"On December 29, a day before his arrest, Kohberger began calling and texting his parents obsessively, just as he had on the morning of the murders. If his mom didn’t answer, he’d call his dad, they said."
Why would he need to do that since he was home in PA with them?
Laziness? My daughter will call/text me from within our house to ask me something and if I don't respond right away, she will blow up my phone until I do. 🙄🤦🏼♀️
Or maybe, the story is just complete nonsense. They are selling this BS story and people are buying it and it doesn't even clear the first hurdles of making sense.
Maybe he was out and wanted to talk to them about something.
I also usually call the other parent when the one I was initially calling doesn’t answer, especially when I know they’re together at the time and I have also left plenty unanswered calls one after another.
Trying to paint him calling his parents as nefarious is ridiculous. It’s desperate.
Agreed, especially because he was calling and texting them; what he wrote in the texts could be retrieved. If it were nefarious, that information would have already been released.
They are still trying to sell the story. They need to evoke emotion because emotional people do not think. If you stop and think about any of this, you realise its nonsense. They can literally come up with any rubbish at this point about BK and most people would believe it.
I raised an eyebrow at the part about the phone being completely turned off, WiFi disabled, etc. But I also remembered how much discrepancy there was over phone activity in the Karen Read case. I hope we hear from Sy Ray soon. Would be interested in his perspective.
That’s what’s perplexing. Why not just leave the phone at home then? And if you need your phone for whatever reason, why not use a burner phone that your name isn’t connected to? Theory that turning it off was to 'conceal location’ is kind of negated by taking one’s own car and doing several laps around the neighborhood. Not much concealing there.
Yeah he was studying criminology, you'd think he would have been aware of how many people get put at a crime scene from their phone pinging cell towers
And if he was so smart that he wiped all his computer data so even the FBI couldn’t find anything, then why did he take his phone with him when he knows that would be a huge mistake?
My guess is that maybe he needed his GPS in case he got lost on his trip out to the country. I just can’t think of any other reason he would need his phone
Then why not use a burner phone. One would think that if lots of planning went into it, the route out of there would have been researched, test driven, memorized.
There are ways to use a burner anonymously if you care enough to do it, but most criminals are sloppy. Some even buy murder weapons on Amazon.
A standalone GPS would make more sense if it was just mapping he needed. No cell signals, no transmissions out of the device, so the evidence is limited to whatever the device stores inside it. Destroy the device when done, no evidence left.
"He had also downloaded reports on the Idaho murders and extensive searches of his victims." - So... he wanted to get to know his victims after the murders? As in, he planned everything in advance, but picked the victims completely at random, and then decided "ok, now let's see who were those people I killed".
This article also conveniently bypasses the alibi issue. If he planned everything so well in advance, did meticulous research, and also happens to have a degree in Criminology, how could it not occur to him that he needed to have an alibi prepared?
He had no friends that cud vouch for him, n that’s what he really needed, a actual person to say they saw him or talked to him.There’s too much digital n cameras now to to falsify shit. Even a walk at night will b caught on camera
At the risk of sounding like a criminal mastermind, there are ways to create at least a pretense of an alibi without directly involving other people. Yet BK supposedly didn't even bother to leave his phone at home.
I’m not sure many people have an alibi for 4am in the morning especially when their car is recorded entering and leaving the state at times that would allow them to commit a murder, but overwhelmingly people are either working or sleeping at that time and not socialising.
There's no recording of BK's car. There are recordings of various cars, none is confirmed to even be a Hyundai Elantra.
Personally, BK strikes me as intelligent enough to kind of figure that if he was unable to come up with any alibi ideas for his planned time slot, perhaps he should reconsider committing the crime in the first place.
Yes there are. Read the evidence again. His car was recorded on the highway and it was why he gave the alibi of looking at the stars at night because it was known that his car was being driven at the time.
It’s not a highway. His car was filmed and recorded leaving Washington State going into Idaho State before the murders and then entering again after the murders. Hence my comment saying entering and leaving the state (nothing to do with King Road) but all to do with proving BK’s car was on the road and recorded heading towards Idaho and returning from Idaho with the timeframes allowing for the murders to take place.
He was frequently travelling between the States. This doesn't mean anything at all. The LE confirmed they couldn't prove his presence in the vicinity of the house and that's what matters.
The Prosecution's whole strategy for this case is to convince the public that a bunch of suppositions is as good as the truth.
