Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four Idaho college students in their beds last November, followed all three of the female victims on Instagram — but they didn’t follow him back.
Authorities have not said if the victims knew Kohberger, but the suspect’s now-deleted Instagram account — which was reviewed by PEOPLE before it was removed — followed the accounts of Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle.
Kohberger allegedly messaged one of the three female victims repeatedly two weeks before the slayings, an investigator familiar with the case previously told PEOPLE.
In late October, an account that authorities believe was Bryan Kohberger’s sent a message to one of the female victims, the source says. When the user didn’t hear back, he reportedly sent her several additional DMs.
“Basically, it was just him saying, ‘Hey, how are you?’ But he did it again and again,” the source informed PEOPLE. Kohberger apparently never received a response.
“[The victim] may not have seen them, because they went into message requests,” says the investigation source. (Instagram users are not notified when they receive a message from someone they do not follow back, and the messages go into a separate folder.) “We’re still trying to determine how aware the victims were of his existence.”
Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death in their off-campus Moscow, Idaho rental home on Nov. 13. A masked intruder entered the house and killed all four students in their bedrooms with a fixed-blade knife.
Kernodle, Mogen and Goncalves were roommates. Chapin did not live at the home, but was staying the night with his girlfriend, Kernodle. Two other roommates were home during the attack, but were unharmed.
Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania on December 30. The 28-year-old graduate student and Washington State University teaching assistant was charged with four counts of murder and one count of felony burglary. He was transported back to Idaho on Jan. 4.
More and more details about the alleged killer’s psychological history have been trickling out since his arrest. On an online forum, an account appearing to belong to Kohberger during his teenage years described feelings of depression, dissociation and being able to do “whatever I want with little remorse.”
The user believed to be Kohberger was a member of a “Visual Snow or Static” forum, in which people discussed visual snow syndrome, a rare disorder that causes people to see static in their vision. According to Visual Snow Initiatives, visual snow is “a neurological condition that impacts an individual’s vision, hearing, and quality of life.”
A May 12, 2011, post titled, “Am I the only one?” describes the user’s troubled emotional state. I always feel as if I am not there, completely depersonalized,” the post reads, followed by a list of symptoms the person was experiencing, including lack of comprehension, depression, suicidal thoughts, “crazy thoughts,” “delusions of grandeur,” “poor social skills” and “NO EMOTION.”
The post reads: “When I get home, I am mean to my family. This started when VS did. I felt no emotion and along with the depersonalization, I can say and do whatever I want with little remorse… everyone hates me pretty much I am an a-----e.”
The last line of the post says: “Nothing I do is enjoyable. I am blank, I have no opinion, I have no emotion, I have nothing. Can you relate?”
Kohberger will be back in court on June 26 after waiving his right to a speedy preliminary hearing. He is being held without bail and has not yet entered a plea to the charges against him.
