BREAKING: Idaho massacre suspect to DENY murders, police say he acted alone

On Saturday, Chief of Moscow Police James Fry, went on Fox News and said that indicated that Bryan Christopher Kohberger, the 28-year-old man accused of killing four University of Idaho students early in the morning on November 13, likely acted alone.

Fox News reports, Fry said, "We truly believe we have the individual that committed these crimes" after being asked if authorities were looking into accomplices in the murders.

Fry did not provide any clarifying details on whether Kohberger knew the victims prior to the murders. The bodies of 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, her boyfriend 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, along with 21-year-old Madison Mogen and 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves were found stabbed to death in the early morning of November 13 after police responded to call from one of the surviving roommates in their rented home on King Road in Moscow, Idaho that reported an "unconscious person."

Kohberger's attorney said his client was "shocked" by the four first-degree murder charges and that he "is eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible." Kohberger denied that he had anything to do with the killings and claimed through his representation that he would cooperate with authorities, The Daily Mail reports.

Kohberger waived his extradition hearing and will expedite his return to Idaho. After he was arrested, he was placed on suicide watch but was removed a day later.

Fry gave a breakdown of the timeline of the crime at a press conference on Friday.

"On the evening of November 12, Kaylee and Madison arrived home at about 1:56 am after visiting a local bar and street food vendor, Ethan and Xana were at the Sigma Kai house before arriving home around 1:45 am. The two surviving roommates had also been in the community but returned around 1 am," Fry said.

Police "found two victims on the second floor and two victims on the third floor."

Fry explained that on November 17, the autopsies were performed, the victims were identified, and the cause of death was confirmed as a "homicide by stabbing." 

Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania, his home state, and has been charged with four counts of murder and felony burglary.

According to CNN, police identified Kohberger's white Hyundai Elantra and tracked it as he drove the car cross country from Idaho to Pennsylvania and "Genetic genealogy techniques were used to connect Kohberger to unidentified DNA evidence."

Kohberger, who graduated from Pennsylvania’s DeSales University in May of 2022 with a Master of Arts in Criminal Justice, conducted a study asking criminals questions about their crimes. A Reddit account under the name "Bryan" made numerous posts in May and June to prisoner and ex-convict community pages asking them to "participate in a research project that seeks to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime."

The questions included:
"How did you travel to and enter the location that the crime occurred?"

"After arriving, what steps did you take prior to locating the victim or target (i.e., person or object)? Please detail your thoughts and feelings."

"Why did you choose that victim or target over others?"

More chilling details revealed his disturbing personality and past riddled with drug abuse and bullying, with one of Kohberger's Washington State University criminology classmates saying his usually cold demeanor became more open and chatty — except when the case was discussed.

A member of the same graduate program as Kohberger, BK Norton, told the New York Times that her classmate "seemed more upbeat and willing to carry a conversation," after the crimes occurred, but would become "quiet and deadpan" when the case came up in class discussions.

"I don't believe he had any reaction," Norton said in another interview with the New York Post, noting that it seemed odd at the time due to the rest of the class's interest in the unsolved mystery.

"We had quite a long conversation in class about it too. I don't believe I remember him commenting about it at all," she said.

Norton added that Kohberger was smart, and particularly interested in forensic psychology.

Multiple high school friends of Kohberger's shed more light on his mindset, claiming that he was a "bully" and abused drugs.

Nick Mcloughlin of Pleasant Valley, Pennsylvania, told the Daily Beast that his old friend underwent a "personality change" and suddenly became "aggressive" and "bullied other kids."

Kohbgerger turned from a "down to earth," overweight teen into an "aggressive" person who was "thinner than a rail" between junior and senior year, Mcloughlin said.

"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," he added, noting that he didn't know the cause of the personality switch.

Another high school classmate, Sarah Healey, told Fox News that Kohberger was bullied himself.

"It was bad," Healey said. "There was definitely something off about him, like we couldn't tell exactly what it was…It was just weird," she said. "But Bryan was bullied a lot, and I never got a chance to say something to defend him, because he would always run away."

Healey said that girls would tell Kohberger to "go away, creep" or say "I don't want to hang out with you" to him.

"I honestly think that's what led up to this, because he didn't get the proper help, and it was mainly females that bullied him," she speculated.

Yet another acquaintance of Kohberger's, Casey Arntz, who said her brother was "really good friends with him," took to TikTok and claimed that he has a history of drug abuse.

"He nonchalantly decided to meet me driving round the Poconos for heroin and I had no idea. I thought I was doing a nice deed because he needed something [else]," Artnz recalled of a time when Kohberger asked her for a ride to pick up hard drugs in a now-deleted video.

Casey's brother, Thomas, corroborated claims that the murder suspect was a "bully" who picked on friends' "flaws and insecurities."

"He did that to me all the time," Thomas told The Daily Beast. "He would go after my intelligence. He would basically insinuate that I'm kind of slow-witted and that I'm forgetful and that I lack the intelligence to be his friend."

After graduating from Pleasant Valley High School, Kohberger went on to earn a psychology degree from Northampton Community College in 2018, and received a master of arts in criminal justice from DeSales University in 2022 before moving on to Washington to complete his doctorate, reported the Post.

Kohberger also worked as a school security officer within the Pleasant Valley School District, but left last year.