In the aftermath of an arrest in the November murders of four college students in Idaho, at least one parent of a victim thinks he can see some connections between his daughter and the man arrested.
On Friday, Bryan Kohberger, 28, was arrested at his family’s home in Pennsylvania and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary in the Nov. 13, deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho, Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington, according to CNN.
According to a report from ABC, parent Steve Goncalves, whose daughter, Kaylee was one of the victims, said the suspect is not known to the family, but said there are possible connections he did not wish to speak about.
“Now that there’s a person and a name that someone can specifically look for and see if there’s any connections in any way. So they’re just trying to figure it out,” Shanon Grey, an attorney for the Goncalves family, said.
Goncalves told ABC he will be at the hearing that takes place in Idaho after the suspect is extradited.
ADMIRATION
Kaylee Goncalves’ dad Steve is working hard to get justice for his daughter, her best friend Maddie, and friends Ethan and Xana. 🫂 Strength for him.#KayleeGoncalves #dad#Idaho4 #IdahoFour #idahohomicides #IdahoStudents #Idahohomicide #Moscow #Idaho #murders— The Last Show- Karen Lee (@thelastshow) December 4, 2022
“This guy’s gonna have to look me in my eyes multiples times, and I’m going to be looking for the truth. That’s really what I’m going to be looking for,” he said.
Goncalves called the suspect a “broken soul, pitiful human being” after seeing a photo of him. In speaking of the suspect, he also said, “The little coward that had finally got caught running.”
Police have offered no comment about a possible motive in the killings.
A report in the Daily Mail based upon an anonymous source said that police found that a cell phone belonging to Kohberger was often in the vicinity of some of the four victims.
Kohberger is a graduate student in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, which is about nine miles from Moscow, Idaho, where the killings took place.
Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar noted that in a comment to CNN, saying that all that needs to be proven at this stage is that Kohberger was in the area at the time of the crime.
“Knowing of course that it’s likely they have location data from his cell phone already putting him on the border of Washington and Idaho it was an easy decision obviously since he doesn’t contest that he is Bryan Kohberger,” he said, explaining why Kohberger will not fight extradition to Idaho.
Kohberger had issues with girls in high school, two former classmates recalled.
“If he liked or was interested in a girl and she wasn’t, he didn’t understand why or just didn’t accept her saying no and move on and so he would have been labeled as a creep or something along those lines,” former classmate Dominique Clark said, according to the New York Post.
“He hung out with the people who were outcasts together. He tried to hang out with people who were smart. He just didn’t really fit in with anybody,” she said.
Sarah Healey, who also went to high school with Kohberger, said girls picked on him, according to Fox News.
“It was bad. There was definitely something off about him like we couldn’t tell exactly what it was. I remember one time when I was walking in the hallway, and he stopped me and was like, ‘Do you want to hang out?’” she said, noting they barely knew each other.
“It was just weird. But Bryan was bullied a lot, and I never got a chance to say something to defend him, because he would always run away,” she said.
Other girls told him to “go away, creep” or “I don’t want to hang out with you,” she said.
“I honestly think that’s what led up to this, because he didn’t get the proper help, and it was mainly females that bullied him,” Healey said.
