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The man suspected of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students looks like "a normal guy," the father of one of the victims has said.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the November 13 killings of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin at an off-campus rental house in Moscow.
Investigators used DNA evidence, surveillance footage and cell phone records to hone in on Kohberger as the suspect, according to a probable cause affidavit unsealed on Thursday.
Goncalves' father, Steve Goncalves, has since said that he didn't picture someone like Kohberger when he imagined who his daughter's killer could be.
"No, I thought he would be much more... bigger and more of a monster, obviously and have those key looks of somebody who couldn't get along with girls and this was like his only option or something," Goncalves told Chris Cuomo on NewsNation.
"He just looked like a normal guy that would not stand out in any room or any party... just by the looks of him, you wouldn't realize that he had that going through his head."
Kohberger, a doctoral student in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman, just across the state border from Moscow, made his first appearance in an Idaho court on Thursday after agreeing to be extradited from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested at his parents' home in December.
Judge Megan Marshall read the charges against him and said the maximum penalty for the crimes if Kohberger is convicted would be life imprisonment or death.
He didn't enter a plea and Marshall ordered that he be held without bail.
Goncalves' parents have previously called for the death penalty.
"I know how the prison system is. I don't think it's the equivalent of death. When you kill someone and you're able to stay in prison, it's just not even comparable," Goncalves told NewsNation.
Citing reports that the jail were Kohberger is being held will accommodate his dietary restrictions, he added: "He's going in there with a sense of purpose that... they need to take care of him.
"So that's exactly why I feel like the prison system caters too much to, you know, the prisoners and not enough to the victims of these crimes... when you do something as evil as attacking someone in their bed, something that we all do every single night, every single person watching this TV right now does that and somebody pops up on the side and just start stabbing you, if that doesn't deserve [capital] punishment, you really gotta question, what does?"
Kohberger's attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, didn't respond to Newsweek's request for comment.
His public defender in Pennsylvania, Jason LaBar, last week said his client is "eager to be exonerated of these charges" and that he "should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise."
A magistrate judge has placed the attorneys, law enforcement officers and others involved in the case under a"gag order," barring them from talking publicly about the case.
About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more