As Idaho murderer Bryan Kohberger seeks to take back the guilty plea, a neuropsychological evaluation conducted on him over three months ending in February 2025 has been unsealed, offering a glimpse into his mental state, People reported. Kohberger’s defense team hired Rachel Lawson Orr, PsyD, ABPP-CN, to conduct the psych evaluation.
Orr diagnosed Kohberger with four different mental health disorders: autism (level 1), OCD, ADHD and ARFID (avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder). The evaluation revealed that Kohberger previously suffered from additional mental health disorders, including developmental coordination disorder (DCD), depression, anorexia nervosa and opioid use disorder.
Kohberger allegedly used heroin when he was a teenager. Orr’s report claimed that he has been in "sustained remission" from his addiction.
People reported that Kohberger's attorney Anne Taylor hired Orr to evaluate him because she felt that the prosecution might try to point to his mental health issues as "aggravators" in their case against him, which would in turn "[criminalize] his status as a disabled person." Per reports, Taylor was not pursuing an insanity defense with the evaluation.
Orr noted in her findings that a number of unusual characteristics led to her diagnosis of Kohberger, including his "lack of descriptive or emphatic gestures," "atypical speech tone and cadence," "awkward comments," and "inconsistent understanding/acknowledgment of humor." She further noticed his "poor reciprocity of interaction, including very frequently re-focusing of conversation back on his own experiences or unusual responses to my sharing," and wrote that he displayed "impulsive tendencies throughout evaluation."
The Idaho murders
{{/usCountry}}Orr noted in her findings that a number of unusual characteristics led to her diagnosis of Kohberger, including his "lack of descriptive or emphatic gestures," "atypical speech tone and cadence," "awkward comments," and "inconsistent understanding/acknowledgment of humor." She further noticed his "poor reciprocity of interaction, including very frequently re-focusing of conversation back on his own experiences or unusual responses to my sharing," and wrote that he displayed "impulsive tendencies throughout evaluation."
The Idaho murders
{{/usCountry}}In the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, four University of Idaho students were brutally stabbed to death at a rental home near their campus in Moscow, Idaho. The lives of Ethan Chapin, 20; Xana Kernodle, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; and Madison Mogen, 21, were abruptly cut short when Kohberger entered their home and attacked them with a knife.
Kohberger, 30, was a criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University. Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murders. The sentencing took place in a Boise court on Wednesday, July 23, 2025.
Kohberger filed a petition last month to have his guilty plea overturned and seek a trial, saying his plea deal was "hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation" and "MUST be withdrawn,” according to the New York Times.