BRYAN Kohberger scowled for an eerie hooded selfie and obsessively researched serial killer Ted Bundy after he allegedly murdered four University of Idaho students, his cell phone history has revealed.
The newly released phone records have given a disturbing inside look at the life of the accused killer in the days and weeks after the attack before he was arrested.
The 28-year-old disgraced graduate student stands accused of murdering best friends Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, both 21, and couple Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20, on November 13, 2022.
That night, a masked murderer broke into their college home in Moscow, Idaho, and violently stabbed the four to death with a military-grade knife.
It took around six weeks for detectives to link the killings to Kohberger, who they claim left DNA evidence at the scene and was pinged near the home several times before the murder.
At the time, he was studying criminology at Washington State University, which is an 8-mile drive west of the University of Idaho.
Kohberger has maintained his innocence, and is set to defend himself in trial while heartbroken families of the victims desperately call for justice.
The student first moved to Washington the summer before the murders from his family’s home in Pennsylvania.
On July 9, he visited Moscow for a pool party, and met Holly who gave him her number after they spoke about hiking.
She’s since opened up about their conversation, including an eerie text that he sent following their conversation.
“I really enjoy that activity so please let me know,” Kohberger texted Holly, Dateline reported.
In an interview, Holly said, “The wording of the text, as I look back on it, is kind of peculiar.”
“It was almost overly formal.”
HAUNTING HISTORY
Throughout his time at school, Kohberger noticeably struggled keeping up with classwork and effectively teaching his students, according to those in the program.
At one point, he got called into a dean’s office when he snapped at someone in his cohort.
Outside of school, the accused killer appeared to become secretly obsessed with the young women attending the two universities.
His browing history shows dozens of pictures of female students wearing nothing but bathing suits, and many of of the girls followed the three female victims, according to Dateline.
GPS data indicated that Kohberger took nearly a dozen trips to Moscow in July, and his cell phone connected to a tower providing coverage within 100 meters of the house of horrors where the students were killed.
Search records from September show that Kohberger researched “sociopathic traits in college student” and later looked up pornography with the words “drugged” and “sleeping.”
The day of the killing, Kohberger’s phone connected to that same tower, according to the data, but it was turned off before 3 am, when the murder is thought to have taken place.
At 4:48 am, it connected to another cell tower south of Moscow.
LEG ‘CARVING’
Sources close to the investigation believe that Mogen may have been the killer’s target because the murderer reportedly went straight to her bedroom.
At the time, Goncalves was staying the night with Mogen and was in her room.
Investigators said that the knife sheath left by the killer was found by Goncalves’ bed.
The source claims that Kernodle was attacked next by the murderer because she was still awake after ordering food from Doordash.
After killing the young woman, the intruder then attacked Chapin, who was sleeping, and “carved” his legs.
University of Idaho murders timeline
On November 13, 2022, a brutal home invasion claimed the lives of four University of Idaho students.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in their Moscow, Idaho, off-campus home.
A six-week manhunt ensued as cops searched for a suspect.
On December 30, 2022, Bryan Kohberger, 30, was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania – 2,500 miles away from the crime scene.
He was taken into custody and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
Kohberger, a former criminal justice student at Washington State University, has been linked to the crime scene through phone records, his car’s location, and DNA evidence found at the home where the murders took place.
The house was demolished in December 2023 despite backlash from the victims’ families.
Kohberger is being held at Latah County Jail while he awaits trial.
On September 9, 2024, an Idaho judge ruled to move the upcoming murder trial out of Moscow after Kohberger’s lawyer argued that the town was prejudiced against him.
The state Supreme Court will decide the new venue and judge for the trial, which is expected to start in August 2025.
HORROR SELFIE
After the tragedy, Kohberger reportedly Google searched “University of Idaho murders” and watched a YouTube video about the victims.
He also looked into a program about notorious killer Bundy, the searches reveal.
After the semester ended, Kohberger went home, and appeared to become more obsessed with Bundy, as his phone shows history of several more videos.
He also snapped a selfie of himself wearing a black hoodie, similar to how the serial killer was dressed in one of the videos.
Records showed that Kohberger streamed the 2011 song Criminal by Britney Spears, which has the lyrics “Mama I’m in love with a criminal […] he is a killer just for fun.”
“He is a villain by the devil’s law […] he’s got no conscience, he got none.”
The episode of Dateline covering Kohberger’s cell phone data is set to premiere at 9 pm ET on Friday.
