Macabre research of Bryan Kohberger, the PhD student charged over four stabbing murders

The gruesome case had baffled police and sparked conspiracy theories in a place that had not recorded a murder in seven years.

Police files on the case, including the alleged motive, are sealed pending Bryan Kohberger’s extradition to Idaho. Picture: AFP

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

Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doing a PhD in criminology, was wanted for the stabbing murders of four students at the University of Idaho 4000km away.

His arrest was the first big breakthrough in a case that had baffled police, sparked conspiracy theories and terrorised the small college town of Moscow, Idaho.

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

Police sources described the crime scene as “the worst” they had seen. Photographs showed blood oozing through a crack in the side of the building. Inside, the bedrooms were splattered with blood. Autopsies confirmed some of the victims had defensive wounds after being woken and stabbed many times. 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 left unharmed. They discovered the bodies that morning.

The murders stunned the community of Moscow, a town of 25,000. Fear turned to anger as the weeks passed with police ­apparently no closer to an arrest.

Against a backdrop of mounting public criticism, however, investigators had identified a suspect from more than 19,000 tips. Mr 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 at the weekend, Idaho police said they had also seized a white Hyundai matching a car seen on the night of the murders. Mr Kohberger’s DNA has been matched to samples recovered at the scene, CNN reported. Police say they were still looking for the murder weapon.

“I recognise the frustration with the lack of information,” Moscow police chief James Fry 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 sealed pending Mr Kohberger’s extradition to Idaho, with a hearing in Pennsylvania set for Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT).

Mr Kohberger was studying for a PhD in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, 15km from Moscow. In May, he posted a questionnaire on 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 Mr 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,” Nick Mcloughlin told the Daily Beast.

Pennsylvanian newspapers reported that Mr Kohberger had spent several years working as a security guard, but left to pursue his studies in 2021.

Police searched Mr Kohberger’s room and office at the university campus on Friday.

BK Norton, a student on the same course, told The New York Times Mr Kohberger was on campus the day after the attacks and seemed upbeat. She said, however, that his demeanour made others uncomfortable. “He sort of creeped people out ­because he stared and didn’t talk much, but when he did it was very intelligent,” Ms Norton said.

The Sunday Times