Idaho killer may have left ‘calling card’ to claim murders possibly killed before: experts

University of Idaho murder suspect Brian Kochberger may have left behind a “calling card” to show he was at the scene of the horrific murders in Moscow, Idaho, and the brutality of the crime suggests that experts say he may have already killed before.

In “Doctor. Phil, experts have speculated that Kohberger, 28, deliberately left an empty sheath in the room where students Caylee Gonsalves and Madison Mogen were killed on November 13.

Best friends for life were stabbed to death in the early hours of November 13 along with their roommate Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin.

Former FBI Special Agent Jonathan Gilliam said he thought investigators would find the knife because, like Kochberger’s machine, it was “part of his operational tools,” according to Fox News.

Trial lawyer Mercedes Colvin agreed that they would eventually find the knife and then suggested that the sheath may have been deliberately left at the crime scene.

“It could be, I mean, it’s almost as if – and we’ve seen it with other killers, it’s their calling card: ‘I figured it out,'” she said during the special.

“Especially if you think you’re smarter than everyone, and he sure is – he had gloves, at least it’s assumed that he had gloves. He tried to cover up, did something to get rid of the clothes, if he really is a killer, then of course this is what could just be a calling card, and left it there.

A panel of experts gathered on the show then discussed the possibility that this was not Kochberger’s first murder, which could potentially turn a criminal justice graduate student into a serial killer.

Gilliam said he thought the suspected murderer may have killed before and in the same way.

“I think he was most likely killed earlier,” Gilliam said. “Not four people, but I think he has probably stalked and potentially killed women before.”

Colvin added, “If he’s a killer, this viciousness and brutality and the killing of these four people, I can’t imagine this is the first time this is happening if he’s really a killer.”

Forensic scientist Joseph Scott added that while he thought this might be Kochberger’s first murder, he believes it certainly wasn’t the first time Kochberger tried to get away with something wrong.

When asked if he believed this was Kochberger’s first murder, he replied: “Murder? Perhaps. Bad thing? Not.”

Kochberger, a graduate student studying criminal justice at the University of Washington, located about 10 miles from the University of Idaho, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary as part of a gruesome quadruple murder.

His arrest on December 30 came after a seven-week nationwide manhunt that swept across America. The motive for the crimes or Kochberger’s connection to the victims has not yet been established.

A preliminary hearing in the Kochberger case has been scheduled for June 26.