A forensic psychology professor and former advisor for Bryan Kohberger mused that the alleged killer of four University of Idaho co-eds could be the subject of her next study now that he’s accepted a plea deal that will spare his life.
Dr. Katherine Ramsland, a professor of criminal justice at DeSales University, opened up about her past encounters with Kohberger in an interview with NewsNation on Tuesday night — one day after news broke that her former student will plead guilty to the slayings that shocked the nation.
“He was polite, he was respectful. Intense and curious,” Ramsland told journalist Brian Entin.
“There really isn’t anything that stood out to me,” she admitted, noting that she didn’t observe any “red flags” typical among the psychos she’s studied, including the BTK serial killer Dennis Rader.
Ramsland served as advisor and instructor to Kohberger when he started on the forensics track in the fall of 2018.
She said she never suspected that he would go down such a dark path and figured he was just any other student “interested in [forensic science] as a potential career.”
When authorities arrested Kohberger for the grisly murders in 2022, she tried “to give him the benefit of the doubt” — but abandoned all hope after he presented such a flimsy alibi.
“I was completely floored. I didn’t believe it. And his demeanor that we saw on media was that he was confident that he was going to be able to prove his innocence, so I wanted to wait and see,” Ramsland said.
She highlighted that he really should’ve known that what he presented “wasn’t really an alibi,” especially after her instruction on the topic years prior.
Kohberger’s original alibi presented in August 2023 was that he had been out for a drive in an unspecified location at the time of the murders.
He also outright ignored Idaho statute, which required him to provide names and home addresses for witnesses who could corroborate his whereabouts.
Ramsland, who has published 73 books and authored over 2,500 articles, admitted that a subject like Kohberger would be right up her alley and that she would be interested in using him to study “developmental trajectories” and other triggers.
“If he wanted to do that, I know he has the intellectual capacity to do it, to be self-reflective and think about how his life came to this,” she said.
“I have questions for him that I think nobody else but me could ask.”
Like many, including the victims’ families, Ramsland is grasping at straws, but hopes Kohberger will give her the opportunity to uncover more during his likely life term in prison.
“I want to understand how he was able to completely fool me,” Ramsland said.
Kohberger is expected to accept a plea deal tomorrow to avoid a death penalty sentence in the killings of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogenut.
As part of the deal, he will have to spend life in prison with no opportunity for parole.
The alleged killer also won’t have to reveal a motive for the slayings, but may have to provide some details if pressed by the judge.
Kohberger tried to assert his innocence up until the bitter end, only bowing out to the deal a little over a month before his scheduled trial and mere days after a judge denied his last-ditch effort for a delay.
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