Bryan Kohberger reportedly told a neighbor that he believed the unsolved killings were a "crime of passion", weeks before he was arrested as the prime suspect in the brutal stabbings of the four Idaho university students. The revelation was made by the neighbor who spoke for the first time in an interview with CBS on Wednesday.
The neighbor lives seven miles from the Moscow murder scene in the same off-campus apartment building where Kohberger, who appeared in court on Thursday, lived while pursuing a PhD in criminology at the University of Washington State.
Discussing His Own Crime
The neighbor described how Kohberger questioned him about the murders in November days after they took place. However, he did not want to reveal his name. "He brought it up in conversation, asked if I'd heard about the murders. Which I had," he said.
"He said, 'It seems like they have no leads... like it was a crime of passion.'
"At the time of our conversation it was only a few days after it happened. There wasn't much detail out," he said.
He claimed Kohberger was desperate to get back to Idaho because he thought he would be vindicated there. It is still not known whether Kohberger knew any of the victims, and police have not yet provided a motive for the crimes.
However, according to a lawyer for the family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the victims, said earlier this week that Kohberger was "not known" to any of the students.
"No one knew of this guy at all," attorney Shannon Gray said.
According to the police, a sample of DNA recovered from the location was compared to DNA collected from Kohberger's trash in Pennsylvania. They also traced his mobile phone multiple times to the crime scene, and they compared the white Hyundai Elantra he was driving to the suspicious car that had been spotted in the vicinity the night of the attacks.
Dylan Mortensen, the surviving roommate, told police she saw the murderer inside the home with a black ski mask covering his face and nose.
She saw that he had "bushy eyebrows", which the police claim they picked up on as soon as they knew Kohberger's identity.
Self-Inflicted Wound
This came as Kohberger appeared in court on Thursday with a scratched face and waived his right to a speedy trial. He will appear in court once again on June 26, six months from now in Moscow for a preliminary hearing.
He asked for a break in the court proceedings, relinquishing his right to a timely hearing so that his counsel would have more time to learn more about the prosecution's case against him.
As he sat down and the scratches along the left side of his chin could be seen. It is not known how he got the scratches but according to a Daily Mail report, a deputy from the Latah County Jail told the outlet that Kohberger caused the injuries on himself and they were "accidental."
"It's not a reportable incident, that's all I can say," the deputy told the outlet.
Kohberger made a brief court appearance, waived his right to a speedy trial, and was thereafter held without bail. Although Kohberger has not yet entered a plea, his lawyers earlier claimed that he denied carrying out the murders.
Kohberger has only so far appeared before magistrate court judges in Idaho.
The case will be transferred to the district division, which is reserved for more serious charges if it proceeds to trial, which is expected to take place in the coming months.
Whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to move forward to the division court will be decided at the hearing in June. After that, Kohberger will be asked to make a decision.
