(NewsNation) – A former professor of Bryan Kohberger told investigators that the convicted murderer was “obsessed” with serial killers, authored a paper on burglary, and was reported by numerous female classmates for exhibiting sexist behavior.
This information emerged from an interview conducted by the Idaho State Police with a criminology professor from Washington State University, where Kohberger was engaged as a teaching assistant while working towards a Ph.D. in criminology. The interview came to light through a document release first mentioned on NewsNation’s “Banfield.”
The professor, whose name was withheld in the documents, informed investigators that she cautioned other professors and supervisors, suggesting that Kohberger could be a predator.
“Kohberger is smart enough that in four years, we will have to give him a Ph.D. Mark my word, I work with predators, if we give him a Ph.D., that’s the guy that in many years, when he is a professor, we will hear is harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing,” the note indicated.
This alert was issued months prior to the November 13, 2022, murders of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in Moscow, Idaho.
The professor mentioned that she observed Kohberger in class a week following the murders, noting a bandage on his fingers. When inquired about it, Kohberger attributed it to a “silly accident” at home; however, the professor recalled it resembling a scrape from asphalt.
She also recalled several incidents of female students citing concerns over Kohberger’s sexist and condescending remarks as well as harassment.
“Kohberger would go into an office where several female grad students worked and physically block the door,” the professor said. Sometimes, she would hear one of the women say, “I really need to get out of here,” so she would intercede by going into the office to allow the student to leave, according to the report.
In another incident described in the report, a female student came to the professor crying over Kohberger aggressively disagreeing with her to the extent that she felt she needed to leave the area.
The professor said Kohberger talked a lot about serial killers in class and wanted to study burglars.
She also told investigators she felt like he was “stalking people.”
Other people also spoke with investigators about Kohberger’s alleged behavior, according to the documents. An unnamed Ph.D. student who was in the same program as Kohberger told police that he enjoyed conflict, was disparaging toward women and that he especially liked to talk about sexual burglary — his field of study.
Some people in the department thought he was a possible future rapist and speculated that he might be an “incel,” she told the officer.
About three weeks after the murders, Kohberger told the Ph.D. student that whoever had committed the crimes “must have been pretty good,” Idaho State Police Detective Sgt. Michael Van Leuven wrote in a report. Kohberger also told the woman that the murders might have been a “one and done type thing,” Van Leuven wrote.
The woman “said she had never met anyone who acted in such a condescending manner and wondered why people in power in the department did not address his behavior,” Van Leuven wrote. “The way he spoke to females in the department was unsettling to them.”
The documents showed that the school got nine separate complaints from faculty members, administration staffers and other students about Kohberger’s “rude and belittling behavior toward women,” Idaho State Police Detective Sean Prosser wrote in a report.
The former graduate student agreed to a plea deal in late June, weeks before he was set to go to trial for the murders of the four Idaho college students in November 2022. That deal took the death penalty off the table in exchange for a guilty plea, in which he also agreed to waive his appeals in the killings and burglary charges.
The former graduate student was handed four life sentences last month.
NewsNation’s Patrick Djordjevic and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