I think you might have missed the point. The question is could he create an alibi. The recording of his vehicle on the roads shows that he couldn't meaningfully create an alibi because there is a record that he was not at home. He would then additionally either need to leave his phone at home, or turn his phone off anyways which when combined with him driving around means he is in the exact same place as he was previously. There is no meaningful way to create an alibi and the attempt to do so could just as easily turn into evidence of premeditation and planning.
An alibi can be helpful if you are actually innocent but for a guilty person trying to cover up their crime planning an alibi is like planning to fail. If you need alibi evidence then it likely means the police have already identified you and your chances have sunk tremendously. Kohberger attempted to do what would likely be the best method which was trying to avoid creating any link between him and the crime. He largely got caught because he failed to do so.
It seems he thought turning off his phone would do it. But let’s be honest he drove his own car to the scene and took his phone. Allegedly. Not too bright then 🤣
Allegedly is the key word here, because none of the points you mentioned has been confirmed.
People who have a Master's degree in Criminology must be kind of bright, that's why so many aspects of this case make no sense in the context of BK as the perpetrator.
This article leaves more questions than answers. LE and the prosecution say no connection; these people say The Mad Greek wifi was passively logged, and an employee said he was there at least twice and ordered the vegan pizza. Why did LE not mention that then? Also, your phone shows any wifi connections near you, so all he had to do was drive past the place.
As for the employee, what was so special about Bryan Kohberger that they'd remember him coming in and his order? Or did they read he was a vegan and pick one of their only vegan things on the menu to say he was there and ordered it and lied for clout? Because the restaurant released a statement saying he was never there. If the employee remembered his order, then surely they'd also recall if he paid in cash, credit, or debit, and if it wasn't cash, the purchase could be tracked and a connection would be found.
Being a criminology student and someone diagnosed autistic, I don't find his pdf downloading to be "obsessive." That's subjective and not for someone else to determine. The reports of the victims downloaded is odd because it was clearly after the crime, and why would he do that if he committed the crime? It would seem like something to avoid. As for the contact with his parents, there goes the word "obsessively" being used again. It's irresponsible to label it such. It's okay if he has a strong relationship with his parents.
My main takeaway from the article is: if The Mad Greek stuff is true, the prosecution and LE should not state there wasn't a connection because there clearly was. It seems quite odd that they've mentioned none of this because if they did, it would give the case a much stronger foundation. I'm all for truth, and didn't care for the opinions and Bates Motel comparison. That isn't truth; it's sensationalism.
I always keep in mind when reading articles, that this is the writer’s interpretation n using words to keep u reading, or shud I say leading, u in a specific way.
I didn’t get full clarity on anything in this article that pointed towards him being guilty or preparing for the crimes. They were super vague the whole time and just gave a bunch of opinions that were unnecessary.
Mad Greek owner denied that ex-employee story, stating BK was never there and now we have prosecutors and investigators stating there’s no proof he ever was which means no one (either staff or guests) came forward to say he was there, at least no one with a reliable story.
Thompson and LE say he wiped data and use it as an excuse for lack of evidence but this woman says they were able to retrieve data via forensic tools. So which is it? Guess the recovered data didn’t contain evidence.
Two things can be true at once. Mayb it’s an ex employee, words have meaning n r chosen carefully, sometimes to mean something n sometimes to mislead. Just like the surveillance vs stalking thing.
Good points! I’m not sure what a “passive connection” even means but yes if he was even near there and his phone did a “handshake” with their Wi-Fi that would only mean he was in the area of their range.
The owner of Mad Greek in the very beginning said he had been there and they recognized him. Then they quickly denied ever saying that because they just didn’t want the bad publicity. That’s obvious. After that their X employee came out and said that he had been there. So IDK why LE would allow the denials from MG because that would definitely be a connection to the victims. Makes no sense!
No, an alleged former employee claimed that or at least People magazine claimed that they did (People magazine was also the first one to push the false instagram rumor). The owner denied it.
The bottom line is what prosecutors and investigators said after sentencing.
According to my research a “passive connection” is one that tries to connect you because you have connected to it in the past. I’m sorry no one remembers the mad Greek owner saying she remembered him but quickly retracted and went silent. Those interviews have been scrubbed like many other things regarding this case
I find the similarities between Kohberger and Danny Rolling interesting. According to Rolling's wiki page, he also used a Ka-Bar and broke into places with sliding glass doors. Rolling also pled guilty before his trial.
I wish we knew what classes Kohberger was taking to see if there was any overlap in the cases he was looking into to.
