In November 2022, Idaho police were confronted with a chilling scene when they discovered four young students brutally stabbed to death in an off-campus home.
Among the victims were Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, all asleep in their beds when an unknown assailant entered the house and attacked them. Strangely, two other housemates on a lower floor were spared.
The case gripped the nation, leading to widespread shock and confusion. Nearly seven weeks later, the FBI arrested Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old PhD student studying criminology at Washington State University, located close to Moscow, Idaho.
His arrest took place in Pennsylvania, where he had traveled with his father Michael, unaware they were being trailed by federal agents.
Kohberger, denying any involvement in the killings, awaits trial under the threat of the death penalty, potentially by firing squad if lethal drugs are unavailable. Investigative journalist Howard Blum, in his new book, offers fresh insights into the perplexing crime.
Blum contends that Kohberger did not set out on a random killing spree that night but had targeted one of the students, Maddie Mogen, with whom he had become fixated after encountering her at a vegan restaurant where she worked part-time.
According to Blum, Kohberger’s obsessive behavior, compounded by his social difficulties, led him to monitor Maddie and her housemates closely through their social media activities.
The house’s layout, with its exposed living areas visible from outside, provided Kohberger with opportunities to observe them discreetly from nearby trees.
‘While the roommates hosted party after party at the house on King Road, he was often watching from the shadows,’ writes Blum.
