Individuals who knew a younger Bryan Kohberger when he lived in Pennsylvania spoke to the Idaho Statesman after Kohberger accepted a plea deal in June, pleading guilty to the grisly quadruple homicide of four University of Idaho students in November 2022.
Though Kohberger pleaded guilty and, as a condition of the deal, will spend the rest of his life in prison, a motive for the crime has not yet been disclosed. It’s unclear if the public will ever know why he did it.
Still, one person who knew Kohberger before he became a Ph.D in criminology at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, Washington (near Moscow, Idaho, where the murders happened) offered a chilling theory.
“The perfect crime”
Kohberger-King Road connection big part of evidence synopsis in Idaho murders https://t.co/r62od9I8JP
— Idaho Statesman (@IdahoStatesman) July 6, 2025
According to the Statesman, Jack Baylis, now 31, knew Kohberger in his younger years and had this to say about a possible motive. “I think he did it to see what it felt like, to experience it,” Baylis said, referring to Kohberger’s crimes.
He added, “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. To get into the mind of a killer, you have to be a killer, would be my guess.”
Meanwhile, for Baylis, the question of Kohberger might have been framed is put to rest. “You wouldn’t plead guilty to it unless you did that,” Baylis told the outlet. “If you were framed, you’d be fighting tooth and nail.”
“Staring into an abyss”
‘Disgusted’: Kohberger’s former friends, peers react to guilty murder plea https://t.co/EsSbI9mUPv
— Idaho Statesman (@IdahoStatesman) July 4, 2025
The Statesman also spoke with Ben Roberts, a criminology classmate of Kohberger’s at WSU. Roberts recalled seeing Kohberger in class after the murders happened. “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 told the outlet. “It’s kind of like you’re staring into an abyss. There’s something human supposed to be there, and it isn’t.”
He added, “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. That’s just completely alien to me.”
Kohberger pleaded guilty on July 2, 2025, to the 2022 stabbing murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, in a deal that spared him the death penalty.
Linked to the crime by DNA, cellphone data, and surveillance footage, Kohberger admitted the killings were premeditated but offered no motive.
As part of the plea, he will receive four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus a 10-year burglary term, and has waived all rights to appeal. Kohberger’s sentencing hearing is set for July 23, after which time he is expected to be transferred to Idaho’s most secure prison to serve the remainder of his life behind bars.
