silence and intense expression made some of his colleagues uncomfortable.

Another student said Kohberger seemed interested in the mental processes of criminals as they committed crimes and not so interested in the social factors that might drive people to commit crimes, saying he believed that some people cannot help but break the law. The colleague, who requested anonymity to speak because he feared speaking publicly could compromise his physical safety, described Kohberger as the “black sheep” of the class, often advocating opposing views and getting into arguments with his peers, especially women.

The colleague remembered an occasion when Kohberger began to explain an elementary concept of criminology to a doctoral colleague, who accused him of “mansplaining” (when a man explains something in a simplified way to a woman, assuming that, because she is a woman, she unaware of the subject or unable to understand the details). A heated argument ensued, and the doctoral student ended up storming out of the classroom.

A team of investigators from state and local agencies, as well as more than 60 FBI agents, traveled to Moscow at the time of the crime. Forensic experts searched the house for physical evidence, including DNA, and searched for the murder weapon — in vain.

Authorities launched an appeal for information and videos. Thousands of amateur investigators across the country have suggested several people as possible perpetrators of the crime: the ex-boyfriend of one of the victims, a man who was with two of the victims when they bought food, two colleagues who were sleeping in the house when the crime took place. , but who, apparently, continued to sleep.

None of the online discussion groups pointed to Kohberger. It is unclear if or how he knew the victims.

The police tried to quell the rumours, excluding several people from the list of suspects, but the accusations kept coming in and at times the police couldn’t seem to exclude names quickly enough. Almost every detail of the investigation was withheld, causing frustration and leading some, including victims’ families, to publicly question whether the police were up to the task.

Even so, investigators worked through the holiday season, processing thousands of pieces of information and evidence gleaned from the crime scene and surroundings. When announcing Kohberger’s arrest on the 30th, Moscow Police Chief James Fry said police had located a white Hyundai Elantra car but had not yet found the murder weapon.

Fry looked exhausted and close to tears when he announced the arrest at a news conference, making it clear that investigators are still looking for information to help answer the unanswered questions: Did the suspect act alone? What motivated the crime?

“You can be sure the job isn’t over,” said Fry. “It’s just getting started.”