The mystery surrounding why Bryan Kohberger chose the off-campus home where four University of Idaho students were killed in November 2022 has resurfaced after a judge approved his request for a new lawyer as he seeks a new trial, and the release of Netflix's documentary The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare.
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In an interview with Fox News Digital, the documentary's director, Skye Borgman, suggested that the house's predominantly female occupants may hold a clue to Kohberger's motive. However, authorities have never established an official motive, and Kohberger has never explained why he carried out the killings.
What is the Idaho murders case?
The case dates back to November 13, 2022, when four University of Idaho students , Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found stabbed to death inside an off-campus rental home on King Road in Moscow, Idaho. Two other roommates who were in the house at the time survived the attack and were not physically harmed.
According to investigators, Bryan Kohberger entered the house during the early morning hours and fatally stabbed the four victims. The investigation initially drew national attention as authorities searched for the suspect for several weeks. Investigators later identified Kohberger, then a PhD criminology student at nearby Washington State University, as the prime suspect.
Prosecutors said DNA recovered from a knife sheath left at the crime scene, along with cellphone records, surveillance footage and vehicle tracking evidence, linked him to the murders. In 2025, Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
Motive remains a mystery
Although Kohberger admitted to the killings, he has never publicly explained why he committed them. As a result, investigators have not identified an official motive or established why he chose the King Road house or its occupants.
This unresolved question has remained central to public interest in the case and is revisited in Netflix's documentary The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare. Speaking to Fox News Digital, director Skye Borgman said the fact that the house was occupied primarily by women could be significant.
"The fact that this was the house that he chose. This was a house that had five women living in it... really, this was a house full of women, and it seems quite clear that he targeted it," Borgman said.
She added that, based on the investigation, Kohberger had allegedly spent time around the property before the attack.
"He watched the house, he was around the house in the days, weeks and months leading up to the murders. So, it seems pretty likely that he had a very low regard, if not hatred, for women," she told Fox News Digital.
Borgman stressed that any assessment of Kohberger's motive remains speculative but said his reported interactions with women before the murders cannot be ignored.
"It's all conjecture, but he seemed to struggle with his relationships with women," Borgman told Fox News Digital. "And we look at this incel movement and the question of whether or not he was an incel, and whether or not he didn't like women" "It seems to me that there was a hatred of women there."
The documentary revisits interviews, court records and witness accounts describing Kohberger's behaviour before his arrest. According to those featured in the series, several former classmates said he was "not particularly well liked" and alleged that he frequently spoke down to women, engaged in "mansplaining" and became argumentative during interactions. Some students also described him as "creepy" and said his behaviour made them uncomfortable.
Despite Kohberger's guilty plea, the question of why he carried out the murders remains unanswered. While the Netflix documentary revisits the possibility that the choice of a house occupied mainly by women could offer clues to his motive, investigators have never reached that conclusion.
