He Wasn’t There: Kohberger’s Chilling Jail Behavior & What It Really Says About His Mind

He Wasn’t There: Kohberger’s Chilling Jail Behavior & What It Really Says About His Mind

This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brussi. Here now, Tony Brussi. If you’re expecting remorse, regret, or even a shred of self-awareness from Brian Cobberger after his arrest, you’re not alone. I was thinking maybe a shred. But according to those who’ve shared a cell block with him, what you get instead is silence, cleanliness, routine. A man taking to himself obsessively. A man who even after allegedly slaughtering four people, it’s not allegedly anymore. He did say more concerned with personal order than moral consequence. And it doesn’t stop in jail. We’re now learning from classmates, colleagues, and workers at Washington State University that Kobberger’s social behavior before the murders was already raising some eyebrows. Reports say he made female students uncomfortable, over corrected in conversations, asked strange questions, and seemed out of sync like someone who was rehearsing human interaction rather than actually experiencing it. Yet, no one stepped in. But what can you do? No one flagged him as dangerous. But even if you do, what do you do? He was awkward, sure, unsettling, yeah, but dangerous? Well, that leap and those dots had not yet been connected. So, how does someone like that slip through? How does a man go from being a socially isolated academic to an accused killer to a killer without anyone recognizing the signs in real time? In this segment, I’m joined again by psychotherapist and author Siobhan Scott, author of this book, The Minds of Mass Killers. Check it out wherever you get books. who helped us decode what Kobberger’s reported post arrest behavior reveals about his internal world and how people like this maintain the illusion of normaly right up until the moment they don’t. So Siobhan, let’s get into it on his jail house behavior, obsessive cleaning, withdrawal, self-t talk. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get into it. Someone like a Coberger, someone like him with his issues with what we know of his dark sexual type desires. as we know like what he was looking up it was you know horrible things and basically focusing on doing things to unconscious women um happened to also be in the college realm of things. So that was this was all part of a fantasy even though there was no SA at the scene or anything like that certainly uh this was a crime that seems to have been built uh on that sort of motive. Have you ever seen any case where someone’s reformed after going down a dark road like this? Maybe not killing, but someone who’s like, “This was I I didn’t I didn’t go that far, but I I went this far in my mind.” Does this I mean if this is how your sexual fantasies are running your life and and and how your brain is working and what your body and mind are telling you what you like, do you can that be reversed or is this one of those things where it’s like well once a predator always a predator? That’s a really hard question. Um, I have seen people certainly in institutions, you know, if I went in to just do an assessment with somebody, can they get out? Can they not get out? That kind of thing. Um, do they know how to talk the talk of I’m recovered from this stuff? I have seen some that do. Mhm. But does that mean that if released that they would not slide right back into it and reaffend again or are they just really good con artists? Uh I I don’t know that I have evidence either way for that. But certainly in in forensic mental health institutions where they get lots of therapy and they attend groups and and yeah, sex offenders can supposedly learn certain skills at controlling their desires and channeling themselves in healthier ways. But certainly the earlier you catch somebody who’s going down an aberant path like teenagers and you can find teenage sex offenders, you know, and if they get into treatment earlier, the odds are probably better that they can be redirected and reign some of this stuff in. But I tell you, it would make me really nervous if if let’s say I had a neighbor who had those tendencies and then said, “Oh, but I went to therapy and I’m better now.” I’d still keep my eye on him, you know. Yeah. I don’t think I’d ever feel comfortable with anybody like that. I mean it’s I guess I mean there are if you look at it more like should it be looked at more as I mean I’m not in any way trying to downplay this but as more of an addiction in someone um I mean it’s horrible abhorent behavior but is it is it really an addiction more than just really really bad judgment um and and and and should it be handled more in that way in terms of of of of trying to find a place for these people to live where I mean there’s plenty of alcoholics who don’t want to drink that continue drinking. I would imagine is that the case in the the soffender world where there’s people that don’t want to do that but there it’s that much of an impulse that much of an addiction. Oh very very much very much. Even, you know, I have worked with pedophiles who know what they do is terrible. But they know they can’t be alone with a child. Yeah. And even though, you know, some of them have said, “I hate myself. I wish I’d never been born. You know, I’m suicidal because of these horrible things I’ve done.” Um, and these were people who were not incarcerated. But they they knew they had these behavioral safeguards in I am never alone with children, even my grandchildren. And you know, it’s a scary thing because at what point is the addiction going to override that desire to not reaffend again? And that’s yeah, that’s insane. I mean, it’s scary. And then I mean, it’s it’s it’s it’s not I mean, they know that the problem is there. They know they they don’t want to do it, but they won’t be alone with their grandchild because their whatever the hell that is in them that’s driving them is stronger than their knowledge of knowing that that would destroy the life of someone you care about. Yeah. Or person in general. That’s Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Treatment is very much um similar