Why did Bryan Kohberger do it? Psychiatrist breaks down possible motive for Idaho murders

One of the biggest questions you have after watching The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare, or reading anything about this case is simple: Why? There seems to be no motive behind why Bryan Kohberger committed the crime, or in particular, why he would have chosen the four victims he did.

In November 2022, four college students were brutally murdered in their university home. They had been out partying, and returned in the early hours of the morning. A little after 4am, four of the housemates were stabbed by a man who had entered the property.

When police arrived at the scene, on King Road, they found four students had been killed. Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, and Xana Kernodle had all been brutally murdered. Bryan Kohberger, a Washington State University PhD student who lived 15 minutes away from the crime scene, was then charged with quadruple murder.

In a recent update, Bryan Kohberger has now taken back his guilty plea, and wants to go to trial. He’s claiming his innocence, and if he does get a trial, prosecutors will have to piece together a possible motive for him.

He never revealed why he targeted the four University of Idaho students in November 2022. But, experts have broken down what they believe to be a possible motive.

via Netflix

Why did Bryan Kohberger commit the Idaho murders and what was his motive for picking those students in particular?

Briefly in the Netflix doc, it was theorised that Bryan Kohberger may have been part of the incel movement. However, police found no evidence of this.

An expert has broken down this theory for a motive further, and in particular has looked at how this motive may have impacted the victims the killer chose. Forensic psychiatrist Dr Carole Lieberman, who has over two decades of experience analysing criminals, told The Daily Mail she thinks the case shows evidence of a psychological pattern.

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“It is especially significant that Maddie and Kaylee look like a blonde cheerleader who rejected him in middle school,” she said. “He took out the rage that he built up over the years, towards this first love and all the subsequent women who rejected him, with each bloody stab of the knife.”

A blonde cheerleader who went to school with Kohberger has previously spoken out about “weird” comments he made towards her.

The doctor further theorised: “If he [Kohberger] met a girl, they would be turned off by him.  Not just because of his looks and being a little awkward, they probably wouldn’t have known exactly why, but because they would be able to sense this anger and rage within him.

“He already had this chip on his shoulder, and he was gathering all this anger… that made it harder and harder for him to meet a girl who wanted to go out with him.

“The bloody scene suggests it had to be someone with a lot of rage. And they used a knife, which suggests a very personal attack.”

via Netflix

Speaking more about when Kohberger initially agreed on a guilty plea, the doctor added: “He was so angry, so defiant. He certainly wasn’t remorseful.”

She added the families “are not going to hear [why] from his mouth… so I just wanted to try to give them some idea of why this happened.” She said: “Their children didn’t do anything wrong, and what happened is not because of anything their children did. I am worried that they are thinking that.”

The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.