Reply to NYT Times interview with Brian Kohlberger’s sister

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have a weird and kind of aloof brother who has never been violent and I would never jump  to the conclusion that he had committed a mass murder in a neighboring town, even if the police were looking for someone who also drove a blue rav-4. [/quote]

If that brother had a history of mental health problems and called you early in the morning after the murder occurred, and then later suddenly wanted to get his car out of the state, you wouldn't have gotten suspicious?

Well, on a different note, I've got a beautiful bridge you might be interested in...[/quote]

He didn't call the sister early in the morning. He called his mom. And for his mom, it was not "the morning after the murder occurred." It was just... a morning. She lived on the other side of the country and knew nothing about the murders at the time. He'd called at odd hours before. She had no reason to believe his reason for calling this time was related to a news event she had not even heard about.

And he didn't "suddenly" want to get his car out of state. He had told them previously he wanted to get some things out of their house and drive them to his new place in Idaho, and his dad had offered to fly out and do the drive with him because it was so long. His dad had already bought a ticket when the murders occurred and, again, the family was not thinking about any of this in the context of the murders because to them, the murders were a separate news event that had nothing to do with their family.

If I had a very odd brother who drove a white Elantra, regardless of model year, I'd be highly suspicious.

A white Hyundai Elantra is a very, very common car. It is likely you know a person who drives that car. White is the most common car color. Elantras are affordable and have good resale value, so there are a lot of them on the road. If I heard about a horrific crime involving a Subaru Forester or a Nissan Sentra, I would not immediately assume that one of the people I know with those cars committed the crime. I would think "huh that car is very popular, it's going to be really hard for them to find the killer." Like it wouldn't even cross my mind.

You are making the common error of thinking that a piece of information you have already learned (that Brian Kohlberger killed four people) should always have been obvious to everyone even before literally ANYONE knew, including his family. In fact the only reason the police honed in on Brian is because his DNA was found on the knife, something it took weeks to learn because of how long DNA analysis takes. Before that, no one was looking at him and the fact that he drove a white Elantra and lived near the murder scene was not viewed as relevant by anyone.[/quote]

You're being far too quick to dismiss the significance of the car. This isn't a highly populated area, there are only about 90,000 people in the census area that covers the two towns and surrounding area. The number of white 2011-2015 Elantras there is probably very roughly on the order of 50 or so cars (and some are probably fleet vehicles). That puts him in a very small set of suspects before even factoring in the other things.

There were lots of reasons to be suspicious, if someone was open to considering them. But the family probably wasn't.[/quote]
2011-2015 wasn’t the date range put out, it was 2011-2013. It defies logic to suggest that the family should have done something with the information that he drove a white 2015 Elantra, or done some research into how many white Elantras were owned by people within that census area and assumed that the police were really looking for a 2015 and not a 2011-2013 model.[/quote][/quote]

If I had a very odd brother who drove a white Elantra, regardless of model year, I'd be highly suspicious.[/quote]

You'd be suspicious that he stabbed four college kids in the middle of the night? Really? It would be extremely hard for me to believe that anyone I was related to or close friends with had committed this crime unless I'd seen them be violent before. This is a very, very heinous crime. I can't imagine anyone doing this, not even the oddest or most troubled person I know. It is unfathomable.[/quote]

I'm still confused why you find an apparent lack of prior violent behavior to be suggestive of innocence.

If this was a domestic violence situation, or some sort of heat-of-the-moment attack, then sure. Maybe even if it looked like some sort of revenge killing. But it never looked like that. It quickly looked like a planned murder of people chosen opportunistically and somewhat randomly.

I wouldn't expect such a murderer to have an openly violent history. I would expect them to look something more like a sociopath. [/quote]

PP here. I don't think his lack of prior violent behavior is proof of his innocence. I don't think he's innocent. He pled guilty. His DNA was at the crime scene. His car was seen at the crime scene. He ordered a knife matching the murder weapon prior to the murder. He did it.

But I only know all that because I am NOW privy to details from the investigation. The family didn't know any of that. All they knew is that some college kids who lived somewhere in the vicinity of Brian were murdered and that both the killer and Brian drove a similar, fairly nondescript vehicle. And that Brian had never physically harmed anyone before. They didn't know about the knife. He had no connection to these kids at all. His behavior was the same as it always was -- weird but normal *for Brian*.

The idea that they should have suspected he was the killer when he had ZERO history of violent behavior and the only connection the family could possibly have made was a car that I'm sure did not seem terribly unusual to them is a huge leap. You don't discount of a lifetime of knowing, living with, even fighting with and being exasperated by a person you have never been known to be physically violent, and suddenly suspect they are a murderer because they also drive a similar but pretty nondescript white sedan.

He's guilty, and also it is unreasonable to expect his family on the other side of the country to have figured that out before or even at the same time as the police who were investigating the crime, given his lack of connection to the victims and, at the time, the total lack of public evidence connecting Brian specifically to the crime.[/quote]

That's not what I meant. I meant the nature of the murders didn't seem to fit someone with a violent history. So why would the lack of a violent history make them less likely consider him as a potential suspect?

I still think the car on its own would be enough to start thinking about it. Even if it's initially more from the perspective of being worried the police might falsely suspect him. I know the year didn't match. And I think the sister mentioned at. But I just can't fathom someone really thinking "oh, they're looking for a 2011 or 2013 white Elantra, which could never be confused for a 2015 white Elantra." Maybe people really would think that? Seems nuts, but perhaps if you know cars well you might think other people should know cars well?

Also, the phone call still looks odd to me. I know they said he would call early, but how often did that really happen? Even if it's once a week, that's an awfully big coincidence. That makes it unusual enough that the mother and father would probably remember he had called early in the morning the same day there were murders early in the morning. Even if you don't view that with suspicion, it seems like something you'd remember. e.g., if he called from out of the house, their minds might jump to worry at the thought of him potentially crossing paths with the murderer. That kind of thinking seems consistent with other things the sister said.

Why do I think that matters if it wouldn't be (initially) viewed with suspicion?  Because if they have that thought initially, they'd probably recall that thought after hearing about the car.

Don't get me wrong, I've come around to thinking they didn't suspect him. I'm just a little confused why they didn't suspect him.[/quote]

Again, you are thinking about this from the perspective of someone who is very focused on the murders. Someone for whom the murders were something on their mind a lot of the time.

If Brian's family had lived in the area where the murders occurred, I do think they would have suspected him. But they didn't. They lived far away. They weren't thinking about the murders. They weren't thinking about "the day of the murders" as an important date, and thus the fact that Brian called that day didn't register.

I wonder if the people making these arguments are just used to following true crime cases where the family and friends all live near where the murder happens and might even know the victims. Obviously that's going to greatly change your investment. But in this case the murderer was a very recent transplant to where the murder happened and almost all his family and friends were very far way. It absolutely made it harder for anyone to be 2 and 2 together here even though obviously Brian was not really that careful with this crime and was ultimately easy to tie to the murder. But entirely because of his own choices and not because people in the community were going to be able to tie him to the case.[/quote]

I thought the family was thinking about the murders. Didn't the sister say she was worried for him because he would go on runs and not lock his door? I assume that sort of concern wasn't unique to her.[/quote]

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