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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To not be able to stop thinking about the Idaho murder case

550 replies

Rickandmortified100 · 07/01/2023 14:45

Is anyone else following this case? It’s absolutely horrible and has really scared me to the point of locking my bedroom door when I sleep every night! The more that comes out in the news, the more bizarre and confusing the case seems to get too. So scary to think what people are capable of 😞

OP posts:
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5
TidyDancer · 07/01/2023 17:57

I've been following this a bit, it's horrific.

The layout of the house might be the easiest and most obvious explanation for why two of the housemates survived. Their bedrooms were on the ground floor and may not have been clear that they were bedrooms (on the floor plan) perhaps?

Also I think what is the ground floor is known as the first floor in the US which may have caused some confusion initially over here.

Aurorabored · 07/01/2023 17:58

What a surprise it’s on Tattle.

Spiderboy · 07/01/2023 18:10

TidyDancer · 07/01/2023 17:57

I've been following this a bit, it's horrific.

The layout of the house might be the easiest and most obvious explanation for why two of the housemates survived. Their bedrooms were on the ground floor and may not have been clear that they were bedrooms (on the floor plan) perhaps?

Also I think what is the ground floor is known as the first floor in the US which may have caused some confusion initially over here.

One of the roommates slept on the same floor as 2 of the murders and witnessed the killer leaving

WinterFoxes · 07/01/2023 18:25

@FangedFrisbee Thank you.

Bookkeys · 07/01/2023 18:29

Potterurotter · 07/01/2023 17:49

@Bookkeys what? Do you mind linking

Should be able to read them here
it does take a little while to load on reddit once you've clicked it

AmazonianAvatar · 07/01/2023 18:50

Adult DD had me up last night discussing this. She’s a bit of a crime buff but I think that’s because she wants to try to make sense of the senseless, not a ghoul before someone jumps on. This case is being discussed at length by many, many people and there’s lots that doesn’t add up.

How come the accused’s father drove home with him on the 2500 mile trip? The car was being used by the accused in Idaho as it was picked on camera up numerous times in the area. The father lived in Pennsylvania according to reports. Why was he in Idaho?

Xana’s body was apparently found in the bedroom doorway. How come the survivor on the same floor didn’t see it but saw the accused walking past her bedroom door? How was she close enough to see his bushy eyebrows in the dark but he didn’t see her? He’d just murdered 4 people in minutes. Why leave a witness?

How come noises and screaming was picked up on neighbour’s security cameras but someone on the same floor didn’t hear the sounds of two people on the same floor being murdered? One was a well built young man.

Not sure if the recording is authentic but a female was picked up as saying ‘leave me alone’. Would you be saying that if someone was coming for you with a knife?!

Did all 4 victims not make any obvious sounds while being stabbed to death especially as there were 2 people in each room and we know at least one was alive.

Who opened the door to the food delivery at 4am? The packaging was on the side of the sink so was obviously opened and eaten. How long would it take to eat a burger etc? So Xana was eating her food and on Tik Tok while her roommates were being murdered upstairs? Did she have headphones on?

Surely the accused knew he’d dropped his knife sheath somewhere.He would have noticed as soon ad he went to dispose of the knife. If he went back the next morning when the house was still silent and there was no police there, why didn’t he pick it up? It was apparently prominently displayed right on one of the beds! He was doing a PhD in Criminology!

Really doesn’t add up.

Shunkleisshiny · 07/01/2023 19:03

MadeForThis · 07/01/2023 16:28

It seems crazy he can incapacitate and stab 4 people in 16 minutes. No one heard anything. And at least one person was awake. It's very strange.

When Ted Bundy broke into the Chi Omega sorority house at 3am, on a rampage he bludgeoned 2 of the poor girls to death and sexually assaulted 2 of the other girls all within an hour.
Apparently Bundy had watched the house for a couple of days, and noticed the door was broken and could not be locked.

MadeForThis · 07/01/2023 19:30

I suppose you can't apply reason and logic to a psychopath.

