Bryan Kohberger’s Phone Contained ‘Vain’ Shirtless Selfies and Nude Women

Convicted murderer Bryan Kohberger did not delete photos from his phone prior to his arrest for the killings of four University of Idaho students. 

Investigators discovered that Kohberger’s photo roll contained shirtless selfies as well as downloaded images of women who were either fully nude or wearing bikinis, digital forensics expert Heather Barnhart told People in a story published on Friday, August 15. 

“Lots of him posing half naked in the mirror while flexing,” Barnhart said, noting that she didn’t know if Kohberger, 30, had sent those pictures to anybody. 

He had also photographed his 2016 white Hyundai Elantra, which he drove the night he murdered Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin on November 13, 2022.

“Very vain, like American Psycho,” Barnhart remarked of the photos, referencing the 2000 film starring Christian Bale as a serial killer.

In another selfie, Kohberger gave the thumbs-up while standing in the bathroom of his apartment on the Washington State University campus. That photo was taken after he had stabbed the students to death for unknown reasons.

Barnhart said that Kohberger’s photo collection featured no images of the victims nor any of friends and family.

The former criminology student was sentenced in July to four consecutive life sentences — one for each homicide — and an additional 10 years for burglary. 

He had been arrested in December 2024 and charged with the murders after police found evidence including a knife sheath left at the crime scene that contained touch DNA that led back to him.

He initially pleaded not guilty, but later submitted a guilty plea in exchange for removing the death penalty as punishment. 

On Friday, Idaho prison officials responded to his complaints of being bullied in prison.

“We are aware of Kohberger’s complaints about what he considers taunting,” an Idaho Department of Corrections spokesperson told People in a statement. “Incarcerated individuals commonly communicate with each other in prison.”

The spokesperson added that Kohberger is “housed alone in a cell” at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna, Idaho, and noted that “security staff maintain a safe and orderly environment for all individuals in our custody.”

Earlier this week, Chris McDonough, a retired homicide detective, alleged that Kohberger’s fellow inmates were “driving him crazy” and “tormenting him at night and almost all hours of the day — taunting him through the vents in his cell. They are literally getting up into the grate and yelling at him. The inmates are taking it in turns doing it. It’s relentless.”