Seeking to understand the incomprehensible has powered scientific discovery and advanced humanity. But sometimes, it’s better to let a mystery remain. Because the answers, whatever they may be, will never satisfy.
I’m talking here about Bryan Kohberger’s motive for slaughtering four college students at the University of Idaho in Moscow in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022. What statement from him, an investigator or even a psychologist, could ever assuage the ache of our questions?
That he was the victim of abuse somewhere, sometime? That he felt insecure or, conversely, wanted to demonstrate his superiority? Whatever drove him, putting words to it will never counterbalance the horror Kohberger created at 1122 King Road. It can only leave us empty.
I’ve arrived at this belief after many hard years of correspondence and interviews with another mass killer, a man who murdered eight women in upstate New York in the late 1990s. There were all kinds of reasons proffered: The confessed killer, Kendall Francois, wanted a girlfriend; he hated women; he was sexually dysfunctional and humiliated.
In the visitors room at Attica Correctional Facility, Francois told me, “If I knew why I did it, I probably wouldn’t be in here.”
Self-reflection is not a strong suit with these types. A fellow student in the criminology program at Washington State University, where Kohberger was pursuing a Ph.D., told investigators the confessed murderer spoke often about wanting a girlfriend. He had a history of drug addiction. And there have been suggestions of a less-than-perfect childhood home.
None of it matters, because no backstory can match the savagery with which Kohberger murdered those kids. The imbalance is indelible.
Judge Steven Hippler put it best: “I share the desire expressed by others to understand the why,” he said, echoing broad frustration with the lack of any expressed or discovered motive. “But by continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr. Kohberger relevance, we give him agency and we give him power.”
Dig deep enough and you’ll find that evil is indeed banal. When mass murderers do speak, their rationales are always a bore.
Better to embrace life than spend one more minute sifting through the wreckage.
— Claudia Rowe
