(NewsNation) — Newly released surveillance video shows Bryan Kohberger visiting multiple stores hours after he murdered four University of Idaho students on Nov. 13, 2020, and the demeanor of the now-convicted killer strikes one true-crime podcaster as oddly casual.
In the video first obtained by Gray Hughes Investigates, Kohberger is seen walking into Costco in a button-up shirt, dark pants, and sneakers. He is drinking from a water bottle and is stopped by the greeter.
After a brief conversation, Kohberger exits the members-only store in Clarkston, Washington, seemingly denied entry.
“He’s kind of a clueless-type person,” Hughes told “Banfield” on Thursday. “It’s pretty strange he would go into a Costco without a card or something and think he can go and buy a drink.”
He also notes how Kohberger seems to try to conceal his left hand. He was seen with a wound on his hand in selfies he took after the murders.
Another piece of footage then shows Kohberger driving his Hyundai Elantra around the parking lot of a coffee shop.
He headed to an Albertsons supermarket and was seen in surveillance video walking out with a bag after paying at a self-checkout station.
Hughes says overall, he is struck by “how casual” Kohberger appears in the surveillance footage, “like it was just an ordinary day.”
“There’s no way any of those people around would have thought that he had any part in killing four people just, what about eight hours prior to that,” he said.
Bryan Kohberger admits to murders
The surveillance video was released after Kohberger pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison for killing Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in November 2022.
He entered a guilty plea on July 2, sparing him from the death penalty, and was sent to the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
Since being booked at the prison, he’s complained about the food and taunting by his fellow inmates.
He filed an initial complaint July 30, a week after his sentencing, saying other inmates were flooding their cells on purpose while subjecting him to “minute-by-minute verbal threats/harassment,” according to documents obtained by NewsNation. In a follow-up communication Aug. 4, Kohberger said he had faced threats of sexual assault.
Bryan Kohberger case file reveals new details
Court documents detailing the investigation into Kohberger have trickled out since his sentencing, and investigators shared new details about the probe in interviews with NewsNation.
Digital forensic experts Heather and Jared Barnhart told “Banfield” that Kohberger’s mom sent him a link to a news article about the murders before his arrest. Their investigation into his phone and devices also revealed that he had only 18 phone contacts saved, and exclusively referred to his mom as “mother.”
“Think about all the people you meet and the hundreds of random numbers,” Heather Barnhart said.
“And they were even identified as ‘girl I ran with,’ ‘second girl I ran with.’ A contact, then in parentheses ‘hair,’” she said. “Then there was ‘Mother’ and ‘Father,’ and his sister and just a few others.”
The release of some case files and crime scene photos has been blocked after families of Kohberger’s victims filed a lawsuit seeking to keep them sealed.
Kohberger’s motive for killing Mogen, Chapin, Kernodle and Goncalves is unknown.
