Kim Kenely, 27, contacted FBI agents after learning about former sixth-grade classmate Bryan Kohberger’s arrest
FBI agents have interviewed Bryan Kohberger’s middle school crush in hopes of piecing together the psyche of the man they believe is responsible for the gruesome murders of four Idaho college students.
Kim Kenely, 27, contacted the bureau shortly after learning her former classmate had been arrested for allegedly knifing four housemates to death at a university just 15 minutes from where he was studying in November.
The two were sixth-grade students at Pleasant Valley Intermediate School in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, when Kohberger, 28, developed a crush and began romantically pursuing the girl who would go on to be a high school cheerleader.
‘She told the FBI whatever she could tell them,’ Kenely’s mother Sandra confirmed to DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
‘It was so long ago. I couldn’t imagine what she had to tell the FBI. I guess it was for the character purpose.’
Kohberger attended Pleasant Valley Intermediate School in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, where he developed a crush on fellow student Kenely and began pursuing her romantically. They are both pictured in their school yearbook photos
Kenely, 27, now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she works as an occupational therapist at an assisted living facility
Kohberger, then a chubby, awkward misfit, would become relentless in his pursuit, repeatedly leaving love letters in her locker and telling her he liked her, according to the mom.
‘He would always say, “Oh Kim, I think you’re very pretty.” Just like weird comments. And she’d say “Oh my God, leave me alone.”‘
‘She did not give him the time of day,’ the mom noted. ‘When kids are little, they’re mean. They don’t say, “oh my god, thank you, but no.”
Kenely would eventually tell Kohberger to buzz off, breaking his heart.
At the time she lived in Sciota, in rural eastern Pennsylvania, 90 miles north of Philadelphia and a 30-minute drive from Kohberger’s home in Albrightsville.
She has since left the area and now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she works as an occupational therapist at an assisted living facility.
Kohberger seemed to turn his life around in high school where he took up boxing and lost weight
In a yearbook photo, Kohberger’s caption said he aspired to be an Army Ranger. Previously overweight and bullied, he lost about 100 pounds and transformed into a ‘totally different person’
Details about the suspect’s past are now coming to light – including that he was a ‘secluded’ person who used his criminology studies to ‘try to understand humans and understand himself’
Kenely’s awkward schoolyard encounters with Kohberger are among several bizarre accounts to emerge from former friends and witnesses in recent days that paint the picture of a troubled, disgruntled young man who didn’t fit in at school.
He has been charged with brutally killing students Ethan Chapin and his girlfriend Xana Kernodle, both 21, and childhood friends Maddie Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21, in an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho on November 13.
Former classmates have also revealed Kohberger was heavy-set and the subject of bullying and cruel taunts in middle school.
‘The whole clique of popular girls made fun of him in school. They were the cheerleaders and the ones that every kid had crushes on,’ another classmate who did not wish to be identified told DailyMail.com.
‘They literally tortured him, girls started making fun of him in middle school.’
But Kohberger seemed to turn his life around in high school where he took up boxing and lost weight.
‘He was a totally different person. He worked out constantly and was super aggressive,’ the male friend said.
‘He had a short fuse and was constantly trying to change his style and personality to fit in with cliques.’
A third former classmate added: ‘It’s interesting to me that the girls he’s accused of killing were nice looking and seemingly popular, much like the ones that made fun of him throughout his childhood.’
His theory backed that of former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer, who, before Kohberger’s arrest had told Newsweek that she thought the killer could be an ‘incel’ – short for ‘involuntary celibate’, a term referring to men who are unable to attract women sexually.
Kenely is believed to have told FBI agents about her encounters with Kohberger in hopes of helping investigators piece together the psyche of a suspected murderer
In an interview with DailyMail.com, Kenely’s mother Sandra recalled how Kohberger would often leave her daughter love notes in her locker before she finally rebuffed him for good
Coffindaffer speculated that Kohberger could have seen ‘all these beautiful girls go in and out’ of the house and it’s possible his rage and ‘personal, horrific desires’ had gotten the better of him.
She postulated that the killer was ‘an individual with absolutely horrible, murderous desires against these women, a femicide-type case, and it came to a boiling point combined with an opportunity.’
Casey Arntz, who attended high school with Kohberger said he used to get her to drive around his home area in search of drugs.
Her brother Thomas said Kohberger would try to bully others to distract from his own weight problem.
‘He was mean-spirited, he was a bully. I never thought he would do something like that but at the same time it doesn’t really surprise me,’ Thomas said.
A woman called Hayley posted a TikTok video saying she had been on a Tinder date with Kohberger about seven years ago.
After going to watch a movie they went back to her dorm room and watched another and Kohberger kept trying to touch her, she said.
‘Not like inappropriately, just like trying to tickle and like, rub my shoulder and stuff,’ she said.
She proceeded to ask him why he was touching her, which caused him to get ‘super serious,’ she said.
‘I’m not,’ he then said, according to her.
‘You are though,’ she recalls retorting, saying then that Kohberger was attempting to ‘gaslight me into thinking that he didn’t touch me, which is weird.’
She clarified that she did not feel in danger and wasn’t ‘scared of him,’ but did want him to leave after a time, which led her to pretend to throw up in the dorm hall’s bathroom.
She then claimed Kohberger followed her to the bathroom and ‘stood outside the door,’ which she also thought was ‘weird.’
Former high school friend Casey Arntz (left) had previously revealed Kohberger was bullied in school. TikTok user Hayley also posted a video recounting her awkward Tinder date with Kohberger
Kohberger, 28, is accused of murdering Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin on November 13 in the quiet, college town of Moscow, Idaho
Kohberger was studying criminology at Washington State University in Pullman just a 15 minute drive over the state border from the University of Idaho
The vomiting incident apparently put Kohberger off and he left and Hayley said she was glad she never saw him again.
Certainly Kim Kenely’s mother is happy the alleged murderer did not turn her daughter’s head when they were both so young.
‘All those girls he allegedly murdered were blond too,’ Sandra noted. ‘She is definitely creeped out, definitely.’
‘I think a lot of the kids that went to school with him are all like that,’ the mom continued. ‘They can’t believe that this kid could actually murder four people.’
Moscow Police along with state troopers and the FBI, say they have interviewed hundreds of people since the investigation into the mass murder was launched.
They arrested Kohberger, a Ph.D criminology student at Washington State University in Pullman, on December 30 at his parents’ home. He and his father had driven his white Hyundai Elantra across country for the Christmas holidays.
Police say a similar white Elantra was seen near the house on King Road, Moscow, where the quartet were knifed to death, and returned repeatedly.
They say DNA found on a sheath the killer apparently left at the scene matched that of Kohberger family members.
In an affidavit to support the charges, investigators said that Dylan Mortensen, 19, a sophomore at the university and a roommate of the three dead girls, got up when when she heard noises in the house and saw a masked figure she described as ‘5ft 10 or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows.’
The sight of the man froze her in shock and she locked her door and went back to bed.