Is this crime podcast caller the Idaho ‘killer’ trying to put cops off his scent? Friend of Bryan Kohberger says it is him saying he was asked by frats boys how to ‘get away with murder’ in discussion of Idaho slayings – as tape is passed to FBI
- The man accused of the horrific slayings of four University of Idaho students called a podcast covering the murders, a friend of the alleged killer believes
- The former classmate of the suspect said caller’s voice matches the suspect’s
- In the call, the alleged killer told the host that he ‘lives in a college town’ and works with fraternity members who asked him how to commit a perfect murder
- Bryan Kohberger, who some experts believe used information he learned as he pursued a PhD in criminology to hone his killing skills, was arrested Friday
The man accused of the horrific slayings of four University of Idaho students called a podcast covering the murders as cops searched for him, a friend of the alleged killer believes.
The revelation from Casey Arntz – who grew up and attended high school with suspect Bryan Kohberger in Pennsylvania – came a day after the teaching assistant’s arrest rocked the world, and after a more than monthlong search by police.
Taking to TikTok to address a clip from a podcast discussing the November Idaho murders that has gone viral online, Arntz stated that she recognized the voice of the caller in the clip as Kohberger’s, after the audio sent the internet into a furor.
In the call, the alleged killer, who identified himself as Dave, told the host that he ‘lives in a college town’ and works with fraternity members who asked him how to commit the perfect murder.
Podcaster T-rev has since sent the audio to the FBI, and internet users are already reacting to the disturbing clip. It serves to compound fervent speculation already surrounding the case – and now its sole suspect, who some experts believe used information he learned as he pursued a PhD in criminology to hone his killing skills.
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Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested on Friday and charged with the November 13 murders of four University of Idaho students
A former classmate, Casey Arntz, of the murder suspect said she recognized the voice as his
The call begins the alleged murderer told T-rev – who covers current and past true crime cases – that he ‘lives in a college town and I’ve worked with at least ten Sigma Chi members.’
‘I just, I found you today,’ the caller says in a portion of the call that has been clipped and reshared hundreds of thousands of times in the past 36 hours, since Kohberger’s sudden arrest at his family home in the Poconos.
‘I watched your live (stream) earlier this afternoon, and been watching this one, and I uh- the thing that strikes me as kind of weird about all of this is, I live in a college town, and I’ve worked with at least ten Sigma Chi members.
The person then went on to shockingly claim that ‘every single one of them has asked me if you are gonna kill somebody how would you get away with it.’
The bizarre statement appears to catch the host off-guard, but the caller – who speaks in a breathy, rambling voice – proceeds, offering a strange theory of his own.
‘And, I just wonder if, maybe, just maybe, this is nothing more than some kid in a fraternity trying to prove himself.’
The podcaster at this point stops the caller, and attempts to ascertain the situation.
‘So you said you worked with five Sigma Chi kids, and they asked you if you can kill somebody and get away with it? Did I hear that right?’ he asks.
‘Yeah,’ the caller, who former classmate Arntz later insisted is Kohbergerm responds.
Victims Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Maddie Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin were killed on November 13
When the host questioned the person on why he did not call the cops instead of a podcast, the alleged killer’s rambling grew more scattered, as he posited as to the mindsets of the college students he described when asking him such a question.
‘Yeah,’ he repeated, this time more emphatically. ‘I don’t know if that’s just a thing that maybe people say, trying to have interesting conversation, but like, at least in my head, this is – it’s always been these dudes that were in the fraternity.
‘It makes me wonder,’ the caller continues, ‘if that’s a thing that’s in their, like, culture.’
The caller then offers a particularly strange statement to the conversation, suggesting that the supposed Sigma Chi students regularly ask that question just to test the person whom they are asking.
The university where he worked was only a little over eight miles from the murder scene. Experts say the suspect potentially used information he learned as he pursued a PhD in criminology to hone his killing skills
‘They ask to see how smart you are, and whatever, and what kind of answer you come up with,’ the caller theorized, with his speech littered with pauses and heavy breathing.
‘And someone took it too far.’
T-rev, seemingly perturbed by the caller’s words, responds by telling him off.
‘What kind of dudes would ask you that? That’s crazy as sh*t. That’s an outrageous statement, man?’
As the clip gained traction on the internet over the weekend, Arntz took to TikTok on Friday night, visibly shaking as she posted pictures of the suspect and her many encounters with him.
‘The video of the caller on the podcast – I believe that’s him,’ Kohberger’s former classmate at Pleasant Valley High School told followers. ‘It sounds exactly like him, in my opinion.’
In an earlier video, Arntz – who became friends with Kohberger through her younger brother during their time in school – the last time she had spoken with Kohberger was five years ago when they ran into one another at a wedding.
During the encounter, the 28-year-old – who lives in Idaho not far from where victims Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Maddie Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin were killed in there sleep on November 13.
Arntz said that at the time, the murder suspect – who cops said for weeks stalked the victims and wore gloves to hide his fingerprints – appeared well after allegedly using drugs during high school.
‘Back in 2017 when I spoke to him he was clean,’ Casey said. ‘He was doing security detail at a school, I believe, but he seemed like he was better. Obviously that wasn’t true.’
Casey posted photos of the event where the pair met up once again noting how she sat next to him throughout the celebration.
