Bryan Christopher Kohberger is said to have become more lively and engaged in classroom discussions after he allegedly stabbed four college students to death in November.
That’s according to a classmate in Kohberger’s graduate criminology program, who told the New York Times that the accused quadruple murderer was more talkative following the slayings.
“He seemed more upbeat and willing to carry a conversation,” Norton told the Times.
However, when the class focused specifically on the deaths of the four college students, Kohberger allegedly went “quiet and deadpan,” the New York Post reports.
“I don’t believe he had any reaction,” Norton said in an interview with the Post, a response she found unusual.
“We had quite a long conversation in class about it too. I don’t believe I remember him commenting about it at all,” Norton added, according to the Post.
Yet Kohberger also seemed particularly tired later in the fall semester, according to the Seattle Times.
Fellow student Ben Roberts told the newspaper that Kohberger typically remained quiet but seemed increasingly weary.
“He was starting to show up really tired,” Roberts told the Seattle Times. “He’d always have a cup of coffee in his hand, and he kind of looked like he was riding the knife edge between worn out and completely exhausted.’”
The classmates’ comments come after authorities arrested Kohberger, 28, on Friday and charged him with four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin.
The victims were stabbed to death inside an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13.
Kohberger is a Ph.D. student at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, another college town about a 15-minute drive just across the Idaho-Washington state border.
Law enforcement arrested Kohberger early Friday morning more than 2,000 miles away at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, after the FBI spent days tracking him there.
Norton said her peers are stunned that Kohberger is accused of the horrific murders that have shocked the local community and nation. She said Kohberger was interested in forensic psychology and generally seemed quiet and smart, although classmates tended to not be particularly close to him, at least in part because he had made anti-LGBTQ comments.
“He sort of creeped people out because he stared and didn’t talk much, but when he did it was very intelligent and he needed everyone to know he was smart,” Norton said in an interview with the New York Times.
Kohberger is in police custody in the Monroe County Jail in Pennsylvania. He is scheduled to appear at a court hearing on January 3. On Saturday, his public defender said he intended to waive extradition.
The public defender in Monroe County, PA says Bryan Kohberger is “eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible.”
Says Kohberger intends to waive his extradition hearing to expedite his transport to Idaho.— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) December 31, 2022
At a news briefing on Friday, Moscow Chief of Police James Fry did not rule out the possibility that Kohberger may have had an accomplice.
“We have an individual in custody who committed these horrible crimes,” Fry told reporters, according to KREM-TV.
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[Feature Photo: Facebook; Police Handout]
