BRILLIANT STUDENT AND COLD BLOODED KILLER

EXCLUSIVE: Idaho quadruple 'killer's' criminal justice professor reveals he was 'a brilliant student' and one of smartest she's ever had

Bryan Kohberger's former professor at DeSales University, Michelle Bolger, said she's 'shocked as shit' he's been arrested for the murders

 

By Alan Butterfield

 

Daily Mail

January 1, 2023

 

 

           Bryan Kohlberger, 28, was arrested at on Friday following a more than month-long investigation into the murders of four University of Idaho students on November 13

 

A former university professor of accused quadruple murder suspect, Bryan Kohberger has told DailyMail.com he was among the smartest students she's ever had.

In an exclusive interview, DeSales University Professor Michelle Bolger said she's in absolute shock after hearing what her former student has been accused of.

'He's a brilliant student,' she told DailyMail.com exclusively from her house in in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania.

'I'm shocked as shit at what he's been accused of. I don't believe it, but I get it,' she said.

Kohberger is currently in jail awaiting extradition to Idaho where he has been charged with the murders of students Kailee Golcalves, 21, Maddie Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20.

All four were stabbed in their beds in the early morning of November 13.

 

DeSales University Professor Michelle Bolger said she's in absolute shock after hearing that her former student Bryan Kohberger is the accused Idaho quadruple murder suspect

 

Kohberger is currently in jail awaiting extradition to Idaho where he has been charged with the murders of students Kailee Golcalves, 21, Maddie Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. All four were stabbed in their beds in the early morning of November 13

 

Police had been hunting for the killer for seven weeks amid growing criticism that they were getting nowhere. But on Friday they finally arrest Kohberger at his parents' home in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, 2,500 miles from the scene of the crime.

They impounded his white Hyundai Elantra. That model was seen near the murder house in Moscow, Idaho, on the night of the killings and police had considered it their best lead in the hunt for the killer.

Bolger, 33, who has been an Associate Professor at DeSales for the past eight years, said she taught Kohberger, 28, last year in an online class and helped him with his master's thesis project.

'He was an online student in the criminal justice master's degree program and graduated in June 2022,' said Bolger.

DeSales is a small private Catholic University in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, about 60 miles north of Philadelphia.

The US News and World Report ranks DeSales online Criminal Justice Program as #27 in the country.

The program has a mock crime scene house where, 'it gives our students hands-on, practical experience in investigating criminal activity,' said Joe Walsh, Instructor of Computer Science and Criminal Justice and Director of the Master of Arts Criminal Justice (MACJ) Program.

The total cost of the 30-hour Master's degree program is approximately $24,000.

Bolger said she never met Kohberger in the flesh but knew him from his work online.

'I never saw him in person, I couldn't tell you how tall he was or how much he weighed, my only interaction with him was via email and Zoom,' Bolger told DailyMail.com. 'I didn't know anything about him, whether he was married, had a girlfriend, etc.'

 

Bolger, 33, who has been an Associate Professor at DeSales for the past eight years, said she taught Kohberger, 28, last year in an online class and helped him with his master's thesis 

 

Bolger said she never met Kohberger in the flesh but knew him from his work online

 

DeSales is a small private Catholic University in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, about 60 miles north of Philadelphia

 

But she said she never saw a 'dark side' to the then 27-year-old graduate student. 'This news is upsetting; I haven't slept at all since hearing about Bryan.

'He' seemed normal to me, but then again, I only knew him from teaching him online. I didn't know anything personal about him. I believe he worked full-time like most of our graduate students do.'

She said she only taught him one class but called him a 'great writer and a 'brilliant student.'

'He was always perfectly professional when I had any interactions with him. In my 10 years of teaching, I've only recommended two students to a PhD program and he was one of them. He was one of my best students – ever. Everyone is in shock over this.'

She said that she believed that Kohberger wanted to pursue a career in academia after graduating from Washington State University.

Bolger says she was one of his professors who helped him with his proposal for a graduate thesis including what many have termed an unusual research questionnaire.

 

After leaving DeSales in 2022, Kohberger enrolled as a graduate student at Washington State in Pullman, just 15 miles across the state border from Moscow 

 

'I was one of the professors who helped Bryan with his proposal on his graduate thesis, his capstone project. He did put out a routine questionnaire for his thesis. It looks weird, I understand from the public view. But in criminology it's normal.'

'It's a criminology theory called script theory, it's a normal theory on how and why criminals commit their crime, etc.'

Bolger said, Bryan didn't even end up using any of the data he gleaned from the questionnaire, 'you aren't going to find it anywhere.'

Instead, she said, because he ran out of time, 'his graduate thesis was a narrative one based on the information.'

She then said she went on maternity leave and another professor took her place; she never had any professional interaction with him after that.

Kohberger is currently being held in Monroe County Jail in Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania. He is due in court on Tuesday.

His attorney, chief public defender Jason LaBar has said he will not fight extradition as he is eager to be exonerated in Idaho.

'Mr. Kohberger has been accused of very serious crimes, but the American justice system cloaks him in a veil of innocence, LaBar said in a statement.

'He should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise – not tried in the court of public opinion.'

After leaving DeSales in 2022, Kohberger enrolled as a graduate student at Washington State in Pullman, just 15 miles across the state border from Moscow.

 

Bolger says she was one of his professors who helped him with his proposal for a graduate thesis including what many have termed an unusual research questionnaire 

 

Kohberger was allegedly stalking the students in the weeks leading up to the murders. Pictured is the home where the murders took place, just over eight miles from where he worked as a PhD student and teaching assistant 

 

Moscow Police Chief James Fry said on Friday that officers had searched Kohlberger's office 

 

WSU's online directory shows he worked as a teaching assistant for the university's criminal justice and criminology program. He was also a PhD student in the department.

Ben Roberts, a criminology student, told the Fox affiliate that Kohberger was 'confident' and 'outgoing' but still appeared as if 'he was always looking for a way to fit in.'

Speaking about the horrific allegations against Kohberger, Roberts said, 'It's pretty out of left field. I had honestly just pegged him as being super awkward.'

Roberts began studying at WSU in August at the same time as Kohberger.

'One thing he would always do, almost without fail, was find the most complicated way to explain something,' he said.

BK Norton, a student in the WSU Criminal Justice and Criminology Department, said Friday that they didn't know Kohberger well, but didn't like him.

'We interacted in class, but personally I was not a fan of Bryan because of comments he had made about LGBTQ+ individuals,' they said in an email to The Associated Press.