A Reddit channel for supporters of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students, has been banned.
Kohberger, 28, is accused of breaking into a Moscow tenement in the early hours of November 13 and fatally stabbing Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20.
He is accused of four counts of murder and burglary. He has yet to file a plea, but an attorney who previously represented him in Pennsylvania — where he was arrested at his parents’ home on December 30 — said he was “eager to be exonerated.”
Since then, fans of Kohberger – formerly a graduate student in criminology at Washington State University at Pullman – have defended him on various social media platforms, while at least one woman has sent him love letters.
Recently, a subreddit called “Brynation” was banned for repeatedly violating Reddit’s moderator code of conduct, according to a notice on the site. There were no further details on how the code, which says moderators must comply with Reddit’s content policy and follow other rules, was violated. Reddit was contacted for comment.
Bryan Kohberger, left, sits with his attorney, public defender Anne Taylor, right, during a hearing in Latah County District Court January 5, 2023 in Moscow, Idaho. Ted S. Warren/Pool-Getty Images
Several groups have appeared on Facebook demanding “justice” for Kohberger.
One such group called Justice for Bryan Kohberger remains active and has more than 3,500 members.
“It’s about whether you can prove you’re innocent. If you cannot prove your innocence, you are presumed guilty. It’s been flipped: now it’s guilty until proven innocent,” reads the group’s description of Ronald Jones – a man wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of a woman and sentenced to death.
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Scott Bonn, a criminologist and author of Why We Love Serial Killers, told NewsNation’s Brian Entin that there’s a “spectrum” when it comes to people fascinated by killers and suspected killers.
“On the one hand there is a healthy curiosity, but on the other hand it can also become obsession,” said Bonn.
“This is not a new phenomenon. In fact, there were cases like Richard Ramirez, the night stalker in the 1980s, he actually married one of his groupies,” he said. “And of course Charles Manson and Ted Bundy and others had legions of groupies.”
Bonn said he believes some are “seeking their own 15 minutes of fame by getting involved in the investigation.”
Others “lack some self-esteem or an emotional deficit where they feel like they can somehow fill that hole in themselves by connecting vicariously with these types of people, and that really leads to the groupie phenomenon,” added he added.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that these really extreme groupies are necessarily mentally ill, but I would say there’s something missing, something that draws them into it.”
A five-day preliminary hearing in the Kohberger case is scheduled to begin on June 26.
