Bryan Kohberger May Have Left Knife Sheath To Mislead Investigators: Expert

Alleged killer Bryan Kohberger may have deliberately left behind a knife sheath found in the home where four University of Idaho students were found stabbed, according to a criminal profiler, in order to mislead investigators.

“If you took a gun out of its holster, wouldn’t you put it back in?” John Kelly, a psychotherapist who has interviewed serial killers, told Fox News on Tuesday. “I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t, and if I went fishing and had to take my knife out, I would put it back in its sheath.”

Kohberger, who was known to be obsessed with his strict vegan diet, likely hid the bloody knife somewhere where it couldn’t contaminate his clothing or car, Kelly said. The murder weapon has still not been found months after the November 13 killings.

“You’re such a clean vegan that’s obsessive about what you eat and everything else, just the hygiene of carrying around a bloody knife and carrying it somewhere on your body when you go out of the house,” Kelly said.

Kelly noted that one of the surviving roommates, Dylan Mortensen, didn’t mention a knife or other weapon when she said she encountered a masked “black-clothed character” with “bushy eyebrows” roaming the house during the moments a Sliding glass left after the murders, according to the affidavit.

“The girl didn’t say anything about seeing a knife,” Kelly said. “Did he put it in his clothes somewhere and was there blood all over it?”

The vagina – found in bed on two of the four victims – could have been left behind on purpose after being thoroughly wiped down, Kelly said.

However, police identified Kohberger’s DNA on the scabbard’s button strap with DNA from the trash at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested in December, police said in the affidavit.

Kelly believes that Kohberger left the brown leather scabbard with “Ka-Bar,” “USMC,” and the United States Marine Corps eagle globe and anchor insignia to blame someone in the military.

“This is production 101,” he told Fox News. “You’re going to look at that and think it was some military guy that did that. Some guy with any education who lives on the street.”

“He may have thought that was the perfect trick, but he’s no genius, his trick and staging got him caught,” Kelly added.

His belief that he could mislead investigators may explain why Kohberger allegedly asked police, “Who else have you arrested” when he was taken into custody, according to Kelly.

“I think he had to believe that this would lead her to someone, one way, with the sheath there,” he said.

Kohberger is accused of sneaking into the students’ off-campus rental apartment in Moscow around 4 a.m. on November 13 and killing Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, and Xana Kernodle, 20 have while some of them were sleeping, police said.

Kohberger, who has a Ph.D. Student at Washington State University, just 7 miles from the scene, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.

If convicted, he faces a life sentence.