US3 min(s) read
Published 09:29 03 Aug 2026 GMT
Theories have emerged, suggesting the reasoning behind murderer Bryan Kohberger's decision to target this particular student house in Moscow, Idaho, for his crimes.
Just last week, Netflix crime documentary The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare was released, bringing never-before-seen evidence to light for the first time.
It brought renewed attention to the horrific murders of four University of Idaho students: Madison May Mogen, Kaylee Jade Goncalves, Xana Alexia Kernodle, and Ethan James Chapin in their home, on November 13, 2022.
A year on from being handed four life sentences for the crime, Bryan Kohberger has attempted to withdraw the guilty plea that spared him from standing trial, as well as the death penalty.
He has continued to claim that key evidence proves that he is innocent, but he remains behind bars after pleading guilty to one charge of burglary and four counts of first-degree murder, to avoid the death penalty.
But now, his motive has been suggested by the director of the Netflix crime doc.
Kohberger's heinous actions shocked many, as the four students were stabbed at least 150 times in the early morning hours in their off-campus property, according to a supplemental filing from prosecutors.
The murderer never revealed his motive, but The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare director, Skye Borgman, thinks that the house he targeted reveals the answer.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, the filmmaker said: "The fact that [this] was the house that he chose. This was a house that had five women living in it.
"The night that the murders happened, Xana Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, was over, but really, this was a house full of women, and it seems quite clear that he targeted it.”
She added: “He watched the house; he was around the house in the days, weeks and months leading up to the murders,
“So, it seems pretty likely that he had a very low regard, if not hatred, for women,” Borgman suggested.
“It’s all conjecture, but he seemed to struggle with his relationships with women,” the director explained.
“And we look at this incel movement and the question of whether or not he was an incel, and whether or not he didn’t like women.
“It seems to me that there was a hatred of women there,” the documentary director claimed.
Interviews and accounts featured in the documentary, as individuals came out about disturbing interactions with the convict.
Prior to his arrest and sentencing, ex-classmate Lilly Karaban said he had a “his way or the highway” attitude and seemed to exist “in his own world.”
According to the Netflix doc, classmates said he was “not particularly well liked,” claiming that he often spoke down to women, guilty of “mansplaining” while also becoming argumentative or aggressive during interactions.
It supports Borgman's claims, while other students described him as "creepy" as he made them uncomfortable.
Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger said that "there were just strange incidents and strange behavior."
Gary Jenkins, the former Chief of Washington State University Police, said that one student remembered feeling cornered by Kohberger in an encounter, before she claims she was followed to her car.
Kohberger would lose his teaching assistant role as a result, as Jenkins explained that these incidents weren't reported top authorities as “nothing that occurred rose to the level of a crime.”
