When Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students, one question remained painfully unanswered: what drove him to do it?
In July 2025, Kohberger formally admitted that he fatally stabbed Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. During the hearing, he offered little beyond brief “yes” and “no” responses as he acknowledged his guilt, according to earlier reporting by Oxygen.
Still, the former criminology Ph.D. student — who has since made new claims of innocence while incarcerated — never explained a motive for the 2022 killings that stunned Moscow, Idaho, and drew national attention.
A possible explanation is now being explored in Netflix’s The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare, where an FBI investigator connected to the case suggests Kohberger’s intense academic interest in criminal behavior may have crossed into something far more sinister.
“I guess the question would be: Do you want to go out and experience that yourself?” former FBI Special Agent Ed Jacobson said in the docuseries. “Are you continuing your research because you’ve got this fascination and draw to commit these crimes? But, that is just a theory.”
Bryan Kohberger’s Classmate Describes Crime Fascination
Long before the University of Idaho murders, Kohberger was a Pennsylvania native from a working-class background who pursued graduate studies in criminology at DeSales University. There, he earned a master’s degree and studied under Katherine Ramsland, the widely known professor of forensic psychology.
One former classmate, Lilly Karaban, described how their Minds of a Serial Killer course examined a wide range of offenders. “We studied in Dr. Ramsland’s class every big killer, every little killer, killers that people have never heard of,” she recalled in the Netflix series. “We did have group projects with mock crime scenes to figure out how a crime scene took place, what kind of killer would do a crime scene like this.”
Karaban said Kohberger, though typically reserved, appeared deeply invested in the material, regularly posing questions in class and filling pages with detailed notes.
“Brian adored Professor Ramsland,” she said, “It was like a switch went off in his head in that class.”
He even conducted his own research project in a survey on Redditt asking those who’d committed crimes to provide information “to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision making when committing a crime,” according to an affidavit previously obtained by Oxygen.
As Gonclaves sister Alivea Goncalves explained in the docuseries, “it almost seemed like preparation for the perfect crime.”
Ramsland herself even speculated on whether the coursework could have influenced the murders in a 2025 interview with NewsNation, saying, ““I have to look at the framework of what I taught and wonder, did I inspire him in some way?”
Kohberger has never directly addressed any potential theories on his motive. His attorneys considered using an “alternate perpetrator” defense, but a judge ruled they would not be able to name any possible perpetrators at trial or present an alibi defense, according to CNN. His defense attorneys had argued prior to his plea that he had been out stargazing in the early morning hours of Nov. 13.
Could Bryan Kohberger’s Past With Women Influenced His Decision to Kill?
After earning his master’s degree, Kohberger moved across the country. At the time of the murders, he was pursuing a doctorate degree in criminology and working as a teaching assistant at Washington State University.
Through interviews with staff, faculty and students at the university, investigators learned that Kohberger was not well liked and was the subject of numerous complaints, according to court documents released by the Idaho State Police.
“There had been incidents with Bryan with faculty,” Jacobson said. “There had been incidents with Bryan with female students. Very demeaning behavior, mansplaining.”
Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger added that he “had made a lot of them feel uncomfortable” and had a reputation for talking down to women. He was ultimately fired from his teaching assistant position on Dec. 19, authorities said.
Teachers also expressed concerns about Kohberger’s interaction with women, per the court records.
As one teacher remarked in a meeting about Kohberger’s behavior, according to the records, “Mark my word, I work with predators, if we give him a PhD, that’s the guy that in many years when he is a professor, we will hear (he) is harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing… his students.”
After the stories surfaced, investigators considered whether Kohberger could have been part of the incel movement, a term used to described an involuntary celibate group who believes women will only date a small minority of men.
“They believe that women are the cause of all of their suffering, pain, their lives,” Jacobson told Netflix. “So they lash out and they become violent. But when it comes to using this in court, we never saw evidence that shows Bryan Kohberger is part of the incel movement.”
What Happened to Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin?
In the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger snuck into an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho and killed four University of Idaho students.
Though Kohberger has never explained his actions that morning, investigators suspect that he likely attacked Mogen—who was sleeping in the same bed as Goncalves— first in a third floor bedroom.
“It appears that Kaylee might have woken up during the time that Maddie was being stabbed, and then she gets stabbed multiple times,” Jacobson said in The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare. “We believe that after, the comforter was put back over them.”
Authorities believe Kernodle likely heard the commotion and either went upstairs to check on her roommates or ran into Kohberger on the stairs and he chased her into her room, according to court records.
“Ethan is lying in the bed at the time. Bryan stabs Ethan and then back to a fight with Xana,” Jacobson explained. “She had defensive wounds all over, she had over 50 stab wounds on her. She put up a fight.”
After killing the four, Kohberger briefly made eye contact with surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen, who opened her bedroom door to check on the roommates, but left without ever attacking her, per the court documents.
Bryan Kohberger Denies Carrying Out the Killings From Prison
For years, Kohberger has stayed quiet about the killings, until July 26 when he provided a statement to The New York Times professing his innocence from prison.
“My actual innocence is my truth,” he said in the written statement, “and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.”
Kohberger declined to comment on the evidence used against him or provide any details about his new claims.
He pled guilty to the murders in July 2025, receiving four life sentences in exchange for prosecutors dropping the death penalty. When asked in court whether he carried out the crimes, he replied “yes,” according to previous reporting from Oxygen.
Kohberger was not required to explain why he committed the murders.
“He should have to tell them why he did it,” Kernodle’s dad Jeff Kernodle contended in the docuseries. “Tell all of us parents why he did it if he was gonna get the plea.”
Though investigators believe they’ve caught the right man, the exact reason Kohberger targeted the college students remains a mystery.
“Ultimately, we never have been able to answer that question that everybody wants answered is why?,” Dahlinger said in the docuseries. “We don’t know why. We don’t know why these four. We don’t know why this house. I don’t think we’ll ever know.”
