The sister of Idaho killer Bryan Kohberger has made her first public statement about her brother months after the convicted murderer was sentenced to life in prison.
Mel Kohberger told the New York Times that she thought she was being pranked after finding out her brother had been arrested for the slaying of four University of Idaho students. When news broke of the killings, she had reached out to Bryan to warn him about a “psycho killer” on the loose near his home.
“Bryan, you are running outside and this psycho killer is on the loose,” Mel said she told her brother. “Be careful.”
He assured her that he was safe.
Now, in the aftermath of her brother’s crimes, Kohberger has shared the impact that the media circus has had on the family’s lives.
While she emphasized that her family’s suffering is not tantamount to that of her brother’s victims, Mel said that the intense scrutiny has upended their world. Numerous spectators online accused the family of knowing about Bryan’s crimes, which they denied.
“I have always been a person who has spoken up for what was right,” Mel said. “If I ever had a reason to believe my brother did anything, I would have turned him in.”
After her brother’s arrest, Mel said that she had to abandon her new job and found that someone appeared to impersonate her to sell books about the case.
“It’s confusing,” she told the New York Times. “It’s painful. It’s like being victimized but not really being a victim.”
Mel said her brother was socially awkward, but she had never seen him be violent. Days before his arrest, she said he was even disgusted by the sight of her blood after she cut herself on a piece of foil during their family Christmas celebrations.
The experience of being pulled into a true crime frenzy has made Mel, who previously shared an interest in crime with her brother, wary about the culture of speculation.
“It’s human nature to be curious about darker things,” she said. “That’s how we keep ourselves safe. But I think we should try and come together for a true crime culture that is way more protective and empathetic to the families of the victims.”
Bryan Kohberger, 31, was given four life sentences last July for the murders of Ethan Chapin, Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, and Xana Kernodle. He took a guilty plea for the killings, which took place on November 13, 2022, in exchange for dodging the death penalty. He gave no explanation about his motive for the crime.
Steve Goncalves, father of one of the victims, told the New York Times that he has sympathy for the killer’s siblings, although he remains skeptical about what the parents may have known. He previously slammed Bryan Kohberger’s plea deal, saying it did not bring his daughter justice.
“We said from the very beginning: We were not interested in a shortcut for our daughter, you know,” he said during sentencing. “We wanted everything.”
In addition to his prison sentence, Kohberger was also ordered to pay restitution and funeral expenses to his victims’ families.
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