February 18, 2025

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Idaho ‘killer’ Bryan Kohberger ‘cherry-picked’ victims for key reason, forensic expert says & shares motive theories

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THE brutal murders of four students in Idaho may have been motivated by rage and resentment because the victims symbolized what their killer “doesn’t have and can’t get,” a forensic psychologist believes.

Bryan Kohberger, 28, was arrested in late December 2022 and charged with first-degree murder and burglary in connection with the deaths of four students in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.

Bryan Kohberger is facing four counts of first-degree murder

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Bryan Kohberger is facing four counts of first-degree murderCredit: Reuters
The four students were found dead on November 13

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The four students were found dead on November 13Credit: instagram/@kayleegoncalves

The victims, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, were all stabbed to death in the early hours of the morning.

The search for their killer lasted several weeks before Kohberger was apprehended in Pennsylvania on December 30 as a suspect.

Police say DNA evidence found on a knife sheath left behind at the crime scene was a match for Kohberger.

Cell phone records also show that the criminology student visited the crime scene 12 times over a period of several months, with the most recent occurring the morning after the murders, according to an arrest affidavit.

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While a motive remains unclear, veteran forensic psychologist Dr Joni Johnston believes Kohberger – should he be found to be the culprit – may have been motivated to kill by deep-seated anger, resentment, and jealousy, based on her analysis of public reports.

Speaking to The U.S. Sun, Dr Johnston explained: “My theory is that this is an attack motivated by rage and anger, and almost a need for revenge.

“I don’t mean necessarily that there’s this kind of need for anger or revenge against these [victims] specifically … but it could be a murder-by-proxy thing.”

Stopping short of suggesting the suspect may have been an incel – or an involuntary celibate – Johnston says the sole suspect may have harbored resentment toward his female victims in particular.

“The victims he chose may symbolize what he doesn’t have and can’t get – and so he’s angry about that,” she said.

“These are young, attractive girls living in a college town … in his mind, he needs to take power, take control, and get revenge on these individuals because of who and what they symbolize.”

KILLER’S POTENTIAL ‘AROUSAL’

Police have not yet publicly determined who, if any of the four victims, were specifically targeted by the suspect.

It’s also unclear if Kohberger had any known links to the victims.

Autopsies show that some of the victims had defensive wounds, and each was stabbed multiple times.

Goncalves’ family have previously claimed their daughter suffered more severe wounds than the other victims, though police are yet to confirm the claim.

As the investigation continues, Johnston says what has surprised her most about the murders thus far is the apparent absence of sexual assault.

Although police said there were no signs of sexual assault present on any of the four victims, Johnston says that doesn’t mean the murders did not have a sexual component to them.

The victims he chose may symbolize what he doesn’t have and can’t get – and so he’s angry about that.

Dr. Joni Johnston

“That’s very surprising to me,” she said of the apparent absence.

“I’m trying to think of a series of murders like this, where college girls were targeted, in the dead of night, by a person who was perhaps surveilling them, and there wasn’t a sexual component to it.

“But sexuality is such an interesting thing, and just because there were no signs of penetration or sexual assault, it doesn’t mean the killer wasn’t in a state of arousal during the murders.

“Psychologists who ascribe to Sigmund Freud more than I do would say the knife is a phallic symbol,” Johnston said.

“But one of the things we see in premeditated homicides sometimes is people who are aroused by torturing other people.

“There are also examples of people who are aroused by actually watching the life leave their victim’s eyes. It’s rare but it does happen.

“The sexual or arousing component is in the control of the victim and being aware of the power they have over them – the power of life and death.

“For some killers, that’s the ultimate turn-on.

“I’ve spoken with murderers who’ve told me they’ve reached orgasm at the moment their victim died, which is horrifying to think about, but only the Idaho killer will know what their motive was for sure.”

Former classmates of Kohberger's say he was bullied for his weight growing up

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Former classmates of Kohberger’s say he was bullied for his weight growing upCredit: FOX News Digital
The scene of the murders is pictured above

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The scene of the murders is pictured aboveCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Dr Joni Johnston has been a forensic psychologist for more than 30 years

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Dr Joni Johnston has been a forensic psychologist for more than 30 yearsCredit: drjonijohnston.com

DISTURBING POSTS

At the time of the murders, Kohberger was studying for a doctorate in criminology at Washington State University, which is roughly a 15-minute drive from Moscow.

Classmates of Kohberger’s at WSU have described him as “gregarious,” though friends and former acquaintances in his hometown remembered him as an outcast who was bullied for his weight and later allegedly spiraled into drug addiction.

During his teenage years, Kohberger penned a series of messages and online posts which have since been unearthed, in which he discusses struggling with suicidal thoughts, not being able to feel emotions or remorse, and observing his own life as if it were a video game.

