Bryan Kohberger had no obvious real-world or on-line connection to any of his 4 College of Idaho victims, investigators revealed after his sentencing Wednesday.
“We have never, to this day, found a single connection between him and any of the four victims or the two surviving roommates,” Idaho State Police Lt. Darren Gilbertson stated throughout a information convention after the listening to.
“We had every resource possible and we worked that tirelessly,” he stated.
Since Kohberger’s arrest a month after the November 2022 murders, theories have abounded about why he might need focused his victims, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Ethan Chapin, 20.
One principle advised he dined at an area restaurant the place Mogen and Kernodle labored and developed a crush on one in every of them – although the restaurant proprietor later refuted these claims, and stated Kohberger by no means set foot inside.
Different accounts claimed Kohberger repeatedly messaged one in every of his victims on social media earlier than the murders, however that she by no means responded – and that Kohberger might need grow to be enraged over it.
However investigators clarified Wednesday that zero social media connections between Kohberger and his victims had ever been discovered.
Additionally they dispelled rumors that Kohberger mentioned the case in Fb teams previous to his arrest below the identify “Pappa Rodger,” telling reporters they decided that was not the truth is him.
That consumer seemed to be intimately acquainted with the case, and was arguing with commenters in what have been described by group directors as “creepy” posts.
“Of the evidence released, the murder weapon has been consistent as a large fixed blade knife. This leads me to believe they found the sheath,” learn one submit, precisely predicting {that a} fixed-blade knife sheath had been discovered on the scene of the crime.
Right here’s the newest protection on Bryan Kohberger:
It additionally stays unclear who — if anybody particularly in any respect — Kohberger was concentrating on within the assault, authorities added.
Mogen has been notably highlighted as a doable goal by sleuths, together with writers Vicky Ward and James Patterson, who posited of their latest e-book “The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy” that Kohberger could have wished to kill her to emulate the notorious incel Elliot Rodger.
Each morning, the NY POSTcast provides a deep dive into the headlines with the Submit’s signature mixture of politics, enterprise, popular culture, true crime and every little thing in between. Subscribe right here!
Rodger – who recognized as an “involuntary celibate” – despised girls and murdered six individuals as a result of he was rejected by a blonde sorority woman named Maddy, and “The Idaho Four” advised Kohberger could have idolized the killer and located his personal Maddie to hate.
“It was her room he went straight to. And it’s her room you could see from the road if you parked your car at the cul-de-sac behind the King Road house, which the police believe he did multiple times,” Ward wrote.
Comply with the Submit’s reside updates on Bryan Kohberger’s sentencing for the newest information
Kohberger offered no rationalization for the killing when given the chance to talk throughout his sentencing.
“I respectfully decline,” was all he stated all through the four-hour listening to.
He was then sentenced to 4 consecutive life sentences with out the potential of parole, in response to the preparations of a responsible plea deal he struck earlier in July.
