Idaho murderer Bryan Kohberger’s former friends dive into killer’s mindset about why he did it

Idaho student killer Bryan Kohberger’s former friends from Pennsylvania and a classmate at Washington State University are baffled that the man they knew to be quiet and awkward pleaded guilty in the mass murder case that rocked the nation.

Kohberger, a former WSU criminology Ph.D. student, pleaded guilty on July 2 to killing four University of Idaho students on Nov. 13, 2022, as part of a deal with prosecutors to escape the death penalty. Kohberger faces four consecutive life sentences for fatally stabbing 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, as well as 20-year-olds Xana Kernolde and Ethan Chapin at their off-campus house in the early morning hours of Nov. 13.

Kohberger’s former childhood friend from his home state of Pennsylvania, 31-year-old Jack Baylis, told The Idaho Statesman his idea that Kohberger developed a fixation on people who commit murder and wanted to see if he could get away with committing the perfect crime.

“I think he did it to see what it felt like, to experience it. If he wanted to write a paper about what killers feel and why they kill, to be accurate, you have to experience it yourself to truly understand it,” Baylis told the Statesman. “To get into the mind of a killer, you have to be a killer, would be my guess.”

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Ben Roberts, 33, a former criminology graduate school colleague of Kohberger’s at WSU, told the Statesman that Kohberger was “kind of nonexistent” in school.

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“I noticed that unless he was deliberately trying to put on an appearance – if he didn’t have the mask – he was kind of nonexistent, or hollow, I guess,” Roberts said. “It’s kind of like you’re staring into an abyss. There’s something human supposed to be there, and it isn’t.”

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He added that Kohberger’s actions after the murders he has since admitted to committing baffle him.

“I just can’t even begin to get inside the head of somebody who could do something like that, and then attend class like it’s business as usual,” Roberts said. “That’s just completely alien to me.”

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Another former childhood friend from Pennsylvania, where Kohberger grew up in the Poconos, told the Statesman she feels “disgusted that he could actually do something so heinous.”

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Kohberger, now 30, did drugs in high school and eventually overcame a heroin addiction. His friends described him as chubby, awkward and quick-witted to the Statesman.

“I won’t lie, I kind of spiraled yesterday,” Casey Arntz, 32, told the newspaper. “Did he ever have thoughts like that before? Did he ever think that he wanted to kill me or my friends? Were we spared because we were friends with him?”

He’s locked up for life. Let the inside deal with him.

— Casey Arntz

Arntz added later that while she wasn’t as close with Kohberger as her brother or her other friends were, he still spent time in her parents’ house, and she had spent time alone with him, which makes her wonder why he did what he did.

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“I guess the one thing I would say to him is what everyone wants to say to him: ‘Why would you do this? Why would you take the innocent lives of four beautiful people?’ I can’t even begin to imagine what he would say. How does someone justify their actions when they’re so morbid?” she said.

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Her brother, 29-year-old Thomas Arntz, told the Statesman that he felt relieved that Kohberger pleaded guilty.

“I am deeply sorry that Bryan’s parents have to live with this as well.… I’ve always thought they were kind people, and they didn’t deserve this. And for Bryan, God have mercy on his soul,” he said.

Goncalves’ family has expressed their disappointment in the plea deal, saying in a July 3 Facebook post on The Goncalves Family Page that the state is showing their daughter’s killer “mercy” by allowing him to serve life in prison rather than be sentenced to death, where he could have been executed by firing squad in Idaho.

“He deserved life on death row. Also people say that the Goncalves don’t want justice, they want vengeance. Well let me ask you a question about that… if your 21yr old daughter was sleeping in her bed and BK went into her house with the intention to kill her and he did, by stabbing her MANY times, as well as beating her in the face and head while it was clear that she fought for her life… what would you want? Justice or vengeance?” the family wrote. 

Kohberger is set to be sentenced on July 23 at 9 a.m. to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.