The public has been watching the Idaho student murder investigation closely. The 28-year-old man arrested in the case, Bryan Kohberger, is being held in Latah County Jail in Idaho. His parents have expressed their support of the accused killer in spite of a lot of evidence that ties him to the murder scene.
On December 30, Moscow Police Chief James Fry, confirmed the arrest of Bryan Kohberger, at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, on November 13, 2022.
Bryan’s family spoke out about his arrest through their son’s lawyer.
On January 1, Kohberger’s lawyer, Jason LaBar, released a statement that said that the suspect’s family, his father, Michael Kohberger, 67, his mother, Marianne Kohberger, 62, and the suspect’s sister, Amanda, deeply cared about the four families who lost their children that morning.
They wrote that they were praying for the families daily and that they supported their son and brother.
The statement said that the family had cooperated with the police and they would continue to stand up for Bryan and not judge him based on unknown facts, or make erroneous assumptions.
According to the family lawyer, the Kohberger family is “shocked” and finds it hard to believe that their son committed the murders.
Kohberger is charged with four first-degree murder counts and one felony burglary count for breaking into the house where the four University of Idaho students were found.
The suspect’s father, Michael Kohberger, flew from Pennsylvania to Spokane, Washington and then took a road trip with his son back to their family home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, for the Christmas holiday. They drove 2,500 miles in the white Hyundai Elantra that police had been searching for, which had been seen in multiple surveillance videos near the scene of the crime.
That car was eventually tracked to Kohberger’s home in Pennsylvania, where the accused was arrested.
The two travelers were pulled over twice for speeding and tailgating, with no consequences.
During Kohberger’s childhood, both of his parents worked for the Pleasant Valley School District. His dad, Michael, was a maintenance worker for the school district from 2006 to 2019, and his mom, Maryann, assisted special-needs students until around 2020.
Kohberger was doing his Ph.D. dissertation and working as a teaching assistant at the Washington State University in Pullman, Washington in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, which is only eight miles from where the students were stabbed to death in an off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho.
A few months ago, Kohberger posted on Reddit that he was looking for ex-cons to participate in his Ph.D. research project. The goal of his study was to understand how psychological and emotional traits affect a criminal’s decision-making while committing a crime.