Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger was reportedly booted from a police program at his school after female classmates complained about his behaviour.
Former school administrator Tanya Carmella-Beers claims Kohberger was briefly on a protective services track at a vocational school near his parents’ home in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. He even features in a yearbook completing a fitness program as part of the course.
Speaking to The Idaho Massacre podcast, Carmella-Beers said: “He was a leader in his class, he took the class extremely seriously.”
Kohberger, now 28, was however made to leave the program in his junior year following complaints from female classmates, reports the New York Post. Carmella-Beers declined to expand on what he is alleged to have done, but added: “To be removed from a program, it has to be pretty severe.
“What had him removed from the program, when I look back on it now, makes sense [with what happened later].”
Kohberger is set to stand trial accused of knifing four University of Idaho students to death on an off-campus property. Students Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were found dead on November 13 last year.
At the time of their deaths, Kohberger was a doctoral student in criminology at Washington State University in Pullman. The facility is just 15 minutes from where the students died.
Kohberger was arrested on December 30 at his parents’ home in Albrightsville.
Recalling what Kohberger was like at school, an acquiantance told The Idaho Massacres podcast that he lost a significant amount of weight after being removed from the program. They said he became a more dominant and “bullyish” personality.
The New York Post claims he also began taking heroin, and reportedly went to rehab. Former classmates also said he was “slightly odd” around girls.
One told the Post: “If he liked or was interested in a girl and she wasn’t, he didn’t understand why or just didn’t accept her saying no and move on and so he would have been labeled as a creep or something along those lines.”
Kohberger is standing trial on multiple counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The prosecution is expected to pursue the death penalty should he be found guilty
