Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger dined at a Greek restaurant where two of the students he is accused of killing worked as waitresses, it has emerged.
Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, who were stabbed to death in their off-campus home in November along with two other University of Idaho students, had worked at the Mad Greek restaurant in Moscow for years.
A former employee has now revealed that Kohberger, who was arrested and charged with the killings, had visited the restaurant in the run-up to their deaths at least twice and ate vegan pizza.
The revelation is the latest in a series that suggest Kohberger may have been stalking the students. On Thursday it emerged an Instagram account seemingly associated with the suspect had followed three of the victims – Mogen, Kernodle and Kaylee Goncalves.
The three girls were killed alongside Ethan Chapin on November 13 after an intruder in a mask entered the house in the night and attacked them with a fixed blade knife.
Bryan Kohberger visited the Mad Greek restaurant on at least two occasions and ate vegan pizza
Madison Mogen (left) and Xana Kernodle (right) had worked at the restaurant for years
The former employee told People that Kohberger’s visits to the restaurant were not suspicious but they were noteworthy because he wanted to be sure that no animal products might have come in contact with his food.
In late December a relative told The New York Post Kohberger is ‘OCD’ about his eating habits and forced his family to buy new pots that not been used to cook meat.
‘It was above and beyond being vegan. His aunt and uncle had to buy new pots and pans because he would not eat from anything that had ever had meat cooked in them,’ said the relative.
Earlier in January the Latah County jail in Idaho said it would try to accommodate his dietary preferences but was ‘not going to buy new pots and pans’.
Kohberger is known to have an ‘OCD’ attitude towards food and would often not eat food that had been in contact with pots and pans used to cook meat
The restaurant’s owner Jackie Fisher said her staff are ‘shock’ after learning about the death of their colleagues
‘All I can say right now is that we’re just all deeply saddened by the loss of both Maddie and Xana,’ the restaurant’s owner Jackie Fisher told Fox News, ‘All of the workers are just shook right now.’
It is not clear if either of the girls served Kohberger during any of his visits to the restaurant.
An investigator confirmed to People that authorities are aware of those visits and have interviewed staff at the restaurant. They have also reportedly requested surveillance footage from both the restaurant and nearby businesses.
The Mad Greek restaurant is on Main Street in Moscow’s downtown area. Earlier in the week four white candles, one for each of the victims, were placed on a table outside the restaurant.
A table outside the restaurant had on it four white candles, one for each of the victims
The connection between Kohberger and the restaurant appears to have been made as investigators scramble to identify all possible interaction between him and the victims.
Kohberger allegedly messaged one of the female victims repeatedly two weeks before the slayings, but she did not respond, an investigator familiar with the case previously told People.
‘He slid into one of the girls’ DMs several times but she didn’t respond,’ the person said. ‘Basically, it was just him saying, “Hey, how are you?” But he did it again and again.’
The DMs were allegedly sent in October, just weeks before the November 13 murders.
The magazine did not name the account, but said it has since been removed from the service, an action Instagram parent company Meta often takes against suspects in high-profile violent crimes.
According to Fox News Digital, Kohberger’s Instagram account may have been @crim.kohberger, based on the fact that it has been deleted from Instagram, while several obvious troll accounts remain.
Kohberger’s apartment in Pullman, Washington, was combed by police for evidence into the ongoing investigation
A new search warrant reveals police found several hair strands, including one possible animal hair, a black glove, a computer tower and an item that was a ‘collection of dark red’ spotting
Kohberger, a PhD criminology student at Washington State University, was arrested at his family home in Allbrightsville, Pennsylvania, on December 30.
He has maintained his innocence and said through an attorney that he expects to be exonerated.
On Tuesday, unsealed court documents revealed investigators had seized stained bedding, strands of what looked like hair and a single glove – but no weapon – when they searched his WSU student apartment.
Investigators did not find anything noteworthy in Kohberger’s office at WSU, where he was a teaching assistant and graduate student studying criminology.
They took 15 things from his on-campus apartment, including a nitrite-type black glove, cuttings from a pillow with a reddish-brown stain, and a stained mattress cover.