A former university professor of Bryan Kohberger said the accused killer was “one of my best students, ever” — and that the then-master’s candidate was one of only two students she has recommended to a Ph.D. program.
Michelle Bolger, 33, an associate professor at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, told the Daily Mail that Kohberger, who was arrested in the murders of four University of Idaho students, was a “great writer” and “brilliant student.”
“In my 10 years of teaching, I’ve only recommended two students to a Ph.D. program and he was one of them. He was one of my best students, ever. Everyone is in shock over this,” she told the outlet, adding that he was “always perfectly professional” with her.
The associate professor at the private Catholic university in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, said she was stunned that her former student has been charged in the shocking crime.
“I’m shocked as s**t at what he’s been accused of. I don’t believe it, but I get it,” Bolger said. “This news is upsetting. I haven’t slept at all since hearing about Bryan.”
Bolger told the news outlet that she taught Kohberger in an online class last year and helped him with his master’s thesis at DeSales.
“I never saw him in person, I couldn’t tell you how tall he was or how much he weighed, my only interaction with him was via email and Zoom. I didn’t know anything about him, whether he was married, had a girlfriend, etc.,” Bolger told the Daily Mail.
“He seemed normal to me, but then again, I only knew him from teaching him online. I didn’t know anything personal about him. I believe he worked full time like most of our graduate students do,” she added.
Bolger said she advised Kohberger with his thesis, which involved questioning people about their thoughts and feelings during the commission of a crime.
“I was one of the professors who helped Bryan with his proposal on his graduate thesis, his capstone project. He did put out a routine questionnaire for his thesis. It looks weird, I understand from the public view. But in criminology it’s normal,” she told the Daily Mail.
“It’s a criminology theory called script theory, it’s a normal theory on how and why criminals commit their crime, etc.,” she said.
After graduating from DeSales last year, Kohberger enrolled as a doctoral student at Washington State University in Pullman, just 15 miles from Moscow.
The 28-year-old was arrested Friday in his family home in Pennsylvania and will soon be extradited to Idaho to face four counts of first-degree murder after he waived his right to an extradition hearing.
He “is eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible,” his public defender Jason LaBar said in a statement.
Kohberger’s behaviour noticeably changed after the murders of four University of Idaho students, a former classmate has revealed — describing how he went from “perpetually exhausted” to “chattier.”
“I did notice he was showing up to class a little late sometimes, he always had a coffee in hand, he always seemed to be just perpetually exhausted,” Benjamin Roberts, a fellow grad student at Washington State University in Pullman, told NewsNation.
“Bryan seemed like he was on the knife’s edge between exhaustion and worn out and at the time it was extremely difficult to tell which was which,” he told the outlet.
But Kohberger’s behaviour changed markedly after he allegedly killed Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, on November 13 in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, Roberts said.
“He did seem to get a little chattier going into the later parts of the term,” the fellow criminal justice doctoral student told NewsNation.
However, he said he didn’t recall Kohberger speaking specifically about the shocking crime, which rocked the University of Idaho community.
Roberts said Kohberger’s perpetual signs of exhaustion didn’t raise any flags prior to the slaying because it appeared consistent with the way many grad students behave amid the rigours of academic life.
He described the suspected killer as awkward, but the kind of person who always wanted to make sure everyone knew he was very intelligent.
“He had to make absolutely sure you knew he was smart, he had this intellectual capacity,” Roberts told the outlet.
He also said it was disturbing that his former classmate was the person who ended up being the suspect.
“There’s something heavy about that,” Roberts said.
This article was originally published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission