The family of Bryan Kohberger, the man arrested for the murder of four students from the University of Idaho, spoke out about his arrest.

On December 30, Moscow Police Chief James Fry, confirmed the arrest of 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger, at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, on November 13, 2022.

On January 1, Kohberger’s lawyer, Jason LaBar, released a statement which said that the suspect’s family, his father, Michael Kohberger, 67, his mother, Marianne Kohberger, 62, and the suspect’s sister, Amanda, deeply cared about the four families who lost their children that morning.

They wrote that they were praying for the families daily and that they supported their son and brother.

The statement said that the family had cooperated with the police and they would continue to promote Bryan’s innocence and not judge him based on unknown facts, or make erroneous assumptions.

According to the family lawyer, the Kohberger family is “shocked” and don’t believe that their son committed the murders. 

Kohberger is charged with four first-degree murder counts and one felony burglary count for breaking into the house where the four students were found.

The suspect’s father, Michael Kohberger,  flew across the country, from Pennsylvania to Spokane, Washington, to join his son on a road trip back to their family home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, for the Christmas holiday. They drove 2,500 miles in the white Hyundai Elantra that police were searching for, which had been seen in multiple surveillance videos near the scene of the crimes. 

That car was eventually tracked to Kohberger’s home in Pennsylvania, where the murder suspect was arrested. 

They were pulled over twice for speeding and tailgating, with no consequences. 

During Kohberger’s childhood, both of his parents worked for the Pleasant Valley School District. His dad, Michael, was a maintenance worker for the school district from 2006 to 2019, and his mom, Maryann, assisted special-needs students until around 2020.

Kohberger was a PhD student and teaching assistant at the Washington State University in Pullman, Washington in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology.

The University is only eight miles away from where the students were stabbed to death in an off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho. 

A few months ago, Kohberger, using the username Criminology_Student, posted on Reddit looking for ex-cons to participate in his research project. The goal of his study was to understand how psychological and emotional traits affect a criminal’s decision-making while committing a crime.