Idaho Murders: WSU responds to Brian Kochberger’s firing notice

Idaho student murder suspect Brian Kochberger no longer studies or works at the University of Washington, where he studied for his Ph.D. in criminology while he sits in an Idaho jail cell, accused of stabbing four undergrads in the murders.

“Mr. Kochberger does not currently have a teaching assistant and is not currently enrolled at WSU,” said Phil Weiler, the school’s vice president of marketing and communications.

But earlier—before police said he had ambushed a group of students at a home in Moscow, Idaho, just a few miles from the WSU campus.

“Mr. Kochberger was appointed to the teaching assistant position at the University of Washington in the fall semester of 2022,” Weiler explained. “Students usually receive a position as a teaching assistant or a similar appointment as part of their doctoral program.”

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Brian Christopher Kochberger was seen outside the Monroe County Courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania for the first time since his arrest. He is charged with four murders in Moscow, Idaho. (Live image for Fox News Digital)

Koberger previously had a graduate student’s office in the Wilson-Short Hall building and worked as a teaching assistant during his studies.

In response to a report about the letter saying that Kochberger was fired after the December 19 meeting, Weiler declined to elaborate on the deadline, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects student records from public disclosure.

“WSU has not publicly released any information about Mr. Kochberger’s experience as a teaching assistant,” Weiler said.

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Former students said that after the murders, he “seemed preoccupied” and found it easier to learn.

Wilson-Short Hall on the campus of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, home to the school’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

After killing four times just 7 miles from the University of Idaho — a crime that police say Kochberger committed — he continued his studies and ended the semester as a student and teaching assistant.

In mid-December, while investigators were looking for evidence against him, he drove home to Pennsylvania. En route, Dec. 15, police video shows him being stopped twice in Indiana by police officers.

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Kochberger’s white Hyundai Elantra was videotaped in his hometown of Albrightsville, Pennsylvania on December 16, according to court documents. Two weeks later, a task force involving the state police and the FBI arrested him at his parents’ home.

Madison Mogen (top left) smiles on the shoulder of her best friend Kaylie Gonsalves as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and two other housemates in Gonsalves’ last Instagram post, posted the day before four students were stabbed to death. . (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)

The police were looking for the same Elantra after they said they could put it in the house on King Road in Moscow, Idaho, where the murders took place in the early hours of Nov. 13.

“Examination of footage from several videos obtained in the King Road area showed that the suspicious car 1 was seen several times, starting at 3:29 and ending at 4:20,” said the corporal of the Moscow police. Brent Payne wrote a sworn statement about the probable cause. “These observations show that the suspicious vehicle 1 makes the first three passes by 1122 King Road and then drives away.[s] via Valenta Drive.

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On the fourth pass, at 4:04 a.m., a car was seen making an awkward parking attempt and three-point turn in front of the house, according to the claim.

A few minutes later, a neighbor’s CCTV camera recorded the sounds of a struggle – a dog barking, “voices or whimpers” and “loud banging”.

By 4:20 a.m., police said video footage showed the car speeding away from the house.

A surviving housemate told police that she saw a masked man with “thick eyebrows” exiting through the rear sliding door.

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She described him as 5’10” or taller, “athletic” but not muscular.

Koberger is being held without bail in the Lata County Jail on four counts of first-degree murder and burglary. He is due back in court on June 26.