MOSCOW, Idaho — Bryan Kohberger appears to have called his mother at least four on the day he killed four University of Idaho students, according to a digital forensics expert who looked through his phone and hard drive.
The expert, Heather Barnhart, spoke exclusively with People.com to share her findings in the case. Barnhart has worked digital forensics for the Gabby Petito case, the Delphi murders and the capture of Osama Bin Laden.
According to Barnhart, he called his mother, Maryann, multiple times after the murderers.
He first called his mother at 6:13 a.m. that morning, but she didn’t answer, Barnhart told People.
The students were killed around 4:20 a.m.
Eventually, his mom picked up and they spoke for just over half an hour, Barnhart said. According to Barnhart, another call followed at 8:03 a.m. and last about 54 minutes.
This means that Kohberger and his mom were on the phone as he drove back to the crime scene, according to Barnhart.
According to Barnhart, Kohberger referred to his parents as “mother” and “father,” and had them labeled as such in his phone.
“And he would go back and forth texting: ‘Father, why did mother not respond? Why is she not answering the phone?” Barnhart told People.
KIRO 7 has gone through hundreds of pages of documents. We have not seen this mentioned in the documents that have been released so far.
Investigators say Kohberger returned to the home on King Road around 9 a.m. and was on the phone with his mother around that time.
It’s unclear how long he lingered at the scene, but police were not called until noon.
He apparently spoke with his mother two other times on Nov. 13, the day of the murders.
If Kohberger did not plead guilty, Barnhart would have been called in to testify about how Kohberger tried to hide his movements by powering his phone off.
Barnhart said this move ended up being extremely revealing.
“When he powered it off, it was from a human pressing a button, and the battery was at 100 percent charged,” Barnhart says to People.
One of Kohberger’s early alibis about why his phone pinged him in the area of the crime scene: he claimed he was “star-gazing.”
“If you’re stargazing and taking pictures of the sky, your phone needs to be on,” Barnhart says, referencing a comment made by her husband in a court filing, according to People.
During his sentencing, Maryann and sister Amanda were present. Kohberger largely ignored them. His father and other sister were not at the sentencing.
©2025 Cox Media Group
