() A renowned forensic psychologist has challenged claims made in a recent article suggesting prosecutors believe Bryan Kohberger committed the University of Idaho quadruple murders to impress her, his former professor.
Howard Blum, in an article published in the online newsletter “Air Mail,” wrote that Kohberger, charged with killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, committed the crimes to impress Dr. Katherine Ramsland, his former forensic psychology professor at DeSales University in Pennsylvania.
According to Blum’s article, prosecutors are preparing to argue that “the pupil was ready to become the teacher … He’d kill and get away with it. He’d prove how smart he was. He would show how much he’d learned.”
However, in a statement obtained by , Ramsland categorically denied key claims in the article, stating she had “no email correspondence with Bryan Kohberger” while he was at Washington State University and has not been in contact with him since his arrest.
“I called his parents as a gesture of kindness, but I do not advise them about the case,” Ramsland said. “I did not call them hours after the arrest, as Blum claims.”
Ramsland also refuted other claims in the article, including that she had discussed a book with Kohberger’s sister or that she had brokered anything regarding legal representation.
In response to Ramsland’s denials, Blum acknowledged the error regarding email correspondence but defended his overall theory as a “hypothesis.”
Kohberger’s trial is scheduled to begin in approximately three months.
Kohberger is charged with the murders of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in their off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho, in November 2022.
