Relatives described Bryan Kohberger as being ‘obsessive’ about his eating habits
SWAT teams descended on a sleepy residential community in Pennsylvania in the early hours of Friday morning to arrest Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger.
Albrightsville, a small town in the heart of the Poconos Mountains, is more than 2,000 miles from where the gruesome killings took place in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13.
Police say DNA evidence links Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology PhD student, to the scene.
He has not yet commented publicly but is said to have asked if anyone else had been taken into custody when he was detained.
Kohberger is a registered Libertarian, although does not appear to have had any active social media profiles at the time of his arrest.
A relative told The New York Post Kohberger is ‘OCD’ about his eating habits and forced his family to buy new pots that had never been used to cook meat.
‘It was above and beyond being vegan. His aunt and uncle had to buy new pots and pans because he would not eat from anything that had ever had meat cooked in them. He seemed very OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder)’ the woman said.
Albrightsville in Pennsylvania was swarming with police on Friday after Kohberger’s arrest
Locals and at least one police officer are spotted in Albrightsville Friday, after Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger was arrested
The crime took place six weeks ago, 2,500 miles from where Kohberger was arrested
The suspect is believed to have driven some 2,300 miles from Moscow to Pennsylvania. He was attending college in nearby Washington State
A white Hyundai Elantra – the same make and model of car being sought by cops in connection to the killing – is said to have been towed from outside Kohberger’s home
As part of his research a DeSales Kohberger posted an appeal for help on social media with his research – which was looking at how ‘emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime’
Kohberger is being held for extradition in a criminal homicide investigation based on an active arrest warrant for first-degree murder
Nick Mcloughlin, who was friends with Kohberger at school told the Daily Beast he was ‘stunned’ to see his old acquaintance arrested.
Mcloughlin said Kohberger was ‘down to Earth,’ when he graduated junior year. But at the start of senior year, Kohberger returned ‘thinner than a rail,’ had turned ‘aggressive’ and taken up boxing.
Recalling how their friendship soured, Mcloughlin added: ‘He always wanted to fight somebody, he was bullying people. We started cutting him off from our friend group because he was 100 percent a different person.’
Kohberger said he has ‘no idea’ what prompted the sudden change.
Little is known about Kohberger’s family. His father, Michael, and mother Maryann, live in the home where he was believed to have been staying when he was arrested.
In 2010, Michael filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It’s unclear what he and his wife do for work now.
He has two older sisters – Anne and Melissa. Melissa, 31, is a therapist in New Jersey.
While he is accused of atrocious brutality, both Melissa and his mother Maryann have spoken out in the past against violence.
In May, after the Uvalde mass shooting in Texas, Maryann submitted a letter to a local newspaper in which she included a poem written by Melissa about the massacre.
Earlier this year, Kohberger’s mother MaryAnn submitted a poem written by his therapist sister about the Uvalde massacre
‘As I sat this morning, reeling from yet another school shooting, I found myself wrestling with which actions need to be taken to stop all the madness. What is the answer? Gun control measures? Mental health intervention?
‘Then I received a message from my daughter who works as a mental health therapist in New Jersey.
‘She shared a poem she had written, while in the greatest depths of despair. It shook me to my core, and I felt the need to share it,’ Maryann wrote.
The poem reads: ‘Bereft of their laughter
‘There is now not a sound
As we lower our children into the ground
‘Small hands and feet
‘Buried six feet deep into the earth of the world that failed them.’
No one from the family has yet commented on his arrest.
Classmates from the high school he attended have also spoken of their shock.
Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, were murdered on November 13
Outside the apartment of suspect Bryan Kohberger in graduate housing on campus at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington
‘Very strange kid. I worked with him for a bit at a pizza shop. Nice kid but just out there,’ commented one former colleague on social media.
Lawrence Rosenberg said he attended classes at the Career & Technical Institute with Kohberger, but that he dropped out in 2014 without completing the course.
‘He would always looked bugged eye’d like on drugs and nobody in the class really never talked to him that’s why he only went for 2 years and left without taking the final exam,’ he said.
De Sales, where Kohberger obtained his undergraduate degree and where he commissioned a survey of ex-cons on how they committed crimes, released a statement on Friday admonishing the violence of the murders.
‘On Friday, December 30, DeSales University learned of the arrest of Bryan Kohberger in connection with the murder of four University of Idaho students.
‘Kohberger received a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and completed his graduate studies in June 2022.
‘As a Catholic, Salesian community, we are devastated by this senseless tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims’ families during this difficult time.’
The University of Washington State, where he was studying recently, is yet to issue a statement.
Neighbors in the town of stood in the street on Friday as police swarmed the gate entrance to the town.
Kohberger is expected to stay in custody until January 3, when he is due in court for an extradition hearing.
