Bryan Kohberger's childhood friend reveals she's haunted by nightmares after killer's guilty plea

Daily Mail​

6 hours ago

A childhood friend of Bryan Kohberger claims she's haunted in nightmares after discovering he brutally murdered four University of Idaho students.
Casey Arntz, 32, said she used to play with Kohberger when they were children in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, and admitted that she initially didn't believe he was the true killer.
She said she 'spiraled' when Kohberger admitted in a surprise guilty plea this week that he carried out the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20 in their off-campus home in November 2022.
As she looked back on their childhoods together to the Idaho Statesman, Arntz questioned: 'Did he ever have thoughts like that before? Did he ever think that he wanted to kill me or my friends? Were we spared because we were friends with him?
'I'm disgusted that he could actually do something so heinous,' she continued.
Arntz said while she was stunned by the plea deal, she felt that taking the deal 'was better for everyone', because 'He's locked up for life. Let the inside deal with him.'
'I understand why the families are so upset, they were starved for justice, and I would 100% be too,' she added.
Arntz's brother, who also recalled spending time with the future killer while they were children, added to the Statesman that he was particularly thinking about Kohberger's parents.
'I am deeply sorry that Bryan's parents have to live with this as well,' he said.
'I've always thought they were kind people, and they didn't deserve this. And for Bryan, God have mercy on his soul.'
Another former friend, Jack Baylis, 31, said he was also only convinced of Kohberger's innocence after his guilty plea, because if he was innocent he would 'be fighting tooth and nail' to clear his name.
Baylis said he was still in shock at the senseless slayings, and theorized that Kohberger carried out the murders because he wanted to understand the criminal mind for his criminology PhD.
'I think he did it to see what it felt like, to experience it,' he said.
'If he wanted to write a paper about what killers feel and why they kill, to be accurate, you have to experience it yourself to truly understand it.
'To get into the mind of a killer, you have to be a killer, would be my guess.'
Donna Yozwiak, a guidance counselor at Kohberger's school, echoed the Arntz siblings' thoughts as she looked back on her time with the killer.
'I hope that his family will survive this horrendous ordeal and be able to get on with their lives,' Yozwiak said.
'I also hope that the victims' relatives gain much needed closure and heal after this tragedy.'
It comes as Kohberger's plea deal sparked fury among some of the families of his victims, with the family of Kaylee Goncalves condemning how his life behind bars will still mean 'he would still get to speak, form relationships, and engage with the world.'
'Meanwhile, our loved ones have been silenced forever. That reality stings more deeply when it feels like the system is protecting his future more than honoring the victims' pasts,' Goncalves' teenage sister Aubrie, 18, said.
'This last-minute plea deal feels less like an act of justice and more like an afterthought. We are not asking for vengeance. We are asking for accountability.
'We are asking for dignity for our loved ones. And we are asking - pleading - for a justice system that truly lives up to its name.'
Goncalves' father also branded Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson, who handed Kohberger the plea deal, a 'gutless coward' for the move.
'Thompson robbed us of our day in court. No negotiations, no jury of our peers, not even the pretense of cooperation and fairness,' he wrote in a blistering statement.
At the hearing on Wednesday where Kohberger pleaded guilty, Thompson broke down and grew emotional as he detailed the brutal slayings in 2022.
Thompson came under scrutiny after the deal with Kohberger was announced this week, with critics of his decision calling for him to step down after the Kohberger case is closed.
The prosecutor said in remarks at Kohberger's plea deal hearing that if the case had gone to trial, he would have argued that Kohberger stalked the Idaho victims' home in the months before the murders.
Thompson said the state would have argued in court that Kohberger slipped in through a side door, before killing Mogen and Goncalves on the third floor.
He said Kohberger then encountered Kernodle as she came down the stairs to pick up a Doordash order, and killed her with the same Ka-Bar knife he used on her roommates.
He then entered Kernodle's bedroom and stabbed her boyfriend Chapin to death as he slept, Thompson said.
Kohberger's vehicle, a white Hyundai Elantra, was also seen circling the home on 1122 King Road, before surveillance cameras caught it fleeing the scene shortly after the murders at a high rate of speed.
Thompson said that after Kohberger murdered the four students, he then returned to the home at around 9am the next morning and lurked outside for around 10 minutes.
He then returned to his home, and took a selfie of himself in his bathroom, where he looked menacingly into the camera with his thumbs up.