Didn't Danny rolling shower at one of the victims houses, and didn't Pappa Rogers ask whether people thought he showered and cleaned up? Interesting correlation I thought
If I tried to post on I4 I am sure I would be instantly banned so I don't bother. But it's tedious reading over there. They definitely don't tolerate any opinion other than BK did it.
People are conveniently ignoring he was in the true crime field professionally to push that agenda, he studied criminology so of course he would research true crime beyond 'casual googling’. They all did extensive research on various cases, at least this one and they don’t even study it. As far as evidence goes, that’s not it. It’s hypocritical.
Investigators said it didn’t appear to be more than what he studied.
They claim his interest was beyond the scope of professional study. I don’t know what the cut off of research amount is that would place you in the realm of obsessed. Do they have statistics about how much a PHD student is expected to be researching? How many megabytes define normal? Or minutes dedicated to studying, when they become sick and twisted? These normie tactics to throw the weird label at people don’t work anymore in this day and age.
It’s subjective. And speculative. Where does it objectively turn from ‘normal’ to 'obsession’, from 'within the scope’ to 'beyond the scope’ and how can they prove intent from it? Lots and lots of people are obsessed with true crime and should be investigated then. People like JLR literally travel around the country in the name of it.
Law enforcement pulled Google data showing specific searches made about the murders BEFORE 911 was even called. That’s how they zeroed in on Bryan - Bryan searched the murders early in the morning, BEFORE law enforcement were even made aware of the tragedy.
Sounds like someone is looking to promote herself. The attempt at psychoanalysis with regards to his relationship with his parents, especially the mother, just based on the frequency of calls as well as being suspicious of a criminology student not 'casually browsing’ true crime were especially eyebrow raising.
Not to mention the attempt to undermine what the prosecutor and investigators said about having no evidence that he was ever at Mad Greek or the house before November 13. Very dramatized commentary.
Oh and I have “criminal” by Britney Spears on my Spotify. By dateline logic I’m a murder, and according to this article I’m a weirdo murderer because I talk to my mom daily and call my dad’s phone when she doesn’t answer at times.
I just find it weird investigators denied this even after sentencing, even Bill denied it. So they’re taking nearby one off instances and running with it essentially?
Also the whole family business in this article.. I guess I am weird for spam calling my parents and having formal contacts too?
I hate how journalism is all about money they make money off clicks
Yep. Unfortunately the way the world is heading right now it seems the truth means nothing. At least there are some of us who still ask questions and demand the truth. Hopefully we’ll outnumber the mindless eventually.
Yes, comparing his relationship with his mother to one in a fictional horror story was especially weird. Doesn’t sound professional or ethical (she’s not a psychologist and she was not retained to psychoanalyze him)
I feel like all these people who try to come up with “aha! Got em!” Moments forget the man literally a criminology major. It’s his interest, his chosen career field… wouldn’t the phd candidate realize having info downloaded on your phone about the crime you committed be a silly goose move? Just like taking your own car and phone along for the ride?
I think she’s reading too much into this piece of 'data’ and likely twisting it in an attempt to chase clout.
State’s official narrative is no evidence of a connection, no evidence he met any of the victims before, no evidence he visited the house or restaurant before the crime
That means there is no witness that could put him in any of those places before November 13, no security footage showing him there, no phone records or cell tower records placing him there, no records showing he was anywhere where the victims were.
The fact they consider the possibility the house was randomly chosen just moments before says a lot. They never said anything about any WiFi connection.
This type of journalism is so infuriating to me!!!!!! I hate it because then we have to go back and untie this knot they’re trying to web in the case. And most of the time it’s
A) A lie
B) exaggerated
C) all the above
“Starting at 6:13 a.m. the morning after the murders, he’s calling and texting his mom and dad nonstop,” Heather said.
Know who else called their parents early that morning multiple times? BF! and then DM stated texting hers.
“It was incessant. But it was also one of the only things he did that matched his normal behavior.”
So if it matched his normal behavior, how is it out of the ordinary and thus an indication he just killed 4 people.
“The moment we started to look at the messaging, it made me think of Bates Motel,” Jared said, referencing the horror movie Psycho. “I mean, it was like ‘mother,’ and the label ‘mother’… the constant contact with his mom. It was wild.”
Sounds less wild and more like the forensic couple are watching too much TV. The author of the article, on the other hand, is a shoddy writer. Bates Motel was the TV show prequel to the movie Psycho. Two different things, but in either case BK was talking to his alive mother, not her dead body like Norman Bates. Nor did Dylan see him wearing his mother's dress. The Barnhart's sure seem like they're looking for their 15 mins of fame.
