MOSCOW, Idaho – He won’t say his name out loud.

“Close the door at the penitentiary. It’s going to stay closed until he’s dead,” Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said. “It’s just as simple as that.”

He speaks of Bryan Kohberger, who killed four college students in November 2022 and left the University of Idaho and the surrounding Moscow community gripped with fear until his arrest seven weeks later.

For 21/2 years, Thompson carefully worked with a strong team of investigators and prosecutors to seek justice. In the midst of it, he had a personal decision to make – retire after 32 years or run for a ninth term and seal Kohberger’s fate.

“I couldn’t walk away from it,” Thompson said. “I guess I could have, but I couldn’t live with myself if I’d done that.”

Thompson’s term was endin

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