Bryan Kohberger worked as fish cutter

Bryan Kohberger spent four months working as a fish cutter in Pennsylvania — years before he allegedly knifed four University of Idaho students to death last year, according to a new report.

Charles Conklin, owner of Big Brown Fish and Pay Lakes in Effort, Pennsylvania, told People magazine that Kohberger worked for him as a seasonal employee for four months while in high school in 2011.

Conklin said he trained Kohberger how to slice raw fish using industry-standard blades – but that he barred him from interacting with customers due to his demeanor.

“He never warmed up and got friendly. Most kids that work here, we consider like family,” he told the mag. “He was withdrawn and didn’t show improvement.”

Retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer told NewsNation Now that familiarization with a knife could be important for understanding his alleged murders using a large blade.

“As an investigator, you’re looking at not only why did they commit a crime, but how did they commit a crime and their weapon of choice,” the former fed told the outlet.

“Why not manual strangulation or using a ligature or even blunt force trauma? But no, he chose a knife, and when I saw this on this application, I thought, ‘Wow, he has at least a familiarization with knives, comfortable enough to seek employment using one,’” she said.

Records obtained by Coffindaffer and provided to the news outlet also show that Kohberger worked as a security guard for the Pleasant Valley School District in Pennsylvania.    

“I think that’s really important because we’ve known he was book smart, but now we know he’s had practical application thereof,” Coffindaffer told NewsNation Now.

Late last year, Kohberger was fired as a teaching assistant at Washington State University – where he was a PhD candidate in criminology — after it investigated him for run-ins with a professor and his behavior toward women.

On Sept. 23, 2022, he had a verbal “altercation” with Professor John Snyder, whom he was assisting, according to a termination letter obtained by The New York Times.

The 28-year-old met with a university official to “discuss norms of professional behavior,” the paper reported, citing three sources and a letter that informed him he had failed to meet the conditions required to maintain his funding.

On Nov. 2 — 11 days before Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, were found dead inside their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho –department officials met with Kohberger to discuss an improvement plan but decided to cut ties with him effective Dec. 31.

On Dec. 30, he was arrested at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and a felony burglary count.

He is scheduled to appear in court next on June 26 after he waived his right to a speedy trial and was denied bail in January.