‘Did I inspire him?’: Bryan Kohberger’s professor addresses Idaho murders and what he was like

A professor who taught Bryan Kohberger at university has spoken out about the idea her classes may have gone towards “inspiring” the crimes he is accused of committing.

In November 2022, four college students were brutally murdered in their university home. A little after 4am on November 13th that year, 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 the students dead. 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.

Ahead of the crimes, Kohberger had been studying criminology at DeSales University to get a Master’s. During the Netflix documentary about the Idaho murders case, it was shared that he had been studying a class called Minds of a Serial Killer, taught by Dr. Katherine Ramsland.

via Netflix

A classmate, who sat next to Kohberger in the class, recalled he would ask a lot of questions, and “adored” the teacher. Dr. Katherine Ramsland was described as “very well known” in the criminal psychology sector, and she is noted to have written a book about the BTK Killer, Dennis Rader.

“A switch went off in his head in that class,” the classmate said, as she explained they would study crime scenes and killers in depth.

‘I’m disappointed, angry, and I’m shocked this is who he turned out to be’

via Netflix

In an interview last year, Dr. Katherine Ramsland finally spoke out. Prior to the chat, with NewsNation, she had not spoken publicly about Kohberger.

“He seemed eager to be in classroom,” she said. “He was polite. He was respectful. Intense and curious. There was no reason for me to think that he was anything other than somebody who was really interested in this potential career.”

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She said “nothing” stood out to her about Kohberger that was strange, and “there weren’t any red flags” as he was a “respectful and grateful” student. “He was attentive, he would do the work,” Dr. Katherine added. “I didn’t have any concerns.”

Dr. Katherine Ramsland was then asked to think back to the curriculum, and if anything in it may have been “used” by Kohberger. Sh replied that her course contained a lot of analysis of serial killers, and Kohberger was “exposed” to deep looks at the minds of killers, how they felt committing their crimes, and then getting caught.

“Now looking back, I would look at some of the things that interested him as being something that gives me pause,” she said. “We all know, everyone in this field, that we may have students that become offenders. We also know that the vast majority of students will not… they will make the world better, protect us.

“We know there is always a risk that we’re attracting somebody who wants to do something terrible. We hope we won’t ever have that, but in my case, we did.”

She added: “I have to look at the framework of what I taught, and wonder did I inspire him? But I can’t second guess that. Because I may have inspired somebody else to become an FBI agent.”

Dr. Katherine described this as a “terrible” thought to process, and admitted: “I really thought Bryan Kohberger was a promising student who really could have made a mark in this career, in a very positive way. I’m disappointed, angry, and I’m shocked this is who he turned out to be. Horrified for the victims and their families.”

When asked how she felt when she heard of Kohberger’s arrest, the professor said she was “completely floored” and “didn’t believe it”. She added: “His demeanour that we saw was that he was confident and would be able to prove his innocence. So, I wanted to wait and see, and give him the benefit of the doubt.”

She said her belief went away when Kohberger had claimed he had an alibi, but the professor said from his classes he “would have known that was not an alibi”.

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. Featured image via Netflix.