He also claimed to be suffering from a neurological condition called visual snow, in which a person can see scattered dots in their line of vision similar to TV static.

“I feel like an organic sack of meat with no self-worth,” an account purported to belong to Kohberger wrote in a post on Tapatalk in 2011, when he was 16.

“As I hug my family, I look into their faces, I see nothing, it is like I am looking at a video game, but less.”

In another, the user allegedly boasted that he could do “whatever I want with little remorse.”

According to The New York Times, which was the first outlet to report on the messages, by 2012, Kohberger’s posts sounded more optimistic and he had grown to accept his condition.

He eventually got clean and became fascinated with studying criminal psychology, with the hope of one-day counseling high-profile offenders, friends told The Times.

“The sexual or arousing component is in the control of the victim and being aware of the power they have over them – the power of life and death. For some killers, that’s the ultimate turn-on.

Dr. Joni Johnston

Years later, Kohberger would turn to online forums for advice once again, this time taking to Reddit for an online survey to help with his criminology research.

The series of questions was intended, he wrote, to better understand how “emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime.”

Kohberger asked criminals to recount: “Did you struggle or fight the victim? How did you travel and enter the location that the crime occurred?”

In other questions, he asked: “Did you prepare for the crime before leaving your home? Please detail what you were thinking and feeling at this point.

“Before making your move, how did you approach the victim or target? Please detail what you were thinking and feeling.”

Johnston called the existence of the survey fascinating, theorizing the thread will likely be used against him in court.

She also believes the posts purported to have been written by Kohberger as a teen paint a fascinating picture of who he is and how he may have been thinking.

“The posts speak to somebody who is clearly unhappy, clearly struggling … he’s also clearly aware of the fact he isn’t popular, he was being bullied and nobody liked him,” she said.

“It basically looks like someone who, in a very awkward way, is trying to get some help … and he even makes the allusions as if he was a criminal, even at age 15.

“I wonder if he might have gravitated towards criminology or criminal justice in a kind of way to attempt to cope with any anger and understand any violent fantasies he may have been having.

“And I wonder if, over time, it became a sort of different purpose for him, in terms of him making a shift to a more intellectual interest in the understanding of the criminal mind because he felt himself heading in the direction.

“When you look at some of the research questions he wrote on Reddit, there was a lot of emphasis on premeditation, on how to select a target, and so on.

“If I was doing a survey on violent offenders or murderers I wouldn’t ever ask those questions because most murders aren’t premeditated.

“So I think there was definitely some investment on his part in this questionnaire and some attempt to find out information about how people feel about these things.

“Now was this an attempt to normalize his feelings or even seek encouragement? I don’t know.

“But I don’t think it was coincidental.”

ROOMATES’ SURVIVAL ‘PUZZLING’

Numerous questions remain in the killings of Goncalves, Mogen, Kernodle, and Chapin.

In addition to still investigating a motive, police have not shared who out of the four friends was killed first.

Two other roommates also escaped the ordeal unharmed, including one teen girl who stared at the killer as he left the home via a screen door.

Police would not be called until several hours later for reasons that have not yet been explained.

Johnston called the sparing of the surviving two roommates the “most puzzling detail” of the whole case, with particular regard to the girl who saw the assailant as he fled.

That roommate, identified as “D.M” in court documents, told investigators she awoke at 4am to the sound of what she thought was Goncalves playing with her dog on the third floor.

A short time later, she heard what she thought was Goncalves saying, “There’s someone here,” according to an affidavit. She looked out her bedroom window but didn’t see anyone.

The roommate opened her door when she heard crying coming from Xana Kernodle’s room on the same floor and a male voice saying, “It’s OK, I’m going to help you.”

She opened her door for a second time moments after to see a “figure clad in black clothing and a mask” walking towards her.

“The male walked past D.M. as she stood in a ‘frozen shock phase,'” the affidavit reads.

The killer then walked by her and exited the home via a sliding glass door on the second floor.

Stumped for an explanation as to why the roommate was spared the same grisly fate as her four friends, Johnston said: “The only thing that makes sense to me is that he didn’t see her.

“I guess another explanation could be that he was so exhausted and felt he had to get out of there, but other than that I can’t fathom why he wouldn’t have killed her as well.

“It’s baffling to me, I can’t make sense of it.

“It was dark, so not seeing her is my best guess. And of course, we don’t know what mental state the killer was in.

“So either he didn’t see her or he was in a frenzy to get out.”

Kohberger is facing four counts of first-degree murder and a felony burglary charge.

He has denied any involvement in the killings but is yet to enter a formal plea.

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Kohberger remains in custody at the Latah County jail in Idaho.

He is next expected to appear in court on June 26.



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