Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger has cheering section in niche social media groups

Supporters of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger have created social media groups to defend the accused killer.

That includes a private Facebook group called “Justice for Bryan Kohberger” that is 3,000 members strong, as well as sympathetic threads on Reddit pages such as r/BryanKohberger and r/Brynation.

The cover photo of the Facebook page features an image of Mr. Kohberger next to a quote from Ronald Jones — a Chicago man who in 1989 was wrongly convicted of raping and killing a mother of three. Mr. Jones was sentenced to death, but the conviction was later overturned and he was exonerated.  

“There is just something so magnetic about Bryan,” a Mr. Kohberger supporter who frequently posts on Reddit told Fox News Digital. “If he really did creep women out, I don’t know why. If he stared at me intensely I would have walked over to him.”

Mr. Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology doctoral student, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder for the Nov. 13 killings of University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, 20; Xana Kernodle, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; and Madison Mogen, 21.

He was arrested at his parent’s home in Pennsylvania on Dec. 30 and extradited to Idaho days later, where he is currently being held. Mr. Kohberger could face the death penalty if he’s convicted.

Female students at the University of Idaho had previously said that Mr. Kohberger made them uncomfortable because he stared at them on campus.

He was also investigated for his conduct around female students while working as a teaching assistant at Washington State University, including one complaint that Mr. Kohberger followed a woman to her car.

Faculty at the school’s criminology department found that Mr. Kohberger wasn’t guilty of any wrongdoing in that case, but he was ultimately fired from his TA job because of his lack of professionalism.

A single mother from Kentucky had also referred to Mr. Kohberger as her “divine masculine” and wrote lengthy, diary-like Facebook posts about the accused killer.

The suspect’s next court date won’t be until June. He has not entered a plea in the case.