"Monster - with a heart!"— Perez Hilton reacts to wild theory that links Bryan Kohberger's unexpected guilty plea with his mother

The guilty plea of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of brutally murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022, has left the public grappling with unanswered questions. While the legal proceedings saved the state from a protracted and taxing trial, the timing of Kohberger’s decision, just several weeks before jury selection was scheduled to start, has been the subject of speculation.

On July 4, 2025, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton uploaded a tweet dubbing Kohberger a "monster - with a heart!" while dissecting the theory that the killer’s sudden surrender may have been driven by his mother.

"Murderer #BryanKohberger is a monster - with a heart!", Hilton wrote.

Howard Blum, journalist and author of When the Night Comes Falling: A Requiem for the Idaho Student Murders, wrote a piece for the Daily Mail on July 2, 2025. He claimed that Bryan Kohberger's lawyers threatened that if the case went to trial, his parents, and perhaps even his sisters, could be called to the witness stand.

This possibility, according to Blum’s sources, greatly unsettled Kohberger. Citing Howard Blum’s Daily Mail column, Hilton said,

"Blum was told by a source close to the family that this potential outcome was what caused Kohberger to finally just give up the fight and plead guilty. Inneresting. We can’t help but wonder… If his mother was really the one who kept him from pleading guilty all that time… Was she also the one who convinced him to flip when she realized she’d be put on the stand?

---

Family testimony concerns may have influenced Bryan Kohberger's guilty plea

On November 13, 2022, four students at the University of Idaho, Madison Mogen (21), Kaylee Goncalves (21), Xana Kernodle (20), and Ethan Chapin (20), were stabbed to death in an off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho. Investigators later tracked down Bryan Kohberger, a 30-year-old PhD criminology student at Washington State University, as the suspect on the basis of DNA evidence.

Throughout the two years, Bryan Kohberger protested his innocence, despite increasingly mounting evidence against him. Investigators found his DNA on a knife sheath at the crime scene, his car had been near the victims’ home around the time of the killings, and he could not provide a decent alibi. But even as his defense team was said to have been pressing for a plea deal, Kohberger resisted until now.

On Wednesday, July 2, 2025, the 30-year-old stood and confessed to the killings in exchange for a life sentence; in doing so, he avoided the death penalty.

Legal analysts cite recent courtroom setbacks as a likely factor. Judge Steven Hippler denied the defense’s “alternate killer theory,” which attempted to bring in four other suspects, with minimal proof. According to sources close to journalist Howard Blum, the possibility of his family being called to testify is what prompted Bryan Kohberger's change of heart.

In the hours after the murders, records indicate that Kohberger called his father. Prosecutors would have likely pressed both parents about that conversation.

A month after the killings, Bryan Kohberger and his father drove from Idaho to Pennsylvania in his white Hyundai Elantra, which matched the make and model of the car local police had been seeking. They were stopped twice but were allowed to continue on their way. Blum’s sources claim Kohberger was “distraught” on the trip and confided in his father about troubles at work.

When Kohberger was home for the holidays, he was said to have donned a pair of surgical gloves and carefully sorted his garbage, which upset one of his sisters enough that she pressed their father about it.

Blum’s sources indicate that Kohberger’s mother, Maryann, had been a leading proponent for his initial not-guilty plea, perhaps motivated by denial or a need to shield the family name.

According to the BBC, whilst Bryan Kohberger’s plea brought an end to legal proceedings, the victims' families had mixed emotions. Steve Goncalves, father of victim Kaylee Goncalves, said he was frustrated with the agreement, which he said was like a “deal with the devil", as they also wanted more closure about the murders. On the other hand, Madison Mogen's family said that they found comfort in the resolution, stating,

"We support the plea agreement 100%. We turn from tragedy and mourning... to the light of the future. We have closure."

---

Bryan Kohberger will be formally sentenced on July 23, 2025.