Simon Simoudis: Monsters Wear Quiet Faces: Trying to Understand Bryan Kohberger

Certain crimes are committed in the heat of the moment; they just happen. Then some are cold and calculated, and very brutal. Although every crime is abominable, some defy logic. They are simply diabolical. You can tell that the perpetrator is not a normal human. 

Such was the one that happened in the early morning of November 13, 1922. 

I, Simon Simoudis, can still recall the day I watched the aftermath of that incident on television, thousands of miles away from the scene. An unknown assailant fatally stabbed four young students from the University of Idaho in an off-campus building in Moscow, while they were asleep. At least this is what we all believed till the autopsy reports came out. 

Four young lives were lost that day. Four students, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, were all around 20 years old.

The autopsy reports revealed that all four were brutally stabbed multiple times, a clear sign of personal hatred and animosity, or of a perpetrator who is not a ‘normal’ human being.

At least one among them wasn’t asleep when she was murdered. Kaylee Goncalves, according to the autopsy reports, had resisted the killer. She had defensive wounds all over her body. That man had stabbed her more than 50 times, totally disfiguring her face, rendering it unrecognizable. Imagine the hatred with which he would have killed her. I, Simon Simoudis, shudder when I imagine what that poor girl must have gone through.

The people who had seen the bodies at the crime scene said the whole scene was gut-wrenching. All were brutally butchered. Their bodies were drenched in blood. It was certainly not a normal murder. A surviving roommate had seen the murderer escaping from their house through the kitchen. His face was covered with a mask, he had bushy eyebrows, and he was around 5 feet 10 inches tall, which is how she described him.

On December 30th of the same year, the suspect, Bryan Kohberger, was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania. The police had enough evidence against him. They had been monitoring his movements for many days before finally arresting him. 

He had carefully planned the murder; he had been stalking his victims for many days. The act was cold and calculated.

Bryan Kohberger was pursuing a PhD at Washington State University, in criminology. This place is just 8 miles from the crime scene. Just two weeks before the incident, he had been reprimanded by faculty members for complaints regarding his objectionable behaviour towards women. He had been diagnosed with autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He also used to write online about his mental health issues. 

And this explains his remorseless, cold behaviour when he was confronted with the family of his victims in the courtroom. He didn’t say anything, not even a simple sorry to those whose lives he had destroyed beyond repair. 

I, Simon Simoudis, watched the family members of the victims giving their statements in the courtroom. Most directly addressed Bryan Kohberger, bluntly telling him that people like him didn’t deserve to live in a civilized society. Their statements were lauded by people all around the world. The mother of one even said that she had forgiven him and moved on. 

The court has rightly sentenced him to life in prison without parole, and it’s sort of closure for most of us, but the families of those four students will live with their wounds till they die.