The families of four University of Idaho students who were stabbed to death in 2022 by a student at nearby Washington State University have filed a civil suit against the school, saying authorities failed to respond to numerous warning signs of the killer’s inappropriate behavior.
The families of the four victims say administrators at Washington State, where the killer, Bryan C. Kohberger, was a graduate student in criminology and worked as a teaching assistant in the months before the horrific attack, failed to take meaningful action after receiving reports that he was stalking students and other women.
The suit, filed Wednesday in a Washington state court, argues that the university’s alleged inaction caused or contributed to the deaths of students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. The families are seeking damages for violations of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination at public universities, and for neglect of the university’s duty to protect the community.
“The victims’ families have come together with a common goal: to seek transparency, accountability and meaningful reform,” the families’ attorneys said in a statement. “This effort is not about retaliation or speculation. Rather, it is about ensuring that institutions responsible for youth safety take threats seriously and act decisively when warning signs are present.”
Pam Scott, a spokeswoman for Washington State University, declined to comment on the allegations Thursday. “Our thoughts remain with the families and friends affected by this horrific tragedy,” she wrote in an email. “As this is a legal matter, we are declining further comment at this time.”
The trial comes about six months after Mr. Kohberger pleaded guilty to first degree murder and burglary. A judge sentenced him in July to life in prison without the possibility of parole after he signed a plea deal that spared him the death penalty.
The four students were found dead in a home near the Idaho campus in the town of Moscow, about seven miles from the Washington school, in November 2022. Three of the victims resided there and the fourth, Mr. Chapin, was visiting his girlfriend there.
After Mr. Kohberger’s conviction, law enforcement released records of their investigations, which the families’ lawyers said helped paint “a disturbing picture of institutional inaction in the face of repeated and dire warnings.”
“These failures are not the result of a lack of authority or available safeguards, but rather a lack of accountability at critical times,” the families’ lawyers said in a statement.
The lawsuit says Mr. Kohberger “developed a reputation for discriminatory behavior, harassment and stalking” that Washington State University “allowed” to continue.
As early as mid-September of that year, it is said, professors were considering making an “intervention” with Mr. Kohberger because of his treatment of female students, and by September or October, a professor thought he was stalking people.
The lawsuit claims the university received at least 13 formal complaints and that women feared for their safety in his presence. Some asked to be escorted to their vehicles when he was present and developed informal warning systems to protect each other when they needed to interact with Mr. Kohberger, the suit alleges.
Less than two weeks before the killings, Mr. Kohberger was called to a meeting with faculty members to discuss concerns about his behavior, the Times previously reported. The university’s concerns about his behavior at the school intensified after the Nov. 13 killings, even though authorities had not yet identified him as a suspect. In response to these concerns, the university fired Mr. Kohberger from his teaching assistant position in early December, shortly before his arrest at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania during the university’s winter break.
The decision to fire him was based on his unsatisfactory performance as a teaching assistant, Times reporting showed, including his failure to meet “standards of professional behavior.”
