Bryan Kohberger's phone records show his creepy loner lifestyle: ‘It's Bates Motel … just super eerie'
The 30-year-old former criminology student used his devices to look up sick porn — searching 'raped,' 'forced,' 'passed out,' 'voyeur' and 'sleeping' — and take creepy selfies that he had no one to send to, according to digital forensic experts Jared and Heather Barnhart, who had been slated to testify at his trial before his surprise plea deal admitting the Idaho slayings.
He would then call his parents all the time, even to fall asleep — while hardly having any friends, the experts revealed Thursday on NewsNation's 'Banfield.'
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'He had 18 personal contacts. Eighteen,' Heather Barnhart said.
4 Bryan Kohberger's phone records revealed creepy details about him, including who he called.
KYLE GREEN/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock
'So think about all the people you meet and the hundreds of random numbers,' she said — while noting that even the 18 he had were impersonal entries, like ''girl I ran with,' 'second girl I ran with,' a contact, and in parentheses 'hair.''
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'But then there was 'Mother' and 'Father' and his sister and just a few others. Eighteen,' the expert said.
The killer would even stiltedly call his parents 'Mother' and 'Father' in text messages — which reminded the forensics experts of a big-screen 'Psycho.'
'It's Bates Motel,' Jared Barnhart said, referring to the setting of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film that then became the title of an A&E prequel in 2013.
'It is this feeling of that movie and 'Mother,' and it's just super eerie,' he said.
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4 Forensic experts Heather and Jared Barnhart told NewsNation that Kohberger only had 18 contacts in his phone.
NewsNation
The killer — who is serving four life sentences behind bars — was so attached to his parents that it seemed like he needed to speak with them just to fall asleep at night, Heather Barnhart explained.
'If one [parent] didn't respond, he would reach out to the other,' she said. 'He would constantly text them and call them, starting as early as five or six in the morning … And then also at night, to almost talk him into going to sleep and being able to rest.'
4 Kohberger also mostly only communicated with his parents who he eerily referred to as mother and father.
Indiana State Police/Mega
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The forensic pair also said that Kohberger would take selfies, sometimes shirtless and flexing his muscles, but wouldn't send them to anyone, including the infamous selfie he took of giving a thumbs up just hours after he carried out the gruesome murders.
'He didn't have friends to send this to,' Healther Barnhart said of the selfie, featuring Kohberger's distinctively bushy eyebrows, a trait one surviving victim used to describe him.
'Yeah, it was normal for him to take selfies and do nothing with them. They weren't sent to a person,' Jared Barnhart said.
4 Kohberger admitted to killing four University of Idaho students in their off-campus house in November 2022.
Moscow Police Department
Kohberger also searched disturbing terms on the internet, including 'raped,' 'forced,' 'passed out,' 'voyeur' and 'sleeping,' the Barnharts said.
'The easiest way to say it is that all of his terms were consistently around nonconsensual sex acts,' Jared Barnhart said.
Kohberger tried to wipe his search history, but he didn't do a thorough enough job to conceal his sick curiosities, the pair said.
The Barnharts — who run a forensics company called Cellebrite — had been prepared to testify at Kohberger's highly anticipated trial, which was originally scheduled to begin this month.
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Kohberger, however, copped a plea deal weeks before the trial, which allowed him to avoid facing the death penalty and which his victims' families say deprived them of answers.
Kohberger admitted to slaying Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle on Nov. 13, 2022 in their off-campus house in Moscow.
After his sentencing, Kohberger was transferred from jail to a prison where his fellow inmates have been psychologically tormenting him by yelling into the vents that lead to his cell at all hours of the day.
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