Brian Kohberger ate vegan cookies and played Christmas party games with his family before being captured, his sister revealed

University of Idaho killer Kohberger ate vegan cookies and played Christmas games while FBI agents surveilled him in the days leading up to his arrest in December 2022, his family revealed.

Kohberger, now 31, returned to his family’s home in Pennsylvania for the holidays in the weeks after the brutal murders in Moscow, Idaho, but made little mention of them despite living just 15 minutes from the scene.

His sister, Mel Kohberger, remembers him saying: “Brian, you’re running out and this psycho killer is on the loose. Be careful.” Kohberger thanked her for checking on her and said she would be safe The New York Times.

In a new interview with The Times, Mel Kohberger said she was thrilled to see her brother home for Christmas and gave him a big hug. Her brother had always been socially awkward and was recovering from a heroin addiction, she said.

“We were all proud of him because he had won so much,” she told the newspaper.

It comes just weeks after the bodies of four University of Idaho students, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Jana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, were found in their off-campus home. Police have not shared much information about any of the suspects they are pursuing.

Mel Kohberger recalled that before FBI agents walked out the door to arrest him on Dec. 30, the family played a TV party game and ate vegan cookies his mother made to accommodate his brother’s new, strict diet.

At one point, after she cut her finger on some aluminum foil, Kohberger helped her sister clean and bandage the wound, despite reportedly being disgusted by the blood.

Despite his proximity to the scene, days before the explosive FBI raid, Kohberger had only briefly mentioned the murder, telling his family that police were still searching for a suspect.

Unknown to him and his family, investigators zeroed in on Kohberger as a suspect within days of his return to Pennsylvania, asking for the public’s help in identifying a white Hyundai Elantra seen driving in the area on the night of the murder.

Police officers raided the home in the early hours of December 30, 2022, when Kohberger and her parents were home alone, entering the room at gunpoint and handcuffing her.

Mel Kohberger Customs The Times She got a call from her sister Amanda. “She was like, ‘I’m with the FBI, Brian has been arrested,'” she told the outlet. “I was like, ‘For what?’

“Murder in Idaho,” her sister replied. Kohberger said she immediately wondered if she was joking before getting sick.

In July 2025, nearly three years after the murders, Kohberger was sentenced to death in prison for the “senseless murders” of four Idaho college students after refusing to reveal his motive.

Judge Steven Hippler condemned Kohberger to spend the rest of his life in prison for committing “unspeakable evil” as he sentenced him to four consecutive life sentences, plus an additional 10 years for burglary, without the possibility of parole.

The family, including Mel Kohberger, has continued to support the victim’s family and vehemently denied having any knowledge of what they may have planned.

“I’ve always been someone to speak up for what’s right,” she said. “If I had reason to believe my brother had done something, I would have turned him in.”