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University Of Idaho Students Report Seeing A 'Staring' Bryan Kohberger On Campus Before Murders
“He wouldn’t look away if you caught him staring,” one student said of her alleged encounter with Bryan Kohberger. "He didn’t smile, didn’t nod, didn’t say anything. Just stared.”
Three University of Idaho students have reported seeing Bryan Kohberger on campus in unnerving encounters that made them feel “uncomfortable” before the quadruple homicide that stunned the quiet college town.
Kohberger has been accused of sneaking into an off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho in November and brutally stabbing four of the occupants inside, all of whom had been students at the university.
But now three other students have stepped forward to report that they may have seen Kohberger last year at the school’s student union.
A sophomore named Chelsea told People she believed she saw Kohberger — who had been a Ph.D. student at the nearby Washington State University — at the University of Idaho student union building “really early in the semester.”
“He was at the food court [of the Student Union], drinking water. He sat by himself,” she told the outlet.
She described Kohberger during the alleged sighting as “the type to stare.”
“He wouldn’t look away if you caught him staring,” she said. “Like he wanted you to notice that he was looking at you. He didn’t smile, didn’t nod, didn’t say anything. Just stared.”
Chelsea said that the brief encounter left her feeling unnerved.
"I told my friend to not be suspicious but to look at him, because the eye contact was making me uncomfortable," she said. "It was so weird that we ended up leaving and eating outside, because we wanted to get away from him."
Another unidentified student told People she had seen Kohberger around campus “more than once,” and thought he likely went to school there.
"It's not a huge school; it's like a small town," she said. "So you start seeing the same faces again and again. They become familiar, like you know that you've seen them in class or around campus. I definitely saw him more than once. He was just really quiet and really intense, staring. He made me uncomfortable."
Moscow Police are prohibited from discussing any details of Kohberger’s case — including whether they believe he may have been on the campus before the murders — as part of a gag order from the judge in the case.
It isn’t the first report that Kohberger’s awkward social interactions may have unsettled others.
Shortly after his arrest, Jordan Serulneck, the owner of Seven Sirens Brewing Company in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, told NBC News that Kohberger had been a customer at the brewery while attending school at DeSales University.
The female staff at the brewery had complained about Kohberger’s behavior, even making a note in their system that popped up when his ID was scanned.
“Staff put in there, ‘Hey, this guy makes creepy comments, keep an eye on him. He’ll have two or three beers and then just get a little too comfortable,’” Serulneck said.
According to his account, Kohberger also allegedly asked the female staff and customers probing questions like where they lived and “would get upset” if they blew him off.
After graduating with a master’s degree from DeSales University, Kohberger moved to Pullman, Washington to begin his doctoral work in criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, which is located just about 10 miles away from the University of Idaho.
Investigators believe that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, Kohberger allegedly broke into an off-campus rental home and stabbed Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, to death with a fixed-blade knife, according to an affidavit obtained earlier by Oxygen.com.
Two other roommates had been home at the time of the killings, including one who told police she saw a masked man inside the home, but were not targeted in the attack and survived.
Authorities were able to link the quadruple homicide to Kohberger after allegedly finding a leather knife shealth left behind on Mogen’s bed that had DNA they linked to the 28-year-old. A vehicle matching the description of his 2015 Hyundai Elantra was also spotted on surveillance footage circling the neighborhood of the 1122 King Road home before it attempted to park in front of the property just after 4 a.m., according to the affidavit.
The same vehicle was seen leaving the area “at a high rate of speed” at approximately 4:20 a.m., authorities said.
Investigators have yet to reveal a motive in the slayings but did say that a phone number linked to Kohberger was in the area of the home “on at least twelve” prior occasions before the murder, suggesting he may have been stalking the victims, according to the affidavit.
Kohberger was arrested in December while visiting his parents in Pennsylvania and extradited back to Idaho, where he’s facing four counts of first-degree murder and burglary.
He has yet to enter a plea to the charges against him.
