Idaho murder victim’s attorney files to lift gag order
Criminal defense attorney Phil Holloway says the judge should lift the gag order because the case is already widely publicized, and quieting those close to the case violates their free speech rights.
Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger has a small but active following among sympathetic social media users.
There are a handful of social media groups sympathetic to Kohberger, who is accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death for no publicly known reason. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
There's "Justice for Bryan Kohberger" on Facebook with 3,000 members, created just days after his arrest. There's r/Brynation on Reddit, with a thread titled, "What was it about Bryan that got your liking?" And r/BryanKohberger has another thread titled "Why Bryan Kohberger Is Not Guilty" that garnered hundreds of comments.
And there is a Facebook user who says she is a single mom from Kentucky and has penned dozens of love notes, describing the suspect as her "divine masculine."
Bryan Kohberger arrives at Monroe County Courthouse in Pennsylvania in advance of highly anticipated extradition hearing. He's charged with the murders of four University of Idaho students. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
On the other hand, police in Moscow, Idaho, accuse him of stalking the King Road home at least a dozen times before entering the dark of night and stabbing 21-year-old best friends Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves and 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
There are also tales from women who met him face-to-face alleging extremely awkward behavior and creepy vibes. A TikToker from his home state of Pennsylvania said she had to pretend to puke to get him to leave after an awkward movie date.
And two Idaho students claimed in an interview with People that Kohberger frequented their student union building, despite attending another school, and had a staring problem.
"There is just something so magnetic about Bryan," one frequent pro-Kohberger Reddit commenter told Fox News Digital Tuesday. "If he really did creep women out, I don't know why. If he stared at me intensely I would have walked over to him."
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Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves' final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
She identified herself as "Jane Doe" and declined to speak on the phone. Her Reddit profile shows her account was created exactly a month after Kohberger's arrest and she said she wasn't trolling when she posted about liking the quadruple murder suspect.
She said she first saw his mugshot and thought he was a "hot suspect." She said she felt drawn to his pictures as coverage progressed and eventually turned to Google to find like-minded posters.
"I’m a psychopath, and I am drawn to dark triad personalities," she claimed. If any of the information that has come out about him is true, this would be part of it for me."
WATCH: Kohberger's former acquaintance details his alleged drug use, behavior toward women
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She also said she has hybristophilia, a condition the American Psychological Association defines as a "sexual interest in and attraction to those who commit crimes. In some cases, this may be directed toward people in prison for various types of criminal activities."
It's very rare, according to criminal profiler and psychotherapist John Kelly.
"I gotta tell you, 26 years private practice, four years in the hospital, I never came across it," he told Fox News Digital.
Neither have any of his colleagues or professional friends, he added.
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"I think there's some people yanking our chain just to get a couple minutes of fame, but I also do know for sure, with the mail and everything [Ted] Bundy used to get, the love letters Charles Manson got…it is definitely a very weird codependency illness."
Charles Manson died in 2017 while serving a life prison sentence. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
The appeal of a hybristophilia-type attraction can be the long distance, he said, and relative safety, despite the allegations of violent crime.
"He's incarcerated so it's really safe," he said. "They don’t have to have an up-close and personal relationship."
Kohberger, 28, is being held without bail at the Latah County Jail in Moscow, Idaho — the same town where he allegedly snuck into a six-bedroom home in the middle of the night and ambushed four University of Idaho students, some of whom may have been sleeping at the start of the attack.
An attempt to contact Kohberger over the jail messaging app was unsuccessful Tuesday.
UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO MURDERS TIMELINE
Front view of the house where four Idaho students were killed in November 2022. It is just steps away from the University of Idaho campus. (Adam Sabes/Fox News Digital)
"This recipient has no permission to view message," a pop-up error stated.
But another redditor posted a Feb. 13 screenshot claiming she sent him $50 for the jailhouse messaging app as an "early Valentine's Day gift."
Kohberger, who is reportedly a recovering heroin addict with socially awkward tendencies, has a master's degree in criminal justice from DeSales University and was studying for a Ph.D. at Washington State University, less than 10 miles from the victims' school.
The victims of Nov. 13 University of Idaho massacre, from left to right: Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen. (Instagram @xanakernodle / @maddiemogen / @kayleegoncalves)
Prior to the attack, police allege Kohberger stalked the home at least a dozen times, and according to the arrest affidavit, he returned again hours after the slayings.
Kohberger was arrested at his parents' house in the Poconos on Dec. 30 and is due back in Idaho court on June 26 for the start of his preliminary hearing, which could take four to five days.
In a statement through his former Pennsylvania attorney, Jason LaBar, Kohberger said he's "looking forward to being exonerated."
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Kohberger's Idaho attorney, Kootenai County Public Defender Anne Taylor, plans to challenge the probable cause for his arrest during the June proceedings.
She has not responded to multiple requests for comment and, along with prosecutors, investigators and attorneys for witnesses and the victims' families, is subject to a restrictive gag order – which has been appealed by both the Goncalves family attorney and a coalition of media organizations.
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