Overview
- Mel Kohberger spoke publicly for the first time in an interview published Jan. 3 by The New York Times, saying the family had no clue he was the killer.
- She said the black heart seen at Bryan Kohberger’s July 2025 sentencing was her drawing, sent to signal that his family still loved him.
- Mel recounted warning her brother to be careful after the Nov. 13, 2022, killings and learning of his arrest from her sister during the FBI raid in Pennsylvania.
- She described personal consequences, including leaving a counseling job after a flood of inquiries and facing online speculation and impersonation.
- Bryan Kohberger confessed in 2025 and received four life terms without parole; investigators had linked him to DNA on a KaBar knife sheath using genetic genealogy, and prosecutors say he planned an attack months earlier with a knife bought in March 2022.