The parents and sister of the suspect in slayings of four University of Idaho students say they will continue to “love and support” him and “promote his presumption of innocence.”
In their first public statement, Bryan Kohberger’s family also expressed condolences to the young people stabbed to death in their off-campus rental seven weeks ago.
Kohberger, a criminology doctoral student at Washington State University, was arrested Friday in his home state of Pennsylvania. Police have not yet provided a motive for the crime that has transfixed the nation.
In a statement issued by Kohberger’s attorney, the family said they had “fully cooperated with law enforcement agencies in an attempt to seek the truth and promote his presumption of innocence rather than judge unknown facts and make erroneous assumptions.”
“We will continue to let the legal process unfold and as a family we will love and support our son and brother,” they added.
Kohberger is expected to waive extradition from Pennsylvania and return to Idaho to face charges of first-degree murder and felony burglary. His attorney, Jason LeBar, said Kohberger was “shocked” by the charges and is “eager to be exonerated.”
Friends have told The Daily Beast that Kohberger was smart and analytical, if occasionally cruel. A college classmate described the Ph.D student as “well-spoken” but “seemingly detached.”
A professor at DeSales University, where Kohberger earned his masters in criminal justice, told the Daily Mail he was “one of my best students ever” and said she was “shocked as s**t at what he’s been accused of.”
“In my 10 years of teaching, I’ve only recommended two students to a PhD program and he was one of them,” said Professor Michelle Bolger, who taught the suspect in online courses. “Everyone is in shock over this.”
Bolger worked with Kohberger on his eyebrow-raising senior thesis, which involved questioning criminals about their thoughts and feelings during the commission of a crime. A since-deleted survey page asked criminals questions including: “Before making your move, how did you approach the victim or target? Please detail what you were thinking and feeling.”
Bolger said this kind of questioning was normal for a criminology student, and that Kohberger was engaging with something called “script theory,” which attempts to explain how and why people commit crimes. “It looks weird, I understand from the public view,” she said. “But in criminology it’s normal.”
It is still unclear whether Kohberger knew the victims, who were all between 20 and 21 years old. Law enforcement sources told CNN they tracked the suspect through DNA evidence and through his white Hyundai Elantra, which was seen near the crime scene.
