Documents unsealed on Wednesday — the same day Bryan Kohberger was sentenced for killing four University of Idaho students in 2022 — stated that his college professors were concerned about how he treated female students.
Kohberger was given four life sentences for stabbing Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves at the women’s off-campus home in Moscow. Following his sentencing, police reports described how Kohberger’s professors at Washington State University considered staging an “intervention” because he was making female students feel uncomfortable, according to NewsNation.
The professors’ comments about Kohberger are consistent with what sources previously told NewsNation about his behavior towards women. The sources claimed that Kohberger, a teaching assistant, was condescending towards women in his classes and graded them more harshly than the male students.
Kohberger was fired as a teaching assistant a month after the murders, according to NewsNation.
According to The Independent, police were also tipped off about concerning correspondence Kohberger had on Tinder before the slayings. A woman claimed she matched with Kohberger on the dating application in October 2022. She said she stopped talking to him after Kohberger inquired about a murder that happened in her town years earlier and asked what her favorite horror movie was.
The woman (identified in police documents as “C”) alleged Kohberger then asked what she believed the worst way to die was.
“C said she thought it would be a knife,” the report detailed. “C said Kohberger then asked her something to the effect of ‘like a Ka-Bar?’”
The military-style knife and leather sheath were purchased months before the murders. The sheath was recovered from the crime scene, but the knife was never found.
Police claimed Kohberger visited the area 12 times before the slayings and he turned off his phone the night of the murders. Kohberger’s DNA was found on a knife sheath located near Mogen and Goncalves’ bodies.
Meanwhile, defense attorneys accused prosecutors of withholding evidence about unidentified DNA samples — including DNA on a glove outside the home which also remains unidentified.
Investigators tested DNA from a trash can outside Kohberger’s family home in Pennsylvania against DNA found on the sheath at the crime scene. Testing determined that “at least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father.”
At the time of the slayings, Kohberger was working on his Ph.D. in criminology from Washington State University, which is located 10 miles from the crime scene. He was arrested in Pennsylvania in December 2022, after taking a cross-country road trip with his father from Washington to Pennsylvania for the holidays.
In September, Kohberger’s trial was moved from Latah County to Boise, in Ada County. The trial’s venue was changed after the state supreme court upheld a ruling identifying publicity and media attention concerns that could jeopardize Kohberger’s right to a fair trial. Further, the courts noted that the Latah County courthouse lacked space and local police did not have enough deputies to provide adequate security.
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[Feature Photo: Idaho Department of Corrections]
