Officials from Idaho’s prison system have dismissed any intentions to relocate Bryan Kohberger, the convicted killer of four, despite rumors suggesting his frequent grievances have prompted authorities to strongly consider an out-of-state transfer.
“The Idaho Department of Correction has no knowledge of these claims and is not contemplating a transfer for Bryan Kohberger,” stated spokesperson Ryan Mortensen to Fox News Digital on Thursday.
Despite convicted murderer Keith Jespersen’s repeated recommendations that Kohberger should pursue a transfer to the Oregon State Penitentiary, where Jespersen himself is incarcerated, the notion that officials were seriously considering this was reported by the Daily Mail. The report quoted Chris McDonough, director of the Cold Case Foundation and a former detective.
Bryan Kohberger was present at the Ada County Courthouse for his sentencing on July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, after being found guilty of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool)
In a conversation with Fox News Digital, McDonough maintained his stance, asserting he had “reliable” information from a prison source suggesting the transfer could occur within a month.
“I’m willing to bet $2 million on it,” McDonough told Fox News Digital. “We’ll know in a couple of weeks.”
Kohberger, now 31, has repeatedly complained about prison conditions — about issues ranging from a lack of vegan food options and brown bananas to constant harassment from fellow inmates.
Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
“One could argue that Kohberger would have been safer on Death Row,” Jespersen, known as the “Happy Face Killer,” told Fox News Digital in July. “That way he will be out of harm’s way from the general population in Idaho’s prison system.”
Kohberger is currently being held in a special wing known as J Block, where he is separated from other inmates.
“J Block is a unit that can house up to 128 individuals and includes populations in general population protective custody, long-term restrictive housing, and death row,” corrections officials previously told Fox News Digital.
Exterior view of Idaho State Correctional Complex in Kuna, Idaho, Tuesday, July 22, 2025. Notorious killer Bryan Kohberber is being housed at this facility after being sentenced in the stabbing murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
He is serving four consecutive life sentences plus another 10 years with no chance of parole at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna.
He pleaded guilty last year to the murders of University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
Kohberger stabbed all four of them to death in a home invasion ambush around 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022. He killed three of them in their sleep, and only Kernodle showed signs of having fought back, according to unsealed documents from the investigation.
Exterior view of Idaho State Correctional Complex in Kuna, Idaho, Tuesday, July 22, 2025. Bryan Kohberber is being housed at this facility. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
Kohberger was studying for a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University, about 20 miles from the victims’ home. In a pitch proposal released last year after his conviction, he told professors he wanted to focus on his research on sexual burglary.
While there, classmates and undergrad students filed numerous complaints about his behavior, with several women saying they were uncomfortable being around him. One professor even warned her colleagues that he would become a predator.
Bryan Kohberger has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murders of four University of Idaho students. (The Idaho Department of Correction)
“Mark my words, I work with predators, if we give him a Ph.D. that’s the guy that in that many years when he is a professor, we will hear is harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing…his students,” a WSU faculty member told colleagues well before Kohberger was identified as a suspect in the Idaho student murders, according to court documents.
More than a month after the murders, Kohberger took a cross-country drive home to Pennsylvania with his dad riding shotgun in the suspect vehicle. Police arrested him on Dec. 30, 2022.
