Former FBI agent claims Bryan Kohberger had accomplice in Idaho Student Murders who was never caught
Bryan Kohberger’s case has received renewed interest after Netflix’s hit documentary about his horrific quadruple homicide became their most watched tv show.
Called The Idaho Student Murders: College Nightmare, the Netflix documentary told the heartbreaking story of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Maddie Mogen, and Kaylee Goncalves, who were stabbed to death by Kohberger in their home,
Two of their roommates survived, Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, and Kohberger was eventually sentenced to four consecutive life sentences.
In a new interview however, a former FBI agent who has written a book about Kohberger’s case has suggested that there may have been an accomplice that helped the university teaching assistant with his crime.
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Appearing on The Armchair Expert with Dax Shephard, Christopher Whitcomb spoke about the case and promoted his book Broken Plea: The Explosive Search for Truth Behind the Idaho Murders.
Whitcomb is an ex FBI Hostage Rescue Team sniper and a national security analyst, now working as an author.
His book, Broken Plea, makes allegations of a broken custody chain regarding the knife he used to commit the quadruple murders, something that Kohberger actually referenced himself in his recent appeal to overturn his guilty plea.
He does not dispute however that Kohberger killed the four students, but he has revealed in the podcast episode he does not think the killer worked alone.
Speaking to Shephard, he suggests that the crime scene does not indicate a pattern in which he believes Kohbgerger could have achieved the killings alone.
He specifically points towards the death of Ethan and Xana, who were sleeping in bed together. Ethan was not a resident of the house, but was sleeping over with his girlfriend Xana, and Whitcomb questioned how the murderer was able to kill them both.
He said: “How does one person use two hands to choke somebody then beat them and then stab them dozens of times while another woman is lying there.”
Whitcomb continued, saying: “The woman... would have been conscious... she would have woken up. Minimally, you're getting up and running… The woman running away, she'd be screaming at the top of her lungs.”
It is believed that Ethan was killed whilst he slept, whilst Xana had defensive wounds which implied she fought back against Kohberger.
This led Whitcomb to believe that any theory that involves Kohberger killing them alone is flawed, saying: “There's a lot for one person to be managing especially under those circumstances.
“There's a lot for one person to be managing especially under those circumstances… it makes no sense.
“I'm going to say somebody cleaned up the crime scene and I'm going to say he did not do it alone. And I'll sit with any cop. I'll sit with the prosecutor. I'll sit with the defense. I'll sit with anybody and say you show me how this is conceivable. There are things so wrong with what we know about this crime scene.”
A timeline of the Idaho murders
12 November 2022
Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, attend a party at Chapin’s fraternity Sigma Chi. Meanwhile, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Madison Mogen, 21, go to sports bar the Corner Club.
13 November 2022
1.45am - Kernodle and Chapin return home to their house on King Road
1.56am - Goncalves and Mogen arrive home
2.44am - Kohberger’s Hyundai sedan is spotted by a CCTV camera at Washington State University. Shortly afterwards, the car is seen again heading towards a road that connects Pullman, Washington, to Moscow, Idaho, where the victims live.
4am - Bryan Kohberger is believed to have entered the property
4.17am - A security camera reveals the sound of a barking dog, voices and what sounds like a thud. At some point around this time, their housemate Dylan Mortensen is awoken and hears a male voice say: “It's OK, Kaylee, I'm here for you.” She later hears crying and sees a masked man in the property.
4.19am - Mortensen attempts to call Kernodle, Goncalves and Mogen, but all calls go unanswered. She started texting Bethany Funke, saying she’s ‘freaking out’ after seeing a man in a ‘ski mask’. Mortensen joins Funke in her room and they lock themselves in.
11.58am - After Mortensen calls her friend Emily Alandt, she and her boyfriend Hunter Johnson come over to the King Road property. Johnson discovers Chapin and Kernodle's bodies and calls 911.
17 November 2022
Preliminary autopsy results show all four victims were attacked with a large knife
7 December 2022
Police say they are looking to speak to any occupants of a white Hyundai Elantra from 2011-13.
30 December 2022
Kohberger is arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary. Police later reveal they used DNA on a knife sheath to link him to the crime scene, and tracked his car and phone across the area.
22 May 2023
Kohberger remains silent when asked to enter a plea during his arraignment. The judge enters a not guilty plea on his behalf.
26 June 2023
Prosecutors announce they will seek the death penalty.
28 December 2023
The King Road property where the murders took place is demolished to allow the community to heal.
17 April 2024
Kohberger’s defence team claims in court documents that phone mast data shows Kohberger was miles away from Moscow, Idaho at the time of the murders.
4 March 2025
Kohberger’s defence team say he exhibits traits of autism spectrum disorder, and putting him to death would be unconstitutional.
2 July 2025
Weeks before the trial is set to begin, Kohberger pleads guilty to burglary and four counts of first-degree murder.
23 July 2025
Kohberger is sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years for the burglary charge.
He comes face to face with the families of his victims for the first time, who read out impact statements.
Goncalves' sister Alivea gives a powerful statement in court, while Mortensen says she’s suffered from debilitating panic attacks since the night of the murders, telling Kohberger he has taken away her ‘ability to trust the world’.
27 July 2026
Kohberger announces he is seeking to take back his guilty plea and overturn his conviction.
He tells the New York Times: “My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn.”
The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare is available to stream on Netflix now.
Topics: Bryan Kohberger, True Crime, Netflix, TV and Film, Documentaries
Michael Slavin