Bryan Kohberger’s name is now infamous, forever linked to one of the most chilling crimes in recent American history: the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in November 2022. But as new unsealed documents and investigative reports reveal, the warning signs about Kohberger’s disturbing behavior were present long before that tragic night—right in the halls and offices of Washington State University (WSU), where he was a Ph.D. student in criminology.
According to investigative documents released by Idaho State Police and reported by multiple outlets, Kohberger’s reputation at WSU was anything but sterling. In fact, within days of starting his doctoral program in August 2022, a fellow student filed the first of what would become a cascade of complaints—thirteen in just three months—about his conduct. These complaints, as detailed by People magazine and The Blast, painted a portrait of a man whose behavior was not just awkward or abrasive, but deeply unsettling and, at times, predatory.
Many of the complaints came from women in the WSU community. Kohberger was accused of making discriminatory comments that ranged from misogynistic to ableist, homophobic, and xenophobic. For instance, he allegedly told a divorced colleague that he didn’t date “broken women,” and asked a deaf classmate if she “would be comfortable procreating given the fact she had a disability.” These remarks, according to one staff member, became a focal point in disciplinary meetings, as Kohberger’s interactions with both classmates and professors grew increasingly problematic.
But it wasn’t just the words—Kohberger’s physical presence was equally troubling. Several women reported that he would stare at them, stand uncomfortably close, or even lean over them, making them feel deeply uneasy. In one particularly alarming account, a female undergraduate described how Kohberger would repeatedly approach her in her office and refuse to leave unless she spoke with him. Sometimes, he would corner her as she left work, forcing her into conversation. She recounted to police that after rejecting his advances and making it clear she was in a relationship, the harassment continued. On one occasion, her neighbor spotted someone lurking outside her window at night; she later discovered Kohberger lived nearby. Fearing for her safety, the student began accepting rides home from her boss to avoid walking alone. As documented by Idaho State Police, she was just 19 years old at the time.
Faculty members, too, were alarmed. One WSU faculty member expressed grave concerns about Kohberger’s future, telling colleagues that if he were ever to become a professor, he would likely stalk or sexually abuse his students. “He is smart enough that in four years we will have to give him a Ph.D.,” she warned, as quoted in the police files. “Mark my word, 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 at wherever university.” She even urged her peers to cut Kohberger’s funding, hoping to remove him from the program altogether.
As the complaints mounted—thirteen in just three months, according to The Blast—Kohberger’s reputation deteriorated rapidly. One student summed up the general sentiment by saying he was known for “being a d-ck,” reflecting the widespread unease he generated. The issues became so persistent that some of his classmates started keeping a board tracking each bizarre or inappropriate incident involving him and members of the criminology department.
Administrators, for their part, responded by organizing a mandatory discrimination and behavior expectations training for all first-year doctoral students. Whether Kohberger attended remains unclear, but the timing was chilling: the training took place the same week he would go on to kill Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in a rental home near the University of Idaho campus.
Behind closed doors, disciplinary meetings focused on Kohberger’s behavior both in and out of the classroom. According to Idaho State Police Detective Sean Prosser, the school received nine separate complaints about his “rude and belittling behavior toward women.” An instructor assigned to work with Kohberger confirmed that she spent “a lot of time” discussing his conduct during these sessions, particularly regarding his interactions with female students and some professors.
Students and faculty alike described Kohberger as enjoying conflict and being disparaging toward women. One Ph.D. student noted that he liked to talk about sexual burglary—his chosen field of study—and speculated that he might be an “incel,” a term for men who describe themselves as involuntarily celibate and often harbor resentment toward women. Another female doctoral student went further, describing him as a misogynist and a narcissist who “never displayed empathy toward another person” and always wanted “to be seen as the strongest, smartest, most important person in the room.”
Some students even suspected stalking. One faculty member believed Kohberger was following people, and there were reports of a break-in at a female graduate student’s apartment in September or October 2022, during which perfume and underwear were stolen.
Despite the growing mountain of complaints, many in the department did not suspect Kohberger’s involvement in the Idaho murders—at least not at first. But a few noticed changes in his behavior after the killings. According to police reports, Kohberger, who had previously used his phone frequently, suddenly stopped bringing it to class. He appeared more disheveled and avoided discussions about the Moscow deaths altogether. One student even reported seeing him with bloody knuckles just prior to the murders, his hand looking as if he had been hitting something.
Perhaps most chilling of all were Kohberger’s own words in the aftermath of the crime. About three weeks after the murders, he told a fellow Ph.D. student that whoever had committed the crime “must have been pretty good,” and speculated that the murders might have been a “one and done type thing.” As Idaho State Police Detective Sgt. Michael Van Leuven noted in his report, the student said she had never met anyone who acted in such a condescending manner and wondered why those in power had not addressed his behavior sooner. “The way he spoke to females in the department was unsettling to them,” Van Leuven wrote.
Looking back, it’s hard not to wonder how so many red flags could have been missed or dismissed. The story of Bryan Kohberger at WSU is a cautionary tale about the importance of taking complaints seriously and the tragic consequences that can follow when warning signs are overlooked or minimized. For the families of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, those missed warnings are a haunting reminder of what might have been prevented.
