Colleagues from Bryan Kohberger’s graduate school remember him being actively involved in their criminal justice and criminology program at Washington State University—one who sought connections while sharing little about his past in his first semester as a doctoral student.
Kohberger — the man charged with four first-degree murders in the murders of four University of Idaho students — showed social disposition with colleagues, engaged in casual conversation between classes, said two master’s students who shared several freshman courses with him, the Idaho statesman.
That echoed Kohberger’s demeanor during the program’s induction last fall, when he was one of the first to introduce himself to others in their group of 13 incoming students, one of his classmates said.
“He seemed gregarious and outgoing, that was really the only impression I got,” Ben Roberts, a criminal justice graduate student, said in a telephone interview with the Statesman. “He did the rounds. He certainly seemed a little more eager than some of the others who were there to walk around and introduce themselves.
During class, the 28-year-old Kohberger seemed academically inclined and didn’t shy away from speaking out, including challenging his classmates, Roberts said, and another master’s student to whom the Statesman granted anonymity to email questions. to answer.
Kohberger’s enthusiasm for his field of study — understanding the criminal mind — was on regular display, they said.
“Bryan only spoke about his interest in forensic psychology,” the master’s student told the Statesman. “He was an incredibly strong student and talked every time during class.”
“He was front and center and didn’t hide or get in the back,” added Roberts. “He was in the middle of it.”
In retrospect, this is why Kohberger’s non-participation in a lengthy conversation about the murders in Moscow is striking, says the master’s student. The person said they had four classes with the man now in Latah County jail, including a court and legal process class where the murders were discussed before the semester ended the week of Dec. 12.
“He was completely silent,” Kohberger’s classmate said.
Kohberger, who also faces burglary charges in addition to the murders, is charged with the Nov. 13 stabbing of U of I seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington.
The three women lived together in an off-campus rented house, while Chapin stayed overnight with Kernodle, his girlfriend.
Police began considering Kohberger a suspect as early as Nov. 29, according to the 19-page probabilistic affidavit unsealed Thursday. Law enforcement officers arrested Kohberger on Dec. 30 at his family’s home in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, while he was visiting them over the holidays from school. Last Tuesday he waived extradition; was flown to Pullman and driven to Moscow to prison on Wednesday; and first appeared in court in Idaho on Thursday.
“I’m shocked,” the WSU master’s student told the Statesman. “I can’t believe this person was near me after they allegedly committed such a horrible crime.”
WSU student: ‘This affects people’
Kohberger was one of 34 students in Washington State’s criminal justice and criminology graduate program. The Statesman obtained the information in a review of the program’s website that identified each of the students, before the university quickly removed it after Moscow police announced Kohberger’s arrest.
“We have removed the web page containing the list and contact information for CJC department graduate students,” the link read Friday, citing privacy protections and directing all media inquiries to a spokesperson for the school. “We sympathize with the families of the victims of this terrible crime and remain committed to justice.”
The website previously revealed that the program offers 24 Ph.D. students, including Kohberger, and 10 students pursuing their master’s degree. Previous attempts by the Statesman to reach members of the program received no response, except for the two master’s students who agreed to interviews.
Kohberger was also listed as an assistant instructor for three undergraduate criminal justice courses under Professor John Snyder, the department’s criminal justice club advisor and general manager. The university has since also removed his name online in that role of teaching assistant.
Snyder declined to comment when reached on his cell phone by the statesman on the day of Kohberger’s arrest. The department president, graduate program director and three of Kohberger’s other WSU course instructors also declined requests for comment from Statesman through the university’s spokesperson.
Roberts, one of only four men in the graduate program outside of Kohberger, agreed to a few interviews, including with the Statesman.
“It’s a story that touches people, so I don’t know if I want to satisfy curiosity, but do it by offering something so people don’t speculate so much,” he said.
In a handful of conversations outside of the classroom with Kohberger, Roberts said the two talked a bit about music and sports, and at one point Kohberger said he liked to walk. The discussions were just “pretty typical icebreaker” chats between new colleagues, Roberts said, including how Pullman was very different from the places where they all grew up.
In class, Kohberger usually came across as professional, Roberts said, though he said he was put off when Kohberger began consistently showing off during seminar discussions that he was more forceful and condescending toward women.
“It’s hard to see a pattern developing while you’re in class, but it tended to push back when a woman was talking, more than a man was talking,” Roberts said. “He was more interested in asking probing questions and things like that.”
The other master’s student said Kohberger “speaks dejectedly to LGBTQ+ individuals, those who are in a marginalized community, those who were disabled, and women.” Kohberger also described himself as someone who “believed in a ‘traditional marriage,'” his classmate said.
In another incident, a classmate of Kohberger’s said, a colleague hung a flag of a proud ally on their office door, and Kohberger became noticeably upset.
Kohberger didn’t say much about his career goals, every student said, or his master’s degree in criminal justice from DeSales University, not far from where he grew up in eastern Pennsylvania.
While in DeSales, just southeast of Allentown, Kohberger studied with noted forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland, who collaborated on one of her books with serial killer Dennis Rader, better known as the BTK Killer.
Ramsland did not respond to requests for comment from the Statesman, but confirmed to LehighValleyNews.com that Kohberger was a former student. She declined further comment.
‘He rarely talked about his academic history and study programme,’ says the Master’s student. “I had no idea Bryan had studied with famous forensic psychologists.”
After the Nov. 13 knife attacks that killed four students about 10 miles east of Pullman in Moscow, none of the students remembered Kohberger with any injuries or unusual behavior, they said. The master’s student who spoke anonymously said they had a class with Kohberger on Nov. 15 and couldn’t remember anything that stood out.
Once, late in the semester—Roberts thinks it was before the Thanksgiving holiday—Kohberger told Roberts he hadn’t slept much the night before.
“I remember it wasn’t the week before or the week after the murders, because I think that would have set alarm bells ringing in my head,” Roberts said. “I believe it was right when we had some pretty tough assignments, and I don’t think any of us got enough sleep.”
Police said Kohberger made at least a dozen visits to the area near the Moscow rental home where the victims were killed, based on cell phone location data obtained from AT&T in a search warrant, according to the statement of probable cause .
“All but one of these occasions occurred in the late evening or early morning hours of their respective days,” writes the Moscow Police Cpl. Brett Payne read.
For Roberts, the allegations against and arrest of Kohberger remain staggering, and he continues to feel a sense of unease, he said.
Much has been muddled, Roberts said, as the WSU chapter, built around teaching students why people commit heinous crimes, is forced to face the fact that one of its own chapters is now accused of committing heinous crimes. such incident.
“The stories you read in the paper, the cases you review, the studies you do, it can get easy to forget that they’re connected to real people, and it’s the real world and the real consequences,” he said. Roberts. “People lose people and find their child’s bed empty. There’s a real heaviness to looking at that and realizing and remembering that this isn’t just some barren academic subject. This is something that touches people.”
