WSU Failed to Respond to Kohberger Warnings Victims’ families say school received 13 complaints of ‘predatory’ behavior
Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse, for his sentencing hearing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, Pool)
The families of four University of Idaho students killed in 2022 have filed a lawsuit against Washington State University, where Bryan Kohberger was a graduate student, alleging the school failed to act on repeated warnings about his behavior.
According to a complaint filed in Washington state court, relatives of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin accuse WSU of negligence and of violating federal gender-discrimination law under Title IX. The lawsuit claims the university did not respond appropriately to numerous reports concerning Kohberger’s conduct while he was enrolled in its criminology graduate program, describing the murders as a “foreseeable—and, in fact, predictable—tragedy.”
The filing alleges the university received 13 formal complaints describing Kohberger’s behavior as “inappropriate, predatory, and menacing,” particularly toward women. The lawsuit states that some female students were so disturbed by his actions that they left classrooms during lectures, sometimes abandoning personal belongings. It further claims that women on campus felt threatened by behavior such as intense staring, blocking exits, looming over them, and following them to their vehicles, often requiring security escorts. The families argue that the university’s response to these reports was inadequate and negligent.
Attorneys for the families said the lawsuit is not driven by revenge but by a desire to compel universities to respond more decisively to safety concerns. Washington State University declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but told The New York Times that its “hearts remain with the families and friends impacted by this horrific tragedy.”
Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania more than a month after the November 2022 killings in Moscow, Idaho. Investigators linked him to the crime through DNA evidence, surveillance footage, and cellphone data. In July, he accepted a plea deal that removed the possibility of the death penalty. He was sentenced to four consecutive life terms for first-degree murder, along with an additional 10-year sentence for burglary.
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