Bryan Kohberger Was Trying to Commit 'Perfect Crime'—Forensic Psychiatrist

A man facing first-degree murder charges for the slayings of four University of Idaho students was trying to learn how to commit the "perfect crime," a forensic psychiatrist told Newsweek.

Bryan Kohberger, 28, was taken into custody by state police at his parents' home in eastern Pennsylvania early on Friday, authorities said.

During a press conference on Friday, Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said investigators believe Kohberger broke into the students' home in Moscow "with the intent to commit murder."

The students—Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin—were stabbed to death sometime in the early-morning hours of November 13. The women lived at the house, and Chapin, Kernodle's boyfriend, was visiting. Two other female roommates who lived in the three-story home survived.

Kohberger is a Ph.D. student and teaching assistant in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University.

He graduated from Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania with an associate of arts degree in psychology in 2018. He then went on to receive a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania's DeSales University in 2020 and finished his graduate studies there in June 2022.

At DeSales University, Kohberger was taught by Katherine Ramsland, a renowned forensic psychologist and an expert on serial killers. "I'm making no media statements at this time," Ramsland told Newsweek on Monday, when asked about Kohberger.

Forensic psychiatrist Carole Lieberman told Newsweek that she thinks Kohberger's decision to study psychology and then criminology was because he was "trying to calm the demons inside of him that were telling him to kill."

But she said she believes he was simultaneously "trying to learn how to commit the perfect crime."

Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI agent, told Newsweek that Kohberger would have studied people "who had already done the crimes he was likely dreaming about doing.

"How interesting to be able to relate closely to somebody that's following your own urges. And then also to gain that cloak, if you will, of knowing some of the pitfalls to try to avoid, to not get caught," she said.

But Coffindaffer added that she believes "there is no such thing as a perfect crime.

"Especially with the advancements and DNA and where we stand now. You leave a trace of yourself no matter where you go, and you take traces of where you've been with you."

DNA evidence played a key role in identifying Kohberger as a suspect in the killings, a law-enforcement official told The Associated Press, and officials were able to match his DNA to genetic material recovered during the investigation.

Correction 01/03/23, 06:02 a.m. ET: This article has been corrected so that Carole Lieberman is referred to as a forensic psychiatrist not a forensic psychologist.