The renowned forensic psychologist who taught and advised murder suspect Bryan Kohberger at DeSales University says she wonders if her lessons on serial killers might have inspired the Poconos man accused of killing four University of Idaho students.
However, Katherine Ramsland told an interviewer on NewsNation on Tuesday, she saw no “red flags” from Kohberger, describing him as an intense and dedicated student as he pursued a forensic psychology degree.
Kohberger, who is expected to plead guilty Wednesday in the 2022 slayings to avoid the death penalty, studied under Ramsland at the Upper Saucon Township school starting in 2018.
Ramsland described Kohberger as polite, respectful, intense and curious as he took on a curriculum that included a book the professor co-authored with Dennis Rader — the so-called BTK Killer — that describes the methods and decision-making process of the serial murderer.
“There really weren’t any red flags,” she told the network. “He was always really quite respectful and grateful.”
Katherine Ramsland, a DeSales University professor, in 2010. (Emily Robson / The Morning Call )
Kohberger, 30, is accused of killing Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen on Nov. 13, 2022. Autopsies showed the four were all likely asleep in their off-campus home when they were stabbed to death.
Kohberger, then a criminal justice graduate student at nearby Washington State University, was arrested at his parents’ home in Monroe County weeks after the killings. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.
Ramsland had declined to comment on the case until Kohberger’s plea deal was announced this week. In the interview, she noted she was restrained by law in what she could say about a student without permission.
Among the classes were a death investigation class called “Psychological Sleuthing” and “Dangerous Minds: The Psychology of Antisocial Behavior.” The latter course involved the study of serial killers and mass murders, including Rader.
“I have to look at the framework of what I taught and wonder, did I inspire him in some way?” Ramsland said in the NewsNation interview. “But I can’t second-guess that because I may have inspired somebody else to become an FBI agent. And unfortunately, in this field, that’s what we live with.”
It didn’t surprise Ramsland that Kohberger’s personality masked something dark.
“Now looking back, I would look at maybe some of the things that interested him as being something that gives me pause,” she said.
However, she added, “we all know that we could have students who might become offenders, but we also know that the vast majority of our students will not.”
Had the case gone to trial, court filings showed prosecutors planned to introduce evidence including Kohberger’s online purchase history that included a military style Ka-Bar knife, along with a sheath and sharpener, months before the killings. A Ka-Bar knife sheath was found next to one of the victims.
Prosecutors also said they also intended to introduce what appears to be a self-portrait Kohberger took on his phone just hours after the killings. In it, he is smiling and giving a thumbs-up gesture.
A roommate who was in the home that morning, sleeping and intoxicated, told police she woke up and saw a man she didn’t know — someone with “bushy eyebrows” who was wearing a face mask, prosecutors have said.
No motive has emerged for the killings, nor is it clear why the attacker spared two roommates who were in the home at the time. Authorities have said cellphone data and surveillance video shows that Kohberger visited the victims’ neighborhood at least a dozen times before the four students were slain.
In a court filing, Kohberger’s lawyers said he was on a long drive by himself around the time the four were killed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.