(NewsNation) — Bryan Kohberger has never publicly explained why he killed four University of Idaho students in an off-campus home. But the director of a Netflix docuseries on the murders has a theory.
In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Skye Borgamn, who directed "The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare," believes he targeted the house because it was filled with women.
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At the time of the murders, the house was being rented by Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, who were stabbed to death by Kohberger, along with Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, who was sleeping over.
They also had two other roommates, Bethany Funke and Dylan Mortensen, who survived the attack by locking themselves in a bedroom.
"This was a house that had five women living in it," Borgman said. "The night that the murders happened, Xana Kernodle's boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, was over, but really, this was a house full of women, and it seems quite clear that he targeted it."
In the docuseries, which premiered on July 29, Borgman shared stories from former classmates of Kohberger who described him as "not particularly well liked" and said he often spoke down to women.
One student even reported him to Washington State University police, saying she thought he was following her to her car. At the time, Kohberger was a teaching assistant at the college and subsequently lost his job following the report.
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Goncalves made a similar claim to Funke before the murders, telling her she saw someone "staring at her" while she was walking her dog. The detail was revealed in new interview footage that Moscow police shared in the docuseries.
"He watched the house; he was around the house in the days, weeks and months leading up to the murders," Borgman said. "So, it seems pretty likely that he had a very low regard, if not hatred, for women."
The docuseries also discusses the notion that Kohberger was part of the incel movement. Incels, or involuntary celibates, are part of an online subculture of men who have a deep-seated hostility towards women and believe themselves to be victims who blame women for their lack of relationships, according to the National Institutes of Health.
"It's all conjecture, but he seemed to struggle with his relationships with women," Borgman told Fox News Digital. "And we look at this incel movement and the question of whether or not he was an incel, and whether or not he didn't like women."
Kohberger, a former criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to killing Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, at a house near the University of Idaho campus in Moscow. He was sentenced to four consecutive life terms, avoiding a possible death penalty.
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Kohberger has since petitioned to withdraw his guilty plea, telling The New York Times from prison that he believes he is innocent and did not intend to confess to the killings. "A lot went wrong in those plea discussions," he told the Times. "I really do want that to be heard."
Because Kohberger pleaded guilty weeks before his scheduled trial, a motive for the killings has never been publicly established.
NewsNation's Damita Menezes contributed to this article.
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