Director of new Idaho murders doc weighs in on unsettling theory behind Bryan Kohberger's choice of house
Bryan Kohberger took his motive for killing four college students to his prison cell, but the director of Netflix's The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare believes she may have an explanation for what drove him.
The 31-year-old is currently serving four consecutive life sentences after fatally stabbing University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen, at their off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022.
And while Kohberger never revealed his motive for the killings, despite pleading guilty to the heinous crimes, Skye Borgman, director of the Netflix docu-series The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare, has floated a theory of her own.
"The fact that was the house that he chose. This was a house that had five women living in it. The night that the murders happened, Xana Kernodle’s boyfriend, Chapin, was over, but really, this was a house full of women, and it seems quite clear that he targeted it," she said, speaking with Fox News Digital.
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Borgman added: "He watched the house; he was around the house in the days, weeks and months leading up to the murders.
"So, it seems pretty likely that he had a very low regard, if not hatred, for women."
The director noted that her theory was purely 'conjecture', but pointed out that the killer 'seemed to struggle with his relationships with women'.
"And we look at this incel movement and the question of whether or not he was an incel, and whether or not he didn’t like women," she continued.
"It seems to me that there was a hatred of women there."
But it's not just the director who came to this conclusion.
The documentary shows classmates describing him as 'not particularly well liked', and that he frequently spoke down to women long before the murders were committed.
He reportedly engaged in 'mansplaining', and several students found that his behavior was 'creepy' and made them feel uncomfortable to a certain degree.
Moscow Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger said in the documentary: "There were just strange incidents and strange behavior."
'I don’t think any of us will ever know'
Despite proposing theories, the Netflix director ultimately believes we will never find out what led Kohberger to committing such brutal attacks on the college students.
"I would love to, I think, along with the rest of the world, know why he did what he did," she told the outlet.
"But it is one of those things that I don’t think any of us will ever know. That’s a frustrating thing for myself … and I know especially for the families. They wish so truly that he had been forced through the terms of his plea deal to give us more information about the why of it all."
A timeline of the Idaho murders
November 12 2022
Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, attend a party at Chapin’s fraternity Sigma Chi. Meanwhile, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Madison Mogen, 21, go to sports bar the Corner Club.
November 13 2022
1.45am - Kernodle and Chapin return home to their house on King Road
1.56am - Goncalves and Mogen arrive home
2.44am - Kohberger’s Hyundai sedan is spotted by a CCTV camera at Washington State University. Shortly afterwards, the car is seen again heading towards a road that connects Pullman, Washington, to Moscow, Idaho, where the victims live.
4am - Bryan Kohberger is believed to have entered the property
4.17am - A security camera reveals the sound of a barking dog, voices and what sounds like a thud. At some point around this time, their housemate Dylan Mortensen is awoken and hears a male voice say: “It's OK, Kaylee, I'm here for you.” She later hears crying and sees a masked man in the property.
4.19am - Mortensen attempts to call Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen, but all calls go unanswered. She started texting Bethany Funke, saying she’s ‘freaking out’ after seeing a man in a ‘ski mask’. Mortensen joins Funke in her room and they lock themselves in.
11.58am - After Mortensen calls her friend Emily Alandt, she and her boyfriend Hunter Johnson come over to the King Road property. Johnson discovers Chapin and Kernodle's bodies and calls 911.
November 17 2022
Preliminary autopsy results show all four victims were attacked with a large knife
December 7 2022
Police say they are looking to speak to any occupants of a white Hyundai Elantra from 2011-13.
December 30 2022
Kohberger is arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary. Police later reveal they used DNA on a knife sheath to link him to the crime scene, and tracked his car and phone across the area.
May 22 2023
Kohberger remains silent when asked to enter a plea during his arraignment. The judge enters a not guilty plea on his behalf.
June 26 2023
Prosecutors announce they will seek the death penalty.
December 28 2023
The King Road property where the murders took place is demolished to allow the community to heal.
April 17 2024
Kohberger’s defence team claims in court documents that phone mast data shows Kohberger was miles away from Moscow, Idaho at the time of the murders.
March 4 2025
Kohberger’s defence team say he exhibits traits of autism spectrum disorder, and putting him to death would be unconstitutional.
July 2 2025
Weeks before the trial is set to begin, Kohberger pleads guilty to burglary and four counts of first-degree murder.
July 23 2025
Kohberger is sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years for the burglary charge.
He comes face to face with the families of his victims for the first time, who read out impact statements.
Goncalves' sister Alivea tells him that if her sister hadn’t been sleeping when he attacked, ‘Kaylee would've kicked your f**king a**’.
Meanwhile, Mortensen says she’s suffered from debilitating panic attacks since the night of the murders, telling Kohberger he has taken away her ‘ability to trust the world’.
July 27 2026
Kohberger announces he is seeking to take back his guilty plea and overturn his conviction.
He tells the New York Times: “My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.”
Topics: Crime, Documentaries, Film and TV, Netflix, Bryan Kohberger
Mia Williams