A Ph.D. criminology graduate charged with killing four University of Idaho students could be tried for capital murder. According to a former FBI investigator who spoke to The New York Post, University of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger may have been triggered to kill by his history of social problems and a potential "incel complex."
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Pete Yachmetz, a former FBI agent and security specialist, said to NY Post that the murders "could have been... an effort to assert some type of dominance."
According to his former classmates, Kohberger, 28, was a troubled, angry young man who didn't fit in at school. He also mentioned that Kohberger had a history of social troubles while growing up in Pennsylvania.
However, Kohberger has entered a not-guilty plea to the four murder charges, and according to his former attorney, the evidence against him is circumstantial.
Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were all stabbed to death on November 13 at an off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger, 28, was detained at the end of last month for their murders.
Yachmetz thinks Kohberger's background of social difficulties and the severity of the act may provide some suggestions as to his potential motivation.
According to Yachmetz, "I believe a continued stabbing of a victim indicates…an uncontrollable rage and extreme anger, noting that Kohberger has been described as “socially awkward with a long history of interpersonal problems.”
He continued, “I think he may have developed a sort of incel complex.”
However, men who struggle to form romantic or sexual relationships are frequently referred to as incels, an acronym for "involuntarily celibate." The identity has occasionally been connected to crimes and, in some cases, misogynistic online forums: 2021 saw self-described incel Tres Genco was arrested for preparing a shooting rampage that would have killed 3,000 sorority girls at an undisclosed Ohio institution.
The twisted plot was admitted to by Genco, 22, who now faces a life sentence.
Psychology Today reported last year that males who identify as incels frequently have poor mental health and experience feelings of victimhood, inferiority, and loneliness, although this is not a true clinical definition.
Yachmetz's evaluation of Kohberger was consistent with Dr. Carole Lieberman's, a forensic psychiatrist who last week told CourtTV that she thought the suspect fit the incel description.
“I’ve been saying from the beginning that he’s an incel.”
According to Lieberman, Kohberger's alleged "choice of victims," or choice to target only female college students, was a major factor in her decision to believe him.
She claimed that incels desire to be recognized for their violent acts of conquest and murder.
He wanted to conduct the ideal crime and not get caught on the one hand, but he also wanted to be caught and, in a sense, be proud of what he did.
Kohberger was a criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University, located approximately 15 minutes from Moscow, at the time of the killings. While his WSU contemporaries characterized him as "gregarious," his Pennsylvania hometown peers regarded him as a loner who suffered from weight discrimination before developing a drug addiction.
Kohberger allegedly had a middle school crush on Kim Kenley, who spoke with the FBI about their interactions.
"Oh, Kim, I think you're very pretty," he'd often say. She exclaimed, "Oh my God, leave me alone." Sandra, Kenley's mother, shared this to the Daily Mail.
The popular cheerleaders "tortured" Kohberger, according to a second middle school student who requested anonymity.
The group of popular girls made fun of him in school. They claimed every child had a crush on them because they were the cheerleaders.
Kohberger allegedly posted to online forums during his teenage years, expressing his feelings of being "like an organic sack of meat with no self-worth" in one entry from 2011.
As authorities work to connect Kohberger to the four victims, theories about the potential motivation for his alleged crime are emerging. The defendant, held without bond in Latah County following a brief hearing on Thursday, is still in detention there.
Despite being charged with four charges of murder and one count of criminal burglary, Kohberger has not yet entered a plea. On June 26, he is scheduled to return to court.
