Bryan Kohberger’s Unsealed Psychological Evaluation Reveals Multiple Diagnoses and Previously Unknown Conditions

A neuropsychological evaluation conducted for Bryan Kohberger in early 2025 has been unsealed, offering a detailed look at the behavioral observations and medical history that led a defense expert to diagnose him with several mental health and developmental conditions.

The evaluation, conducted by Rachel Lawson Orr, PsyD, ABPP-CN, was commissioned by Kohberger’s defense team and included six meetings over approximately three months. The assessment had previously remained under seal.

 

Kohberger had disclosed four diagnoses in a court filing in 2025: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD); Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); and Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).

The newly unsealed evaluation provides considerably more detail about those diagnoses and also identifies four additional conditions that Orr said Kohberger had met the criteria for at some point in his life.

According to the report, Orr observed what she described as a restricted range of facial expression and a generally stoic demeanor during her meetings with Kohberger.

She noted that his smiles were often subtle and that his social smiling was inconsistent or absent. His tendency to furrow his eyebrows during casual conversation sometimes contributed to what she characterized as awkward social interactions.

The evaluation also described several other behaviors Orr considered atypical.

Among them were limited descriptive gestures, an unusual tone and cadence of speech, awkward interactions, difficulty with the natural flow of conversation and occasional problems with humor. The report also described moments in which Kohberger continued jokes longer than expected or made comments that Orr considered unusual in the context of the conversation.

Orr further noted inconsistent recognition or acknowledgment of humor, limited reciprocity during conversations and a tendency to redirect discussions toward his own experiences.

At times, she said, Kohberger appeared to have limited awareness of how his comments affected the quality of an interaction. The report also mentioned unusual observations during testing and occasional intense eye contact.

 

The evaluation described additional behavioral characteristics during testing. Orr wrote that Kohberger demonstrated impulsive tendencies, including rushing through certain tasks and violating rules.

She also assessed his insight as generally poor, although she observed a few brief moments in which he acknowledged his potential role in certain situations after being directly challenged to consider them.

As part of the evaluation, Orr also interviewed Kohberger’s parents and two sisters. Their accounts reportedly included similar observations about his development and behavior.

According to the report, family members described difficulties involving nonverbal communication, a limited range of facial expressions, rigid thinking and behavior and problems adapting to changes in routine.

The family also reportedly said they had repeatedly tried to provide Kohberger with social coaching and feedback, but those efforts had not produced the changes they hoped to see.

Based on the evaluation, Orr diagnosed Kohberger with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1, without accompanying intellectual or language impairment.

She also diagnosed him with OCD, ADHD and ARFID, an eating disorder characterized by highly restrictive or selective eating patterns.

The report additionally stated that Kohberger had met diagnostic criteria in the past for Developmental Coordination Disorder, an unspecified depressive disorder, anorexia nervosa and Opioid Use Disorder.

According to the evaluation, his history of opioid use disorder was associated with heroin addiction during his teenage years. Orr characterized the condition as being in sustained remission.

 

The defense had not commissioned the evaluation to argue that Kohberger was legally incapable of understanding his actions or participating in his criminal proceedings. Instead, his attorneys indicated that the expert could potentially be called to address arguments raised by prosecutors regarding his mental health and developmental history.

Defense attorney Anne Taylor had previously argued that prosecutors’ attempt to characterize Kohberger’s mental health and developmental disabilities as aggravating factors raised constitutional concerns.

The newly unsealed report therefore provides a detailed picture of the psychological evidence the defense had gathered, even though Kohberger ultimately did not use those diagnoses to claim that he was legally insane or otherwise incapable of entering a guilty plea.

Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the murders of four University of Idaho students: Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.

He admitted responsibility for the killings during a court hearing on July 2, 2025. Later that month, he was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for the murders, along with an additional 10-year sentence for burglary.

Despite entering the guilty plea, Kohberger later attempted to challenge the outcome.

In July 2026, he filed a motion asking the court to withdraw his guilty plea and allow him to proceed to trial, citing what he described as ineffective assistance of counsel.

As of the latest filing described in the case, prosecutors had not yet responded to that request.

The unsealing of the 2025 evaluation now gives the public a much closer look at the psychological assessment conducted during the period before Kohberger ultimately admitted to killing the four University of Idaho students.