A woman who matched with Bryan Kohberger on Tinder disclosed a disturbing comment he made that led her to cut off contact with him.
Bryan Kohberger was sentenced on July 23 for the murder of four Idaho college students after a rigorous murder trial.
The victims, found deceased in their residence in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022, were Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Kaylee Goncalves, and Madison Mogen.
Several weeks passed before authorities announced they had a suspect, eventually taking 30-year-old Kohberger into custody.
Initially denying the charges, Kohberger later pleaded guilty to all charges under a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.
Following this agreement, he received a life sentence and listened to the victim impact statements made by the victims’ families.
As more information emerged about Kohberger, a woman came forward to share a chilling experience and the unsettling question he posed that raised red flags for her.
Shortly before the murders, the woman matched with Kohberger on Tinder and reported her experience to the police tip line in March of the preceding year.
According to a police report from Idaho’s Moscow Police Department, she identified Kohberger after their Tinder match in September or October 2022, noting he mentioned using a Ka-Bar knife for a murder.
The woman recounted to police that Kohberger identified himself as a criminology student at Washington State University, and they discussed meeting over the Christmas break when he returned home.
However, Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania during Christmas for the murders.
Their conversations often centered around a friend’s murder in her town and horror movies she liked.
“To this, [the woman] said Kohberger asked what she thought would be the worst way to die,” detective Brett Payne noted in the report.
When she suggested a knife would be the worst, Kohberger inquired, ‘like a Ka Bar?’
A Ka Bar knife is a substantial combat knife that authorities claimed Kohberger used to kill the four students.
During the trial, prosecutors argued Kohberger purchased the knife, sheath, and sharpener online in March 2022, and a Ka-Bar sheath with his DNA was found at the crime scene next to one of the victims.
The woman revealed she was unfamiliar with a Ka-Bar, prompting her to research it.
This unsettling exchange led her to stop communicating with Kohberger, as his questions made her uneasy.
After his arrest, she recognized Kohberger’s face and recalled the conversation about the Ka Bar, prompting her to contact the police.
Detective Payne indicated he was unable to verify her story since she no longer had access to her Tinder account and couldn’t retrieve her user ID.
Efforts to contact Tinder about the woman yielded no records matching the information she had provided.