XelaM · 07/01/2023 19:34

Sorry, haven't read the whole thread, but has a motive been released yet? Were the victims known to him? Why was he watching them?

XelaM · 07/01/2023 19:35

It appears none of the victims were sexually assaulted, so why did he kill them?

DigitalTranny · 07/01/2023 19:48

XelaM · 07/01/2023 19:34

Sorry, haven't read the whole thread, but has a motive been released yet? Were the victims known to him? Why was he watching them?

You can find lots of videos about the case on YouTube. There is a kind of psychological profiling of him (very sketchy though, it’s still early days) titled Mindhunter Dr. Ann Burgess & Dr. Gary Brucato on Kohberger arrest.

Annaissleeping · 07/01/2023 20:00

I wasn't thinking much about it beyond finding it very sad but every other video on my TikTok FYP is now linked to this and I have got sucked in. I feel for the families so much - it's a bit like the Sarah Everard case (and many others) in that the victims should be alive. It's such a senseless waste of life. I can't imagine how the families in these situations ever come to terms with their losses.

I find this case particularly fascinating just because the accused clearly thought he was clever and knew more than the average person about criminology but made so many stupid mistakes. I heard one person say he may have spared the last 2 lives in the house simply because it's completely exhausting murdering that many people in such a short space of time. He might have crashed, energy wise. I suppose it will be picked apart during the trial. I think what heartens me is the police were clearly onto him extremely quickly and only waited as long as they did to arrest him to build the most solid case they could. It's almost impossible to get away with this kind of crime nowadays.

Annaissleeping · 07/01/2023 20:02

XelaM · 07/01/2023 19:35

It appears none of the victims were sexually assaulted, so why did he kill them?

I've read that the case shows signs of him being an incel and he targeted the kind of people incels detest - attractive, happy people who are clearly successful romantically. And also that he simply wanted the thrill of killing and outsmarting the police/the system. There's also the appeal of being a famous serial killer like Bundy and having everyone talking about you

But I guess we will never know for sure.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 07/01/2023 20:18

There's a theory doing the rounds that only one of the occupants was his intended victim - she didn't live there but had come to stay that one night.

He killed the others as they were either in the room with her, or saw him as he was leaving.

User12453315 · 07/01/2023 20:24

Tiktok has blown up this case and these are some reasonable points to the big questions:

How come the accused’s father drove home with him on the 2500 mile trip? The car was being used by the accused in Idaho as it was picked on camera up numerous times in the area. The father lived in Pennsylvania according to reports. Why was he in Idaho?
It's a ridiculously long drive and not unreasonable to imagine a father wanting to help his son after an exhausting semester. Maybe they enjoyed father-son road trips before so the journey itself was a planned experience.

Xana’s body was apparently found in the bedroom doorway. How come the survivor on the same floor didn’t see it but saw the accused walking past her bedroom door? How was she close enough to see his bushy eyebrows in the dark but he didn’t see her? He’d just murdered 4 people in minutes. Why leave a witness?
This has me baffled too. Some 3D renderings of the floorplan claim that she was never in his direct line of sight and maybe it was possible that she saw his profile in passing. Considering he stalked the house 12 times in the past and followed everyone on social media he definitely knew there were two more roommates and where they slept. One theory is that he let two live to make the case more complicated. That points to them as the obvious suspects and at one point armchair detectives were convinced it was Dylan's boyfriend. He had some disturbing photos of himself wearing a balaclava and those went viral on social media.

How come noises and screaming was picked up on neighbour’s security cameras but someone on the same floor didn’t hear the sounds of two people on the same floor being murdered? One was a well built young man. Not sure if the recording is authentic but a female was picked up as saying ‘leave me alone’. Would you be saying that if someone was coming for you with a knife?! Did all 4 victims not make any obvious sounds while being stabbed to death especially as there were 2 people in each room and we know at least one was alive.
If they were ambushed in their sleep then it's possible that they didn't make much sound, out of shock and confusion. The security camera only picked up a thump and a few screams I believe and it was on the other side of Kaylee's room. I also think that many people don't react the way we may assume based on films and TV. Eg Victims of sexual assault also often report being silent instead of attempting to fight off the attacker or draw attention. Same for a midnight stabbing...the mind is probably in shock and screaming means you have to accept someone is trying to kill you. The more logical, self-preservation part would try to rationalise it away as a prank, a hazing ritual at the wrong address (big frat houses nearby) or even a bad lucid dream.

