After Bryan Kohberger confessed to the ruthless killings of four students at the University of Idaho, the main question that lingers is: What drove him to commit such acts?

A recent revelation by a prominent forensic psychiatrist suggests a groundbreaking motive focusing on a particular detail that might have been overlooked.

With over twenty years of experience in evaluating criminal conduct, Dr. Carole Lieberman points out a notable similarity between two of the victims, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, and a former middle school cheerleader who had spurned Kohberger.

She believes the killer’s rage may have been triggered by a disturbing psychological pattern, one that saw Kohberger project years of accumulated rejection onto victims who reminded him of a girl he pursued obsessively as a teenager.

‘It is especially significant that Maddie and Kaylee look like the blonde cheerleader who rejected him in middle school,’ she told the Daily Mail.

‘He took out the rage that he built up over the years, towards this first love and all the subsequent women who rejected him, with each bloody stab of the knife.’

The prosecution has suggested Kohberger may have entered the house with a single intended target, Madison Mogen, and possibly Kaylee Goncalves, who no longer lived there but was staying over with Mogen that night. 

He slipped in through the sliding kitchen door shortly after 4 am and went straight to the third floor, where the two women were asleep in the same bed.

But as he crept back down, the plan may have spiraled. He is believed to have run into Xana Kernodle, who had just picked up a DoorDash delivery, and then killed her and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, who was staying in her room.

Two other housemates – Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen – were left unharmed, further fueling theories that Kohberger only meant to kill one or two people, but felt forced to eliminate witnesses once inside.

Below, Dr Lieberman lays out why she is convinced the seemingly random mass murder was a ‘revenge killing’ gone wrong.

The ‘beautiful people’ he could never have

Kohberger, 28, pleaded guilty this week to the murders of Mogen and Goncalves, both 21, along with Kernodle and Chapin, both 20, in a shocking early morning attack at their rented off-campus home in November 2022.

But it’s his apparent focus on Mogen and Goncalves, and their eerie resemblance to Kim Kenely, that’s drawing new attention from experts.

Kenely, a popular blonde cheerleader at Kohberger’s middle school, was reportedly the target of his unwanted attention for months while they were students. 

Her mother has spoken publicly about how Kohberger would leave ‘love letters’ in her daughter’s locker and make repeated, awkward declarations of interest.

‘He would always say, “Oh Kim, I think you’re very pretty.” Just like weird comments,’ she recalled. 

‘And she’d say, “Oh God, leave me alone.” She did not give him the time of day.’

Dr Lieberman said the rejection – delivered in a public, humiliating way that only adolescence allows – may have planted the first seed of rage.

‘When kids are little, they’re mean,’ Kenely’s mother noted. ‘They don’t say, “Oh my God, thank you, but no”.’

Years later, Dr Lieberman believes Kohberger saw that same unattainable archetype in Mogen and Goncalves – two confident, outgoing, social women with long blonde hair and big smiles.

From obsession to rage

Kohberger’s struggles with women have been well documented. 

Aside from his infatuation with Kenely, the only other encounter he is known to have with women is a failed Tinder date in 2015. The woman, named Hayley Wette, claimed in a TikTok video that he drove her back to her dorm and insisted on coming in before refusing to leave. 

Wette, who also spoke to media after posting her video, claimed she eventually had to pretend to vomit in the bathroom to get him to leave.

Dr Lieberman believes these repeated failures left Kohberger feeling a toxic mix of rejection, shame and rage.

‘If he met a girl, they would be turned off by him,’ she said.

‘Not just because of his looks and being a little awkward, they probably wouldn’t have known exactly why, but because they would be able to sense this anger and rage within him.’

‘He already had this chip on his shoulder, and he was gathering all this anger… that made it harder and harder for him to meet a girl who wanted to go out with him.’

Killings were eerily personal 

Dr Lieberman said she first suspected the killer might be an incel (involuntary celibate) even before Kohberger was arrested, based solely on the details of the crime scene.

An incel is someone who feels unable to attract a romantic or sexual partner, despite wanting one.

Police described the Idaho crime scene as ‘profoundly bloody’ and the ‘worst they’d ever seen’ with ‘blood everywhere.’

The victims had suffered multiple stab wounds to the upper body and chest.

Some had defensive wounds, indicating a desperate struggle. A knife sheath left at the scene would later link the weapon to Kohberger through DNA.

‘This bloody scene suggests it had to be someone with a lot of rage,’ she said. ‘And they used a knife, which suggests a very personal attack.’ 

Why Maddie and Kaylee?

While prosecutors haven’t revealed exactly how Kohberger selected his victims, several clues suggest he had fixated on Mogen and Goncalves specifically.

An Instagram account believed to belong to him followed both women and messaged one of them repeatedly just weeks before the killings with the phrase, ‘Hey, how are you?’

He also reportedly made at least two visits to the restaurant where Mogen and Kernodle worked, ordering a vegan pizza and eating alone. 

Perhaps most chillingly, phone data shows his device pinged cell towers near the home 23 times in the two months before the murders – often late at night or in the early hours of the morning.

For Dr Lieberman, these details paint a picture of a man who wasn’t just lashing out, he was seemingly stalking and hunting women who reminded him of his earliest humiliation.

‘This is a magnified revenge on them and all the women who went before them that had rejected him,’ said Dr Lieberman.

Chilling comparisons

Dr Lieberman said the attack bears disturbing similarities to Elliot Rodger, the self-proclaimed incel who killed six and injured 14 others in Isla Vista, California, in 2014. 

In his manifesto, Rodger said he carried out the attack as a ‘Day of Retribution’ against women and the society that had ‘denied’ him sex and love.

Dr Lieberman also drew parallels to Ted Bundy, who killed dozens of women in the 1970s who experts say were a ‘carbon-copy’ of his first girlfriend – he reportedly held a grudge after she dumped him.

Criminologist Christopher Berry-Dee suggested he carried out the attacks because of the rejection he felt at the end of the relationship.

Not remorse, just defiance

Kohberger’s demeanor during his recent plea hearing also raised red flags for Dr Lieberman.

‘He was so angry, so defiant,’ she said. ‘He certainly wasn’t remorseful.’

As he pled guilty to the gruesome murders, he answered with ‘a very flippant “yes,” and “yes” – like he wanted to get this over with already,’ she said.

A message to the families

Asked why she felt compelled to share her theory now, Dr Lieberman said it was to help the victims’ families – who may never hear a motive from Kohberger himself – find some understanding.

‘They are not going to hear it from his mouth… so I just wanted to try to give them some idea of why this happened,’ she said. 

‘Their children didn’t do anything wrong, and what happened is not because of anything their children did. I am worried that they are thinking that.’