Prison officials in Idaho aren’t buying Bryan Kohberger‘s complaints that he is being relentlessly taunted and tormented by his fellow inmates.
The Daily Mail revealed earlier this week that the criminology student turned quadruple killer has not been having an easy time settling into his new home on J Block inside the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna.
According to a law enforcement source, Kohberger – now known as inmate number 163214 – is being relentlessly tormented by his new jail-mates, who are shouting through the vents into his cell at all hours of the day.
‘It’s driving him crazy. The inmates are tormenting him at night and almost all hours of the day – taunting him through the vents in his cell,’ Chris McDonough, a retired homicide detective who now works for the Cold Case Foundation, told the Daily Mail.
‘They are literally getting up into the grate and yelling at him. The inmates are taking it in turns doing it. It’s relentless.’
An insider told McDonough that the inmates had actually joined forces to work together to target the mass killer, taking it in turns to shout through the air conditioning and heating vents connecting the cells.
The inmates’ antics have been rattling Kohberger so much that he has complained to prison guards inside the penitentiary, McDonough said.
‘He’s extremely annoyed and frustrated. He’s complaining to the authorities that he can’t sleep because of them,’ he said.
Bryan Kohberger seen in a new mugshot after he was sentenced to life in prison for murder
Inmates are ‘driving Kohberger crazy’ by shouting through the vents at him
Now, the Idaho Department of Correction has responded, downplaying Kohberger’s complaints of ‘what he considers taunting’.
In a statement to the Daily Mail, IDOC pointed out it is normal behavior for inmates to communicate with each other inside the prison.
‘We are aware of Kohberger’s complaints about what he considers taunting,’ the statement read.
‘Incarcerated individuals commonly communicate with each other in prison.
‘Bryan Kohberger is housed alone in a cell, and IDOC security staff maintain a safe and orderly environment for all individuals in our custody.’
Kohberger was sent to the Idaho Maximum Security Institution after being sentenced to life in prison for the November 13, 2022, murders of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
In the early hours of the morning, Kohberger broke into an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, and stabbed the four students to death.
Two other roommates – Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke – were also inside the home at the time but survived.
Prosecutors learned Kohberger took just 13 minutes to carry out his murderous rampage.
Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle (left) and Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves (right)
The home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, on November 20, 2022 – one week on from the murders
The net closed in on Kohberger after he left a brown leather Ka-Bar knife sheath behind at the scene. DNA on the sheath came back a match to the criminology student, who was living just over the state border in Pullman, Washington, at the time.
Surveillance footage on nearby homes and businesses also captured his white Hyundai Elantra circling the home multiple times in the hour before the murders before speeding away from the scene.
Kohberger was arrested around six weeks later at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania.
After more than two years of pleading his innocence – and days away from the start of his capital murder trial – Kohberger pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary last month, in a plea deal that saved him from the death penalty.
On July 23, he was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole and he has waived his right to appeal.
Now, inside the state’s only maximum-security prison – home to the most notorious, dangerous inmates – Kohberger is being held in solitary confinement on J block’s restrictive housing unit.
This means he is locked inside his single-person cell for 23 hours a day with only one hour of outdoor recreation in what is known as ‘the cage’.
During the rare 60 minutes outside the cell, Kohberger is moved around wearing restraints. He is also only allowed to shower every other day.
Moment Kaylee Goncalves’s family confronted her killer inside the courtroom at his sentencing
Over time, if prison officials deem it safe to do so, Kohberger could end up being moved to general population.
But, due to the infamy of Kohberger and his heinous crime, McDonough said he is likely a target for other inmates.
‘Because he is serving four life sentences his threat assessment will be extremely high,’ he said.
‘There’s some inmates that would want nothing more than to hurt him just to make a name for themselves.’
During Kohberger’s sentencing in Ada County Courthouse in Boise on July 23, some of the victims’ families warned him what may await him behind bars.
Goncalves’s mom Kristi Goncalves told her 21-year-old daughter’s killer that she was disappointed he would not face the firing squad but that ‘hell will be waiting’ in prison.
‘You are officially the property of the state of Idaho, where your fellow inmates are anxiously awaiting your arrival,’ she said.
Goncalves’s younger sister Aubrie Goncalves also told him in a statement read by her mother: ‘You may have received A’s in high school and college, but you’re gonna be getting big D’s in prison.’
Bryan Kohberger is in solitary confinement in the Idaho Maximum Security Institution’
Newly-released Moscow Police records have revealed details about Kohberger’s ‘weird’ behavior behind bars between his December 2022 arrest and sentencing.
One inmate told investigators he would spend hours on video calls with his mom MaryAnn while behind bars.
The inmate reported one incident when, during one of these calls, he had said ‘you suck’ at a sports player he was watching on TV.
The remark rattled Kohberger, causing him to respond aggressively, thinking the inmate was speaking about him or his mother, the records show.
He ‘immediately got up and put his face to the bars’ and asked if he was talking about him or his mom, the inmate told investigators.
Other than that incident, Kohberger came across as highly intelligent and polite behind bars, the inmate said.
But he also displayed unusual habits such as washing his hands ‘dozens of times a day,’ spending ’45 minutes to an hour in the shower’ and staying awake almost all night, only napping during the day.
Other new details about Kohberger and his crimes are also emerging in newly-released records.
But, despite the new revelations, Kohberger’s motive – and who his intended target was – still remains a mystery.
