Bryan Kohberger’s disturbing post-murder phone calls to parents revealed

Digital forensics experts who were set to testify at Bryan Kohberger‘s trial before he accepted a plea deal have revealed that Kohberger called his parents twice, not long after he murdered four University of Idaho college students in November 2022.

Kohberger and his mom talked several times that day

In an exclusive interview with People, digital forensics expert Heather Barnhart, who investigated Kohberger’s digital footprint for Idaho prosecutors, said Kohberger called his mom, Maryann Kohberger, in Pennsylvania, first at around 6:13 a.m., only about 2 hours after he broke into a home at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, and brutally murdered Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Maddie Mogen, and Xana Kernodle.

According to Barnhart, Maryann didn’t answer that call, so Kohberger called his father about a minute later. Investigators say that the conversation was brief. Kohberger reportedly had his parents’ phone numbers saved in his phone under “mother” and “father,” and if his mom didn’t answer, he would text his dad, “Father, why did mother not respond? Why is she not answering the phone?”

As Barnhart says, after Kohberger ended the call to his dad, he first spoke with his mother, Maryann, for about half an hour. Shortly after ending that call, he rang her again at around 8 a.m., and they talked for roughly an hour. A third call, lasting about 10 minutes, followed at around 9 a.m., a time prosecutors say places him back at the crime scene.

Prosecutors confirmed Kohberger’s cell phone pinged near 1122 King Road at around 9 a.m., roughly five hours after the murder.

Kohberger’s family and the plea deal

In total, Barnhart told People that Kohberger spent roughly three hours on the phone with his mother on November 22, including the 9 a.m. call, a brief two-minute conversation around 4 p.m., and a final call at about 6 p.m. that lasted around 90 minutes.

What Kohberger and Maryann talked about may never be known. Some observers theorize that Kohberger accepted a plea deal partly to spare his parents from testifying in his trial because of how often he spoke with his mom the day after the crimes, indicating how closely involved his family was during those critical hours after the attack.

Contrary to that, while the prosecution had considered calling family members as witnesses, they ultimately decided his parents and sister did not have substantive information to contribute, focusing instead on the digital, forensic, and physical evidence.

Still, the defense may have been concerned about the emotional impact of having Kohberger’s parents testify and structured the plea to keep them out of the courtroom.

While there’s no concrete evidence that the deal was made solely for this reason, the timing of the plea, the family’s close involvement, and the prosecution’s decision not to call them suggest that protecting his parents from public scrutiny was possibly a consideration in Kohberger’s choice.