Bryan Kohberger asked his neighbor if he’d heard about gruesome Idaho murders weeks before he was arrested – and called them a ‘crime of passion’ that cops had ‘no leads’ for
- The neighbor spoke to Kohberger in their off-campus apartment complex in WA
- The murder suspect said police had ‘no leads’ just days after the Nov 13 killings
- Kohberger, 28, is due back in court in Idaho today for a brief preliminary hearing
- The appearance will be mostly focused on scheduling for future court dates
Weeks before he was named as the primary suspect in the gruesome quadruple murder of four Idaho students, Bryan Kohberger told a neighbor he believed the unsolved killings were a ‘crime of passion’.
The neighbor is speaking now for the first time in an interview with CBS.
He lives in the off-campus apartment complex where Kohberger – who appeared in court today – was living while studying a PhD in criminology at the University of Washington State, seven miles from the Moscow murder house.
He did not wish to be identified, but told how Kohberger asked him about the murders days after they happened in November.
‘He brought it up in conversation, asked if I’d heard about the murders. Which I had.
‘He said, “It seems like they have no leads… like it was a crime of passion.”
The neighbor (left, in a hood with his back to the camera) speaks for the first time in an interview with CBS. He requested anonymity
Bryan Kohberger is shown entering court during his last appearance in Idaho on January 5
‘At the time of our conversation it was only a few days after it happened. There wasn’t much detail out,’ he said.
Kohberger is due in court in Idaho today for what will be his second appearance.
The hearing is expected to be brief and will be focused on scheduling. Kohberger has not yet entered a plea.
He is accused of four counts of first degree murder and one count of burglary. If convicted on the murder charges, he faces the death penalty.
While he is yet to formally enter a plea, his previous attorney in Pennsylvania – where he was arrested in a dramatic December 30 raid on his parents’ home – has indicated that he maintains he is innocent.
He said Kohberger was looking forward to returning to Idaho, where he believed he would be exonerated.
Kohberger, 28, is accused of murdering Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin on November 13 in the quiet, college town of Moscow, Idaho
Kohberger’s apartment in Pullman, Washington, is 8.4 miles from the murder scene
Police are yet to offer a motive for the killings and it remains unconfirmed whether Kohberger knew any of the victims.
An attorney for the family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the victims, told Business Insider earlier this week that Kohberger was ‘not known’ to any of the students.
‘No one knew of this guy at all,’ attorney Shannon Gray said.
Police say they matched a sample of DNA found at the scene to DNA taken from Kohberger’s trash in Pennsylvania.
They also traced his cell phone to the area of the crime scene several times, and matched his white Hyundai Elantra to the suspicious vehicle seen in the area on the night of the attacks.
Surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen told police she saw the killer in the house wearing a black ski mask covering his face and nose.
She noticed that he had ‘bushy eyebrows’ – a feature police say they immediately noticed in Kohberger once they had his name.
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