(NewsNation) —The family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the victims of Bryan Kohberger, is planning on suing the university he attended where several classmates flagged his disturbing behavior prior to the 2022 murders of four Idaho students.
Kohberger was a teaching assistant and graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in criminology at Washington State University when he carried out the killings.
Court records revealed that classmates and even professors had lodged concerns and complaints about Kohberger for unsettling and inappropriate behavior.
“We filed this lawsuit to seek accountability and transparency from Washington State University. Our goal is to understand what went wrong, to ensure that no other family endures the same tragedy, and to honor the memory of those who were lost. We trust the legal process to uncover the truth, and we will not be making further public comments while the case is pending,” an attorney for the Goncalves family said in a statement to NewsNation.
Bryan Kohberger’s troubling behavior at Washington State University
Kohberger’s former professor told Idaho State Police during the murder investigation that he was “obsessed” with serial killers, wrote a paper on burglary and was flagged by several female classmates for sexist behavior.
The professor, who wasn’t named in the documents, told investigators that she warned other professors and supervisors that Kohberger might be a predator.
She also recalled several incidents of female students citing concerns over Kohberger’s sexist and condescending remarks as well as harassment.
“Kohberger would go into an office where several female grad students worked and physically block the door,” the professor said. “Once in a while, she would hear one of the female grad students say, ‘I really need to get out of here,’ and she would intercede by going into the office and allowing the female student to leave,” the report stated.
In another incident, a female student came to the professor crying over Kohberger aggressively disagreeing with her to the extent that she felt she needed to leave the area.
The professor also told investigators she felt like he was “stalking people.”
Staff member at Washington State University said Bryan Kohberger had at least 9 complaints against him
According to investigation records, text messages were sent between professors who discussed setting up a possible “intervention” over Kohberger’s “creepy behavior.”
One professor warned that if Kohberger received his doctorate, he would likely “stalk, harass and sexually abuse future students.”
Some female staff members stated that they had requested escorts to their cars after work as a result of Kohberger following people at times.
At least nine complaints had been filed against Kohberger, a staff member told investigators.
Kohberger’s conduct was described as rude and belittling toward women, which contributed to a mandatory behavior-expectation training for all graduate students.
A graduate student who worked with him described him as dominating conversations, hovering in doorways, and intensely staring at people, which made her uncomfortable.
These incidents occurred prior to the murders of Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
Kohberger accepted a plea deal weeks before he was set to go to trial for the murders of four Idaho college students. That deal took the death penalty off the table, and he was handed four life sentences.