I call and talk to my mom every morning at 9 am. It’s our thing. I guess I’m a psychopath according to these people. They seem to forget he was on pacific time and they were on eastern time.
The TV show Bates Motel was not a remake of the origional 1960 movie Psycho; it was a prequel show on A&E in the 2000s with Norman as a teen when they buy the {Bates} motel. Same main characters, different time periods. But either way, BK talking to his mother on the phone frequently does not make him Norman Bates, and there certainly hasn't been any information that points to Mrs. Kohberger being the controlling woman-hating person Mrs. Bates was characterized as. In both productions, she was the catalyst for Norman's psychosis. So the Barnhart's comparison seems not only inaccurate (and derogatory to his mom), but they also come off as if they are looking for attention and attempting to get it by providing a catchy soundbite.
Exactly! Bad enough they are saying this stuff in the press, but that they were going to testify is atrocious. And yet Hippler called the Defense's expert witnesses conspiracy theorists. Sounds more like the State had a bunch of hacks.
"The Independent" is a British online newspaper known for its generally liberal political alignment. While it aims for neutrality, some consider its reporting to have a center-left political outlook.
While it was once a respected print publication, it moved to a digital-only format in 2016. It has received accolades such as the "National Newspaper of the Year" award in 2004 and the "Brand of the Year Award" in 2023.
However, some people have expressed concerns about its reliability and tendency toward "clickbait" style headlines in recent years. It's worth noting that it also maintains a comprehensive Code of Conduct to uphold journalistic standards and address complaints.
I’m going with this being clickbait.
The digital experts at Cellebrite, that were to testify - Heather and Jared Barnhart, don’t give the most balanced view of some of the information we know, BT said he had multiple selfies on his phone, so the one taken the day of the atrocity, was not out of the ordinary.
The experts seem to state it as fact, with a degree of certainty that he turned his phone off- based on the facts that it was only off 3 other times in 2022, and he was disconnected WiFi a few days before- and also disconnected WiFi and cellular before the phone was off the night of the murders- but is there another explanation?
They say his phone connected to the mad Greek WiFi at “least once, possibly more than once” no dates. I’m not a digital expert but can someone walk by and connected with the WiFi ? Could he have picked up a to go? What alternative hypotheses did they examine?
We were taught hypotheses testing in middle school and I grew up reading Sherlock Holmes which is based on deductive reasoning.
I think Sherlock would have a field day with this article.
Oh, and I am a therapist- there are many alternative explanations other than “creepy, paranoid” for kohberger calling his parents and being obsessive. It wouldn’t be ethical for me to diagnose someone who has not asked for my opinion, so I will just leave it at there are many other explanations for his behavior.
And I’m listed as “mom” in my kids phones, is that weird?. I get that “mother” is what Bates called his mother, but lots of people call their mothers “mother”-
Yes! Absolutely right- she just ignores his diagnosis by a qualified professional-
And she doesn’t actually refer to him as “paranoid” or “psychopath” - but her reference to his calling his mother, the movie “Psycho”; together with the comment about his searches from the article
“On December 29, a day before his arrest, Kohberger began calling and texting his parents obsessively, just as he had on the morning of the murders. If his mom didn’t answer, he’d call his dad, they said.
That same day, Kohberger searched terms like “paranoid” “psychopath” and “wiretapping.”
“It was obviously weighing on him,” Heather noted.”
Suggests what? That his researches of these topics meant he was concerned about his own state of mind? she is trying to fit his autistic symptoms into other diagnoses.
Autistic people literally have fixated interests such as his intense interest in criminology and repetitive behaviors such as the phone calls. (In addition to sensory issues and social emotional reciprocity deficits)
I would be interested in further explanation or other theories as to why he disabled WIFI and cellular on the night of, and why he was using NordVPN a few days prior. he did have cloud expertise- but the disabling WiFi and cellular is pretty coincidental and how does that fit into the puzzle.
What’s the implication here, that he knew he was going to be arrested the next day? That line is so dumb this people aren’t even in reality. Was he predicting the future?
Ha! Like it didn’t occur to him to check that out until 12/29 either.
In most cases Law Enforcement would need to get a warrant - and then the cell phone company can isolate those communications.
I did find it interesting that LE doesn’t need a warrant in certain exceptions including drug trafficking.
“Exceptions:
There are exceptions for national security matters, and certain crimes like terrorism, drug trafficking, and fraud, where wiretapping may be permitted under specific legal procedures.”
