Crime
Bryan Kohberger’s Sister Wasn’t ‘Totally Forthcoming’ in New Interview, Journalist Believes
Bryan Kohberger’s sister, Mel Kohberger, gave a rare interview to the New York Times, in which she shared details of her family’s story.
“If I ever had a reason to believe my brother did anything, I would have turned him in,” the 34-year-old, who trained to be a mental health therapist, told the outlet in an interview published on Wednesday, January 3.
But Howard Blum, a former New York Times journalist and author of When the Night Comes Falling: The Definitive True Crime Investigation into the Idaho Student Murders, doesn’t quite buy the story.
“I think, and I say this in defense of her, just like the witnesses to Kohberger that night, she’s not even sure anymore what she knows or what she doesn’t know,” the journalist, who said he interviewed multiple people in law enforcement for his 2024 book about the murders, told Forbes.
Pointing out that the criminology grad student lived “10 minutes” from the Moscow, Idaho, home where Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were stabbed to death in November 2022 – and drove a white Hyundai similar to the one police were searching for — “it’s incomprehensible to believe,” Blum said, that Mel didn’t “put two and two together.”
“I’m not criticizing her, I’m not blaming her. This is a very tough mountain to climb, but at the same time, I don’t think she’s being totally forthcoming with the reporter and also with herself,” he added.
“She says at one point that her brother is not a violent person because once when they were having a dispute and it got fiery, he held back her arms,” Blum also noted. “I think she’s trying to put a good gloss on things. I don’t blame her. I think she’s trying to come to terms with what happened.”
“My heart goes out for her,” Blum said of Mel. “This is the story about victims. The victims, of course, being the four students who were killed, their families and also Kohberger’s family.”
Bryan is currently serving four consecutive life sentences at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.
