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Jack Baylis, a former friend of Bryan Kohberger, said recently that the scariest part about the killings of four University of Idaho students in November 2022 was that he never saw it coming.
"If he [Kohberger] did kill those people, it's such a heinous thing and abhorrent....," he said when he sat down with Fox Nation and Nancy Grace for a new special titled Bryan Kohberger: I Am Blank.
Kohberger, 28, was arrested in December 2022 following the fatal stabbings of students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 20.
"It could have been anyone, it could be your neighbor, it could be your teacher, it could be your best friend of 30 years," Baylis said. "There was no clear sign of good or bad. He was just a normal guy with normal circumstances, as far as I know. And that's probably the scariest part."
Kohberger was a Ph.D. candidate at Washington State University at the time of the killings and was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania after traveling home with his father. He has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary but has maintained his innocence.
"I was playing 'Call of Duty' with my friends and my one friend says, 'Did you hear about those murders? The guy that did that lives down the road from me.' I'm like, 'Oh, that's nuts,'" Baylis said. "I looked up Idaho murders and my first thought was, 'Oh my God, that's Bryan.'
"That internal battle is like this is the guy I knew and it's a guy I cared about and want what's best for him, but at the same time, what he possibly did is heinous to a level where it's irredeemable."
Anne Taylor, the chief public defender in Kootenai County in Idaho and Kohberger's lawyer, said her client was standing silent during his arraignment, prompting Judge John Judge to enter a plea of not guilty for each charge.
Most of the evidence used in the arrest of Kohberger included cellphone tracking and DNA samples found at the crime scene and taken from Kohberger while in custody. A grand jury indictment said that a DNA profile found on a knife sheath at the scene was a statistical match to a DNA profile obtained by a buccal swab of Kohberger while he was in custody.
Newsweek reached out to Kohberger's lawyer via email for comment.
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more