BIZARRE details about Bryan Kohberger’s relationship with his parents have come to light after his call logs were exposed.
A report has surfaced that Kohberger, 30, placed two phone calls to his mother shortly after he murdered four University of Idaho students in an off-campus residence on November 13, 2022.
The convicted murderer contacted his mother, Maryann Kohberger, first while heading home after the attacks and again when he revisited the crime scene. This information was shared by case investigator Heather Barnhart, who spoke with People.
Barnhart, known for her expertise in digital forensics, spearheaded the team that scrutinized Kohberger’s phone and hard drive for the Latah County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office as part of their investigation.
She assembled a timeline of phone activity based on records collected from Kohberger’s Samsung Galaxy phone that he bought in June of that year.
‘FATHER’ AND ‘MOTHER’
The investigation uncovered an unusual aspect of Kohberger’s contacts — he listed his parents in his phone as Mother and Father, instead of the more common mom and dad.
Barnhart said Kohberger would often call his mom first and then immediately follow it by calling his dad if she didn’t answer.
“And he would go back and forth texting, ‘Father, why did mother not respond? Why is she not answering the phone?” Barnhart said.
CALL LOGS
On the morning of the murders, Kohberger first called his mother at 6:13 am, but she didn’t answer.
He called his father a minute later, Barnhart said.
After Maryann eventually answered the phone, the mother-son duo spoke for 36 minutes that morning.
Shortly after that first conversation, Kohberger called his mother again at 8:03 am. The call lasted for 54 minutes.
Prosecutors later disclosed that around 9 a.m. that day, Kohberger departed from his home at Washington State University and made a brief return to the crime scene, remaining there for approximately 10 minutes.
This implies that Kohberger was in communication with his mother while on his way back to the scene of the gruesome crime, where he had brutally slain four students in their sleep just hours before.
They then hung up again briefly before ending their morning conversations for a nine-minute chat at 9 am, Barnhart said.
Kohberger and his mother then spoke again for two minutes at 4:05 pm, phone records showed.
Bryan Kohberger’s calls to his mother
Below is a timeline of the phone activity as Bryan Kohberger called his mother, Maryann Kohberger, on November 13, 2022:
2:54 am – Kohberger turns off his phone before stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in an off-campus home.
4:48 am – Kohberger’s phone turns back on.
6:13 am – Kohberger calls his mother.
6:14 am – Kohberger calls his father. When his mother eventually answers, they speak for 36 minutes.
8:03 am to 8:57 am – Kohberger speaks to his mother for 54 minutes.
9 am – Kohberger calls his mother for nine minutes.
Just after 9 am – Kohberger’s phone activity showed he returned to the crime scene for 10 minutes.
4:05 pm to 4:07 am – Kohberger calls his mother for two minutes.
5:53 pm to 7:29 pm – Kohberger calls his mom for 96 minutes.
Source: People
Their final conversation at 5:53 pm lasted 96 minutes, totaling a call time of over three hours between the killer and his mother that day.
It’s unclear what the mother and son were discussing in their calls.
Barnhart said that Kohberger’s phone didn’t have any texts to friends or anyone outside of his family.
“There was a group chat, but it was all benign conversations,” Barnhart explained.
He mostly spoke to his parents and would start calling his mom as early as 4 am on some days, the expert said.
POWERED DOWN
Barnhart revealed that Kohberger completely turned his phone off before he killed Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle in the middle of the night.
His phone battery was full before he powered off between 2:54 am and 4:48 am in a move likely meant to cover his tracks.
Barnhart said the move was actually damning because it meant Kohberger’s defense team couldn’t claim his phone died at that time.
“When he powered it off, it was from a human pressing a button, and the battery was at 100 percent charged,” Barnhart says.
Kohberger claimed in his initial alibi that he was stargazing at the time of the murders, which also wouldn’t make sense because stargazers typically use their phones to take pictures of the night sky.
However, he admitted the alibi was a lie when, on July 2, 2025, he blindsided prosecutors and emotionlessly confessed to committing the quadruple murders.
No motive has ever been released for the crime.
University of Idaho murders timeline
On November 13, 2022, a brutal home invasion claimed the lives of four University of Idaho students.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in a Moscow, Idaho, off-campus home.
A six-week manhunt ensued as cops searched for a suspect.
On December 30, 2022, Bryan Kohberger, 30, was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania – 2,500 miles away from the crime scene.
He was taken into custody and charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University, was linked to the crime scene through phone records, his car’s location, and DNA evidence found at the home where the murders took place.
The house was demolished in December 2023 despite backlash from the victims’ families.
Kohberger was held at Latah County Jail where he awaited trial.
On September 9, 2024, an Idaho judge ruled to move the upcoming murder trial out of Moscow after Kohberger’s lawyer argued that the town was prejudiced against him.
The trial was expected to start in August 2025.
But on June 30, 2025, Kohberger struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to the charges on July 2.
The move was blasted by the victims’ families, who wanted Kohberger to face justice through a trial.
On July 23, Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Kohberger to four consecutive life sentences in prison with an additional 10 years for burglary.
Friends and family members of the four victims shared powerful impact statements at the sentencing hearing, as roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke also spoke out for the first time.
After he confessed to the quadruple murders, Kohberger was hit with four consecutive life sentences without parole in Idaho’s Maximum Security Prison.
Maryann, a former educator and school board member, previously made headlines when a passionate letter she wrote opposing the death penalty and school shootings resurfaced after her son’s arrest.
She was seen breaking into tears during emotional victim impact statements at her son’s sentencing hearing on July 23, 2025, which she attended with her daughter Amanda.
Kohberger ignored both of them when he left the courtroom.