Who opened the door to the food delivery at 4am? The packaging was on the side of the sink so was obviously opened and eaten. How long would it take to eat a burger etc? So Xana was eating her food and on Tik Tok while her roommates were being murdered upstairs? Did she have headphones on?
The theory is that she went to sleep soon after as she was in her room and not the kitchen when it happened. Another reasonable explanation is that party houses are utterly chaotic (only understandable by people who have lived in them) so noises, shouting, screaming and random things happening at all hours is not often a cause of alarm. She could well have had noise cancelling headphones or assumed noises were coming from a film, an argument with someone's guest, drunk people from the nearby party etc. This seems like a believable reason why Dylan waited so long before calling the cops. She may have seen Bryan looking creepy AF but she thought it was someone's guest leaving and just wanted to sleep at that point (it was 4:00am) so locked herself in her room and slept.

Surely the accused knew he’d dropped his knife sheath somewhere.He would have noticed as soon ad he went to dispose of the knife. If he went back the next morning when the house was still silent and there was no police there, why didn’t he pick it up? It was apparently prominently displayed right on one of the beds! He was doing a PhD in Criminology!
He would not have risked being seen by one of the surviving roommates. He stalked the house 12 times so he knew exactly who was living there. I think he may have just been passing to see whether there were cop cars outside rather than the genuine intent of picking up the sheath. There is strong speculation that he was posting under the account Pappa Rodgers on Facebook and that person repeatedly said that a knife sheath was left at the scene. If it had been a sore mistake, why would they draw attention to it.

The things that are still open for me are:

Why was he not shitting himself when the FBI released his exact car make and model? It was clear now that the police feigned ignorance at the beginning but releasing the car seems like a huge deal. They risked him unaliving himself like Brian Laundrie once they realised the cops were onto him.

Why is nobody talking about the fact he shows clear signs of incel ideology. The rapid weightloss was part of the "gymcel" concept where improving physical appearance may improve your chances with women. He also picked girls to stalk who were clear "Staceys", hot popular girls that are despised yet desired by incels.

Another contentious topic is that he doesn't appear entirely neurotypical. The obsessiveness, social awkwardness, rigidity to rules, restrictive eating and the fact he actually comes from a relatively normal and loving home so it wasn't a product of abuse. A waitress from a restaurant posted their Christmas table reservation shortly after the arrest on Tiktok. His mother specifically requested a table with dim lighting which is pretty odd. Maybe she knew he had sensory issues or she was aware he had injuries on his hands and was hoping to hide them from other witnesses.

Busybody2022 · 07/01/2023 20:28

User12453315 · 07/01/2023 20:24

Tiktok has blown up this case and these are some reasonable points to the big questions:

How come the accused’s father drove home with him on the 2500 mile trip? The car was being used by the accused in Idaho as it was picked on camera up numerous times in the area. The father lived in Pennsylvania according to reports. Why was he in Idaho?
It's a ridiculously long drive and not unreasonable to imagine a father wanting to help his son after an exhausting semester. Maybe they enjoyed father-son road trips before so the journey itself was a planned experience.

Xana’s body was apparently found in the bedroom doorway. How come the survivor on the same floor didn’t see it but saw the accused walking past her bedroom door? How was she close enough to see his bushy eyebrows in the dark but he didn’t see her? He’d just murdered 4 people in minutes. Why leave a witness?
This has me baffled too. Some 3D renderings of the floorplan claim that she was never in his direct line of sight and maybe it was possible that she saw his profile in passing. Considering he stalked the house 12 times in the past and followed everyone on social media he definitely knew there were two more roommates and where they slept. One theory is that he let two live to make the case more complicated. That points to them as the obvious suspects and at one point armchair detectives were convinced it was Dylan's boyfriend. He had some disturbing photos of himself wearing a balaclava and those went viral on social media.