‘At the same wedding he was sitting at the same table as me and my mother. I sat next to him and we talked.’
Later in the video, which has since been removed from TikTok, Casey explained how Kohberger randomly called on her to drive him around the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania in order to allegedly pick up drugs.
‘He nonchalantly decided to meet me driving round the Poconos for heroin and I had no idea. I thought I was doing a nice deed because he needed something [else].’
Casey’s brother, Thomas, described Kohberger as a ‘bully’ who would happily note his friends’ ‘flaws and insecurities’ in order to distract from his own weight struggled.
‘He did that to me all the time,’ Thomas told The Daily Beast. ‘He would go after my intelligence. He would basically insinuate that I’m kind of slow-witted and that I’m forgetful and that I lack the intelligence to be his friend.’
Thomas finally cut off the friendship after the continuous bullying. He noted how his father, a maintenance worker, and mother, a substitute teacher, were ‘genuinely kind people.’
Casey also recalled an incident where Kohberger asked her to drive him to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania
The murder suspect’s former classmate showed a yearbook in which Kohberger is featured
‘He was mean-spirited, he was a bully. I never thought he would do something like that but at the same time it doesn’t really surprise me,’ Thomas added.
Kohberger was arrested was arrested Friday, tracked down to his family’s home in the Poconos. He is charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
His apartment, located in Washington state near the Idaho border, was a 21-minute drive, or roughly 11 miles, from the three-story home where the killings occured.
The home is set in a cul-de-sac dubbed ‘fratlantis’ by the student population, due to its proximity to fraternity row.
Kohberger has a master’s degree in criminal justice, and at the time of the quadruple murder, was working at the storied university as a TA to obtain his PhD in criminology.
Those academic records – as well as accounts from students who knew him – have led experts to believe that the suspect had engaged in his studies to better his killing capabilities.
Enzo Yaksic, a criminal profiler and founder of the Atypical Homicide Research Group in Boston, said: ‘I suspect that Kohberger was well aware of his dark nature and homicidal ideation and endeavored to discover more about himself through his studies.’
According to students in his class, Kohberger acted as if nothing had happened after the killings took place.
Kaylee and Madison were found on the top floor of the Moscow, Idaho home. College lovers Chapin and Kernodle were found in a second-floor bedroom – where Alteneder had lived as a student – while survivors Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke were sleeping on the first floor
WSU’s online directory shows he worked as a teaching assistant for the university’s criminal justice and criminology program. He was also a PhD student in the department.
Multiple students in the program told Fox Seattle that Kohberger did not appear different following the murders of Goncalves, 21, Mogen, 21, Kernodle, 20, and 20-year-old Chapin in Moscow, Idaho, a 15-minute drive from WSU.
Ben Roberts, a criminology student, told the Fox affiliate that Kohberger was ‘confident’ and ‘outgoing’ but still appeared as if ‘he was always looking for a way to fit in.’
Speaking about the horrific allegations against Kohberger, Roberts said, ‘It’s pretty out of left field. I had honestly just pegged him as being super awkward.’
Roberts began studying at WSU in August at the same time as Kohberger.
‘One thing he would always do, almost without fail, was find the most complicated way to explain something,’ he said.
BK Norton, a student in the WSU Criminal Justice and Criminology Department, said Friday that they didn’t know Kohberger well, but didn’t like him.
‘We interacted in class, but personally I was not a fan of Bryan because of comments he had made about LGBTQ+ individuals,’ they said in an email to The Associated Press.
‘He was a little off, but I always thought it was because he was awkward and wanted to fit in.’
Before pursuing a PhD at the University of Washington Kohberger attended DeSales in Pennsylvania.
While there, the owner Jordan Serulneck, 34, has claimed he had problematic interactions with women at his bar, asking women who they were with and where they lived.
Kohberger memorably harassed female staff at Seven Siren Brewing Company near his hometown. Serulneck told NBC that employees labeled Kohberger in their system as a guy who ‘makes creepy comments’ and said he once called a staffer ‘a b***h’ for spurning his advances.
According to staffers notes, Kohberger would ‘have two or three beers and then just get a little too comfortable.’ The behavior was so upsetting that the brewery owner approached his patron about it.
Kohberger denied the behavior, but never showed up at the bar again.
Aspiring criminology expert Kohlberger’s academic records – as well as accounts from students who knew him – have led experts to believe that the suspect may have engaged in those studies to better his killing capabilities
Those who lived near Kohberger in Washington State reflected on the suspect’s capture.
Justin Williams, a 34-year-old Washington State University told Fox News he had occasionally saw Kohberger in the neighborhood while picking up his mail.
‘I’d see him go check his mail, that was it. Other than that, I’ve only seen him like twice the whole time, and I’ve lived here since July 2021,’ said Justin Williams, who lived in a building next to where Kohberger’s was.
Although he claims to have never noticed anything unusual, it begged the question: ‘How long has he f****** been here? Has he been here the whole time that I have?’ he asked.
Others living in the apartment complex in Pullman say they noticed nothing unusual.
‘If I didn’t know about this issue, it’s a very quiet, very nice place to live,’ graduate student Andrew Chua said. ‘Now, I’m like, “Maybe I should stay home.”‘
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