MOSCOW, Idaho — On Friday, Dec. 30, KREM 2 learned the man suspected of killing four students near the University of Idaho was pursuing a PhD in criminal justice at Washington State University.
KREM 2 previously spoke with Chris Bertram, an associate professor of criminal justice earlier this month.
Bertram has decades of experience working in law enforcement and currently teaches criminal justice at Salt Lake Community College. He said in his work, he analyzes the psychology of criminals.
He said knowing more about the background and education level of Bryan Kohberger, he believes he could be arrogant and might see himself as the smartest person in the room.
"He is a master of criminology," Bertram explained. "But to move beyond that to the PhD program, tells you the level of thinker that he is."
Kohberger graduated from DeSales University in Center Valley, PA with his master's degree in criminal justice in May 2022.
He was a graduate student at Washington State University, living in an apartment in Pullman, before his arrest Friday.
Bertram said he also isn't surprised the suspect has local ties. He said crimes can occur over state lines because details are more likely to fall through cracks.
"Washington State is very close in proximity, but across state lines," Bertram said. "And so you're talking about different counties, different cities, different jurisdictions and what we do know with the past with spree killers and serial killers, they take advantage of the disorganization. The minute you get outside of a city or a county, those law enforcement resources there may be limited."
Bertram says Kohberger aligns with who he believed could have committed these crimes in terms of being local.
"I was leaning toward a local versus somebody traveling through," Bertram shared. "I thought it was going to be somebody connected to the area, but not necessarily that city. I thought it was going to be somebody in the area."
Even though he is from the area, Bertram said potentially committing a crime of this magnitude in the short time he has lived there is odd.
"The fact that he's new to the area, it's not his hunting ground that they may be used to, I think it's gonna become very important," Bertram said.
Bertram said he believes a big development in the case was when officials identified the white Hyundai Elantra. He commends the Moscow Police Department for bringing in the state police and FBI as early as they did to assist in the investigation.
One of the biggest questions since the beginning of this investigation is whether or not the four students knew the killer.
Bertram says it's possible they didn't know the suspect or Kohberger may have only met the victims a few times, being that he was only a one semester student at WSU.
He said this arrest is an important step forward in answering more questions surrounding this case.
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