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The macabre research of PhD student charged over four gruesome murder…

6-7 minutes 12/31/2022

The mugshot showed him staring impassively into the camera after police descended on a house in the quiet community of Effort, deep in the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania, to lead him away.

Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doing a PhD in criminology, was wanted for the knife murder of four students at the University of Idaho 2,500 miles away. His arrest was the first big breakthrough in a case that had baffled police, sparked a series of online conspiracy theories and terrorised the small college town of Moscow, Idaho, where the murders were discovered almost seven weeks ago.

Moscow had not recorded a murder in seven years before Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, were butchered in their beds at their off-campus student home on November 13.

Police sources described the crime scene as the “worst” they had seen. Photographs of the house at 1122 King Road showed blood oozing through a crack in the side of the building. Inside, the bedrooms were splattered with blood. Post-mortem examinations confirmed that some of the victims had defensive wounds after being woken and stabbed many times with a large knife. Others were killed as they slept between 3am and 4am. The house showed no sign of forced entry.

Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, asleep on the ground floor, were unharmed and unaware of the horror on the floors above. They discovered their friends’ bodies that morning.

The murders shocked America and stunned the community of Moscow, a town of 25,000. Many students left and refused to return after the Thanksgiving holiday as the hunt for the killer dragged on. Classrooms were left half empty. Those who did return put cameras and extra locks on doors and barred windows, even in dormitories. Some began sharing rooms at night. Few walked home alone after dark.

Fear turned to anger as the weeks passed with police apparently no closer to an arrest or a motive. With the killer still on the loose, the victims’ families began to voice frustration that they had received no information.

Bryan Kohberger poses for a mugshot in Pennsylvania on Friday

Bryan Kohberger poses for a mugshot in Pennsylvania on Friday

REUTERS

Against a backdrop of mounting public criticism, however, investigators had identified a suspect from more than 19,000 tips that flooded in. Kohberger’s name was never made public, but it emerged after his arrest that the FBI had tracked him to Pennsylvania.

At a press conference in Moscow on Friday evening, Idaho police confirmed that they had also seized a white Hyundai Elantra matching a vehicle that was spotted “in the immediate area” on the night of the murders. Kohberger’s DNA has been matched to samples recovered at the scene, CNN reported. Police say they are still looking for the murder weapon.

“I recognise the frustration with the lack of information that’s been released,” James Fry, the Moscow police chief, said. “However, providing any details in this criminal investigation might have tainted the upcoming prosecution or alerted the suspect of our progress.”

Police files on the case, including the alleged motive, are now sealed pending Kohberger’s extradition to Idaho, with a hearing in Pennsylvania set for Tuesday. By yesterday, however, details of the suspect had begun to emerge.

Kohberger was studying for a PhD in criminal justice at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, nine miles across the state line from Moscow. He had studied at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, graduating last year.

In May, Kohberger posted an online questionnaire on the social media platform Reddit, seeking participants in a research project to study “how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime”.

The questions now seem macabre. “Before making your move, how did you approach the victim or target?” he asked. “After committing the crime, what were you thinking and feeling?” Another asked: “Why did you choose that victim or target over others?”

Former friends from Pleasant Valley, Pennsylvania, where Kohberger grew up, said he became aggressive after taking up kickboxing during his final years in high school.

“He always wanted to fight somebody. He was bullying people. We started cutting him off from our friend group because he was 100 per cent a different person,” Nick Mcloughlin told the Daily Beast.

Newspapers in Pennsylvania reported that Kohberger had spent several years working as a security guard, gaining some attention in 2018 for saving the life of a colleague who was having an asthma attack. He left to pursue his studies in 2021.

At the WSU campus, police searched Kohberger’s room and office on Friday.

BK Norton, a student on the same course, told The New York Times that Kohberger was on campus as usual the day after the attacks and seemed upbeat. She said, however, that his quiet, intense demeanour made other students uncomfortable. “He sort of creeped people out because he stared and didn’t talk much, but when he did it was very intelligent and he needed everyone to know he was smart,” Norton said.

Elizabeth Chilton, WSU provost, said the “horrific act had shaken everyone” in the area, but hoped the arrest would “be a step toward healing”.

Police have declined to comment on a motive for the killings. “That’s part of our investigation and will come out,” Fry said.

Bill Thompson, the Latah County prosecutor, told the press conference on Friday: “This is not the end of this investigation. In fact, this is a new beginning.”

The silence from police for long periods during the investigation has sparked many conspiracy theories online. Ashley Guillard, a self-proclaimed TikTok psychic, faces a lawsuit for alleged defamation for accusing Rebecca Scofield, who chairs the University of Idaho’s history department, of the murders. Guillard’s video was viewed more than 2.5 million times.

Fry sought to reassure Moscow residents, although he declined to say if police were seeking other suspects. “We have an individual in custody . . . and I do believe our community is safe,” he said. “But we still do need to be vigilant, right?”