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The University of Idaho murders, also known as the Moscow Murders, have taken the country by storm. Every gaze in the states seems to be focused on the grizzly events that transpired back in November. After weeks of online speculation and mixed messages from law enforcement officials, we now have a suspect in custody.
The victims were Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. Four innocent young adults on the verge of breaking free from academia and living the rest of their lives were struck down in what is being described as a “blitz style” attack. What LEO are referring to when describing it like this means that the assailant entered the home and began his spree before anyone could stop him, most likely before they were even aware he was inside. There was no dialogue or halting until he had his victims incapacitated, which paints a very macabre picture when you look at it.
The suspect in question is 28-year-old Bryan Christopher Kohberger. According to the New York Post, Kohberger had a troubled upbringing and ran into issues with drug addiction, particularly heroin, at a very young age. Issues with his weight and self-esteem made Bryan awkward around women. Looking back on the attack, and it being a blitz-style one, I think this information lines up pretty well with someone who could commit such an act. According to the Crime Classification Manual, these attacks are usually done by individuals who have very flawed self-esteem or self-image. The reason the attacks go down so fast is that the attacker wants to overwhelm their victims before they have a chance to react or speak. FBI profilers sum up the reasoning behind these actions as fear of the victim fighting back. Lack of interpersonal skills is another telltale sign, which seems to be consistent with the New York Post’s reporting.
Not much is known about the actual crime itself, other than there was no murder weapon found. But there are some things regarding the timeline that seems to indicate that the four victims weren’t the only ones home, which again points to the suspect rushing in and out before he could be apprehended.
According to NBC News, Kohberger also would be “creepy” while frequenting a local brewery. Jordan Serulneck, the owner of Seven Sirens Brewing Company, had to pull him aside one night after numerous members of the wait staff complained about his behavior. He stated that Byran seemed taken aback by the accusation, then only had one beer and then left without incident. This seems to strengthen the profile of a disorganized killer. Bryan seems to have had a lot of issues with communication and also had a strange social life. He would be out at all hours and always seemed exhausted. I would be willing to bet that a fair amount of that time was spent driving or aimlessly traveling around. These would be even more hallmarks of the profile.
Many people have compared Kohberger to Ted Bundy, and while I do see some parallels, such as both being fairly well-put-together men who are working towards higher education, Bundy would start his spree as an organized killer who went years without being caught. Bryan, on the other hand, was apprehended seemingly after his first offense. Bundy made sure to cover his tracks and was extremely organized before he ended up in Florida, but it wasn’t until then that he resorted to disorganized attacks. From the look of the Moscow Murders so far, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Kohberger.
But, with the accounts that seem to be coming out, it does appear that both men had issues with arrested development in regard to social situations and an apparent dependency on alcohol.
This case has been anything but cut and dried since the beginning. Really, the picture did not become clear until the arrest was made, and the weeks before that happened really turned this case into a shit show. Besides revealing how we don’t seem to pay attention to the small things around us enough, I find this case also revealed how badly we need to look at the online sleuthing community and possibly reign in some of the stuff that keeps popping up out of True Crime online circles.
If you have spent enough time in communities revolving around True Crime, you have probably heard of sites like Web Sleuths and Reddit, where people can converse at all hours of the day over a vast array of cases, solved and unsolved. While these communities can help with investigations, one issue we have is that people assume because they have read tons about crime and have a decent grasp of serial crime, in particular, that should mean that they are as qualified, if not more qualified than the detectives that are covering the case. This has been a growing trend that has only been expanding over the past few years, especially with the public’s growing wariness of law enforcement and how they handle dealing with criminals.
Brian Laundrie is a prime example of when online communities can assist with investigations. Forums and blogs seemed to figure out that Gabby Petito was killed by her abusive boyfriend way before he was detained. Laundrie was able to walk freely up until he ended his own life, but not before documenting his actions in a notebook that would be found near his remains. Luka Rocco Magnotta is another killer that was able to evade the law, and in his case, for years, after posting 1 boy 2 kittens on Facebook and YouTube. Online sleuths at that time were able to divulge his identity to the authorities with the warning that once people get bored of torturing animals, they soon move on to humans. Those warnings were ignored.
But the Moscow Murders and other recent investigations have shown the other side of the online detective coin. They show individuals who aren’t able to see past their confirmation bias, which is a dangerous element to include when it comes to criminal investigations. The worst thing you can be online is wrong, which means the inverse of that, the best thing, is to be right. That combined with previous successes involving online campaigns and criminals has made a very toxic cauldron of misinformation and baseless attacks. The biggest thing to note in these communities now is that none of them ended up catching Byran Kohberger. The same can be said for all the people who have theorized about the Zodiac Killer and other infamous cases. In fact, the number of cases that are cracked by online sleuths is minimal. If you were to compare the amount of crime that’s stopped by law enforcement agencies and the amount that is stopped by online forums, the numbers wouldn’t even be close. They wouldn’t even be on the same planet.
That’s because detectives aren’t just regular cops in dress shirts and slacks. Detectives are generally police officers who have shown investigative talent and skill, besides the knowledge that the majority of us can pick up with a library card. It’s commendable that people want to be involved in solving these crimes, but it also shows that the system in place is there for a reason. Objectivity is one of the most important things you need to have while being an investigator, which I think the general public these days is severely lacking.
I think this is a great time for us all who consume True Crime media to take a good long hard look at the things that are going on around us. This past summer, after Netflix premiered Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Eric Perry, a cousin of Errol Lindsey who was one of Dahmer’s victims, made a plea for the public to reconsider how we view these tragic events. While the majority of us can sit back and enjoy the events of horror unfolding in front of us in the comfort of our own homes, the families and victims don’t get that same luxury. Spreading disinformation and attacking detectives online because they aren’t following some random person’s foolproof plan just takes that one step further.
I think there’s a massive disconnect between how police departments operate and what we as a public see, and that’s understandable. LEOs don’t want to see criminals falling through the cracks because of how privy they are to the procedure, but that also leaves a huge swath of the country in the dark about really serious issues. In that same essay, I wrote about seeing an atmosphere where these horrible acts will probably continue to rise over the next couple of years, and the fact that we as a populace are ill-prepared for that makes me worried at times. I think educating ourselves with this information is important because it not only supplies us with things to look out for, just like in the case of Bryan Kohberger, but it also shows us the things we can help law enforcement with. One of the biggest issues in this country is the divide between police and regular Joes and Janes out there. I feel a lot of that can be cleared up with the right education.
