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Pullman, Washington

C hief Gary Jenkins, head of the Pullman Police Department, looks at his list of questions and then up at the intern candidate he’s Zooming with.

The name of the guy staring back at him on the screen is Bryan Kohberger. Jenkins has no idea where he’s from or where he’s situated for their online meeting. He certainly has no idea that just last month Kohberger purchased a Ka-Bar knife, sheath, and sharpener on Amazon for unknown purposes.

What Chief Jenkins does know is that Kohberger is an incoming graduate student and teaching assistant in the well-regarded criminology department at Washington State University. WSU—or “Wazzu,” as it’s called—is in Pullman, so it’s on Jenkins’s beat.

Kohberger has applied for an internship with the Pullman PD.

Chief Jenkins can see the guy is hyper-focused. Not much else stands out about him, good or bad.

But there’s something odd about him that makes Jenkins say later he didn’t think this guy would be able to build trust in his department. There’s something antisocial about him.

They chitchat for thirty minutes.

Chief Jenkins winds up giving the internship to someone else. And he doesn’t think much about the guy after that. Barely remembers his name, even.

Bryan packs up his gear, his new knife included, and gets in his car for the long road trip to the other side of the country. WSU is in Pullman, Washington, on the border of Idaho. The Pacific Northwest.

Elliot Rodger gave himself one last chance before planning his day of retribution—he moved cities, went from LA to Santa Barbara for college.

“I realized that my miserable, lonely virgin life was going to continue and my only hope was to give Santa Barbara a try,” Rodger wrote.

Bryan puts the key in the ignition.

One last try.