Families of University of Idaho Murder Victims Sue the School That Killer Bryan Kohberger Attended for Damages By Madison E. Goldberg 23

The families of the four students killed in their home at the University of Idaho in 2022 are suing the school that the victims’ killer, Bryan Kohberger, attended for his Ph.D. at the time he carried out the murders.

According to court documents reviewed by PEOPLE on Friday, Jan. 9, the families of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin are suing Washington State University (WSU) for damages.

The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of Washington in and for Skagit County on Wednesday, Jan. 7, alleges that Kohberger was “an employee with a known history of threatening, stalking and predatory behavior.”

WSU, located in Pullman, Wash., is only 10 miles across the border from Moscow, Idaho, where Kohberger carried out the murders.

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The “plaintiffs seek to hold WSU liable for its own decisions and actions to remain idle in the face of known extreme and repeated instances of discrimination, sexual harassment and stalking by Kohberger occurring in its educational program,” reads the 126-page complaint obtained by PEOPLE. “… That ultimately culminated in Kohberger stalking and murdering the decedents.”

The lawsuit continues, “WSU brought Bryan Kohberger to Pullman, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest, to serve as a Teaching Assistant in the Criminal Justice and Criminology Department, while he also worked to obtain a Ph.D., with a study focused on sexually motivated burglars and serial killers. Kohberger was heavily reliant on WSU, which paid him a salary, provided free on-campus housing, medical benefits, and free tuition, all conditioned on his behavior and subject to being revoked.”

The documents reviewed by PEOPLE allege that WSU failed to issue consequences for Kohberger’s inappropriate behavior, which the families of his victims believe paved the way for him to carry out the four fatal stabbings.

“Almost immediately upon his arrival to the Pullman-Moscow community, Kohberger developed a reputation for discriminatory, harassing, and stalking behavior, instilling substantial fear among young female students and fellow WSU employees, necessitating regular security escorts for multiple females,” the documents read.

Judge Steven Hippler sentenced Kohberger, 30, to four lifetimes in prison without parole for the murders of four University of Idaho students, plus 10 years for a burglary charge and $270,000 in fines and civil penalties.

The convicted murderer appeared in an Idaho courtroom in July for his sentencing hearing, three weeks after appearing in the same Boise courtroom and confessing to the murders of those four friends:  Mogen, 21; Goncalves, 21; Kernodle, 20; and Chapin, 20.

The four were found brutally stabbed to death inside a Moscow, Idaho home on Nov. 13, 2022.

“Before WSU brought Kohberger to the Pullman-Moscow community, he had a history of heroin addiction, had been arrested for theft, and had made numerous posts over a period of years on public online forums commenting about his inability to feel emotion and ‘crazy thoughts,'” the new lawsuit from the victims’ families reads.

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The lawsuit also states that Kohberger was previously removed from a vocational program when he was in high school due to “problems with women” and that “local business owners had become so alarmed at his behavior toward young women that staff kept electronic notes about him to warn female staff when he arrived.”

“It is critical for universities to promptly identify and appropriately respond to stalking behavior,” the lawsuit said, arguing that WSU did not adequately respond to numerous allegations of stalking and harassment brought against Kohberger.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.