in addiction. It’s, you know, when you’re early in your recovery from alcoholism, you don’t go hang out in bars. You know, you you don’t go to parties where everybody’s going to be drunk. I mean, you have to manage yourself behaviorally and avoid high-risisk situations. And it’s very true for for sex offenders in the same way. Don’t allow yourself to ever be in a situation where there’s going to be temptation. Mhm. Let’s talk about uh some of his behaviors uh in jail, the obsessive cleaning that we’ve heard about, the uh the social withdrawal, talking to himself. Um having really bizarre demands, you know, wanting vegan food only cooked in certain pans. Obviously, I think he got his vegan food, but I don’t think they uh honored the pan request. Um, how does that fit within like known psychological patterns of other mass killers post crime or does it? I don’t think it does. Um, you know, he clearly has clinical obsessivecompulsive disorder and my guess is that these kind of rigid behaviors and the need for control over his diet and all these other kinds of things that he becomes fixated on that this is old old news for him. This is how he’s been probably for years. And when he’s under stress, it may intensify. It may get a bit worse. And clearly being incarcerated is going to be stressful for anybody. And so there may be an amplification of these symptoms, but this is part of his OCD. And certainly you can see with serial killers that they have a lot of obsessive tendencies. You know, as you use the word addiction, they’re kind of addicted to this process. Um, but not all have clinical OCD in the way that they need these rituals and these really rigid kinds of things. I mean, is there a level of disassociation that’s going on with this? I mean, just like requaga [Music] in the pan you cooked a beef steak in. I mean, it’s like, what? What? Um, and and I mean, then there’s other aspects, too, to this case. just I mean the the standing silence when when he was asked to plea and his utter lack of any emotional reaction when the victim impact statements were being read and and and and he was being sentenced. I mean is was he present for any of that mentally or or just does it mean nothing to him? Yeah, I I wouldn’t call it dissociation, which is, you know, sort of in a different category, but I would say it’s cold. Um, he’s in control. Why should he say anything in court? He doesn’t need to. And no reaction to victim impact statements. He doesn’t feel any guilt. He’s not sorry. He’s probably sorry he left the knife chief there. But um if this was a guy with empathy, he wouldn’t have murdered four people in a brutal way like this for no reason. No reason that would make sense to the rest of the world. You know, this is a guy who has no moral compass. He operates very differently in the world from the rest of us. So all these things are things I would expect. Here’s what sticks. Brian Coberger didn’t say a word at sentencing. No statement, no apology, no explanation, nothing. And in many ways, that silence might have been the most revealing thing he’s ever done. As Siobhan made clear, these aren’t just personality quirks. This kind of psychological detachment, the obsessive need for control, the ritualistic self-containment, it all adds up. And it all tells a story, not just of who Cobberger may have been before the murders, but who he was becoming long before anyone ever took notice. It’s easy to spot a threat when someone’s screaming. It’s much harder when they’re silent, methodical, and hiding in plain sight under the cover of just being weird. Kobeer didn’t wave a red flag. He whispered it repeatedly, and no one heard it loud enough to act. That’s the disconnect between how someone behaves and how we’re conditioned to interpret it, between what we fear and what we dismiss. And it’s a gap we have to close, especially when the stakes are this high. Because the next person pacing in a jail cell, scrubbing a sink until their hands bleed, might not be remorseful. They might just be replaying the moment everything finally went according to plan. Tell me what your thoughts are in the comments section on YouTube. If you’re not already there, search Hidden Killers with Tony Brussi and you will find us there. Make that same search wherever you download podcasts so you don’t miss any of our coverage there. Two places, audio, video. Take them both wherever you go. Hit subscribe on both platforms. And importantly, too, let us know your thoughts on this case in the comments on YouTube. Until next time, my name is Tony Bruski. We’ll talk again real soon. Want more on this case and others? Then press subscribe now and don’t miss a moment of true crime coverage from Tony Brusski and the Hidden Killers podcast.

He Wasn’t There: Kohberger’s Chilling Jail Behavior & What It Really Says About His Mind

After the headlines faded and the trial was over, Bryan Kohberger sat in jail—and what surfaced next was every bit as disturbing as the crimes themselves. In Part 3 of this powerful series, psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins Tony Brueski to dissect what Kohberger’s reported behavior in jail actually reveals about his mental state.

Inmates described him as cold, fastidious, withdrawn. Talking to himself. Obsessive about order. According to sources, he wasn’t violent—but he was “not present.” So what does that mean? And is it a glimpse into his psyche, or a calculated act of control?

Together, we explore the psychological implications of his silence during sentencing. His refusal to apologize. His rigid demeanor and reported lack of reaction to the details of his own crimes. Shavaun walks us through what this type of behavior says about remorse, detachment, and identity in mass killers.

Was he disassociating? Was he emotionally flat because of pathology—or performance? How does someone so socially disconnected fly under the radar long enough to commit a crime of this scale? And how does jail change someone like that—if at all?

This episode pulls back the curtain on a man who avoided emotional expression but may have been revealing far more than he realized.

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