Idaho student killer Bryan Kohberger’s former friends from Pennsylvania and a classmate at Washington State University are perplexed that the man they remembered as quiet and awkward has pleaded guilty in the mass murder case that shocked the nation.

Kohberger, who was previously a criminology Ph.D. student at WSU, entered a guilty plea on July 2 for the murder of four University of Idaho students on Nov. 13, 2022, in an arrangement with prosecutors aimed at avoiding the death penalty. As a result, Kohberger is facing four consecutive life sentences for the fatal stabbing of 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, along with 20-year-olds Xana Kernolde and Ethan Chapin, at their off-campus residence during the early hours of Nov. 13.

A former childhood friend of Kohberger from Pennsylvania, 31-year-old Jack Baylis, shared with The Idaho Statesman his belief that Kohberger might have developed an obsession with individuals who commit murder and was curious to see if he could successfully commit the perfect crime.

“I think he did it to see what it felt like, to experience it. If he wanted to write a paper about what killers feel and why they kill, to be accurate, you have to experience it yourself to truly understand it,” Baylis told the Statesman. “To get into the mind of a killer, you have to be a killer, would be my guess.”

Her brother, 29-year-old Thomas Arntz, told the Statesman that he felt relieved that Kohberger pleaded guilty.

“I am deeply sorry that Bryan’s parents have to live with this as well.… I’ve always thought they were kind people, and they didn’t deserve this. And for Bryan, God have mercy on his soul,” he said.

The house where four college students were brutally stabbed to death is boarded up and surrounded by security fencing on Feb. 23, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

Goncalves’ family has expressed their disappointment in the plea deal, saying in a July 3 Facebook post on The Goncalves Family Page that the state is showing their daughter’s killer “mercy” by allowing him to serve life in prison rather than be sentenced to death, where he could have been executed by firing squad in Idaho.

“He deserved life on death row. Also people say that the Goncalves don’t want justice, they want vengeance. Well let me ask you a question about that… if your 21yr old daughter was sleeping in her bed and BK went into her house with the intention to kill her and he did, by stabbing her MANY times, as well as beating her in the face and head while it was clear that she fought for her life… what would you want? Justice or vengeance?” the family wrote. 

Kohberger is set to be sentenced on July 23 at 9 a.m. to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.