The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy

In The Idaho Four communities and individuals work to reorient themselves and resist isolation in the aftermath of the violence. The victims’ lives were defined by tight-knit friend groups, close family bonds, and the comfortable familiarity of a small-town campus. Their deeply social lives contrast with the isolation of their eventual murderer, who struggles to fit in with his hometown and later finds himself ostracized in his academic program. His violence spreads his isolation outward, destabilizing the sense of safety and community that defined Moscow and leaving survivors struggling with a sense of psychological isolation as they find themselves unable to trust their neighbors:

The fact that everyone in Moscow knows everyone else has morphed overnight from a sense of comfort to something deeply unsettling. Neighbor suddenly mistrusts neighbor. Friend mistrusts friend. Customer mistrusts vendor. People are shutting themselves in. Hiding from one another (191).

Over the course of the novel, survivors combat this isolation by finding ways to rebuild community around the memory of their lost loved ones.

Bryan Kohberger’s life is defined by exclusion. Though he tries to present himself as polite, professional, and “normal,” the cracks quickly become evident. By the time he enters a PhD program in criminal justice, a lifetime of isolation has already left him angry, misogynistic, and latently violent.