“If I ever had a reason to believe my brother did anything, I would have turned him in,” Mel Kohberger said in a new interview
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In the three years since Bryan Kohberger killed four University of Idaho students, his family has stayed largely silent. Now, one of his sisters is speaking out.
Mel Kohberger, one of his two sisters, broke her silence on Bryan — who was sentenced to four lifetimes in prison without parole in 2025 after confessing to the 2022 killings — in an interview published in The New York Times on Jan. 3. While Mel did not discuss the crime, she spoke about her childhood with Bryan, her family’s lives since his confession and more.
After first learning of the Nov. 13, 2022, killings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, when a then-unknown suspect broke into their off-campus home, Mel said she reached out to tell her brother to be careful.
“Bryan, you are running outside and this psycho killer is on the loose,” she recalled telling him. In response, she said he told her he would stay safe, and thanked her for her worry.
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Mel described Bryan to The New York Times as socially awkward, occasionally abrasive and prone to arguments with her, but said she never saw him be violent, citing an instance in which he held her hands back to de-escalate a fight between them. Her parents, Maryann and Michael, taught herself, Bryan and their sister Amanda Kohberger to be loyal, self-reliant and put others’ needs ahead of their own, she told the outlet.
When police broke into her parents’ Pennsylvania home in the night to apprehend Bryan following the killings, Mel learned of the arrest through Amanda. She thought it may be a prank at first, and then became nauseated, she recalled.
“She was like, ‘I’m with the F.B.I., Bryan’s been arrested,’” Mel told the The New York Times. “I was like, ‘For what?’ ”
Mel also focused on the impact that being thrust into a national spotlight, particularly given the “true crime culture” of today, had on her family.
At the time of Bryan’s arrest, Mel was in the training stage of a position as a mental health counselor, which she agreed to leave after the employer received an influx of inquiries. People on the internet also found and dissected footage of Amanda acting in a 2011 horror movie that featured stabbings.
Someone has even used the author name “Melissa J. Kohberger” to publish a book about the case, seemingly trying to capitalize on the killings using Mel’s likeness, according to The New York Times. Mel described this as “confusing” and “painful.”
“It’s like being victimized but not really being a victim,” she said.
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Others theorized that the Kohbergers had long known that Bryan had killed the students, which Mel shut down in the new interview.
“I have always been a person who has spoken up for what was right,” she told The New York Times. “If I ever had a reason to believe my brother did anything, I would have turned him in.”
Mel also said that, prior to the killings, she and her family had pride in Bryan for becoming a doctoral candidate in the criminology program at Washington State University in the wake of the adversity he faced. He had dealt with bullying growing up, as well as heroin addiction, per the outlet.
“We were all so proud of him,” Mel said, “because he had overcome so much.”
She also offered insight into the Kohberger family now, explaining that they feel grief that Bryan cannot be with them during the holidays. But this line of thinking would quickly turn to thinking instead of the families of his victims, and their pain, she told The New York Times.
“The idea is making me so emotional that I can barely speak to you about it,” she told the outlet through tears.
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Mel also shared regret about her own past as a true crime fan herself, since being thrust into one of the biggest crime news stories in recent memory.
“It’s human nature to be curious about darker things,” she told the outlet. “That’s how we keep ourselves safe.”
“But I think we should try and come together for a true crime culture that is way more protective and empathetic to the families of the victims,” she added.
