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Former friends of accused killer Bryan Kohberger from his high school years are speaking out about his past.
Kohberger is currently charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary in the Nov. 13, deaths of four college students.
At the time of the murders, Kohberger was a Ph.D. student at Washington State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. He lived just nine miles from the crime scene.
Years earlier in high school, a former friend recalled that Kohberger underwent a physical and emotional transformation.
26-year-old Nick Mcloughlin said Kohberger was “down to earth” and overweight after their junior year together at Pleasant Valley High School.
Everything changed the next year. Kohberger had become “thinner than a rail” and was much more “aggressive.”
“He always wanted to fight somebody; he was bullying people,” Mcloughlin said. “We started cutting him off from our friend group because he was 100 percent a different person.”
Another high school friend, Thomas Arntz, said Kohberger was a “bully” who harshly criticized others for their “flaws and insecurities.”
“He did that to me all the time. He would go after my intelligence. He would basically insinuate that I’m kind of slow-witted and that I’m forgetful and [that] I lack the intelligence to be his friend,” he said.
“He was mean-spirited, he was a bully. I never thought he would do something like that, but at the same time it doesn’t really surprise me,” he said, referring to the quadruple murder.
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Ben Roberts, a graduate student in the criminology and criminal justice department at Washington State, said Kohberger “was always looking for a way to fit in,” according to the Lehigh Valley News.
“One thing he would always do, almost without fail, was find the most complicated way to explain something. He had to make sure you knew that he knew it,” he said.
“He was definitely kind of a creepy guy,” Stinchfield said. Stinchfield said Kohberger appeared more disheveled after the murders and grew out his facial hair.
”We noticed distinctly, like, oh, he must be going through it. He’s, yeah, he’s looking a lot worse,” Stinchfield said.
Joey Famularo, another student, told the Spokesman-Review Kohberger “always seemed a little bit on edge.”
“We just assumed he was kind of shy,” Famularo said.