Bryan Kohberger asked woman on Tinder about worst way to die – and then named knife brand he used in Idaho college murders
Bryan Kohberger asked a woman on Tinder what she thought was the “worst way to die” and then chillingly mentioned the same military knife brand he used to kill the four Idaho college students, according to a tip police received.
The disturbing account of Kohberger’s behavior before carrying out the horrifying slayings is one of many to emerge from newly released police documents in the case following the quadruple murderer’s sentencing Wednesday.
After Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Idaho University students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, on Nov. 13, 2022, the Moscow police department released hundreds of pages of documents in the case.
In March 2024, police followed up on a tip they received from a woman who claimed she had matched with the killer on Tinder in September or October of 2022.
The woman, referred to in the redacted police report as “C,” told officers that she stopped talking to Kohberger after the conversation took an ominous turn.
The pair started by discussing a murder that happened a couple of years before in the woman’s town, she said, and then Kohberger asked what her favorite horror movie was.
“C told Kohberger she liked the Rob Zombie Halloween movies. To this, C said Kohberger asked what she thought would be the worst way to die,” the report states. “C said she thought it would be a knife.”
“C said Kohberger then asked her something to the effect of ‘like a Ka Bar?’”
The brand of military style knife and leather sheath was purchased on Amazon months before Kohberger carried out the killings, prosecutors said, though the murder weapon itself has never been recovered. Kohberger left the leather sheath at the crime scene beside the body of Madison Mogen.
The woman replied that she didn’t know what the brand of knife was and “eventually stopped talking to Kohberger because his questions made her uncomfortable.”
It was not immediately clear from the report exactly when the woman called the tip. The officer who filed the paperwork noted that there “nothing to corroborate” the woman’s account, due to her no longer having access to her Tinder account and there being “no record” of her calling the FBI tip line.
Police received another sinister tip, this time from a dancer at a club, who claimed she gave Kohberger a private dance sometime between 2018 and 2019. A man she later identified to be Kohberger had talked to her about “wanting to kill people” while she performed for him, she claimed.
The woman, referred to as “H” in the report, claimed Kohberger was the only customer in the club at the time, she told police, and he “seemed to be talking to himself,” which put her on edge.
“H told me during the dance she hear the man state something about ‘wanting to kill people,’” the officer’s report said. “H told me she jokingly asked the man who he was going to kill to which he replied something to the effect of ‘whoever I want.’”
During their private dance, the woman said Kohberger “told her to look him directly in the eyes the entire time and asked her questions about what car she drove and where she lived.”
After the “strange” conversation, the woman said she told bouncers at the club to keep an eye on the man, who she said “sat and watched other dancers for some time.”
She recognized Kohberger from his photograph following his arrest and said she wanted to make investigators aware, though the woman had “no further information to corroborate her story,” the officer noted.
In yet more evidence of concern around Kohberger before the killings, professors at Washington State University, where he was working as a teaching assistant, discussed calling “an intervention” with him regarding his behavior toward female students, the documents showed.
“A tells me we need to do an intervention with Kohberger. She’s going to try to gather information but apparently he’s offended several of our female students,” one screenshot of text messages between professors, whose names are redacted, on September 14, 2022, read.
Another police document detailed an interview officers conducted with a former teaching assistant at WSU, referred to as “L,” with Kohberger, who shared an office with him in the fall semester of 2022.
“L stated Kohberger attempted to use his authority as a TA to inappropriately interact with female students. L stated he thought Kohberger wanted a girlfriend and added they talked about Kohberger wanting a girlfriend on many occasions,” the report said.
Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson told the court that there was “no evidence there was any sexual component or sexual assault on any of the victims” in the November 2022 killings.
One by one, Kohberger was savaged Wednesday by loved ones of his murder victims at his sentencing in Boise, Idaho, as they slammed him a “psychopath,” a “nothing” and a “hollow vessel.”
The killer only spoke to “respectfully decline” to address the court.
With no explanation offered and no known link between the killer and the victims, the motive behind one of the most shocking crimes in Idaho history remains a mystery.
