FIRST ON FOX: Idaho student murders suspect Bryan Kohberger once boasted of his daily boxing routine while describing how he “cut fish” and worked as a “meat wrapper” in a security job application obtained by Fox News Digital.
The 28-year-old criminology Ph.D. student turned quadruple-homicide suspect previously wrote that his “special skills” included rigorous punching workouts and a year of youth law enforcement training, in a 2015 job application to work school security.
“I boxed after school every day at the Jesse Harris Boxing Gym on 209 next to Big Cheese Pizza when it was still open,” he declared. “I also attended a year of the Law Enforcement Program and a year of HVAC.”
He was vying to work as either a fill-in janitor, courier or security guard for the Pleasant Valley School District in his Pennsylvania hometown.
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Bryan Kohberger arrives for his arraignment hearing in Latah County District Court, May 22, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022. (Zach Wilkinson/Pool via Reuters)
His employment history showed only two previous gigs – seven months at the Big Brown Fish And Pay Lakes in 2011, and four months in the butcher and produce departments at a BJ’s Wholesale club in Stroudsburg in 2015. He added that he did some side work for his father, a district maintenance worker, learning how to do “pipe work” and HVAC.
Read Bryan Kohberer’s application (Mobile users go here)
Kohberger, pictured in yearbooks as a chubby teen, also appeared to be proud of his weight loss, writing about it in a section where he was asked to describe professional and civic activities.
“I was a boxer, and I am still a runner,” he wrote. “I believe dedication and perseverance are the most important skills learned from my activities. I lost 130 lbs at age 15 into age 16 whilst attending school at PVHS and MCTI. I believe this is proof that I have the required dedication to be successful.”
A side by side of Kohberger’s sophomore Pleasant Valley High School yearbook photo and his senior year. On a job application to the district, he boasted of losing 130 pounds. (Stephanie Pagones/Fox News Digital)
He also claimed to have been a champion “extemporaneous speaker” – a competitive improvisational speaking style.
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Kohberger wound up getting the job for the Pleasant Valley School District, starting out as a “casual” security guard and then earning a promotion to part-timer. The district outfitted him with size 13 boots, several XL shirts, a jacket and pants with a 34-inch waist.
A yearbook photo of Bryan Kohberger in a high school law enforcement class doing a pushup. He referenced this program in his job application as well. (Stephanie Pagones/Fox News Digital)
However, his employment came to an end on June 22, 2021, when he submitted a resignation letter acknowledging that “I understand that if I do not resign, I have a right to a school board hearing to determine if I should be dismissed from employment with the School District.”
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The district declined to disclose further information about his departure, stating that records related to “non-criminal investigations,” complaints, written criticisms of an employee and disciplinary materials are exempt from disclosure under Pennsylvania’s public records laws.
Stock images show a person filleting a fish on a cutting board and, inset, a Ka-Bar knife, the same type of weapon believed to have been used in the Nov. 13, 2022, massacre of four University of Idaho students. (iStock)
The records do show, however, that Kohberger was placed on leave without pay for at least one day in February 2021 due to “expired clearance.”
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Some of Kohberger’s claims in the application may have been exaggerated.
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Charles Conklin, who founded the Big Brown Fish And Pay Lakes in Effort, Pennsylvania, 35 years ago, told Fox News Digital in March that Kohberger didn’t last long on the job and never got any training with a filleting knife.
“When kids come in here, their jobs are to keep the place clean, pick up paper all day long, help customers catch fish, fix poles, and then we try to train them how to fillet fish,” he said. “And if they get good at it, then they can fillet customers’ fish.”
Kohberger wasn’t around long enough to get to that point, he said.
Conklin said they parted ways with him after just three weeks.
But Kohberger, on his application, claimed to have worked there for from March to October.
University of Idaho students, from left, Ethan Chapin, 20; Xana Kernodle, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21. All four were stabbed to death in an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022. (Jazzmin Kernodle via AP/Instagram/ @kayleegoncalves)
“I cut the fish to the specifications of the customer!” he wrote. His reason for leaving, he added, was “needed one season.”
Kohberger went on to complete a master’s degree in criminal justice at DeSales University and began his Ph.D. studies at Washington State University in Pullman last fall.
Shortly before the Thanksgiving break, four students at the neighboring University of Idaho were stabbed to death during a 4 a.m. home invasion, according to the Moscow Police Department there.
Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle,, and two other housemates in Goncalves’ final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. (@kayleegoncalves/Instagram)
The victims were 21-year-olds Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves and 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
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It would be roughly seven weeks before police arrested a suspect – Kohberger – at his parents’ house in the Poconos.
He is being held without bail on four charges of first-degree murder and another of felony burglary. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
Trial is scheduled for the beginning of October.
