Bryan Kohberger: the OCD-libertarian vegan who ‘looked drugged’

Relatives described Bryan Kohberger as “obsessed” with his eating habits

SWAT teams descended on a sleepy residential neighborhood in Pennsylvania in the early hours of Friday morning to arrest Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger.

Albrightsville, a small town in the heart of the Poconos Mountains, is more than 2,000 miles from the site of the gruesome November 13 murders in Moscow, Idaho.

Police say DNA evidence links Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology graduate student, to the scene.

He has not yet spoken publicly, but is said to have asked whether anyone else was being held when he was arrested.

Kohberger is a registered libertarian, although he did not appear to have any active social media profiles at the time of his arrest.

A relative told the New York Post that Kohberger was “OCD” because of his eating habits, forcing his family to buy new pots that had never been used to cook meat.

“It was more than vegan. His aunt and uncle had to buy new pots and pans because he wouldn’t eat anything that had ever had meat cooked in it. He seemed very OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder),” the woman said.

Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, was teeming with police Friday after Kohberger’s arrest

Locals and at least one police officer were sighted in Albrightsville Friday after Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger was arrested

The crime happened six weeks ago, 2,500 miles from where Kohberger was arrested

The suspect reportedly drove about 2,300 miles from Moscow to Pennsylvania. He attended college in nearby Washington State

A white Hyundai Elantra – the same make and model of car wanted by police in connection with the murder – is said to have been towed outside Kohberger’s home

As part of his research, a DeSales Kohberger published a plea for help on social media with his research — examining how “emotions and psychological characteristics influence decision-making when committing a crime.”

Kohberger is being held pending extradition in a criminal homicide investigation on an active warrant for first-degree murder

Nick Mcloughlin, who was friends with Kohberger at school, told the Daily Beast he was “stunned” when his old acquaintance was arrested.

Mcloughlin said Kohberger was “down to earth” when he graduated junior year. But by the start of last year, Kohberger was returning “thinner than a splint,” had become “aggressive,” and was taking up boxing.

Recalling how their friendship soured, Mcloughlin added, “He always wanted to fight somebody, he bullied people. We started cutting him off from our circle of friends because he was 100 percent a different person.”

Kohberger said he had “no idea” what triggered the sudden move.

Little is known about Kohberger’s family. His father, Michael, and mother, Maryann, live in the house where he is believed to have been staying when he was arrested.

In 2010, Michael filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It is unclear what he and his wife do for a living today.

He has two older sisters – Anne and Melissa. Melissa, 31, is a therapist in New Jersey.

While he has been accused of gruesome brutality, both Melissa and his mother, Maryann, have spoken out against violence in the past.

In May, following the mass shooting of Uvalde, Texas, Maryann submitted a letter to a local newspaper containing a poem written by Melissa about the massacre.

Earlier this year, Kohberger’s mother, MaryAnn, submitted a poem written by his therapist sister about the Uvalde massacre

“As I sat there this morning, devastated by yet another school shooting, I wrestled with the question of what action needs to be taken to stop the whole madness. What’s the answer? Gun control measures? Psychic interventions?

“Then I got a message from my daughter, who works as a psychotherapist in New Jersey.

“She shared a poem she had written in desperation. It shook me deeply and I felt the need to share it,” Maryann wrote.

The poem reads: “Deprived of her laughter

‘There’s no sound now

As we lower our children into the ground

“Little hands and feet

‘Buried six feet deep in the earth of the world that failed her.’

No one in the family has commented on his arrest.

Classmates from the high school he attended also spoke of their shock.

Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were murdered on November 13th

Outside suspect Bryan Kohberger’s dorm room on the Washington State University campus in Pullman, Washington

“Very strange child. I worked a bit with him in a pizzeria. Nice kid but only out there,” a former colleague commented on social media.

Lawrence Rosenberg said he took courses at the Career & Technical Institute with Kohberger but dropped out in 2014 without completing the course.

“He always looked like he was on drugs and nobody in the class really ever spoke to him, so he just went for two years and left without taking his final exams,” he said.

De Sales, where Kohberger received his bachelor’s degree and where he commissioned a survey of ex-convicts about how they committed crimes, released a statement on Friday warning of the violence of the killings.

“On Friday, December 30, DeSales University learned of the arrest of Bryan Kohberger in connection with the killing of four University of Idaho students.

‘Kohberger received his bachelor’s degree in 2020 and graduated in June 2022.

“As a Catholic Salesian community, we are devastated by this senseless tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims at this difficult time.”

The University of Washington State, where he recently attended, has yet to issue a statement.

Neighbors in the city stood in the street on Friday as police besieged the city gate.

Kohberger is expected to remain in custody until Jan. 3, when he is due in court for an extradition hearing.