Crime
Bryan Kohberger’s Mom Told FBI Agents She Urged Him to Buy a Knife Months Before Idaho Murders
Bryan Kohberger’s mother tried to explain away a key piece of evidence used against him after his December 2022 arrest for the murders of four college students in Idaho, a new book reveals.
When FBI agents explained that Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, had been stabbed to death on November 13, 2022 with a Ka-Bar knife like the one Bryan had purchased nine months earlier, Maryann Kohberger claimed she was the one who told him to purchase it, according to transcripts uncovered by author Christopher Whitcomb, via the Daily Mail.
“Maryann recalled a conversation in which she suggested Bryan obtain something to defend himself in the event of a bear attack while Bryan hiked in the western US,” reads an FBI report cited in Whitcomb’s new book Broken Plea: The Explosive Search for Truth Behind the Idaho Murders, per the outlet.
According to the report, the high school special needs assistant told three FBI agents that she didn’t know he had “purchased anything for this purpose and was unaware of Bryan specifically purchasing a knife for this purpose.”
Records show the knife with a brown leather sheath was purchased in March 2022 and delivered to the Kohbergers’ Pennsylvania home, per the Daily Mail.
About three months later, the criminology grad student, 31, moved west to attend Washington State University in Pullman, Washington — about 15 minutes from the scene of the Moscow, Idaho, murders.
The knife sheath was found on Mogen’s bed with trace amounts of Bryan’s DNA on it, and police believe he used the knife, which has never been found, to kill the four students — but Maryann insisted that her “angel” Bryan could never have committed the crime.
“What’s going through my mind right now is that this is a really, really bad mistake, what’s going on, like what’s happening here,’ she told the agents, per the Daily Mail. “We know what our, you know, who our children are, you know.”
Bryan pleaded guilty to the murders last July in a deal to avoid the death penalty. He is now serving four consecutive life sentences at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
Broken Plea: The Explosive Search for Truth Behind the Idaho Murders is set to be released on Tuesday, April 28.