How come noises and screaming was picked up on neighbour’s security cameras but someone on the same floor didn’t hear the sounds of two people on the same floor being murdered? One was a well built young man. Not sure if the recording is authentic but a female was picked up as saying ‘leave me alone’. Would you be saying that if someone was coming for you with a knife?! Did all 4 victims not make any obvious sounds while being stabbed to death especially as there were 2 people in each room and we know at least one was alive.
If they were ambushed in their sleep then it's possible that they didn't make much sound, out of shock and confusion. The security camera only picked up a thump and a few screams I believe and it was on the other side of Kaylee's room. I also think that many people don't react the way we may assume based on films and TV. Eg Victims of sexual assault also often report being silent instead of attempting to fight off the attacker or draw attention. Same for a midnight stabbing...the mind is probably in shock and screaming means you have to accept someone is trying to kill you. The more logical, self-preservation part would try to rationalise it away as a prank, a hazing ritual at the wrong address (big frat houses nearby) or even a bad lucid dream.

Who opened the door to the food delivery at 4am? The packaging was on the side of the sink so was obviously opened and eaten. How long would it take to eat a burger etc? So Xana was eating her food and on Tik Tok while her roommates were being murdered upstairs? Did she have headphones on?
The theory is that she went to sleep soon after as she was in her room and not the kitchen when it happened. Another reasonable explanation is that party houses are utterly chaotic (only understandable by people who have lived in them) so noises, shouting, screaming and random things happening at all hours is not often a cause of alarm. She could well have had noise cancelling headphones or assumed noises were coming from a film, an argument with someone's guest, drunk people from the nearby party etc. This seems like a believable reason why Dylan waited so long before calling the cops. She may have seen Bryan looking creepy AF but she thought it was someone's guest leaving and just wanted to sleep at that point (it was 4:00am) so locked herself in her room and slept.

Surely the accused knew he’d dropped his knife sheath somewhere.He would have noticed as soon ad he went to dispose of the knife. If he went back the next morning when the house was still silent and there was no police there, why didn’t he pick it up? It was apparently prominently displayed right on one of the beds! He was doing a PhD in Criminology!
He would not have risked being seen by one of the surviving roommates. He stalked the house 12 times so he knew exactly who was living there. I think he may have just been passing to see whether there were cop cars outside rather than the genuine intent of picking up the sheath. There is strong speculation that he was posting under the account Pappa Rodgers on Facebook and that person repeatedly said that a knife sheath was left at the scene. If it had been a sore mistake, why would they draw attention to it.

The things that are still open for me are:

Why was he not shitting himself when the FBI released his exact car make and model? It was clear now that the police feigned ignorance at the beginning but releasing the car seems like a huge deal. They risked him unaliving himself like Brian Laundrie once they realised the cops were onto him.

Why is nobody talking about the fact he shows clear signs of incel ideology. The rapid weightloss was part of the "gymcel" concept where improving physical appearance may improve your chances with women. He also picked girls to stalk who were clear "Staceys", hot popular girls that are despised yet desired by incels.

Another contentious topic is that he doesn't appear entirely neurotypical. The obsessiveness, social awkwardness, rigidity to rules, restrictive eating and the fact he actually comes from a relatively normal and loving home so it wasn't a product of abuse. A waitress from a restaurant posted their Christmas table reservation shortly after the arrest on Tiktok. His mother specifically requested a table with dim lighting which is pretty odd. Maybe she knew he had sensory issues or she was aware he had injuries on his hands and was hoping to hide them from other witnesses.

The bedroom the 2 on the second floor were killed were round the corner from the surviving victim's room. There is no direct line of sight.

The housemate who ordered the food was still on tik tok at 4.12am. Murders were done latest by 4.20. Her food arrived 4am. She was awake but we do not know where. The two upstairs appeared to be asleep. Ethan, his whereabouts were unknown.

