Bryan Kohberger is said to have broken into a female coworker’s apartment so she would ask him for help, allegedly leading him to install security cameras in the residence that he may have been able to monitor, NBC’s Dateline reports.
The allegations involving the female colleague have not been released officially by authorities, and Dateline did not identify the sources making the claims.
But according to the news magazine, the alleged interaction with the woman occurred months before Kohberger is accused of stabbing to death four University of Idaho students in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.
At the time, the 28-year-old Kohberger was a Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University, just across the border from Moscow in Pullman, Washington. The sources allegedly told Dateline that Kohberger broke into the woman’s property and moved unspecified items around, although he did not steal anything.
Following that break-in, the female colleague reportedly reached out to Kohberger and asked him to come over. He did and allegedly suggested that she install a security system in the apartment that included cameras.
According to Dateline, Kohberger offered to install the cameras and the woman agreed to that. Authorities suspect that Kohberger may have been able to access the camera feed remotely because he had her Wi-Fi password.
Former FBI profiler Greg Cooper told Dateline that the allegations involving the female colleague are consistent with a progression of criminal behavior.
“I would expect that he orchestrated the whole thing, he was not looking at her as a potential victim necessarily,” Cooper told Dateline. “But he orchestrated it so that she would come to him and that he would be able to help her. It is another level of power and domination and control over another person. The hero image that he can portray – you’ve got this problem I’m here to solve the problem for you and to make it better for you.”
Dateline also reported that Kohberger had purchased a K-Bar Knife and Sheath in April 2022 before he moved to Washington for the doctoral program. That is the same knife that investigators say was the murder weapon.
Sources told Dateline that Kohberger may have scoped out the property before the slayings, even potentially lurking inside inconspicuously given that it was a widely known party house.
A grand jury this past week indicted Kohberger on four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in connection with the slayings. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday morning.
Earlier this month, the University of Idaho awarded posthumous degrees and certificates to the victims: 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, 21-year-old Madison Mogen, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin.
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[Feature Photo: Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students, is escorted to an extradition hearing at the Monroe County Courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pa., Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool)]
