Bryan Kohberger lived here: Pennsylvania friends, neighbors recall Idaho homicide suspect
A classmate of murder suspect Bryan Kohberger believed that he allegedly committed the crime because "he didn't get the proper help."
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Drug abuse is a problem in the area. The region has one of the highest rates of overdose deaths in one of the worst-hit states for the U.S. opioid epidemic. Kohberger had his own lengthy battle with drug addiction, several former friends told the Statesman. Suspect’s, region’s drug dependency Monroe County rests at Pennsylvania’s northeastern edge bordering New Jersey and is just one county over from the New York state line. Consequently, the Poconos region sits adjacent to the nation’s largest heroin trafficking hub and market, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Pennsylvania maintains one of the nation’s highest rates of drug overdose deaths annually, consistently in the top five in recent years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. In 2020, Monroe County far outpaced the state in the category, ranking third among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, according to the latest data available from its Department of Health. The close of his high school career and the years that followed, Kohberger’s friends said, were marked by a marijuana habit graduating into a heroin addiction. As an upperclassman, Kohberger started spending time with another group of high school kids with whom she and her friends didn’t gel, Casey Arntz recalled. “Honestly, I feel he was looking for validation, and that’s why he fell into that crowd,” she told the Statesman in a phone interview. “And honestly, it’s why he fell into the whole drug scene.”
Jeremy Saba, a neighbor two houses from Kohberger’s childhood home, was part of that group and introduced Kohberger to heroin, Baylis, Casey and Thomas Arntz said. Saba and Kohberger can be seen together in a photo that Saba posted on Facebook in August 2016 — four months after Saba was arrested and charged with a DUI and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. He later pleaded guilty to both charges, according to Pennsylvania court records. “I didn’t like him personally because he got my boy into heroin,” Baylis said by phone, mentioning his falling out with Kohberger for several years over his drug issues. “I think drugs goofed him pretty bad. He was having a time. He’d tell me, ‘I’m clean now, I’m totally clean now,’ and he’d have bleeding track marks” on his arms.
In high school, Kohberger also started using heroin with classmate Ashley Flugel, Thomas Arntz said.
About two months later, Kohberger reached out to her again to ask for a ride after he said his car broke down, and she agreed to help him, the messages showed. Weeks later, Casey Arntz came to learn that Kohberger’s errand was actually to buy heroin and needles, she said.
“He literally used me to get it,” she told the Statesman. “I was freaking out and not happy I had heroin in my car and didn’t even know.” The correspondence shows Casey Arntz sent Kohberger a message that May scolding him for putting her in jeopardy had Kohberger been caught. He responded with three words. “I’m in rehab,” Kohberger wrote. He offered an apology more than three weeks later, which she rebuffed.
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A former co-worker of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger said he never thought the suspect would kill people, describing his family as "nice."
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Rich Pasqua, a former acquaintance of Kohberger who once worked with him at a pizza shop, told Fox News host Lawrence Jones on Saturday's "Cross Country" that he and the murder suspect were both heroin addicts.
Pasqua claimed he had used drugs with Kohberger, 28, "a couple of times."
"I got six years clean now," Pasqua said. "I work in treatment and everything, but back then I was using. And so that's how I know for a fact he was using. I've got high with him a couple of times and used with him."
Pasqua alleged that drug dealers he knew would deliver drugs to Kohberger frequently.
Kohberger's former co-worker believed the suspect "must have cleaned up" after going to college, adding that Kohberger "was in and out of rehab a couple of times."
Kohberger's friends in high school also claimed that the suspect had
struggled with heroin addiction.
One former classmate of Kohberger in Northampton Community College claimed that the suspect would talk "for hours" about his drug addiction and weight loss.