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Police records in Idaho murder case: 5 things revealed about Bryan Kohberger

Rachel Roberts, The Idaho Statesman on

Published in News & Features

BOISE, Idaho — Hundreds of pages of documents released Wednesday by the Moscow Police Department after Bryan Kohberger’s sentencing hearing revealed some new information about the man who murdered four University of Idaho students.

Not much has been known about the personality of Kohberger, who sat through his plea hearing and sentencing without expression during highly emotional victim impact statements. But some of the documents revealed a glimpse, including his behavior in jail in Latah County and his apparent inability to interact with female students properly at Washington State University.

Kohberger will spend the rest of his life in prison for fatally stabbing seniors Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21; junior Xana Kernodle, 20; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20. He entered an off-campus home the women shared with others early on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022, and committed the murders.

Here are five things that the Idaho Statesman gleaned from the records.

1. PRISONER SAYS KOHBERGER TALKED TO MOM FOR HOURS

The Moscow Police Department interviewed a man at the Latah County Jail who was housed next to Kohberger.

The man told police that Kohberger seemed highly intelligent and the smartest person he had encountered while incarcerated. He also said Kohberger was polite — for the most part.

But the man said Kohberger quickly became annoying, citing his obsession with washing his hands dozens of times a day, 45-minute showers and pacing at night.

Kohberger also was known to video chat for hours each day with his mother, and it was during one such occasion that the man saw Kohberger lose his temper.

Another person housed at the jail was watching sports and yelled, “You suck!” at the TV. Kohberger immediately got up, put his face against the bars and “aggressively” asked whether the inmate was talking to him or his mother.

2. WSU PROFESSORS CONSIDERED INTERVENTION

In documents obtained by subpoena from Washington State University by Moscow police, email conversations between professors revealed that Kohberger was having trouble interacting with female students.

One professor said Kohberger offended several women, and that professor planned to gather more information for a possible intervention.

There also was an exchange between professors about working with Kohberger: “Do you want to take Kohberger? He listed you and (redacted) as people he was interested in working with.” The reply was, “If I must.”

 

3. KOHBERGER DIDN’T DO WELL AS TEACHING ASSISTANT

The Moscow Police Department said it received two PDF files from WSU with nearly 450 pages of email correspondence, class assignments, mentor assignments and other miscellaneous documents.

Some of those emails, which were not made available in the public records release, detailed the specific issues that led to Kohberger being terminated as a teaching assistant and losing his funding for his Ph.D. program.

This happened at the end of the semester not long after he murdered the four students.

4. KOHBERGER THOUGHT ABOUT BECOMING POLICE OFFICER

During an interview after his arrest in Pennsylvania, Kohberger largely engaged in small talk with investigators before asking for a lawyer.

Kohberger told investigators that before becoming a Ph.D. student in criminal justice and criminology at WSU, he considered becoming a police officer. But Kohberger did not want to make the commitment unless he was “absolutely sure.”

Before the conclusion of the interview, Kohberger told the officers that he had the utmost respect for law enforcement.

5. KOHBERGER CONSIDERED HIMSELF A RELIGIOUS SKEPTIC

During that same conversation with investigators, Kohberger described the cross-country trip with his father from Pennsylvania to Washington for the doctoral program in Pullman, Washington.

He was struck by the beauty of the natural environment he encountered, and said it was one of the only times he thought about God or a higher power.

Kohberger said he was raised Christian but was largely a “skeptic.”

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©2025 The Idaho Statesman. Visit idahostatesman.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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