University of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger may have left behind a "calling card" and "most likely" had killed before, according to experts. In a "Dr. Phil" special on Friday, experts speculated that Kohberger left behind the "calling card" in the form of the knife sheath to show cops that he was at the scene of the grisly killings in Moscow, Idaho.
University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, were found stabbed to death in Moscow, Idaho, early on November 13. Bryan Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at the nearby Washington State University, has been charged with four counts of murder for the quadruple murders.
Everything Planned
Experts speculated that Kohberger, 28, deliberately left an empty knife sheath in the room where students Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were killed on November 13. According to a former FBI special agent Jonathan Gilliam, who spoke to Fox News, Kohberger's knife was "part of his operational tools," much like Kohberger's car, Fox News reported.
"I think they'll find that knife. I think the knife could potentially be found, because I think – like the car, and these things, I think these are part of his operational tools. It's no different than a go-bag for me," former FBI special agent Jonathan Gilliam theorized.
Trial lawyer Mercedes Colwin agreed that they would eventually recover the knife before speculating that the sheath might have been deliberately placed at the crime site.
"It could be, I mean it's almost as if – and we've seen this with other killers, it's their calling card, 'I got this,'" she said during the special.
"Especially if you think you're smarter than everybody else, and he certainly – he had gloves, at least that's what's presumed, that he had gloves. He tried to cover himself, did something to dispose of the clothing, if he in fact is the killer, then of course, this is something that could have just been a calling card and left it there."
The panel of professionals gathered on the program then talked about the possibility that this is not Kohberger's first murder, which might turn the Ph.D. criminal justice student into a serial killer.
Serial Killer
Gilliam claimed he thought the murder suspect may have committed the crime more than once and in a similar way. "I think he's killed before most likely," Gilliam said. "Not four people, but I think he's probably stalked and potentially killed females before."
Colwin also agreed. "If he's the killer, this viciousness, the brutality, and the butchering of these four individuals, I can't imagine this is the first time, if he is indeed the killer."
Even if it might have been Kohberger's first murder, forensics specialist Joseph Scott noted that he didn't think it was the first time Kohberger had tried to get away with doing anything illegal.
When questioned about whether he believed it to be Kohberger's first murder, he said, "Murder? Possibly. Bad act? No."
This comes as a former FBI investigator claimed that Kohberger may have been driven to kill the four students due to an "incel complex" and his history of other social issues. According to Pete Yachmetz, Kohberger is believed to have stabbed the four students in an attempt to "assert self dominance" emerging from his "incel complex."
Yachmetz posted that Kohberger, who was raised in Pennsylvania, had a history of social troubles as his former classmates recall, Kohberger was a disturbed, angry young man who didn't fit in at school.
"The murders may have been... an effort to assert some type of dominance," former FBI agent and security expert Pete Yachmetz told the New York Post.
"I believe a continued stabbing of a victim indicates...an uncontrollable rage and extreme anger," Yachmetz said, noting that Kohberger has been described as "socially awkward with a long history of interpersonal problems."
"I think he may have developed a sort of incel complex," he surmised.
Men who struggle to form romantic or sexual relationships are frequently referred to as incels, an acronym for "involuntarily celibate." The identity has occasionally been connected to crimes and, in some cases, misogynistic online forums:
In 2021, self-proclaimed incel Tres Genco was arrested for planning a mass shooting that would have killed 3,000 sorority girls at an undisclosed Ohio institution. The twisted plot was admitted to by Genco, 22, who now faces a life sentence.