Ravenrobin309 · 07/01/2023 20:29

@AmazonianAvatar

Completely agree with you. It's a very confusing case. Everyone is saying about Dylan (which is very odd ) but also Bethany also didn't hear anything when neighbours camera's caught it. Old tenants of the house have said you could hear people walking. Very creaky house. Dylan will have a tough time on the witness stand.

Kaylee dad said there is a connection and she had the worst wounds so I'm guessing she was the target. So then why did he kill x and e?. I think he attacked ethan as he was sleeping and then xana. So he purposely went into their room.

How was there not a blood trail everywhere !

Murdoch1949 · 07/01/2023 20:33

It is a highly unusual killing spree by someone who seems like a serial killer afficionado. The risk to anyone in the UK is infinitesimal.

The police affidavit is both informative and concerning. The knife sheath being left on the bed of the 2 girls who seem to be his first targets is weird. Would a criminal studies student make such a schoolboy error, or was this done on purpose? His continual wearing of CSI gloves when out and about at parents' house (where he was monitored for days by FBI) is also odd. DNA matching seems to indicate that he is the killer, let's hope so. The victims' families deserve justice. As he's pleading not guilty, at the moment, the court case will be fascinating, and hopefully live on Court TV.

Michellexxx · 07/01/2023 20:37

NotAnotherBathBomb · 07/01/2023 17:21

I've been listening to a podcast that is following this. A search of his phone record showed him to be in the area I think it was 14 times in the period leading up to the murders. So he was definitely staking out the place.

Which podcast is this? I’d be interested in listening to that.

FartOutLoudDay · 07/01/2023 20:41

the fact he actually comes from a relatively normal and loving home so it wasn't a product of abuse

I mean… we really have no way of knowing that right now. His family is hardly going to come out and say “oh yeah, we starved him of love and affection and abused him so that’s why he is the way he is”. It’s possible he was groomed by incel culture, it’s possible it goes back further than that. We will probably never know. Assuming he’s guilty, of course!

RitaFires · 07/01/2023 20:45

The affidavit is absolutely chilling, in the prior reports I'd seen they said nobody saw anything and everyone was asleep. To find out a surviving roommate had heard them say there was somebody in the house and then later saw the killer leaving is so shocking. I feel really horrible for the roommate, people don't always act logically under stress but to not alert the authorities for hours is quite extreme.

Wasn't the knife standard issue from the Marines? He may have left the sheath intentionally as a red herring.

MynameisJune · 07/01/2023 20:53

I think he left the sheath on purpose but didn’t realise he had left his DNA. It said they found a single source of DNA on the clasp. So I think he cleaned it and left it because he didn’t think they’d link it back to him and he wanted to know he was smarter than the cops.

There was a lot of redacted info on the affidavit, so I don’t think that we can judge what the room mates heard or saw until after the trial when all info is out. They’re clearly still holding a lot back as they should. No one wants him to get off on a mistrial.

The timeline of 16 mins baffles me, and I think unless they have rock solid evidence it could be the thing the defence latch onto in order to create reasonable doubt. Can’t say on tiktok but putting it here, I have an awful feeling he will be acquitted of this. I really hope I’m wrong but the whole thing is so bizarre.

Oneofthosenothingdays · 07/01/2023 21:04

I read that police weren’t contacted for 8 hours? Is this true, if so, why not?

Someo · 07/01/2023 21:10

This case has baffled me also. It's awful. On every picture or video they all look so young and happy. They had their whole lives ahead of them.

I'd like to know what the motive was. I also don't get how someone who was seemingly rather clever made such a mistake as to leave a knife sheath behind. Unless he wanted to be caught? Wanted the notoriety?

TheDietStartsTomorrowOrMaybeTheDayAfter · 07/01/2023 21:11

Isn’t is a bit suspicious at all that that girl failed to call for help for like 6 hours though? Maybe it’s innocent and she was just terrified but maybe there’s something more to it.