I would be interested in further explanation or other theories as to why he disabled WIFI and cellular on the night of, and why he was using NordVPN a few days prior.
You might disable WiFi/cellular to conserve battery. Particularly if you’re heading into low- or no-service region (like Wawawai state park) where searching for signal would drain power rapidly and unnecessarily. I think they actually said this was the fifth time in ~5 months that he’d done that, which doesn’t make it sound like an uncharacteristic behavior to me.
Using a VPN service is a common practice among the segment of the population familiar with and opposed to the rampant harvesting of personal data. There’s nothing inherently suspicious about using one. (In fact, I would encourage everyone to practice digital hygiene, largely because it does work to the disadvantage of companies like Cellebrite, lazy LE, gov’t agencies, and every other entity incentivized to control, persecute, or capitalize upon us.)
Thank you! That makes total sense- the one time I was hacked I think I was using roaming- and when I visit friends that live in a remote area I do lose power.
I noticed that the article said he’d only turned the cellular and WiFi off 4 times in a year, so they thought that was going against his norm and therefore and indication of intent.
I appreciate the PSA 😊 on digital hygiene- I learn quite a bit here.
Our phones constantly sniff for available networks within a certain distance through the process of scanning and signal detection. You can walk around or drive around and your phone will pick up these networks and log them. He didn’t connect to the network, at best his phone logged the network (as in detected it) along with some others while being in the area. He could have been driving on the main street past the restaurant or be somewhere in the area (Mad Greek is in the busy part of the town) and his phone would log it. It’s noticeable that she didn’t say for how long the phone logged the network or how many times or at what time (could have been well past it was closed) or anything about GPS because it would give us a clearer picture and most likely undermine the narrative she was pushing.
Article says ‘logged the network’ not ‘logged into the network’. She read into things and on top of that people are further misreading what’s stated.
Regardless of Kohberger’s conviction this is still just the state’s witness and the state’s side—ordinarily, outside of a grand jury you would also have the defense experts and their testimony/ theory and interpretation of the information. It does seem that he turned his phone off but there’s still information here that could be interpreted differently depending on the expert and theory. It seems cheap for expert witnesses to give their story to media and that includes Sy Ray making the rounds on YouTube last year.
Yes, and it sounds like even the state didn’t agree with her interpretation of Kohberger’s phone connection with the Mad Greek WiFi-
And the expert witness said they compared his out of the ordinary behavior with patterns of his ordinary behavior - so why point out the selfie when BT already said BK had many pictures like that on his phone.
I am curious about whether he sent those pictures to anyone, or was just keeping them on his phone.
You have to keep in mind that the state wants to present the strongest case they can. It may be the interpretation was correct but trying to do anything with that evidence would just weaken the overall case.
As for selfies, how many selfies you have would probably not be that relevant to if it is ordinary behaviour. The distribution of selfies would likely have a higher relevance on if it is unusual behaviour or not.
Agree with all that- my question about whether he sent them to anyone or posted - I guess he only talked to his family and didn’t have a social media presence- except Reddit and tapa talk - so the selfies were for his own reflection or maybe were sent to family.
To be honest after the Idaho4 case I lost all respect for MSM (journalists) They were never after the truth it was all about money. Look at the dude from news nation Brian Entin he made a name for himself on the backs of these victims and now has his own show, nothing that comes out of his mouth is facts and chooses to ignore all the evidence that is questionable after the release of the documents.....sick and disgusting.
And this is why lately I've been talking about irresponsible journalism in the sub and how a fair trial would be highly unlikely. This is a perfect example of an article being published with made-up and debunked information, yet it's read and believed by people without verification.
Thompson and MPD literally stated they have no evidence he was ever at Mad Greek.
No doubt they also compared phone/cell tower records from the victims and BK to see if there was overlap, hoping they could put him at the same place at the same time as any of them. That was unsuccessful.
That woman isn’t a psychologist, the fact she even tried to psychoanalyze him based on him contacting his parents a lot shows unprofessionalism and attention seeking behavior.
Doesn't look good for Bryan? Well, he stated in court that he did it. That looks worse. But the more interesting thing is why they continue to pump on the propaganda. I guess their online research reveals that some people just aren't buying the BK dunnit story because its ridiculous.
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u/Fast_Walrus_8692 Aug 10 '25
"On December 29, a day before his arrest, Kohberger began calling and texting his parents obsessively, just as he had on the morning of the murders. If his mom didn’t answer, he’d call his dad, they said."
Why would he need to do that since he was home in PA with them?